Short Coat Podcast

To Live the Dream, You First Have To Get There.

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Ask “How are you?” of students in the hallways of the Carver College of Medicine, and you’ll hear them respond that they’re “living the dream.”  Okay, that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but getting to live that dream is easier for some groups of people than it is for others. After Dave spoke to UI med student Terrance Wong about his plans to connect mentors with pre-meds who need them, especially minority pre-meds, Dave and Alison Pletch thought it’d be fun to get together with some of those very people and find out what they’re doing to prepare for medical school. What are the challenges they’ve faced? And what resources have they found to help them get there? Xavier Ferrer, Teneme Konne, and Waale Gbara–members of the University of Iowa’s Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students–join us with their personal stories. And if you are a student “underrepresented in medicine,” what have you learned on your journey to medical school? And what questions would you have asked that we forgot? Tell us!

Continue reading To Live the Dream, You First Have To Get There. →

Short Coat Podcast

Snapchat, Psychiatry, Femininity, and Savory Toothpastes

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Corbin Weaver, Cole Cheney, Taz Khalid and Tony Rosenberg educate Dave on Snapchat.  Technology: scary!  We confront the limits and future of antibiotics as we hear about the new E. coli bug that’s immune from all of them.  We discuss how YOU can set up your own medical office, and get all your equipment from good ol’ Amazon. Corbin is on her psychiatry rotation, and it’s turning out to be a reflective time for her, especially as it relates to how we treat people with psychiatric disorders.

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Short Coat Podcast

Peeps, Prestige, Presents, and Public Health.

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Kaci's gift to Dave, which, after he is fired for being subversive, he will cherish.
Kaci’s gift to Dave, which, after he is fired for being subversive, he will cherish.

Listeners, we’d like to know something about you.  Post a photo of your listening environment anywhere you can use #shortcoatpeeps.  Just watch those reflective surfaces, m’kay? 

Russo and Rob Humble marked the end of their first year on today’s show with Kaci McCleary, with a look back on what they’ve learned about being a medical student that they didn’t know on the way in.  We clear the docket with a couple listener questions that have been hanging fire, starting with listener Claire who writes in to ask: when it comes to choosing a medical school, is a prestigious school somehow better than the others?  Do they open doors for their graduates, and is sacrificing oneself to the gods of hard work in favor of those opportunities a good idea? We are, of course, happy to advise her.  Another listener question, from Jennifer, asked about the career opportunities available to MDs who also have a Master’s of Public Health degree.   Again, happy to help!

Continue reading Peeps, Prestige, Presents, and Public Health. →

Short Coat Podcast

Sister Helen Prejean: Why Medical Students Should Care About The Death Penalty

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Sister Helen Prejean Photo by Irish Jesuits

Sister Helen Prejean is a well-known anti-death penalty advocate who has ministered to prisoners on death row. She began her prison ministry in 1981 by becoming pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, a convicted murder who was sentenced to death by electrocution in Lousiana’s Angola State Prison.

Since then, she has witnessed 5 executions and founded the victim’s advocacy group “Survive” in New Orleans. She continues to counsel inmates on death row as well as the families of murder victims. Sister Prejean speaks out against the death penalty through lecturing, organizing and writing, and she is the author of two books on the subject. Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States was an international best seller, and it was developed into the 1996 motion picture for which Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for best actress.

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rerun, Short Coat Podcast

Recess Rehash: How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport

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Keep those noggins safe. Photo by USCPSC

Oh, snap.  Our recording last week was nuked by the computer gods.  Here’s a re-run to keep your auditory meatus occupied.

What can medical students and residents do to keep their chins up during their training? That’s what listener Ross–who has noticed the contrast between his happy med student co-workers and his crabby resident co-workers–wants to know. John Pienta, Gabe Lancaster, Jake O’Brien, and Matt Becker consider the question and the advice we gathered from residents. Continue reading Recess Rehash: How Residents Cope, and the Costs of America’s Most Violent Sport →

Short Coat Podcast

Doctors Without Borders, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention

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John Lawrence, MD
John Lawrence, MD

Dr. John Lawrence returns to the show to talk about MSF, or Doctors with Borders, as it’s known in the United States. Dr. Lawrence has been with the organization since 2009, and is the vice president of its USA board of directors. MSF has played a major role in delivering emergency aid during crises around the world. In 2014, the most recent year for which MSF has published statistics, the aid organization was active in more than 60 countries, most memorably in war-torn Syria and in West Africa with its Ebola outbreak.
Continue reading Doctors Without Borders, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention →

Short Coat Podcast

The Multiple Mini Interview, the Prince of Funk, and the Erosion of Childhood

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How ’bout if I come over there and shove my custom orthotics up your… Photo by Patrick Doheny

Alison Pletch, along with Cole Cheney, Aline Sandouk, and Lisa Wehr take a few moments to mourn the passing of Prince, and the fact that he died of something that wasn’t dramatic enough for his persona. Fortunately, Rayhaan of Montreal calls to ask how he can prepare for his med-school interviews, which will be in the multiple mini interviews format. Then, we discuss the idea that kids need to start preparing for medical school in high school, because children have too much childhood these days.

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Short Coat Podcast

Evil But Fair Scientists, Conversion Therapy, and The (Real?) Reason Docs Remove Fewer Tumors

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Mad Dr. Stroheim was widely considered a very trustworthy murderer. Photo by glen edelson

Deep Bhatt and Alison Pletch are on their way out of medical school, and reflect on what they’ve been thinking about as they prepare to leave Iowa.  And Kaci McCleary and Corbin Weaver help them answer listener Todd’s question about the better MCAT study guides and courses, how to get a discount on those courses, and whether it’s a good idea to start studying for the test even as he begins community college.

Continue reading Evil But Fair Scientists, Conversion Therapy, and The (Real?) Reason Docs Remove Fewer Tumors →

Short Coat Podcast

From Oakland to Iowa City to Silicon Valley: Founding a Tech Startup in Med School

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Terrence Wong
Terrence Wong

Terrence Wong is not your average medical student.  Growing up in Oakland, California, he didn’t have opportunities or connections.  And a lack of resources meant that even as a little tyke he looked for ways to make money, like selling stuff on the Internet.   He’s since realized that there are others out there who could use some information and encouragement–mentorship–to help them achieve what he did: going from poor inner-city kid to student at a top medical school.  So he and some friends with serious coding chops founded MedMentor  to hook up pre-meds with medical students who can serve as mentors, and to bring more diversity to a profession that sorely needs it.   Terrence and Dave talked about what it’s been like to be both a medical student and a startup founder, and how listening to what ‘they’ think of your crazy idea is pretty much the last thing you should do.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; nor do they reflect the views of anyone other than the people who expressed them.  If you have feedback on anything you hear on the show, positive or not, let us know.
Short Coat Podcast

Sudden Empathy, Too Much Empathy, and A Lack of Empathy

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Poor lister Erin. She writes to let us know she can’t find the first 44 episodes of the show, now that she’s listened to all eighty(!) of those available on iTunes. We explain how she can fill the sad hole in her life this tragedy has left. Dave’s shower thoughts lead Aline Sandouk, Amy Young, Marc Toral and Kaci McCleary to discuss the utility of giving not a single feldercarb what people think of you. On the flip side, an article in the New York Times offers a peek at what can happen if you go from not caring (or even knowing) what people think to caring all too much, when transcranial magnetic stimulation suddenly enables an autistic man to understand what others are thinking of him.
Continue reading Sudden Empathy, Too Much Empathy, and A Lack of Empathy →

An honest guide to the amazing and intense world of medical school.