Medical Media Mixer: The Perfect Cocktail

medicalmediamixer
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Medicine
  • Updated Weekly

Medical Media Mixer is a fun and educational podcast where two full-time medical professionals dive into the world of pop culture—TV, movies, music, and books—with a medical twist. Each episode breaks down the science (and nonsense) behind popular media, served up with a themed cocktail for good measure. Whether you’re a healthcare worker, a pop culture junkie, or just love a good drink with your deep dives, Medical Media Mixer is your prescription for smart laughs and spirited conversation.

  1. 1d ago

    Ep 89 The Innocent Bystander: The Kitty Genovese Murder, The Witness, and the Real Psychology of Why We Freeze

    Show Notes In 1964, a New York Times headline claimed 38 witnesses watched Kitty Genovese be stabbed to death in Kew Gardens, Queens, and did nothing — a story so shocking it launched decades of research into what psychologists now call the bystander effect. This week, Tara and Nicole dig into how much of that famous account was actually true. The 2015 documentary The Witness, directed by James Solomon and narrated by Kitty's brother Bill Genovese, dismantles the "38 witnesses" myth: there weren't 38 eyewitnesses, there were two attacks rather than three, at least one call to police was made during the assault, and a neighbor, Sophie Farrar, rushed to hold Kitty as she was dying. From there, the episode traces the real science Darley and Latané built off the (exaggerated) case — diffusion of responsibility, pluralistic ignorance, and why groups notice and react to emergencies more slowly than individuals do — plus how the effect shows up in later cases like the death of Wang Yue in China and ABC's What Would You Do? Along the way: Good Samaritan laws, what altruism research says actually predicts who helps, and why a story doesn't have to be fully accurate to change an entire field of psychology. Sources & further reading: The Witness (2015 documentary) — Wikipedia Bystander effect — Wikipedia Death of Wang Yue — Wikipedia Good Samaritan law — Wikipedia Altruism — Wikipedia What Would You Do? (2008 TV program) — Wikipedia The Kitty Genovese Case — All That's Interesting The Witness Exposes the Myths of Kitty Genovese's Murder — NPR Original cocktail inspiration: Innocent Bystander Moscato Mojito — Two Loves Studio Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  2. Sep 7

    Ep 88 The Tiny Fighter: What ER Got Right (and Wrong) About the NICU

    This week, we're leaving the ER and heading upstairs — to the NICU. We're joined by Tara’s sister Kristin, doctorally prepared neonatal nurse practitioner, to break down ER Season 10, Episode 12 and Grey's Anatomy's NICU storylines, then get into the real clinical science behind what those shows depict. We cover congenital heart disease and coarctation of the aorta, extreme prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and therapeutic hypothermia, and what it actually looks like when a family decides to let go. The cocktail is The Tiny Fighter — gin, lemon, simple syrup, and bitters. Small but mighty, just like the patients. Sources ER S10E12 "NICU" — Apple TV Grey's Anatomy NICU — Grey's Anatomy Universe Wiki Congenital Heart Disease — CDC Critical CHD Newborn Screening — CDC Coarctation of the Aorta — American Heart Association Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy — PMC Review 2024 Premature Birth — March of Dimes CHD Epidemiology 1990–2021 — Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine HIE Outcomes — BONBID Dataset, Harvard/Boston Children's NICU Ethics and Withdrawal of Care — Asian Bioethics Review Current Practice Management Guidelines in Neonates and Infants with Isolated Coarctation of the Aorta — Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  3. Aug 31

    Ep 87 Hypnagogic Highball: Sleep Paralysis, Night Terrors & the Science Behind Inception and The Nightmare

    This week we're diving into the unsettling world of parasomnias — sleep paralysis, night terrors, sleepwalking, sexsomnia, sleep eating, and sleep talking — using Inception and the 2015 documentary The Nightmare as our jumping-off point. We break down what's actually happening in the brain during these episodes, why sleep paralysis so often comes paired with terrifying hallucinations (hello, incubus and succubus folklore), and how conditions like exploding head syndrome, hypnic jerks, and nightmare disorder differ from garden-variety bad dreams. Pour yourself a Hypnagogic Highball and settle in — just maybe don't listen to this one right before bed. Sources: Inception (Wikipedia) The Nightmare (2015 film) (Wikipedia) Sleep Paralysis (Wikipedia) Night Terror (Wikipedia) Exploding Head Syndrome (Wikipedia) Hypnic Jerk (Wikipedia) Nightmare Disorder (Wikipedia) Incubus (Wikipedia) Succubus (Wikipedia) Movies About Sleep-Wake Disorders (TherapyRoute) Related video Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  4. Aug 24

