From Pharmacy to Fiction with Ruth Madievsky
The Nocturnists
Emily Silverman
4.8 • 614 Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Conversations, Ruth Madievsky, clinical pharmacist and author of the national bestseller "All-Night Pharmacy," shares the inspiration behind her darkly poetic novel about sisterhood, addiction, and intergenerational trauma. Ruth reflects on how her Moldovan roots, her healthcare career, and her love of poetry have shaped her writing. We also dive into the mysticism that permeates her work and explore how trauma and healing intersect in her life and fiction.
Find show notes, transcript, and more at thenocturnists.org.
The Nocturnists is made possible by the California Medical Association and donations from listeners like you.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Support for the Nocturnist comes from the California Medical Association. |
| 0:04.4 | At the Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with health care privacy laws. |
| 0:09.1 | Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. |
| 0:12.6 | All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer. |
| 0:28.0 | You're listening to the Nocturnous Conversations. I'm Emily Silverman. |
| 0:36.9 | Today I'm joined by Ruth Marievski, a clinical pharmacist and writer whose debut novel, All-Night Pharmacy, has been named a finalist for both the |
| 0:39.9 | California Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She also wrote a book of poems called |
| 0:46.4 | Emergency Break. Ruth's novel is a darkly poetic exploration of sisterhood, addiction, and the pull of personal identity, |
| 0:57.2 | told through a really unique lens that only Ruth could bring. |
| 1:01.6 | In our conversation, Ruth talks about her life as a clinical pharmacist, the way that she |
| 1:06.9 | blends clinical precision with literary storytelling, the origin story of the novel, |
| 1:12.5 | the thread of mysticism that weaves its way through the narrative, and how her family's |
| 1:17.1 | roots in Moldova and the legacy of intergenerational trauma have shaped her work and her sense |
| 1:22.9 | of self. But before we dive in, take a listen to Ruth, reading an excerpt from her novel, All Night Pharmacy. |
| 1:37.6 | Spending time with my sister Debbie was like buying acid off a guy you met on the bus. |
| 1:43.9 | You never knew if it would end with you, |
| 1:46.0 | euphoric, tanning topless on a fishing boat headed for ensignada, or coming to in a gas station |
| 1:52.4 | bathroom, the insides of your eyes feeling as though they'd been scraped out with spoons. |
| 1:58.3 | Often, it was both. The first time Debbie took me to Salvation, she dressed |
| 2:04.4 | me in a highlighter pink bandage dress with cutouts up the sides. She wouldn't let me wear a bra. |
| 2:10.7 | Nibble outline is part of the look, she insisted. We were at her apartment, a dingy West Hollywood complex with permanent pigeon shit stains on its maroon awnings. |
| 2:22.0 | She lived there with her on again, off again, musician boyfriend Dominic, who was really just an addict with a guitar. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Emily Silverman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Emily Silverman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.