Your blood pressure is fine. Your cholesterol looks great. So why do you still feel exhausted, wired, and unwell? Internal medicine and functional medicine physician Shiv K. Goel returns to explain what standard lab panels miss when chronic stress quietly reshapes the body. This episode is based on his article "Normal labs miss what most patients are living through [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/normal-labs-miss-what-most-patients-are-living-through.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear how sustained stress ripples through your hormones, gut, and immune system, and why a patient can be genuinely sick while every routine result comes back normal. Shiv walks through the targeted tests he uses, from salivary cortisol to the Dutch test, and is candid that not all of it is covered by insurance or backed by the usual evidence. He also makes the case for listening longer and treating the root cause, with real ways to do it inside a packed schedule. You will come away with practical ways to hear more in a short visit and follow the clues standard labs leave behind.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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When your labs are normal but you still feel sick

A medical student offered a professor $1,000 to write their residency essay, and the reason why was not laziness. In this episode, Kathleen Muldoon, a certified coach and medical education professor, shares what she learned when she sat that student down for an honest conversation. You will hear why so many students freeze on the personal statement, why the fear is less about writing and more about who they think they are allowed to be on the page, and how this connects to a kind of burnout that looks less like exhaustion and more like identity erosion. You will also hear why AI cannot solve this, since it blends every applicant into the same voice, and what Muldoon does instead to help students find their own story. This episode is based on her article "The residency personal statement is an identity problem [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/the-residency-personal-statement-is-an-identity-problem.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why the essay that decides so many residency spots is really a question about identity, and what students can do about it.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Medical students aren't cheating on their essays: They're afraid

A 30-year-old soldier can have the knees of a 60-year-old. Not from one bad injury, but from carrying a load every single day for years. Family medicine and sports medicine physician Ann Lebeck returns to explain why she came to see soldiers as tactical athletes, and what that means for their bodies. This episode is based on her article "Military sports medicine and the cost of readiness [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/military-sports-medicine-and-the-cost-of-readiness.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why young recruits who never played sports kept saying the Army broke them, how early joint damage shows up predictably with years of service, and why a soldier is a year-round athlete for two decades, not a four-year career. Ann shares the program she built that taught running mechanics, strengthening, and even the right shoes, and the results after 1,200 soldiers came through. You will come away seeing soldiers, and every physically demanding job, through the eyes of the doctor who learned to treat the body that carries the load.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Why soldiers are athletes and their bodies pay for it

Your patients are asking ChatGPT what's wrong with them before they call your office, and getting an answer in seconds. In this episode, Tod Stillson, a board-certified family physician, medical device inventor, and health care entrepreneur, explains how AI chatbots became the new waiting room, and what that means for the doctor who used to be the first call. You will hear why patients turn to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini instead of waiting days for a reply, how AI companies are racing to own the front door of a system that is 20 percent of the economy, and why staying passive hands that ground away. Stillson makes the case that physicians can shape how these tools are governed, through medical advisory roles and digital health committees, so the guidance patients get is accurate. This episode is based on his article "AI chatbots and patient safety need physician design [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/ai-chatbots-and-patient-safety-need-physician-design.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why you are becoming the second opinion, and what you can actually do to stay in the patient journey.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Doctors are now the second opinion, AI is the first

A patient asked for her knee surgery by its brand name. She used the term perfectly. She just had no idea what it actually meant. Orthopedic surgeon Cory Calendine, who does nearly 700 to 800 hip and knee replacements a year, returns to unpack how marketing is quietly reshaping what patients ask for in the exam room. This episode is based on his article "Knee replacement marketing undermines informed consent [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/knee-replacement-marketing-undermines-informed-consent.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why trademarked procedure names now get searched more than the implant companies that make the hardware, how many carry no published data of their own, and why false expectations can genuinely slow recovery. Cory shares how he guides patients who arrive with a name and a wish list, meeting them where they are instead of talking them out of it. You will come away knowing how to separate an honest surgical claim from a marketing one, and the exact questions to ask before you agree to anything.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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When patients ask for a knee surgery brand they don't understand