    Ep 86 The English Rose: Toxic Beauty, Then and Now

    This week on Medical Media Mixer, we sit down with Paula Crichton De Alba, director of the 2024 short horror film The English Rose, to explore one of history’s most disturbing intersections: the toxic beauty rituals of Victorian women. From arsenic complexion wafers sold in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, to lead face paint that cracked if you smiled, to mercury eyelash treatments recommended in Harper’s Bazaar, to belladonna eye drops that caused blindness — Victorian women were literally dying for beauty. PA-C Tara Prisco breaks down the clinical toxicology of arsenic, lead, and mercury poisoning: epidemiology, symptoms, testing, and treatment. Dr. Nicole Peniston brings the psychological lens, exploring the harm loops, impossible beauty standards, and the question that anchors the whole episode: has anything really changed? Cocktail recipes drop every weekend on our socials. New episodes every Monday.   ▶  Film & Filmmaker The English Rose (2024) — IMDb The English Rose — Seed & Spark (Director’s notes & background) https://www.paulacrichton.com/ Paula linktree   ▶  Historical & Cultural Sources Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder — Molly Brown House Museum Victorian-era Cosmetics — Wikipedia Dangerous Beauty: Hazardous Chemicals and Poisons in Historic Cosmetics — Science Museum Group The Poisonous Beauty Advice Columns of Victorian England — Atlas Obscura Skincare Trends of the Past: Toxic and Sometimes Fatal — Curology   ▶  Books Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present — Alison Matthews David (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Nineteenth-Century Home — Lucinda Hawksley (Thames & Hudson) How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life — Ruth Goodman (2014)   ▶  Clinical & Medical Sources Lead Poisoning — Lanphear B et al. NEJM 2024 Metal Chelators and Neurotoxicity — Bjørklund G et al. Archives of Toxicology 2017 The Toxicology of Mercury — Clarkson TW et al. NEJM 2003 Mercury Overexposure: Systematic Review — Shi Y et al. Frontiers in Public Health 2026 Arsenic Exposure, Toxicity, Diagnosis, and Management — Baker BA et al. JOEM 2018 Acute and Chronic Arsenic Toxicity — Ratnaike RN. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2003 Metals in Cosmetics: Implications for Human Health — Borowska S et al. Journal of Applied Toxicology 2015 Mercury in 549 Skin-Lightening Products — Hamann CR et al. JAAD 2014 Mercury Exposures From Skin-Lightening Products: Systematic Review — Bastiansz A et al. EHP 2022 Toxic Metals in Cosmetics — Bocca B et al. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 2014   Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  5. Aug 17

    Ep 85 The Voyeur: Inside Netflix's Voyeur Documentary and the Psychology of Watching

    Show Notes This week we're unpacking Voyeur, the 2017 Netflix documentary in which journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades — a bombshell story that becomes a scandal of its own. We use the film as our jumping-off point for a deeper dive into voyeuristic disorder: what separates ordinary curiosity from a diagnosable condition. As the Merck Manual lays out, voyeurism means becoming sexually aroused by watching an unsuspecting person who is disrobing, naked, or engaged in sexual activity, while voyeuristic disorder involves acting on those urges or fantasies, or being distressed or impaired by them — and critically, most people with voyeuristic tendencies never meet criteria for the disorder itself. We also touch on how the law has caught up (or hasn't) with covert filming, and take a quick detour into two related paraphilias, exhibitionism and frotteurism. Sources below. netflix + 2 Sources & further reading: Voyeur (2017) – Netflix Voyeurism – Wikipedia Making video voyeurism a crime – CBS News PsycNET research record Forensic psychiatric perspective – JAAPL (PDF) Voyeuristic Disorder – Merck Manual Exhibitionism – Wikipedia Frotteurism – Wikipedia Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  6. Aug 10

