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Mental Health in Medicine
169 Plays10 months ago
Join Dr. Aldwin Soumare, Student doctor Isabella Ntigbu, and Jared Jeffrey as they gather to discuss Mental Health throughout the trajectory of one medical journey, controversy surrounding a middle school teacher, ER doctors organize a walk out, President Trump facing jail time, the Drake Vs Kdot run down, National Celiac disease awareness Month and more!
In the Financial Corners segment the our show, Dr. Aldwin discusses the bankruptcy of the popular food chain restaurants Red Lobster and the trajectory of its downfall.
Congratulations to the Class of 2024🎓!
To share your thoughts on our discussions or if you have any questions to ask our hosts, email podcast@snma.org for a chance to be featured on the show!
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed on our podcast do not reflect the official stance of the Student National Medical Association
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Transcript
Celebrating the Class of 2024
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, SMA fam, it's Aunting Egan, Executive Producer of The Lounge, and I want to congratulate the Class of 2024. Your hard work and perseverance has paid off, and now you stand on the brink of endless possibilities. As you embark on this new journey, remember that success is not just about reaching the destination, but about the journey itself. So, embrace the challenges and setbacks, continue to learn and grow,
00:00:26
Speaker
and always believe in your abilities. All the best to your future success to becoming diverse and culturally competent physicians.
00:00:34
Speaker
Hi, SNMA family. My name is Sydney Baltimore, and I'm your 2023 to 2025 external affairs co-chairperson. I wanted to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of you on earning your MD degrees. Your dedication and late night study sessions have truly paid off. It's amazing to see us winning. Keep striving for greatness and always remember why you became a doctor. Again, congratulations.
00:01:05
Speaker
Hey, loungers. This is Anastasia Izzor, one of your external fair national chairpersons. I just want to take this time to say congratulations to the class of 2024. Whether you are graduating from college, medical school, residency, or any other programs you're enrolled in, this moment is for you. On behalf of SNMA, you want to wish you all the best of luck on the next phases of your journey. Continue to be excellent and never forget that you are diversifying the face of medicine just by being here. We see you and we are proud of you. Congratulations again.
00:01:34
Speaker
The view expressed on his podcast represent only those of the hosts and do not represent the views of the Student National Medical Association.
Mentorship and Summer Plans for Graduates
00:01:41
Speaker
Calling all physicians and medical students, SMEs looking for mentors. Sign up to mentor pre-medical students throughout the application cycle, review their medical school applications, secondaries, and prepare for interviews. Sign up today. We got the link in the bio. Make sure you're tapped in.
00:02:14
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to SNMA Presents the Lounge. I am aspiring student Dr. Jared Jeffery. And for the question of the day today, I got to know, now that graduation season is here, some graduates are planning to travel, volunteer, or may even partake in a summer internship. I want to know, what do you guys think is the best way to spend your summer post-graduation?
00:02:35
Speaker
I think it depends on what level you at. Post graduation, regardless, enjoy yourself. For those that's entering into residency, make sure that you're not picking up notebooks. Don't be knowing no biochemistry. Don't be reading for step three. Just chill, relax. You already graduated, son.
00:02:53
Speaker
the work is coming for you now you just got to prepare for that mental and how you do that is by making sure you do the things that make you you and prepare to be the human being that you deserve to be while residency because it's going to take away your humanity is going to take away who you are so on the residency end make sure you enjoy yourself if you graduated from your undergrad same thing enjoy yourself but also know that it's time to get that work and I would say a little bit differently
00:03:19
Speaker
Now, I might disagree, but start arranging your study skills if you're about to enter into medical school, because they don't teach you that. They don't teach you that undergrad. They don't teach you how to study, and everybody studies differently. So ensure that you speak into the right people, get in the right connect, and share that you're talking to medical students that's already there that could put you on game in terms of the exams, put you on game in terms of how to study, who to reach out to, and what resources are available to you. So I would say, depending on where you at, you know what I'm saying?
00:03:45
Speaker
And for the high school and all that, you know, just live, just live. Okay. Isabelle, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I resonate with what a lot of things that you said Aldi, once again, I'm student Dr. Isabella. And, you know, for me, I'm a traveler. So, of course, I would tell anybody who has like a sliver of time,
00:04:09
Speaker
Anyway, you want to spend any free time where you're not actively doing school, go and catch your flight. Go to some place you've never been to before. Even if you don't have a friend, go solo because me, I'll be the first one to travel by myself and still have a blast. I think that's the best way that you could spend your summer post-graduation. Go and catch that flight.
00:04:29
Speaker
Go to Indonesia, go to Kenya. I don't care where you go. Just don't stay in your environment. And that's how I would. No catch-up feelings? You sure? They got to go to Nashville. Catch flights. They got to go to Nashville. I mean, listen, if you want to start off small, OK, I'll say start off in the States and you go to a different state than where you're originally from. Let me just go to a different state or something like that. You can start off small. That's OK. That's OK.
00:04:55
Speaker
Okay. Okay. That's calm. That's calm. And once again, my name is a spider soon. Dr. Jared Jeffrey. Um, I would say for the post-graduation season, I resonate with what Alderman said. It definitely depends where you are in your journey. If you're getting ready to, you know, move on to another step immediately. I think it's a very good idea to reevaluate your study skills. Like he said, uh, evaluate the different softwares that's available.
00:05:21
Speaker
whatever apps, whatever programs try to carve out a schedule and you know what is one thing that like like he said like they don't teach you how to study I think that's a really good like like way to put it they also don't like teach you the the ways in which you should attempt to learn you know I'm saying like they don't teach you like the best way to like receive the information so try to identify how you would prefer to receive information how you prefer to take notes
00:05:45
Speaker
how you would prefer to review, study, all those kinds of things. And if you're not heading into something, then yeah, I'm on the Isabella side of things. Try to find a way to enjoy yourself. Maybe traveling might not be a bop. Maybe you really, really, really good in your hometown, and you just haven't tapped in with family and friends in a while. I like to tap in with family. If I tap in with somebody that you ignore through finals, tap in with that person that's really in the end, it's like, yo, just let me take you out one time.
00:06:14
Speaker
That sounds personal. That sounds, yeah, that sounds. Please. Please. Tap it with somebody that you love, and you know, definitely go out and touch some grass. Touch some grass, you know what I mean?
00:06:28
Speaker
Hey bro, your barbecues be lit. I'm just going to say that, put that out there. So definitely tap in with Jared if you're on New York City for sure. Okay. Okay. Barbecue. I got to go check it out. I didn't know you were barbecuing like that, Jarvair. Yeah. I do get crazy on the grill just a little bit. Just a little bit. But please, that's for another time.
00:06:49
Speaker
Okay, okay, okay.
Graduating During a Pandemic: Reflections
00:06:51
Speaker
Well, now that we've kind of figured out what everybody's doing for the summer, let's get into our favorite part of the show. It is time to run the list.
00:07:03
Speaker
Thank you for the enthusiasm Aldia. That's all we need. That's what we need on this recording right now. But for our preclinical students, running the patient list on the wards allows the team to address pressing matters of the day. In this segment of the show, we'll be discussing some recent events in medicine affecting our communities and the populations we serve.
00:07:20
Speaker
Let's get into it. It is graduation season. So everyone is catching these degrees. We're in the cap and the gown. So one, we want to start off by giving a huge shout out to the class of 2024 and our medical students who graduated or are graduating. And we just wish you guys all the best in your future endeavors. So yeah, I mean, we have to, I don't know, what do you guys have to say for our future 2024 or some already 2024 graduates?
