Latest / The You Project / #1653 Neurosurgery: A Day In The Life - Dr. Alex Koefman
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Well, good a team. Welcome to another episode of the
- 0:02Speaker 1: You Project. It's Fatty Harps. It's Craig Anthony Harper's Sunday
- 0:05Speaker 1: morning in the thriving Metropolis. It's thirteen minutes past nine
- 0:09Speaker 1: and one of my friends. We're friends now. We used
- 0:11Speaker 1: to be acquaintances. We knew each other a little bit.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Now we've hung out a bit, We've we've dined together,
- 0:17Speaker 1: We've spent time together, We've shared kaffeene together and stories together.
- 0:22Speaker 1: He helps me and I help him periodically. Doctor Alex,
- 0:26Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, my friend. How are you great?
- 0:30Speaker 1: It's really great to see you. It's great to talk again.
- 0:34Speaker 1: It's good to see you, mate. What's going on? Is
- 0:36Speaker 1: there anything before we dive in? I want to talk
- 0:38Speaker 1: to you about. I actually want to have a proper
- 0:42Speaker 1: grown up podcast today about neurosurgery, the profession and the
- 0:46Speaker 1: practice and the science and the development of it and
- 0:48Speaker 1: all that, because I think it's obviously it's interesting fast.
- 0:52Speaker 1: It's day to day for you, but it's interesting fast.
- 0:54Speaker 1: But other than that, what's going on? How's marriage? How's
- 0:57Speaker 1: married life? Be? Still married? By the way, because I
- 1:00Speaker 1: went to your wedding, I haven't checked in. Still good,
- 1:02Speaker 1: there's still good there. Yes, I don't know, no one
- 1:05Speaker 1: would have seen the photos. But you turned up for
- 1:08Speaker 1: the first time I've seen in a suit and a tie,
- 1:11Speaker 1: and I didn't recognize you to start off with. In fact,
- 1:14Speaker 1: you look like the biggest, baddest bouncer I've ever had
- 1:17Speaker 1: at any wedding or ever seen at any wedding. There's
- 1:21Speaker 1: a good look for you.
- 1:21Speaker 2: You look at what the agents out of the matrix.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I do get asked for directions or people
- 1:28Speaker 1: ask me questions when I turn up at things in
- 1:30Speaker 1: a suit because they one think I'm on staff in
- 1:33Speaker 1: some capacity. So that shows you how much you're loved,
- 1:37Speaker 1: because I'm not putting on a suit for fucking anyone generally,
- 1:41Speaker 1: especially not for under ten thousand dollars. But I did
- 1:44Speaker 1: it for you, and you know, so that's a sign
- 1:47Speaker 1: of my devotion and love.
- 1:49Speaker 2: It was greatly appreciated. Hups. It was a good day.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Great and Carlie's great. She's at work at the moment
- 1:56Speaker 2: at the kids hospital. That's the way it is. That
- 2:00Speaker 2: we had a wedding yesterday to go to and I
- 2:02Speaker 2: was there on my own because Carli had a shift
- 2:05Speaker 2: and so there's a bit of ships in the night
- 2:09Speaker 2: sort of vibe with everything. But it's also great having
- 2:14Speaker 2: somebody else who's in the surgical fraternity because the nuances
- 2:20Speaker 2: of stuff that happens, you don't need to describe the background.
- 2:25Speaker 2: You can just dive into it and unload and the
- 2:29Speaker 2: other person will immediately get it. But then again, also
- 2:33Speaker 2: there's no sympathy. So if Carli's got something on her
- 2:35Speaker 2: mind and I've been through it like ten times, then
- 2:38Speaker 2: she gets no sympathy. I'm just like, yeah, that's the
- 2:41Speaker 2: way it is, get over it.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's going to happen and keep happening. Yep,
- 2:48Speaker 1: move on.
