The Short Coat: An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

Dave Etler and the Students of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
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The Short Coat: An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School

Featuring a variety cast of medical students from the University of Iowa, The Short Coat is a brutally honest look at medicine, med school, and what life is like here at the margins of medicine. Skip this show if you'd prefer not to know and hate laughter. The opinions we share with you are formed by the sleep deprived, and are thus likely ill-considered and noticeably spur-of-the-moment. And definitely not those of the University of Iowa.

  1. 6D AGO

    Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)

    The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe…something that could never happen today. This week, we’re calling out the slow, tangled mess that is academic science. Why do some of the best ideas never leave a lab notebook? Why are 20-somethings with world-changing potential still spending 8 years writing theses that probably won’t be read? And why does grant funding seem allergic to risk? MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush is juggling frustration, big ideas, and the reality of PhD science, and M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD student Jess Smith, and M1 Sarah Lowenberg question whether Einstein would even make it today. Should the NIH institute a funding lottery? Jeff thinks Dave’s ringtone means he needs to grow up. And we finish strong by turning a stack of random medical words into fake personal statements. It’s messy, it’s a little salty, and it’ll make you wonder how anything changes in medicine or science. Episode credits: Producer: Dave Etler Co-hosts: Jeff Goddard, Sarah Lowenberg, Riley Behan-Bush, Jess Smith [URL template for episode https://media.blubrry.com/theshortcoat/podcast.uiowa.edu/com/osa/CHANGETHIS.mp3] We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at https://theshortcoat.com/tellus and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast!  Thanks for listening! We do more things on… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshortcoat YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/theshortcoat You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit http://theshortcoat.com/help, and send additions to the resources there to theshortcoats@gmail.com. We love you.

    46 min

  2. JUN 5

    The One Truth Linking Medicine, Maternal Mortality, and Meltdown

    Are things getting better or worse? What if your a career in medicine, the collapse of civilization, and the maternal mortality crisis all shared one uncomfortable truth–progress doesn’t guarantee clarity, balance, or justice? In this episode, M3 Zay Edgren confesses he’s feeling a bit doomy about humanity’s chances, and M2 Taryn O’Brian feels frustrated with medicine’s successes with acute care while primary care languishes. But M3 Jeff Goddard (and Dave) are more optimistic, at least on the grand scale. What every future healthcare worker needs to ask is, “What does helping actually mean when the system is stacked with trade-offs? You’ll get insight into how real medical students think through messy, high-stakes issues—like why we’re amazing at keeping preemies alive but failing mothers, or why primary care is where the real impact happens but nobody wants to do it. We explore what career indecision really looks like when you’re smart, driven, and yet unsure. You’ll also hear honest takes on burnout, idealism, and what med students actually think about the world they’re about to inherit—and remake. If you’re staring down the med school track wondering what’s waiting for you on the other side, this episode hands you the context no class will. You’ll leave smarter, more grounded—and possibly nervous, but in a productive way.

    1h 7m

  3. MAY 29

    Free Lunch, Headaches, and Holding Hearts

    [Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of medical examiner photos our students had to view during lectures, and which some listeners will find disturbing.] Friendships, food, and failing forward gets med students through the first year. No one tells you how much of med school is powered by free pizza and shared panic. As M1s Alexis Baker, Samantha Gardner, Raegen Abbey, and Zach Grissom wrap up their first year at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, we talk about what actually got them through M1: strategic free food hunting, skipping lectures for sanity, and learning to live with the sound of your own stomach during exams. This raw and ridiculous reflection features stories of biochem-induced breakdowns, unexpected weight loss, and vacation cruises gone very wrong. We also play “Vibey,” a game that perfectly captures med student emotional trauma. Bonus topics: marriage math, spring break disasters, moldy mugs, and the shock of learning how people die for credit.

    1h 5m

  4. MAY 22

    The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors

    Clinical students are sometimes the only ones who have time to listen. In the clinic, med students can feel like bystanders, but they can make all the difference for patients. M3 Jeff Goddard, M3 Tracy Chen, M2 Alex Nigg, and M4 Matt Engelken recount stories of the patients that stuck with them—some painful, some beautiful, and some just plain awkward. From OB-GYN to peds to the ER, they share how student doctors—who can often feel like tagalongs—can often be the ones offering emotional support, catching critical miscommunications, or just being the one person with time to care. We reflect on the pressure to look competent, the sting of lukewarm evaluations, and how one med student realized a patient wasn’t constipated—just heartbroken. Also in this episode: talking to dying patients, babies are scary, and what not to say when to overwhelmed family.