00:07:50
Speaker
I want to say also congrats also the residents that's graduating for 2024 because I was mentioning the class of 2021 so some of them if you're doing a three-year residency you'll be graduating and like I'm very proud of everybody and your work your work ethic your hustle and your continued contribution to medicine I think that we got to really appreciate and celebrate each and every year it's a beautiful thing when you go on Instagram Facebook
00:08:14
Speaker
you see all these graduation photos. And now that I'm on the other side, because when I was in medical school, I was seeing people graduate before me. I'm like, I can't wait to get there. And then now I'm on the other side. It's like now I feel like I'm immersed and ingratiated into that experience again. And I remember my own graduation feeling, being called doctor for the first time and everybody clapping for me, you know what I mean? And me feeling a type of way about, you know, them playing, but whatever. Regardless, the thing is that I want y'all to continue to be great.
00:08:43
Speaker
And this is only the beginning of what greatness is expected of you. I like that. I like that. As a member of the class of 2024 graduates.
00:08:58
Speaker
Shaffaroo! Master's grad. We love it. Yes. You know, I got put on for the pre-meds. Yes, I graduated my master's in clinical laboratory sciences. And I would like to highlight that, you know, the class of 2024 is among those classes that started during the pandemic. That was something that was highlighted during the commencement on proceedings. And they were, you know, kind of giving their flowers in the sense of, yo, like,
00:09:24
Speaker
This class is a special one, you know what I'm saying? You guys started...
00:09:29
Speaker
online, you started showing up to wherever you were showing up to a face mask on, you got to see the height of COVID protocols, and you got to see those slowly break away, and there was a little bit of return to normalcy. And so you guys have a unique experience that nobody else really has for their entire academic proceedings. So where the class of 2020 got to see it on the way out,
00:09:55
Speaker
other classes got to see it you know finish you guys saw it from kind of the inception all the way through the normalcy so you know relishing that don't let this achievement go by the wayside this is really a big one to have started and finished you know what I'm saying and really just uh
00:10:12
Speaker
understand that there's nothing that can, if a global pandemic can't stop you, ain't nothing out there that can stop you. Nothing. I think it's stopping me. I'm on my way up. Okay. Shout out to DJ Khaled. Okay.
00:10:28
Speaker
So once again, shout out to class of 2024. We're so proud of you. I'm entering class of 2020, even though I took a year out, I really should have been with you guys, but I had to pause it on, but I understand we went through a lot. So I'm super proud of everybody who was able to just finish strong this year. And yeah, so shout out to you guys.
00:10:51
Speaker
Now getting into, this is grad season, it's all about education, getting our diplomas and just increasing our knowledge base. When it comes to the field of education, it's so important that we continue to have people that are setting a good example for those who are trying to get to the next step.
Classroom Boundaries and Controversies
00:11:11
Speaker
Definitely.
00:11:14
Speaker
some teachers and professors and just other educators who are doing that in a way that I would say is positive. But recently we've seen the other coin where we have a teacher who may or may not necessarily be setting an example for his students that speaks to actually valuing
00:11:34
Speaker
the educated process and maybe more so due to other personal reasons. So to get into it, I don't know if you guys saw, there was a TikTok that came out and there was a male black teacher who had his female black students braiding his hair in the classroom.
00:11:53
Speaker
There was some controversy about how do people feel about this? Is this appropriate? Is this not appropriate? And it was almost like what I saw to be a half and half split against people's, I guess, opinion on the situation. And in the end, there was more evidence that came out that now has us wondering, is this man, is he on the PEDO?
00:12:22
Speaker
side of things because he then made a follow-up TikTok where
00:12:28
Speaker
Basically, he was pretty much crying while reading messages from his young female students saying, oh, we miss you. We're sad that you're no longer teaching here and all these things. And it's just kind of like, but these are kids, bro. Like, why are you one? Why are they having your personal phone number and able to text you these messages? And then two, are you sitting up on your TikTok with your microphone crying about these messages? So it was very much giving boundaries weren't enforced.
00:12:57
Speaker
And so I don't know how to categorize this man, but it seems like he is teetering towards an allegation that Kendrick
00:13:09
Speaker
accused Drake of, to put it lightly. Hold your horses. Okay. So let's stick to the topic. What would you guys, what are your guys thoughts on this situation? I think this is a very complex situation. Um, but let's look at the statistics here, right? So in 2017, 2018,
00:13:32
Speaker
6.5% of teachers were black men. Do you know how many currently? Well, from 2020 to 2021, what the percentage is?
00:13:40
Speaker
thing when I'm down 1.3%. Now with that being said, I'm not condoning his, like, if he's doing this in a malicious way, if he's doing this in a PED or way, right. And you said there was allegations that he was to me, there's not a, like, think about for all of us. Like even for me, I had only one black teacher in my whole tenure from high school and below. I mean, so having that experience, we know our kids have high rates of depression to a side.
00:14:09
Speaker
lack of socialization, but especially for black girls who are amongst the increasing rates of suicidality, especially when talking about adolescents and teens. I think that it's very important for them to connect to someone that they look up to, someone that could potentially be their mentor. We know that there are situations and scenarios where
00:14:27
Speaker
People live in single parent households where they don't have advice encouragement support and maybe yes Maybe he's overstepped the boundaries by allowing access. I could see that to his phone number No, I'm saying but at the other hand there and his hair they were taking his hair out in the middle of class What happened to workbooks?
00:14:47
Speaker
What do we know how many times we had times in class where we had like fun days where we was chillin watching cartoons. Sometimes you need that right? We I think that's the school system is overtly industrialized when I say industrialized. I mean, our kids go to school sit down for hours on day and are expected to pay attention, understand history, learn algebra. But I think that our kids also need socialization. I think our kids also need
00:15:14
Speaker
to feel love, to have that centered experience of emotionality and connection to something outside of the books. And I think that this is a great representation of that. A male role model who is allowing his kids to just be themselves. Some of these kids, them doing that may allow them to usher in their next entrepreneurship or their business or their thought about having a hair braiding business.
00:15:36
Speaker
or even just being able to do something that makes him genuinely happy because again, our kids are overtly stressed. Now again, with that being said, with him texting all that, you can see, you know, there's great area with that. I understand that. I'm crying on his mic and crying on his mic. What's wrong with him crying? Text messages. Black men could cry.
00:15:55
Speaker
Let, let, let him cry. He loves his, it shows he loves his children. All right, all right. I'm gonna chime in now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before I start arguing, before I, hey, let me just calm down. Let me meditate. So I'm gonna throw in, I'm gonna throw in a couple more details. I'm gonna throw in a couple more details. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That I, that I think are important. He's a middle school teacher and his students are middle school aged.
00:16:21
Speaker
He, the video wasn't like somebody else recorded. He recorded himself. He put his own TikTok on live. He posted like puts on a table. He does videos with the class all the time. He has a very close rapport with both the students and their parents.
00:16:38
Speaker
And the reason that he was getting his hair taken out was because he had some kind of hair appointment immediately after school. And it was the end of the day. And he asked a couple of his students if they could help him out. They said, sure. The rest of the class was in the room behind the camera. And yeah, it was one of those scenarios. Kind of like the end of the school year, the last period of the day, you kind of have some free time or whatever. It was one of those kinds of scenarios.
00:17:06
Speaker
I think with regard to the entire thing, we may be the old people now. We may be the old people that can't stand to see something that we didn't see when we were in school. And as such, we don't like it. We don't try to accept it. And we just want them out. People were trying to,
00:17:35
Speaker
take this to a romantic place? I see that. I see that. I saw this as like, and you know, I watched the live. I saw this as kind of
00:17:54
Speaker
family oriented, you know? I saw it as kind of like, like the students were all chatting to each other, they're chatting to him. It was kind of just, you know, a big job that they needed to, you know, to have done. He had braids or whatever the case may be. And everybody was kind of like all just chilling, taking out his hair. Is that definitely a border that we've never seen cross? Absolutely. I feel like that is a, that is something that I've never seen personally. However, if you as a, so think about it. So I'll say, think about it like this.
