Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Surgeon, Interrupted

What happens after you leave the path you spent your entire life building toward?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is joined by Colin for a reflective birthday episode after officially turning 35.

Frances Mei talks about what it has felt like to step off medicine’s conveyor belt and build a career without a clear blueprint, including the uncertainty, fear, and freedom that come with losing sight of the shore for a while. She shares one of the questions that has become central to this season of life: is it really a risk if what you are risking is a life you do not want?

They also talk about the criticism Frances Mei still gets for leaving surgical practice, why “you could have just done locums” misses the point, and why working harder now feels completely different from working hard at a job she did not want.

The conversation moves into entrepreneurship, ambition, birthdays, gratitude, and the tradeoffs involved in building work that actually matters to you. Frances Mei reflects on why she no longer expects a perfect separation between work and life, and why meaningful work can feel life affirming even when it is demanding.

And yes, Stardew Valley makes an appearance. Frances Mei realizes that even in a video game, she loses interest once the farm is fully optimized and profitable, raising a bigger question about whether the real reward is sometimes the act of building itself.

In this episode:

• Turning 35 after leaving surgical practice

• Getting off medicine’s conveyor belt

• Becoming more comfortable with uncertainty

• Why leaving surgery was not about working less

• The criticism physicians face when they change careers

• Building a portfolio career without a blueprint

• Risk, ambition, and trusting yourself

• Why meaningful work feels different from burnout

• Entrepreneurship and the “love of the game”

• Gratitude without suppressing frustration

• What Stardew Valley can teach us about ambition

• Why how your life feels matters more than how it looks

Frances Mei ends with the mantra that may best summarize this new chapter:

“How my life feels is a lot more important than how my life looks.”

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when a successful surgeon starts having panic attacks in the operating room?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, sits down with fellowship-trained rhinologist, Hippocratic Collective co-founder, surgeon coach, and author Mel Thacker, MD, to talk about her debut memoir, Scrubbing In, out October 6, 2026.

Mel shares the story behind the book, from growing up with housing instability and becoming financially independent as a teenager to building a successful career in ENT. For years, medicine represented an escape and an arrival point. Becoming a physician, she thought, would mean she had finally made it.

But seven years into a successful surgical practice, Mel began experiencing panic attacks in the operating room. She talks candidly about the shame, fear, and uncertainty that followed, including the worry that patients or hospital leadership might see her differently if they knew.

Rather than hiding that experience, Mel chose to write about it.

Together, Mel and Frances Mei discuss why surgeons are so often expected to perform as if they are immune to normal human experiences, why silence can be more dangerous than vulnerability, and what it means to stay in surgery while redesigning the profession around a life you actually want to live.

They also talk about the craft of memoir, learning to see yourself as a character rather than always the hero of your own story, and why storytelling may be one of the most important skills physicians never learn.

In this episode:

• Mel’s childhood and path into medicine

• Why becoming a doctor felt like an escape

• The arrival fallacy in medicine

• Learning to write a memoir as a surgeon

• Panic attacks in the operating room

• Shame and vulnerability in surgical culture

• Why talking about struggle can improve patient safety

• Redesigning a surgical career instead of leaving it

• Moving from private practice to locums and part-time surgery

• Storytelling as a leadership skill for physicians

• Why surgeons need permission to be human

• Who Mel wrote Scrubbing In for

Mel ultimately wrote Scrubbing In for the surgeon who feels too sensitive, too different, or too far outside the traditional mold of what a surgeon is supposed to look and act like.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Mel Thacker, MD

Connect with Mel: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/mel-thacker-md

Scrubbing In available now: https://a.co/d/03CPHRRm

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What can Get Out, Kafka, surrealist art, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and contemporary film teach us about medicine?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, and Colin sit down with clinical psychologist Sacha McBain, PhD, to talk about Pathologizing Pop Culture, her long-running Hippocratic Collective column exploring healthcare, illness, disability, trauma, and recovery through movies, television, literature, music, and art.

Sacha explains why art can give language to experiences long before medicine does, and how engaging with stories can expand perspective, empathy, compassion, and even our own capacity for emotional processing.

The conversation moves through some of the column’s most memorable pieces, including Get Out and its relationship to medical racism, trust, and the history of harm within healthcare. They also discuss Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, surrealist art, disability, grief, and how abstraction can sometimes help us understand experiences that are difficult to put into words.

In this episode:

• Why pop culture belongs in conversations about healthcare

• How art can build empathy and perspective

• Get Out, medical racism, and trust in healthcare

• Trauma, illness, disability, and recovery in art

• Why horror and science fiction can make difficult ideas more accessible

• The role of storytelling in emotional processing

• What clinicians can learn from patients’ favorite music, movies, and art

• How creativity can make healthcare professionals more human

• Why art sometimes understands suffering before medicine does

A conversation about what happens when we stop treating art as separate from medicine and start asking what stories can teach us about the people we care for.

Pathologizing Pop Culture: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/pathologizing-pop-culture

Articles mentioned:

1 Year Anniversary: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/the-benefits-of-pathologizing-your-pop-culture

Get Out: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/get-out-a-horror-story-of-medicine

RuPauls' Drag Race: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/chronic-illness-and-disability-on-rupauls-drag-race

Matt Sesow: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/matt-sesows-choice-life-and-art-after-amputation

The Metamorphosis: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/the-metamorphosis

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Sacha McBain, PhD

Connect with Sacha: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/sacha-mcbain-phd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What does it take for a relationship to survive surgical residency, career changes, financial risk, and ten years of becoming very different people?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is joined by her husband Colin to celebrate ten years together and look back at what actually made their relationship work.

They met just months before Frances Mei matched into a five-year surgical residency, meaning much of the early relationship unfolded under what they jokingly call “wartime conditions”: sleep deprivation, brutal hours, emotional reactivity, uncertainty about medicine, and very little bandwidth for anything outside the hospital.

They talk about attraction, choosing a partner you genuinely enjoy, learning to let each other fail, and why loving someone does not mean trying to control or fix them. Colin shares what it was like supporting Frances Mei through residency when he could sometimes see a bad decision coming, but knew she needed to arrive at the lesson herself.

They also revisit one of the rules that helped protect their relationship during residency: a “work talk moratorium.” Frances Mei could unload about the hospital during the drive home, but once she walked through the door, work did not get to consume the rest of their night.

And they finally address a recurring assumption Frances Mei hears online: that she was only able to leave surgical practice because she had a “rich husband.” They talk candidly about their actual finances, the tradeoffs they made, living with limited savings during residency, choosing rural medicine intentionally, and taking real financial risk when Frances Mei ultimately changed careers.

In this episode:

• Why attraction matters in a long-term relationship

• Dating and marriage during surgical residency

• Supporting a partner without trying to control them

• Sleep deprivation, emotional regulation, and residency

• The “work talk moratorium” that protected their relationship

• Knowing when medicine is taking over your entire life

• Why difficult seasons can reveal compatibility

• The truth about Frances Mei leaving surgery and the “rich husband” assumption

• Financial tradeoffs behind a major career change

• Why you want a partner who works in both peacetime and “wartime”

A candid conversation about love, partnership, medicine, money, and what ten years together can teach you about building a life with another person.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when you spend years becoming excellent at medicine while constantly masking who you are?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, sits down with OB-GYN, physician educator, and creator Jessica Geida, DO, for a candid conversation about neurodivergence in medicine, adult ADHD diagnosis, burnout, masking, people pleasing, and the complicated relationship between physician identity and personal identity.

