The Short Coat: An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

Docs are in denial, but the economic incentives make it inevitable. Meanwhile, you’re working hard to become a doctor — and now a bot might take your place? The Sheriff of Sodium, Dr. Brian Carmody, is back on the Short Coat to say what nobody wants to hear but might need to: yes, AI in medicine is real, and the value proposition makes docs’ replacement inevitable. From primary care AI to image-heavy fields like pathology, we’re talking actual use cases. We break down physician automation, the AMA’s waning influence, and why corporations – and even patients – might be the real force behind AI-driven doctor job loss. If you thought medical school guaranteed career security, this might shake your certainty. But there are specialties and human-only qualities that you can lean into for a bright future amidst the bots. Then the Sheriff, M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD Miranda Schene, M2s Sarah Lowenberg and Taryn O’Brien pivot to a deeply personal listener question: should a pre-med student push through to med school while struggling with mental health, like her parents want her to? Or take time off to regroup?

Cardiologist David Sabgir was tired of telling patients to exercise, so he did something ridiculous…and it spawned a movement. Walk With A Doc began with a simple idea: don’t just recommend lifestyle changes—live them, with your patients, in the wild. In this episode, we unpack the surprising power of walking with a community instead of talking at patients about exercise, and how a one-mile stroll has turned into an international public health initiative. Co-hosts M3 Jeff Goddard, and M1s Sydney Skuodas, Michael Arrington, and Zach Grissom are also asking: what happens when docs and med students bring their kids, their real lives, and their full humanity into community care? For some, it could be a real antidote to burnout, and the solution might be hiding in the park—with some sneakers and your neighbors. The cardiologist that stared it all shares how failing at patient motivation led to something wildly more effective. This episode is your unofficial permission slip to stop recommending change and start doing it.

"How are you using AI in med school?" That’s the question Dave posed to his co-hosts this week. Near-M3s Fallon Jung and Amanda Litka and almost-PA3 Julie Vuong discuss AI-fueled study sessions, and Dave points out a Google tool that turns docs into knowledge. They talk about what helps, what haunts, and what might accidentally erase their clinical instincts. Meanwhile, Fallon admits to looking to a robot to plan a bachelorette party. Amanda wants to ditch the white coat. And strong mints and clementines are the secret to surviving 3AM bowel resections. Also on the docket: what they've learned in their first few months seeing patients, OB night shift scaries, and which specialist they'd rather be stranded on an island with. Listeners: do you use AI to get you through school? How? Sound off at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus!

The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe…something that could never happen today. This week, we’re calling out the slow, tangled mess that is academic science. Why do some of the best ideas never leave a lab notebook? Why are 20-somethings with world-changing potential still spending 8 years writing theses that probably won’t be read? And why does grant funding seem allergic to risk? MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush is juggling frustration, big ideas, and the reality of PhD science, and M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD student Jess Smith, and M1 Sarah Lowenberg question whether Einstein would even make it today. Should the NIH institute a funding lottery? Jeff thinks Dave’s ringtone means he needs to grow up. And we finish strong by turning a stack of random medical words into fake personal statements. It’s messy, it’s a little salty, and it’ll make you wonder how anything changes in medicine or science. Episode credits: [URL template for episode https://media.blubrry.com/theshortcoat/podcast.uiowa.edu/com/osa/CHANGETHIS.mp3] We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast! Thanks for listening! We do more things on… https://www.instagram.com/theshortcoathttps://www.youtube.com/theshortcoat You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to theshortcoats@gmail.com. We love you.

Are things getting better or worse? What if your a career in medicine, the collapse of civilization, and the maternal mortality crisis all shared one uncomfortable truth–progress doesn’t guarantee clarity, balance, or justice? In this episode, M3 Zay Edgren confesses he’s feeling a bit doomy about humanity’s chances, and M2 Taryn O’Brian feels frustrated with medicine’s successes with acute care while primary care languishes. But M3 Jeff Goddard (and Dave) are more optimistic, at least on the grand scale. What every future healthcare worker needs to ask is, “What does helping actually mean when the system is stacked with trade-offs? You’ll get insight into how real medical students think through messy, high-stakes issues—like why we’re amazing at keeping preemies alive but failing mothers, or why primary care is where the real impact happens but nobody wants to do it. We explore what career indecision really looks like when you’re smart, driven, and yet unsure. You’ll also hear honest takes on burnout, idealism, and what med students actually think about the world they’re about to inherit—and remake. If you’re staring down the med school track wondering what’s waiting for you on the other side, this episode hands you the context no class will. You’ll leave smarter, more grounded—and possibly nervous, but in a productive way.

[Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of medical examiner photos our students had to view during lectures, and which some listeners will find disturbing.] Friendships, food, and failing forward gets med students through the first year. No one tells you how much of med school is powered by free pizza and shared panic. As M1s Alexis Baker, Samantha Gardner, Raegen Abbey, and Zach Grissom wrap up their first year at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, we talk about what actually got them through M1: strategic free food hunting, skipping lectures for sanity, and learning to live with the sound of your own stomach during exams. This raw and ridiculous reflection features stories of biochem-induced breakdowns, unexpected weight loss, and vacation cruises gone very wrong. We also play “Vibey,” a game that perfectly captures med student emotional trauma. Bonus topics: marriage math, spring break disasters, moldy mugs, and the shock of learning how people die for credit.

Clinical students are sometimes the only ones who have time to listen. In the clinic, med students can feel like bystanders, but they can make all the difference for patients. M3 Jeff Goddard, M3 Tracy Chen, M2 Alex Nigg, and M4 Matt Engelken recount stories of the patients that stuck with them—some painful, some beautiful, and some just plain awkward. From OB-GYN to peds to the ER, they share how student doctors—who can often feel like tagalongs—can often be the ones offering emotional support, catching critical miscommunications, or just being the one person with time to care. We reflect on the pressure to look competent, the sting of lukewarm evaluations, and how one med student realized a patient wasn’t constipated—just heartbroken. Also in this episode: talking to dying patients, babies are scary, and what not to say when to overwhelmed family.

Don’t be the doctor making $400k with $0 in the bank. You risk your financial future by ignoring this ER doc’s advice — and Dr. Jim Dahle should know. The emergency physician and founder of The White Coat Investor joins M1s Luke Geis, Zach Grissom, Hunter Fisher, and Katherine Yu to share how he got burned early in his career — and what he did to fix it. From why disability insurance should top your post-grad checklist, to how physicians get targeted by shady financial “advisors,” to why home ownership in residency might not be the best idea — Dr. Dahle walks us through real, usable advice. He breaks down the cost of a good financial advisor, explains why index funds beat stock-picking 95% of the time, and why you should aim to be more than just an employee in medicine. We also get into financial planning for med students with kids, and why chasing hot stocks is a losing strategy, and how disability insurance can save your bacon.

Behind every successful doctor is someone who paid their rent or walked their dog. Dave Etler, MD/PhD student Miranda Schene, M1 Jay Miller, and M3 Jeff Goddard blast off this episode with ass-tronaut Katy Perry before diving into Reddit’s finest med school dumpster fires. Should you crush (AKA, be vocally realistic about ) your C-average friend’s medical dreams? Is a boyfriend who gives unwanted pop-quizzes to his exhausted med student girlfriend helping, or being an a-hole? We also tackle the awkward truth about teaching hospitals – yes, that medical student might be practicing on YOUR sensitive bits (hopefully with proper patient consent)! Finally, we settle a debate over who deserves the credit: the emergency medicine resident or the partner who paid his rent, fed his pets, and sacrificed their social life for years. Join us for a trip through the messy human side of medical training that your white coat ceremony definitely can’t prepare you for!

What do med students really think about their lives? We check the vibes. Jeff Goddard (M3), Kim Fairhead (M1), Gabbi Bullard (PA1), and Annie Dotzler (PA1) for a game that checks med student experiences on their vibes. The group tackles the truth about reflex hammer skills, confessing to the internal chaos that underlies a fake-it-till-you-make-it confidence during physical exams. Annie and Gabby share their structured yet surprisingly "vibes-based" approach to studying before exams, complete with coffee-shop meetups and rapid-fire knowledge exchange. Meanwhile, Annie's meal prep aspirations take a dramatic turn when studying fatigue leads to an actual kitchen fire. The conversation weaves through medical curriculum frustrations, the evolution of study techniques from pre-clinical to clinical years, and the underlying question of whether medical students are just "hallucinating large language models" themselves.