00:18:25
Speaker
Ain't no student doing that if they don't want to. You know what I'm saying? If there's a teacher that you truly don't like, if there's a teacher that you didn't have some form of connection with, y'all not volunteering to take out your hair. I'm not volunteering to do this personal thing for you. I think the student's willingness to participate was a reflection of the good relationship that they had. I did actually run into a couple of parents of those students in the comments on the Shade Room
00:18:55
Speaker
And those parents were singing his praises. He does a great job as a teacher. He keeps an open line of communication with them. He does.
00:19:08
Speaker
As much as the students are involved, the parents are involved as well. You know what I'm saying? We can agree to disagree then is what I'll say. Because I still believe in boundaries need to be enforced. And that was the next thing that I was going to say. I was going to say, there may be a gray area, an unexplored gray area that perhaps
00:19:35
Speaker
We may have dabbled a little bit too far into with regard to an intimate relationship with your students. I will agree there. I don't think the backlash that he got was warranted. He lost his job. I don't think this was something. So we can agree to disagree on that.
00:19:52
Speaker
We could have been determined on that. I'm sorry, but this is how, this is how grooming starts. This is how like, it starts like this. It starts that the person is allowing you access in a way that is way too personal. Like think about it from even like a professor, college student perspective, that would be seen as weird, but it's because they're middle school students who don't have the experience and the
00:20:15
Speaker
discernment to know when something is just like, this isn't normal. And I feel like because of their age, we're excusing it. And so I hear everything you guys are both saying, I'm not trying to say that he isn't somebody that has informed a good relationship with his kids, but why though you're a grown man, what, like why, why that level of investment to the extent that you have their phone numbers and you're texting, you're crying on your mic on TikTok.
00:20:40
Speaker
I'm sorry. What would this repercussion be for women? But I would say the same thing for a woman. I don't think that should be a thing, period, for women or men. I'm not discriminating because he's a man, honestly. I think it's odd. But like I said, I hear what you guys are saying, and I don't think what you're saying is wrong. I'm just saying that I still feel like those things can lead, when you allow one door open, it can lead to other things. And I think that as a grown man, there should always
00:21:09
Speaker
As a grown person, period, as a grown man or a grown woman, there needs to still be like a certain level of just like, this is what I'm okay with. The line needs to exist. Yeah, exactly. I'm an authority figure. I'm going to throw it. That's to me, just like how my parent always made me know that I'm not your friend, I'm your parent. I feel like that's something that still needs to exist. I'm not trying to say his intent was wrong, but I still feel like you still have to uphold a certain boundary when you are the elder in the situation. And I firmly agree on that.
00:21:36
Speaker
But, you know, I hear, I think everything makes sense from what you guys have said. The last thing that I would say is I'm not sure whether letting in too much of an intimate relationship would have a negative effect when it was time to teach.
00:21:52
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And that's all the other things I was thinking of. Yep. Right. Yeah. That's another thing. We got to be careful with the grooming too. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but like that's, that's good. That's getting a little out there. That's grooming. Grooming means when you are
00:22:11
Speaker
Creating a relationship with the person to allow them to have a certain level of safety and trust you that when it's time to attack They attack But I'm just saying like but I think it's tough because for me like if I don't know if I was a teacher I would do and I say what he did but I would love my students I would cry for my students because they part of you you spend more time during the day with them than you do with their actual parents, right and
00:22:35
Speaker
They spend one third of their day they're crying on your tick tock Mike is insane He was a tick tock influencer But I will say that All our listeners have their bow have both sides. I'm sure people agree or disagree whatever from whatever each person is saying right now, but
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah, we're gonna leave it at that. Speaking of crying, speaking of crying, right? Because it's very important. Crying, emotionality, being vulnerable in your experiences.
Mental Health in Medicine
00:23:13
Speaker
As we know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month, right? And I think it's very important for us to have this conversation together. We are at different stages of our life. I'm about to go into residency.
00:23:23
Speaker
you know it's a bella going to a fourth year jared he's gonna be a future medical student and i think that we have to have these conversations regarding being a medical student being at whatever position that you're in and understanding that depression anxiety burnout more injury these are all terms that become normal and normalized to us
00:23:42
Speaker
but we don't yet understand and communicate these things because of a system that does disavows us from doing so. We're made to be automatons, in my opinion. And as we know, as you go through medical school, as we go through residency, there's a high expectation on you to be the standard of excellence at each and every moment.
00:24:04
Speaker
But the realities are you are a human being. You should be allowed to cry, to feel sad, to feel depressed. I remember when I was in my old residency program and one of the co-interns busted into one of the call rooms and started crying and was saying how a tenant was bullying her. And I was there just like in shock and everybody was there just a back like, oh, what's wrong with you? And they're telling her what's wrong with her. But rather than saying what's wrong with the system,
00:24:33
Speaker
They're looking at her as an individual like she did something wrong. So you ain't doing nothing wrong. You are responding to a system that doesn't love you, that doesn't appreciate you. You know what I'm saying? So I wanted to have this conversation because we know that medical students with underlying mental illness have higher rates of sleep issues, poor academic performances. I had a classmate that unfortunately succumbed to cocaine use disorder and was using cocaine while in medical school.
00:25:00
Speaker
to kind of adapt and cope because his parents was on him like, oh, well, you need to be a doctor. You know, he came from a specific background that, you know, was very adamant about him becoming a doctor. And unfortunately, you know, had to leave medical school because, you know, he wasn't following along with his passions. What I wanted to say also was that according to Medscape physicians experienced a high rate of burnout. Forty nine percent of physicians reported experiencing burnout in 2024, which is good, is down from
00:25:30
Speaker
53% in 2023. And the highest burnout specialties was EM, which is a Bella. You better be careful. You better be careful. Excuse me. Excuse me. You can go, my friend, take whatever you're saying and throw it out. Throw it out. Because the application is already about to be signed, still to delivered. So that's the air complex.
00:25:53
Speaker
But if I wanted to ask that, what does mental health awareness mean to you in your respective stages and what we need to do to advocate for them?
00:26:01
Speaker
So it's funny that you mentioned that, Alden. I did actually come across that study as well that showed that EM physicians were experiencing the highest rate of burnout. To answer your question specifically. Which is relative though, right? Because a lot of the times when we do these surveys, when we do these surveys, they're very biased in the sense that one, ER doctors are usually more likely to respond to these surveys than other specialties because they have the time
00:26:29
Speaker
to respond. You don't ask somebody in thoracic or plastic surgery because they're not even going to, they're not even going to fill out the survey response because they're working a 24 hour call overnight. We only have to work maybe max of a 12 hour shift. So even if we're burnt out, you have the time to go sit down on the computer, say we're burnt out.
00:26:45
Speaker
A real burnt out specialty would not have time to say they're burnt out. So let's put that into perspective. We need the stats on this. We need to see percentage wise how many people responded. We need to see the percentage. We need to see how many people responded. The ratio, like you have to really get into the numbers because it always looks inflated. Yeah. I agree. Okay. Okay. She's not playing by you. I'm going to stay in my pre-med lane.
00:27:07
Speaker
Tell me, burnout looks like the past six months. I've been on rotation in the hospital by day, going to my job in the lab overnight, doing eight hours on both, and having eight hours of personal time to myself on any given weekday. And that's not much time to, you know, do the personal maintenance, you know what I'm saying? I stopped going to the gym, had to just, you know, relegate myself to like, maybe like a walk here or there.