    1h 10m

  5. MAY 15

    From Broke to Bulletproof: The White Coat Investor’s Advice

    Don’t be the doctor making $400k with $0 in the bank. You risk your financial future by ignoring this ER doc’s advice — and Dr. Jim Dahle should know. The emergency physician and founder of The White Coat Investor joins M1s Luke Geis, Zach Grissom, Hunter Fisher, and Katherine Yu to share how he got burned early in his career — and what he did to fix it. From why disability insurance should top your post-grad checklist, to how physicians get targeted by shady financial “advisors,” to why home ownership in residency might not be the best idea — Dr. Dahle walks us through real, usable advice. He breaks down the cost of a good financial advisor, explains why index funds beat stock-picking 95% of the time, and why you should aim to be more than just an employee in medicine. We also get into financial planning for med students with kids, and why chasing hot stocks is a losing strategy, and how disability insurance can save your bacon.

    1h 3m

  6. MAY 8

    Med School's Unique Problems (AITA)

    Behind every successful doctor is someone who paid their rent or walked their dog. Dave Etler, MD/PhD student Miranda Schene, M1 Jay Miller, and M3 Jeff Goddard blast off this episode with ass-tronaut Katy Perry before diving into Reddit’s finest med school dumpster fires. Should you crush (AKA, be vocally realistic about ) your C-average friend’s medical dreams? Is a boyfriend who gives unwanted pop-quizzes to his exhausted med student girlfriend helping, or being an a-hole? We also tackle the awkward truth about teaching hospitals – yes, that medical student might be practicing on YOUR sensitive bits (hopefully with proper patient consent)! Finally, we settle a debate over who deserves the credit: the emergency medicine resident or the partner who paid his rent, fed his pets, and sacrificed their social life for years. Join us for a trip through the messy human side of medical training that your white coat ceremony definitely can’t prepare you for!

    1h 13m

  7. MAY 1

    From Perfect Plans to Grease Fires: The Med Student Spectrum

    What do MD and PA students really think about their lives? We check the vibes. Jeff Goddard (M3), Kim Fairhead (M1), Gabbi Bullard (PA1), and Annie Dotzler (PA1) for a game that checks med student experiences on their vibes. The group tackles the truth about reflex hammer skills, confessing to the internal chaos that underlies a fake-it-till-you-make-it confidence during physical exams. Annie and Gabby share their structured yet surprisingly "vibes-based" approach to studying before exams, complete with coffee-shop meetups and rapid-fire knowledge exchange. Meanwhile, Annie's meal prep aspirations take a dramatic turn when studying fatigue leads to an actual kitchen fire. The conversation weaves through medical curriculum frustrations, the evolution of study techniques from pre-clinical to clinical years, and the underlying question of whether we are just "hallucinating large language models" themselves.

    1h 2m

  8. APR 24

    Medicine Can Cure TB—But Humanity Won’t

    Tuberculosis is curable. We just don’t care enough to cure it. That’s the premise behind John Green’s book, Everything Is Tuberculosis (https://everythingistb.com/). In this episode, M1s Zach Grissom, Kate Timboe, Tyler Pollock, and Srishti Mathur consider that premise, and what it says about humanity’s stubborn failure to solve a solvable problem. They unpack how cultural narratives, like romanticizing TB, stigmatizing the poor, path dependency, and greed have fueled inequities that keep TB deadly across the globe. The group reflects on Henry Rider’s story, which serves as the emotional spine of the book, and how John Green’s storytelling approach hits harder than raw data ever could. From an emphasis on short-term thinking to postcolonial infrastructure (built to extract, not connect), the book dissects the history and systems that allow TB to persist even when we can easily cure it. The crew also talks about what medical education could look like if it provided stories with slide decks—and why Green thinks Mario Kart might be the best metaphor for how humanity could achieve global health equity.

    1h 4m
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4.7
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303 Ratings

About

Featuring a variety cast of medical students from the University of Iowa, The Short Coat is a brutally honest look at medicine, med school, and what life is like here at the margins of medicine. Skip this show if you'd prefer not to know and hate laughter. The opinions we share with you are formed by the sleep deprived, and are thus likely ill-considered and noticeably spur-of-the-moment. And definitely not those of the University of Iowa.

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