Tuberculosis is curable. We just don’t care enough to cure it. That’s the premise behind John Green’s book, Everything Is Tuberculosis (https://everythingistb.com/). In this episode, M1s Zach Grissom, Kate Timboe, Tyler Pollock, and Srishti Mathur consider that premise, and what it says about humanity’s stubborn failure to solve a solvable problem. They unpack how cultural narratives, like romanticizing TB, stigmatizing the poor, path dependency, and greed have fueled inequities that keep TB deadly across the globe. The group reflects on Henry Rider’s story, which serves as the emotional spine of the book, and how John Green’s storytelling approach hits harder than raw data ever could. From an emphasis on short-term thinking to postcolonial infrastructure (built to extract, not connect), the book dissects the history and systems that allow TB to persist even when we can easily cure it. The crew also talks about what medical education could look like if it provided stories with slide decks—and why Green thinks Mario Kart might be the best metaphor for how humanity could achieve global health equity.

Everyone knows med school is hard. For some, it’s even harder. Dave Etler hosts a raw conversation with med students M1 Emily Baniewicz, M3 Jeff Goddard, PA 1 Chloe Kepros, and M3 Madeline Ungs about the reality of navigating disability during medical training. With insights from Jenna Ladd, PhD, CCOM's recently hired accessibility specialist, they dig into accommodations that range from extra time to simply having a chair. The group shares stories of advocating for themselves while trying to keep up in a system not designed with their bodies or brains in mind. They discuss how their chronic illnesses, anxiety, and invisible disabilities show up in pre-clinical courses and clinical clerkships, why getting help can feel like a confession, and why pushing for equity isn’t about advantage over others — it’s about access. Also, yes, someone did pass out during shadowing. And while some may say a disability means they don’t belong here, the fact is, medicine needs them.

All of med school leads up to one moment: Match Day. But how do get there? Dave Etler sits down with graduating M4s Mallory Kallish (surgery), Matt Engelken (OB/gyn), Jacob Lamb (radiology), and Will Sai (famiy medicine) to unpack the uncertainty and pressure around choosing a medical specialty. They share how they landed their matches—not through sudden epiphanies, but through trial, error, and sometimes vibes. We hear about emotional rotations, mentors who came through clutch, and interview seasons fueled by spreadsheets or sheer gut instinct. And yes, we talk about the infamous stereotypes: are you “too nice” for surgery, or “too male” for OB? Also in this episode: the hidden power of palliative care, how to survive pre-clinical burnout, why some specialties get unfairly labeled “dead ends,” and what it means to feel like you belong in a specialty—even if you don’t fit the mold.

Turning down that med school acceptance might cost more than you think. Listener “my initials are ARM” got into medical school—cue the confetti—but now that reality’s set in, she’s not feeling great about her only acceptance. The school is small, expensive, and far from home. Should she go anyway or risk reapplying in hopes of a better fit next year? MD/PhD students Michael Arrington, Shruthi Kondaboina, Jessica Smith, and M1 Maria Schapfel weigh the real costs of walking away from an acceptance, from the red flags admissions committees look for to the gamble of getting in again. They get honest about finances, family, and the very unsexy truth about how much the campus “vibe” actually matters. Plus, what to say if you do it anyway. Bonus: the MD/PhD students dish about why they took that road, while Maria counters with why MD is better for her.

Can Art, Nature, and Community Replace Pills? What if doctors prescribed a painting class instead of or alongside pills? Journalist Julia Hotz, author of The Connection Cure, joins M3 Jeff Goddard, and MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush to discuss social prescribing, a growing healthcare movement that treats patients with art, nature, movement, and community rather than just medication. We look at the barriers to making this idea work in the U.S., from insurance hurdles to physician overwork to healthcare’s obsession with quick fixes. But the UK’s social prescribing model reduced ER visits by up to 50%, and it acknowledges loneliness might be as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Can medical students lead the charge toward healthcare that actually reduces physicians’ moral injury? More about our guest: https://www.hotzthoughts.com/https://www.socialprescribing.co/https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Connection-Cure/Julia-Hotz/9781668030332 We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s