00:27:33
Speaker
My diet's lacked, my self-care is lacked, all those different things. And I've definitely, I think I spent the last week or so of my rotations before graduation. I called out the entire week. I was like, I called out and the reason I called out, I was like, yeah, I'm feeling burnt out. I told them shit up. I was like, yeah. I love that.
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, I said I'm going to skip this week because I also had like finals and stuff that I was taking care of. I had a couple of exams, my master's thesis to get to get in care of. And so I was just saying, what did it feel like? What did it look like? It looked like too much on my plate to balance with daily life.
00:28:15
Speaker
And something had to go, at least for a little bit of time, to put it simply. You know what I'm saying? I think it's really important to be able to identify it. And I think I was able to be OK with it since graduation was right around the corner. I actually am still on rotations. I have rotations for another month following graduation. But for some reason, it just feels so much lighter.
00:28:41
Speaker
now that the classwork aspect is gone. And I think I just needed to allow that portion to finish itself off gracefully. And once that portion was done, I was able to, you know, the plate just had more space, you feel me? The plate just had more space. And it's important to identify when you have too much on your plate and to be able to either, you know, ask someone in your life for help or straight up just say, hey, this is too much right now. I'm leaving something behind. You know what I'm saying?
00:29:07
Speaker
Bro, I just want to say I'm proud of you. I want to celebrate you because I didn't know that. Although we're close, just hearing that is so important that you're able to share that because a lot of people go through things hidden. Because I see you literally, you're active, you're doing your thing. But I know that could take a toll on your mental health, like having a day job and a night job. So I just want to give you your flowers and say that's incredible what you did.
00:29:31
Speaker
and it's an inspiration for me despite us being in different trajectories right now with our professional careers that's going to behoove you when you get into you know medical school next year and your work ethic is incredible so continue doing your thing and also you said if you need help I got you man let me know if you need help bro I'll pick you up bro like I'll show you whatever you know I'm saying I don't got the bread to support you right now bro but whatever you need
00:29:57
Speaker
All of a sudden when the fun comes, when the fun comes, period. Okay, we love that. I think for me, definitely like mental health looks like similar to what Jared is saying is literally just like, just literally
00:30:13
Speaker
disengaging when I need to disengage and I did that when I was in London. Everybody wanted to hit my line knowing good and well that I'm not in the United States and I can't do what you're asking me to do so I simply just didn't respond and you know it's beautiful you just decide like I'm just not gonna engage with you and you can't do anything to me because we've already had this discussion I told you I won't be here you're still reaching out and so you have to wait and so it's just knowing that like you have to put yourself first when you've decided that you're taking a break
00:30:41
Speaker
And I think it's also just like making sure to enforce and continue maintaining and enforcing your boundaries. So maybe that's a little bit different from what I'm saying with Jared. It's like not necessarily saying, OK, when I'm tired, like I'm not going to do this anymore. So if you've already made a decision that you're not going to allow anything more at that point, stick to that. Don't let anybody convince you, oh, I'm going to change my mind because I think boundaries is an immensely important part of mental health. Facts. As soon as you start letting people violate your personal boundaries, you have no
00:31:11
Speaker
space to yourself, like making sure that your space remains your own. I agree with you 100%.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you know what? When it comes to boundaries, I feel like it's very important that we think about, like, what is it that, like, what are our boundaries and how do we continue to uphold that in a way that speaks to our character and who we are? Unfortunately, you know, I think we spoke about this at a prior episode, but you guys know that show Love is Blind. And then the character Clay, I think we spoke briefly about Clay and AD, the black, the only black couple that was on the show. Yeah.
00:31:47
Speaker
you know clay ad at the time and clay word item and you know clay
00:31:54
Speaker
had said that he was, he couldn't say yes to A.D. at the altar because of the fact that he was enforcing the boundary of making sure that he could be husband material and he could be the man that he needed to be in order to be married. And so that was him, quote unquote, protecting that boundary. But in the end, we found out it was just all a lie and a sham. A.D. just wasn't his type. Yeah, his type wasn't A.D. Darskin girls weren't his type.
00:32:19
Speaker
Because we saw him. Here we go. Here we go. We saw him boot up with Celine. Y'all know Celine Powell. Celine Powell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She get around.
00:32:29
Speaker
Okay, so he went from AD, wife material, ex-patriots cheerleader, respectable real estate career, whatever, went from AD, dark skinned black woman, to Celine Powell. Celine Powell.
00:32:51
Speaker
Do we know the specifics? As the two black men on this call, please speak up for your brother, Clay. Do you know the specifics on why they broke up? Like, do we know that he broke up with because he was dark skinned? So, OK, so one, he would never admit to that, right? Let's use our thinking cast for a second. He would never admit to having a preference that is inherently colorist. He wouldn't do that. People would pick up because they break up.
00:33:18
Speaker
I'll get it. Okay. Okay. So me as a love is blind watcher, this man sat there and was giving false hopes, A.D. saying, yeah, he's, he thinks he's ready, even though he was kind of alluding to some fears of marriage because of his parents or his dad cheating on his mom throughout his childhood. But he still was kind of like saying he thinks that he could do it. And then when the alter came, he literally left A.D. at the alter and said, I can't marry you.
00:33:43
Speaker
Mind you, 80 didn't have any red flags. He never complained about her, never said she had anything wrong with her. Even at the reunion, said, oh, what did he say? He was like, oh, 80 was a love of my life. Yeah, I think I made a big mistake. Then a couple months later, when everything settles, the dust settles down. We see him out with Selena Powell. Can somebody explain? Can the black man on this call explain that, please?
00:34:05
Speaker
Maybe try to get back at Shorty. She wasn't with it because she got publicly embarrassed. I need to know the context of what happened. Obviously, they're not going to publicly have a conversation about it. But I think that there's a fact that's unhidden that we can't just assume because she was darker skinned. That
ER Walkout: Protesting Working Conditions
00:34:28
Speaker
he broke up with. It got to be something beyond that I feel like. Yes,
00:34:32
Speaker
in the context of society celebrities we do see that maybe black men favor light-skinned women but also we don't know he teaches each other with Selena Powell that might be just a little fling a little shorty that he got a photo with that they officially come out oh that's my baby whatever whatever
00:34:49
Speaker
She came out with the photos. She came out the videos and then well, she's known if she's known in history to do that stuff She likes to expose people talk about the men that she's been with and she's done this on podcasts Like I know I've watched podcasts with her in it exposing other men that she's been with so she's known to do that now I don't know if that was at the discretion of what he wanted but at the end of the day she's known to expose people and maybe
00:35:14
Speaker
Maybe he's in a relationship. Maybe he's not. But I don't think because I feel like oftentimes we talk about like black men only focusing on light skin chicks and all that. But that's not the representation of most black men. Yes, this might happen. Hey, so you're not a black man. What a black woman who has seen and witnessed these not only these ones, we call it.
00:35:44
Speaker
Okay, so let's let's bring this to a different direction, right? Okay, so the thing is the only thing go ahead So
00:35:52
Speaker
I've been burnt out. I ain't tapped in with none of this. Nah, I feel that, Brody. Love you, Brody. I need that juice. I need that juice skin Ruby Rose love. I don't know what y'all talk about over here. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that juice skin Ruby Rose love. I don't know what y'all talk about over here. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that.
00:36:17
Speaker
just like just like Juski got. However, back on the topic of being burnt out in a very similar vein, it's good that y'all brought that up. I didn't know he was going to talk about Love is Blind. I would have tapped into it. What's it called?
