11:00 A.M. with Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Nina Ruscio and Matt Callahan

Always good, always good.

Always very happy. Cut, say, "Freshest" for Aldi. To Aldi price.

“This week, Tafeltrauben, 650 grams for 0.2 € 9.90.”

Or cultural heritage, 1.25 grams for 0.1 € 9.30. In your Aldi Nord, for years. And wait for it to be lost and finished. Aldi. Good, just for Aldi.

Okay, deep breath in. Blow it out real hard. Yeah, and it hurt enough already. I need to check for wheezing with forest exfoliation. Coffee's killing me.

You smoke, Mrs. Yardley?

Yeah, but I haven't been able to for a couple of days because of this cough.

You ever consider quitting? You ever consider minding your own business? Welcome to the pit podcast, the official companion to the pit on HBO Max. I'm Dr. Luke Patel, physician journalist storyteller and everything in between. And I'm Hunter Harris, a screenwriter and cultural critic.

Today we're talking about episode 5 of the pit, which takes place at 11am, and we're going to hear from East of Breones, who plays for any Santos and Garen Howell, who plays Dennis Whittaker. You know how Mel gets knocked off of her chair by that one patient? Originally, I was supposed to be in the background of that scene.

“And I was like, you need to take me out of the background.”

Because if I saw someone attack Mel, I would literally charge after him in the snow. Like, I can't be there that man is getting punched. Today's shift starts now.

I know the week has passed, Hunter, episode 5, 11am.

I have to tell you, I think this might for me be the funniest episode. The amount of one liners and jokes and like just comical moments catches up. It's a lot of body humor. That's a lot of the body humor. I'll say that, okay, you're going to have to explain this one to me because we have

a patient who has necrotic facelitis. Oh, my gosh. You're going to just call it neck fas, you can call it blush eating bacteria. But you're thinking of necrotizing fasciitis, awful nightmare situation. Yeah, so a woman comes in with that after being on her feet all day as a server.

And it's kind of like one of the more distressing things I've seen on the show so far. Should we take a look? Second, I need these in. Well, I'm not overreacting. I'm my body's overreacting.

Please, please don't fire me. This is Dr. Michael Rubinovich.

“I'm the chief of emergency medicine and PTSD.”

If you fire her, she will sue you and I will testify on her behalf. Okay, don't worry about it. We got you. That was so boss. That was such a boss move.

Period, like in of discussion, that was, I love Dr. Rubin. Like we all need a Dr. Rubin. I kind of want to fight that patient's boss, but also like very realistic situation. It sucks. There are people who go to the hospital.

Maybe you have a long way. Maybe you unexpectedly have to get a procedure and they're worried about their jobs. Yeah. It's a big episode for like some of these conflicts with people who are patients and how they relate to the outside world I want to say because there is a patient who comes

in in a really bad way, who is in prison and the handlers don't want to take off the handcuffs as he's literally in the trauma room. I don't want to act like I understand the dynamic of being a corrections officer or you know, police, prison guard, whatever and having an inmate come to the hospital, but I understand the protocol.

I get it. I try to fall a patient care like that kind of tension happens when this gentleman who came in, who had the altercation, I was like, what is the lesson that we as viewers are going to learn from this case, because you know, in this show every patient case, like teaches us something about life, about medicine, about a character dynamic and with this one,

I'm like, what are we going to learn? Well, for me, it was like really about dignity and treating a patient with care no matter and like where they've come from, but we can get in to more of that later. Um, because I need to talk about Louie, so back to Dr. Langdon, there's a big moment where Louie is prescribed more libriam because his hand is shaking and Dr. Whittaker rushes

to like put his like, I'll call me order given, you know, the history between Louie and Dr. Langdon and Hills. Let's get Louie 50 milligrams of libriam. I'll put in the order. I will get it from the PDF.

I feel like everyone in the ER from what we've gathered knows what Langdon went through, even more so that I even realize like everyone knows. Mm-hmm. Whittaker seems like he immediately feels guilty. Like immediately feels like I wish I hadn't said that or it just kind of slipped out,

which is it's like a little sad to watch. But we also go back to Orlando, Diaz and his family.

His daughter tried to make the go find me that he was very against, but who has a solution?

But Joy. She has to stay here to get better, right? Yes, no. Excuse me? I mean, I'm not necessarily.

“Couldn't we just admit him to med surgeon instead of ICU?”

