ICU Nurse Hunter Prosper shares human responses to life’s biggest questions.
Growing up, we’re warned to never talk to strangers. But ICU nurse and digital creator Hunter Prosper has amassed a community of over three million people, by doing just that. Storytelling is the oldest tradition known to humankind, and it also happens to be Prosper’s favourite pastime.
“When you work in the ICU, you have two patients, and you spend 13 hours a day with them. There are only so many times you can ask about the weather or sports teams. Eventually, you have to get into something,.” says Hunter Prosper.
Prosper found himself building strong connections with his patients. They’d show him photos of their children, their dog, the new house they’d bought. But an hour later, he would be performing CPR, paralysing or sedating them. In some cases, Prosper would learn a patient’s name, he would hear their story, and then he would lose them.
After working shifts in the ICU, Prosper would distance himself from the rest of the world. He found it difficult to talk to his mother or his friends; his subconscious mind convinced him that if he engaged in conversation, something awful would happen.
“I just had a conversation with someone, and didn’t have to do CPR on them. I felt like I smiled again. It had been so long since I’d smiled.”
Hunter Prosper
“One day, I went outside. I wasn’t recording anything, but I came across an older woman – a stranger – and talked to her. We probably talked for an hour. She was holding her groceries, and by the end, I was holding them because I wanted to continue talking,.”he says.
“I remember going home after the conversation and thinking that’s what I wanted,” Prosper says, “I just had a conversation with someone, and didn’t have to do CPR on them. I felt like I smiled again. It had been so long since I’d smiled.”
Conversing became a hobby, and one day Prosper decided to record one of his interactions. When he uploaded the video to social media, it was instantly well-received. As traction grew, Prosper realizsed that these conversations that were helping him also had the potential to help strangers across the world.
Prosper doesn’t waste time on small talk. He likes to get into the thick of it. In one video, he asks a young woman named Katie, “Is there somebody you still think about?”. In an emotional exchange, she answers: “That would be my brother, Drew.”
Katie describes how she sadly lost her brother to suicide, and how she uses her grief as a tool to better understand the people around her. “I look for him in the people that I meet,” she tells Prosper, “the way you listen reminds me of him.”
Prosper’s debut book, “Stories from a Stranger: Every person has a story”, weaves a tapestry of human experience, each thread one of a hundred never-before-seen interviews, revealing the uplifting and heart-wrenching responses to questions such as: What’s the most painful thing you’ve been told? What did you learn from your greatest heartbreak? What’s the greatest decision you’ve made?
“One of the stories comes from an older man, named William,” Prosper says, “I asked him what he saw when he looked in the mirror, and he said that he sees someone living on borrowed time.” William was born in America during the Jim Crow era, a time of racial segregation. As a black man, William experienced extreme racism.
“For William, it was eye-opening to think that a white man would not just be his friend but also save his life.“
When William grew up, he joined the war effort in Vietnam to escape the fighting and hostility in America. It was there that he made a friend in a white man named Doc. “They were out on patrol, and Doc, William and some others were caught in gunfire. One of the soldiers was stuck in crossfire, and Doc threw his body over him and took all the bullets.”
Doc did not survive, but his comrade did. “For William, it was eye-opening to think that a white man would not just be his friend but also save his life.” William ended up going to UCLA, taking night classes and becoming a lawyer.
In a world where division and hatred endure, it is important to remember the things that unite us. “We are all on this spectrum of emotions, and we’re dealing with them the best way we know how,” says Prosper, “knowing that should connect all of us.”
The project started as a way for a nurse to unlearn his negative thought patterns, and has grown into a worldwide community, where strangers feel seen and heard. Prosper has pledged to donate 100% of the proceeds from the first 10,000 books sold to TWLOHA, a non-profit which supports people suffering from addiction and mental health conditions.
“I need these conversations to keep me afloat,” he says, “but to see that it gets to become a book…that it happens to also serve millions of people, is something I’m very happy about.”
Stories from a Stranger: Every person has a story, by Hunter Prosper (Simon Element/S&S) is available for purchase from 23rd September 2025. Homepage banner image, left Frances, and right Damian. Homepage portrait of Hunter Prosper, image courtesy of artist. Inside image, left, Tombé, middle Mary, and Dick.