Jessica shares what it was like to move through medical school and residency with undiagnosed ADHD, why she often felt like she “fit in everywhere but belonged nowhere,” and how becoming a mother eventually helped her recognize her own neurodivergence.

Together, they explore the strengths neurodivergent physicians can bring to medicine—including empathy, creativity, pattern recognition, and unconventional thinking—as well as the cost of repeatedly shrinking yourself to fit systems that may conflict with your values.

They also discuss toxic teaching environments in surgical training, why leaving clinical medicine does not automatically untangle your identity from your work, and a different way to think about burnout: not simply as exceeding your capacity, but as the exhaustion that can come from constantly forcing yourself to fit into a system that does not fit you.

In this episode:

• ADHD and neurodivergence in physicians

• Adult ADHD diagnosis in women

• Masking and people pleasing during medical training

• Feeling like an outsider in medicine

• Strengths of neurodivergent physicians

• Burnout and values misalignment

• Toxic surgical training environments

• Physician identity outside of clinical medicine

• Learning to ask, “If I say yes, what will it cost me?”

• Unmasking and building a career that fits who you actually are

A thoughtful conversation about what happens when the same traits that can help someone excel in medicine also make traditional medical culture especially difficult to navigate.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Jessica Geida, DO

Connect with Jessica: @smilesandscrubs

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if burnout doesn’t look like hating your job, but like losing your creativity?

In this solo-style episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is joined by her husband Colin after returning from more than two weeks of solo travel through Denmark and Norway.

They talk about how Frances’ relationship with travel has changed since leaving clinical medicine, why stepping away from work often seems to create more opportunity rather than less, and the habits she is trying to unlearn after years of surgical training—including opening email the moment she wakes up.

Frances also shares what she learned from filling an entire journal while traveling, why physicians can become overly precious about creative work, and the importance of practicing before the “perfect” opportunity arrives.

In this episode:

• How burnout can show up as a loss of creativity

• Why Frances stopped checking email first thing in the morning

• Solo travel after leaving clinical medicine

• Journaling and developing your own voice in the age of AI

• Why waiting for inspiration can keep you stuck

• Practicing before the big opportunity arrives

• The surprising relationship between taking time off and getting new work

• Moving beyond travel as escapism

• Creating a healthier relationship with ambition and productivity

• Why your inbox does not deserve to control your day

For physicians, creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone trying to build a life where work matters without allowing it to consume everything else.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if you didn't get on the wrong train? What if you simply became a different person along the way?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Dr. Wai-Jia Tam, a Singaporean humanitarian doctor whose career has spanned public health, humanitarian medicine, COVID response, and global health leadership.

Dr. Wai-Jia Tam shares an extraordinary story of following a path that looked successful on paper while gradually losing touch with the person she wanted to be. From becoming a physician after growing up dreaming of being a wildlife documentary host, to humanitarian work, moving her family to Tanzania, and now finding her way toward conservation, her story is ultimately about something bigger than career change.

It's about reclaiming yourself.

The conversation explores:

• What happens when the career you've built no longer feels like the right destination
• Why physicians can struggle to recognize their own definition of success
• The pressure to prove yourself in medicine and high-achieving cultures
• Reconnecting with the dreams you had as a child
• Why changing direction doesn't mean your past was a mistake
• The difference between reinventing yourself and reclaiming yourself
• How a major health setback forced Dr. Wai-Jia Tam to reconsider her identity
• Finding purpose outside of credentials, titles, and professional achievement
• How one cold DM led to an unexpected opportunity in wildlife conservation
• Why the work you do quietly for years may eventually open an unexpected door
• Giving yourself permission to get off the “wrong train”

Dr. Wai-Jia Tam also shares the remarkable story of creating a children's book as a teenager to raise money for a home for girls she met in Nepal. Despite being told she couldn't do it—and being told her paintings were terrible—she taught herself to paint, published the book, and ultimately raised $100,000 to build the home.

For physicians and other high achievers who have ever wondered “Is this really what I want?”, this is a conversation about permission: permission to change, to pause, to choose differently, and to become more fully yourself.

And Dr. Wai-Jia Tam leaves us with a beautiful definition of healing:

Healing isn't about returning to who you were before the pain. It's about giving yourself permission to be who you were always meant to be.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Wai-Jia Tam

Connect with Wai Jia: @drwaijiatam

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if changing your mind isn't failure, but actually a sign that you're paying attention?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Rachel Gerber Kule, a communications strategist, entrepreneur, and self-described Renaissance woman who has built a career by repeatedly pivoting toward what fits her better.

Rachel shares how she went from wanting to be a news anchor, to realizing that path wasn't right for her, to building a successful career in communications and PR—and eventually launching a new venture supporting people going through IVF and fertility challenges.

The conversation goes much deeper than career changes. Frances Mei and Rachel explore what it means to let go of a chapter without feeling ashamed, understand your own values, build confidence, set boundaries, and create a life that actually reflects who you are.

They talk about:

• Why changing direction isn't the same as failing
• How to recognize when a path no longer fits
• Letting go of shame and unmet expectations
• Why knowing your values makes decision-making easier
• How self-confidence gives you the courage to make your own choices
• Setting boundaries at work and in relationships
• Why crying and emotional expression aren't signs of weakness
• How difficult experiences can shape who we become
• Learning to trust yourself when you no longer have someone else to call
• Why uncertainty can actually create freedom and possibility
• Building a life around your own values instead of inherited expectations

For physicians especially, this conversation offers a powerful reminder: you don't have to spend your entire life following the path you originally chose. Frances Mei reflects on what it meant to leave clinical surgery and build a portfolio career—and why becoming clear about your values and boundaries is essential to creating a life that feels like your own.

Rachel's favorite advice comes from Henry David Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” The question is whether you've taken the time to figure out what those dreams actually are.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Rachel Gerber Kule

Connect with Rachel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkule

Founder of Pursuit PR, a C-suite communications advisory firm, and Fertilyfe, a community focused on supporting people navigating IVF and fertility challenges.

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this follow-up episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei and Colin continue their conversation about Frances Mei's transition from clinical medicine into consulting, and get much more practical about what happened once she actually made the leap.

Frances Mei explains how her first consulting opportunity started as a loose, low-commitment engagement and evolved into a formal role, why physicians should consider “dating before they get married” when evaluating new jobs, and how she learned to create a role around her skills instead of waiting for someone to tell her what to do.

From there, she went on to a director-level physician engagement and strategy role, built a network that generated new consulting opportunities, and eventually became a chief medical officer at a healthcare tech startup.

The big lesson? The best opportunities for physicians leaving medicine often aren't posted on LinkedIn.

In this episode:

• How to get your first consulting opportunity after medicine
• Why small projects can be better than committing to a new career immediately
• How to create a job that doesn't exist yet
• The skills physicians can translate into consulting
• Why clinical expertise alone isn't enough
• How networking and referrals create a consulting “flywheel”
• How to prove your value before asking for a bigger role
• How Frances Mei went from leaving medicine to a director-level role within a year
• How she ultimately became a chief medical officer at a healthcare tech startup
• Why physicians need to stop asking, “What jobs can I get as a doctor?”
• How to figure out what you're actually good at and what you actually want to do

For physicians considering leaving clinical medicine, consulting, healthcare startups, marketing, strategy, or other careers outside medicine, this episode offers a candid look at what the transition actually looks like.

The conversation also gets into something physicians don't hear enough: you don't necessarily have to follow another prescribed career ladder after leaving medicine.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when doctors spend their entire careers learning to suppress their emotions?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with clinical psychologist Sacha McBain, PhD, a national leader in medical traumatic stress, to unpack what happens when physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers are repeatedly exposed to trauma without being given the tools to process it.

