Beyond the Prescription

You can also check out this episode on Spotify ! Principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck , woke up one morning in 2019 in excruciating pain and unable to move. She was diagnosed with a herniated disc in her neck on an MRI, and multiple doctors recommended surgery. They also suggested she might never dance again. When Tiler asked if she could instead pursue physical therapy before...

You can also check out this episode on Spotify ! Dr. Glynis Albright , fondly known as the Waffle Queen, has built an empire off of her pies, cookies and pound cakes. As CEO of the world renowned Glynis’ Kitchen , her treats have been tasted and loved by the likes of Bill Clinton and John Legend. But cooking isn’t just Dr. Albright’s passion, it’s been her lifeline. When she was diagnosed with leu...

You can also check out this episode on Spotify ! Award-winning NPR education reporter Anya Kamenetz saw firsthand the devastating effects of school closures during COVID on children’s learning, mental health and social-emotional well-being. Her 2022 book “The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now” brings the stories of these children and their families to the forefro...

Laurie Cameron watched her father die in her arms when she was just a teenager. Out of this loss grew Laurie’s passion for psychology and for understanding the human condition. As the CEO of PurposeBlue she helps busy professionals and people around the globe incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives. Her 2018 critically-acclaimed book The Mindful Day is a practical guide to build a more mean...

  Mike Bassett is living proof that good people sometimes do bad things. In his case, that bad thing was signing a box of fraudulent checks that nearly caused him to lose his law degree, his reputation, and his family. His 2021 book, "The Man in the Ditch ,” details his path to reconstructing his reputation and learning how to forgive himself. On this episode of Beyond the Prescription, he describ...

Elise Loehnen is helping redefine wellness. As the former chief content officer of goop and Gwyneth Paltrow’s right-hand woman, Elise understands health as the complex intersection of mental, physical and spiritual health. She has created a cult following through her own writing, Instagram monologues, and her hit podcast Pulling the Thread . Each week, she brings her fans on a journey of self-disc...

Jeffrey Blount is an Emmy-award-winning story-teller. During his 34 years at NBC News, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet The Press, The Today show , and NBC Nightly News. As the first African American Director of the Today show, he credits his parents for insisting on quality education for him and his brothers. Keenly aware of the toll of racial injustice on one’s mental and physical health, Jeffr...

This week, we go BEYOND THE PRESCRIPTION with award-winning journalist, producer, and documentarian Soledad O'Brien . She discusses her new film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks , the first-ever full documentary of one of the most celebrated — and misrepresented — Americans of the 20th century. We discuss the importance of storytelling to accurately portray historical figures; to lift up ma...

The Surgeon General of The United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, is on a mission to amplify the importance of mental health. This week, Dr. Murthy shares his personal experience with loneliness and how he came to see healthy relationships as the foundation for emotional well-being. Drs. Murthy and McBride discuss the distinction between loneliness and isolation and the mental health toll of living thro...

President Obama called his Head Speechwriter, Jon Favreau , his “mind reader.” On this week’s episode, Jon sheds light on his own mind — specifically his phone addiction — and what he learned about his emotional health during the pandemic. The political commentator, podcast host , and new dad was forced to reckon with his everyday habits and his relationship with technology. With heartfelt honesty...

This week, we go BEYOND THE DESCRIPTION with Shannon Watts , the founder of the largest gun violence prevention organizations in the US:  MOMS DEMAND ACTION .  Dr. McBride and Shannon Watts talk about the 2012 Newtown Connecticut massacre that prompted the founding of her organization, what it's like to be targeted as the face of the movement, and how it has affected her emotional health. They dis...

This week, Dr. McBride sits down with author Caralena Peterson to discuss her new book, "The Effortless Perfection Myth" , about the mental and physical health toll of the pressure college-age women put on themselves to be pretty, thin, and accomplished. They break down how exhausting it is to be anything but yourself, that love is not something that you earn, and how getting a B+ is often better...

13-time World Champion Boxer Tori Nelson is a fighter in and out of the ring.  Raised by a single mom and her older brothers, Tori spent her childhood stuffing down her emotions and desperately searching for ways to release her pent-up anger. It sometimes landed her in trouble. That was until she found boxing. The sport catapulted her into tip-top physical shape and provided an outlet for her ange...

