Surgeons with Purpose

Join us in Empowered Surgeons Group here . Why are so many talented women surgeons questioning whether they belong in surgery, and what does that reveal about the culture of surgery as a whole? In this episode of Surgeons with Purpose , I talk to pediatric surgeons Dr. Cornelia Griggs and Dr. Jose Greenspon about the relational challenges of practice, imposter syndrome, the hidden emotional labor...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . Join Dr. Gita Pensa’s Litigation Education And Preparedness course here . Dr. Stephen Cohen is a board-certified general and colorectal surgeon, Section Chief of Surgery at the VA, and an experienced medical expert witness with nearly 30 years in the medicolegal field. We explore what it really means to build a sustainable career in surgery: one that...

Take the quiz "What Kind of Surgeon Are You Becoming?" here . Join Empowered Surgeons Group here . Dr. Racheal Peterson joins me to share her journey into neurosurgery, a path she set her sights on before medical school and ultimately made a reality. We talk about her first experiences in the operating room as a medical student and the sense of wonder that comes with being able to truly change a p...

What kind of surgeon are you becoming? Take the quiz here . Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . Check out Behind the Sports Medicine Podcast here and follow them on instagram here . Dr. Cameron Roth is a fellowship-trained orthopedic doctor specializing in hand, wrist, and upper extremity surgery and co-host of the podcast, Behind the Sports Medicine Podcast. In this episode we talk abo...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . Sham peer review can be one of the most devastating threats facing surgeons today. But it doesn’t have to. Physician, educator, and coach, Dr. Tracey O'Connell, pulls back the curtain on a reality most surgeons don't see coming until they're already inside it. This conversation is sobering. It is necessary. And it ends with a message of genuine hope:...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons here . Every surgeon enters the profession knowing the clinical risks. Complications happen. Patients are unhappy. Outcomes fall short. That is part of the contract. But what about the other risks? The systemic and structural ones that have nothing to do with how compassionate of a human you are, how good of a diagnostician you are, or how slick of a technician yo...

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here . Dr. Won Kim is a brain and tumor neurosurgeon at UCLA Health, where he trained, completed a fellowship in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, and built a practice around treating tumors that were once considered inoperable. He is also the kind of surgeon who will tell you he is hard to work for, that M&M should be about quality improvement not blame,...

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here. Dr. Red Hoffman has spent her career sitting with people at the hardest moments of their lives. As a physician who combines trauma care and palliative medicine, she has built a practice around something most of us spend our whole lives avoiding: death. But what makes Red's perspective so singular is that she isn't just a professional witness to loss. She has liv...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . What happens when being a doctor is no longer enough to sustain you? Dr. Shieva Ghofrany , OB/GYN and founder of A Tribe Called V joins me to explore identity, autonomy, and the hidden pressures of practicing medicine. Dr. Ghofrany didn’t follow a traditional path into medicine, and she doesn’t practice it traditionally either. From switching majors m...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here. Dr. Jake Goodman is a psychiatrist who works with healthcare professionals and has built a following of over 2 million people by saying the things most physicians are thinking but not saying out loud. His practice started in a telling way: his first patient was a surgeon, then a dentist, then a veterinarian, then an OB/GYN. That pattern wasn’t random;...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here. What if your relationship with food had nothing to do with discipline and everything to do with your nervous system? In this conversation with Luis Mojica, we explore the connection between developmental trauma, chronic stress, and the way we relate to food. Luis shares his own story of using an eating disorder to cope with undiagnosed PTSD, and how th...

Learn more about Love and Science Fertility here . Join Empowerd Surgeons here. Infertility is shaping the lives of female physicians, and we need to talk about it. Dr. Erica Bove, creator of Love and Science , shares the startling fact that 1 in 4 female physicians and 1 in 3 female surgeons experience infertility. Interestingly, the very mindset that makes us successful in surgery can work again...

Surgeons, join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group today. In this episode, Dr. Karen Leitner and I explore the hidden thought patterns that keep women physicians stuck. And how to break free! We cover: Why charting paralysis happens (and the thought loops that drive it) Being diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) later in life and the shift from self-judgment to self-unders...

