Social stigma makes the opioid crisis hard to confront (7min) There are many reasons why the opioid crisis is so hard to confront. One of them is social stigma. It often extends beyond users themselves, to their families. People see addiction as a moral weakness, and by extension, the moral weakness of their families.
When drinking ruins your liver - should you qualify for a transplant? When patients develop alcohol liver disease, they are often forced to wait 6 months to prove they can abstain from alcohol before they will be considered for a transplant. Is that a fair amount of time? Is that a fair practice at all?
Withholding surgery: How gaps in policy fail people who inject drugs A recent New York Times article described a harrowing situation faced by some people who inject drugs and develop endocarditis, a life-threatening infection caused by bacteria that enter the bloodstream and settle in the heart. The article described doctors in Tennessee deciding whether to perform repeat costly heart surgeries on patients who were re-infected with endocarditis as a result of ongoing illicit drug use—and at times declining to operate. There are policy failures that are to blame, too, for how and why resources are allocated this way. This looks at those failures and how our bias influences both the policies and how they are applied.
Injecting Drugs can ruin a heart - how many second chances should a user get? A life-threatening heart infection afflicts a growing number of people who inject opioids or meth. Costly surgery can fix it, but the addiction often goes unaddressed.
The Fix (whole episode - 43min) This episode we take a sober look at the throbbing, aching, craving desire states that return people (again and again) to the object of their addiction … and the pills that just might set them free.
When drinking ruins your liver - should you qualify for a transplant? When patients develop alcohol liver disease, they are often forced to wait 6 months to prove they can abstain from alcohol before they will be considered for a transplant. Is that a fair amount of time? Is that a fair practice at all?
The Doctors Prescribed Me Pain Medication but Couldn't Help Me Stop Them. a first person narrative about one patient's struggle to extricate himself from opioid pain medications, and where he did and DIDN'T find help.
Empathy by Dr. Brene Brown What is Empathy? And why is it different from Sympathy? In this brief, candid, and humorous clip, Dr. Brene Brown gives an overview of empathy vs sympathy and how to become more empathetic.
Samuel Shem, 34 Years After 'The House of God' Reflecting on the importance of community and connection among junior doctors navigating the "brutality of medical training" and the clinical world.
Deceit & I RJ Walker performs this emotion-provoking poem about the large role that deceit undeniably plays in our lives and careers as a tool to save others from pain.
When to take a stand - and when to let it go Ash Beckhan describes the challenges faced trying to fulfill multiple roles while sticking to one's personal integrity.
Are human brains hardwired to recognize some groups of people as friends and others as enemies? The concept of tribalism dates back hundreds of centuries, evolving from violent warfare to aggressive sports. Humans exhibit an innate need to relate and group, subsequently leading to issues of both minor subconscious and major conscious prejudice.
When drinking ruins your liver - should you qualify for a transplant? When patients develop alcohol liver disease, they are often forced to wait 6 months to prove they can abstain from alcohol before they will be considered for a transplant. Is that a fair amount of time? Is that a fair practice at all?
When Doctors Tell Patients What They Don't Want To Hear 
What It's All About An ER resident's reflection on what really is the reason we are in medicine....
Empathy by Dr. Brene Brown What is Empathy? And why is it different from Sympathy? In this brief, candid, and humorous clip, Dr. Brene Brown gives an overview of empathy vs sympathy and how to become more empathetic.
Samuel Shem, 34 Years After 'The House of God' Reflecting on the importance of community and connection among junior doctors navigating the "brutality of medical training" and the clinical world.
Deceit & I RJ Walker performs this emotion-provoking poem about the large role that deceit undeniably plays in our lives and careers as a tool to save others from pain.
When to take a stand - and when to let it go Ash Beckhan describes the challenges faced trying to fulfill multiple roles while sticking to one's personal integrity.
Are human brains hardwired to recognize some groups of people as friends and others as enemies? The concept of tribalism dates back hundreds of centuries, evolving from violent warfare to aggressive sports. Humans exhibit an innate need to relate and group, subsequently leading to issues of both minor subconscious and major conscious prejudice.