What happens when grief collides with medical training?

In this deeply personal episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with family physician, educator, and author Dr. Shanda McManus to discuss loss, caregiving, resilience, and the hidden emotional costs of becoming a doctor.

Growing up in North Philadelphia, Shonda helped care for her mother through advanced ovarian cancer before eventually becoming the first person in her family to attend college and pursue medicine. During medical school, her brother was murdered, a loss that would shape her life in profound ways. Like many physicians, she learned to keep moving, keep performing, and keep achieving—even while carrying unprocessed grief.

Together, Frances and Shanda explore the culture of medicine that often rewards endurance while leaving little room for healing, and why creating space for grief may be one of the most important acts of self-preservation for physicians.

Topics include:

• Growing up in North Philadelphia

• Caring for a parent with cancer as a child

• Becoming the first person in your family to attend college

• Pregnancy and parenthood during medical training

• Taking time away from medicine without derailing your career

• The murder of a sibling during medical school

• Unprocessed grief and emotional survival in medicine

• Why physicians deserve space to heal

• Writing, memoir, and finding meaning through storytelling

• The inspiration behind Shanda's new book

This conversation is about loss, love, family, identity, and the ways medicine sometimes asks us to be less human when we need humanity most.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Shanda McManus, MD

Connect with Shanda: https://www.shandamcmanus.com/

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Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What happens when your residency program suddenly shuts down mid-training?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with internal medicine physician Dr. Julia Torrellas to discuss one of the most destabilizing experiences a trainee can face: the closure of a residency program during training.

Julia shares what it was like to learn that her hospital was shutting down, how residents were absorbed into a new program, and the emotional fallout of losing mentors, support systems, routines, and a sense of stability overnight. The conversation explores burnout, identity, self-sacrifice, boundaries, and what happens when medicine becomes your entire sense of self.

Topics include:

• What it feels like when a residency program closes

• Starting over in a new hospital as a senior resident

• Burnout and emotional exhaustion in training

• Why many physicians tie their identity to their career

• Self-abandonment and self-sacrifice in medicine

• Setting boundaries without sabotaging your career

• Navigating residency politics and power dynamics

• Finding agency during uncertainty and disruption

• Lessons learned from career setbacks and unexpected change

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or someone navigating a major life transition, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at resilience, identity, and rebuilding after disruption.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Julia Torrellas, MD

Connect with Julia: @drjuliatorrellas

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

What does it actually feel like to finish a plastic surgery residency in 2026?

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with graduating plastic surgery resident Dr. Liz Malphrus just days before graduation to reflect on the end of a six-year journey through surgical training. Together, they discuss burnout, confidence, identity, career choices, and what comes next after residency.

Liz shares how her perspective on medicine evolved during training, why she ultimately chose private practice over academia, and the lessons she wishes she could tell her intern-year self. The conversation explores everything from comparison culture and perfectionism to finding agency, building a meaningful career, and the role supportive partners play in surviving medicine.

They also discuss:

• What residency teaches you about yourself

• The surprising parts of surgical training

• Why comparison is the thief of joy in residency

• Academic medicine vs. private practice

• The power of mentorship outside institutions

• Marriage, support systems, and surviving training together

• What happens when you finally get your life back

• Why physicians may be more capable than they realize

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or simply curious about life behind the curtain of medical training, this episode offers an honest look at one of the biggest transitions in a physician's career.

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Liz Malphrus, MD

Connect with Liz: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/liz-malphrus-md

@dr.malphrus

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.