In This Body with Meghan Rothenberger, MD
The Nocturnists
Emily Silverman
4.8 • 614 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Infectious disease Physician Meghan Rothenberger grew up feeling uncertain and disconnected from her body. As a teenager, she struggled with an eating disorder, trying to make sense of the changes of adolescence and the cultural messages around her. Years later, as a medical student studying anatomy, she began to see the body not as something to control, but as something wondrous and worthy of care. In this conversation, Meghan talks with Emily about growing up, navigating an eating disorder, and finding healing through science, pregnancy, and the everyday miracle of being alive. Together, they explore how understanding the body can open the door to compassion, connection, and belonging within oneself.
Meghan originally performed this story live on stage at Intersections, a live storytelling event produced by the Center for the Art of Medicine in Minneapolis in 2024 through our program, The Nocturnists Satellites.
The Nocturnists is made possible by the California Medical Association and donations from listeners like you.
This episode of Stories from the World of Medicine is sponsored by The Physicians Foundation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for the Nocturnist comes from the California Medical Association. |
| 0:04.3 | At the Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with health care privacy laws. |
| 0:09.6 | Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. |
| 0:13.1 | All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer. |
| 0:19.6 | This is The Nocturnous Conversations. I'm Emily Silverman. |
| 0:23.6 | Today I'm joined by Dr. Megan Rothenberger, an infectious disease doctor whose story we first heard live on stage at Intersections, a storytelling event produced by the Center for the Art of Medicine in Minneapolis in 2024 |
| 0:39.2 | through our program The Nocturnous Satellites. |
| 0:43.4 | In this conversation, Megan opens up about her adolescence, her struggle with disordered eating, |
| 0:49.8 | and how her path through medicine helped her rediscover a sense of wonder and gratitude for the human body. |
| 0:56.4 | We talk about the confusing and taboo messages around puberty, body image, and food. |
| 1:02.5 | Her experience in a restrictive eating disorder program. |
| 1:06.1 | How studying anatomy and physiology reshaped her relationship with her body. |
| 1:12.8 | The transformative power of pregnancy and how her lived experience informs her empathy and care for patients today. |
| 1:19.8 | Megan is one of the most talented storytellers we've ever had the pleasure to feature on this show, |
| 1:25.1 | so I hope you'll take a listen to her story and enjoy the |
| 1:28.1 | conversation. Here's Megan. |
| 1:36.1 | Roses are red, violets are black. Why is your chest as flat as your back? This lovely poem was |
| 1:43.6 | written just for me. I'm 13 years old in seventh |
| 1:48.1 | grade. The poet is a boy named Tony. Now, rather than writing the poem on a piece of paper and |
| 1:53.7 | hand it to me like a normal person, he decides to shout it from the chairlift at our local |
| 1:59.1 | ski hill. I'm in the chair right behind him. |
| 2:02.3 | He turns around his body to face me as he recites the poem. |
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