Medicine Episodes

I’m flying solo for most of this one while Margaret is off saving dolphins (or just finishing a hospital admission ), but I’ve brought in a heavy hitter to help me tackle one of the most awkward parts of medical training: feedback. Paul Tran, the creative force behind Alimentary School, joins me to discuss why the feedback we give and receive in the clinic usually, to put it bluntly, sucks. We dive into the "Politeness Concept," where supervisors give a quick "good job" just to save face and get out of the room, leaving learners with zero actionable data. Paul introduces the concept of "Wise Feedback", 19 words that can completely change how a student engages with their work, and we break down the "Four T’s" of delivery: Tact, Timing, Intent, and Tone. From the trauma of childhood soccer critiques about our noses to the "glass-shattering" realizations of a former competitive figure skater, this episode is about turning subjective observations into meaningful coaching.

In this journal club episode, we break down the recent findings from a landmark (in my opinion) study on the associated risks between caffeine consumption and dementia risk. Spoiler alert! More coffee might actually be protective against dementia; however, we need to take these findings with a grain of salt (or creamer) and understand how the nuance of this information can help both our lives and our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.

A topic that we were silent on during our Aphasia episode was the importance of Speech-Language Pathologists in the care of patients with Aphasia and, more broadly, throughout different types of care for patients in the hospital, in rehab, and outpatient. Today, we are joined by SLPs and co-hosts of Speech Talk Eva Johnson and Emily Brady to ask all our questions about how SLPs approach cognition, dysphasia, and values in care. Check out their podcast (which is also part of the Human Content family!) at Speech Talk!

In the second part of our intro to DBT episodes, we welcome expert education and DBT clinician, Dr. Kiki Fehling. We talk about how Dr. Fehling found DBT, how her teaching made it to TikTok, and then get into cases about how to talk about DBT with patients and what an introductory session might sound like. In our Patreon section, we go further into some favorite exercises in DBT with Dr. Fehling. Oh, Margaret also has to walk back an error she made on the previous DBT episode, and Preston gets to enjoy seeing Margaret be wrong.

Margaret and I take on our own freedom in today’s episode, which is part two of a four-part series on Existential Psychotherapy. The existential postulate that we are all ultimately free to make our own decisions (and therefore must live with those decisions) can be a source of distress, but also a path to the pursuit of a meaningful life. It all comes down to how you go about it. And we will chat about it all, freely.

In this episode, we explore the current political climate and the possibility of the return of institutionalized long term psych care. Though this is not a political podcast (I think Preston says that 5 times), all of medicine is political, and it’s important to discuss the overlap.  Tune in to the Patreon section to directly support the creators and for more discussion about how institutionalization is handled in other countries!

In this episode, which could be titled “Neurocognitive Assessments for Silly, Cool, Fun People” (that’s us—we are the silly, cool, fun people), Margaret and I describe five neurocognitive domains often used in psychometric testing. We also cover the associated simple yet elegant tests you can do at the bedside. These neuropsychological assessments help provide better insight into the functioning of certain regions of the brain and the underlying processes of cognition.

On this episode of HBP, we interview nutritional psychiatrist Brooke Resche and answer some of your questions of how to feed yourself to help your brain. We get into concrete strategies for each difficulty one might have with getting meals together and eating, and talk with Dr. Brooke (CookwithDrBrooke on TikTok and Instagram) about tips she uses with patients and how to talk about food and food habits, even when struggling with ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, or stress.

Today, we present to you our first Journal Club episode, in which we feature a primary author of an important piece of research. Online, content supercedes context, and when it comes to emerging hypothesis around big topics – like AI – this loss of context can lead to polarizing views. Today, we are excited to share a longer form interview with one of the leads of the MIT Media Lab’s study that was published as a pre-print this summer: Your Brain on ChatGPT.

Welcome back for season 3! For our first episode, we have on a food scientist to discuss from the industry side food myths, which we combine with our own readings from the psychiatry literature. We touch on red dye 40, food fears, the minerals in the soil, and how to slow down information from social media grocery store aisle walkers.

Margaret and I pivot into mentor mode a little in this episode, it’s targeted towards medical students and the vicissitudes of the match. We know these are tough times and we wanted to share some advice about what to look for in a psych program and how to pick a place to train that is right for you. We also debrief the end of season 2 and take a wrap on 40 episodes! As always, thank you for listening!

By popular demand, Margaret and Preston are back with another therapy episode. The topic this week? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a third wave behavioral therapy that Margaret happens to be trained in and love for her patients and her own life. In this episode we talk about the founder of ACT and its roots in behaviorism, what an ACT therapist “sounds like”, and the 6 core processes of psychological flexibility that encompass what this type of therapy does. Finally, Margaret and Preston go through their own values, and try to apply the ACT principles to two particular problems in their own lives.

This episode is a slight excursion from our regularly scheduled program. Today we are chatting with Will Flanary, who is in many ways our content “dad” if you will. We will talk about the art of including humor into our daily practive, when it goes right, when it goes left, and where we go from here. Dr. Glaucomflecken also has some fun and new projects he’d like to share with you at the end.