Wouldn't that be a lot cheaper? Med surgeon won't accept him with an insulin drip. Usually true. But let me talk to the charge nurse upstairs. And I'll see what she says.

Thank you. I love that Joy's having this moment. Like, think about the general hospital floor as med surge, medical and surgery. And then the ICU as intensive care. And there are situations when patients need to be in the ICU, either because they're acutely ill.

But they might need a higher level of nursing staffing. But the ICU obviously costs more money. And there are situations when you can talk to the team and med surge. You can talk to the attendings. You can talk to the charge nurse.

And look to see, can we instead get this patient on the floor? This is a conversation that happens all the time in hospitals when we're trying to cut costs. We're like, does this patient actually need to be in the ICU for their night? Like, can we move them to the floor?

Because the reality is, is not every physician or nurse understands the entire billing reimbursement

process and what resources are available. We get blamed for it, also that all day long. If somebody has a hospital bill that's really high or they have what we call a surprise medical bill, meaning they thought their bill is going to be covered by their insurance when it was out of network, they didn't realize all these things.

Like doctors get blamed for it all the time.

“But Noel, the patient care, what would you call that actually?”

What would you call her job? She is a case manager. Case manager, okay. So Noel, the case manager says actually that's a pretty good idea. And then, with Noel, a little sparks flames in her and Dr. Robbie.

Listen, yeah. I came down for a consult and to persuade him, "Mom, it's starting to be a bedding board." What is the whispering board full already? I was going to ask him to start worrying about healing your midlife crisis trip.

I gave him four weeks. Seven tops. You little face?

Not enough face, just a foul face.

Thanks. Based on my experience, you're a seven week eggs kind of guy. Noel, she knows what she's doing. She does. There definitely have a lot of flirtation.

What I love about this episode too is that we get a bit into how they are outside of the hospital because she later says to Dana,

“like, "He can't sleep without the TV on."”

Like, "I don't trust this," but we have to talk about Ogilvie. Who has a pretty big episode this week. He is treating an unhoused woman who has a cough, trouble breathing. And she kind of has an answer to them, which is a little bit funny to see him getting so nervous.

But she ends up having TB. And so now he has to get TB testing and Santos. A little bit is not smug about it, but I don't know. I sense a little attitude. Call infection control and public health.

And now you get to sign in as a patient and get your blood drawn for a quantifier and gold. It's too soon to be positive. Yeah, but you were exposed. You need a baseline test and then again in eight weeks to see if you convert.

And if I do? Then meds every day for three or four months with regular blood tests to check for toxicity. She is. She is still going through something.

We talked about this in the last episode. She does normalize it, though. And I don't want to say it helpful. I mean, she's like devoid of empathy towards Albion. The fact that he may have TB exposure, you can tell he's scared.

And she's like dude relax. Like we're all exposed to it. Yeah, it's a big deal. You know, if you are working in health care and you think you may have TB. This is exactly why we get screen for TB every single year.

Oh, wow. We run into it and I have colleagues who have had to go on medication because they tested positive for TB. I had one colleague who needed surgery. Because he had TB and they're like, you got it somewhere in the hospital.

And it decided to become a serious infection in your body. So it's a common scenario they highlight here. One very, very nerdy detail. Again, the nerdy details in this show I live for is there's a part when Ogle will be listening to her lungs.

And he goes, say, e. And she's like, e, this is so cool. But if you have fluid or some type of mass in your lungs, and you say, e, the speed of that sound will change as it's going through the consolidation.

And somebody listening to you will hear, ah, instead of e. Isn't that cool? Wow, it's called the Goffini. It's like an old school physical exam trick. And I know that some ER consultant was like,

Ogle V is a gunner and he would absolutely be doing this on a lung exam. I'm just saying, okay, good to know. Well, you're also like shot up a look. No, no. I mean, Ogle V might have TB, but he definitely has a diarrhea on him. He performs a bowel disimpaction for an elderly patient who

And I love that what occurs being very patient with Ogle V

“telling him how to, how to clear the guts.”

I know that you're very fast into by this procedure. Hunter, you can also call it a digital evacuation, which almost sounds like like a DJ hit or something digitally. Yeah. Yeah, I want to get technical. I want to know, I know we talked to people who make props in this show.

Like, I want to know what exactly they used to get that consistency.

Wow. And I would never have thought about that.