- 2:49Speaker 2: And then I get no sympathy because she's tired or
- 2:51Speaker 2: she's been through it ten times. But it's great. It's
- 2:55Speaker 2: a really interesting dynamic. Obviously, female and pursuing a career
- 3:00Speaker 2: is it's quite a it's a difficult topic because it's
- 3:05Speaker 2: a you know, when it comes to family and children,
- 3:09Speaker 2: females have a different experience than the guy. They've got
- 3:12Speaker 2: a certain time frame and there's always that pressure, that
- 3:15Speaker 2: biological pressure about family, and then certainly in recent times
- 3:20Speaker 2: there's this huge pressure for career as well. I feel
- 3:23Speaker 2: it really feels like that, and and it's great because
- 3:26Speaker 2: a career is very stimulating, very fulfilling, engaging, and it
- 3:30Speaker 2: goes beyond. You know, a kid can leave at the
- 3:33Speaker 2: age of beteen from home and then what he left with,
- 3:36Speaker 2: but a career stays with you until the day you retire.
- 3:40Speaker 2: So that's that's an interesting balancing act. We've had a
- 3:42Speaker 2: couple of conversations about it, and we haven't resolved it.
- 3:46Speaker 2: And I have lots of conversations with patients and other
- 3:48Speaker 2: and other colleagues in the specialty about this. I was
- 3:52Speaker 2: talking to people at the wedding last night about this
- 3:54Speaker 2: because it's quite a it's an unresolved and unresolved issue.
- 3:58Speaker 2: We haven't we haven't worked out but both loving the career,
- 4:02Speaker 2: highly stimulating.
- 4:03Speaker 1: What is the issue, like, is the issue we're gonna
- 4:06Speaker 1: have kids? Or are we? Or when are we? Or
- 4:10Speaker 1: it's because it's kind of not fair that the women
- 4:13Speaker 1: have to do that, right, Like, there's no other option,
- 4:15Speaker 1: is there?
- 4:16Speaker 2: No? They get that that's a much bigger deal. I mean,
- 4:19Speaker 2: obviously it has a huge effect on their body and
- 4:21Speaker 2: their time. You know, they've got to have maternity leave
- 4:24Speaker 2: and go through all of that, and then that's a
- 4:26Speaker 2: big chunk out of training like that. You know, take
- 4:28Speaker 2: three or six months off from a training program to
- 4:31Speaker 2: do that.
- 4:33Speaker 1: And when you say you mean medical training, you don't
- 4:35Speaker 1: mean the gym, right, or do you mean the gym?
- 4:38Speaker 2: Yeah, like surgical training training to become a surgeon, which
- 4:41Speaker 2: is you know, six or seven years, so you've got
- 4:44Speaker 2: to take time off during that. And then you know,
- 4:47Speaker 2: it's a really tough gig being a mum. How do
- 4:49Speaker 2: you know, then be a mom to a young child
- 4:52Speaker 2: and push extremely hard career wise, that that's a really difficult.
- 4:57Speaker 2: A lot of people have nannies and family around to
- 5:00Speaker 2: help with that, and I don't know if if you
- 5:05Speaker 2: can do both perfectly. I actually don't know how somebody balances.
- 5:10Speaker 2: I know some surgeons you've got several kids and they
- 5:13Speaker 2: have two or three nannies and that's almost the only
- 5:15Speaker 2: way that it works, someone there during the day to
- 5:18Speaker 2: look after the kids. Anyway, haven't We haven't cracked this
- 5:21Speaker 2: code yet.
- 5:22Speaker 1: So just tell people what because obviously I don't think
- 5:26Speaker 1: you tell us specifically what Kylie's doing. So she's a doctor,
- 5:28Speaker 1: of course, and she's doing her training to become a surgeon.
- 5:31Speaker 1: Is that it.
- 5:32Speaker 2: Yeah, she's finished med school, so she's a doctor. She's
- 5:34Speaker 2: done her required years in the hospital general training you
- 5:39Speaker 2: have to do before you can apply to get on
- 5:40Speaker 2: the surgical training program. You have to do the general
- 5:43Speaker 2: the surgical training program to be a qualified consultant, right,
- 5:48Speaker 2: And so she's going to apply for that next year.
- 5:50Speaker 2: So she's at the start of the of the process
- 5:53Speaker 2: of the actual official training program, which will be six years.
- 5:56Speaker 2: So and that's in pediatric surgery, which he loves and
- 6:00Speaker 2: really enjoys a job and is really good at it.
- 6:05Speaker 2: But there's lots of decisions coming up. Will stand by,
- 6:12Speaker 2: will stand by, But lots of people were listening, would
- 6:15Speaker 2: would have you know something similar like if it doesn't
- 6:17Speaker 2: have to be medicinal surgery. They're having family and all
- 6:20Speaker 2: sorts of careers in facing the same issues, and it's
- 6:23Speaker 2: incredibly difficult. But it's an ongoing conversation.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Is there a particular personality or type that is more
- 6:36Speaker 1: likely to become a surgeon or is it not at
- 6:41Speaker 1: all unrelated?
