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

The Students of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
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The HONEST guide to medical school, featuring real students from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine–skip this show if you’d rather not know (and hate laughter)!

  1. 1D AGO

    Medical Students Judge Reddit’s Messiest Dilemmas (AITA)

    Dave and his M1 co-hosts Lily Schmidt, Melia Patrick, Jonah Albrecht, and Anna Royer, take a field trip to Reddit's AITA sub— because self-reflection is not usually how people figure out if they're the problem. Four posts, four verdicts, and get genuinely sidetracked in the best way: there's a chlamydia anecdote Dave shares, a philosophical debate about whether watching movies at 2.5x speed makes you a bad partner, and a surprisingly earnest conversation about what med students actually owe their families when they become the designated "medical person" in the room. And (med school parents, take note) a doctor-mom posts about telling her struggling pre-med daughter she isn't cut out for medicine--and Reddit tears her a ne...helps her understand why that's not the best approach.

    44 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Their Last Free Summer: How Four M1s Are Spending It

    Four medical students— Lily Schmidt, Melia Patrick, Jonah Albrecht, and Anna Royer— talk through how they landed on their "last free summer ever" plans: research fellowships, a genetics scholars program, global health immersion in Ecuador, Colorado fourteeners, and the lingering question of whether any of it actually matters for residency. Jonah is off to Ecuador in part to avoid a lab. Lily is in a clinic implementing joint-capture software partly because she can't do chart review without going sideways. Melia is doing genetics because she actually likes the patient population. Sure, they're all deciding to do something med school adjacent. But they are exercising the option to choose the focus of their attention in this last summer of life at the margins of medicine.

    44 min

  3. APR 30

    The Doctor Doesn't Know Either: Inside the Diagnostic Crisis

    The feedback loop that would make doctors better diagnosticians doesn’t exist. Louise walked five minutes. Then her legs turned to stone. She stood at the side of the road, waiting for them to work again—and nobody figured out why for thirty years. Author and New York Times Health and Science Opinion Editor Alexandra Sifferlin has spent years as a journalist fielding emails from patients who couldn’t get a straight answer from medicine—not because their doctors were incompetent, but because diagnosis is harder, messier, and more difficult to do in 15 minutes than anyone wants to admit. Her book The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis traces the problem from rural Kentucky to the NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Network, and her conversation with M4 Jeff Goddard, M1 Madelyn Klemmensen, and M2 Zach Goddard goes deep on the mechanics of how diagnostic errors actually happen: availability bias, the missing feedback loop, specialty tunnel vision, and the slow erosion of trust that pushes patients toward people selling them supplements. The students here aren’t just asking sympathetic questions, although Jeff is literally a character in the book, something Dave found out in real time on this episode. They push on the hard stuff: when is a placeholder diagnosis ethical, whether AI will save us or become a crutch, and what do you actually do about a healthcare system where the patient bounces between docs who don’t have answers. What they keep landing on is uncomfortable—medicine doesn’t have great solutions to this, but the relationship between patient and physician might matter more than the technology of medicine. Solving the diagnostic crisis might mean uncomfortable, expensive changes. Episode credits: Producer: Jeff Goddard Co-hosts: Zach Grissom, Madelyn Klemmensen Guest: Alexandra Sifferlin, https://www.alexandrasifferlin.com/ Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Roger, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson  The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    1h 10m

  4. APR 23

    Blechardy Returns: Trivia, Wet Dog Beans, and Bad Guesses

    When the prize for a correct answer might be a poop-flavored jelly bean, getting it wrong is the best strategy. What if you answer a trivia question about 2,600-year-old cataract surgery correctly, and your reward is reaching into a box of jelly beans that might taste like dead fish — and you can’t lie about it? Ah, the question no one asked. Well, the answer is here! Blechardy is back, this time in Jelly Bean Mode — where every correct answer earns you a mystery BeanBoozled jelly bean that could be peach or could be barf. PA professor Jeremy Nelson and learning community manager Cody Pritchard team up against first-year Physician Associate student Tyler Mills, second-year med student Alexis Baker, and PA1 student Megan Renner. The categories: ancient medical procedures, misunderstood body parts, legends of medicine, internet memes from 2010–2020, and general knowledge. The chaos starts immediately when nobody can figure out what ancient healers packed wounds with (honey and moldy bread, for the record), and it only escalates from there. Fixing cataracts in 600 BCE, the ancient theory about what the other testicle does, the gland who’s name means “mucus” — mixed in with memes and the Mandela Effect. Jeremy buzzes in confidently and wrong more than once, Tyler steers the ship repeatedly into icebergs, and Alexis can’t quite tell if her jelly bean is genuinely bad or just a flavor she doesn’t like. The real winner? Probably the audience, who gets to watch five adults negotiate whether toothpaste-flavored candy counts as yummy. Oh, and Dave. Dave wins, too, because he only had to eat one gross bean at the end or people would have rioted. Everyone else? Hosed. Episode credits: Producer: Dave Etler Co-hosts: Jeremy Nelson, Cody Pritchard, Megan Renner, Tyler Mills, Alexis Baker Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Roger, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson  The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    54 min

