The Med School Years

What happens when the patient becomes the medical student, and then sets out to become the surgeon who treated him? Join host Deana Golini as she sits down with Antony Alvarado, a third-year student in the UCLA and Charles R. Drew University Medical Education Program and a two-time survivor of pediatric brain cancer. Antony was diagnosed at nine years old in January 2010, after a week of small headaches turned into an emergency CT scan and an active bleed. He spent nearly a month in the hospital, and somewhere in there decided that if he made it out, he would pursue medicine. He spent years telling his neurosurgeon not to retire before he finished medical school. Then in 2017, exactly seven years to the date of his first diagnosis, a scan found eight tumors across his brain and spine. His surgery was canceled four days before it was scheduled because the treatment would not have left him a good quality of life, and he did 13 months of chemotherapy instead. He has had no progression of disease since 2018. He walks through what it took to keep performing academically through all of it, including the neuropsychological evaluations that secured his accommodations from grade school through the MCAT and now the USMLEs, and the half-day senior year schedule that let him get chemo weekly and still graduate. He explains the UCLA and Charles Drew partnership for anyone building a school list, why he is taking a research year with zero publications to his name, and how founding Latinos in Surgery came out of watching Spanish-speaking patients visibly relax the moment someone on the team spoke their language. He also makes the case for a studio art minor in sculpture and photography inside a biochemistry degree, and how learning to read an image translates directly to reading a scan. If Antony's story changes what you think a future neurosurgeon looks like, hit the like button, share your reflections in the comments, and subscribe for weekly conversations tracing the realities of the medical journey.

What does it actually take to start medical school two months before your 51st birthday and match into your dream residency at 55? Join host Deana Golini as she sits down with Jen Reinmuth-Birch, a graduating osteopathic medical student at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences and an incoming family medicine resident. Jen walks through a path almost nobody takes. She had been out of school for roughly 30 years, wasn't a science undergrad, had no premed advisor, and opened her laptop and googled how to apply to medical school. She re-enrolled at Oregon State as a non-degree student to knock out prerequisites, taught herself the MCAT from books she ordered online, and got in without ever knowing UWorld or Anki existed. She gets blunt about the comments she fields four or five times a day telling her she stole a seat from someone younger, and how she handles them. She explains why work-life balance in medical school is a fantasy and why setting brutally honest expectations with your family is the single thing that determines whether relationships survive it. She talks about serving two years on her school's admissions committee and what actually made a reader light up, which was never the résumé-shaped activity. She makes the case for rural family medicine in a coastal town of 900 people where the nearest hospital is 45 minutes away, and shares the hospice rotation she forced herself into after her mother's death that turned into a fellowship plan. Her advice on the hardest part of medical school has nothing to do with exams. If Jen's story changes what you think a competitive applicant looks like, hit the like button, share your reflections in the comments, and subscribe for weekly conversations tracing the realities of the medical journey.

How do you match into one of the most competitive specialties in medicine without losing the person behind the scalpel? Join host Deana Golini as she sits down with Dr. Lindsey Brinkley, a University of Florida College of Medicine graduate and incoming integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Lindsey breaks down what it actually took to land in a field with only 56 positions and 40 programs nationwide, including four straight months of away rotations, a dual application to both cardiac and general surgery, and 22 peer-reviewed publications built alongside her medical training. She traces the origin back to age 12, googling her grandfather's bypass surgery on the family computer, and explains how sitting with dying patients through the No One Dies Alone program shaped the kind of surgeon she wants to be. She gets honest about the parts nobody photographs: tearing her Achilles in her first month of med school, hitting every red light on her drive out of Gainesville after eight years, and finding CrossFit while studying for Step 1 because she needed to feel like an athlete again. She also pulls back the curtain on holistic admissions from the inside after serving on UF's committee, where 5,000 applications get narrowed to a class of 135, and explains why mission fit beats stats every time. If Lindsey's story reframes what a competitive applicant actually looks like, hit the like button, share your reflections in the comments, and subscribe for weekly conversations tracing the realities of the medical journey.

How do you translate a personal family mission into an impactful medical career at two of the country's most prestigious institutions? Join host Deana Golini as she interviews Binisha, a recent graduate of Stanford Medicine and an incoming Internal Medicine resident at Duke University.Binisha details her full-circle return to Durham, pulling back the curtain on how her personal experiences supporting her brother fostered a deep dedication to adult disability advocacy. She outlines the sharp transition and systemic gaps that occur when pediatric patients with chronic illnesses transition into the adult healthcare system. Binisha opens up about the immense academic pressures of medical training, sharing a vulnerable story about an emotional breakdown under her desk while studying for Step 2 and detailing why integrating professional therapy and journaling was vital to protecting her identity outside of being a scholar. Finally, she explains how Stanford's flexible curriculum allowed her to leverage institutional power to serve local Bay Area communities by first pausing to ask a single, transformative question: "What is it that you need?"Explore additional resources: Main website: https://medschoolyears.com Apply to be on the podcast: https://airtable.com/app3Id0NacMjivHH... Follow us on IG: / medicalschoolhq

Can you maintain a life as an elite endurance athlete while matching into a highly competitive surgical residency? Join host Deana Golini as she sits down with Kian, an Orthopedic Surgery resident at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, to reveal the unfiltered reality of life as a surgical intern. Kian discusses his journey from UNLV to ortho residency, breaking down how his background completing Ironmans and 50k ultramarathons provides the core stamina required to push through 110-hour workweeks. He pulls back the curtain on why residency rank lists can change completely after an away rotation, how his own shoulder injury sparked his surgical ambitions, and the clinical adaptations needed when managing trust barriers and social determinants of health in vulnerable populations. Kian delivers a powerful reminder to pre-med and medical students alike: keeping your outside passions alive isn't a distraction from your goals—it is the exact engine that prevents burnout and makes you a better clinician. Explore additional resources: Main website: https://medschoolyears.com Apply to be on the podcast: https://airtable.com/app3Id0NacMjivHH... Follow us on IG: / medicalschoolhq