Conversations

Season

1

Episode

70

|

Oct 2, 2025

Questions Without Answers with Sarah Manguso

Writer Sarah Manguso joins us to discuss Questions Without Answers—a book born from a single tweet that drew thousands of kids’ startling, funny, and profound questions, later shaped with New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck. Part poetry, part philosophy, part comedy, it’s an anthology of childhood wonder. She also revisits her memoir Two Kinds of Decay, which chronicles her diagnosis with CIDP, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves, and how it shaped her understanding of illness, vulnerability, and the power of storytelling.

0:00/1:34

Conversations

Season

1

Episode

70

|

Oct 2, 2025

Questions Without Answers with Sarah Manguso

Writer Sarah Manguso joins us to discuss Questions Without Answers—a book born from a single tweet that drew thousands of kids’ startling, funny, and profound questions, later shaped with New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck. Part poetry, part philosophy, part comedy, it’s an anthology of childhood wonder. She also revisits her memoir Two Kinds of Decay, which chronicles her diagnosis with CIDP, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves, and how it shaped her understanding of illness, vulnerability, and the power of storytelling.

0:00/1:34

Conversations

Season

1

Episode

70

|

10/2/25

Questions Without Answers with Sarah Manguso

Writer Sarah Manguso joins us to discuss Questions Without Answers—a book born from a single tweet that drew thousands of kids’ startling, funny, and profound questions, later shaped with New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck. Part poetry, part philosophy, part comedy, it’s an anthology of childhood wonder. She also revisits her memoir Two Kinds of Decay, which chronicles her diagnosis with CIDP, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves, and how it shaped her understanding of illness, vulnerability, and the power of storytelling.

0:00/1:34

About Our Guest

Sarah Manguso is the author of ten books including the novels Liars and Very Cold People and the nonfiction books Ongoingness, 300 Arguments, and The Two Kinds of Decay. She is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and the Rome Prize, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages.

About The Show

The Nocturnists is an award-winning medical storytelling podcast, hosted by physician Emily Silverman. We feature personal stories from frontline clinicians, conversations with healthcare-related authors, and art-makers. Our mission is to humanize healthcare and foster joy, wonder, and curiosity among clinicians and patients alike.

resources

Credits

About Our Guest

Sarah Manguso is the author of ten books including the novels Liars and Very Cold People and the nonfiction books Ongoingness, 300 Arguments, and The Two Kinds of Decay. She is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and the Rome Prize, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages.

About The Show

The Nocturnists is an award-winning medical storytelling podcast, hosted by physician Emily Silverman. We feature personal stories from frontline clinicians, conversations with healthcare-related authors, and art-makers. Our mission is to humanize healthcare and foster joy, wonder, and curiosity among clinicians and patients alike.

resources

Credits

About Our Guest

Sarah Manguso is the author of ten books including the novels Liars and Very Cold People and the nonfiction books Ongoingness, 300 Arguments, and The Two Kinds of Decay. She is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and the Rome Prize, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages.

About The Show

The Nocturnists is an award-winning medical storytelling podcast, hosted by physician Emily Silverman. We feature personal stories from frontline clinicians, conversations with healthcare-related authors, and art-makers. Our mission is to humanize healthcare and foster joy, wonder, and curiosity among clinicians and patients alike.

resources

Credits

The Nocturnists is made possible by the California Medical Association, and donations from people like you!

This episode is sponsored by The Physicians Foundation.

Transcript

Note: The Nocturnists is created primarily as a listening experience. The audio contains emotion, emphasis, and soundscapes that are not easily transcribed. Our transcripts are produced using both speech recognition software and human copy editors, and may not be 100% accurate. Thank you for consulting the audio before quoting in print.

Transcript coming soon.



Note: The Nocturnists is created primarily as a listening experience. The audio contains emotion, emphasis, and soundscapes that are not easily transcribed. Our transcripts are produced using both speech recognition software and human copy editors, and may not be 100% accurate. Thank you for consulting the audio before quoting in print.

Transcript coming soon.



Transcript

Note: The Nocturnists is created primarily as a listening experience. The audio contains emotion, emphasis, and soundscapes that are not easily transcribed. Our transcripts are produced using both speech recognition software and human copy editors, and may not be 100% accurate. Thank you for consulting the audio before quoting in print.

Transcript coming soon.



0:00/1:34