** TRIGGER WARNING FOR SA**

Episode Summary:

What makes an ordinary person follow an order they know is wrong? This week on Medical Media Mixer, Tara and Nicole explore one of psychology's most disturbing questions through two films that refuse to look away. Compliance (2012) recreates a real-life phone scam in which a caller posing as a law enforcement officer manipulated fast food employees into increasingly harmful acts — and got away with it for years across multiple states. The Experimenter (2015) takes us inside Stanley Milgram's landmark obedience studies, where everyday people administered what they believed were dangerous electric shocks simply because an authority figure told them to continue. Together, these films frame a deep dive into the psychology of compliance — authority bias, situational pressure, diffusion of responsibility, and the unsettling gap between who we think we are and what we actually do when someone in charge gives an order. Pull up a chair, pour yourself an Obey, Conform, Consume, and prepare to question everything.

SOURCES

Listen for the latest on the Bundibugyo virus, one of the rarest Ebola species, and the current outbreak.

Complete Show Notes Source List:

After decades of patient frustration, clinical confusion, and a name that never quite fit, polycystic ovary syndrome has officially been renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) — and the science behind that decision is long overdue.

In this episode of The Shot, Tara breaks down the landmark May 2026 Lancet global consensus that drove the rename, why the old "polycystic" framing was scientifically inaccurate and clinically harmful, and what the new name actually tells us about what's happening in the body. She also covers what hasn't changed — including the current diagnostic criteria from the 2023 International Evidence-Based Guideline — and why this shift matters far beyond terminology.

Whether you have this diagnosis, treat patients who do, or just want to understand why words in medicine matter, this one's for you.

References

In this episode, we explore the historical inspiration behind Enola Holmes 2, diving into the real-life dangers of white phosphorus in Victorian match factories and the devastating occupational disease known as phossy jaw. We compare it to the Radium Girls tragedy, examine the chemistry behind bone necrosis, and discuss how these industrial disasters shaped modern workplace safety and medication safety practices. Plus — we pair it with a Victorian-inspired cocktail, the White Phosphorus Fizz.

Film:

Historical:

Peer-Reviewed:

SHOW NOTES The Refill — Ep 27: The Sea Breeze

We're refilling your glass.

Episode 27 was our deep dive into cruise ship medicine alongside ABC's Dr. Odyssey — what really happens when someone gets sick at sea. We're re-releasing it because two real outbreaks just happened in the same month, on two very different ships, with two very different pathogens. And the science on one of them changed significantly since we first recorded this.

Same episode. A lot more urgency. Listen first, then come back for the sources.

Sources:

The latest on the troubled teen industry and the reform schools we've been watching — an update you need to hear. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/05/11/asheville-academy-shut-down-teens-mental-health-help/89881288007/

In Episode 71, we're shaking up a Reforma cocktail and diving into one of the most disturbing — and underreported — corners of American institutional life: the troubled teen industry. Inspired by Netflix's psychological thriller Wayward (starring Toni Collette), the 2020 Paris Hilton documentary This Is Paris, and a wave of recent documentaries including Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, and the Amazon Prime series Boys School, we're pulling back the curtain on so-called "therapeutic boarding schools," wilderness programs, boot camps, and reform schools that have operated — often with little oversight — for decades. We'll explore the roots of the troubled teen industry, the psychological tactics used on children, the documented patterns of physical and emotional abuse, the long-term mental health consequences for survivors, and the legal and legislative efforts finally pushing for accountability. Because when the "treatment" causes more trauma than the problem it claims to fix, that's not medicine — that's harm.

Sources & Further Reading:

A deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius — a Dutch-flagged polar expedition cruise ship — has captured global attention. In this episode of The Shot, Tara breaks down everything you need to know: what Andes virus is, why it's the only hantavirus known to spread person to person, what the illness does to the body, and what your actual risk is. As of May 6, 2026, eight cases have been reported (three confirmed, five suspected), three passengers have died, and cases have now been identified on two continents. Here's the science, the context, and the calm.

In This Episode

Sources

In this episode of Medical Media Mixer, we break down Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell, the novel that introduced forensic icon Dr. Kay Scarpetta. We explore how a rare metabolic disorder — Maple Syrup Urine Disease — becomes the key medical clue that exposes a serial killer, and how Scarpetta weaponizes forensic science and the media to bring him down. We also preview the upcoming Prime Video series Scarpetta and why this story still resonates decades later.

Maple Syrup Urine Disease — National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus)

Pathophysiology of Maple Syrup Urine Disease: Focus on the Neurotoxic Role of the Accumulated Branched-Chain Amino Acids and Branched-Chain α-Keto Acids

BCKDHA Gene — National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus)

BCKDHB Gene — National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus)

Maple Syrup Urine Disease — GeneReviews® (Updated April 23, 2020)

Treatment of Maple Syrup Urine Disease: Benefits, Risks, and Challenges of Liver Transplantation

Maple Syrup Urine Disease: Characteristics of Diagnosis and Treatment in 45 Patients in Chile

Brain Branched-Chain Amino Acids in Maple Syrup Urine Disease: Implications for Neurological Disorders

Interrupting the Mechanisms of Brain Injury in a Model of Maple Syrup Urine Disease Encephalopathy

Scarpetta (TV Series) — IMDb

Kay Scarpetta — Wikipedia

Postmortem Study Guide — BookRags

The Maple Old Fashioned