Art in Hospitals Featured in New Episode of NYC Health + Hospitals Podcast The Remedy
Artist Mickalene Thomas and Arts in Medicine Assistant Vice President Larissa Trinder join the podcast to discuss how art boosts trust, equity, belonging, and even combats healthcare worker burnout The Remedy is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and other platforms
Apr 07, 2026
New York, NY — NYC Health + Hospitals today released a new episode of its podcast, The Remedy, featuring leaders and health care providers from the nation’s largest municipal health care system. In Season 3 Episode 5: How Art Provides Healing in NYC Hospitals, Dr. Michael Shen sits down with Larissa Trinder, Assistant Vice President of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department, and renowned Brooklyn-based artist Mickalene Thomas, to explore the powerful intersection of creativity and patient care. Dive into the origins of one of the nation’s largest non-museum public art collections, discover how murals and mosaics shape the patient, staff, and family experience across NYC’s public hospitals, and learn why art is essential to comfort staff and improve patient care. From the healing intention behind the new Brooklyn mosaic dedicated to Ruth Bader Ginsburg by artist Mickalene Thomas to global research with the World Health Organization, learn how art boosts trust, equity, belonging, and even combats healthcare worker burnout. This episode highlights ongoing collaborations with local cultural leaders, how arts access is being reimagined, and what it means when art is cared for, protected, and embedded in every corner of a health system. Season 3 Episode 5: How Art Provides Healing in NYC Hospitals is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and other podcast platforms.
“I’ve wanted to do an episode about art in our public hospitals for a long time,” said The Remedy Host Dr. Michael Shen. “When I asked the Arts in Medicine team to request art for our primary care clinic, the staff were really happy with the results. Making our space beautiful validates the importance of the work we do and shows our patients that we care how they feel when they enter our hospitals.”
“When patients, families, and staff walk into one of our hospitals and feel that someone cared about this space, that signals to them that we care about them,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Assistant Vice President of Arts in Medicine Larissa Trinder. “That is what Arts in Medicine is here to do — and the research backs it up. Art builds trust, reduces burnout, and transforms the experience of care in ways that ripple across the entire health system. This work is a cornerstone of the wellness culture that Dr. Wei — now CEO of Bellevue Hospital — championed, rooted in the conviction that Helping Healers Heal is fundamental to transforming care. Working with Mickalene Thomas was transformational — she reminded us that public art is one of the most powerful forces we have, because it belongs to everyone. That is exactly the culture we want to build in every one of our hospitals.”
“I’m always excited about doing public art,” said Artist Mickalene Thomas. “It has no barriers for who can access it. Art is about healing, so having that in the hospital is really valuable. When patients, families, and staff enter the hospital and see the art, I hope they feel comforted and that they belong.”
NYC Health + Hospitals’ role as a public hospital system and the major safety net health care system for New York City offers a singular voice that no other health care podcast can. It shows how the public health care system provides care for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay; offers exciting ways to support patients, including new models of care to address behavioral health needs; and responds to the challenges that face New York City, including homelessness and the climate crisis. The host and guests are all employees of NYC Health + Hospitals with a special perspective on the work they do for patients.
Previous episodes of The Remedy cover the following topics:
Season 3
- Season 3 Episode 1: Healing Through Art: Creative Therapies at Rikers Island coversNYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services’ Creative Arts Therapy program, the oldest and largest jail-based arts therapy program in the nation.
- Season 3 Episode 2: Inside NYC’s Award-Winning Nursing Homes coversthe often-overlooked world of post-acute care.
- Season 3 Episode 3: Behind the Scenes at the Simulation Center cover how doctors, nurses, and staffrehearse everything from trauma and cardiac arrest to opioid overdose.
- Season 3 Episode 4: Redefining Mental Health Support with Bridge to Home covers how the first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative supports patients with severe mental illness by providing a stable, home-like environment with onsite clinical and behavioral health care.
Season 2
- Season 2 Episode 1: Community Health Workers covers these workers’ vital role in bridging the gap between medical care and social needs like housing, food, and transportation. With over 250 community health workers, NYC Health + Hospitals has built one of the largest programs in the nation.
- Season 2 Episode 2: How NYC Care Helps Uninsured New Yorkers highlights how the program provides health care to low-income and uninsured New Yorkers — regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.
- Season 2 Episode 3: Treating Violence covers the critical work the public health system’s Hospital Violence Interruption programs (HVIP) do to prevent violence, save lives, and heal communities.
- Season 2 Episode 4: The New Ellis Island highlights the historic work of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arrival Center, a central intake facility for all newly arriving asylum seekers run by NYC Health + Hospitals’ Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) program.
- Season 2 Episode 5: Street Medicine in NYC covers the efforts of social workers the public health system’s Street Health Outreach + Wellness (SHOW) program, a street medicine program that provides medical care, behavioral health, and social services to New Yorkers who are experiencing homelessness or historically disconnected from care.
- Season 2 Episode 6: How AI Will Transform Healthcare in NYC covers how the public health system is using artificial intelligence to enhance patient care, improve efficiency, and support its workforce.
- Season 2 Episode 7: No Wrong Door: Addiction Care in NYC covers how NYC Health + Hospitals is treating substance use disorder with a comprehensive approach—whether someone walks into an emergency room, seeks help at a methadone clinic, or connects through community outreach.
Season 1
- Season 1 Episode 1: The Power of Primary Care features three primary care doctors on how working with their patients informs their roles in leadership at NYC Health + Hospitals.
- Season 1 Episode 2: Food is Medicine recognizes that plant-based eating is powerful medicine – it can lower high blood pressure and bring type 2 diabetes into remission – and considers how hospitals can help their patients pursue a plant-based diet.
- Season 1 Episode 3: Ready for the Next Pandemic considers how New York City’s public hospital system has consistently answered the challenge of Ebola, COVID-19, and mpox all while staying ahead of the latest health crisis.
- Season 1 Episode 4: Women’s Health considers how New York City’s public hospital system is expanding access to women’s health care in a time when many women across the country are facing restricted access to care.
- Season 1 Episode 5: Caring for the Newest New Yorkers covers how the staff at NYC Health + Hospitals are rising to the challenge of caring for the over 175,000 asylum seekers who have come to our city since spring 2022.
- Season 1 Episode 6: Caring for Homeless Patients covers how NYC Health + Hospitals serves its over 70,000 patients who are experiencing homelessness.
- Season 1 Episode 7: Helping Healers Heal covershow NYC Health + Hospitals supports the mental health of its more than 40,000 health care workers.
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About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth —all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.