MedStory Podcast

Dr. Russell Kennedy grew up watching his father, who had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, deteriorate into psychiatric crisis, and spent decades trying to outrun the same fate. In this raw and wide-ranging conversation, the physician, neuroscientist, and former stand-up comedian shares how an LSD trip in 2013 cracked open what years of cognitive therapy couldn't: that anxiety lives in the b...

In this episode, Jessica McIntyre, MD shares the 2:00 AM moment during a 28-hour ICU shift when everything cracked. After intubating a critically ill baby, she walked into the call room and had her first panic attack. That moment forced her to confront a painful truth: medicine had disconnected her from herself. What followed was unexpected. A late-night Google search led her to the Wild Woman Pro...

In this episode, Dr. Devika Bhushan shares her journey from practicing pediatrician to serving as California’s Acting Surgeon General during one of the most turbulent periods in modern public health. Stepping into the role in the middle of COVID, she helped lead statewide efforts around trauma-informed care, crisis response, and rebuilding trust in health systems. She explains the science behind c...

What happens when a personal diagnosis changes the way you see medicine? In this episode of the MedStory Podcast, Dr. Basma Faris shares how being diagnosed with endometriosis and living through 9/11 in the same month reshaped her career and purpose. After starting as a dietician, she chose to pursue medicine, determined to make a deeper impact from inside the system. She opens up about not gettin...

What happens when a pediatrician realizes the biggest threats to her patients are not medical problems at all, but policy failures? In this episode, we follow Dr. Annie Andrews as she reflects on years spent caring for children facing circumstances no child should ever experience. She treated gunshot wounds, watched families struggle to afford basic care, and saw how broken systems kept harming th...

Most doctors are trained to save lives, not read contracts. Yet more than 70 percent of physicians are now employed by large institutions, working under compensation models and clauses that few were ever taught to navigate. In this episode, Spencer sits down with Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, MPH, FAAFP, and Peter Baum, DO, the founders of Physician Contract Negotiation. They unpack how modern physician...

Dr. Sandra Fernandes, MD spent years chasing the version of success she thought she was supposed to live. She worked nonstop, pushed through exhaustion, and convinced herself that being overwhelmed was just part of being a doctor and a mom. But when she finally became pregnant after her own struggles with fertility, she faced a painful truth. She was too busy, too stressed, and too depleted to enj...

Dr. Ariela Marshall didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a doctor, and she didn’t follow the traditional path. But the moment she stepped into the clinic, she realized medicine wasn’t just science, it was a system with cracks she could no longer ignore. From witnessing a culture that prized endurance over empathy, to facing gender bias head-on, to navigating the painful reality of infertility as a...

In this powerful episode, Dr. Andrea Austin shares how her deployment to Iraq shaped the way she practices medicine today. From activating walking blood banks on the battlefield to watching every injured patient survive an explosion, she learned how preparation, teamwork, and emotional clarity can save lives. But what she did not expect was how quietly those experiences would follow her home. Year...

Most people think obesity treatment is all about willpower, calories, and medication. Dr. Zahraa Sater knows that’s only half the story. After training at top institutions and watching patient after patient get labeled as “noncompliant,” she realized the system was missing something essential. Her patients didn’t fail because they lacked discipline. They failed because no one was addressing the su...

When Dr. Adaira Landry agreed to speak on a work-life balance panel at 6 p.m., she thought she was doing what ambitious physicians are supposed to do. Instead, she found herself dragging a dresser across her bedroom floor, barricading the door while her young children cried for her on the other side. That moment cracked something open. After a lifetime of chasing achievement, from entering high sc...

Sitting on the bathroom floor after a long clinic day, Dr. Gandhi thought she was holding it all together: thriving physician, two young kids, a mortgage, the dream job on paper. But when her four year old stepped out of the tub, wrapped in a towel and quietly said, “I want you to be happy, Mommy,” everything cracked. In that one sentence, she realized her stress was no longer invisible and that t...