I mean, the consistency is a little soft. So I was like, you know, I don't know if we're going like melt the chocolate. We need to move on. Okay, update on Santos and her charting, which she will never be quiet about, is Dr. Oh Hash means to just maybe she tries, like, some AI tools to help the

charting go a little bit quicker. And you rarely have to stay over time to complete charts. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm usually here at least a couple hours after every shift trying to catch up. So sure AI will make doctors more efficient.

But hospitals will expect this to treat more patients without any extra pay

of course all the while in the mening staff positions for attending and resume Dr. Robbie. I am not an advocate for erasing my own profession. But I am advocating for getting to spend more time with my son. She mentions that. She mentions the generative AI. The thing that I really like is then all of a sudden, Dr. Robbie jumps in there and he kind of makes a snide comment again,

“kind of criticizing AI. But he makes it very, very important, quick point when he's like,”

yeah, and hospitals are going to use these tools to get us to see more patients by removing all this work that we do, but not pay us a single extra dollar, which is a very valid argument and kind of an ongoing concern about the misuse of these tools. Or they'll be like, hey, now we can speed up your charting time. We can reduce your administrative burden. So now you can see more patients. The system came here for more money.

We will burn you out even more and we will not pay an extra dollar. That's essentially what Dr. Robbie sentiment is. And it all has to be like, whoa. Yeah, she's saying, well, not too much. Okay, it's just a suggestion. But she's still really on-san who's about the charting. And the episode ends in maybe the saddest conclusion I've seen this season so far, which is Langdon finds Louis without a heartbeat. Louis, wake up.

Look at the crud, I got the airway. Hey Carla, crash current innovation, try please. You know, the episode ends on this summer note, but I have to give a little nod to Nurse Perla because Dr. Robbie immediately turns. And he's like, hey, this is a code I need to crash cart. And Perla is already running. Like, I noticed that in the episode, the minute he said Perla, she was already like sprinting at the door. I'm like, dang. There's a lot of love for Louis.

I'm Hunter. Can we play a quick quick game? A quick what is game? Let's do it. Let's do it. I don't want it to be morbid. We're trying to be fun here. Okay. Which would you rather do a digitally evacuation or a fickle disimpaction or get cellulitis? I'm not saying get evacuation.

“You would rather, okay. Wait, so get it how, like, no, I'm just saying, here's the thing. I just”

I'm saying cellulitis and it probably will not turn into neckfash. Probably won't. I just be cellulitis and it's fine. But after seeing this episode, you might think cellulitis is going to turn into something more serious. That's why I'm just saying, like, you got the gambling case of cellulitis either no big dealer series or you are doing a fickle disimpaction, which is your right. fickle fickle disimpaction, whether I'm getting it, whether I'm giving it totally. The cellulitis scared me.

Good. I have no notes. I'm with you. That means that the PSA worked. Everyone's choose. Everyone should choose. Removing stool with your finger over getting any type of infection. I mean, I pick up my dogs poop every day. That feels easy to me. Like, the alternative sounds much worse. Look at that. Look at everyone having a little bit more awareness about how to manage skin infections and what the warning signs are. Thank you. Medical writers of the pit.

Now we're going to head inside the pit and talk to Isoprione's who please Dr. Santos and Garen Howell who plays Dennis Whitaker. Jesus Christ. I'm charting. Sorry. Did I do something wrong? Besides interrupting me, probably. Then I apologize.

I know that second year of residency can be stressful, so there's anything I can do to help you.

Like, stop talking. That's a great idea. Yeah. So Santos and what it could have been living together this season. Can you talk about your dynamic during the two of you? And sometimes there's friction, sometimes you guys, but heads, but it does seem like you guys are very close. Yeah, I think obviously in season one, she can be a

can be a little means sometimes, but I've always seen it as the way that you would act

“with a younger brother. And I think that's why when she finds out that he does not have a home,”

she's kind of immediately extends help because I think there is a level of care there. So I think in the ten months since the first episode, they've kind of gotten to develop that friendship a little bit. I think there's definitely still some friction for sure. And I think it's like they're not ready to admit. Yeah. How much they maybe need each other without sounding too dramatic, but I think they kind of bonded a little bit. Because you're like, you're away from home. Yeah.

Santos is very lone wolf and like, I don't need anyone, but obviously she does. And I think

those kind of vulnerabilities do eventually kind of meet up. And I think it really

aggravate yields a very sweet relationship that hides underneath like joking and poking fun. Yeah, they see each other in a weird way. But maybe you don't expect. That's not what she is. I see you. I see you. I hear you. I think of character development. So Gary, I feel like Whittaker went through this like level up transformation between season one and season two. We had the almost like slapstick comedy about the scrub is getting different bodily fluids on them.

