In this episode of Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei sit down with Dr. Kate Buhrke — rock climber, former ortho gunner, and unapologetic regime-builder.

Kate shares her journey from growing up in suburban Illinois (not Chicago, according to Tony), to climbing hundreds of feet without ropes, to eating, sleeping, and breathing orthopedic surgery… and then not matching.

They talk about:

1. The identity crisis of not matching
2. What surgery demands of you — and what it takes back
3. The paradox of “putting all your eggs in one basket”
4. The culture of ortho
5. Whether ChatGPT in journal club is criminal or minimal
6. And why sometimes you just have to decide you’re not going to fall

This one is about ambition, ego, shame, calling, and what survives when your professional identity doesn’t.

Plus: apple-cracking intimidation tactics.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Guest: Kate Burhke, DO

Connect with Kate:

https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/kate-buhrke-do

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

This week on Social Rounds, Frances Mei and Tony bring back Outside Baseball with three wild medical stories you can’t make up.

First: a woman delivers her baby in the back of a Waymo robo-taxi. Is the surveillance state helping… or creeping us out? Then: doctors warn that your favorite claw clip could cause serious head injuries in a car accident. Fashion vs. safety — where do we draw the line? And finally: GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro are linked to surprise pregnancies. From slowed gastric emptying affecting oral contraceptives to PCOS cycles restarting after weight loss, we break down what’s actually happening.

Plus, one cool thing each — from a surprisingly great narrative video game (Dispatch) to the underrated luxury of a disciplined tea ritual (with valerian root, obviously).

Modern life is weird. We’re just here to process it.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

It’s that time of year again. Rank lists are due, anxiety is peaking, and medical students everywhere are trying to reverse-engineer “the algorithm.”

In this week’s Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei break down the residency Match—from the “big computer in the sky” to the chaos of SOAP week—and share what actually matters when you’re ranking programs.

Frances Mei opens up about not matching, the shame spiral that followed, and how trying to “game” the system can quietly shape your decisions long before you hit submit. Tony shares his own interview experience, why prestige is overrated, and what you should really be evaluating on interview day (hint: training volume, autonomy, and vibe).

They also talk about:

1. Why trying to predict how programs rank you is a trap
2. The myth of the “perfect” program
3. Leadership changes, hidden curriculum, and the unpredictability of residency
4. What happens if you don’t match—and why it’s not the end
5. The uncomfortable truth: you don’t control most of this

If you’re building your rank list right now, this one’s for you.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

This week on Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee takes on his most unhinged role yet: hostile interviewer.

In a special Social Rounds Book Club episode, Frances Mei Hardin sits down for a deliberately uncomfortable, occasionally inappropriate, and deeply revealing mock interview ahead of the release of her debut memoir, Surgeon on the Edge. What starts as a Groundhog Day cold open quickly devolves into brutal questions about shame, failure, race, crying at work, bystander silence in medicine, and whether writing a vulnerable physician memoir is brave—or just bad PR.

What unfolds is part satire, part media training, part cultural critique, and part love letter to anyone who has ever survived medical training and lived to tell the story (even imperfectly).

If you’ve ever wondered:

1. how authors actually prepare for press,
2. why likability is still weaponized against women in medicine,
3. or how to hold your composure when an interviewer is clearly trying to break you,

this episode is for you.

Pre-order Surgeon on the Edge now, and consider this your warning: the real interviews will be easier than this one.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

https://www.amazon.com/Surgeon-Edge-Frances-Mei-Hardin/dp/B0G3JWCCH4

What does medicine look like when the next generation refuses to be broken by it?

In this episode of Social Rounds, we’re joined by Shay Taylor Allen, a fourth-year medical student at Howard University, class vice president, and future anesthesiologist—whose journey took her from working as a hospital janitor to interviewing for residency in the same system she once cleaned.

Together, we talk about the growing generational divide in medical training:

Why younger doctors are pushing back on brutal hours,

Why “that’s how we did it” isn’t a solution,

And how mental health, mentorship, and purpose are reshaping what it means to become a physician.

Shay shares her perspective on Gen Z and nontraditional medical students, the reality of burnout culture, and why healthier doctors make safer patients. We also dig into communication breakdowns between trainees and attendings, whether medicine mistakes resilience for suffering, and what real change could look like inside a system that resists it.

This conversation is about more than medicine—it’s about who gets to belong, who gets heard, and how one person’s story can expose what’s broken in an entire profession.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Guest: Shay Taylor Allen

Connect with Shay: @shayy.taylor

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

This week on Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee is joined by fan-favorite guest host Joan Chan, MD for a wide-ranging, wildly unfiltered episode that somehow connects vaccines, cocaine-addicted founding surgeons, and prestige gay hockey television.

First up: a much-needed PSA on flu shots, herd immunity, and why “you can still get sick” is not the dunk anti-vaxxers think it is. From there, Tony dives into one of medicine’s most unhinged origin stories — how William Halsted’s cocaine addiction helped shape modern residency training — sparking a serious (and hilarious) debate about whether doctors should experience more of what patients actually go through.

Then, Joan takes us deep into the cultural phenomenon of Heated Rivalry: why gay hockey romance has taken over the internet, why the sex scenes actually matter, and why sometimes what burned-out clinicians really need is a well-written, deeply horny escape with a guaranteed happy ending.

Come for the public health facts. Stay for the medical ethics, pop culture analysis, and elite-level yapping.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Joan Chan, MD: @joanchanmd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

In this episode of Social Rounds, Frances Mei and Tony Chin-Quee do what they do best: give unsolicited, deeply opinionated advice on medicine, relationships, and modern life.

They start with a deceptively simple question — what’s on your feet? — and unpack how bad shoes, bad posture, and worse training habits quietly wreck physicians’ bodies over time. From Dansko regrets to sneaker conversions, this is the advice no one gives you early enough.

Then things escalate.

The duo breaks down internet relationship dilemmas involving:

1. “Work wives” and why emotional intimacy absolutely counts
2. Sleeping in another woman’s hoodie (hard no)
3. Wedding photo body-shaming disguised as “aesthetics”
4. Grown men missing real-life commitments for MMO leadership roles

Along the way, they talk emotional cheating, boundaries, aging out of bad systems, and the difference between being technically allowed to do something and it actually being okay.

As always, no medical advice — just honesty, humor, and the perspective of two former surgeons who’ve seen enough to call it like it is.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

What do you do when a patient says “I love you”?

Is it ever okay?

And why do residents have less mobility than college football players?

On this episode of Social Rounds, Frances Mei Hardin and Tony Chin-Quee are joined by a very special guest: Frances Mei’s partner (and longtime behind-the-scenes editor), Colin. Together, they unpack:

1. Patients getting too familiar with their doctors
2. Professional boundaries in medicine (and how to hold them without being cold)
3. Why some patients choose doctors based on attractiveness 👀
4. Dating invites from patients (yes, really)
5. And a surprisingly compelling idea: a residency “transfer portal” inspired by college football

If athletes can change programs, why can’t resident physicians?

This episode blends humor, honesty, and structural critique of medical training—covering everything from awkward patient encounters to why lack of mobility keeps residents trapped in unhealthy systems.

🎙️ Social Rounds is where medicine, culture, and real life collide—no institution spared.

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🔗 More shows and writing at hippocratic-collective.com

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective