First Opinion Podcast

From our friends at Tradeoffs, a conversation with STAT's Tara Bannow on what to expect now that Mehmet Oz has been confirmed to lead the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Donna Shalala, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, discusses her career in public health and her frustration with what’s happening at HHS now. She spoke with STAT editor Torie Bosch on Monday morning, after the reorganization of the department was announced but before “reduction in force” layoffs began Tuesday. The conversation was based in part on a recent First Opinion essay she wrote arguing that the reorganization was "silly" and "confusing."

On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” host Torie Bosch talks to Vijay Agarwal, the neurosurgeon who consults on “Severance.” (His day job is chief of the Division of Skull Base and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center.) They chat about the neuroscience behind severance, how Hollywood approaches medicine, and his cameo appearance on the show as, naturally, the surgeon performing the titular procedure. Note: Severance spoilers ahead.

On Friday, medical students around the U.S. will learn what residency program they have matched into. Match Day is not just momentous for those students, though. It also tells the rest of us what fields of medicine are having trouble attracting new physicians. In 2024, about 8% of pediatrics positions went unfilled, an increase from about 3% in 2023.Meanwhile, children’s hospitals report large numbers of vacancies in many pediatric subspecialties.  All of this is particularly worrisome given the rise in measles cases.On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” Faith Crittenden, a pediatric endocrinology fellow, and Jared E. Boyce, an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate who is interested in entering pediatrics, share the many reasons for the shortage. There’s the money — pediatricians are paid less than many other doctors, which can be a deal-breaker if you’re graduating with $200,000 in loans.

Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring Covid-19 a global pandemic. For science writer Carl Zimmer, a columnist for the New York Times, covering Covid meant “watching [scientists] figuring out this disease in real time.” Notably, “there were a lot of mysteries about it. I was really struck as, as others were, by how strange it was that, that the just a fundamental question of how Covid spread was so unclear and was leading to so much argument,” he said.Intrigued by both the public and scientific confusion over airborne infection, he began examining history. Eventually, he realized, “I’m writing about life in the air, and it turns out to have this incredible history that goes back many centuries and involves all sorts of people.”That led to his latest book, “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe,” which he discussed with guest host and STAT science writer Megan Molteni on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” which is back for a new season.

You’ve probably come across Will Flanary, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, the internet’s most famous physician/comedian. For more than four years, the ophthalmologist has been gently roasting medicine by playing a rotating cast of characters — the emergency physician clad in cyclist gear, the “ortho bro,” the pediatrician in a unicorn headband. But he's also used his comedy to skewer the business of health care, including the confounding bureaucracies of insurance — with a special emphasis on UnitedHealthcare. First Opinion editor Torie Bosch spoke with Flanary about punching up in comedy and the reaction to the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Have you ever taken phenylephrine for a stuffed-up nose and then felt better? If so, you might have been perplexed when Food and Drug Administration experts said last year that that the drug — which is in some versions of DayQuil, Sudafed, and other medicines — is no more effective than a placebo. On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” we talk with professor and researcher Michael Bernstein about the placebo effect and its counterpart, the “nocebo effect” — if you tell patients something will make them feel worse, it generally comes true.

Jeff Karp, a Harvard Medical School and MIT biomedical engineer, shares how his undiagnosed ADHD transformed from a struggle into a 'superpower,' fostering creativity and emotional connections. He emphasizes the importance of neurodiversity in research and education. Joan Conjurella, from NYU, discusses innovative medical education reforms, including a three-year MD program designed for efficiency and accessibility. Together, they explore life ignition tools and the ways personalized approaches in learning and medical training can inspire future generations.

About 75% of U.S. hospitals use chaplains, who are either employed by the health care center or are spiritual leaders from the local community. Physician Robert Klitzman and chaplain Molly O’Neil Frank join today’s podcast to discuss why chaplains are a critical part of patient care. Perhaps counterintuitively, they say, chaplains' roles have become even more important as religious affiliation has declined in the country.

When Randi Johnson was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, her husband, Brian, often felt at a loss to help. But then, when he and Randi met with a surgeon to discuss reconstructing her breast, he was struck by something he could do. The Midwestern father of five, a lifelong tinkerer, decided to make his wife the best possible prosthetic nipple.“The nipple solution is actually very elusive,” Randi said. “Surgical nipples tend to flatten. Tattoos fade. Or they still don't have dimension. The … prosthetic nipples that were around when we started, they looked really fake, and they'd fall off. And that's really kind of a deal breaker.”After Brian made one for Randi, the two of them decided to offer the service to others. Today, they make affordable, realistic nipples for dozens of people a year, largely reaching potential customers through word of mouth.One of their sons, Justin, recently chronicled their work in his new documentary “Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory,” now available for rent or purchase on streaming platforms. (Watch the trailer here.)