The Future Minority Doctor Podcast

In this episode, Dr. Marina and Dr. Zulma tackle a pattern they've lived and witnessed repeatedly: over-efforting to the point of burnout. As students of color, both doctors felt the pressure to do everything just to feel like enough during the application process, and they've seen the same cycle play out in countless mentees through the Future Minority Doctor coaching program. They make the case...

Dr. Marina and Dr. Zulma reflect on their own journeys to becoming physicians while sharing practical advice for students planning to apply to medical school. They discuss how to strategically use the undergraduate years to prepare a strong application—from gaining research, clinical, and volunteer experience to planning the right time to take the MCAT. This episode emphasizes the importance of th...

On the Future Minority Doctor, Dr. Pilar Dechet, orthopedic surgeon at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, reflects on building a sustainable career after the intensity of residency. She shares how she navigated motherhood, chose flexibility in her schedule, and learned to prioritize presence at home without compromising patient care. Dr. Dechet also discusses breaking barriers in orthoped...

A growing number of MD and DO schools require Situational Judgement Tests, and PREview and CASPer are by far the most popular options. In this episode, Dr. Capella interviews Nathalie Garcia about her recent success on these tests, differences between the two, and walk you through some sample questions. These tips will help you get your best score.

Even the most generous letter-writers are busy people, and they often only see one facet of who you are. In this episode, Drs. Marina and Zulma show you how to draft an outline—or even a full template—that helps your recommender highlight your best qualities with crisp anecdotes and minimal overlap across letters. It's a way for you to give your advocates the spotlight controls so they can make yo...

The AMCAS Fee Waiver system can feel like a bureaucratic hydra with many heads, none of them friendly. But Drs. Marina and Zulma are here with the map and lantern. In this episode, they walk you through who actually qualifies, why the rules twist in tricky ways across family circumstances and states, and how to gather documentation before the January scramble begins. With just the primary and seco...

Structured video interviews are becoming a more common for medical-school applicants, and those prompts for a 90-second mini-essay can feel like being asked for a webcam Hamlet on-the-fly. Never fear! In this episode, Drs. Marina and Zulma break down how to craft a crisp personal story, master your nonverbal presence, and avoid the dreaded mid-sentence cutoff.

Dr Texeira has a wide array of skills. Though he is best known for his outstanding work with reconstructing injured hands, he also performs plastic surgery and neurologic surgeries in the shoulder, neck and back. In this episode, he discusses tips for survival he’s picked up in his 21 years of training, including the importance of asking for help early and often, how to survive a toxic work cultur...

The advent of tools like ChatGPT, Claude Opus, Gemini, and other LLMs make organizing your thoughts and phrasing your sentences far easier than just a year or two ago. However, there are some pitfalls to avoid. In this episode, doctors Zulma and Marina discuss how to use this tool wisely in order to sound your best, while avoding turning your personal statement into a personal computer statement t...

There are numerous cracks in the pipeline from aspiring high school graduate to medical student. Learn from Drs Marina and Zulma where they nearly lost their way, and how a growth mindset will help to keep your eyes on the prize if you fail a class, you see people bragging about MCATs or publications online, or an advisor tells you to go another way.

A thriving pediatrician, Dr. Shapiro trained in Mexico and then worked for the World Health Organization for several years before settling in the states where he has practiced on both coasts. Listen to how his philosophy that “health doesn’t care about borders, it only cares that you are human” guided him to maximize human development throughout his career.

From a medical family in Puerto Rico, Dr. Padilla rocketed her way into medical school at the age of 20. There, her age combined with her sex and race to get a little extra dose of condescension from some of her colleagues. Listen to her story about how she dealt with these challenges, and what her day-to-day looks like after completing her residency in internal medicine, and then a fellowship in...

Come listen as Jocelyne vulnerably shares her personal journey to upper-division medical school. From the culture shock of an almost-all-white college to being caught out in a deliberately difficult chemistry course to unhelpful advisors, she has faced too many (but all-too-common) challenges in her path, but found full-time work in therapeutics and care-giving to prove to herself that doctoring w...

Code-switching is a way of life for minority doctors. Let Drs Zulma and Marina give you some tips on how to make sure your accountability, discretion, reliability, self-discpline and more come across clearly to the (mostly) non-minorities that will be interviewing, teaching, and supervising you in your medical school journey. This includes being prepared and punctual for meetings with your extreme...

Did you know that the Future Minority Doctor hosts also lead a successful (and free!) application coaching program? For more details on how to get personal attention on the last hurdle in your journey to medical school, listen to this episode and then apply.

What beliefs about money and debt did you learn from your parents? Since these days you can't walk to the student union without being offered a credit card, and student loans that can't fit on a standard calculator, even college freshmen need to think hard about what money strategies make sense in the long-term given their earning potential.

So, you didn’t score as well as you hoped on the MCAT? Drs. Zulma and Marina provide perspective on what that means for your chances of reaching your medical dreams, and remind you that while the MCAT is important it is not the only thing that gets you into a medical school. They discuss where you should apply, how to make the rest of your application shine, and when you should take a gap year to...

The child of immigrants to the Bay Area, hear how Wumi took “not a linear path” through college, a degree in psychology, and several gap years, before being drawn to osteopathic medicine. Having just survived the intimidation of the MCAT and “drinking from the firehose” in first year, her insights into ways to maintain mental health under stress and constant challenging evaluations are fresh and w...

Dr. Jacqueline Winkelmann has a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Marina about growing up in Puerto Rico, code-switching as a fair-skinned Latina in the rigorous environment of Washington University of St. Louis, and finding her passion as a pediatric hospitalist. “Dr. Jacq” is also the force behind Scrub Sisters (www.scrubsisters.org), a sisterhood of women in medicine supporting each other to f...

Hear the details of Ruben's inspiring journey from a childhood on a rural Mexican farm to UC Berkeley, and MBA, and how FMD's free coaching program helped him over the finish line to being accepted at his top choice of medical school. For more details on the application coaching program, see www.futureminoritydoctor.com/acp

We are all-too-aware of how our own minds can conjure up worst-case scenarios, and make us anxious about problems that never materialize. Science is just now beginning to understand the power of imagining positive outcomes, picturing yourself handling problems with poise, and self-affirmations. Drs. Marina and Zulma summarize recent remarkable studies, talk about their own clinical successes with...

The average US college student accumulates 1-4 hours of sleep debt per night. This deficit leads to a weakened immune system, anxiety, irritability, impaired driving, and--perhaps most relevant for this podcast--poor memory consolidation. In this episode, Drs. Marina and Zulma discuss how widespread this problem is, how it has worsened with the advent of smartphones, and share scientifically-prove...

Have you ever wondered if you can be a doctor if you have ADHD? In this episode, we talk about what ADHD is, how it manifests in kids and adults, and how it can manifest differently in different individuals. We also touch on some myths about ADHD and what you can do if you have (or think you have) it so that you can still achieve all of your educational and professional goals.

Are you applying to medical school? Consider writing your Impactful Experiences Essay! This essay used to be called the "Disadvantaged Statement," but generally invites applicants to share the unique challenges they've had to overcome. Although this is an optional step in your AMCAS application, it is your opportunity to share the special circumstances in your life that speak to who you are and ha...

Are you thinking of reapplying to medical school? You may have applied before, were not accepted, or are still waiting for schools' replies but are concerned that you may not make it and should consider reapplying. Allowing time for your emotions to flow is necessary; then, you can learn from the experience and move forward. Taking inventory of your rejected application will help you spot what you...