Interested in our retreat to Norway? Get on my calendar for an interview here . What does it really take to survive and succeed in a system that wasn’t built with you in mind? In this episode, I explore that question with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sonya Sloan. We talk about the hidden curriculum of medicine: the unspoken rules, the power dynamics, and the strategies required to navigate surgical trai...

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here . Learn more about what's inside ESG here . In the perfectionist surgeon's mind, either we get a perfect outcome or we fail. But in the realm of humans, perfection is impossible. And we don't always have full control over the final surgical result. Instead of thinking in terms of surgical "success" and surgical "failure", what would it look like to categorize cir...

What does it mean to stay grounded in your identity and your humanity inside a system that often asks you to override both? In this episode, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Brian Nwannunu , shares his journey from being the son of Nigerian immigrants to building a career in surgery rooted in purpose, faith, and service. Brian knew from a young age that he was called to medicine, but his path wasn’t linear...

What do physicians actually need when they find themselves on the receiving end of a malpractice lawsuit? In this episode, I have a conversation with emergency physician, educator, speaker, coach, advocate and legal expert Dr. Gita Pensa about the reality of medical malpractice from the physician defendant’s perspective. We explore why getting sued can feel like being dropped onto another planet....

In 2019, two patients complained to the Board of Registration in Medicine about me. At the time, it felt deeply unfair. I felt hate. I felt indignation. I felt like a victim. I even fantasized about horrible things happening to the people who complained about me. They were my villains. But, through my own coaching journey, I began to understand that pain is not individual; it is inherited, relatio...

Surgeon-writer, Dr. Cornelia Griggs joins me this week. Check out her article with Dr. Andrea Merrill, The Hidden Reason Women are Leaving Surgery: They're Being Pushed Out here . Check out her book, The Sky Was Falling here . The first physician in a family of writers, artists, and communicators, she grew up surrounded by people willing to speak openly about medicine’s vulnerabilities. A former t...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . Life is more fun when your career path isn’t linear. Dr. Raymund King knows this well. From performing magic to practicing medicine, from the courtroom to the screen, Raymund’s life reflects a deep willingness to evolve and follow his inner knowing. We talk about witnessing tragedy, bucking the norm, the mindset of a doctor vs lawyer vs creative, rein...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons Group here . ”It makes you feel crazy as a patient,” Tiphany Kane. As physicians, we have more influence than we realize over how patients feel and how they perceive us (and the profession in general). Whether or not we diagnose them or operate on them, patients want—and deserve—to be treated humanely. At its core, our job is simple: serve the patient . But that b...

Join us inside Empowered Surgeons here . Subscribe to Stitches here . What happens when the skills that make you a great surgeon begin pulling you toward a different kind of impact? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Ivan Capobianco , who trained as a hepatobiliary and transplant surgeon and whose career journey spans Italy, Germany, global health work in Angola, academic research, AI, entrepren...

The Pain to Power Workshop is the foundation upon which your self-concept is built. You can't step into the next version of yourself until you heal old wounds and rewrite your past. We start this work Feb 2nd, 2026. You have access to the content until March 2nd, 2026. Sign up here . If you are catching this episode outside the window, no worries! You can still join us inside Empowered Surgeons gr...

LIMITED OFFER: The Pain to Power 5-day Coaching Program starts Feb 2nd. Sign up here . In this episode I speak with Dr. Mandy Rice , a dual board–certified General Surgeon and Surgical Intensivist whose path to surgery was anything but traditional. She began her career as a pediatric ICU nurse at 22, carrying the belief that she “wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor” - until a physician challenged t...

Have you ever felt like you were on a moving sidewalk toward retirement, as if you had committed to a life path long ago and now you’re simply being carried along it? If so, you’re not alone, and you won’t want to miss this episode. This week I speak with Mark Shrime, MD, PhD - Head and Neck surgeon, researcher, and former Chief of the Harvard Program in Global Surgery - about discernment, vocatio...