00:36:31
Speaker
er doctors in detroit not really uh burnt out but they feel that they were overworked and had um subpar conditions they staged a walkout so doctors at ascension st john hospital in the joint staged a walkout they went on a 24 hour strike as a call to action to remedy the working conditions in their emergency room
00:36:52
Speaker
They noted that there were 16, 17 hour wait times for patients. And they were saying that there were subpar training for the staff in the emergency room. And as a result, it was leading to decreasing bad patient outcomes. They noted that
00:37:19
Speaker
They were able to unionize in the past year. They had been having talks with the hospital administration. They had been having talks with the powers that be. They even gave a 10-day notice about the strike, about the walkout, and negotiations eventually broke down. This walkout was essentially their call to action, their call to, hey, we need to see that patients are put before profits. We need to see that even though, you know,
00:37:48
Speaker
we're doing our thing, we're doing the best we can, but the best we can is not enough if we don't have support from the top. So I just wanted to get some of you guys' thoughts. I'm kind of confused, like, if you do a walkout, isn't that gonna make the patient wait in time, like, longer, to be honest?
00:38:06
Speaker
So it's a planned walkout. They stated that they would do it 10 days in advance. The hospital took steps to have temporary staff put in and more so it's about a long-term effect. So there were news outlets invited, various blogs, various types of
00:38:26
Speaker
publications and this walkout has since gained national attention. There are congressmen and senators that have now pledged their allegiance and have put their backing behind ensuring that something like this does not need to happen again because a physician walkout hasn't been, you know, something that's, well, not to my knowledge, hasn't occurred in the news in some time, you know? So they were kind of kind, like, this is a drastic route that they had to take.
00:38:52
Speaker
to ensure that they were taken seriously. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I would say I'm proud of seeing this happen, honestly, because I think that emergency medicine is a field that very much we are the safety net of the hospital. We are the first line providers. And we are literally like the last line of defense for a lot of people. And so most of the time, people kind of overlook
00:39:19
Speaker
the role that we play in the medical field. And so that can also translate into the conditions. And in order for us to serve these patients who a lot of the time, like most of the time the patients we're seeing are going to be the patients that we're bringing in for specialists and consultants who are then going to see them in their clinic or see them in their operating room, we got to be happy too in order for y'all to be happy, right? It's a pipeline effect. And people don't really realize how a lot of the time the patients that
00:39:48
Speaker
Most of specialists and consultancy is the ones who came from the emergency department first. So if we didn't do the workup, if we didn't do the initial differential diagnosis, you wouldn't even have a patient. You know what I'm trying to say? And so we're such a vital component of that machine, but then
00:40:03
Speaker
people still overlook that we need to be comfortable too. And I think that like them doing this walkout is standing up for the specialty, standing up for themselves, standing up for the patients who don't deserve to be in those kinds of conditions. So I think it's a win. I think it's OD standing up for the patients. Yup. It's a win. It's an interesting thing to think about. Imagine what kind of
00:40:25
Speaker
work you're able to do, right? Let's say every patient that you've seen has been waiting 12 plus hours. They have an emergency. They came to the emergency room with something pertinent. They've been waiting 12 plus hours. You know what I'm saying? After a while, that's going to take a toll on you as the physician. Your patients are going to be more irate. They're going to pop off. Communicative. You know what I'm saying? And I feel like
00:40:53
Speaker
them trying to get the administration, hey, put these systems in place so that these patients have to wait as long as them trying not to react to the patient. You know what I'm saying? And it really highlights the hard spot that physicians are in as caretakers. Like, yo, I'm getting it from both ends. I'm getting it from the administration above me. And then I'm also getting it from the patient population that I'm trying to serve. So shout outs to them.
00:41:18
Speaker
And this is a prime example, right? Like when we have conversations about hospital systems, and we don't talk about this in medical school, but a lot of hospitals run on very thin margins. And so when they hire, when they're trying to maintain their legitimacy financially, they want to do everything as little as possible as a corporate infrastructure for their patients so that they can make as much bread possible on the top end.
00:41:44
Speaker
That's why you got CEOs making three, four million dollars for hospital systems, doctors making like chump change on top of that. But on top of that, it's like, oh, see as much patients as possible, have least amount of people in the facility that work for the hospitals where we talk about PAs, doctors, techs and all that so that we can have more bread on the other end. You know what I'm saying? So that causes disparities, that causes distrust, that causes issues with the way that health care is provided here.
00:42:12
Speaker
in America. Healthcare is a, although they call it a non-profit hospital, it's a for-profit business. They are in for making money. They're not in for preventing cardiovascular disease, which is number one killer in America, for preventing diabetes, for preventing dementia, stroke. All of these issues that are top 10 suicidality in America, they're not in it for that. They don't care about that. Again, this hospital is clearly showing that 15 hours to wait
00:42:40
Speaker
to get into the ER, that's ridiculous. Y'all gotta put support systems in place, whether it's hiring more people, or whether it's y'all create a system where people can get access in a different way from different hospitals, urgent cares, whatever the case may be, and they're not acknowledging that.
00:42:58
Speaker
Patients were being seen in sometimes a waiting room, sometimes the ER hallways, really wherever and however kind of situation. And it was very much giving, you know how we kind of went to crunch mold during the pandemic and we were just up work. It kind of seemed as though they were operating at a constant state of that. You know what I'm saying?
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah, very easy to see how those doctors could become frustrated and potentially burnt out dealing with working conditions like that. Speaking of burnout, I want to get back to some of the other statistics from the Medscape report before we finish off on the topic. So the specialties that reported the lowest rates of burnout included plastics at 37%, ophthalmology at 39%, psychiatry at 39%, pathology at 41%.
00:43:48
Speaker
and otolaryngology at 43%. Some of the things that the physicians noted that contribute to burnout include bureaucratic tasks like charting and paperwork, too many hours at work, and the lack of respect from their employers, colleagues, or staff. Physicians were most likely to report deploying the following coping mechanisms to deal with burnout.
00:44:08
Speaker
Almost half of them said that they were using exercise. A lot of them said family time, getting more sleep at 40% and sending time alone or playing or listening to music were some of the ways that they chose to cope. And the workplace measures that physicians said that helped to most alleviate burnout included paying them more, better compensation, adding support staff.
00:44:29
Speaker
Is it burned out of your pockets or is it burned out of your mental? Now let's start. We got to be specific with the burnout guys. Come on. A more flexible work schedule. Oh Lord. When you look at the percentages, like I said, with these hospital systems, you'll be surprised how much a lot of doctors, how we are the foundation of revenue generation in the hospital systems, but a lot of against CEOs, CMOs,
00:44:55
Speaker
Individuals they're not real doctors. They're not seeing patients every day if they're like what we see in this case with Ascension st. John's Hospital the doctors were walk out the hospital is messed up They are effed, you know to be blamed, you know I'm saying with it so we got to take control and advocate for ourselves because I
00:45:15
Speaker
We are taught in the system of medical school residency that we got to work for these corporation systems in the way that we want. No, we are the ones that are generating the revenue and directing care for our patients. So if we speak up, we take advantage of our power within the hospital, they're going to do what's necessary. Otherwise, they're not going to stay afloat. I like that. I like that. Very, very well said. Very well said.
00:45:41
Speaker
But you know, with that being said, you know, it's a lot going on in the world. And we can definitely switch gears.
Trump's Legal Trials: Impact on Politics
00:45:50
Speaker
We switched things like it was a good time to talk about. But you know, the ER, the doctors in the ER doing anything, but it's a lot of people that's doing anything. It could be said that we burnt that topic out.