ABC veteran journalist Gloria Riviera has told a lot of compelling stories.  The mother of three has spent two decades reporting on hard hitting topics like underaged sex trafficking. She’s also the host of the No One is Coming to Save Us podcast, where she examines the broken American child care system.  Now Gloria is telling her own story. It begins in 2019 with an unforeseen brain cancer diagno...

Journalist Meghan Daum has never been one to mince her words. In her books and on her podcast, The Unspeakable , she tackles some of life’s thorniest issues — from gender politics and wokeism to death and dying — with bold honesty and humor.   Megan is the queen of nuance, a crusader against absolutism, a fearless explorer of taboos.    In this episode, Meghan gives Dr. McBride an unreserved look...

Dr. Sunita Puri  was raised in a spiritual family who taught her the significance of not only life, but of death. Now as a director of Hospice  and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, she has spent an innumerable amount of hours helping terminally-ill patients and their family members make end-of-life decisions.  Dr. Puri outlines this intersection of her family’s spirituality and her medical career i...

As a seasoned school counselor and mother of three, Phyllis Fagell knows exactly how fraught — and potentially how fabulous — adolescence can be. Her latest book, Middle School Matters , equips parents with tools and guidance to navigate the tween years.   Fagell joins Dr. McBride on this episode of Beyond the Prescription with practical advice and personal anecdotes on tolerating distress and app...

Dr. Susan Landers is living proof that caring for others starts with caring for ourselves. After 20 years as a neonatologist (pediatric intensive care doctor), she began to feel unmotivated and exhausted. She was burned out. Raising children and caring for sick babies became unmanageable. So she rethought it all. Her memoir, “ So Many Babies: My Life Balancing a Busy Medical Career & Motherhood ”...

In college, Larissa, “Larz,” May was dangerously addicted to social media. She’s now trying to change the world. As a trailblazing mental health advocate and entrepreneur, the 28-year-old founded #HalfTheStory in order to help young people navigate our brave new world of potentially harmful social media inputs. Through her advocacy work and educational initiatives, she is living proof that a healt...

Hamilton, “Ham” Leithauser is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-talented instrumentalist. He is also Dr. McBride’s first cousin. Ham’s career took off as the lead singer of the now-retired Indie band, The Walkmen (founded by Dr. McBride’s brother Walter Martin). He has since gone solo, producing a number of critically acclaimed albums. Most recently he wrote the original score for his frie...

As a child, Keri Blakinger competed on the regional and national levels, with the hopes of one day becoming an Olympian. But behind the scenes, the star figure skater was struggling with an eating disorder, suicidality, and, ultimately, a life-threatening heroin addiction. In her last year at Cornell, she was sent to prison for heroin possession. It was at what was perhaps her lowest point that Ke...

Most of us would do anything to avoid the intensive care unit (ICU). Dr. Kyeremanteng wants to help. Caring for the sickest patients during the coronavirus pandemic opened this ICU doctor’s eyes. He quickly recognized that many of the underlying conditions that caused severe COVID outcomes were treatable—if not reversible. In addition, patients who leave the ICU not only have to recover from whate...

  Trigger Warning: Sexual Trauma Actor Katherine Kendall was only 23 years old when Harvey Weinstein lured her into his apartment, and then cornered and sexually traumatized her. For years she felt silenced and powerless, fearing backlash if she reported the then influential producer. Years later in 2017, Katherine bravely spoke out. She was one of the first women to publicly speak out against Wei...

Is it safe for pregnant women to drink a glass of wine? Should your child get a booster shot if they’ve already had COVID? What is the cost-benefit ratio of visiting grandparents during a pandemic? On this episode of  Beyond the Prescription , Dr. McBride talks with renowned economist, Brown University professor, and bestselling author, Dr. Emily Oster, to not only answer these questions (spoiler...

Legal scholar. Lawyer. Professor. Writer. Time Magazine ’s Most Influential Person. Tiger Mom. There’s not much that Amy Chua hasn’t done—or can’t do. She clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals, worked on Wall Street, and authored an international bestseller.  It wasn’t until she published her wildly popular memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother , that Amy Chua became a household name. People aro...