Below is a brief video snippet from our conversation. Full videos of all Ground Truths podcasts can be seen on YouTube here. The current one is here. If you like the YouTube format, please subscribe! This one has embedded one of my favorite TikTok’s from Will. There are several links to others in the transcript. The audios are also available on Apple and Spotify.

Transcript with links to both audio and videos, commencement addresses, NEJM article coverage

Eric Topol (00:06 ):

Hi, it's Eric Topol from Ground Truths, and I've got an amazing couple with me today. It's Will Flanary and Kristin Flanary, the Glaucomfleckens. I've had the chance to get to know them a bit through Knock Knock, Hi! which is their podcast. And of course, everyone knows Dr. Glaucomflecken from his TikTok world and his other about 4 million followers on Instagram and Twitter and all these other social media, and YouTube. So welcome.

Will Flanary (00:43 ):

Thanks for having us.

Kristin Flanary (00:44 ):

Thank you. Happy to be here.

By Way of Background

Eric Topol (00:45 ):

Yeah. Well, this is going to be fun because I'm going to go a quick background so we can go fast forward because we did an interview back in early 2022.

Kristin Flanary (00:56 ):

Yes.

Eric Topol (00:57 ):

And what you've been doing since then is rocking it. You're like a meteoric, right. And it was predictable, like rarefied talent and who couldn't love humor, medical humor, but by way of background, just for those who are not up to speed. I guess you got your start, Will, as a class clown when your mother was a teacher in the sixth grade.

Will Flanary (01:22 ):

Yep, yep. I misbehaved a little bit. It helped that I still made good grades, but I cut up a bit in class.

Eric Topol (01:32 ):

And then you were already in the comedy club circuits doing standup in Houston as an 18-year-old.

Will Flanary (01:40 ):

It was all amateur stuff, nothing, just dabble in it and trying to get better. I was always kind of naturally funny just with my friend group and everything. I loved making people laugh, but doing standups is a whole different ball game. And so, I started doing that around Houston as a high school senior and kept that going through college and a little bit into med school.

Kristin Flanary (02:02 ):

Houston was a good training ground, right? That where Harris Wittels was also coming up.

Will Flanary (02:07 ):

Yeah. A lot of famous comedians have come through Houston. Even going back to Bill Hicks back in the, was that the 80s, I think? Or 90s?

Eric Topol (02:17 ):

Well, and then of course, it was I think in 2020 when you launched Dr. Glaucomflecken, I think. Is that right?

Will Flanary (02:28 ):

That's when it really started to take off. I was on Twitter telling jokes back in 2016.

Kristin Flanary (02:39 ):

GomerBlog before that, that's actually where it was born.

Will Flanary (02:41 ):

I was doing satire writing. I basically do what I'm doing now, but in article form, trying to be The Onion of medicine. And then the pandemic hit, started doing video content and that's really with lockdown. That's when, because everybody was on social media, nobody had anything else to do. So it was right place, right time for me and branching out into video content.

On to Medical School Commencement Addresses

Eric Topol (03:11 ):

Alright, so that's the background of some incredible foundation for humor. But since we last got together, I'll link the Medicine and the Machine interview we did back then. What has been happening with you two is nothing short of incredible. I saw your graduation speeches, Will. Yale in 2022, I watched the UCSF in 2023 and then the University of Michigan in 2024. Maybe there's other ones I don't even know.

Kristin Flanary (03:45 ):

There’s a few others.

Will Flanary (03:45 ):

There's a few. But I feel like you've done, I'm sure your fair share of commencement addresses as well. It's kind of hard to come up with different ways to be inspirational to the next generation. So fortunately, we have together, we have some life experiences and learned a thing or two by doing all of this social media stuff and just the things we've been through that I guess I have enough things to say to entertain an interest.

Eric Topol (04:18 ):

Well, you're being humble as usual, but having watched those commencement addresses, they were the best medical commencement addresses I've ever seen. And even though you might have told us some of the same jokes, they were so great that it was all right. Yeah, and you know what is great about it is you've got these, not the students, they all love you of course, because they're probably addicted to when's your next video going to get posted.

(04:44 ):

But even the old professors, all the family members, it's great. But one of