Sacha explains how emotional suppression can shrink our “window of tolerance,” leading to hyperarousal, irritability, shutdown, and disconnection, and how those reactions don't just affect clinicians themselves. They can change team dynamics, undermine psychological safety, increase the risk that people won't speak up about potential errors, and ultimately affect patient care.

The conversation explores:

• What medical trauma actually is and why we don't talk about it enough

• Why “just push through it” can make trauma worse

• The science behind the window of tolerance

• Why some physicians respond to bullying and pressure by working harder while others shut down

• How physician culture can perpetuate trauma from one generation to the next

• Why psychological safety is also a patient safety issue

• How a patient's experience of trauma can shape their relationship with healthcare

• Why we can't humanize patients if healthcare workers aren't being humanized themselves

• What trauma-informed care can change for both patients and clinicians

Sacha also discusses her new patient-facing workbook on medical trauma and how clinicians can better understand what patients and families may be carrying into the hospital.

If you've ever been told to toughen up, push through it, or leave your feelings at home, this conversation is worth hearing.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Sacha McBain, PhD

Connect with Sacha: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/sacha-mcbain-phd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

How does a physician actually go from full-time clinical practice to consulting?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei is joined by her husband, Colin, to break down the real, and highly nontraditional, path that took her from practicing as a full-time ENT surgeon to consulting, strategic advising, and serving as a chief medical officer at a healthcare technology company.

There was no MBA, formal corporate fellowship, or perfectly mapped-out career plan. Instead, the transition began years earlier with a passion project called Rethinking Residency, where Frances Mei learned how to build a brand, create a website, understand SEO, edit and publish stories, conduct interviews, develop a social media presence, and speak publicly about the culture of medicine.

Those skills eventually led to podcasting, a paid media opportunity, her first formal consulting contract, and a series of roles at the intersection of medicine, media, storytelling, marketing, and strategy.

Frances Mei and Colin discuss:

• What “physician consulting” actually means

• Why being a doctor is not, by itself, a consulting pitch

• How passion projects can create real professional expertise

• The importance of making specific, purposeful asks

• Why networking works better when you have something to offer

• Going back to being a beginner after becoming an attending

• How one podcast rejection led to a paid hosting opportunity

• Landing a first consulting contract without an MBA

• Learning to work inside corporate and healthcare-adjacent environments

• Why likability, humility, confidence, and authenticity matter outside the hospital

• How to increase your “surface area for luck”

• Building a portfolio career before you know exactly where it will lead

This is not a blueprint or a promise that every career pivot will happen the same way. It is an honest look at the years of groundwork, experimentation, unpaid work, rejection, relationship-building, and luck behind what can otherwise look like an overnight transition.

For any physician or high-achieving professional wondering whether they are allowed to build something beyond their original career path: why not you?

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Medicine teaches us who we're supposed to be. But what happens when we step outside of that identity?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Dr. Frances Mei sits down with physician, graphic medicine artist, and longtime friend Dr. Ryan Montoya to talk about the unexpected lessons that come from traveling alone, exhibiting artwork around the world, and building a life beyond traditional medicine.

Ryan shares his journey from family physician and commercial illustrator to exhibiting graphic medicine in galleries across Tokyo, New York, Athens, and Naples, what it's like entering the fine art world for the first time, and why travel has become one of the greatest tools for personal growth.

Together, Frances Mei and Ryan explore:

• Why travel changes your identity

• Making meaningful friendships as an adult

• Leaving medicine without leaving yourself

• The difference between commercial art and fine art

• Reinvention after a medical career

• Why physicians need interests beyond medicine

• How new environments help you become the person you want to be

If you've ever wondered who you are outside your white coat, or felt like medicine became your entire identity, this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Ryan Montoya, MD

Connect with Ryan: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/ryan-montoya-md

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when a corporate lawyer leaves law behind to become an orthopedic surgeon?

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, sits down with Christina “Dr. Chrissy” Greenfield, MD, JD—an orthopedic surgery resident, new mother, and former corporate attorney who applied to medical school four times before finally getting accepted.

They discuss failing the bar exam, surviving rejection, gender bias in surgery, motherhood during residency, and why female surgeons are often expected to be both excellent and endlessly accommodating.

Dr. Chrissy also shares practical strategies from her legal career for handling conflict in the hospital, negotiating with other services, documenting difficult interactions, and de-escalating tense conversations.

In this episode:

• Going from corporate law to orthopedic surgery

• Applying to medical school four times

• Recovering from failure and rejection

• Gender bias and double standards in surgery

• Pregnancy and motherhood during residency

• Women undermining other women in medicine

• How to disagree effectively in the hospital

• Negotiation and de-escalation strategies for residents

• Why persistence matters more than a perfect path

Whether you are a medical student, resident, physician, lawyer considering medicine, or anyone navigating a nonlinear career, this conversation is a reminder to keep going—even when the path looks nothing like you planned.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Chrissy Greenfield, MD, LL.L, JD

Connect with Chrissy: @dr.chrissymd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

One of the most accomplished neurosurgeons in Europe joins Surgeon, Interrupted.

Dr. Yu-Mi Ryang is President-Elect of the German Spine Society, Chair-Elect of the EuroSpine Education Council, and one of the first women of color to rise to the highest levels of leadership in German neurosurgery. But her journey was anything but straightforward.

In this conversation with Dr. Frances Mei Hardin, she shares what twenty years of surgical training, leadership, and perseverance taught her about excellence, mentorship, competition, and staying true to yourself in a profession that often rewards conformity.

Together, they discuss:

• Why so many people told her not to become a neurosurgeon
• Working 100+ hour weeks during surgical training
• The unique challenges of being an Asian woman in medicine
• Competition, scarcity mindset, and surgical culture
• Why mentorship matters—and why it sometimes fails
• People pleasing, authenticity, and leadership
• Building a reputation through excellence instead of ego
• How passion sustains a career in medicine

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or simply interested in leadership and personal growth, this episode is a candid look at what it really takes to build a meaningful career in surgery.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Yu-Mi Ryang, MD

Connect with Dr. Ryang: https://de.linkedin.com/in/prof-dr-med-yu-mi-ryang-949310135

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Can someone still change medicine after they've left it?

After returning from Hippocratic Collective's Los Angeles End of Academic Year celebration, Frances Mei shares a comment that stopped her in her tracks:

"You walked away. Your credibility is gone."

That criticism sparks a deeper conversation about one of the biggest questions in medicine today. Does meaningful change only come from people still inside the system, or are outsiders sometimes the ones most able to challenge it?

Frances Mei and Colin discuss the backlash that comes with speaking publicly about residency culture, why doctors often police each other more than the system itself, and why they believe lasting change requires people working both inside and outside of medicine.

They also share updates on the LA event, the newest issue of ex vivo, and why protecting your identity outside of medicine may make you a better physician.

In this episode:

• Highlights from Hippocratic Collective's LA End of Academic Year celebration

• The release of the Summer issue of Ex Vivo

• The comment that questioned Frances Mei's credibility after leaving surgery

• Why "fix it from the inside" isn't the only path to change

• The hidden cost of sacrificing creativity during medical training

• Why building lasting resources for physicians matters more than social media

EX VIVO 2026: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/ex-vivo/2026

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when grief collides with medical training?

In this deeply personal episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with family physician, educator, and author Dr. Shanda McManus to discuss loss, caregiving, resilience, and the hidden emotional costs of becoming a doctor.

