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On Becoming a Healer
On Becoming a Healer
Saul J. Weiner and Stefan Kertesz

Doctors and other health care professionals are too often socialized and pressured to become “efficient task completers” rather than healers, which leads... more

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Episodes

A Conversation with Pediatric Surgeon John Lawrence MD, Past Board President of Doctors Without Borders, USA

At a moment of increasing isolationism and xenophobia and -- for physicians – burnout, in a highly bureaucratic and profit... more

17 Dec 2024 · 56 minutes
Addressing Social Drivers of Health: What is the role of the clinician?

In can be confusing and even demoralizing for a medical student or resident to understand what’s expected of them... more

19 Nov 2024 · 52 minutes
“Simonisms”: Revisiting the uncommon wisdom of a physician and educator who shaped us deeply

To commemorate the start of our fifth season, we revisit a conversation we had almost two years ago about the... more

15 Oct 2024 · 34 minutes
Do the doctors who sold Matthew Perry ketamine indicate something rotten in mainstream medicine?

The two doctors charged for their roles in the events leading up to actor Matthew Perry’s death were both involved... more

17 Sep 2024 · 57 minutes
Some Pitfalls of Narrative Medicine and How to Avoid Them

The term “Narrative Medicine” (NM) refers to a range of activities, including close reading and reflective writing about literature, designed... more

20 Aug 2024 · 55 minutes
The chasm between how doctors are taught to communicate and what they actually sound like

There is an idealized version of physician-patient communication that is taught in medical schools, reinforced with acronyms like PEARLS, SPIKES,... more

23 Jul 2024 · 46 minutes
What do we lose and what do we gain by calling addiction a disease?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines addiction as a “chronic disease” occurring in the brain – Many believe this... more

18 Jun 2024 · 50 minutes
Can we learn and practice medicine well in a system that is so ill?

In his book, The Present Illness, American Health Care and Its Afflictions, physician and historian Martin Shapiro, MD, PhD, MPH... more

21 May 2024 · 51 minutes
“Tough Love” is Not the Answer: A critique of NEJM reporting on student/trainee grievances and educator discontent

A recent NEJM article and accompanying podcast episode (“Tough Love”) authored and hosted by the Journal’s national correspondent sound... more

16 Apr 2024 · 59 minutes
What a James Baldwin story can teach doctors and patients about care amidst suffering

“Sonny’s Blues” is a 1956 story by the author, James Baldwin, about a “sensible” and pragmatic algebra teacher and his... more

19 Mar 2024 · 1 hour, 2 minutes
How confronting racist ideas I didn’t realize I had is shaping me as a physician and a person

In a 2021 episode that we reran last month, “About me being racist: a conversation that follows an apology,” Saul... more

20 Feb 2024 · 55 minutes
About me being racist: A conversation that follows an apology

We are re-running this episode from 2021 because we’re releasing a sequel next month in which Saul reflects on his... more

16 Jan 2024 · 42 minutes
How effects of racism were mistaken for “race” in clinical algorithms: What clinicians should know

For years, when physicians order tests to assess lung function, or blood work to determine kidney function, or look up... more

19 Dec 2023 · 1 hour, 3 minutes
Drug testing at time of birth: How physicians are co-opted into harming families while thinking they are doing the right thing

The practice of urine drug testing during pregnancy and then often reporting positive results to Child Protective Services triggers a... more

21 Nov 2023 · 1 hour, 2 minutes
Directly and Covertly Observing Care: How it Can Transform Medical Education and Improve Clinical Practice

Direct, covert observation of health care is a novel and underutilized tool to assess health care trainees and clinicians. In... more

18 Oct 2023 · 50 minutes
"Dire Consequences": When students do not receive appropriate accommodations on the USMLE examinations

In the prior episode we learned that there is no evidence that time-limited testing improves test validity and that, in... more

19 Sep 2023 · 43 minutes
Why it's time to remove time limits on tests, like the USMLE exams

There is a widely held perception that being able to complete a test quickly is an indication of mastery when... more

22 Aug 2023 · 39 minutes
Running the Gauntlet: My Journey into Medicine with a Learning Disability

Stefan interviews co-host Saul about his experiences becoming a doctor with a learning disability.  This episode, first run in 2020,... more

25 Jul 2023 · 20 minutes
Why are doctors turning to ChatGPT for help relating to patients?

A recent New York Times article, titled "When Doctors Use a Chatbot to Improve Their Bedside Manner," should raise questions... more

27 Jun 2023 · 33 minutes
Prescription Opioid Reductions and Suicide: What Should Caring Physicians Do in the Face of Uncertainty?

