The Short Coat: An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Episodes
Step Exams: Ready Or Not Here They Come
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Three exams that might drive you crazy. If you’re a pre-med, you may have heard about Step exams. But what are they? When the hell are you su...
The Med School Traditions That Make Lifelong Bonds
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Building community through experiences Tradition is a big part of medical school–med students willingly tie themselves to comedy shows, chari...
Things You Can Do To Prepare for Med School (and One Thing You Shouldn’t!)
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Prioritize Fun! What should you do with the time between getting accepted to medical school and orientation week? Fallon Jung, Anna Royer, Jonah A...
Choosing a Professional Identity: Beyond Medical School Classes
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How medical schools help students figure out what kind of doctor they’ll be. Looking at medical school and wondering what you’ll actual...
Med Students on Long Distance Love: Does It Last?
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When medical school forces couples apart, students face tough realities Medical students dish on the messy, tender, and surprisingly philosophical ...
Medical Students and Love: Do Their Spouses Really Know Them?
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Heart Wants What It Wants. In this Valentine’s Day episode, four medical students sit down to play the ultimate compatibility game—answ...
Med Students React: Social Media from Helpful to Hogwash
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Slather some beef tallow on it. On this episode, M3 Fallon Jung, M1s Isa Perez-Sandi and Cory Karasek, and M2 Maria Schapfel let loose on the inter...
The Surprising Connection Between Hobbies and Medicine
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t give up the outside activities that’ll make you a better doc As Dave has observed many times, medicine will take everything you h...
Med Students Take the Hot Nugget Challenge
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
[Content warning: Dave did his best to remove sniffles.] Spicy chicken nuggets, bad decisions, and what happens when medical students test their h...
Tips and Tricks for Crushing it in Clerkships
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What to expect for med students moving from classroom to exam room The beginning of clerkships mark a medical student’s progress from theore...
They Way Most Docs are Paid Doesn’t Lead to Healthier Patients (Recess Rehash)
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
[ICYMI, here’s a rerun of a show released earlier this year. We’ll be back with new shows starting next week!] How the system pays doctors ca...
Demand to Be Called ‘Doctor,’ or Let It Slide (AITA)? (Recess Rehash)
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
[It’s winter break, and everything has come to a halt here, including podcasting. We’ll be back soon, promise!] Reddit’s “Am I th...
Another Path to Med School: Masters of Clinical Anatomy
26 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An alternative to postbac programs? Postbac programs are okay, but what if there was another path to medical school? M2s Sarah Upton, Alec Martico...
The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors (Recess Rehash)
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[We weren’t available to record a new show for you this week, so enjoy this rerun instead!] Clinical students are sometimes the only ones wh...
How to Survive The First Semester of Med School
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
These M1s say it wasn’t easy…but it was FUN? You know medical school is hard, but what does that mean? That idea has no emotional con...
Family expectations, culture clashes, and career priorities: Who’s the A-Hole? (Recess Rehash)
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[Due to Thanksgiving break, we have no new episode this week for you, but here’s a good one from our back catalog!] When your boyfriend̵...
The Universal Experience that Medicine Hates Talking About Most
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of death and dying that some listeners may want to skip.] Doctors need to actually ask p...
Harsh Truth: Most Pre-Meds Don’t Get Accepted
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Three med students who didn’t get in at first talk about why. Thousands of med school applicants are going to feel the sting of rejection a...
The Rural Doc Crisis and the Med Students Who Plan to Be Where They’re Most Needed
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Truths and Solutions for Small-Town Healthcare. We’re talking about rural medicine, where the needs are huge, the systems are broken, and s...
Med Student Leaders: Juggling Roles at School and Home
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is work-life “balance” the right framing? Is “work-life balance” a myth in medical school? What do successful students do ...
Med School Stereotypes Shattered: What We’re Really Like Inside
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Turns out medical students are regular humans who happen to need to memorize the Krebs cycle We’ve all got that mental image of medical stud...
My Family Thinks I’m a Doctor Already
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What med students wish their families actually understood about medical school Your family means well… but when you start med school, suddenly e...
From Bartending to Bedside: What Our Pre-Med Jobs Taught Us About Medicine
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
No med student starts with a blank slate If you’re thinking of starting over and going to med school, you might wonder what your previous jo...
Federal Loan Caps & Medical School Debt: What Future Doctors Need to Know
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Medical School is Now More of a Gamble Medical school just became a lot more expensive for some students and potentially impossible for others, th...
PA Week: Don’t Sleep on this Career!