00:46:03
Speaker
It can be said that but I'm moving on to another topic and this topic is also burning people out because we talking about Trump Trump got a lot going on He's the first president to potentially be indicted on a criminal case in the history of America There's a lot going on with Trump and people and he's still having the support of over 75 million people We know that he's gonna be voted for realities are
00:46:31
Speaker
He's facing jail time. This is day 18 of the trial currently.
00:46:36
Speaker
and uh trump you know has been facing jail time for the last several days because you know how he is he go on twitter and he's like oh this is false news this is for this is a false chance he pull up whatever and the judge is like before because he was kind of acting out in the way and and and the judge now he has a gag order because the judge now is realizing like he he borderline trying to talk about the judge's family and he's like yo if you talk about my family or you talk about any
00:47:05
Speaker
other people that's on jury during this trial. You potentially could face 30 days in jail or be given a $1,000 fine, which is nothing to him, obviously, as we know. You know what I'm saying? But what the fact of the matter is that a lot of people don't understand what this trial is predicated on. The trial is predicated on the fact that he used while before he was put into position as President of the United States in 2016.
00:47:30
Speaker
He used campaign money to hush a porn star P star. Excuse me. He saw Stormy Daniels
00:47:39
Speaker
He used for the money to hush her and by doing that he did that by using his lawyer who at the time is Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen has been on trial on stand for the last two or three days admitting that Trump paid him bread to pay the Stormy Daniels but also he paid him to like maneuver, you know what I'm saying? Maneuver all the situations with Stormy Daniels and also like keep it hush hush, you know what I'm saying?
00:48:10
Speaker
So with that being said.
00:48:12
Speaker
Trump has been going through a lot and this is unprecedented. This is historic. And a lot of people are wondering like, what are the next moves? This guy has already a debate that's going to be going on with Biden on, I believe June 27th. So about a month from now and imagine if it was one of us. They need to retire. They need to retire. These old, like, these are these, they're too old. They're too old. Why can't somebody young and fresh just come in? I know this has nothing to do about what you're talking about, but you just say this debate just made me realize like,
00:48:41
Speaker
That's all we got. That's all America got. You got to do the tales of the two evil, honestly. You know what I'm saying? But yeah, I was so tight because I was reading an article and it was like Trump just sent this dude, the lawyer, 35,000 straight. And he's like, I'm going to pay you the next month. I'm like, yo, could I get 35 K side? Like, oh, they, they, they like, they paying. The thing is like the realities are that to use campaign money,
00:49:06
Speaker
to pay somebody off, your lawyer, and then pay the person that you had alleged affair. It's just ridiculous. Imagine, like I said, if it was one of you and I, if it was in this position, it was Barack Obama, you would have no way to get out of this position. But because of white privilege, because of the position that he's in, because he is a billionaire,
00:49:29
Speaker
They're going to maintain the status quo. And honestly, I wanted to actually, how do you feel about this trial? Like, do you feel like he is going to be president regardless of what happens? It's looking like this guy is still pushing through. Like Biden, the polls are looking kind of crazy. They're coming out in droves. When we talk about rural counties, when we talk about areas that weren't as pronounced now when they're doing Gallup polls, they're showing that people are now ready to put this man back on top again.
00:50:00
Speaker
I think it's incredibly interesting that someone on trial for anything is running for president. It's incredibly interesting that despite the fact that multiple states barred him from their primaries, that he's still running for president. I think that there is an extreme amount of political manipulation, privilege,
00:50:30
Speaker
excess uh chances given to the donald um the donald just like he said the black people the black people
00:50:45
Speaker
It needs to be like, you know, some kind of, um, some kind of end to the bipartisan strip where we stop trying to just simply uphold the political party and we uphold the constitution. We uphold the laws that truly govern the land. You know what I'm saying? Um, yeah, I'm not going, I'm not going to get too crazy because I can, I can run on this for a little bit, but that's, that's, that's my two cents on the matter as well. What you think? Yeah, I think that.
00:51:13
Speaker
We live in a racist country, so it's very well in the wheelhouse that Trump could get back. I'd rather he not, but I think that if I'm tuned into what America is about, we're not about a lot of things that make sense. So I can't say that he's out of the running because of this. I just think that people once again make excuses for him if they really mess with his other ideologies.
00:51:43
Speaker
So I personally, I'm leaning towards anything can happen in this case scenario. And I think that we should be prepared for any outcomes the same way that we were prepared for an unexpected outcome when it came to the rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Surprises happen, right? As a Drake fan,
00:52:06
Speaker
as a Drake. I'm actually, you know, I'm a fan of Kendra too, but if I have to say like who I'm putting in my ballot for with anything concerning hip hop, of course my Drake would first go to, uh, or my boat would first go to Drake. So the rap beat was, it was an unexpected surprise. It was an unexpected surprise.
00:52:26
Speaker
What are you guys, so I can give a rundown of kind of what has happened since the last time we spoke. So last time we spoke, it was me and Jared all the way. You had a little bit too much mojito that you could enjoy. Yeah, why are you trying to expose people? I don't want to be exposed to it. Jared, you can cut it out if you want to. If you're in your game, so you can leave it, whatever. Wow.
00:52:58
Speaker
I'm gonna give you all a timeline
Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake: Rap Battle
00:53:00
Speaker
real quick. You can fill in the details. Okay. We got March 22nd with Kendrick. Kendrick hops on the track with Future Metro booming like that. And we got March 25th with Drake. With Drake. He responds to this or whatever on Instagram. Then we got Drake releases pushups at the end of April. Then we got Drake fired. Drake dropped the second one.
00:53:31
Speaker
They know how to get to the song. At the end of April, we got the second one, TaylorMade Freestyle, right? That's the back-to-back that Drake did, saying, yo, Kendrick, what's up? You're not coming outside to play?
00:53:47
Speaker
With the A.I. from Tupac. And Swoop Dogg, who's still alive, how to use a living man's voice. We can't make it up. It was the west coast of it all. Then we got April Nerdy a lot. Kendrick came out with a six-minute diss track euphoria, and he was just coming at your neck. He was coming for you left. Oh, my God.
00:54:09
Speaker
Four days later, with no response from Drake, Kendrick drops again. Sixteen in LA. So this is when things got crazy, right? Because then that same day, Drake released his third diss track, Family Matters. And then the following day, we woke up to meet the Grahams. And then Kendrick dropped another one, not like us. And after that, Drake drops the heart part six on May 5th.
00:54:37
Speaker
That was a crazy weekend for real. It was crazy. It was not a lot going on. And a week later, after the dust settled, the number one song on the Billboard Top 100 was not like us by Kendrick. It was. It was a summer bop. I was at a summer bop.
00:54:58
Speaker
it's a summer bop you can swing your little man purses you can sip your little uh what's it called mimosas you can wear your brunch boots okay it's that kind of song is crazy
00:55:10
Speaker
It's that kind of song and I think that what was beautiful about not like us was that he inherently said I could do what Drake does I can come out with the bop that everybody's gonna be blasting and you can dance Drake comes up Drake comes with the melodies So I think that that's what made it stand out was that Kendrick won like we've seen Kendrick do hype songs before it's not his first time doing it but I think it's the fact that he almost in a way like beat Drake at his own game and he did it first before Drake to do it you do you do think Kendrick won I
00:55:39
Speaker
I do think Hendrick, 100%. I do think Hendrick. Hold on what you think.
00:55:46
Speaker
Bro, Kendrick bodied him, bro. He violated his family, saying, yeah. The bodied is insane. The bodied is insane, right? I said he bodied. I said he won, right? Oh my god. He didn't bodied him. If we're talking lyrically speaking, lyrically speaking, Drake and Kendrick were almost on a similar plane because did he listen to Family Matters? Did you listen to Family Matters? Yes.
