Social Rounds

In this episode of Social Rounds , Frances Mei and Tony Chin-Quee do what they do best: give unsolicited, deeply opinionated advice on medicine, relationships, and modern life. They start with a deceptively simple question — what’s on your feet? — and unpack how bad shoes, bad posture, and worse training habits quietly wreck physicians’ bodies over time. From Dansko regrets to sneaker conversions,...

What do you do when a patient says “I love you”? Is it ever okay? And why do residents have less mobility than college football players? On this episode of Social Rounds , Frances Mei Hardin and Tony Chin-Quee are joined by a very special guest: Frances Mei’s partner (and longtime behind-the-scenes editor), Colin . Together, they unpack: Patients getting too familiar with their doctors Professiona...

In this episode of Social Rounds , Tony Chin-Quee, Frances Mei Hardin, and Ryan Montoya kick off 2026 with chaos, candor, and consequences. The conversation starts with a surprisingly brutal EHR statistic—what it means to be in the zero percentile (or the 99.97th)—before spiraling into a sharp, necessary discussion about social media in medicine . Should medical students and residents be influence...

In this episode of Social Rounds , Tony, Frances Mei, and returning “friend of the pod” Ryan Montoya get honest about joy—how medical training erodes it, how it’s weaponized against trainees, and what it actually takes to reclaim it. From phone detoxes and small daily creative rituals to reading fantasy novels in secret and hiding cultural lunches in elementary school bathrooms, this conversation...

Tony shares a moment that restored his faith in humanity: a vaccine discussion in a parents’ group chat that didn’t implode. From there, he and Frances Mei unpack why rational health conversations feel so hard to come by, especially in the U.S.—and why community matters more than ever. The episode winds down with real-life holiday talk: family traditions, work-life tension, vision boards, and how...

In this episode of Social Rounds , Frances Mei and Tony take on a dynamic that almost every woman doctor has felt but few talk about openly: dating while out-earning your partner. They dig into the cultural scripts that still tell women to downplay ambition, the discomfort some men feel around female success, and the quiet identity negotiations that happen inside modern relationships. Instead of o...

In this week’s Social Rounds , Tony & Frances Mei pull back the curtain on one of medicine’s worst-kept secrets: sycophancy . Why do so many trainees learn to smile, nod, and swallow their opinions? And how did we get to a place where disagreeing with an attending feels riskier than doing the wrong thing? They unpack the unwritten rules of hierarchy — the quiet calculations trainees make to st...

This week on Social Rounds , Frances Mei, Tony, and the self-appointed “voice of the people,” Dr. Ryan Montoya, descend into absolute chaos. What starts as a simple Thanksgiving check-in becomes a masterclass in disastrous feedback stories, violent revenge fantasies in hospital hallways, and the single worst metaphor ever uttered on this show (“Plantation Rock”… yeah, we go there). We debut a new...

In this episode, we dig into the exploding trend of breast-milk sharing—an underground practice driven by desperation, inequity, and a system that leaves new mothers to fend for themselves. We trace how social pressure, economic strain, and impossible postpartum expectations push parents to seek milk from strangers online, often without any medical screening or safety oversight. We talk openly abo...

On this week’s Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei go from the universal pain of long-haul flights (and the rise of the Butt Donut Brotherhood) to one of the biggest breakthroughs in women’s mental health: a new blood test that can predict postpartum depression with over 80% accuracy. They break down the biology, the stigma, and why so many women suffer in silence. Then, the conversation turns to...

In this episode of Social Rounds , surgeons-turned-dropouts Frances Mei and Tony revisit the myths and realities of what it takes to stay healthy—in and out of medicine. It starts with a story from their first week of residency, when an upper-level told them to “know your alcohol tolerance.” What followed was a crash course in stress, survival, and misplaced wellness advice. From the marketing ori...

It’s Halloween on Social Rounds , and Tony and Frances Mei are in rare form. Between witch hats, hangovers, and parental sleep deprivation, they cover everything from the science of “short sleepers” (can you really thrive on four hours of sleep?) to the most audacious Louvre jewel heist in recent history. In true Social Rounds fashion, they tie it all back to medicine — what surgeons can learn fro...

Welcome back to Social Rounds , the podcast where your two favorite Surgeon Dropouts, Tony and Frances Mei , give their unsolicited opinions on medicine, pop culture, and the world at large. In Episode 9, Frances Mei is back from her sabbatical in Europe with tales of foreign travel and a mysterious new hat! Tony then delivers a fascinating deep dive into the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Phy...

This week on Social Rounds , Tony sits down with the incredible Dr. Janet McMordie — sports medicine physician, actor, voice artist, and yes… surgical hand double for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Good Sam . Together, they dive into what it really means to reinvent yourself in medicine and beyond — from Olympic doctor to actor, from scrubs to screen. They talk about the art of quitting without...

When a Kentucky nurse named Misty Combs found two baby raccoons trapped in a dumpster, one of them passed out in a puddle of moonshine, she did what any true hero would do: performed CPR. Yes, really. In this episode of Social Rounds , we unpack the internet’s favorite story of medical training meets wild animal rescue. From moonshine to moral philosophy, we explore what makes someone spring into...

In Episode 6 of Social Rounds , Tony and Joan get real about the classic doctor paradox: why physicians give one set of rules but don’t always follow them themselves. (Yes, Tony still uses Q-tips. No, he’s not sorry.) From laughing about bad habits to debating whether AI scribes can actually save medicine from burnout, this episode is equal parts funny and thought-provoking. And if that’s not enou...

This week on Social Rounds , Tony Chin-Quee and Joan Chan ask the big question: should we really be growing pigs to fix our busted organs? With the FDA officially saying “yep, let’s try it,” xenotransplantation is suddenly more than a Black Mirror plotline. We break down the science, the squeamish factor, and why pigs got the short straw instead of, say, goats or raccoons. But that’s not all, beca...

This week on Social Rounds , Tony Chin-Quee and Frances Mei wade into the messy, complicated, and surprisingly spicy world of resident unions. From the University of Colorado’s organizing battles to the bigger question of whether doctors-in-training should flex their collective bargaining muscles, we break it all down with our signature mix of humor and honesty. Why are U.S. residents so hesitant...

Tony and Frances Mei pull back the curtain on the messier side of med school — from the “sexually charged” undercurrent of training, to how social dynamics shape friendships, relationships, and reputations in medicine. They tackle everything from cancel culture in the hospital halls to whether med students really need a crash course in the humanities. Equal parts candid, funny, and brutally honest...

Tony Chin-Quee, MD and Frances Mei Hardin, MD are back for Episode 2 of Social Rounds — the show where two ENT surgeon dropouts deliver fast, funny, and fearless takes on medicine, culture, and life. In this episode, we cover: – Inside baseball: Can doctors really “find joy” in medicine, or is wellness just another way to gaslight trainees? – Outside baseball: Nitrous oxide is the new party drug —...

Welcome to Social Rounds — the brand-new show from Tony Chin-Quee, MD and Frances Mei Hardin, MD. Two ENT's, now founders of the Surgeon Dropout Club, who traded the operating room for the group chat. They're here to deliver fast, funny, and fearless takes on medicine, culture, and life. If you've ever wondered what a surgeon would really say when there were no more consequences... In our debut ep...