How future doctors are navigating social media’s impact on public education. How can a well-meaning medfluencer be sure they’re actually helping? M1 Zach Grissom, M2 Fallon Jung, M3 Jeff Goddard, and M4 Matt Engelken sit down with third-year DO student Nik Bletnitsky to discuss the role of social media in medical education. Current and Future doctors are increasingly using these platforms to share medical knowledge—but, even if you’re careful to offer the best information, what are the hidden dangers? The conversation covers the sometimes blurry line between education, misinformation, and contradicting someone’s doctor’s advice. How disclaimers work (or don’t), and why the Dunning-Kruger effect can turn a curious patient into an overconfident self-diagnoser. Should doctors be influencers? Can patients trust what they see online? And is it possible to make medical knowledge accessible without accidentally making things worse?

Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” makes us question everything. It showcases the best and worst in people—and this week, we’re analyzing some choice cases through the lens of med school. M1s Srishti Mathur, Sahana Sarin, Maria Schapfel, and Mahaasrei Ghosh debate whether people in these scenarios are truly in the wrong or just victims of someone having a very bad day. We break down the pressure on pre-meds and med students to do research, the value of publications, and the “gunner” mentality. Is bench research a necessary evil, or are pre-meds wasting their time? When is it appropriate to insist on being called ‘Doctor?’ Is it okay to go nuclear to take someone down a notch when they need it? Is a degree in design and marketing as important as an MD? It’s a chaotic mix of ethics, egos, and existential crises—so strap in.

They might know the citric acid cycle, but do med students know what ancient doctors used for pain relief, or the shape of wombat poop? Join us for Blechardy! the trivia game show that involves a certain amount of suffering! Contestants answer medical and pop culture questions—but with potentially disgusting jellybeans that make any actual knowledge meaningless. This week’s medical student co-hosts: M3 Jeff Goddard, and M1s Cara Arrasmith, Tyler Pollock, and Keely Carney, with quizmaster Audra King, battle through ancient medicine facts, Iowa trivia, and the weirdest animal knowledge. Who will emerge victorious, and who will regret every bite? We don’t even know, and we were there! Along the way, we discuss podcast rivalries (should we start fake beef with Joe Rogan?) and the questionable benefits of coffee beans digested by animals. Come for the trivia, stay for the suffering.

There are many reasons healthcare professionals write: to process trauma, build empathy, or simply because stories demand to be told. This week we've got a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Carol Scott-Conner, a surgeon, poet, and editor of The Examined Life Journal; Katie Runde, a novelist exploring themes of love and loss; Jeff Goddard, an M3 medical student and soon-to-be-published author; and Linda Peng, a sci-fi writer and Bowman Prize-winning author. They discuss the challenges of writing about real patients while maintaining ethical boundaries, the impact of narrative medicine on medical education, and why residency often leaves little time for self-reflection even though that's where it can be most helpful. Plus, they break down the blurred line between fiction and lived experience in writing and whether good storytelling requires personal experience. No matter why doctors, patients, and medical students write, it's a powerful tool that can sooth some of healthcare's most difficult problems where the participants' humanity and the system come together.

Anki? Lecture notes? Study groups? Med students spill the truth about what actually works. First semester of med school is like eating a never-ending stack of pancakes—it’s fast, overwhelming, and it doesn’t care if you’re full. Listener G asked us for some tips, and in this episode, M1s Zach Grissom, Megan Perry, Jay Miller, and Srishti Mathur take us through the rough transition from undergrad to medical school and what they wish they knew before starting. From study methods that failed (Anki obsession, passive learning) to strategies that actually worked (active recall, selective focus, study groups), they share what helped them survive. Burnout hits hard, and everyone here felt it–the mental exhaustion, learning to take breaks, and the power of peer support. Plus, the surprising truth about exams—sometimes failing is the best teacher. they also tackle balancing med school with real life: keeping hobbies, staying social, and even reading trashy novels. Finally, an improv game throws the med students into hilarious situations. Listen for our unfiltered med school survival tips, study hacks, and some much-needed laughs!