The narrative that getting patients with chronic pain off opioids makes them safer was reinforced by a recent paper... more

23 May 2023 · 36 minutes
My patient’s in shackles: Can we take these off?

We might assume that a patient who is chained to their hospital bed must be restrained for good reason, but... more

18 Apr 2023 · 39 minutes
From medical student mistreatment to burnout: How can we change the culture?

In this second of a two-episode series on medical student mistreatment, we discuss its impact on burnout with a colleague... more

22 Mar 2023 · 40 minutes
Medical Student Mistreatment: A Wicked Problem

How is it that a healing profession -- medicine -- has such a deeply ingrained culture of harming its own? ... more

21 Feb 2023 · 43 minutes
Uncommon wisdom from a family physician and medical educator

Simon Auster, MD, was a family physician, psychiatrist, and medical educator who had extraordinary insight about practicing medicine but absolutely... more

19 Jan 2023 · 33 minutes
Challenging Questions to Help Physicians Reflect, Grow, and Find More Joy Practicing Medicine

Medical training and practice habituates physicians to a culture that narrows the possibilities we see for finding joy and meaning... more

15 Dec 2022 · 43 minutes
Organic Chemistry and the Questionable Ways We Select and Train Physicians

In October, the New York Times published the first of several articles about an eminent professor at NYU who was... more

16 Nov 2022 · 30 minutes
Contextualizing Care in a Nutshell (and a New Study)

Today, Stefan talks with Saul about his favorite topic (and life's work), contextualizing care. We're re-releasing this conversation (from January... more

24 Oct 2022 · 27 minutes
Medical Gaslighting: Why Are We A--holes?

Recent articles in mainstream media about "medical gaslighting" have struck a nerve with thousands of comments on social media platforms.... more

19 Sep 2022 · 35 minutes
Urine Drug Screening: How it can traumatize patients and undermine the physician-patient relationship without helping anyone

Urine drug screening (UDS) is used in the care of patients with opioid use disorder, and for patients receiving opioids for chronic pain.... more

11 Aug 2022 · 38 minutes
Pursuing a Medical Career While Black: What it Takes and Why it Matters

Making it into and through medical school is tough even for those who have all the advantages: excellent schools starting... more

14 Jul 2022 · 55 minutes
Rescuing medical professionalism: Could “cup-of-coffee conversations” do more good than committees and letters-to-the-file?

Medical students may be subject to professionalism review by committees, most commonly for “unreliability” such as not responding to emails,... more

26 May 2022 · 42 minutes
Why Residents Unionize

Many residents are not doing well, psychologically, and sometimes physically -- and with good reason. High levels of mistreatment and... more

21 Apr 2022 · 36 minutes
Opioids and the physician-patient relationship: What are we getting wrong?

The opioid crisis was precipitated by physicians overprescribing opioid pain medication, egged on by the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to suffering... more

15 Mar 2022 · 41 minutes
False Positives Traumatize Patients...If Clinicians Aren't Careful

On January 1st, the New York Times ran a story about prenatal genetic tests that are "usually wrong" -- but... more

19 Jan 2022 · 30 minutes
Healing Interactions: What are they made of?

There are two qualities we may experience in others who comfort and ground us when we feel vulnerable and lost. ... more

26 Dec 2021 · 27 minutes
Kind People on Airplanes

Lately we've been hearing about bad behavior on airplanes. Here we discuss an incident in which a passenger unselfconsiously stepped... more

24 Nov 2021 · 19 minutes
When an attending yells at a resident

Our guest, a physician a few years out of residency, describes an experience from her training when an attending yelled... more

28 Oct 2021 · 25 minutes
When your patient has a Swastika tattoo

Our guest, a resident physician, describes her reaction and what followed, when she discovered a symbol of hate tattooed on... more

09 Sep 2021 · 38 minutes
About me being racist: A conversation that follows an apology

Saul reached out to a former colleague whom he worked with closely so that he could apologize for something he... more

28 Jul 2021 · 42 minutes
The Dartmouth Debacle: Why the culture of medical education needs to change

In a widely reported incident, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine accused, suspended and expelled medical students for cheating based on... more

21 Jun 2021 · 43 minutes
On Becoming a Healer
False Positives Traumatize Patients...If Clinicians Aren't Careful
On Becoming a Healer
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Description

On January 1st, the New York Times ran a story about prenatal genetic tests that are "usually wrong" -- but they got... more