Growing up in North Philadelphia, Shonda helped care for her mother through advanced ovarian cancer before eventually becoming the first person in her family to attend college and pursue medicine. During medical school, her brother was murdered, a loss that would shape her life in profound ways. Like many physicians, she learned to keep moving, keep performing, and keep achieving—even while carrying unprocessed grief.

Together, Frances and Shanda explore the culture of medicine that often rewards endurance while leaving little room for healing, and why creating space for grief may be one of the most important acts of self-preservation for physicians.

Topics include:

• Growing up in North Philadelphia

• Caring for a parent with cancer as a child

• Becoming the first person in your family to attend college

• Pregnancy and parenthood during medical training

• Taking time away from medicine without derailing your career

• The murder of a sibling during medical school

• Unprocessed grief and emotional survival in medicine

• Why physicians deserve space to heal

• Writing, memoir, and finding meaning through storytelling

• The inspiration behind Shanda's new book

This conversation is about loss, love, family, identity, and the ways medicine sometimes asks us to be less human when we need humanity most.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Shanda McManus, MD

Connect with Shanda: https://www.shandamcmanus.com/

Brother Epistles - https://www.splitlippress.com/product-page/brother-epistles

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when your residency program suddenly shuts down mid-training?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with internal medicine physician Dr. Julia Torrellas to discuss one of the most destabilizing experiences a trainee can face: the closure of a residency program during training.

Julia shares what it was like to learn that her hospital was shutting down, how residents were absorbed into a new program, and the emotional fallout of losing mentors, support systems, routines, and a sense of stability overnight. The conversation explores burnout, identity, self-sacrifice, boundaries, and what happens when medicine becomes your entire sense of self.

Topics include:

• What it feels like when a residency program closes

• Starting over in a new hospital as a senior resident

• Burnout and emotional exhaustion in training

• Why many physicians tie their identity to their career

• Self-abandonment and self-sacrifice in medicine

• Setting boundaries without sabotaging your career

• Navigating residency politics and power dynamics

• Finding agency during uncertainty and disruption

• Lessons learned from career setbacks and unexpected change

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or someone navigating a major life transition, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at resilience, identity, and rebuilding after disruption.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Julia Torrellas, MD

Connect with Julia: @drjuliatorrellas

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

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What does it actually feel like to finish a plastic surgery residency in 2026?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with graduating plastic surgery resident Dr. Liz Malphrus just days before graduation to reflect on the end of a six-year journey through surgical training. Together, they discuss burnout, confidence, identity, career choices, and what comes next after residency.

Liz shares how her perspective on medicine evolved during training, why she ultimately chose private practice over academia, and the lessons she wishes she could tell her intern-year self. The conversation explores everything from comparison culture and perfectionism to finding agency, building a meaningful career, and the role supportive partners play in surviving medicine.

They also discuss:

• What residency teaches you about yourself

• The surprising parts of surgical training

• Why comparison is the thief of joy in residency

• Academic medicine vs. private practice

• The power of mentorship outside institutions

• Marriage, support systems, and surviving training together

• What happens when you finally get your life back

• Why physicians may be more capable than they realize

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or simply curious about life behind the curtain of medical training, this episode offers an honest look at one of the biggest transitions in a physician's career.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Liz Malphrus, MD

Connect with Liz: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/liz-malphrus-md

@dr.malphrus

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

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Why does the United States spend more on healthcare than ever before while chronic disease continues to rise?

In this episode of Surgeon Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with reconstructive plastic surgeon Dr. Joshua Mirrer to explore the systems behind modern healthcare. From residency burnout and preventive medicine to agriculture, economics, chronic disease, and the incentive structures shaping American health, this conversation goes far beyond the operating room.

Dr. Mirrer shares how his experiences in surgical training led him to study the larger forces influencing health outcomes, and why he believes meaningful change will require both individual action and community-level solutions.

Topics include:

• Why healthcare is built around treating disease rather than preventing it
• The rising cost of chronic illness in America
• How food systems and healthcare incentives intersect
• The role of community in improving health outcomes
• Lessons from diabetes prevention programs
• Writing, medicine, and making sense of complex systems
• What surgeons can teach us about long-term thinking

If you've ever wondered why healthcare feels broken, or what it might take to fix it, this conversation offers a thoughtful place to start.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Joshua Mirrer, MD

Connect with Joshua: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-mirrer-ab27436b

https://substack.com/@jmirrer

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

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What happens when a longtime magazine editor leaves the world of celebrity journalism and finds herself at the forefront of narrative medicine?

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Donna Bulseco, editor of the literary and arts journal Intima and co-editor of Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Front Lines of Medicine. Together, they explore the power of storytelling in healthcare, why medicine needs the humanities, and what physicians can learn from writers, poets, and artists.

Donna reflects on her journey from InStyle magazine to Columbia University's Narrative Medicine program, the lessons she's learned from editing thousands of submissions from clinicians, and the common writing mistakes physicians make when trying to tell meaningful stories. The conversation also dives into creativity, taste, ego, revision, and why the most powerful stories often trust the reader enough to leave conclusions unsaid.

Whether you're a clinician, writer, artist, or simply someone interested in the human experience of healthcare, this episode offers a thoughtful look at the stories that shape us, and the ones that help us heal.

Topics discussed:

• Narrative medicine and physician storytelling
• The transition from publishing to healthcare humanities
• Why doctors need art, literature, and philosophy
• Developing taste, voice, and creativity
• Common pitfalls in physician writing
• The making of Where It Hurts
• Finding humanity in modern medicine
• Trusting the reader and embracing revision

Books Mentioned:

Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Front Lines of Medicine

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Donna Bulseco

Connect with Donna: @dbulseco

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down again with her husband Colin for an unfiltered conversation about residency culture, hyper-productivity, and the psychological habits that follow physicians long after they leave the hospital.

What begins as a discussion about planning Hippocratic Collective’s first West Coast event in the Hollywood Hills evolves into a broader examination of how medicine conditions people to equate suffering with value. Frances Mei and Colin unpack the “culture of sacrifice” mentality in residency — bragging about missed weddings, sleepless nights, impossible workloads, and constant exhaustion — and question whether any of it actually makes better doctors.

The episode explores:

• Why suffering is often mistaken for productivity in medicine
• The toxic martyrdom culture embedded in residency training
• How physicians lose the ability to rest guilt-free
• Hyper-vigilance, comparison, and the “zero-sum game” mindset in surgical culture
• Why high-achieving people struggle to play, relax, or exist without output
• The long-term effects of residency on identity, nervous system regulation, and self-worth
• The difference between loving medicine vs. loving the culture surrounding medicine
• How Frances Mei still carries residency habits into entrepreneurship and creative work, even a year after leaving clinical practice
• A recent study showing physicians are leaving medicine at younger ages than ever before

Through stories about migraines, video games, art, childhood conditioning, and even a neighborhood encounter with children playing outside, the conversation becomes a larger meditation on adulthood, performance, and what it means to reclaim joy after years of survival mode.

This episode is for physicians, trainees, and high-achieving professionals who feel trapped in cycles of overwork — and for anyone trying to learn that rest, creativity, and play do not need to be earned.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

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This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with family physician and educator Dr. Joan Chan for a conversation about ambition, burnout, identity, and the myth of “having it all.”

Together, they unpack the pressure many physicians feel to optimize every area of life at once — career, relationships, creativity, wellness, leadership — and why that mindset so often leads to exhaustion and loss of self. Joan shares what she’s learning while helping build a new residency training site from the ground up, including the tension between preserving institutions and protecting the humans inside them.