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
MDs have main character energy, but don’t ignore Physician Assistants. We talk a lot about medical students on this podcast, but at Iowa we ...
From Broke to Bank: Money Lessons Med School Skips
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Med School ROI: Still Worth the Debt? Doctors make bank, so why do they feel poor? We’re breaking down the brutal reality of medical money myths...
Going on Leave: The Power Move No One Talks About in Med School
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What med schools don’t tell you about hitting pause. Turns out, pausing med school can actually be the smartest career move. Whether you’re sp...
Feedback is Data, Not Devastation.
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How to Take Negative Feedback And Use It to Win in Med School Recently, our admissions coordinator Rachel was surprised by the reaction from an ap...
They Way Most Docs are Paid Doesn’t Lead to Healthier Patients
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How the system pays doctors can change healthcare outcomes—sometimes in scary ways. The way docs are paid can make patients sicker…or can ...
Family expectations, culture clashes, and career priorities: Who’s the A-Hole?
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When your boyfriend’s an OB/GYN and your friends can’t chill We’re passing judgment, because someone has to. This week’s Reddit-fu...
From Ecuador to Iowa, Ortho to Community Healthcare: the Last of the Summers
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
These M2s made the most of their last summer “break.” Summer in med school: is it beach vibes or big-doings? Turns out, it’s a weird mix of ...
DNP Doubts, Prepping for Patients, and Smarts Self-Doubt–listener questions answered!
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Real answers for your real med school dilemmas. We’ve had some listener question stacking up like it’s the ER waiting room at shift change—a...
What Residency Program Directors Actually Want
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
And the real reason you’re not getting clear advice about applying to residency. Listener Baffled J. Whoseadaddy (not his real name) asked u...
Placentas, Prostates, and Purple Goggles (Recess Rehash)
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Medical students share insights on hitting milestones and navigating transitions [We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you m...
Slap Some Moldy Bread On It: Blechardy! (Recess Rehash)
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do med students know that isn’t medicine? [We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you missed it!] Do med studen...
Medfluencers and Patient Education: Helpful or Risky? (Recess Rehash)
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How future doctors are navigating social media’s impact on public education. [We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you mis...
She Got Into Med School… But Now She’s Not Sure (Recess Rehash)
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Turning down that med school acceptance might cost more than you think. [We’re on vacation, so enjoy this recent show in case you missed it!...
Sheriff of Sodium: AI Will Replace Doctors (Reality Check!)
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Docs are in denial, but the economic incentives make it inevitable You’re working hard to be (or become) a doctor — now a bot might take y...
How a Walk in the Park Sparked a Health Movement, ft. David Sabgir, MD
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A cardiologist ditched the standard lecture and took a walk with his patients. You can too! Cardiologist David Sabgir was tired of telling patien...
AI in Med School: Helpful Tool or Total Crutch?
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
MD and PA students reflect on what AI gets right—and what still makes them nervous. “How are you using AI in med school?” That’s t...
Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe...
The One Truth Linking Medicine, Mortality, and Meltdown
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are things getting better or worse? What if your a career in medicine, the collapse of civilization, and the maternal mortality crisis all shared ...
Free Lunch, Headaches, and Holding Hearts
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How friendships, food, and failing forward gets med students through the first year. No one tells you how much of med school is powered by fre...
The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
From Broke to Bulletproof: The White Coat Investor’s Advice
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 sh...
Med School’s Unique Problems (AITA)
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Behind every successful doctor is someone who paid their rent or walked their dog. What makes someone a real astronaut? Dave Etler, MD/PhD student...
From Perfect Plans to Grease Fires: The Med School Spectrum
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Behind the façade lies chaos, confidence, and occasional kitchen fires. What do med and PA students really think about their lives? We check the ...
Medicine Can Cure TB—But Humanity Won’t
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When a CURE exists but ACCESS doesn’t, who do we blame? Tuberculosis is curable. We just don’t care enough to cure it. That’s the pr...
How Med Students Redefine Ability and Success
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Real students, real barriers, and the daily fight to stay in the game. Everyone knows med school is hard. For some, it’s even harder. Dave Etler...
From Fire Hose to Final Decision–How Med Students Choose Careers
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Picking a Career in Medicine is Insane. All of med school leads up to one moment: Match Day. But how do get there? Dave Etler sits down with g...
She Got Into Med School… But Now She’s Not Sure
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Turning down that med school acceptance might cost more than you think. Listener “ARM” got into medical school—cue the confetti—but now th...