At 35, healthy and pregnant with her second child, Dr. Alison Trainor was living the life she had worked so hard to build, a career she loved, a growing family, and a future that felt secure. But a sudden scan on Valentine’s Day revealed more than 20 tumors in her liver, leading to a diagnosis so rare only 90 cases appear in the US each year. Overnight, Alison went from ICU physician to patient, f...

After years of working inside a system that demanded more patients and less presence, Dr. Sejal Desai decided she wasn’t going to let the system define her, or her care. In this episode, she shares how she walked away from burnout and built something new: a direct specialty care clinic that prioritizes time, connection, and balance. From her journey as an immigrant and young mother to launching he...

When Dr. Jessica Bunin woke up after open-heart surgery to find her attending quietly sitting by her bedside, everything she believed about medicine changed. It was no longer just about procedures or protocols. It was about presence. In this powerful episode, Dr. Bunin shares her journey through three cancer diagnoses, two war-zone deployments, and a lifetime of service in military medicine. From...

We know that connection is essential for our health, but why does it feel so hard sometimes? In this final episode of the series, we move from theory to action, tackling the internal barriers and cognitive errors that sabotage our social lives. Neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein provides the ultimate masterclass on likability and longevity, explaining why our brains are hardwired to make us underestimate...

Last time, we uncovered the hard truth: loneliness is a warning siren from our brain. Now, we flip the story to explore the extraordinary science of connection. It turns out that friendships aren't just comforting, they are lifesaving. Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein returns to take us inside the brain's reaction to social bonds, revealing the specific, measurable ways interaction protects us...

In this powerful first episode of a three-part series, we tackle an epidemic often ignored: loneliness. Despite being more "connected" than ever, data shows we are, in fact, getting lonelier. Dr. Ben Rein, a Stanford-trained neuroscientist, joins us to unpack the science behind this modern crisis, sharing the personal, transformative nightmare that led him to study the neuroscience of social behav...

For decades, yoga was dismissed by much of Western medicine as “woo-woo.” But Dr. Jonathan Rosenthal, a neurologist and lifelong practitioner, set out to change that. What started as a teenager’s recovery from a running injury turned into a mission to bridge neuroscience and ancient practice. In this episode, Dr. Rosenthal shares how brain scans, clinical studies, and his annual Neuroscience and Y...

Dr. Michael Gibson grew up in Stillwell, Oklahoma — a town where life expectancy was just 56 years. Decades later, his work has helped save millions of lives and brought free medical knowledge to the world through WikiDoc , an open-source encyclopedia with nearly a billion views a year. In this episode, Dr. Gibson shares how he went from dreaming of stock car racing to revolutionizing cardiology,...

What do you do when the system you’ve trained your whole life to work in turns out to be broken? For Dr. Hillary Lin, the answer meant stepping off the traditional “golden path” of academic medicine and building something entirely new. In this episode, she shares how her journey—from a family of doctors to an oncologist, founder, and longevity medicine innovator—led her to create CareCore, a platf...

What does success really look like? For Dr. John Torrens, the answer has changed many times. He walked away from music school, stumbled into speech pathology, built a business from scratch, and then pushed himself to the limit — even starting his PhD program on the same day his first child was born. In this episode of the Med Story Podcast, Dr. Torrens shares the lessons he learned from burnout, b...

Doctors save lives every day, but when it comes to their own pay, many are left in the dark. Salaries are hidden, contracts are confusing, and open conversations can feel risky. In this episode, we explore why salary transparency in medicine matters — and how one unexpected entrepreneur, Tyler Polk, built tools that are changing the way physicians understand their worth. From anonymous reviews of...

What makes someone decide not just to become a doctor, but to build a life in medicine around who they really are? For Dr. Joshua Gonzalez , that journey began with the warmth of a childhood pediatrician, was tested through the challenges of coming out in medical school, and eventually led to building his own urology practice and co-founding a sexual wellness company. In this episode, Josh shares...

America is facing a mental health emergency. One in five adults struggles with mental illness each year, yet millions are left without help — stuck on waitlists, priced out by insurance, or forced to travel hours for a 15-minute check-in. Nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide last year , the highest number ever recorded. In this episode, psychiatrist Dr. Shariq Refai shares the human stories beh...