Two families raise their kids in completely different ways. Both are doing it right. So why do clinicians so often assume one of them is doing something wrong? Najat Fadlalla, a developmental behavioral pediatric fellow, returns to unpack how cultural bias creeps into parent coaching, the first-line, evidence-based approach for children with or at risk of ADHD. This episode is based on her article "How cultural competence transforms modern parent coaching [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/how-cultural-competence-transforms-modern-parent-coaching.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why so much parenting research draws from a narrow slice of the world, how the same strict parenting can carry very different outcomes depending on the culture around it, and a real clinic exchange where honoring a mother's values worked better than correcting them. You will learn to pause on your first reaction, ask better questions, and honor a family's values while still giving evidence-based advice. You will come away with a practical way to spot your own blind spots and coach families across cultures without pathologizing what is simply different.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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When good parenting looks different across cultures

A doctor spoke up about problems in his residency, and months later he was walked out in front of his patients. In this episode, Vasilii Khammad, a physician and researcher who came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, shares what happened after he and fellow residents raised concerns about their training program. You will hear how the feedback against him was anonymous and never documented, how he was pushed toward a psychiatric evaluation he never asked for, and how he was removed with no chance to respond. You will also hear why no lawyer would take his case, and why residents on visas are left almost entirely on their own when a program turns against them. Khammad explains what he wants other international medical graduates to know about their rights. This episode is based on his article "International medical graduates need real protections [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/international-medical-graduates-need-real-protections.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why the doctors we recruit to train here have so little protection, and what he says you should do about it.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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He spoke up in residency, then got walked out in front of his patients

A nurse survived a violent assault at work, then watched her hospital treat her like a liability, not a victim. In this episode, June Garen, a retired psychiatric and operating room nurse and author, and Carleigh Beriont, a former union organizer who teaches U.S. history and public policy, explain why violence against nurses and doctors gets treated as part of the job. You will hear what actually happens to a health care worker after an assault, why so many facilities do not even track these incidents, and how understaffing and private equity ownership make hospitals more dangerous. This episode is based on their article "Violence against health care workers: the silence must end [https://kevinmd.com/2026/03/violence-against-health-care-workers-the-silence-must-end.html]," published on KevinMD. Beriont lays out the bipartisan legislation and the safe staffing and unionization fights that could change it, and June makes the case for why workers on the front lines have to start speaking up. Press play to understand why the people who take care of us are not safe at work, and what has to change.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Nurses are getting assaulted at work and no one listens

What if burnout is the wrong word for what doctors are actually going through? Gus W. Krucke argues that calling physicians burned out treats a systemic failure as a personal one, and that physicians are not failing, they are grieving a profession that has changed around them. Using a malpractice case over a reversal drug, he shows how doctors are judged in retrospect for decisions made under pressure in the moment, and how that fear drives a culture of self-protection. He draws a sharp line between resilience, which he says blames the physician, and fortitude, the quality he believes every doctor who finished training already has. Krucke is a board-certified internal medicine and emergency medicine physician and a certified hospice medical director. This episode is based on his article "Physician burnout is not the whole diagnosis [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/physician-burnout-is-not-the-whole-diagnosis.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear why protecting your judgment, your presence, and your fortitude matters more than any metric, and why burnout was never the whole diagnosis.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Burnout blames the doctor for a broken system

When a family finds a loved one with a severe bedsore in a nursing home, they often sue. But these cases are rarely decided by the wound itself. They are decided by what the medical record shows. Tracy Liberatore is an attorney and former physician assistant who does expert witness work on these claims, and she explains why a four-step test, not the size of the ulcer, determines whether it is ruled avoidable or unavoidable, and why age and other health problems do not by themselves let a facility off the hook. This episode is based on her article "Unavoidable pressure ulcer claims live and die by the record [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/unavoidable-pressure-ulcer-claims-live-and-die-by-the-record.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear how short staffing leads to missed documentation, how a 2023 Supreme Court decision opened a new path for lawsuits against publicly owned nursing homes, and what to record to protect patients and yourself. Press play to hear why the chart, not the wound, decides these cases, and what every nursing home clinician should be documenting.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Bedsore lawsuits are won and lost on the record

Social media's leading physician voice, Kevin Pho, MD, shares the stories of the
many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15
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