If you’re asking, you might be the a**hole (Recess Rehash)
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[Because of Spring Break, instead of a new episode you can enjoy this re-run! If NPR can do it, so can we. We’ll be back next week.] Life&...
Prescribing Meet-ups Instead of Meds…it seems to work!
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can Art, Nature, and Community Replace Pills? What if doctors prescribed a painting class instead of or alongside pills? Journalist Julia Hotz, au...
Medfluencers and Patient Education: Helpful or Risky?
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How future doctors are navigating social media’s impact on public education. How can a well-meaning medfluencer be sure they’re actually helpi...
Demand to Be Called ‘Doctor,’ or Let It Slide (AITA)?
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” makes us question everything Reddit’s “AITA?” brings out the best and worst in people—and this week, we...
Slap Some Moldy Bread On It: Blechardy!
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do med students know that isn’t medicine? Do med students know what ancient doctors used for pain relief, or the shape of wombat poop?...
4 Writers Explain How Telling Stories Makes Better Doctors
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writing helps doctors understand their patients—and themselves—better. There are many reasons healthcare professionals write: to process traum...
First Semester Med School: What Worked, What Failed, and How We Fixed It.
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anki? Lecture notes? Study groups? Med students spill the truth about what actually works. First semester of med school is like eating a never-end...
Into the Deep End: Surviving Our First Clinical Rotations (Tips and Tricks!)
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when medical students trade books for the chaos of real patient care They spent months and months learning medicine from books. Then ...
When Your Partner is in Med School… What You Need to Know
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Supporting a Med Student is Tough In this episode, host Dave Etler has been (kidnapped? It’s unclear) and replaced by his grumpy brother Dom...
The Secret to Getting Better Health Care: Be Different
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do Patients Have to Perform to Be Taken Seriously in Medicine? How does “respectability politics” play out in healthcare, and specific...
Placentas, Prostates, and Purple Goggles
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Medical students share insights on hitting milestones and navigating transitions The rollercoaster of medical school transitions is hitting some p...
Shocking betrayals, sure fire blindness, niche community drama (Recess Rehash)
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[We’re still on break, but we’ll be back soon! In the meantime, have a listen to this ep, in case you missed it] It’s a freesty...
New MD and PA Students: Why Medicine? (Recess Rehash)
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
[It’s winter break here at CCOM, so the podcast is on break, too! Enjoy this rerun!] Med Students discuss what led them to med school Da...
Stay or Run, Back from the Brink, Allopath v. Osteopath: Answering Listener Questions!
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
5 listener questions ANSWERED! Dave Etler is joined by co-hosts MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush, and M1s Zach Elias and Demir Tuken, and M3 Hend A...
Don’t Drop Your Hobbies, Doc!
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You need things to keep you grounded, so keep those hobbies going, or find some. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: studying me...
Dark Humor in Medicine, Family Expectations, and The Inviolable “Zone”
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of X, Y and Z that many listeners will find disturbing.] Once again, we decide who’...
Trends in Medicine and Med Ed ft. Medscape’s Jon McKenna
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We explore the trends in AI, residency, med school, and more MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush, M4 Katie Higham-Kessler, and M3s Olivia Jenks and El...
It’s Thanksgiving. Let’s “Help” People.
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reddit Health Questions, Answered It’s the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, so M4 Katie Higham-Kessler, PA2 Julie Vuong, and MD/Ph...
Gross Anatomy: More Than Meets the Eye for Students
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of the study of anatomy that some listeners will find disturbing.] The First Patient Stu...
Worms, Fears, and Beethoven’s Ears (Recess Rehash)
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[This episode is sponsored by Beginly Health. Whether you’re actively searching or casually exploring job opportunities, the Beginly platform ...
MD and PA Students Aren’t Buying The Scope Creep Fight
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why are the AMA and the AAPA Fighting? PA2 Olivia Quinby, PA2 Raginya Handoo, PA2 Julie Vuong, and M4 Katie Higham-Kessler dig into the intense de...
Med-Techbros, Shortage Woes, and Ig Nobel Probes (Recess Rehash)
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[We tried to put together a Halloween episode, but everyone was doing med school stuff. Rude. So enjoy this re-run!] As another physician shorta...
AITA: We’re All Just Janky ChatGPTs
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans just aren’t great at thinking Dave is joined by MD/PhD student Miranda Schene, M1 Chase Larsson, M2 Radha Velamuri, M2 Fallon Jung, a...
Slapping together a Confident Med School Application List
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Self-reflection is key to choosing what med schools to apply to Listener Virginia dropped us a line to ask us how she might go about selecting fro...
