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Short Coat Podcast

Free Med School and a Mission: Is Military Medicine For You?

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The tradeoffs are real, but so are the leadership, travel, and character-building most doctors never get.

For pre-meds staring down six figures of debt, the military offers something rare: a fully funded path through medical school built around a mission bigger than the paycheck. Dave sits down with M3 Nick Lebezeder, M3 Lauren VandeKamp, and M2 Lydia Bemnister to walk through the menu of options — among others, the Health Professions Scholarship Program, National Guard and Reserve stipends, USUHS (the military’s own medical school in Bethesda, which pays you a second lieutenant’s salary while you train), and the Navy’s Health Services Collegiate Program. Nick lays out how a three-year HPSP scholarship maps to three years of service after residency, and Lauren walks through the math on longer residencies so nobody signs blind. The commitment is real. So is what it buys: leadership experience from day one, a guaranteed specialty pipeline for the ones who plan ahead, and, for the right person, a sense of purpose civilian medicine doesn’t always hand you.

Lydia contributes her experience: seven-plus years active duty as an Army nurse, straight from her commissioning oath into basic training the same day, no ROTC required. She did postpartum nursing in Germany, pediatrics, seven months at Camp Bastion Leatherneck in Afghanistan, and a year running a troop medical clinic in Korea she calls, flatly, her favorite job of her career — patching up soldiers who hurt themselves on the baseball field and pulling 2 a.m. antibiotics for ear infections. She’s honest that you give up a say in where you’re posted. She’s just as honest that she has zero regrets and is deeply grateful for what the military gave her.

The specialty picture is more competitive in spots — three orthopedic surgery slots Air Force-wide some years, the military’s first right of refusal on where you match — but Nick and Lauren both point out that the branches actively want their people in the specialties they’re drawn to, and the PA route is described as the best-kept secret in the whole system for staying hands-on. Nick’s own path started with a VA phlebotomy job during his master’s, watching veterans he respected point him toward HPSP himself. The advice they’d pass on to anyone weighing it: understand the worst-case scenario, and if you’re still in, you should absolutely do it.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Nick Lembezeder
  • Co-hosts: Nick Lembezeder, Lydia Bembnister, Lauren VandeKamp
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Free Med School and a Mission: Is Military Medicine For You? →
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These Iowa PA Students Are Riding 68 Miles for Cancer Prevention (BONUS)

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Iowa has one of the fastest-rising cancer rates in the country, so these PA students are fundraising to help.

Isabel Ahmann, Alex Fouts, and Nia Tanui, and Giana Michels just survived their first year of PA school alongside the MDs, and to celebrate they’re riding 68 miles across Iowa. This year’s Register’s Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa features a day focused on Why I Ride–that day, July 22, the route runs from Boone to Marshalltown. These physician associate students are dedicating their day to funding cancer screening and prevention across Iowa, especially in the rural communities where the rates are climbing fastest. They’re already over $1,000 in fundraising, with sponsors on the shirts, and every rider is committing a dollar per mile. Join the fundraising efforts!

But first, they have to figure out the gear. None of them have done RAGBRAI before, one just bought her bike a month ago off Facebook Marketplace. Clip-in pedals, road bikes versus “just a regular bike,” the physics of not face-planting when 500 riders behind you can’t stop in time — Alex walks Dave through all of it. Also, do you tape straws to your bike helmet for hydration? Apparently yes, one for water, one for whatever you’re bringing to a farm party, because RAGBRAI runs as much on beer tents as it does on fundraising.

Also, physician assistant is now officially physician associate, a change Dave’s going to have trouble unlearning. And yes, these PA students still find time to dress up as Hunger Games characters for their summer clinical skills exam.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Isabel Ahmann, Alex Fouts, Nia Tanui, Giana Michels
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

We do more things on…

You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to theshortcoats@gmail.com. We love you.

AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

Iowa has one of the fastest-rising cancer rates in the country, so these PA students are fundraising to help.

