It's Not Just You with Dr. Kara Pepper

Dr. Jillian Bybee,  a pediatric critical care medicine physician, medical educator, coach, and wellbeing leader is creating wellness  within traditional academic medical centers.  After experiencing profound burnout twice, she became the person that she needed when her mental health was suffering.  She uses her personal experience with burnout to inform her work as th...

Dr. Emma Jones shares what lies beneath the pivotal hard moments in her career.  From the fantasy of being the "everything to everyone" pediatric oncologist, through standing up to conventional thinking in medicine to a forced leave of absence, we examine what beliefs buoyed her through her career.   You can find Dr. Jones on her website , LinkedIn , Instagram . 

"Would you be frustrated if someone else wrote this first?" This question posed to Dr. Jessi Gold encouraged her to finally start writing the book that was living inside of her.     "There is an excellent [author's] program that starts tomorrow," was the "kick in the pants" Dr. Jonathan Fisher needed to transform decades of journalling into his novel.   This week...

Dr. Shamita Trivedi, an endocrinologist, allowed the flow of her career from the typical track of academic medicine, to private practice, to holistic women's care.  Her career change was fueled by her desire for growth. She opened on an online yoga studio during the pandemic that now influences her clinical practice.  Dr. Trivedi shows that growth and pivoting creates...

Dr. Erin King-Mullins is a Colorectal Surgeon, podcaster, and author.  When she was offered a pay cut in the midst of the pandemic, she decided to step out on her own.  With her young family, she built Atlanta's Colorectal Wellness Center - demonstrating that excellent surgical care can happen outside of traditional systems.   You can find Dr King-Mullins on her website , Faceb...

Dr Keira Barr's "mess became her mission" when chronic stress led to life threatening skin problems.  Her skin was signaling underlying dis-ease that finally leveled her into stillness. This oncodermatologist/dermatopathologist shares how she came to terms with her health and her career.    We go deep with trauma-informed care, creating safety in the doctor-patient re...

 We hear from Dr. Mel Thacker as she is transitioning from her group ENT practice to a solo, direct care model of practice.  Always the non-conformist, she shares the "purpose high" that comes with deep belief that you are being pulled towards what you are meant to do and how she navigates the mixed emotions of this transition.  She shares her story to inspire  listen...

We don't often associate autonomy and culture change with large academic employers, but Dr. Kelly Wright is reinventing healthcare around these values.  "Just give your team a goal and   autonomy to make it happen," says Wright, the Division Director of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery. She models transparency around financial goals, team based   care, and   how...

Dr. Errin Weisman, a board certified Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine doctor, was no longer aligned with her work and burning out again. She did what many of us do - put her head down and kept working - until she no longer could.  We hear from her as she resigns from her job with no other employment in place.   We often hear stories in the aftermath of achievement while g...

After 20 years in traditional practice, Dr. Becky Lynn, a board certified OBGYN, started a comprehensive women's health clinic in February 2020.  From the beginning, she used her skills to pivot, grow, learn, and listen to her patients.  Evora Health evolved from a solo GYN practice to a comprehensive center for women's health with primary care, psychiatry, dietetics, ther...

Dr. Rachel Rubin, a board certified urologist and fellowship trained sexual medicine physician, who is carving her own path forward in practice, advocacy, and social media.  When job offers for traditional practice fell through, she created her own practice model.  She built it scared - creating a sustainable career of patient care, research, teaching - outside o...

Dr. Shane Purcell is a Family Medicine doctor and founding member of the Direct Primary Care Alliance , an organization that p rovides education, mentorship, and advocacy for Direct Primary Care Physicians. Dr. Purcell shares how he created one of the first DPC practices.   In his South Carolina practice, Dr. Purcell "provides  direct primary care to restore the patient-physici...

Dr. Anita Bangale is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician who struggled with burnout early in her career.  Knowing that emergency medicine physicians scale back or retire earlier than their peers, she diversified her clinical practice and found fulfilling ways to use her skills. Dr. Bangale discusses that there are many ways to be a healer and how to le...

