White Coat, Black Art

By CBC

What's White Coat, Black Art about?

Trusted ER doctor Brian Goldman brings you honest and surprising stories that can change your health and your life. Expect deep conversations with patients, families and colleagues that show you what is and isn't working in Canadian healthcare. Guaranteed you’ll learn something new. Episodes drop every Friday.

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White Coat, Black Art episodes:

05.26.2023
Brain surgeon Henry Marsh reflects on getting cancer
Famed British neurosurgeon and author Dr. Henry Marsh thought he was well-versed in human illness. That is until he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and was forced to see things from the patient’s point of view.
05.18.2023
ENCORE: Sports Betting Addiction
Now that single-event sports betting is taking off in Canada, ads and incentives are encouraging people to make a wager. But a recovering gambling addict and a gambling counsellor worry it’s easier than ever to get dangerously hooked. And they...
05.12.2023
The secret to success at Community Health Centres
People with complex medical needs are accepted at Centretown Community Health Centre in Ottawa, and thriving because of it. Patients at about 120 CHCs across Canada are more likely to get cancer screenings and avoid costly trips to emergency. Teamwork...
05.08.2023
White Coat Black Art Introduces: Let’s Not Be Kidding with Gavin Crawford
If laughter really was the best medicine, Gavin Crawford would have cured his mother of Alzheimer’s disease. As a son, his mother’s dementia has been devastating. As a comedian though…it’s been sort of funny. Honestly, how do you respond when...
05.05.2023
Caregiver burden and relief
Esther Schreiber married her sweetheart Eddi and enjoyed a busy life until he was diagnosed with young onset dementia a decade ago. Eddi, 68, is now almost completely non verbal. As he slowly lost his caring personality, Esther’s caregiving demands...
04.28.2023
Helping the caregiver recover
Janet Nisbet was primary caregiver to her husband Richard. Since his death, Janet has experienced the gamut of complex feelings that family caregivers sometimes experience following the death of a loved one.
04.21.2023
Previvors: Part 2
Part two of our series on cancer previvors - the growing number of people who through genetic testing live knowing it’s highly probable that one day they’ll get cancer.
04.14.2023
Previvors: Part 1
The stories of two women who are cancer previvors. Both Jordyn and Anne had family members with breast cancer. Both got genetic testing and found out they too carried genes that gave them very high odds of getting cancer too....
04.06.2023
ENCORE: Paramedic house call ride along
In Ontario’s Renfrew County, one in four people don’t have a primary caregiver. But an innovative program where community paramedics do house calls is helping take care of patients so they don’t need to go to the ER. And it...
04.01.2023
Prescribing pharmacists
Alberta allows pharmacists to prescribe medications for a wide variety of ailments. Dr. Brian Goldman visits a pharmacist in that province to ask how it's working out.
03.31.2023
Alberta pharmacists who prescribe drugs
Alberta allows pharmacists to prescribe medications for a wide variety of ailments. Dr. Brian Goldman visits a pharmacist in that province to see how it's working out.
03.24.2023
The Real Good Doctor
The hit TV show 'The Good Doctor' is about a surgeon on the autism spectrum. But JJ Mracek is the real deal. The resident physician has finally found her calling in pathology where she can use her super power of...
03.17.2023
Hospital at home UK style
The Acute Hospital At Home program in Oxford, England keeps patients in their own homes, who might otherwise be admitted to hospital. Professor Dan Lasserson takes Dr. Brian Goldman on the road to show how they bring effective and safe...
03.10.2023
UK healthcare crisis lessons for Canada
Like Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system, the UK’s National Health Service is in crisis. Overcrowded ERs are groaning with patients, there aren’t enough hospital beds and people are paying for some elective surgeries at private facilities. Nurses, ambulance workers and...
03.03.2023
The Graduate
85-year-old Ron Robert graduated from King's University College at Western University last fall despite being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He's fit and wiry with a strong handgrip. He’s also got a surprising grip on living with dementia. His insight may help...
02.24.2023
WCBA recommends IDEAS | War and Medicine: Hawkeye's Army
We think nothing today of calling healthcare workers “front line workers,” engaged in a “battle” against disease. But the roots of the war metaphor in medicine go a long way back ⁠— entrenched by pop culture icons like the TV...
02.24.2023
'They don’t care about me mom’: teen’s surgery delayed five times
The impact of delayed surgery on Nathan Gilson. He’s a sixteen-year old whose surgery to correct severe scoliosis was postponed five times.
02.17.2023
ENCORE: The trouble with home care
The federal government has offered billions to help fund an ailing healthcare system. Help can’t come soon enough for a system that many say is in a state of crisis, if not collapse. Take home care. Nearly one million Canadians...
02.10.2023
Unsung heroes: Orthotists and Prosthetists
Scott Hedlund and David Broman design, build, fit and fix prosthetic appliances like artificial limbs. They talk about the challenges and joys of their jobs.
02.03.2023
Virtual Care
A look at virtual medical appointments. The pendulum is swinging back to in-person visits. But some Canadians say virtual clinics are filling a huge and growing gap in our health care system.
01.27.2023
The Menopause Movement: Part 2
Primary care providers don’t always recognize menopause symptoms for what they are, focusing instead on whether they’re a sign of a more serious problem. And not all know that menopausal hormone therapy is a safe and effective treatment for many...
01.20.2023
The Menopause Movement: Part I
Women who have had troubling health experiences say perimenopause and menopause should be recognized and treated faster because it would reduce needless suffering. Four women share their stories and offer ideas about what should change in the health-care system to...
01.12.2023
Prairie Harm Reduction
Dr. Brian Goldman visits Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon. It's one of Saskatchewan's safe consumptions sites for people using illicit drugs -- and it receives zero funding from the province.
01.06.2023
The Road To You
The CBC’s Julianne Hazlewood takes us on a familiar journey that for her is filled with uncertainty and peril. Julianne is in the late stages of pregnancy. She also has epilepsy. For additional support, she joined a research program called...
