This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances sits down with her oldest friend—Executive Pastry Chef Rebecca Freeman—to talk about what happens when your childhood dream actually comes true… and it’s still hard.

Becky is the Executive Pastry Chef at Coyote Café and Santacafé in Santa Fe, a National Pastry Chef of the Year, and a multi–40 Under 40 award winner. She knew at five years old she wanted to be a chef. Frances Mei? Not so much.

Together, they unpack:

1. The brutal reality behind The Bear (spoiler: it’s not exaggerated)
2. Crying in the walk-in vs. crying in the call room
3. Working 400 days in a row to outrun imposter syndrome
4. Why high-achieving women panic after success instead of celebrating
5. How toxic training environments mirror dysfunctional families
6. And what it looks like to break the cycle when you finally become the leader

This is a conversation about abuse in elite professions—kitchens and operating rooms alike. About ambition. About ego. About emotional regulation. And about the strange truth that sometimes the job you begged the universe for still makes you question yourself.

If you’ve ever achieved the dream and still thought, What’s next? Why am I not satisfied? — this one’s for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Chef Rebecca Freeman

Connect with Rebecca:

IG: @chefbckyfreeman

https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/rebecca-freeman-santa-fe-pastry-chef/

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/glaze-of-glory-club-at-las-campanas-executive-pastry-chef-wins-national-culinary-prize/article_a42250e2-517e-11ee-87d2-bbbea92e1dac.html

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if the most radical thing you could do in medicine wasn’t being tougher, but being more human?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with The ICU Doctor to talk about identity, intuition, and breaking the unspoken rules of medical culture. From immigrant roots and imposter syndrome to building clinical “spidey sense,” digital medical education, and creating work environments that actually put people at ease, this conversation is a masterclass in reclaiming humanity inside the hospital.

They unpack unhinged resident stories, intimidating attendings, reframing survival during training, and why asking someone “who’s your best friend?” might be more disruptive than any policy reform.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt flattened by hierarchy—and still believes medicine can be better.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: The ICU Doctor

Connect: https://www.instagram.com/theicudoctor1/

https://www.tiktok.com/@theicudoctor1

And check out all of The ICU Doctor's materials and books at https://icudoctor.gumroad.com/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with bestselling author and former television producer Audrey Bellezza to talk about reinvention—professionally, creatively, and existentially.

Audrey spent decades in television, rising from a Food Network intern to showrunner and development executive before pivoting (multiple times) into authorship. During the pandemic, she co-wrote a bestselling Jane Austen–inspired rom-com trilogy—only to be diagnosed shortly thereafter with stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer.

Together, Frances and Audrey explore:

1. What portfolio careers really look like over decades—not highlight reels
2. Why transferable skills matter more than titles
3. How women navigate pivots after investing years into a single identity
4. Creative partnership, pitching, and betting on yourself
5. Using storytelling and advocacy to build something meaningful in the face of uncertainty

Audrey also shares the story behind Love for Lungs, the nonprofit she co-founded to fund research and raise awareness for ALK-positive lung cancer, and details their upcoming Galentine’s Day fundraiser.

This is a conversation about ambition, failure, partnership, illness, and permission—to change your mind, your career, and your life.

Because no experience is wasted. And you can pivot as many times as you need to.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Audrey Bellezza

Connect with Audrey: @audreybellezzawrites

Love4Lungs: https://www.love4lungs.org/

Anne of Avenue A: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Anne-of-Avenue-A/Audrey-Bellezza/For-the-Love-of-Austen/9781668097656

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Dr. Red Hoffman is a surgeon, hospice physician, and writer whose career has never followed a straight line—and whose life was radically reshaped by grief, chronic illness, and unexpected loss. In this episode, we talk about starting over more than once, entering medicine later in life, and what happens when your body forces you to renegotiate your identity as a physician.

Red shares her journey through trauma, long COVID, POTS, and partial clinical practice—and how diversification, honesty, and courage helped her build a career that still includes surgery, but on her own terms. We discuss the myth of the “wasted spot,” false equivalencies in medical training, why unpaid work sometimes matters, and how culture actually changes: slowly, one person at a time.

This conversation is for anyone questioning alignment, resisting change, living with chronic illness, or wondering if it’s too late—or too risky—to choose differently.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Red Hoffman

Connect with Dr. Red:

https://redhoffmanmd.com/

@redmdnd

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when a doctor decides she doesn’t need more money - she needs more peace?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with psychiatrist Dr. Claire Oduwo to talk about choosing a “soft life” after medical training—and why that phrase is wildly misunderstood in medicine. Claire shares her path from Kenya to Nebraska to the Pacific Northwest, how her immigrant upbringing shaped her relationship with work and money, and why working part-time as a psychiatrist was a deliberate, values-driven choice—not a failure.

Together, they unpack:

1. Why physicians are conditioned to operate at 500% (and why anything less feels uncomfortable)
2. How money becomes a stand-in for validation after years of sacrifice
3. The stigma doctors face when they step outside the expected hierarchy
4. Why surgeons struggle so deeply with emotional regulation—and what psychiatry does differently
5. How chaos can feel “normal” to our nervous systems, even when it’s harming us

This is a conversation about identity, shame, creativity, and the courage it takes to choose a life that actually fits—especially when other people don’t understand it.

If you’ve ever thought, I worked this hard—shouldn’t I want more?