- 6:43Speaker 2: There's definitely a good aptitude for surgery. You can just
- 6:46Speaker 2: look at someone and say they've just got a good
- 6:48Speaker 2: aptitude for it. They get the anatomy, they get the
- 6:51Speaker 2: physicality of surgery. They're efficient, they're a decision maker. That's
- 6:57Speaker 2: really important. They can make a decision. And there's also
- 7:02Speaker 2: the attitude of dealing with people. I didn't realize this
- 7:06Speaker 2: how important that was, but in a hospital you may
- 7:09Speaker 2: not know it, but there are a whole spread of
- 7:11Speaker 2: personalities from toxic personality to you know, to someone who's
- 7:15Speaker 2: quite pleasant, and that's very, very difficult to deal I mean,
- 7:19Speaker 2: you can have an okay day at work and just
- 7:21Speaker 2: your day is ruined by toxic personality, a clash with
- 7:23Speaker 2: another consultant or someone in ICU or in theater. That
- 7:27Speaker 2: was a problem to deal with personality wise. I don't know.
- 7:31Speaker 2: I just I always just wanted to do surgery. There
- 7:34Speaker 2: was just no there was no plan B. So it
- 7:37Speaker 2: was very driven. I guess Klie is very driven, and
- 7:45Speaker 2: I don't know. Perhaps why do you do what you do?
- 7:48Speaker 2: Do you think you've got a specific personality for talking
- 7:50Speaker 2: to people? I don't know. This is a really important
- 7:53Speaker 2: issue because selecting surgeons, you have to do. The interview
- 7:56Speaker 2: is a big part of the process. You've got a
- 7:58Speaker 2: c you've got referees, and then you have to sit
- 7:59Speaker 2: down at an interview and for me, there were six
- 8:02Speaker 2: spots out of all of Australia. How do you pick
- 8:04Speaker 2: six people to get on the training program? And you
- 8:07Speaker 2: ask a series of questions and trying to get to
- 8:09Speaker 2: know these people, and then you just base it off
- 8:11Speaker 2: those responses. So it's actually really tricky to pick the
- 8:14Speaker 2: right person. And there's ongoing research and what are the
- 8:16Speaker 2: right questions, what's the right way to sort out these
- 8:20Speaker 2: people and find who has got the right aptitude or
- 8:23Speaker 2: surgery And then often they said that fails and then
- 8:26Speaker 2: the surgical training program becomes the screening. So they go
- 8:30Speaker 2: through the training and then they are that they will
- 8:31Speaker 2: thrive all they'll struggle, and if they're struggling, then that
- 8:34Speaker 2: becomes a sign that tough conversations need to be had because.
- 8:38Speaker 1: It's I think it's from the outside looking in, it's like,
- 8:42Speaker 1: obviously you need you know, you need to be intelligent,
- 8:45Speaker 1: you need a great understanding of an anime in physiology
- 8:48Speaker 1: and all that, all the skills and all the science
- 8:50Speaker 1: or the knowledge. Then you need to be able to
- 8:52Speaker 1: have I would think extreme an extreme ability to focus
- 8:56Speaker 1: and concentrate and be present and not distracted then you
- 8:59Speaker 1: need goods social skills to be able to lead a
- 9:02Speaker 1: team and communicate and not piss people off and not
- 9:05Speaker 1: get pissed off. And then you need to be able
- 9:07Speaker 1: to self regulate in the middle of fucking chaos so
- 9:11Speaker 1: you're not losing your shit. And then you need to
- 9:14Speaker 1: be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy yourself so you know.
- 9:19Speaker 1: And then you need to have good leadership skills, and
- 9:21Speaker 1: then you need to be a high level problem solver,
- 9:24Speaker 1: because surgery in some ways is problem solving in real time,
- 9:28Speaker 1: and it's like this fucking collision of a million different
- 9:32Speaker 1: variables that all matter.
- 9:34Speaker 2: And it's not like sport, where you are great when
- 9:37Speaker 2: you're young and you've identified yourself as good at sport,
- 9:41Speaker 2: and then you go down this pathway and you just
- 9:44Speaker 2: get better and better at what you've already demonstrated you're
- 9:47Speaker 2: good at this. You kind of don't really know that
- 9:50Speaker 2: you're good at it until you've gone through the whole
- 9:51Speaker 2: process and you start, and even not until you're halfway
- 9:56Speaker 2: through the process do you realize if you're any good
- 9:57Speaker 2: at it.
- 9:58Speaker 1: It's so true about how many people study mate and
- 10:02Speaker 1: then like even the people that I did one hundred
- 10:05Speaker 1: years ago when I did my first degree, people who
- 10:07Speaker 1: studied physic or human movement or whatever we want to
- 10:10Speaker 1: call it, exercise science, and they go through the whole
- 10:12Speaker 1: thing and then at the end of it they go, oh,
- 10:14Speaker 1: I want to do this at all. And they never
- 10:18Speaker 1: spend one day writing one exercise program or prescribing anything
- 10:22Speaker 1: for anyone, but they do the whole thing, and or
- 10:25Speaker 1: they go and do a bit of work experience, or
- 10:26Speaker 1: they start to work in the industry or with a
- 10:28Speaker 1: sporting club. And then the amount of people I've seen
- 10:32Speaker 1: that I went to UNI with who are still working
- 10:34Speaker 1: in the space of exercise science, it's probably less than
- 10:38Speaker 1: five percent twenty years after they did their degree, like
- 10:42Speaker 1: very minimal.
- 10:44Speaker 2: It doesn't surprise me. I'll see that in surgery people
- 10:46Speaker 2: get halfway through and they decide to go down at
- 10:50Speaker 2: a completely different route. They go and do radiology or
- 10:53Speaker 2: general practice, or go into business or admin. And that's tough,
- 10:58Speaker 2: isn't You did that whole You go through metic school
- 11:00Speaker 2: and half of a training program and then decide this
- 11:03Speaker 2: is not for you. Do you think that?
- 11:06Speaker 1: I think for some people that it's just the emotional
- 11:09Speaker 1: and psychological cost where you just you get to a
- 11:12Speaker 1: point where and I think it's okay. I don't think
- 11:15Speaker 1: it's weakness or bad. I don't think it's a flaw.
- 11:19Speaker 1: I think it's just a realization. Like, if I'm being honest,
- 11:22Speaker 1: there's been twenty six times in my PhD where I've
- 11:26Speaker 1: said to myself and that's only a PhD, that's not
- 11:29Speaker 1: all the shit that you've done, right, I'm like, is
- 11:33Speaker 1: this worth it? Like this is so hard and so
- 11:36Speaker 1: much and I go, you know, where you weigh it up?
- 11:39Speaker 1: And there's been a bunch of times where I thought
- 11:41Speaker 1: I didn't need to do this, you know, and for
- 11:43Speaker 1: whatever reason, I keep doing it. But I can understand,
- 11:46Speaker 1: like the amount of people who start a PhD and
- 11:48Speaker 1: drop out is something like eighty percent. Like it's very
- 11:52Speaker 1: high number the people who don't complete their PhD. And
- 11:55Speaker 1: I'm thinking, with what you do it, that's you know,
- 11:58Speaker 1: my experience, yours would be time was twenty five in
- 12:01Speaker 1: terms of how difficult it is to get where you got.
- 12:05Speaker 1: I just think that people just weigh it up and go,
- 12:07Speaker 1: could I get through? Probably? Maybe? But is it worth it? No?
- 12:13Speaker 1: Because I'm fucking miserable, I'm anxious. I don't sleep. I'm stressed,
- 12:17Speaker 1: my health suffering, So I think that you know that
- 12:20Speaker 1: probably eliminates people naturally anyway, that way, it's.
- 12:24Speaker 2: One hundred percent through. The drive is really important. You've
- 12:29Speaker 2: got to have that inner drive to do surgery because
- 12:33Speaker 2: that's what gets you through. You will get you over
- 12:35Speaker 2: the hurdles that you inevitably will face. If you're doing
- 12:38Speaker 2: it for any other reason than you want to do it,
- 12:42Speaker 2: You're going to struggle and probably go in a different
- 12:45Speaker 2: direction given enough hurdles. And that certainly was my drive
- 12:49Speaker 2: since year ten. That was all I wanted to do,
- 12:51Speaker 2: and I had plenty of hurdles, but each hurdle was
- 12:54Speaker 2: just an excuse to hit harder and jump higher type thing.