The conversation explores medical education, agency, tradeoffs, focus, seasons of life, and the difference between suffering for something aligned versus suffering inside deep misalignment.

Topics include:

• Why “you can have it all” is incomplete advice
• The hidden cost of trying to do everything simultaneously
• Burnout in medicine and academic systems
• Building residency programs differently
• Institutional culture vs. human sustainability
• Creativity, fulfillment, and feeling “alive” again
• Why protecting people matters more than preserving systems

A thoughtful, funny, and deeply honest conversation about building a life intentionally — and what medicine gets wrong about success.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Joan Chan, MD

Connect with Joan: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/joan-chan-md

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

One year after leaving the hospital, Frances Mei reflects on what actually changes when you step away from medicine, and what doesn’t.

After a month-long Europe trip spanning Cambridge, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast, Frances and Colin unpack identity, burnout, healing, neurodivergence, perfectionism, and the uncomfortable reality of personal growth after medicine.

They talk about:

• Why “wellness” often isn’t enough for doctors
• The trap of outsourcing your rational brain
• Learning how to enjoy life again after survival mode
• Why high achievers struggle to dream outside of medicine
• How travel, art, museums, and creativity changed Frances Mei's life
• The surprising grief of realizing you actually can change
• Letting go of the version of yourself built entirely around achievement

This episode is about what happens when the career you sacrificed everything for is no longer the center of your life — and how difficult, disorienting, and beautiful rebuilding can be.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when life doesn’t wait for training to end?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with ENT surgeon Dr. Kelly Schmidt to talk about a reality rarely discussed in medicine: navigating fertility, miscarriage, and pregnancy during residency.

What begins as a straightforward plan to “just have a baby” quickly becomes something else—cycles that don’t work, loss that doesn’t pause training, and the disorienting experience of trying to solve a problem that effort alone can’t fix.

Kelly shares her story openly—from miscarrying while on call to continuing to work through grief, to eventually building a path forward with fertility treatment and advocacy.

This episode covers:

• Trying to conceive during residency
• Miscarriage while on call—and returning to work
• The emotional toll of infertility in high-achievers
• What actually helps (and what doesn’t) when supporting someone
• Navigating FMLA and time off during training
• How to advocate for yourself in a rigid system

If you’ve ever felt like medicine leaves no room for real life—this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Kelly Schmidt, MD

Connect with Kelly: @kschmidt93

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if the moment that almost broke you… was the one that made everything possible?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances sits down with cornea specialist Dr. Imane Tarib to unpack a journey that spans continents, identities, and nearly two decades of training.

From medical school in Morocco to starting over in the United States as an IMG, Imane shares what it actually takes to rebuild a career from scratch—learning a new system, navigating isolation, and studying for the USMLE for 18 months… only to fail.

But this isn’t a story about failure.

It’s about what happens after.

They talk about:

• The reality of being an IMG and immigrant in U.S. medicine
• The psychological impact of failure—and how to reframe it
• The hidden cost of “starting over” after already becoming a doctor
• Love, long distance, and choosing a life that wasn’t the original plan
• Why success often looks effortless—but never is

Imane’s story challenges the myth of the “straight path” in medicine—and replaces it with something more honest: persistence, reinvention, and the courage to keep going when nothing feels certain.

Because sometimes the long way is the only way.

And sometimes, it’s the right one.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Imane Tarib, MD

Connect with Imane:

- Instagram: @imanetarib.md

- TikTok: @imanetarib.md

- LinkedIn: Imane Tarib, MD

- YouTube: @RealImaneTaribMD

Imane Tarib, MD, is a cornea, cataract, and refractive surgeon and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Imane is an International Medical Graduate from Morocco who trained at the Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital in Rabat before completing three research fellowships and two advanced Cornea, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery fellowships at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Palm Beach Gardens.

Her academic focus includes corneal disease, refractive cataract surgery, and global ophthalmology. Her work also explores the intersection of medicine, mentorship, and advocacy for international medical graduates and women in medicine. Through her social media platforms, she shares insights into medical training, career growth, and building a meaningful life in and outside of medicine.

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Dr. Kate following their trip to the LMSA West conference—where one theme came up again and again:

How do you protect yourself in a system that doesn’t protect you?

From toxic power dynamics and inappropriate behavior in training, to the blurred line between self-advocacy and self-preservation, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what medical students and residents are still facing today.

They dive into:

• The reality of one-on-one power in clinical training
• Why “just playing the game” comes at a cost
• The myth that abuse creates better doctors
• Unionization, organizing, and why change feels so slow
• The hidden emotional toll: “death by a thousand cuts”
• Why some specialties get away with more than others

And ultimately—what it means to speak up, find community, and remind people:

You’re not crazy. You’re not alone.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Kate

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if the traits that made you successful in medicine are also what made it so hard?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Dr. Frances Mei sits down with ENT physician Dr. Colleen Plein for a deeply honest conversation about neurodivergence, identity, and what it really means to “fit in” in medicine.

They explore:

• ADHD, autism, and giftedness in high-achieving physicians
• Why so many doctors feel like outsiders
• The hidden cost of residency culture and hierarchy
• Highly sensitive people (HSPs) and emotional intensity
• Reframing “too much” as a superpower
• Finding community in a system that wasn’t built for you

If you’ve ever felt different, overwhelmed, or like you don’t quite belong—this episode is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Colleen Plein, MD

Connect with Colleen: @boogerbossmd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Dr. Shay Taylor—newly matched at Yale Anesthesiology, and a story that has gone viral around the world.

But this is not just a “feel-good” story.

This is a conversation about what it actually takes to get there: the years of working full-time while in school, the rejection, the debt, the doubt, and the mindset required to keep going when everything says stop.

Shay shares what it means to build a career without mentorship, to start medicine later than everyone else, and to keep moving forward after being told, directly, that she would never make it.

This episode is about resilience, but not in a polished, curated way.

It’s about crash outs, losses, and choosing to continue anyway.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Shay’s journey from janitor to physician
• Matching into Yale Anesthesia after a nontraditional path
• What it’s like to pursue medicine without guidance or resources
• Working full-time while completing undergrad and a master’s
• Being told “medical school isn’t for you”—and continuing anyway
• The reality of failure (“the L’s”) in medical training
• How to handle rejection without quitting
• Delayed gratification, debt, and why medicine has to be personal
• Social media, professionalism, and the “new generation” of doctors
• Why patients may actually want more human—not less—in their physicians

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Shay Taylor

Connect with Shay: @shayy.taylor

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

The Match is a monopoly. And now, it’s official.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei is joined by Colin Royal for an emergency breakdown of a newly released congressional report from the House Judiciary Committee—one that directly calls the NRMP (residency Match) a monopoly with “destructive consequences” for physicians, patients, and the healthcare system at large.

If you’ve been through medical training, none of this is surprising.

But this is the first time it’s being said at this level.

We get into what this actually means—beyond Match Week, beyond the algorithm—and why this moment could mark the beginning of a long-overdue shift in how medical training is structured in the United States.

This is not a conversation about preference signaling or rank lists.

This is a conversation about power.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The House Judiciary Committee report on the NRMP and why it matters
• How the Match suppresses wages and limits competition
• The 2004 antitrust exemption—and how it shaped the current system
• Why residents have little to no negotiating power
• The concept of “mobility” (and why being trapped is the real issue)
• Why some specialties can treat trainees worse—and get away with it
• Whether a “transfer portal” for residents could exist
• The myth that residents are “just trainees”
• How resident labor actually powers academic hospitals
• Why this is not a residents vs. NPs/PAs issue—but a system-wide one

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances sits down with Helena (A.YoungDoctors.Journey), an emergency medicine physician redefining what early attending life can look like.