01.06.2023
BONUS: A chat with The Fifth Estate about sports betting
We recently did an episode on White Coat Black Art on sports betting addiction, which is on the rise in Canada, and the enormous physical and mental toll it can have. CBC’s The Fifth Estate went to the UK to...
12.31.2022
How can I take charge of my health without a family doctor?
Millions of Canadians don’t have a family doctor or primary care provider. Dr. Peter Lin, a family physician and a director of the Canadian Heart Research Centre, spells out practical ways people can take charge of their health when they're...
12.24.2022
ENCORE: Health-care Hero Iain White
19-year-old Iain White went from serving meals to residents at a long-term care centre to becoming their confidante in the depth of the pandemic. He was nominated as one of White Coat, Black Art’s health-care heroes. We include an update...
12.16.2022
A grade-six classroom in a long-term care home
A visit to Saskatoon's Sherbrooke Community Centre where grade-six students spend their school day learning and getting to know the residents.
12.09.2022
First Responder Psychedelics
Ketamine helped one police officer get through a childhood trauma. Some experts say psychedelics could help people with PTSD but much more research is needed.
12.09.2022
First Responder Psychedelics
Ketamine helped one police officer get through a childhood trauma. Some experts say psychedelics could help people with PTSD but much more research is needed.
12.02.2022
A more effective way of dealing with people in crisis
Brian Goldman and producer Jeff Goodes ride along with TAIBU, a mobile crisis response team in Scarborough that provides a non-police response to urgent mental health crises in the community.
11.25.2022
Don't blame the walk-in clinic for the delays to see a doctor
Saskatchewan has lost so many of its family care doctors in the last year that 200,000 "orphaned" patients are relying on walk-in clinics to get medical attention. Legends Medical Clinic in Warman is in the middle of the crisis, trying...
11.17.2022
ENCORE: Jennifer's Story
In December 2019, Jennifer Fotheringham was stuck in traffic on the Queensway in Ottawa. She heard a White Coat Black Art episode about women in their forties dying of breast cancer, in part because they don’t get access to screening...
11.11.2022
A hospital CEO says there's a feeling of powerlessness
An intimate conversation with Alex Munter, President and CEO of CHEO in Ottawa. Like other pediatric hospitals across Canada, CHEO is bursting at the seams trying to cope with a tridemic of COVID, RSV and flu.
11.04.2022
Whoops, there is cancer
Charles Kinch searches for answers in the death of his wife Leslie Kissel from uterine cancer.
10.28.2022
Sports Betting Addiction
Now that single-event sports betting is taking off in Canada, ads and incentives are encouraging people to make a wager. But a recovering sport gambling addict and gambling counsellor worry it’s easier than ever to get dangerously hooked. And they...
10.21.2022
Out of the fog: Long COVID sufferer is pushing for more government support
Susie Goulding speaks out about her own experience with long Covid and how that made her an advocate for others like her.
10.14.2022
Polio comeback threatens Canadians
Polio is making a comeback around the world and falling vaccine rates in Canada make us vulnerable to a disease that was once close to eradication. Miki Boleen, an 83-year-old polio survivor, has made it her mission to urge parents...
10.07.2022
The amazing story of Catherine Wreford Ledlow
Broadway star and long-time dancer Catherine Wreford Ledlow was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013. But that hasn’t stopped her from living life to the fullest. She continues to be involved in film and theatre productions and advocates for more...
09.30.2022
Shauna saves lives
Shauna Pinkerton is waging a one-person campaign to save lives by passing out fentanyl testing strips, naloxone kits and safe drug paraphernalia, and sometimes by being there when people overdose. The people she is trying to save aren’t her clients....
09.23.2022
Salt Spring family doctor blues
Dr. Chris Applewhaite is a family doctor on Salt Spring Island in BC, a place where nearly half of all residents don’t have one. Low pay, a mountain of paperwork and lack of timely access to MRIs and specialists make...
09.16.2022
The cure for home care
Futurist Zayna Khayat and Geriatrician Samir Sinha offer home care solutions which are less expensive and more effective than our current system.
09.09.2022
The trouble with home care
For our new season’s launch, we’re taking an in-depth look at home care. It’s a crucial part of a health-care system that’s on the brink of collapsing. Nearly one million Canadians rely on home care and another 500,000 will need...
09.02.2022
Mental health dream team
Dr. Brian Goldman rides along with Constable Scott Woods of the Hamilton Police Service and Sarah Burtenshaw, a mental health worker at St. Joseph’s Healthcare. They are a Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team in Hamilton that responds to 9-1-1 mental...
08.26.2022
The Recovery Sessions Podcast: Maryam and Kwadwo
Maryam Mahdavi musters the courage to make a social breakthrough at university thanks to coaching from Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, an Ottawa ICU physician.
08.18.2022
Road trip to meet Dr. Alika Lafontaine
A surprisingly intimate conversation with Dr. Alika Lafontaine. This weekend, the Metis anesthesiologist from Saskatchewan becomes the first Indigenous physician to lead the Canadian Medical Association.
08.11.2022
ENCORE: How to have tender conversations
A feature interview with Dr. Kathryn Mannix. In her new book, "Listen: How to find the words for tender conversations," Mannix shares lessons on how to connect with loved ones and friends on deeply personal subjects.
08.04.2022
ENCORE: The horrors of hospital gowns
Likening the 100-year-old hospital gown to a prisoner's orange jumpsuit, a prominent British doctor says the "alien, open-at-the-back garment" is in desperate need of a redesign.
07.30.2022
The Recovery Sessions Podcast: Kealey and AnnMarie
Listen in on the one-on-one coaching sessions between Kealey Pringle and AnnMarie Churchill, a social worker in St. John’s. She's helping Kealey take baby steps towards overcoming her COVID fears and rekindling her in-person social life.
07.23.2022
ENCORE: How one doctor fought her bullies and won
Halifax cardiologist Dr. Gabrielle Horne spent 14 years fighting to restore her reputation after she was bullied and bad-mouthed by supervisors when she was an up-and-coming researcher. She was awarded what was the largest settlement in Canada for loss of...