- 12:58Speaker 2: And if you didn't have that, you would certainly give up.
- 13:04Speaker 1: It's probably a weird question, but could you And I
- 13:07Speaker 1: know there's no typical day, but one of the things
- 13:09Speaker 1: I say to my clients or back in the day,
- 13:12Speaker 1: especially when someone would come to me, I'd say, walk
- 13:15Speaker 1: me through a typical day of you, and by that
- 13:18Speaker 1: I mean sleep, food, exercise. You know, are you sitting
- 13:22Speaker 1: for four hours a day? So can you walk us
- 13:25Speaker 1: through a typical day of being and we don't need
- 13:27Speaker 1: your breakfast and your dinner. But the neurosurgery stuff, like
- 13:32Speaker 1: what's a typical day, And I know it varies broadly,
- 13:35Speaker 1: but of neurosurgery, like on the days that you're working,
- 13:39Speaker 1: do you do you do one up a day, four
- 13:42Speaker 1: ops a day. I know it varies wildly, but can
- 13:44Speaker 1: you give us a snapshot into the day of a neurosurgeon.
- 13:48Speaker 2: Yeah, I get up at three thirty, go to the gym,
- 13:50Speaker 2: I come home and I meditates and then I read
- 13:52Speaker 2: my natomy text.
- 13:53Speaker 1: Though you're a fucking idiot. We know that's not true.
- 13:56Speaker 2: Mark Woolberg sort of schedule, which I think is day
- 13:59Speaker 2: of rubbish. A typical day like Friday is one of
- 14:03Speaker 2: my operating days. He's a classic day. So the theaterist
- 14:05Speaker 2: starts at eight, and I'm there at ten to eight,
- 14:10Speaker 2: and I'm in theater by eight and I've got my
- 14:14Speaker 2: walk in there and you can tell it's going to
- 14:15Speaker 2: be a great day. The anesiis that I love is there.
- 14:18Speaker 2: The scrub nurse that I love is there, the assistant
- 14:21Speaker 2: that is my favorite. You've got the whole team there.
- 14:23Speaker 2: He's got a good vibe straight away. And then the
- 14:26Speaker 2: patients in the anesthetic bay, I go and have a
- 14:28Speaker 2: chat with them, they sign their consent form and then
- 14:33Speaker 2: we're off. And the first case on Friday was a
- 14:38Speaker 2: spinal tumor, and so I sit down and look at
- 14:41Speaker 2: the scan and just rehearse what I'm going to do.
- 14:44Speaker 2: And I'm looking at the scan in terms of the anatomy,
- 14:47Speaker 2: so landmarks that I'll be looking for and what I'm
- 14:51Speaker 2: going to try and what I want to recognize when
- 14:54Speaker 2: I get in there to guide me where I'm going.
- 14:56Speaker 2: And then also looking at the scan for things that
- 14:59Speaker 2: are going to trip me or potentially that can cause
- 15:01Speaker 2: a complication and how I'm going to avoid that. So
- 15:04Speaker 2: that's review that for a good twenty minutes or so,
- 15:07Speaker 2: and then a typical day could be anywhere between four
- 15:10Speaker 2: and I've done up to seven cases in a day,
- 15:12Speaker 2: depending on the anisthetus and the team and hospital beds.
- 15:19Speaker 2: And it's I love the efficiency of surgery. And I
- 15:23Speaker 2: watched my guy down in Hobart operate and that's where
- 15:25Speaker 2: I got that from. Incredibly efficient in terms of all
- 15:29Speaker 2: of his movements and starting doing the operation, closing up,
- 15:33Speaker 2: wrapping up, and then my aniesthetus is very efficient as well.
- 15:36Speaker 2: So the turnover can be quick because don't forget. If
- 15:38Speaker 2: you do five cases, that's about you know, that's four
- 15:43Speaker 2: turnover times. And so if the anesthetas is fast, that's
- 15:46Speaker 2: half an hour per turnover time, so that's two hours
- 15:49Speaker 2: extra added to the operating time. Or if they're not
- 15:51Speaker 2: as quick and it's an hour, that's an extra four
- 15:53Speaker 2: hours of the day added just sitting around waiting for
- 15:56Speaker 2: the anesthetus to do their things. So there's that element.