Fresh out of residency, she chose a path many physicians are warned against: full-time locum tenens work. What follows is an honest, nuanced conversation about autonomy, uncertainty, and what it means to build a career outside the traditional script.

They unpack:

1. The hidden fear of showing up online as a physician
2. Why “freedom of time” became non-negotiable
3. The reality of 1099 vs W-2 (explained simply)
4. Early attending insecurity—and why it’s universal
5. The myth that more years = better doctor
6. Travel, money, and the unexpected perks of locums
7. And the deeper question: what are you choosing by staying where you are?

This is not a pitch for leaving medicine—or for locums.

It’s a conversation about choice, agency, and expanding what feels possible.

Because the goal isn’t one path.

It’s knowing you have options.

A.YoungDoctors.Journey is an emergency medicine physician and recent residency graduate, and spends far too much of her free time posting about life in medicine on social media.

She completed medical school in Budapest and matched as a US-IMG. Currently, she’s doing locum tenens full-time and is learning how to navigate finances, entrepreneurship and attending life as a 1099 contractor.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: A.YoungDoctors.Journey

Connect with Helena: @a.youngdoctors.journey

www.ayoungdoctorsjourney.com

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

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In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei speaks with physician, writer, and documentary filmmaker Jessica Zitter, MD, whose work explores some of the most difficult, and most human, moments in medicine.

Dr. Zitter first gained international recognition through the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Extremis, which captured the emotional reality of end-of-life care inside the ICU. Since then, she has continued to use storytelling to challenge the culture of modern medicine.

Together, Frances and Jessica discuss:

• How physicians become powerful storytellers

• Why medical culture often silences trainees

• The toxic hierarchies embedded in healthcare training

• The emotional toll of ICU and end-of-life care

• Why compassion, communication, and palliative care principles should exist in every specialty—not just palliative medicine

Jessica also shares the story behind her newest documentary, The Chaplain and the Doctor, which follows her 15-year collaboration with a hospital chaplain and explores spirituality, bias, and humanity at the bedside.

This conversation explores how storytelling can transform medicine—from the ICU to the operating room—and why speaking honestly about medical culture may be the first step toward changing it.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH

Connect with Jessica: @jessicazitter

reelmedicinemedia.org

thechaplainandthedoctor.com

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH is a documentary filmmaker, writer, physician, and founder of Reel Medicine Media, a non-profit devoted to using story to transform and humanize medical culture. Dr. Zitter is the primary featured subject and a member of the team that created the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary “Extremis (2016).”

She went on to direct and produce the award-winning documentary “Caregiver: A Love Story (2020),” which examines the growing crisis of family caregiver burden in the United States. Her third documentary, “The Chaplain & The Doctor (2025)” explores the transformative relationship between a hospital chaplain and a physician challenging the fragmented clinical approach to patient care. Dr. Zitter’s book, “Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life” (2017), describes her evolution from a doctor focused on extending life at all costs to one more patient-centered and humanistic.

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

n this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with urology resident and social media creator Maheetha Bharadwaj, MD—often known online as the internet’s favorite “dancing urologist.”

What begins with viral TikToks and Kardashian-style medical skits quickly turns into a deeper conversation about advocacy, physician voice, and the hidden curriculum of medical training. Maheetha explains how humor and creativity can be used to deliver serious health education—what Frances Mei calls “putting the medicine in the cheese.”

Together they explore:

• How doctors can use social media to educate patients

• The power of visibility for women and minorities in surgical specialties

• Why medicine’s hidden curriculum—not anatomy or pathophysiology—is often what breaks trainees

• Advocacy burnout and how physicians stay engaged without losing hope

• Why collaboration—not competition—may be the future of medicine

Maheetha also shares how her work now extends beyond Instagram and TikTok to state and national policy advocacy, speaking directly with legislators about issues affecting patient care.

This conversation is about creativity, courage, and the evolving role of physicians in public life—and why the next generation of doctors may change medicine by speaking out.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Maheetha Bharadwaj, MD

Connect with Maheetha: @dancing_uro_doc

https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/maheetha-bharadwaj-md

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when the dream you chased your whole life stops feeling like yours?

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Sarah Rav — former doctor, former McKinsey consultant, and now a positioning and content strategist helping professionals build powerful personal brands.

Sarah shares her journey from direct-entry medical school in Australia to corporate consulting, and ultimately to walking away from prestige entirely. Together, they unpack:

• The pressure of immigrant expectations and “safe” careers

• Prestige addiction and socially acceptable success

• The sunk cost fallacy in medicine

• Transferable skills doctors underestimate

• Why visibility matters more than hard work outside the hospital

• Dealing with online criticism (and why backlash can mean growth)

• The concept of being “brave scared”

If you’ve ever wondered whether the path you’re on is truly yours — or just the one you were taught to want — this episode will feel like permission.

As Sarah says:

"This is my rebirth. I decide who I am, how I show up, and what I leave behind."

You’re not behind. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be.Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Sarah Rav

Connect with Sarah:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rav/

https://www.instagram.com/sarahrav/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Sarah Rav is a former medical doctor and McKinsey consultant turned Positioning & Content Strategist. Sarah has spent over 13 years building an audience of more than three million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn by helping professionals clarify their message, build powerful brands, and create new opportunities beyond traditional career paths.

After stepping away from medicine and consulting, Sarah now shares what it really takes to stop letting external expectations dictate your life, to lovingly release identities that once served you, and to find the courage to pursue work that feels aligned and expansive. Through her work, she shows how building a personal brand can give professionals real agency, enabling them to pivot careers successfully, confidently, and on their own terms.

Today is February 24th — release day.

Frances Mei and Colin sit down on the eve of launch to talk about what it feels like to finally let Surgeon on the Edge go. After three years of drafting, redrafting, anger, resistance, breakthroughs, and letting go of control, the book is no longer a mirror — it’s an old photograph.

In this intimate conversation, they unpack:

1. Why the first draft “wasn’t true”
2. How anger transformed into clarity
3. What it means to create art without controlling its reception
4. Why writing the book changed Frances Mei more than publishing it ever could
5. The difference between being an “angry person” and being overwhelmed
6. The real breakthrough (spoiler: there wasn’t just one)

They also talk book tour, color-coded Canva calendars, cozy gaming optimization strategies, and why sometimes you need someone who knows who you are — and will break it to you gently.

The book is out today. The work is finished. The interpretation is not.

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Order Surgeon on the Edge now: https://www.amazon.com/Surgeon-Edge-Frances-Mei-Hardin/dp/B0G3JWCCH4

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances sits down with her oldest friend—Executive Pastry Chef Rebecca Freeman—to talk about what happens when your childhood dream actually comes true… and it’s still hard.

Becky is the Executive Pastry Chef at Coyote Café and Santacafé in Santa Fe, a National Pastry Chef of the Year, and a multi–40 Under 40 award winner. She knew at five years old she wanted to be a chef. Frances Mei? Not so much.

Together, they unpack:

1. The brutal reality behind The Bear (spoiler: it’s not exaggerated)
2. Crying in the walk-in vs. crying in the call room
3. Working 400 days in a row to outrun imposter syndrome
4. Why high-achieving women panic after success instead of celebrating
5. How toxic training environments mirror dysfunctional families
6. And what it looks like to break the cycle when you finally become the leader

This is a conversation about abuse in elite professions—kitchens and operating rooms alike. About ambition. About ego. About emotional regulation. And about the strange truth that sometimes the job you begged the universe for still makes you question yourself.