Does the Medical Profession Glorify Misery? (Recess Rehash)
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[With Dave taking a vacation, here is your opportunity to enjoy this rerun. We’ll be back with a new episode next week!] Do everything you ...
Is Med School Impossible with a Serious Mental Illness?
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of mental health and mentions suicide.] Getting your support systems in order is key to ...
Physician Assistants Week 2024!
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sign up for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Professional and Graduate School Virtual Conference! Compared to MDs, the PA profes...
Rachel Takes Over to Ask the Big Questions
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
She’s arguably the better host Dave is too tired to helm the show, so he lured Admissions Coordinator Rachel Shulista to be on the show, the...
Too Much, or Never Enough
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sign up for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Professional and Graduate School Virtual Conference! Balancing Medical School A...
MCAT Score Reveals, MMA or Family, and Never-ending Sacrifices
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are You The Asshole? Dave is joined by co-hosts M1 Alec Marticoff, M1 Zach Grissom, PA1 Chloe Kepros, and M2 Holly Hemann. Together, they adjudica...
The Disease Medicine Suffers From That’s Causing Immense Suffering
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Groupthink Kills Do any of these ideas sound familiar? Whether born by C-section or vaginally, outcomes are the same for babies. Opioids ar...
New MD and PA Students: Why Medicine?
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Med Students discuss what led them to med school Dave welcomes newly minted medical and PA students at the Carver College of Medicine to share the...
New Students Arrive, How to Live in the Present, and Staying Sane While Applying
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome New MD/PA students! M2s Leticia Franciso and Gizzy Keeler, who served as orientation leaders for this year’s new crop of medical and...
Blechardy and Beans
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Med School is Non-Trivial, but… Against the backdrop of a new class of MD and PA students arriving at the University of Iowa Carver College ...
Public Studying, Ultrasound Oopsie, and Stealing Valor from Nurses: AITA
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s another trip through Reddit, arbiter of A-holishness What lessons does medical school teach? Aside from the foundations of cellular l...
What Does “Perfect” Mean in Med School?
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why perfect isn’t always the goal Listener Noah wrote to us from the UK asking–among other things–how he could flourish when he ...
Stem Cell Shenanigans, Hopkins Hype, and Buxton’s Bravery
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
July 2024 News Roundup This week, M3 Jeff Goddard, M2 Taryn O’Brien, and MD/PhD student Riley Behan Bush are on hand to discuss July’s...
AITA? Probably!
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
But sometimes everyone’s a jerk. Self-evaluation is important, especially in medicine, but sometimes you just gotta ask–was I a jerk? ...
How Med Students Do Long Distance Relationships
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s all about the plan! Listener Neurotic Premed dropped us a message at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus to ask what medical students in lo...
Small Towns, Big Impact: Rural Medicine ft. Peter Kaboli, MD (Recess Rehash)
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[We’re still in the midst a summer break, so here’s a rerun in case you missed it.] The unique experiences and challenges of practicing medici...
The Sheriff is Watching, Ft. Bryan Carmody, MD (Recess Rehash)
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Sheriff of Sodium investigates the current state and future of medical training [We’re taking a vacation for a couple weeks, so while we ...
Programs that will pay for medical school (and one thing not to do)
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[This episode has visual content you might find more enjoyable using YouTube Music, where you can listen with your phone in your pocket as usual, but...
If you’re asking, you might be the a**hole
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Life’s grey areas, offered up for internet discussion Sometimes, you need someone to tell you if you’ve crossed the line. That’s...
New Women’s Health Restrictions?
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our new monthly legislation and policy roundup Project 2025 is the name of a project that hopes to serve as a blueprint for a future conservative ...
Does the Medical Profession Glorify Misery?
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[This episode is sponsored by Beginly Health. The Beginly platform matches physicians and APPs with employers with complete anonymity until youR...
Against the Odds: First-Generation in Medicine
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard to become a doctor when you’ve never met one. It’s sometimes easy to forget from the ivory tower that relatively few A...
Worms, Fears, and Beethoven’s Ears
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
[This episode is sponsored by Beginly Health. Whether you’re actively searching or casually exploring job opportunities, the Beginly platform ...
Med School is SIMPLE?! (Recess Rehash)
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“I honestly have had the most relaxing time I’ve had in forever, and for anybody who’s like, that’s ridiculous, just wait.&#...
3 ways medicine changed this week
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From classroom to exam room, what you need to know [This episode is sponsored by Beginly Health. Whether you’re actively searching or casua...