Yeah. And then the confidence just dials up in the season two. And now all of a sudden, Whittaker is kind of leading the charge, teaching interns. And then catches that posterior MI. Which I was like, this is a moment. Yeah. What do you feel about Whittaker's growth as a doctor? The ball was low. It's a big difference. But yeah, I mean, it's really nice to be able to play ten months. I think it's going to change anyone. But especially from the place Whittaker came from,

you know, he had to step up otherwise he would be fired very quickly. But yeah, he's a lot more competent now. It's cool to see him without all that fear and insecurity and being overwhelmed. I think he's really coming to his own. And now he's also teaching med students, which is just another level. The management, you know, of any art is insane. And it's just another thing that, you know, has to be done in a teaching hospital. But I think he's flourishing as much

“as he can. In front of med students, I think you have to at least appear to be more competent than”

you are because of like, you know, you're doing stand taller than you feel because how can people possibly trust you or want to follow you? So there's a lot of that. He's flourishing so far. So we could see the downfall. I wonder how do you think Santos being right about Langdon and like the drugs impacts how she trusts her gut moving forward when she sees patients. Yeah, I think with Santos, the her gut is a big part of her super power as a doctor. I think

you know, all the different doctors have something that makes them really special, their own kind of special sauce. And I think hers is that she can really spot certain things that other people don't as she can really spot someone who's very vulnerable that may not appear that way or may not show that. I mean, you see it in season one when she's treating the person who tried to and their life that is something that other people were not going to pick up on. And I think she's

learned that she can trust her gut and I think people like Dr. Robbie have encouraged that. But there are moments and I've talked to many medical professionals who have said that this happens where it's sometimes you're right, you're right on the money and your gut is so right, but sometimes it's your your baggage coming through and you putting something on a patient that is maybe just something that is on your mind and you need to like keep in check.

“And there's like a very fine balance that you need to find there. And so with Kylie, I think”

because we've seen her deal with a girl that she believes was being abused before. And I think we can kind of infer that she was right on the money with that one. But that doesn't mean that every little girl that comes in is going to be that case. And so I think it's a moment of a lot of what happens this season is a humbling for her and a reminder that she is still very much learning, being a second-year resident is nowhere near being an expert. You are still in the

learning process. You are still a student always. And I think that is another reminder of like,

need to just treat the patient and look at the signs that are there. I think Santa's is also kind of a badass. There was like a fist fight in the pit. I would be like Santa's is on my team. Okay, no, you know how Mel gets knocked off of her chair by that one patient. Originally,

“I was supposed to be in the background of that scene. And I was like, you need to take me out of”

the background. Because if I saw someone attack Mel, I would literally charge after him and this is now. Like, I can't be there. That man is getting punched. I didn't know that. You were in the button and they were going to have me in the background. That was like, I can't be there. That's

beautiful. So, but here's what's interesting. So, Whittaker has this softer background.

Comes from a farm is lovingly called Huckleberry. And it almost seems like Whittaker and Santos had this Yin Yin Yang between a little bit more of a hard and exterior and then kind of the softer side. How do you see the interaction with Santos changing Whittaker? Do you think that Whittaker is hardening up a little bit in those last 10 months? Absolutely. I think she's taught him a lot just about existing in the world in society. It was like, get a haircut. Yeah, get a haircut.

“Look at him now. That's the glow up. Yeah, no, I think he needs more of Santos. And I think Santos”

maybe needs a little bit more Whittaker in different ways. Yang and Yang I think is a good way to put it really. I think we're talking a lot about how the boundaries and all of that that Whittaker learns and I feel like that's something that she's trying to impart. Absolutely. Yeah, because I think it is a balance in act in the idea. How much do you empathise with the patient? Do you keep them at arms length? Do you really go all in emotionally? Some of them to get to the bottom of

you know what it is? And that sort of comes back to bite Whittaker quite a lot actually in this season. So I hopefully maybe Santos can see a wider angle and tell him when he's just going too far. He's being too good. Those are the moments of care that really come through or when we're not talking to each other but when we're talking to other people because a lot of what happens this season is me talking to Robbie or someone else about Whittaker being very clearly concerned about him.

