The SurgeonMasters Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes orthopaedic surgeon and surgeon-wellness advocate Alan Jones, MD, to the podcast. Alan has been an avid runner for the last fifteen years, and typically runs one marathon per year. Recently, Alan has been training in Zone 2.  If you’re unfamiliar, Zone 2 training inv...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast family physician and physician coach, Ken Dodge, MD. As physicians, most of our stress and frustration doesn't come from not knowing what to do. Rather, it comes from not knowing what we need. In medical terms, when you fail to identify a need, you miss the diagnosis...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes physician coach and family physician, Ken Dodge, MD, to the podcast. As physicians, we like to think we’re governed almost exclusively by logic, but despite our best intentions, we are often driven by our emotions. Feelings are so important because they inform all of...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast, exercise physiology LiverTransplant Program member, Gil Spitz. In many ways, physicians are like athletes. We're high performers always striving to be the best version of ourselves - often to our physical detriment.  Many physicians do things tha...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes physician coach and family physician, Ken Dodge, MD, to the podcast. As physicians, we often struggle to identify our needs. In fact, we often don't know the value. It's easy for us to get disconnected from our feelings and lack self-awareness.  If we under...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes Richard A. Schaefer, MD, MPH, an orthopaedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, to the podcast. Richard is a big fan of the concept of narrative medicine. It’s an intentional, reflective practice of medicine in which you take what you’re experiencing and put it int...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast retired orthopedic surgeon and leader, Dr. Richard Barry. Oscar London was the pen name of a local internist, the late Dr. Arlen Cohn, who practiced in Berkeley, California for over 40 years. His 1987 book, Kill as Few Patients as Possible, is the crow...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast retired orthopedic surgeon and leader, Dr. Richard Barry. As surgeons, thoughtful introspection and honest communication are the keys to balancing our personal and emotional availability with our professional commitments. Introspective communication re...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the SurgeonMasters Podcast, Jeffrey M. Smith, MD, FACS, PCC, and general surgeon and SurgeonMasters physician coach, Mindy Ho, MD, discuss their time at the 2025 American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in Chicago, where SurgeonMasters had an exhibit booth. Many physicians, residents, and medical students have questions about the coaching model that show t...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast board-certified psychiatrist and performance coach, Ryan Davis, MD. Ryan works with elite athletes and high-level professionals, including professional golfers on the LPGA tour.  Routine is important.  Through the lens of a golfer, it's important...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast retired orthopedic surgeon and leader, Dr. Richard Barry. We should all strive to achieve a lightness of being in our everyday relationships. Lightness is a transferable personality and management skill.  The term “lightness of being” refers to the dee...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, Nicholette Kasman, MD, MAPP. Just as there’s a big difference between the absence of illness and health, there’s a difference between flourishing and simply not suffering. Applied positive psychology is the study of...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast Professional Certified Coach, Lynn Bagdasian. Practicing gratitude can make life so much better. There’s so much chaos and stress in the world around us as physicians. Implementing a gratitude practice into our daily lives releases dopamine and can red...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast board-certified psychiatrist and performance coach, Ryan Davis, MD. Ryan works with elite athletes and high-level professionals - most of whom are type A go-getters. While it’s a personality type that can take you far, it doesn’t always lead to a balan...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes ENT surgeon and professional coach Dr. Mel Thacker to the podcast. There’s a fallacy among physicians that we have to show up in the clinic as the all-knowing ego in the white coat who has all the answers. But when we approach treatment this way, it actually disconne...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast, Quality Improvement Executive Leadership Consultant, Margie Nelson, MS, MT, EMT, CPXP. Margie has spent the past 20 years as a hospital quality and safety specialist handling risk, quality improvement, and communication enhancement.  Physicians are ge...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast, Quality Improvement Executive Leadership Consultant, Margie Nelson, MS, MT, EMT, CPXP. Margie has spent the past 20 years as a hospital quality and safety specialist handling risk, quality improvement, and communication enhancement.  Margie has recogn...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes ENT surgeon and professional coach Dr. Mel Thacker to the podcast. Each of us carries two inner selves — the essential self and the social self. When these two are in harmony, we’re capable of extraordinary things. But when they’re out of alignment, it can lead to di...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast pediatrician, startup founder, and people connector, Dr. Zhen Chan. In addition to earning his medical degree, Zhen earned an MBA during the middle of his residency, which offered a unique perspective. Zhen is most passionate about solving large pain p...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and Chief Medical Officer at Connecticut Orthopaedics, Dr. Alan Reznik. There’s an old saying - “hire slow, fire fast” - which essentially means to take your time hiring the right candidate for the job and, if you ha...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff welcomes to the podcast anesthesiologist and physician coach, Scott Markowitz, MD. There’s always the potential for things to spiral out of control in the OR. When that happens, it can be helpful to be pulled back from the situation by a trusted colleague who can help you view the situation objectively and bump you back into being your best self. Sometimes it’s not feasible t...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast physician and physician coach, Scott Markowitz, MD. When working in the OR, situations sometimes arise that activate the people in the room (whether it be surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, or others). That activation can be caused by a variety of is...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast board-certified orthopedic surgeon and chief medical officer at Connecticut Orthopedics, Dr. Alan Reznik. In the field of surgery, introverts and extroverts behave differently in situations where communication is important. Introverts tend to need more...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff welcomes to the podcast cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, executive coach, and advocate for those affected by Long Covid, Dr. Zeest Khan. In 2020, Dr. Khan contracted Covid and her health deteriorated to such an extent that she was no longer able to work. Eventually, she was diagnosed with Long Covid and on the long road to recovery. As a result of this experience, Dr. Khan ha...

Send us Fan Mail Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better… Jeff welcomes to the podcast orthopaedic surgeon and educator, Alan Reznik, MD. It’s a simple fact in the medical industry that everything works better when goals are aligned. Aligning your goals with the goals of your team members is a great way to better optimize your practice....