- 16:00Speaker 2: I think I've got five cases. They will take me
- 16:02Speaker 2: forty minutes each, will be done by two o'clock, and
- 16:05Speaker 2: then you've got to add in the anesthetic time, which
- 16:07Speaker 2: is four hours, so actually we'll be done at eight o'clock. Wow. Yeah.
- 16:12Speaker 2: But the theater days, it's the best part of it.
- 16:16Speaker 2: I do a lot of consulting, sitting at the desk
- 16:18Speaker 2: and talking to patients and that's becoming a more rewarding
- 16:21Speaker 2: process as well. And that would typically start at nine
- 16:23Speaker 2: o'clock and finish around about round four seeing new patients going.
- 16:29Speaker 2: And I love the education side of things. I'm talking
- 16:31Speaker 2: to them about their problem, trying to identify what their
- 16:33Speaker 2: problem is. That's really, really key. Often it's not straight
- 16:40Speaker 2: up obvious what it is that they want to talk about.
- 16:43Speaker 2: And so finding that getting expectations sorted out, that's really
- 16:47Speaker 2: really key. Expectations They need to need to be on
- 16:52Speaker 2: the same page otherwise that causes real problem. So finding
- 16:55Speaker 2: that I love the education side of things, showing them
- 16:57Speaker 2: the scan, showing them what's wrong. People love to see
- 17:01Speaker 2: that there is something wrong. It's very common that they say, oh,
- 17:04Speaker 2: you know what, I actually thought I was going crazy.
- 17:06Speaker 2: There's actually something wrong with me, yes, very And I
- 17:10Speaker 2: take video of surgery. I've got this video app that
- 17:13Speaker 2: I've called Surgery TV, which I've developed over the last
- 17:16Speaker 2: two years with a colleague and in fact, we just
- 17:18Speaker 2: we just got awarded a government grant for this video app.
- 17:24Speaker 2: It was about eighty six thousand dollars, which is just
- 17:26Speaker 2: great in terms of us being able to push it further.
- 17:28Speaker 2: But essentially, what it does is allow me to record
- 17:30Speaker 2: the video of every operation I do, which it always do,
- 17:33Speaker 2: but it takes about you can take you about forty
- 17:36Speaker 2: minutes to download a video of each operation onto a
- 17:40Speaker 2: USB and then you've got to do something with it.
- 17:42Speaker 2: With this app that we've designed, it goes from the
- 17:44Speaker 2: microscope straight to my iPhone ready to go. So it's
- 17:47Speaker 2: an automated process. So now I have a video of
- 17:50Speaker 2: everyone's surgery for everyone that I do, and I give
- 17:53Speaker 2: it to them to the patient the following morning, and
- 17:55Speaker 2: again I've told them about an operation, they've consented for
- 17:58Speaker 2: an operation, they've had the operation, and then the following morning,
- 18:01Speaker 2: after their operation, I showed them the video of the
- 18:04Speaker 2: problem and me fixing the problem. And they still say, oh,
- 18:07Speaker 2: that was so good to see. There's actually something wrong
- 18:10Speaker 2: with me. I wasn't going crazy. Yes you must have.
- 18:14Speaker 2: I mean you're still possibly there was something you thought
- 18:17Speaker 2: you were crazy.
- 18:18Speaker 1: You know what I love about that? That shows that
- 18:21Speaker 1: you have absolute confidence in what you do to be
- 18:26Speaker 1: able to record, to record that and then say here's
- 18:31Speaker 1: the video. A lot of surgeons would not do that,
- 18:34Speaker 1: is my guess.
- 18:36Speaker 2: Well, that is a very good point that you raise.
- 18:40Speaker 2: Patients say a couple of things about the video, and
- 18:42Speaker 2: one of them is exactly that, Well, if you're confident
- 18:45Speaker 2: enough to record the operation, then I'm confident in you
- 18:47Speaker 2: doing the operation. But I look at it like this,
- 18:52Speaker 2: if you don't have a video of surgery, the surgeon
- 18:56Speaker 2: stuffed up. If you do have a video of surgery,
- 19:01Speaker 2: it was a difficult case, just say there's a complication.