    Ep 84 The Tilt Table-Rita: Inside Netflix's The Crash and the Science of POTS

    In this episode, we're shaking up The Tilt Table-Rita — a salty, passion-fruit margarita that doubles as a nod to one of the first-line treatments for our medical topic tonight — and diving into Netflix's buzzy new true crime documentary The Crash (2026). The film revisits the 2022 Strongsville, Ohio case in which 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan after driving 100 mph into a brick building, with no evidence of braking. What made this case medically significant — and controversial — was the defense's claim that Shirilla blacked out due to POTS: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. We break down the real science of POTS — who gets it, how it's diagnosed, the three pathophysiological subtypes, treatment options, and why so many patients are told for years that it's all in their heads. As always, we keep it clinical, honest, and just a little bit fun. Sources:   Netflix: The Crash (2026)   Netflix Tudum: Where Is Mackenzie Shirilla Now?   Bryarly M, et al. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: JACC Focus Seminar. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2019;73(10):1207–1228.   Fedorowski A. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: Clinical Presentation, Aetiology and Management. Journal of Internal Medicine. 2019;285(4):352–366.   Sheldon RS, et al. 2015 Heart Rhythm Society Expert Consensus Statement on the Diagnosis and Treatment of POTS, Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia, and Vasovagal Syncope. Heart Rhythm. 2015;12(6):e41–63.   Vernino S, et al. POTS: State of the Science — 2019 NIH Expert Consensus Meeting, Part 1. Autonomic Neuroscience. 2021;235:102828.   Ormiston CK, et al. POTS as a Sequela of COVID-19. Heart Rhythm. 2022;19(11):1880–1889.   Boris JR, et al. Long-Term POTS Outcomes Survey. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2024;13(14):e033485.   Mar PL, Raj SR. POTS: Mechanisms and New Therapies. Annual Review of Medicine. 2020;71:235–248.   Gopinathannair R, et al. Cardiac Arrhythmias and Autonomic Dysfunction Associated With COVID-19. Circulation. 2024;150(21):e449–e465. Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  7. Aug 3

    Ep 83 Sunshine Daydream: Dancer in the Dark, Björk, and the Dark Side of Daydreaming

    This week we're chasing sunlight and shadow. We start with the Sunshine Daydream, a bright, citrus-forward vodka cocktail built for imagining yourself somewhere better even when you're stuck inside. From there we head somewhere much darker: Lars von Trier's Palme d'Or-winning musical tragedy Dancer in the Dark, where Björk's Selma escapes a life of poverty, failing eyesight, and looming disaster by slipping into elaborate musical daydreams. We use Selma as our jumping-off point to dig into the actual neuroscience of daydreaming, what's happening in the brain's default mode network, why daydreaming can boost creativity and problem-solving, and where the line sits between healthy mental escape and maladaptive daydreaming, a proposed clinical syndrome tied to compulsive, hours-long immersive fantasy that can disrupt work and relationships. Sources referenced in this episode: Sunshine Daydream cocktail recipe — Timberline Vodka Dancer in the Dark — Wikipedia The Science of Daydreaming — Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science Daydreaming and Concentration: What the Science Says — MIT Press Reader What Happens in the Brain While Daydreaming — Harvard Medical School Maladaptive Daydreaming research review — PMC Maladaptive Daydreaming: Symptoms & Treatment — Cleveland Clinic Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

  8. Jul 27

    Ep 82 Cast It Out: The Real Horror of Demonic Possession, Parasites & the Diet Shake From Hell

    This week on Medical Media Mixer, we're diving into Grady Hendrix's beloved horror novel My Best Friend's Exorcism (2016) and its Amazon Prime Video film adaptation (2022) — a love story about female friendship set against the backdrop of 1988 South Carolina, demonic possession, and a tapeworm that crawls out of someone's mouth in the middle of school. (Yes, really.) The medical pivot point is impossible to ignore: the demon uses body image insecurity as a weapon, delivering a 'diet shake' laced with parasites. This week, we take that moment and run with it — covering the real science of GI parasitic infections including tapeworms, hookworm, pinworm, and amebiasis. We talk transmission, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and the very real (very horrifying) Victorian history of the tapeworm diet. Equal parts camp, friendship, and parasitology. This one crawls under your skin — in the best way.   Sources My Best Friend's Exorcism — Wikipedia My Best Friend's Exorcism (film) — Wikipedia Tapeworms: Causes, Types, Symptoms, and Treatments — Medical News Today Tapeworm Infection — Cleveland Clinic Tapeworms in Humans — WebMD Tapeworm — StatPearls / NCBI Tapeworm Infection (Intestinal Cestodes) — Merck Manual The Horrifying Legacy of the Victorian Tapeworm Diet — Atlas Obscura Tapeworm Diet: Weight Loss, Risks and Side Effects — Healthline Fad Diets and Weight Loss: From the 1800s to the 1930s — ZOE Common Intestinal Parasites — American Family Physician (2023) Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections — Lancet Entamoeba Histolytica Infection — IDSA Guidelines The Diagnosis and Treatment of Pinworm Infection — Deutsches Ärzteblatt   Episodes every Monday  ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials  Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee  Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Medical Media Mixer is a fun and educational podcast where two full-time medical professionals dive into the world of pop culture—TV, movies, music, and books—with a medical twist. Each episode breaks down the science (and nonsense) behind popular media, served up with a themed cocktail for good measure. Whether you’re a healthcare worker, a pop culture junkie, or just love a good drink with your deep dives, Medical Media Mixer is your prescription for smart laughs and spirited conversation.

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