Isabel Ahmann, Alex Fouts, and Nia Tanui, and Giana Michels just survived their first year of PA school alongside the MDs, and to celebrate they’re riding 68 miles across Iowa. This year’s Register’s Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa features a day focused on Why I Ride–that day, July 22, the route runs from Boone to Marshalltown. These physician associate students are dedicating their day to funding cancer screening and prevention across Iowa, especially in the rural communities where the rates are climbing fastest. They’re already over $1,000 in fundraising, with sponsors on the shirts, and every rider is committing a dollar per mile. Join the fundraising efforts!

But first, they have to figure out the gear. None of them have done RAGBRAI before, one just bought her bike a month ago off Facebook Marketplace. Clip-in pedals, road bikes versus “just a regular bike,” the physics of not face-planting when 500 riders behind you can’t stop in time — Alex walks Dave through all of it. Also, do you tape straws to your bike helmet for hydration? Apparently yes, one for water, one for whatever you’re bringing to a farm party, because RAGBRAI runs as much on beer tents as it does on fundraising.

Also, physician assistant is now officially physician associate, a change Dave’s going to have trouble unlearning. And yes, these PA students still find time to dress up as Hunger Games characters for their summer clinical skills exam.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Isabel Ahmann, Alex Fouts, Nia Tanui, Giana Michels
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading These Iowa PA Students Are Riding 68 Miles for Cancer Prevention (BONUS) →
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Roshan Sethi on Med School Simpering and Making It in Hollywood

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Radiation oncologist and director Roshan Sethi: confidence in medicine is mostly performance.

The book club is back, and M2s Anna Royer, Ellie Johnson, and Sofia Hueser, and M4 Alex Nigg all crowd around to grill an actual Hollywood director about his debut novel. Somewhere in Roshan Sethi‘s frontal lobe is a cyst, and it’s possibly why he is a reformed gunner, Hollywood writer/director, still radiation oncologist, and now novelist. Sethi is co-creator of Fox’s The Resident, and author of The Simp: A Novel Without a Hero, a new book built out of a viral job ad so horrifying nobody would claim authorship of it. What does it mean that Raj, the novel’s desperate, self-aware sycophant of a protagonist, reads less like a Hollywood assistant and more like a third-year on rotations? Sethi doesn’t dodge the comparison—he wrote most of Raj’s obliging, invisible, gunner-brained misery straight out of his own decade in medicine.

Sethi describes himself, pre-Hollywood, as ruthless enough to publish 15 papers in a single year for a career he’s since walked mostly away from–he still practices 9 weeks a year–and he does the math on what staying in medicine actually cost him: when The Resident got greenlit for a sixth season and syndication, he’d already turned the show down to finish residency, a decision one producer later priced at $12 million. Sethi traces a lot of that old ambition back to being closeted through college and medical school; the striving, he says, was never really about medicine, and coming out took most of the edge off it.

Also, what happens to a person’s personality over four years of medical school? Sethi’s answer: it gets slowly closeted right along with everything else, trained out of you until invisibility reads as professionalism. He tells the room the worst response to getting pimped isn’t “I don’t know”—it’s saying it apologetically, like you owe someone an explanation for not yet knowing something nobody expects you to know. Speaking of things that require confidence you don’t actually have: Sethi’s next film, The Surgeon, stars Michelle Yeoh as a retired surgeon taken hostage and forced to operate. Dave can’t wait. He even pitched Sethi on his own idea for a movie that’s not at all derivative, and though it will probably star Mark Ruffalo, Dave is available.