This episode might help you ask a better question.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Dr. Claire

Connect with Dr. Claire:

IG: @drclaireomd

Tiktok: @drclaireo

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD is joined by Alan Chien, MD, a pediatrics resident and lifelong magician practicing in Los Angeles.

What begins as a conversation about magic quickly opens into something more expansive: identity formation in medical training, the quiet pressure to abandon creativity, and what it means to remain in relation—to patients, to others, and to oneself—inside a system that often rewards self-erasure.

Alan reflects on growing up as an only child, discovering magic as a grounding force, and carrying that creative identity through medical school and residency. He shares how performing magic—whether for hospitalized children, co-residents, or strangers in a bar—has shaped his understanding of connection, wellness, and presence. Together, they explore mentorship that protects wholeness rather than performance, the guilt trainees feel around non-medical passions, and why tolerating both the highs and lows of residency—not constant happiness—is the real work of staying well.

This episode is a meditation on refusing to flatten oneself in training, on staying three-dimensional inside medicine, and on the radical act of not giving up the thing that made you human in the first place.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Alan Chien, MD

Connect with Alan: alanchien.com

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Mohini Dasari, MD—a general surgeon and writer—who speaks candidly about one of the most taboo topics in medicine: leaving a surgical fellowship mid-training.

Mohini shares what led her to step away seven months into a transplant fellowship, the quiet suffering that preceded that decision, and how shame, identity fusion, and “just push through” culture keep physicians trapped long past the point of health. Together, Frances and Mohini unpack the myths we’re taught in training—that it will all be worth it later, that attending life fixes everything, and that wanting something different means failure.

This conversation explores:

1. Why surgeons are encouraged in… and abandoned once they’re in
2. The difference between what’s “possible” and what’s healthy
3. Motherhood, medicine, and the cost of suppressed humanity
4. Shame as a hidden driver of physician burnout and exits
5. Why careers don’t have to be linear—and why medicine resists that truth
6. Reclaiming joy, creativity, and identity beyond the operating room

Mohini also discusses returning to writing after years away and her debut novel releasing January 13, a coming-of-age story rooted in heritage, dance, and self-reclamation.

This episode is for medical students, residents, attendings, and anyone questioning the life they were told would finally make sense “on the other side.”

🎧 Listen if you’ve ever wondered:

What if the problem isn’t me—but the story I was told about this career?

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Mohini Dasari, MD

Connect with Mohini: @modawrites

https://www.mohinidasari.com/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin sits down with Stephanie Pearson, MD, a former OB-GYN whose medical career ended abruptly after a devastating workplace injury.

What followed wasn’t just the loss of surgery or obstetrics—it was the loss of identity.

After being injured during a patient delivery, dismissed by early providers, and ultimately terminated when she could no longer perform 100% of her job duties, Stephanie found herself forced out of clinical medicine entirely. Overnight, “Dr. Pearson” became “former doctor,” with no roadmap for what came next.

In this deeply honest conversation, Stephanie shares:

1. What it’s like to be forced out of medicine when you're about to become Chair—not burned out, not ready, not choosing to leave
2. The psychological fallout of losing a physician identity overnight
3. Chronic pain, disability, and the silence around injured doctors
4. Why disability insurance failures nearly cost her everything
5. How she rebuilt a second career—and a sense of purpose—outside of medicine
6. The friendships medicine quietly replaces, and the grief that comes after
7. Why no one prepares doctors for who they are without the white coat

This episode is for physicians, trainees, and healthcare professionals grappling with identity, loss, reinvention, or the unspoken truth that medicine does not always love you back.

If you’ve ever wondered who you’d be if medicine disappeared tomorrow—this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Stephanie Pearson, MD

Connect with Stephanie: @drstephaniepearson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepearsonmd/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

In this holiday episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei is joined by her husband, Colin, for a candid, unfiltered conversation about what life actually looks like after leaving clinical medicine.

It’s Frances Mei's first holiday season in nearly a decade not on call, and the absence of the hospital brings both relief and reckoning.

Together, they talk about:

1. The strange quiet of the first holiday season outside medicine
2. How residency and surgical training shape work habits long after you leave
3. “Revenge sleeping,” productivity guilt, and unlearning survival mode
4. Why leaving medicine doesn’t magically create balance
5. Treating the nervous system as an asset—not an afterthought
6. What partners see when physicians finally slow down
7. Why intentional rest is harder than relentless work

This episode isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about the in-between: learning how to live without call schedules, rediscovering time, and building a life that doesn’t revolve around crisis.

For anyone spending the holidays at the hospital—or spending their first holidays away from it—this conversation is for you.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Colin Royal

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What if surgical training didn’t require fear, exhaustion, or constant availability?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Paris-based neurosurgeon Dr. Samiya Abi Jaoude to explore how surgical culture in France differs radically from the U.S.—and what American medicine might learn from it.

They unpack the surprisingly flat hierarchy of French surgical training, where residents and attendings use first names, collaboration is the norm, and rigid power structures are less likely to enable bullying. Dr. Abi Jaoude also explains France’s legally protected “right to disconnect,” a cultural and institutional commitment that allows physicians to truly log off after hours—without penalty.

This conversation isn’t about romanticizing another system. It’s about asking harder questions:

What actually keeps surgeons safe, functional, and humane over a lifetime?

And what parts of American surgical culture are traditions—not necessities?

A candid, comparative look at hierarchy, boundaries, burnout, and what sustainable excellence could really look like in medicine.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Samiya Abi Jaoude, MD, MSc

Connect with Samiya: @dr.samiya.abijaoude

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to  ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩  on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.