And being like, I don't want anyone taking advantage of him. But he never say it to him. She's like,

I don't know what to say about you. Whatever. But she's like, I don't care about this kid. This is my brother. So it's a sweet relationship that they've found of how they rub off on each other.

“Absolutely. Yeah. I think Santos Whittaker sounds like a good spin off about exploring this, right?”

It's a good idea. I appreciate you both. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You know, hundreds of how many people on the show told us that they bring elements of their real personality, their life situations to their character. I was like, are you too? I'm losing sight of which ones are Esan, Garen versus which ones are Santos and Whittaker? I think they do also have a very kind of opposite energies, which makes them really fun to play off of each other

on the show. Like you said, I think Esa, she seems very active, like, very curious and Garen seems more like thoughtful, rumored of maybe. No, they're so fun. I'm really, we're so fortunate. And so are you listeners and viewers? We can take here from people. And you get to see their real personalities and how they show up on screen. It's super cool.

You know, you're the one who's always playing the game, you're just playing the game and then you're

confident that it's a spin. No, Garen, how much you're doing is my z-space. You're doing everything you know? Yeah, exactly. How much you're doing is the game that you're just going to understand. The game on the studio, the job or the music. It's a spin. It's really not how you're doing it. Stoy on a lead. It's safe. Medviso Stoyar. The foundation of the show is literally the foundation in the set. It feels so much like a real hospital with me, although I haven't spent much time in

hospital, so maybe I don't know. Your instinct is on point. We were lucky enough to visit that set. And when I walked on, I was like, oh my gosh, this is scary accurate. And I think it just adds to the overall immersive element of the show. Super impressive. Definitely. No, I really felt the realism. This week, for outside the pit, we get to talk to the people who made this incredible set, production designer Nina Rusio and set decorator Matt Callahan. Let's go.

So excited to talk to both of you. I had to be honest about something. I had a true out of body star struck pit fan moment. You know, I ran into you when Hunter and I got to see the set. Saw you and I was like, oh, she put this together with the big team and it's incredible. So I just have to ask you, what was it like for start to finish coming up with this idea of being inspired

John Wells and Noah Wiley and Scott Kimmel, John specifically called me to see whether or not

“I could do the show and I wasn't available actually to do the show at all. What he really wanted,”

he sort of pleaded was a ground plan because Scott, they didn't want to write a single word without an actual layout. So I was able to offer up a holiday break on the job that I was on because I was unavailable and so I was able to offer up this holiday break and intensively emerged by self in hospital design and very, very thoroughly invested in those few weeks and the nights and the weekends of the January that followed to be able to offer up a ground plan that they could

work with, feeling really giltyly unavailable to be able to do the job because I'd love a love John Wells and I worked with him on many projects before and I thought it was such a big honor to be asked to do that because it's really quite a responsibility. At first I was really

“flattered and then I realized, oh, holy moly, this is a real big work like how do I make a”

hospital picture that I have everything there because I have no idea what storylines they might need. They wanted this that before they had the script so that they could write the script to the set.

Writing to a set is great. I've never heard of that before. Yeah, when it was the first time

it was really so. I mean, when you think about how that's all paned out. Yeah, truly, truly present on their part and at that point I had to pass it on and then let go and then continue on the project we were on thinking I could never complete what I had now become really attached to because it wasn't to me a ground plan is not the beginning of a design. It's really the conclusion of a lot of very, very careful thought of physical choreography and all kinds of aspects of a physical layout

“need to be thought through to a fairly well, really, carefully. But she nailed it because they didn't”

change a lot. They didn't change a thing. So I got back the ground plan, the job that we were on continued but this job the pit extended its start day to a time when I could start and that he could continue on with me as well. So as it turned out, we just sort of swung over to this project and at that point the heat was on because I was given back the ground plan fully imagining that everything would change but it didn't be to their needs because somehow I imagined their needs

every single one of them in the layout and then the race was on. So we had nine and a half weeks before we started to shoot. I'll just say that the layout is kind of brilliant because it allows you to move through the space in a way that is not typical of a lot of sets. You know, the way Nina

and the guy's designed, it has an amazing flow and you can, the camera and the actors can move through

it sort of endlessly, right? And the lining is embedded in the design so that's a very, very unique type of set to be physically in. When we don't put lights on the ground there's none of this equipment around us because it's designed to be able to be handheld to be able to be shot from one end of the space to the other without stopping. There's 689 lights that are all able to be adjusted off. There's a little man behind the curtain which we found because normally

