This is a podcast about the other parts of medicine. Not the drugs, or the latest clinical trial, or the how-to-schedule-your-clinic sort of best-practice discussions, but it’s the place that we talk about medicine and what keeps us coming back for it. It’s the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes it special, that lets us forgive it for all its faults and that lets us continue to love it for what it is.

Every episode, we cover three stories around a central theme in medicine and storytelling. Our theme today is a really great one: Is there a doctor in the house?

This means the obvious when we’re in our usual day (or night) at work at the hospital, at the clinic, or wherever it is that you practice. But it’s something really special that the skills of our occupation follow us into all aspects of our lives.

And that’s what this episode is about: When you end up doctoring even when you aren’t really on the clock, because doctoring is something you do, but truly, a doctor is something you are. We can’t turn off the drive to help and the need to care. It’s what makes us special, and it’s what makes medicine as a career path special. Because it’s not just a career, but an identity.

Chapter 1: From HIIT Workout to Hair Apposition (2:22) — Pediatrician sows up split scalp with nothing but his bare hands and skill. Story by Ted Handler, MD.

Chapter 2: A Crisis Curveball at the Cubs Game (13:46) — From baseball spectator to patient of a child neurologist. Story by Jennifer Rubin, MD.

Chapter 3: A Code Blue While Dressed in Red (23:27) — Cardiologist tosses off heels to resuscitate man down at American Heart Association event. Story by Evelina Grayver, MD.

Episode produced by Genevieve Friedman

Sound engineering by Greg Laub

Theme music by Palomar