If you’ve ever achieved the dream and still thought, What’s next? Why am I not satisfied? — this one’s for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Chef Rebecca Freeman

Connect with Rebecca:

IG: @chefbckyfreeman

https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/rebecca-freeman-santa-fe-pastry-chef/

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/glaze-of-glory-club-at-las-campanas-executive-pastry-chef-wins-national-culinary-prize/article_a42250e2-517e-11ee-87d2-bbbea92e1dac.html

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if the most radical thing you could do in medicine wasn’t being tougher, but being more human?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with The ICU Doctor to talk about identity, intuition, and breaking the unspoken rules of medical culture. From immigrant roots and imposter syndrome to building clinical “spidey sense,” digital medical education, and creating work environments that actually put people at ease, this conversation is a masterclass in reclaiming humanity inside the hospital.

They unpack unhinged resident stories, intimidating attendings, reframing survival during training, and why asking someone “who’s your best friend?” might be more disruptive than any policy reform.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt flattened by hierarchy—and still believes medicine can be better.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: The ICU Doctor

Connect: https://www.instagram.com/theicudoctor1/

https://www.tiktok.com/@theicudoctor1

And check out all of The ICU Doctor's materials and books at https://icudoctor.gumroad.com/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with bestselling author and former television producer Audrey Bellezza to talk about reinvention—professionally, creatively, and existentially.

Audrey spent decades in television, rising from a Food Network intern to showrunner and development executive before pivoting (multiple times) into authorship. During the pandemic, she co-wrote a bestselling Jane Austen–inspired rom-com trilogy—only to be diagnosed shortly thereafter with stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer.

Together, Frances and Audrey explore:

1. What portfolio careers really look like over decades—not highlight reels
2. Why transferable skills matter more than titles
3. How women navigate pivots after investing years into a single identity
4. Creative partnership, pitching, and betting on yourself
5. Using storytelling and advocacy to build something meaningful in the face of uncertainty

Audrey also shares the story behind Love for Lungs, the nonprofit she co-founded to fund research and raise awareness for ALK-positive lung cancer, and details their upcoming Galentine’s Day fundraiser.

This is a conversation about ambition, failure, partnership, illness, and permission—to change your mind, your career, and your life.

Because no experience is wasted. And you can pivot as many times as you need to.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Audrey Bellezza

Connect with Audrey: @audreybellezzawrites

Love4Lungs: https://www.love4lungs.org/

Anne of Avenue A: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Anne-of-Avenue-A/Audrey-Bellezza/For-the-Love-of-Austen/9781668097656

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Dr. Red Hoffman is a surgeon, hospice physician, and writer whose career has never followed a straight line—and whose life was radically reshaped by grief, chronic illness, and unexpected loss. In this episode, we talk about starting over more than once, entering medicine later in life, and what happens when your body forces you to renegotiate your identity as a physician.

Red shares her journey through trauma, long COVID, POTS, and partial clinical practice—and how diversification, honesty, and courage helped her build a career that still includes surgery, but on her own terms. We discuss the myth of the “wasted spot,” false equivalencies in medical training, why unpaid work sometimes matters, and how culture actually changes: slowly, one person at a time.

This conversation is for anyone questioning alignment, resisting change, living with chronic illness, or wondering if it’s too late—or too risky—to choose differently.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Red Hoffman

Connect with Dr. Red:

https://redhoffmanmd.com/

@redmdnd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when a doctor decides she doesn’t need more money - she needs more peace?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with psychiatrist Dr. Claire Oduwo to talk about choosing a “soft life” after medical training—and why that phrase is wildly misunderstood in medicine. Claire shares her path from Kenya to Nebraska to the Pacific Northwest, how her immigrant upbringing shaped her relationship with work and money, and why working part-time as a psychiatrist was a deliberate, values-driven choice—not a failure.

Together, they unpack:

1. Why physicians are conditioned to operate at 500% (and why anything less feels uncomfortable)
2. How money becomes a stand-in for validation after years of sacrifice
3. The stigma doctors face when they step outside the expected hierarchy
4. Why surgeons struggle so deeply with emotional regulation—and what psychiatry does differently
5. How chaos can feel “normal” to our nervous systems, even when it’s harming us

This is a conversation about identity, shame, creativity, and the courage it takes to choose a life that actually fits—especially when other people don’t understand it.

If you’ve ever thought, I worked this hard—shouldn’t I want more?

This episode might help you ask a better question.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Claire

Connect with Dr. Claire:

IG: @drclaireomd

Tiktok: @drclaireo

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD is joined by Alan Chien, MD, a pediatrics resident and lifelong magician practicing in Los Angeles.

What begins as a conversation about magic quickly opens into something more expansive: identity formation in medical training, the quiet pressure to abandon creativity, and what it means to remain in relation—to patients, to others, and to oneself—inside a system that often rewards self-erasure.

Alan reflects on growing up as an only child, discovering magic as a grounding force, and carrying that creative identity through medical school and residency. He shares how performing magic—whether for hospitalized children, co-residents, or strangers in a bar—has shaped his understanding of connection, wellness, and presence. Together, they explore mentorship that protects wholeness rather than performance, the guilt trainees feel around non-medical passions, and why tolerating both the highs and lows of residency—not constant happiness—is the real work of staying well.

This episode is a meditation on refusing to flatten oneself in training, on staying three-dimensional inside medicine, and on the radical act of not giving up the thing that made you human in the first place.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Alan Chien, MD

Connect with Alan: alanchien.com

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Mohini Dasari, MD—a general surgeon and writer—who speaks candidly about one of the most taboo topics in medicine: leaving a surgical fellowship mid-training.

Mohini shares what led her to step away seven months into a transplant fellowship, the quiet suffering that preceded that decision, and how shame, identity fusion, and “just push through” culture keep physicians trapped long past the point of health. Together, Frances and Mohini unpack the myths we’re taught in training—that it will all be worth it later, that attending life fixes everything, and that wanting something different means failure.

This conversation explores:

1. Why surgeons are encouraged in… and abandoned once they’re in
2. The difference between what’s “possible” and what’s healthy
3. Motherhood, medicine, and the cost of suppressed humanity
4. Shame as a hidden driver of physician burnout and exits
5. Why careers don’t have to be linear—and why medicine resists that truth
6. Reclaiming joy, creativity, and identity beyond the operating room

Mohini also discusses returning to writing after years away and her debut novel releasing January 13, a coming-of-age story rooted in heritage, dance, and self-reclamation.

This episode is for medical students, residents, attendings, and anyone questioning the life they were told would finally make sense “on the other side.”

🎧 Listen if you’ve ever wondered:

What if the problem isn’t me—but the story I was told about this career?

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Mohini Dasari, MD

Connect with Mohini: @modawrites

https://www.mohinidasari.com/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin sits down with Stephanie Pearson, MD, a former OB-GYN whose medical career ended abruptly after a devastating workplace injury.

What followed wasn’t just the loss of surgery or obstetrics—it was the loss of identity.

After being injured during a patient delivery, dismissed by early providers, and ultimately terminated when she could no longer perform 100% of her job duties, Stephanie found herself forced out of clinical medicine entirely. Overnight, “Dr. Pearson” became “former doctor,” with no roadmap for what came next.