you know, on a TV show you have set lighting and they stop and they light the setups and all that kind of stuff. We don't do any of that on the show. All of the lighting is practical, all provided by the set deck department with adjustments that were made by the Gaffer electric, you know? So they took these lights that we bought and they stripped them out put in their own LED stuff so they can control every single light, the color temperature,

the intensity. So the whole set is kind of this living system, you know. It really is and it's a continually capable immersive space that's almost 23 square thousand square feet. It's very big because of that and because there's so much visual transparency from one side of the space to the other, you can see a foreground story, a midground story, and a background story all at the same time. So those that love to watch the show can actually rewatch the show and see the

eventual storylines that are going to take place. Yeah, we're actually playing out in the background and background and so when we come to set when I come to the to work, I normally wear scrubs and all of the crew are required to wear scrubs and everyone is because there's so much reflective

caught on camera as a crew member or as me when it comes in, speaks to a director for a moment,

“you really need to look like you fit in and all of those background artists that are there”

with us and the main factors as well need to be there almost every day. So at any one point in time, the set is populated with 100 to 100 people and on that same note from a set tech perspective, because you can see anywhere 360 degrees looking up or over the down, going, you know, 20, 1,000 square feet of space, if anyone opens a drawer, if anyone opens a cupboard, if anyone moves a piece of equipment, if anything is there in the background, it's also seen, it's just as important

as if it's featured and so all of that is fleshed out with a level of medical accuracy that we've

taken upon ourselves to be really, really, really responsible for. Matt did an amazing job

about thank you. This space, it's really beyond and I have all team of people that work with me, I have to say that. Yeah and me as well, you know, 100 people are more that we actually are partners with that we create this environment to be so immersive and it's very important for us that we don't tell a story that feels at all unrealistic, on any level visually. Wow. Can you talk a little bit about like the architectural details in the hospital,

“like the marble, it has such a sense of history that I think is really cool.”

I love it that you asked that question. So I wanted to incorporate into the design, these architectural elements that did two things for the space. One gave you this feeling that the hospital emergency department was underground that it was, the pit, the pit is a double untunder for being in a basement, essentially. So the columns are both reflection of the 100-year-old aspect of the hospital. The hospital is 100-year-old space in my imagination and the historical

elements that are woven throughout that weren't covered over by drywall or renovation are there to sort of tell the story that we're in Pittsburgh. And the architecture in Pittsburgh is very uniquely almost -- Pittsburghian. Like it's European. It's more European than New York or Chicago and wanting to imbue the physical space with a sense of place was my reasoning for weaving in peppering in these little architectural kisses in the body main that made you feel as if the

physical space had history. We've been making it normal and understandable and approachable and accessible as a common hospital that everyone could identify with. It's tied into some elements of the hospital in Pittsburgh where we shoot. Now we're getting general. Yeah, especially when you're in the in the waiting room, the yellow brick, which is on the exterior of the hospital in Pittsburgh, the columns, the marble, all exist and Nina. Well, you hadn't even been to that hospital before

you sort of matched that. Yeah, because she brought all that into this set before she'd actually been back. Matt, I have to tell you a fun nod to this set in the decoration. I've noticed that my colleagues in healthcare who watch the show are closely watching all the set design and comparing it to their actual jobs and then I've now talked to patients who are in the hospital and comparing it to what the see on a pit. This is really really speaks to kind of the

level of details. I have to ask you what made decorating this set fun, unique, challenging.

Like, tell us about that process. Well, challenging because I've never done a full-on hospital before.

So there was a learning curve that we all experienced, but we love that kind of stuff because in our business the range of things that you could be creating is vast and I've never done a full-on hospital show and it was exciting to do because we were going to do it in a way that's unlike other hospital shows, not about beauty, it's about real. You know, they wanted to shoot this like a documentary. So that was a big challenge and sourcing things was a big challenge, but the way we did it

was we went to actual hospitals and looked at what they had and then I had a team of great people that started finding stuff. And outside sources shout out to some of the prop houses in L.A., like A1 Medical Heritage Props, Alpha Medical, they sort of became part of the team too. You know, I'd call people up and say I'm looking for a blanket warmer and somebody calls me back

“and says there's an auction in Phoenix. I think we can get you one, you know, in three weeks.”

So it was a lot of that scavenging reaching out to companies, our prop master Rick Latamade.