This week I interview Arden Miller, a health care transactional attorney who helps health care workers and dentists through contractual negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, and restrictive covenants.  She explains everything you need to know about the recent FTC ruling on non-competes, what this means for physicians, and how healthcare organizations are responding.    A...

Dr. Chitra Ramasubbu  had two weeks to make a decision: stay with her established practice or take the unplanned risk to start her own. In the wake of a hospital acquisition, she left her practice, launched an insurance-based solo-practice, and build her own procedural center. In this episode, Dr. Ramasubbu shares how she built a procedural based practice, staffing, finances, and what she's l...

On this episode, Dr. Kristine Goins shares how she was able to fast track to financial freedom via geo-arbitrage while caring for patients from anywhere in the world. Dr. Goins is a board-certified integrative adult & pediatric psychiatrist and world traveler.     Motivated by a desire to make a difference, Dr. Goins founded Nomad MD, where she combines her medical exp...

Dr. Elizabeth Pearce shares her decision to change her Otolaryngology practice model to better serve her community in Maine. Dr. Pearce opened PearceMD in the summer of 2022, to offer Mainers a simplified, refreshing model of care focused on timely access and communication, unrushed visits, price transparency, and clear solutions for ear and airway health.   You can find Dr. Pearce...

This season on the "It's Not Just You" podcast, we hear from physicians across the country who are redesigning healthcare, creating sustainable careers, and rekindling their love of medicine.  In this episode, we explore how I built an 18-state telemedicine practice for all adults, especially those with eating disorders.     For more information, y...

    "I think that's why it slapped me in the face. If this can happen to me, what the hell are my female, IMG, gay, and disabled colleagues going through?" Dr Adam Harrison is a Family Physician (he achieved his MD in 2000), qualified Attorney-at-Law (he passed the bar in 2014), certified Life, Leadership and Executive Coach, organizational trainer, company founder, Director of Coaching...

"They don't always like their kids. They love them, but they don't always like them, and that turns into guilt and shame. When you have guilt and shame like that, your behavior doesn't reflect your best self."   Dr Kathleen Young is k eeping it real about the disenchantment in parenting - we discuss the best parenting advice I ever received. This is for all the parents who have real lives tha...

"I've been blessed to be at so many people's deathbeds. I just run toward death. I really enjoy those sacred moments with patients and their families, and I felt very sad I could not be there for him." Dr. Red Hoffman @redmdnd is destigmatizing and humanizing the reality of witnessing death and how to cope with disability as a physician. The physician suicide hotline that reports to NO ONE is 888....

When Dr. Kristin Yates, an OBGYN, started listening to her intuition, a skill that was definitely not taught in medical school, she began to rebel against the life she had worked so hard to create.  A pivotal question spurred her forward, "What if I only had six months to live, what would I choose?"   She defines What it means to be a Rebel Physician: practicing medicine o...

Dr. Christine Gibson's identity and career was forever changed as a survivor of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Who do you become when being a physician is not enough?  In addition to being a family medicine physician, educator, and advocate, she focuses her work and research on post-traumatic growth. You can find Dr. Gibson on her  website ,   TIkTok , her Ted Talk ,...

"We have to stop giving advice to young moms.  It shouldn't be *Do this.* It should be *How are you?* A true *How are you?* and *How can I support you?*   Dr. Amna Shabbir shares her coming out story - disclosing her shame around post-partum depression and how she was able to move through it with support that surprised her.     You can read Dr. Shabbir's article  and...

"To the point of obsessively counting everything. And the fear that accompanied that was really difficult for me to cope with. Everything just felt out of control." Dr. Brittany Busse describes her experience as a patient that provoked post-partum obsessive compulsive disorder. Healthcare trauma is real, and the gap between physicians (who are trying to keep patients safe) and patients (who do not...