x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Social Rounds

Hippocratic Collective

Two of the happiest surgeon dropouts you’ll ever meet, Tony Chin-Quee, MD and Frances Mei Hardin, MD, have traded the OR for the mic. On Social Rounds, they give their wildly unsolicited opinions on the state of medicine, the absurdities of healthcare culture, and the chaos of the world at large. From inside-baseball medical news to pop culture drama, space doctors to Taylor Swift, no topic is too sacred (or too ridiculous) to roast, dissect, and laugh about. Smart, irreverent, and occasionally

health & fitness medicine

All Episodes

40:16

Speaking Up in Surgical Residency And Paying the Price

Social Rounds ·

2026/03/06

In Part 2 of our conversation with Kate Buhrke, DO, we pick up where her story left off — inside the realities of surgical residency.Kate shares what happened after transferring programs, the culture shock of moving from a county hospital to a private practice environment, and how speaking up about resident conditions quickly labeled her a “problem resident.” What started as advocacy for fairness — from educational funding to work hours — eventually escalated into probation, retaliation, and a

en

46:41

If It's Not Ortho, It's Death & Other Lies We Tell...

Social Rounds ·

2026/02/27

In this episode of Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei sit down with Dr. Kate Buhrke — rock climber, former ortho gunner, and unapologetic regime-builder.Kate shares her journey from growing up in suburban Illinois (not Chicago, according to Tony), to climbing hundreds of feet without ropes, to eating, sleeping, and breathing orthopedic surgery… and then not matching.They talk about:The identity crisis of not matchingWhat surgery demands of you — and what it takes backThe paradox of “putting all

en

28:58

Ozempic Babies, Waymo & Claw Clips: The Unexpected...

Social Rounds ·

2026/02/20

This week on Social Rounds, Frances Mei and Tony bring back Outside Baseball with three wild medical stories you can’t make up.First: a woman delivers her baby in the back of a Waymo robo-taxi. Is the surveillance state helping… or creeping us out? Then: doctors warn that your favorite claw clip could cause serious head injuries in a car accident. Fashion vs. safety — where do we draw the line? And finally: GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro are linked to surprise pregnancies. From slowed

en

38:43

How To Make Your Rank List (Without Losing Your Mind)

Social Rounds ·

2026/02/13

It’s that time of year again. Rank lists are due, anxiety is peaking, and medical students everywhere are trying to reverse-engineer “the algorithm.”In this week’s Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei break down the residency Match—from the “big computer in the sky” to the chaos of SOAP week—and share what actually matters when you’re ranking programs.Frances Mei opens up about not matching, the shame spiral that followed, and how trying to “game” the system can quietly shape your decisions long

en

27:52

How To Survive A Bad Interview: A Dress Rehearsal for...

Social Rounds ·

2026/02/06

This week on Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee takes on his most unhinged role yet: hostile interviewer.In a special Social Rounds Book Club episode, Frances Mei Hardin sits down for a deliberately uncomfortable, occasionally inappropriate, and deeply revealing mock interview ahead of the release of her debut memoir, Surgeon on the Edge. What starts as a Groundhog Day cold open quickly devolves into brutal questions about shame, failure, race, crying at work, bystander silence in medicine, and whether

en

41:25

From Janitor to Doctor: Rewriting the Rules of...

Social Rounds ·

2026/01/30

What does medicine look like when the next generation refuses to be broken by it?In this episode of Social Rounds, we’re joined by Shay Taylor Allen, a fourth-year medical student at Howard University, class vice president, and future anesthesiologist—whose journey took her from working as a hospital janitor to interviewing for residency in the same system she once cleaned.Together, we talk about the growing generational divide in medical training:Why younger doctors are pushing back on brutal

en

41:20

Herd Immunity, Cocaine Surgeons & Sexy Gay Hockey

Social Rounds ·

2026/01/23

This week on Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee is joined by fan-favorite guest host Joan Chan, MD for a wide-ranging, wildly unfiltered episode that somehow connects vaccines, cocaine-addicted founding surgeons, and prestige gay hockey television.First up: a much-needed PSA on flu shots, herd immunity, and why “you can still get sick” is not the dunk anti-vaxxers think it is. From there, Tony dives into one of medicine’s most unhinged origin stories — how William Halsted’s cocaine addiction helped shape

en

39:25

Footwear, Hospital Work Wives, and Other Relationship...

Social Rounds ·

2026/01/16

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, this is the advice no one gives you early enough.Then things escalate.The duo breaks down internet

en

41:25

When Patients Get Too Familiar + Why Residency Needs...

Social Rounds ·

2026/01/09

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 doctorsProfessional boundaries in medicine (and how to hold them without being cold)Why some patients choose doctors based on

en

45:45

Chronically Online in Medicine: Medfluencers,...

Social Rounds ·

2026/01/02

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 influencers? Is authenticity worth the professional risk? And why does the medical establishment still punish

en

33:51

Where Did Your Joy Go? Medicine, Identity, and the...

Social Rounds ·

2025/12/26

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 moves from playful chaos to deeply personal territory. The trio also debuts a new segment, Majority /

en

33:04

A Calm Vaccine Conversation? Parenting, Public...

Social Rounds ·

2025/12/19

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 people actually reset for the year ahead.

en

32:52

When She Outearns Him: Power, Dating, and Modern...

Social Rounds ·

2025/12/12

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 offering tidy answers, they share real stories, ask better questions, and explore what it means to build

en

36:48

Hierarchy, Silence, and Survival Mode: The Real Cost...

Social Rounds ·

2025/12/05

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 stay safe, the way questionable comments get brushed aside, and how all of this chips away at psychological

en

47:12

Doctors Giving Terrible Feedback (and Plotting Revenge)

Social Rounds ·

2025/11/28

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 segment — Friendly Fire — where Ryan grills the hosts with increasingly deranged rapid-fire

en

45:08

The Underground Breast Milk Market: What No One Is...

Social Rounds ·

2025/11/21

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 about the real risks: contamination, harmful substances, and the absence of public health protections. But

en

41:32

Postpartum Depression, Stigma in Medicine, and the...

Social Rounds ·

2025/11/14

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 stigma in medicine—how weakness is weaponized, how shame gets baked into training, and why physicians are

en

47:30

The 10,000 Steps Myth & Residency Lessons in Alcohol...

Social Rounds ·

2025/11/07

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 origins of the 10,000-step myth to the real metrics that matter for health, they explore how doctors—and

en

47:38

Sleep-Deprived Surgeons & French Jewel Thieves: A...

Social Rounds ·

2025/10/31

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 from jewel thieves about staying cool under pressure, why residency interviews bring out everyone’s inner

en

48:08

She's Back with a Hat! | Nobel Prizes, Machiavelli,...

Social Rounds ·

2025/10/24

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 Physiology and Medicine, breaking down the revolutionary discovery of Regulatory T-cells (Tregs) and the key

en

28 results

Similar Podcasts

Доктор Тройняшкин

Доктор Тройняшкин

The Dry Eye Treatment PODCAST

Dry Eye Treatment

Différent et alors ?

PATRICK SULAY

Kyle Kingsbury Podcast

Kyle Kingsbury

The Real Weight Loss Coach

Matty Lansdown