On representation, Sethi draws a sharp line between his two industries. Medicine has become more female and more Indian, Asian, and Nigerian over time precisely because it runs on an objective, if imperfect, filter that values whoever scores highest on the MCAT. Hollywood, by his account, has no equivalent filter: roughly 90 percent of the highest-grossing films are still directed by men; minorities in the industry get treated as diversity projects rather than talent, and there’s nothing resembling medicine’s blunt, if flawed, meritocracy.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Anna Royer, Ellie Johnson, Alex Nigg, Sophia Hueser
  • Guest: Roshan Sethi, MD
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Roshan Sethi on Med School Simpering and Making It in Hollywood →
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Medicine is Changing. Step Up and Shape It

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are Driving A Big Shift

As societies and governments wrestle with the rise of artificial intelligence, The Short coats sit down with Dr. Lindsey Knake, a CCOM alum neonatologist and associate chief health information officer, to map out where AI actually stands in medicine right now. M2s Mukund Viswanadha, Deeraj Manika, and Samee Jung sort through the muddle of chatbots, agents, and machine learning, then get specific about the tools already embedded in their days: Nabla’s ambient listening scribes documenting patient conversations in real time, Open Evidence cutting through 500 PubMed results to the five that matter, and Epic’s Evidently pulling buried data out of years of outside-hospital notes in minutes instead of hours.

Dr. Knake also lays out Iowa’s new clinical informatics fellowship in detail — a two-year, post-residency program, still brand new to Iowa though established elsewhere for a decade, where fellows split 80% protected time and 20% clinical work. Then there’s Epic’s physician-builder boot camp, a week of training that turns clinicians into people who can actually build inside the EHR, plus a seat at the chief health information officer meetings where decisions like adopting new tools are made. She traces her own path into the field: a biomedical engineering degree, a mentor’s offhand question during her Vanderbilt fellowship interview, and a master’s in biomedical informatics picked up alongside her neonatology training. The informatics fellowship Dr. Knake co-leads up is explicitly framed as the pipeline for the next generation of doctors who’ll need to vet AI tools, not just use them.

As with many conversations around AI, the conversation doesn’t stay comfortable. Dr. Knake pushes back on her own optimism, raising the specter of de-skilling — what happens to clinical reasoning when the differential is a prompt away — and the students wonder if some are using AI as a crutch rather than a tool. And then there is the opposite reaction: students who refuse to engage with these tools. They’re not alone–some institutions are still locking AI out of medical training even as their own students use it anyway. It’s a frank look at a field trying to figure out what to keep, what to automate, and what gets lost and found in those decisions.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Isa Perez-Sandi, Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Deeraj Monika, Samee Jung, Mukund Viswanadha
  • Guest: Lindsey Knake, MD
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Medicine is Changing. Step Up and Shape It →
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The No-Guilt Summer: Med Students Finally Breathe

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“Do nothing” is a legitimate prescription when you’ve been grinding since orientation.

It’s freeform Friday on the pod, which means the Iowa City parking situation is excellent, the rising M2s are bored and slightly guilty about it, and absolutely willing to tell a full story about a stranded boat. As their first year in medical school recedes into their past, Ellie Johnson, Braiden DeSchryver, Sarvin Mousakhani, Regan DeMaris, and Alana Jones join Dave for an episode that reveals the specific texture of med student summer — the productivity guilt your PI has to prescribe against, the hobbies you’ve been saving since last August, and the strange peace of Iowa City when the academic calendar stops grinding for awhile.

The episode goes deep on things that actually matter when you’re thinking about the long game: how you pick a specialty when everything in medicine is genuinely interesting, why choosing based on the attendings you love is both right and risky, and the fact that being a parent who’s in med school might make you a better student. Plus: a boat disaster at Voyageurs, a ketchup ranking conducted with scientific rigor, and a brief but sincere pitch to get Jesus on the podcast.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Ellie Johnson, Braiden DeSchryver, Sarvin Mousakhani, Regan DeMaris, Alana Jones
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading The No-Guilt Summer: Med Students Finally Breathe →
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Game of Med School — We Actually Made It

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We road-test a card game to show pre-meds what medical school actually feels like