  5. APR 16

    "Ego Death?!" M4s Talk Audition Rotations

    How Away Rotations play into getting that dream residency Among all the strange things about medical school, there’s the so-called “away” or “audition” rotation. Recently matched M4s Aditi Katwala, Hend Al-Kaylani, Lena Volfson, and Kristin Davis talk about what it’s like to leave CCOM for weeks at a time to visit another hospital. Maybe they want to experience some new things there they wouldn’t have seen at Iowa. But also, it’s often about showing off their med-student skills for a residency program they might match with in another part of the country. Spoiler–that’s not exactly how it worked out for them, but they learned a whole lot and ultimately that’s the point. This episode will clue you into the strategies, reasons, benefits and limitations of doing an advanced rotation away your home medical school. In addition, we have our usual laughs along the way. Also, we play our own special med school edition of That Escalated Quickly, in which the crew give their creative answers to a prompt based on their secret numbers from 1 to 10, then an organizer try to rank those responses from lowest to highest intensity. It’s a game where thoughtful discussion and pandemonium hold hands! Episode credits: Producer: Hend Al-Kaylani (main topic), Cyrus Barati (game) Co-hosts: Lena Volfson, Kristin Davis, Aditi Katwala Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Roger, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson  The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    1h 13m

  6. APR 9

    What are Med Students Reading: Book Club!

    If reading makes better docs, these guys will be incredible. What if the cure for doctor-speak was actually just… reading more books? This week M1s Anna Royer, Sophia Hueser, Gwen Sewell, and Ellie Johnson have a genuinely great conversation about what it means to be a reader in med school. They dig into audiobooks vs reading brain research (turns out your brain basically doesn’t care, per a possibly unvetted Instagram-posted study that may or may not have been published in JAMA), why narrative medicine is big in medical education, and how the habit of losing yourself in someone else’s story might be the best training you can get for actually understanding their patients. If you’re a pre-med or pre-PA student wondering whether your English minor or your tattered copy of When Breath Becomes Air has any business being on your application, this episode will make you feel very seen. The crew also gets into something that doesn’t come up nearly enough in medical education: the real stakes of clinical documentation language and substance use disorder stigma. For example, writing “patient denies alcohol use” versus “patient reports no alcohol use” is not a small stylistic choice — it’s the kind of thing that shapes how the next provider sees a real human being, and now that patients can read their own notes, the pressure is on in a whole new way. Plus the group shares their full reading lists across good books, fun books, and smart books, and makes a genuinely compelling case for why reading and empathy in medicine aren’t soft skills — they’re the whole job. Grab your books for medical students TBR list and hit play. Episode credits: Producer: Ellie Johnson Co-hosts: Anna Royer, Gwen Sewell, Sophia Hueser The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    55 min

  7. APR 2

    Medical Student Identity: What the White Coat Means

    The Hippocratic oath moment that turns anxious students into future physicians—even before they’ve treated a single patient You’re on stage at the “White Coat Ceremony,” putting on that short coat for the first time, and honestly? It feels kind of weird. Like you’re playing dress-up in someone else’s costume. That’s where M1s Jonah Albrecht, Anna Royer, Lillian Schmidt, and Lillie Lamont pick up the conversation—because turns out, that awkward feeling might be telling you something important about what this weird garment actually means (and might not mean) in medicine. This episode gets real about white coat symbolism beyond the ceremony photo-op. Our M1 hosts dig into medical student identity, physician hierarchy, the whole clinical attire debate, and whether that coat actually helps with patient trust in healthcare or just makes you feel like an imposter. You’ll hear honest takes on medical professionalism, imposter syndrome medicine, what medical school training teaches you about fitting in, and why healthcare team collaboration might work better without all the hierarchical costume drama. Plus: we adapt the amazing Codenames game–can Lillie’s favorite game reveal anything about med school chaos? If you’re wondering whether you’ll ever feel like you belong in that coat—or whether that particular outer covering is a good idea—hit play. Episode credits: Producer: Jonah Albrecht, Cyrus Barati Co-hosts: Anna Royer, Jonah Albrecht, Lillie Lamont, Lillian Schmidt The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    1h 22m

  8. MAR 19

    Step Exams: Ready Or Not Here They Come

    Three exams that might drive you crazy. If you’re a pre-med, you may have heard about Step exams. But what are they? When the hell are you supposed to start studying? Should you be doing Anki cards in the womb? And are your scores actually going to determine your entire future? This episode is basically your reality check from people who’ve either survived these medical licensing exams or are currently drowning in practice questions right now. M4 Zay Edgren and M3 Radha Velamuri help M1 Isa Perez-Sandi and M2 Zach Grissom understand the whole chaotic timeline—from Step 1 going pass fail (RIP to the days when that score mattered) to Step 2 being the new make-or-break moment for your residency application. And let’s not forget Step 3 which comes later and is–some will say–just another expensive box to check during residency. You’ll hear honest takes on when people actually start medical board exam preparation, how medical school rotations can change everything about studying for these beasts, what those clinical vignette questions are really testing, and why practicing on actual patients beats memorizing the whatever cycle. Whether you’re an pre-med just learning what “shelf exam” means, deep in medical student board preparation hell, or a parent of one of those—we’ve got the insider info, the real timeline, and exactly zero sugarcoating. Plus: hot takes on curly hair management, why being ten years old means you’re already behind, and a very specific discussion about dumpster diving that makes sense in context. But probably not. Episode credits: Producer: Zay Edgren Co-hosts: Isa Sandi-Perez, Zach Grissom, Radha Velamuri, Zay Edgren The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. 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. We need to know more about you! https://surveys.blubrry.com/theshortcoat (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) 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. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human.  Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

    1h 13m
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The HONEST guide to medical school, featuring real students from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine–skip this show if you’d rather not know (and hate laughter)!

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