Laughter as medicine: How medical clowns help patients cope through humor
Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Navigating uncertainty.
At a hospital, you may not expect to see clowns playing ukuleles or wearing tutus. But Matt Wilson says clowns can be a crucial distraction—even a companion—amid the fear and uncertainty of hospitals.
About Matt Wilson
Emmy-winner Matt Wilson is a former medical clown who now works as a global technology analyst at Bank of America.
Wilson holds a master's degree from NYU in Performance Studies. Wilson taught career communication and personal branding at the Fordham Gabelli School of Business in New York City.
Wilson has also worked as a professional sword-swallower and toured the globe performing with Grammy-winner Britney Spears.
Healthy Humor is an organization that partners with more than a dozen hospitals in the U.S. to bring professional performers including clowns, musicians, and magicians, into medical settings where they can interact with young patients and their caregivers. In the program, performers go on "Clown Rounds" to visit children in the hospital and bring a sense of play and curiosity into an otherwise stressful environment.
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Manoush Zomorodi with field reporting by Matthew Cloutier and Harsha Nahata. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.
Web Resources
Related TED Talk: A hospital in the cloud bringing health care anywhere in the world
Related TED Talk: Health care should be a team sport