We got fantastic medical cards from Kapsa. So we, we beg, we borrow, we steal, we got

auctions, we got a prop houses, we do whatever we can and buying a lot of stuff from, you know, companies like McKesson who sell medical stuff to hospitals. Yeah, that's a lot of treasure hunting. But I mean, it's an enormous amount of stuff that we had to get, you know. Wow. And it's something that the, that the suspect department takes as their intense responsibility, they're very, very consistent about making everything as valid and accurate as possible.

Yeah. We, we were blown away that even areas that are not necessarily featured on the show, but maybe the background are talked in, it's still accurate. They're

“still like a flyer about a nursing course that you need to take or the fourth of July, Pittsburgh,”

summer barbecue, and employees that's in like the faculty lounge. I'm like, oh my God. Like the fridge? Well, that stuff is so immersive. Yeah. In the beginning, when we started, there was a round of love letters almost and love exchanges that were from the actors because their experience matched our intentional way of presenting to them a space where they didn't have to suspend their disbelief. So Katherine, please Dana, would constantly come up to me and say,

I have no, I have no question about what I'm supposed to do. I know where I work. I work here and here is a full-on emergency department. I don't have to do the actor task of suspending my feeling. I don't see the edge of the set wall because I work in a real emergency department, and that's because she would say that's because of you guys. She was such a sweet champion of us all

“from the get-go and she said, this is my space. I'm going to put my pictures up there and then she”

gets quite testy if anyone sits in her spot like you would if you felt that was yours. Yeah. And people take agent, they have agency for it. There's the people that work in this patch, which is a full of monitors and notes and stuff like that. They take umberage if someone actually moves their things around. It's quite lovely in the way that people have taken on the set.

So for me, it's this pervasive experience when you watch it, that your eyes are always energized.

And your eyes will always, if you're looking, lead you to imagine that there's more and beyond. So when the set was up and running, to me, that's the favorite thing, almost impossible to explain. But the kind of subtextual trick that I've played on everyone just to keep you feeling like you're constantly moving, which is the experience of being in an emergency department. Like, cannot comprehend this level of brilliance right now. Okay, let me know. All right, I'm all

get made. It's amazing. I am like almost speechless at what you all able to create. It truly is immersive. It's incredible. We walked through a set and I literally felt like I was in a real hospital, incredible. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having us. You guys are available to designer homes and we're disintegrating. Yeah, if you're like medical liquid. I'm still having a hard time comprehending the creative brilliance it takes to put together

that set and like the details that we didn't even think about and we visited this set and looked

at every corner. Yeah, I, I'm so impressed with like every little, we don't have an incredible

memory to think about like where every piece, every prop, every like little element, design, every detail goes. I bet some people think you could just go online or to store music. I need to buy these medical supplies, but to hear Matt talk about auctions and sourcing materials from

“different states and calling companies. It also seems like stressful. I think honestly, like the”

real testament to their work is how much it feels invisible, how much of it feels truly like of the set of the scene. It doesn't feel like, you know, so produced in some ways. It really feels like real life. I understand why the characters now probably get on set. The actors get on set and they're just, they're like, oh yeah, I work in the hospital. I really like that point about Katherine, like making her little desk her own, like her bringing in her own like real family photos

and like being very protective of that space. I think that's really special. I don't think really actors get that a lot, but all of these actors go to the same set every single day, every shot and that's so cool. I think our new goal needs to be to get invited to a party, Halloween party, holiday party by like Nina Matt, anyone who's involved in building these sets. I need to see that level of like detail. Yeah. For a social function. Thank you for watching.

Today's episode of the Pit Podcast. You know where to find us. Every Thursday right here after the new episode drops and share your comments, your questions also shout out to all the nurses out there. You can watch us on HBO Max or listen wherever you get your podcast.

PRX is Jostlyn Gonzalez. Our managing producer is Courtney Florentine. Our editor is Lucy Perkins.

“Our production managers are Ebuda Choa and Tony Carlson. Our video producer and editor is Anthony”

Q. Artis with assistant editor Damon Darrell Henson. This shows engineered by Tommy Bezarian,

special thanks to Joe Carlino. The executive producer of HBO podcast is Michael Gluckstatt.

“The senior producer is Allison Cohen Cerrocuch and the associate producer is Aaron Kelly.”

Technical director is Insang Huang. I'm Alok Patel.

And I'm Hunter Harris. We'll see you next week in the pit.