You draw a card: “You are assigned a 28-hour call shift.” Is that plus four points or minus four? It depends entirely on who you are — and that’s kind of the point. The Short Coats (Well, Dave) has been talking about this idea for a while–can we make a card game that captures the twists and turns of medical school? Well, we’ve given it a try, and now we finally play it — the Game of Med School, a prototype card-based playthrough of the full medical school path, from premed clubs to residency match. Cyrus Barati, who helped build the game, takes on the Gunner identity and immediately gets routed to clinical years while still underwater on points. M4 Fallon Jung (pregnant, unbothered) draws the Resilient Student card and somehow converts a failed Step exam into a net positive. M3s Sarah Upton and Zach Grissom round out the cast, with Zach’s Non-Traditional Student racking up an improbable collection of degrees, nursing licenses, and EMT certifications before anyone gets to medical school proper.

The cards lead to real conversations: What’s a post-bacc worth on an application? How do you handle a professionalism flag? What actually happens when your PI moves states mid-MD-PhD? How do you tell a patient bad news — and does a med student ever actually have to? Does your identity change any of that? Sure, the game has bugs (too many negative cards, the routing logic skips too much), and the crew catches them all in real time. But there’s also laughs and insights, so that’s fine.

By the end, everyone graduated (naturally), the points got bumped to 2x, and Dave admitted the whole thing will need another iteration. Would you play this game? Listener feedback is always welcome at theshortcoat.com/tellus!

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Cyrus Barati, Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Cyrus Barati, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Fallon Jung
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Game of Med School — We Actually Made It →
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Foreign Competition for Residency: The Data vs. The Rhetoric

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If rural physician shortages are a distribution problem, why does everyone keep proposing the wrong fix?

The $100,000 H-1b visa fee landed in September 2025 like a fire alarm in the hallways of medicine—hospitals panicked, advocacy groups mobilized, and a lot of people predicted the international resident pipeline would collapse. Dr. Bryan Carmody, The Sheriff of Sodium, who did the original deep-dive on this issue when it dropped, rejoins co-hosts David Lee, Mukund Viswanadha, and Isa Perez-Sandi to ask the question nobody was asking: was the panic grounded in reality?

The back half of the conversation gets into territory that’s harder to fix and more interesting to think about: why rural physician shortages are a compensation and incentive problem, not a numbers problem; why loan forgiveness alone probably isn’t moving the needle; and what separates effective physician advocacy from “just expressing emotion and hoping facts do the work.”

Then graduating high-school listener Aditi asks whether community college is a viable launch pad for medicine, and the panel gives her the honest version: it’s possible, but it could actually cost rather than save if you’re not careful, and you should call med school admissions offices directly—they’ll actually talk to you.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Dave Etler
  • Co-hosts: Isa Perez-Sandi, David Lee, Mukund Viswanadha
  • Guest: Bryan Carmody, MD
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Foreign Competition for Residency: The Data vs. The Rhetoric →
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Med School Stereotypes Shattered: What We’re Really Like Inside (Recess Rehash)

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Turns out medical students are regular humans who happen to need to memorize the Krebs cycle

We’ve all got that mental image of medical students – the type-A perfectionists grinding through textbooks even on the porcelain throne, right? Well, our first-year medical students at Iowa are about to blow up every assumption you’ve ever had. The people memorizing a zillion anatomical structures aren’t exactly who you’d expect.

M1s Chase McInville, Lillian Schmidt, Jonah Albrecht, and Abbie Townsend reveal why your pre-med study plans are probably useless, how a hockey ref’s confidence translates to patient care, and why some medical students refuse to study on Saturdays. We explore the real traits that matter (spoiler: it’s not being a genius), bust the myth about cutthroat competition, and discover why medical school might actually be more collaborative than you thought.

Plus, we settle the burning question every pre-med wants answered: can you actually prepare for medical school, or should you just go backpacking in Europe instead? These Short Coats share what non-medical experiences shaped them most, from building houses with Habitat for Humanity to working political campaigns to reffing hockey games to farming vegetables with zero agricultural background.