What's White Coat, Black Art about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

White Coat, Black Art episodes:

Brain surgeon Henry Marsh reflects on getting cancer

ENCORE: Sports Betting Addiction

The secret to success at Community Health Centres

White Coat Black Art Introduces: Let’s Not Be Kidding with Gavin Crawford

Caregiver burden and relief

Helping the caregiver recover

Previvors: Part 2

Previvors: Part 1

ENCORE: Paramedic house call ride along

Prescribing pharmacists

Alberta pharmacists who prescribe drugs

The Real Good Doctor

Hospital at home UK style

UK healthcare crisis lessons for Canada

The Graduate

WCBA recommends IDEAS | War and Medicine: Hawkeye's Army

'They don’t care about me mom’: teen’s surgery delayed five times

ENCORE: The trouble with home care

Unsung heroes: Orthotists and Prosthetists

Virtual Care

The Menopause Movement: Part 2

The Menopause Movement: Part I

Prairie Harm Reduction

The Road To You

BONUS: A chat with The Fifth Estate about sports betting

How can I take charge of my health without a family doctor?

ENCORE: Health-care Hero Iain White

A grade-six classroom in a long-term care home

First Responder Psychedelics

First Responder Psychedelics

A more effective way of dealing with people in crisis

Don't blame the walk-in clinic for the delays to see a doctor

ENCORE: Jennifer's Story

A hospital CEO says there's a feeling of powerlessness

Whoops, there is cancer

Sports Betting Addiction

Out of the fog: Long COVID sufferer is pushing for more government support

Polio comeback threatens Canadians

The amazing story of Catherine Wreford Ledlow

Shauna saves lives

Salt Spring family doctor blues

The cure for home care

The trouble with home care

Mental health dream team

The Recovery Sessions Podcast: Maryam and Kwadwo

Road trip to meet Dr. Alika Lafontaine

ENCORE: How to have tender conversations

ENCORE: The horrors of hospital gowns

The Recovery Sessions Podcast: Kealey and AnnMarie

ENCORE: How one doctor fought her bullies and won