In this deeply honest conversation, Stephanie shares:

1. What it’s like to be forced out of medicine when you're about to become Chair—not burned out, not ready, not choosing to leave
2. The psychological fallout of losing a physician identity overnight
3. Chronic pain, disability, and the silence around injured doctors
4. Why disability insurance failures nearly cost her everything
5. How she rebuilt a second career—and a sense of purpose—outside of medicine
6. The friendships medicine quietly replaces, and the grief that comes after
7. Why no one prepares doctors for who they are without the white coat

This episode is for physicians, trainees, and healthcare professionals grappling with identity, loss, reinvention, or the unspoken truth that medicine does not always love you back.

If you’ve ever wondered who you’d be if medicine disappeared tomorrow—this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Stephanie Pearson, MD

Connect with Stephanie: @drstephaniepearson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepearsonmd/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this holiday episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei is joined by her husband, Colin, for a candid, unfiltered conversation about what life actually looks like after leaving clinical medicine.

It’s Frances Mei's first holiday season in nearly a decade not on call, and the absence of the hospital brings both relief and reckoning.

Together, they talk about:

1. The strange quiet of the first holiday season outside medicine
2. How residency and surgical training shape work habits long after you leave
3. “Revenge sleeping,” productivity guilt, and unlearning survival mode
4. Why leaving medicine doesn’t magically create balance
5. Treating the nervous system as an asset—not an afterthought
6. What partners see when physicians finally slow down
7. Why intentional rest is harder than relentless work

This episode isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about the in-between: learning how to live without call schedules, rediscovering time, and building a life that doesn’t revolve around crisis.

For anyone spending the holidays at the hospital—or spending their first holidays away from it—this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Colin Royal

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if surgical training didn’t require fear, exhaustion, or constant availability?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Paris-based neurosurgeon Dr. Samiya Abi Jaoude to explore how surgical culture in France differs radically from the U.S.—and what American medicine might learn from it.

They unpack the surprisingly flat hierarchy of French surgical training, where residents and attendings use first names, collaboration is the norm, and rigid power structures are less likely to enable bullying. Dr. Abi Jaoude also explains France’s legally protected “right to disconnect,” a cultural and institutional commitment that allows physicians to truly log off after hours—without penalty.

This conversation isn’t about romanticizing another system. It’s about asking harder questions:

What actually keeps surgeons safe, functional, and humane over a lifetime?

And what parts of American surgical culture are traditions—not necessities?

A candid, comparative look at hierarchy, boundaries, burnout, and what sustainable excellence could really look like in medicine.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Samiya Abi Jaoude, MD, MSc

Connect with Samiya: @dr.samiya.abijaoude

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with writer and comedian Joel Walkowski—a man whose life contains multitudes: stand-up, screenwriting, sobriety coaching, and an unwavering devotion to The Lions. With his debut book Honolulu Blues arriving July 2026, Joel brings a worldview that medical professionals rarely get to hear but desperately need.

Together they talk about what happens when high-achieving people (doctors, comics, anyone trained to perform on command) learn to compartmentalize so well that they forget how to feel. Joel opens up about addiction, the radical work of getting sober, and why honesty is the only real antidote to burnout. They explore the quiet crisis underneath medicine’s polished surface: the coping mechanisms that get reinforced, the emotions that get buried, and the way humor can become both a lifeline and a shield.

They also dive into the friendships that keep us alive, why doctors need non-medical people in their orbit, and how vulnerability becomes its own kind of superpower.

This is a conversation about comedy, writing, coping, connection, and the freedom that comes from finally telling the truth.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Joel Walkowski

Connect with Joel: @joelwalkowski

Find his book, Honolulu Blues, available for pre-order now: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Honolulu-Blues/Joel-Walkowski/9781637749043

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode, Frances Mei sits down with the Gen Z Attending, Bright Zhou, for a conversation that slices straight into the cultural fault lines of modern medicine. They unpack why so many attending physicians are burning out—not because of clinical load, but because they’re employed physicians who refuse to see themselves as such. They explore generational ego, immigrant patient dynamics, patriarchal expectations from both patients and colleagues, and why Gen Z clinicians are opting out of the “medicine as martyrdom” model altogether.

From the service-industry analogy that makes older doctors nauseous, to the rise of resident unions, to the impossible fantasy of “total control” in employed practice, Bright reframes the future: less ego, more collective action, more boundaries, more transparency. They also dive into how AI, social media, and patient education are quietly expanding the 20-minute visit far beyond the clinic walls.

If you’ve ever wondered why the old guard is furious and the new guard is thriving—or why your attending seems personally offended you don’t want surgery—this is your episode.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Bright Zhou, MD, MS

Connect with Bright: @genzattending

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Orthopedic surgery almost never looks like Dr. Brian Nwannunu, and that’s exactly why his story matters. His path through Morehouse, Georgetown, Howard, and Baylor reveals a specialty still reckoning with exclusion, even as it demands excellence at every turn. We talk about breaking through the gates, the mentors who rearrange your trajectory, the patients who shape your practice, and the quiet toll of carrying representation into the OR.

This episode is about resilience, reinvention, and the future of surgical training, told by someone who is changing it from the inside.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Brian Nwannunu

Connect with Brian: @doctor.brian

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Dr. Sophie Engelhardt—a German physician who left clinical medicine to build a portfolio career—shares the bold, deeply personal journey behind her pivot.

We talk about what it takes to walk away from a stable, prestigious path and choose a life that feels like yours: acting, plant-based nutrition, creativity, and the freedom to design a career outside of the exam-room walls.

Sophie also reveals the discipline and determination behind her move to Denmark, including the intense process of learning Danish from scratch to build a new professional chapter abroad.

This conversation is about more than career change. It’s about self-fulfillment over expectations, the quiet bravery of choosing authenticity, and the truth that you don’t need permission to reinvent your life—not from society, not from medicine, not from anyone.

If you’re standing at the edge of a pivot—or wondering who you are outside of your job—this episode is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Sophie Engelhardt

Connect with Sophie: @doc.sophiengelhardt

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Host Frances Mei Hardin sits down with Dr. Mel Thacker, ENT, surgeon coach and mindset expert, for a raw conversation about the stories we tell ourselves—and how they shape everything from imposter syndrome to ego, burnout, and healing.

Together they unpack the hidden beliefs that define identity in medicine: why so many surgeons build self-concepts on fear or perfection, how ego can masquerade as confidence, and what it takes to evolve beyond the profession that once defined you.

Tune in for an honest look at self-knowledge, ego death, and freedom after medicine.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Mel Thacker, MD

Connect with Mel: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/mel-thacker-md

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when medicine meets art? In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Dr. Frances Mei sits down with Dr. Ryan Montoya to explore the growing field of Graphic Medicine — where comics and storytelling are used to share powerful experiences from the world of healthcare.

Together, they unpack how visual storytelling can make medical experiences more human, accessible, and emotionally resonant — for both patients and clinicians. From burnout and recovery to empathy and education, Ryan explains how creating and reading comics can help us better understand what it means to heal.

Dr. Montoya also shares his own journey as a physician and artist, offering insights for anyone curious about starting creative projects in medicine. Whether you’re a healthcare professional, a patient, or a fan of narrative art, this conversation will change the way you see stories in medicine.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Ryan Montoya, MD

https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/ryan-montoya-md

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Following Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/oct/08/stay-true-to-yourself-fly-closer-sun-what-ive-learned-from-50-years-of-rejection

00:25 Welcoming Dr. Ryan Montoya

04:36 The Transition to Graphic Medicine

07:51 Navigating Personal Interactions and Social Discomfort

20:02 The Evolution of Storytelling in Graphic Medicine

23:04 The Importance of Trust in Writing

30:53 The Pain of Rejection in Creative Pursuits

40:41 The Journey of Starting Now