The episode ends with the Short Coats working together to hash out the vibes of med student life. Hint: there should really only be five nerves.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Jonah Albrecht
  • Co-hosts: Abbie Townsend, Chase McInville, Lillian Schmidt, Jonah Albrecht

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Med School Stereotypes Shattered: What We’re Really Like Inside (Recess Rehash) →
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From EKG Meltdowns to OSCE Roller Coasters (or Treadmills): ’25-26 Med School Vibes Recap

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From therapy dogs to the dunk tank, Carver’s end-of-year carnival is basically a debrief session with balls.

The Carver Carnival is the Carver College of Medicine’s unofficial exhale — an end-of-year celebration where students who have been running on caffeine and anxiety for nine months can finally look up from their notes. In an unusual move, the Short Coat took its mic into the crowd and asked what these med students actually learned (aside from tubes and tissues). Like, what frustrated them, what surprised them, what they’d do differently, and (obvs.) which organ would win in a fight. Rising M2s Anna Royer and Mikund Viswanadha and rising M4 Mahliah Ingersoll bring us along for a fun look at the vibes of year one. The EKG crisis that resolved by Thursday, the anatomy confabulations that somehow pass, and the therapy dogs reveal a recurring theme: medical school is both harder and more fun than you might expect, the competition is a myth (at least, here), and the best thing you can do the hour before your next exam is probably go to the gym instead of studying. And the financial aid guy in the dunk tank sends memes at the end of bad-news emails. That helps, apparently.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Zach Grissom
  • Co-hosts: Anna Royer, Mikund Viswanadha, Mahliah Ingersoll
  • Guests: The M1 Class
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading From EKG Meltdowns to OSCE Roller Coasters (or Treadmills): ’25-26 Med School Vibes Recap →
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Short Coat Podcast

MD/PhD: The Long Game of Medicine and Research

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Physician scientists live at the intersection of clinic and lab

There are so many kinds of physicians. This time, we take a closer look at one type that, from the outside, might seem incredibly difficult to achieve–the MD/PhD. Eight years (!) of combined medical and scientist training seems like a lot. But consider the paths of MD/PhD students Riley Behan-Bush and Hannah Van Ert. Riley found the program through a Google search about whether to pick med school or grad school, and Hannah had already started a career in nursing before a research lab changed her path completely. To them, the eight years between starting and finishing ended up being the right move, and in the end, it often didn’t feel like a long slog of schooling (even if everyone outside the program still calls it school). Now in their final stretch, Hannah and Riley sit with Darren Hoffmann, PhD, and Martha Carvour, MD/PhD (CCOM Class of 2012) who now helps run Iowa’s Medical Scientist Training Program to shed light on this more meandering path to physician-hood.

The conversation doesn’t stay comfortable for long. The crew discusses recent federal funding cuts, the “sacrifices” MD/PhDs make for the path, NIH grant uncertainty, and the question of who gets to become a physician scientist when the money starts moving around in unpredictable ways. Darren puts it plainly: those who control the money don’t have the imagination needed to make the changes scientists envision; grant-writing done well is the bridge for that gap. Hannah speaks of her fright when cuts led some MSTP programs to worry they wouldn’t be able to accept students. She’s also thinking about what the pipeline looks like in fifteen years and whether it defaults back to “wealthier white men.” Riley’s optimistic that physician scientists, because they talk to patients every single day, are better positioned than anyone to rebuild public trust in science, a view Hannah is less convinced of. Martha thinks historically scientists have often been too concerned with their own niche interests, when they should spend more time showing up in their communities.

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Isa Perez-Sandi
  • Co-hosts: Riley Behan-Bush, Hannah Van Ert
  • Guest: Martha Carvour, MD/PhD; Darren Hoffmann, PhD
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Roger, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions.

We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!)

The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening!

Continue reading MD/PhD: The Long Game of Medicine and Research →
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