In this Preston-led episode, we take a deep dive into the history of lithium and its use in psychiatry. But because Preston is very literal, we are starting at the very beginning, inside of stars where lithium was formed at the beginning of the universe.

What is aphasia, really and what happens when your brain no longer cooperates with your ability to speak or understand language? In this episode, Preston and Margaret tackle the messy, frustrating, and often isolating world of language disorders, focusing on the real-life implications of aphasias. They walk through the clinical causes, what it looks like day-to-day, and how aphasia differs from other speech and cognitive issues. Along the way, they share stories of miscommunication, explore the frustrations of being misunderstood, and dig into how patients and clinicians can better work together when words are hard to find.

Is it all in your head or is pain more complex than we’ve been led to believe? In this episode, Margaret and I dig into the psychological and biological factors that shape our experience of pain, including how the brain processes physical discomfort, the emotional toll it takes, and what role medications actually play. We also share stories from our own lives and clinical work that highlight how pain shows up in complicated, often misunderstood ways. If you've ever wondered why your body hurts when your heart is breaking, or why painkillers don’t always work, this one’s for you.

Margaret and I sat down to speak on a topic we rarely hear spoken plainly: suicide, and more specifically, suicide risk assessments. We didn’t plan to tidy anything up or wrap it in easy language. Instead, we tried to sit with it—the fear, the responsibility, the human ache behind it all. We talk about how suicide shows up in our clinical work, how it’s shaped us personally, and why we both believe silence helps no one. This isn’t a “how-to” or a lecture. It’s a real conversation between two people trying to hold space for pain, and maybe offer a little hope in the process.

This is the episode I wish we never had to make—and also the one I wish I’d had from the beginning. Margaret and I talk about suicide from inside the profession: what it’s like to lose a patient, how we carry that grief (or numbness), and why the aftermath is rarely as clear-cut as people think. We talk about the fear of getting it “wrong,” the complicated relief that can come when a patient is finally at peace, and the moments when you realize you’re not the only one who saw it coming. And maybe the most important part? We talk about how hard it is to talk at all. This one’s raw. And necessary. And still full of tenderness.

It’s Part 2 of our deep dive into eating disorders—and this time, we’re going even deeper. We kick off by unpacking our mock therapy session with Dr. Helen Liljenwall, which unexpectedly hit close to home for all of us. Then we take a sharp turn into the medical realities of starvation, including refeeding syndrome, the female athlete triad, and why your heart is always in the equation (literally). But what happens when patients refuse to eat—and we have to decide whether they need a psychiatric hold? Who gets to say when a person with an eating disorder has lost capacity? And is “terminal anorexia” a compassionate truth—or a dangerous excuse? If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to treat eating disorders, this is the episode to hear. It's raw, real, and it doesn’t flinch.

This is Part 1 of our two-part deep dive into eating disorders—and we’re starting at the beginning. Margaret and I sit down with psychiatrist and eating disorder specialist Helen Sanon, MD to walk through the basics: What are the major types of eating disorders? What do they actually look like in real life? And how do we treat something that’s rooted in both biology and culture? We cover everything med school skipped—then try to practice what we’ve learned in a fake (but emotionally real) therapy session with Dr. Helen as the patient. Spoiler: it got uncomfortable in all the right ways.

This episode hit harder than I expected. Margaret and I talk about what it feels like to care for patients who remind us a little too much of ourselves, especially when we’re also the ones filling out the paperwork for a psychiatric hold. We dig into what a 5150 (or 5585) really means, how to sit with that kind of authority, and the emotional mess of seeing a patient’s fear reflect your own. This one’s about boundaries, over-identification, supervision, and the heartbreak of sometimes needing to say, “I care about you and I can’t be your doctor anymore.”

In this episode, Margaret and I take on burnout—what it actually is, where the term came from, and how to tell when you’re not just tired, but something deeper is cracking. We dig into the history, the Maslach Inventory, moral injury, and why burnout isn’t in the DSM (yet). We also share our own unhinged burnout moments (yes, mine involves harmonica) and explore how to tell the difference between burnout, depression, and just being in the wrong place.

We opened up the inbox and wow… y’all really came through. In this first-ever Q&A episode, Margaret and I answer your questions about coping during med school, surviving feedback, dealing with emotional exhaustion in residency, and why outpatient goodbyes feel like actual breakups. I also overshare about marathon training (again), Margaret brings the wisdom and the theater metaphors, and we all learn what bald eagles actually sound like. It’s a mix of serious, strange, and unexpectedly honest—basically, peak us.

This week, I learned I have a pelvic floor. And yes, I realize I’m a doctor and should’ve known that already. Margaret and I talk with pelvic floor physical therapist and viral educator Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, who somehow made me breathe through my butt on mic. We cover everything from incontinence and pelvic pain to TikTok fame, trauma-informed care, and the surprisingly emotional world of core stability. Alicia breaks down the science and the stigma behind one of the most misunderstood parts of the body—and I try to keep up while sitting on a pillow and trying not to Kegel too hard.