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Unexplainable

Oliver Sacks's not quite nonfiction

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.62.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Oliver Sacks was once crowned “the poet laureate of medicine” — he's known as one of the greatest science writers of our time. But when New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv dug into his archives, she discovered that some details in his intimate portraits of patients mirrored his personal life a little too closely. Guest: Rachel Aviv, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of Strangers to Ourselves. For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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slash calm. I recently sat down with one of my favorite writers. I'm Rachel Levive and I'm a staff

0:51.7

writer at The New Yorker. But I called her up to talk about a different writer.

0:56.7

I think I remember the first story I pitched for The New Yorker.

1:00.0

I, like, tried to make it clear, like, don't worry.

1:03.3

I'm not trying to do an Oliver Sacks piece because I didn't want him to think that I was daring to compete.

1:09.7

I really admired his ability to just delve deeply

1:13.8

into the inner life of one person.

1:16.8

The late neurologist and best-selling author, Oliver Sacks,

1:20.8

he's been referred to as the poet laureate of medicine.

1:25.1

It was sort of like almost the figurehead

1:26.7

for medical humanities in a way, like this idea

1:29.8

that we have been focusing too much on symptoms and data and that there is a human life

1:35.8

behind all of this information.

1:40.1

Oliver Sacks did something kind of wild for his time.

...

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