00:56:10
Speaker
Drake addressed more things in his songs than Kendrick really addressed. All Kendrick really harped on was the pitot allegations and all that stuff. And then maybe the fact that he is like trying to be a culture version, but that's not nothing new. The only new thing he said was the pitot thing that we knew about Drake assimilating to other people's cultures. We knew about all the other stuff he said. So to me, it's like, you got to come in with new facts.
00:56:33
Speaker
But I gotta be fascinated to have limited limitations in the way that you present information in different ways. Like the way that Kendra gets presented information, bar for bar.
00:56:46
Speaker
That's why I said that lyrically speaking they weren't they were on similar, but what made Kendrick Upper echelon was that his tones his inflections the way he said the story everything was a lot more Like
00:57:06
Speaker
He's going all for ourselves. The way he created the song was a lot more like created and more, he put more layers to it that it's like, okay. He put a lot more thought into it, but I would say lyrically speaking, I wouldn't say that he, he body drank lyrically. I think that he just, he's really good at making the song sound animated and sound lively. And that like, you want to hear what he has to say. That to me is how we want it. Honestly, I don't think that Drake got bars. Honestly, I think he got ghostwriters to be honest. I'll just be real with that.
00:57:35
Speaker
No, Family Matters, if you look at the written part, written, it was only written by Drake. I think push-ups had more than one writer, but Family Matters was only written by Drake. I think Lamar came to destroy and put somebody in a grave in the name of De Jesus Christus Santo. I think this was
00:57:58
Speaker
the best rap beefs that we've seen in a while. That's a fun weekend where they were dropping back to back to back. And I was writing his master's thesis. I was tight because I had to stop and listen. The phone is blowing up. The chat is blowing up. I'm waking up. I remember the Monday morning came.
00:58:17
Speaker
And Broz was in the group chat. They woke up and they said, huh, no diss track this morning. Yeah, I'm officially spoiled. Because we were on the edge of our seats. We were. Every track that came out like, oh, yeah, this is crazy. Oh, I love it. I love it. I'm a jack that Drake respectfully had to, yeah, you lost, bro.
00:58:39
Speaker
You lost. He lost. He lost. It's okay. No one can do what Drake does though. The Drake effect still exists. No one can do what Drake does. If Drake hops on a track, it's automatically okay. He lost and it's fine. The Drake effect might be weakened because Kendrick has taken the number one spot.
00:58:57
Speaker
while mentioning but he got the number one spot by doing what? By mentioning Drake. If you didn't mention Drake, would there be a number one spot? Drake is still connected in all of this. That's the crazy part that no one's seen. Drake is still connected in all of these things we're talking about. Because if it wasn't about him, who would care?
00:59:20
Speaker
I won't say that. I agree that, like that, right? But he not like that, but I like that. You know what I'm saying? I agree with you on that. But I feel like if Kendrick developed a consistent stream of putting a musical output, things will be a little bit different. But Kendrick has been taking this break. He recently bought a $3.4 million penthouse in Brooklyn last year. I mean, there's a lot going on. So yes, his focus is not in music. It's in his family. Same thing with J. Cole.
00:59:47
Speaker
You know, so Drake Drake consistent. And he serves a different audience too. He's a conscious rapper. Like he serves, he has a certain sound that we list. Like if you listen to Drake, you're listening to Drake in the club. You're listening to him. Like if you're out on a, on a brunch date, whatever, but Kendrick, if you want to really listen to Kendrick, you're truly trying to listen to rapper really digest like real lyricism. If that makes any sense. So I feel like they serve different. Shout out to Cole for
01:00:24
Speaker
Okay He saw the future he saw the future said you guys keep talking nonsense
01:00:33
Speaker
Speaking of Kendrick, and you know, I really like that point you made about how you're gonna, you're gonna wanna, you know, try to really listen to his music and try to digest it. And that's gonna move us right on to our next Awareness Month, which is National Celiac Diseases Awareness Month.
Celiac Disease Awareness Month
01:00:50
Speaker
And if you may not know, celiac disease is a chronic digestive and immune disorder that damages the lining of the small intestine, making it very difficult for you to digest
01:01:01
Speaker
foods that might have gluten in it. Gluten is found in foods usually containing wheat, Riley. Over time, this reaction damages the small intestines lining and prevents it from absorbing nutrients. So it's listening to some kind of malabsorption leading to low nutritional or whatever. The symptom, bloating and gas, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, the works, fatigue, weight loss, things of that nature, there's not exactly
01:01:29
Speaker
a known specific cause of celiac disease, right? It has like genetic factors. It has a combination of like, you know, eating gluten containing foods that can contribute to it. The precise cause, it's like a bunch of things like impact it, right? It can then be impacted by infant feeding practices. If you have like a GI infection, it may change like your gut health or whatever and contribute to some form of celiac disease.
01:01:56
Speaker
They've also said that, you know, even something like a surgery can start it up or a pregnancy, childbirth, a viral infection can do it. And they've even something as like crazy as severe emotional distress can lead to celiac disease symptoms.
01:02:12
Speaker
So if you ever wanted to learn more about celiac disease, if you feel that you may have a gluten tolerance issue or something like that, May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month, and there is a campaign going on via the Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign via the National Institutes of Health,
01:02:31
Speaker
There is the Celiac Support Association at celiac.com. There is the Gluten Free Living Magazine, as well as National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Great. Well, shout out to Celiac Disease Awareness Month. I personally don't know too many who have it, but I know that it's definitely, I do know a few people who have some gluten tolerance issues, and so it's great to
01:03:01
Speaker
kind of pause and think about people who are suffering from this particular disease. And it's still a lifestyle change and accommodation they have to make that's not necessarily easy. And it's good to know that they have these resources to reach out to if they ever need to figure out other ways to support themselves or support another person they may know suffering from the disease. Yeah, I think with a lot of gastrointestinal illnesses, we have to really talk about
01:03:32
Speaker
The awareness and the fact of the matter is that we are what we eat. And a lot of things that we eat, we're not aware of what's in them. Yes, you're eating chicken. But you're also eating steroids. You're also eating pesticides. You're also eating what the chickens are fed. And that can cause inflammatory states in our bodies that we don't even think about. That can predispose us for getting
01:03:58
Speaker
sicknesses, right? Whether we talk about muscle joint disease, arthritis, whether we talk about constipation, diarrhea, other GI diseases, hypertension. So we have to really have a wherewithal with our society, the FDA. A lot of things that they're doing, we don't be thinking about it. You go to the supermarket and say, oh, I'm gonna pick up the steak, I'm gonna pick up, ah, ah, ah. But there's things in that that you're not really even taking consideration that's destroying your body.
01:04:28
Speaker
and predisposing you to disease like celiac diseases and there's other GI diseases that we could talk about that's beyond the scope of this topic. You know what I'm saying? Are there other better habits that we could have at the grocery store to like kind of protect ourselves? I think that something they got to do is like farmers markets, right? Like looking at farmers markets, what they got selling over there. I think another thing that we got to do is
01:04:51
Speaker
It may be very challenging, but you know you got something natural and normal when you're growing in your backyard. Not saying you gotta have chickens.
01:04:59
Speaker
And all that, but go to like, for instance, on a block in the Bronx, there's a spot that sells real chickens that they bring from the farms over there. You know what I'm saying? And they butchered them if you answer me and all that, you know what I'm saying? So you got to go directly to the source, not to these manufacturing companies who in put in, they put, they put in, you know, coloring, they put in steroids.
01:05:25
Speaker
They sometimes even put in like water to juice a lot of the meat up to look at, make it look more flavorful so that you could buy that joint. You feel me? So we taking that, oh yeah, that's going to be great. It's like, bro, they just trying to get your eye. They trying to get your retinal attention. But meanwhile you're taking and ingesting all of these products. And over time that accumulates. We know how the body is. The body's not going to warn you when you do it the first time.
01:05:49
Speaker
But when it's a thousandth time and you're like 50, 60 years old, well, I have high cholesterol or I have high anxiety because cortisol and a lot of these neurochemicals that come into our bodies that increase our risk for a whole host of other issues. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think that's so important. And you know what, Aldon, I'm even more interested in the financial implications.
01:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, they can't see each other. But you know, with the financial corner, corner, we back at it again, back in action, back in static. So I'm appreciative of y'all. I know I've been like, am I am missing an action, but I think that this is necessary.
01:06:37
Speaker
Okay, because we know there's
Red Lobster's Financial Struggle
01:06:45
Speaker
One of the biggest things, how raise your hand if you let them $20 endless shrimp at Red Lobster.
01:06:47
Speaker
a financial
01:06:54
Speaker
Whoo, everybody's hand is up for our listeners. Nah, I'm sorry. Have I let someone take me on a date to Red Lobster? I would.
01:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, I would. I'm not bougie like that. I mean, hey, it's intense. Yeah, this is different country every week. But my fault. No, that's a good-ass question, because it's like, yo, you come into Red Lobster, and they're like, yo, you get the free biscuits, and they get a little appetizer. It'll be good. Because you know, they give you out that biscuit. Them biscuits is here. And you got one appetizer between y'all two. It's just a slap. Oh, my god. It's a slap. But regardless, Red Lobster is in deep trouble.
01:07:37
Speaker
And I'm talking about this because a lot of people don't, they think, like, I'm sorry, y'all, but I want to talk about this because there is a lesson to be learned when we talk about Red Lobster, right? Right. It is the biggest US seafood restaurant chain, and it's preparing for chapter 11, Vacuum Sea, which we'll talk about shortly, right? And it's been known, as you mentioned, for cheddar biscuits, popcorn, shrimp, and they close dozens of, it's recently roughly 650 US locations.
01:08:07
Speaker
spanning around 20 locations. People gotta know, right? They had $2.2 billion in domestic business last year, down from 8%. And last year when it was like, oh, endless shrimp in June. They do it in June. The last time they did it, and Isabel, you might be very happy with this. June, 2023, they did that joint. They lost mad breath because the fact of the matter is,
01:08:35
Speaker
They're giving out $20 shrimps to everybody and everybody in their family and their family's family and their family's having fun. It's fun to get a shrimp and staying for hours, getting continuing, whatever, whatever. And the actual Red Lobster, they're not realizing that. They taking an L on that because you can only afford so much shrimp. Shrimp are the cockroaches to the sea, if y'all don't know, honestly.
01:08:58
Speaker
You know in the late Same thing with lobster It actually they used they fed lobsters to prison inmates in 1800 1700 1600s it was the lowest of the lowest and now it's become I Know I just want to let channel but anyway regardless of
01:09:23
Speaker
So the realities are that they brought it back, but the last time that they had it was in 2014. And they had extremely significant sales because of a well-known artist that is spoken by on our podcast, shout out to Erica. Beyonce mentioned them in 2014, you know, in her album, and they had over a 33% increase.
01:09:51
Speaker
in 2014 and it was like, yo, let's just try it out. Let's just see what's up with what's going on. You know what I mean? And they was killing it. It was like, yo, it's been a couple of years or whatever. And after they saw a 30% jump in increase in sales, but the glow was short lived and it faded and it was like, all right, whatever. So, uh, this year in January, because of what happened last June, the Thai union group, uh, say that,
01:10:17
Speaker
A combination of financial struggles, which this group has supported and tie, obviously they overseas. A lot of times it's overseas investors, a lot of these corporations and companies, they said high labor, right. And material costs because of what was going on with the shrimp and the buzzword industry headwinds. They had to dump their stake in red lobster. Red lobster was then put into a very severe financially
01:10:46
Speaker
deprecating situation, you know what I mean? So with that being said, I want to bring the fact, I really want to bring this because the question of the matter, not really question, but the statement is Red Lobster and what they did, they oversold themselves in the medicine. Number one, we oversell ourselves. We don't have to oversell ourselves to people at the own, right, disadvantage of ourselves. Now, when we talk about Red Lobster,
01:11:15
Speaker
You reminded me of when they be having them write the little YouTube videos where people be rapping and they don't be really rapping. Stop trying to hype me, bro. Stop trying to hype me, bro. Before we get into that, I want to talk to you about bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding initiating when a personal business cannot repay outstanding debts or obligations. Red Lobster is in hundreds of million dollars of debt.
01:11:42
Speaker
So to relinquish that, to be in a position and people, you hear all the time, I'm bankrupt. I'm filing for bankruptcy. Obviously it's not like vocalized because for many it's embarrassed, right? But it offers a fresh start for people who can no longer.
01:11:56
Speaker
afford to pay their bills usually businesses do this when you do as an individual it could be counterintuitive it could actually be a disadvantage but as a business oftentimes they restructured their business so that's why you're saying a lot of them they're liquidating the relapses liquidating their assets when I talk about assets we're talking about these businesses that they have all around the country right they're closing now selling it out exactly you filming so um
01:12:23
Speaker
Creditors still have opportunity for repayment, so the people that they owe bread to, right, they can still get repaid.
01:12:29
Speaker
by taking over these institutions and then send it off to other people. And then it's handled by the federal court. So that takes time. So it gives them time to really like figure things out and move forward. The only issue is that it stays on your credit report. But then when you're dealing with a business, it's like, yo, we still got other businesses making bread. We're going to cut costs. We're going to fire people, right? Whether within management or whether within these locations.
01:12:54
Speaker
and we could still get bread, regenerate the revenue we need, and then hopefully we could reopen some of the red lobsters around the country that we had in different markets and just re-strategize. You know what I mean? With that being said, going back to the fact that in medicine, I feel like we oversell ourselves because people are not authentic enough. You gotta know, if you're doing certain things and you overexpose yourself, that could come back and haunt you.
01:13:23
Speaker
You got to move in a way that's true to yourself. I feel like I'm bringing this up to say, when we talk about medical students, residents, it's like, oh, I got a yes, master. I got to do any and everything to make sure that I'm giving my product to my customers. But if your customers take advantage of you, you losing humanity, you losing your business of being, you know, having self integrity, having self-esteem, having the willingness to be who you are and do what is necessary to do what you need to do.
01:13:52
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? So a lesson from this process is that, yes, it's great. Put your product out there, do what you need as a medical student, yes. But at the end of the day, if you do too much, it could come back and haunt you and bite you. When you do too much, when you do too little, you're going to be at a loss because people are going to be extra or they're not doing enough. You've got to find that moderate balance.
01:14:17
Speaker
You got to find the way to approach the situation for your audience, for yourself, for your colleagues, for your workers. And it is a delicate balance to have and not something that we're taught. But in the state of business and in the state of professionalism, do what you can do, but don't think that you got to risk your life or put yourself out there for others when they never did that for you.
01:14:42
Speaker
So that is the Financial Corner. An inspiration message from the Financial Corner. Shout out to Dr. Aldi back at it again with the financial knowledge. Okay everybody, that's our show. Thanks again for joining us on this episode of The Lounge. Let us know your thoughts about the discussions we had today or ask us a question for a chance to be featured on the show at podcast at SNMA.org.
01:15:10
Speaker
and be sure to follow The S&M and all our social media platforms to stay up to date on upcoming events. Thank you to our listeners for listening and we will catch you guys next episode.