- 19:05Speaker 2: Surgeons say I don't want a complication recorded on video. Well,
- 19:08Speaker 2: surgeons are rarely negligent. In fact, they're almost never negligent.
- 19:12Speaker 2: It's just bad luck or the case was just very
- 19:15Speaker 2: very difficult, And you can't say that. You can't say
- 19:19Speaker 2: the case was difficult, or it was bad luck, or
- 19:21Speaker 2: there was this you know, this anatomical variation. You can
- 19:24Speaker 2: write it at an opropose, but it's just very difficult
- 19:26Speaker 2: to communicate that because you're you're contrasting that to an
- 19:31Speaker 2: outcome that's not ideal, and that's blank and white. So
- 19:34Speaker 2: it's sort of good evidence. So I say, well, you know,
- 19:37Speaker 2: without a video, basically people just think that you stuffed up.
- 19:40Speaker 2: With a video, people will see that it was just
- 19:43Speaker 2: it was bad luck or it was a difficult case.
- 19:45Speaker 2: So the video is actually protective.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Amazing. How often do you get in there? And I
- 19:51Speaker 1: would imagine the answer is not much. But so you've
- 19:54Speaker 1: got all the stuff that you need to see and
- 19:56Speaker 1: analyze beforehand, do you ever get in there and you're surprised, like, oh,
- 20:03Speaker 1: I didn't think this would be here, or I expect.
- 20:05Speaker 2: That, not surprised about the location of something. I know
- 20:10Speaker 2: to a millimeter where something is going to be because
- 20:13Speaker 2: you can tell on the scan. The MRI scan is
- 20:15Speaker 2: high resolution imaging, so I know exactly where something is
- 20:18Speaker 2: going to be. What can be a surprise is what
- 20:22Speaker 2: that thing is made of, or how stuck it is,
- 20:26Speaker 2: or how adherent it is to different structures. That's the
- 20:29Speaker 2: only real surprise. Like the spinal timber, for example, I
- 20:32Speaker 2: knew to a millimeter where the top of the bottom
- 20:35Speaker 2: of that, where the lateral the medial margin was. What
- 20:38Speaker 2: I was unsure about is what it was actually going
- 20:40Speaker 2: to look and feel like. Was it going to be
- 20:42Speaker 2: soft and gelatinous and come out easy. Was it going
- 20:45Speaker 2: to be tough and fibrous where it's going to be
- 20:46Speaker 2: a bit more difficult to take out. So it's difficult
- 20:49Speaker 2: to judge what something is going to be. Consistency of
- 20:53Speaker 2: the stuff is going to be like, which is makes
- 20:55Speaker 2: a huge impact on how you deal with it. If
- 20:57Speaker 2: something soft and gelatinous, that's quite easy to remove. If
- 21:00Speaker 2: it's fibrous and densely adherent to stuff, and that's a
- 21:03Speaker 2: lot more difficult to remove. So that's the unknown.
- 21:06Speaker 1: I never thought of that. So when you're cutting out
- 21:09Speaker 1: something that's soft and gooey versus something that's tougher and
- 21:14Speaker 1: more fibrous and dense, do you use the exact same tool,
- 21:18Speaker 1: the exact same scalpel or whatever, or is it? There
- 21:22Speaker 1: are a bunch of you go no, this is like
- 21:23Speaker 1: removing an old bit of leather boots.
- 21:26Speaker 2: So we use something different. There's something different. This tumor
- 21:29Speaker 2: on Friday was soft into latinous. So the tumor has
- 21:33Speaker 2: a capsule which has possibly got nerve fibers running through
- 21:36Speaker 2: the capsule, so you have to preserve the capsule. So
- 21:38Speaker 2: I make a linear cut through the capsule, which is
- 21:40Speaker 2: like half a millimeter thick, and it springs open and
- 21:42Speaker 2: reveals the sort of soft latinous tumor underneath. Sin As
- 21:46Speaker 2: I see that, I know this is going to go well.
- 21:50Speaker 2: And there's a curet that's a bit spoon shaped, and
- 21:53Speaker 2: I essentially slide it between the tumor and the capsule,
- 21:55Speaker 2: and it's like scooping out a pee out of a
- 21:58Speaker 2: pod almost, and I just gently separate it and gently
- 22:02Speaker 2: separated and gently free it up. There's a couple of
- 22:05Speaker 2: places where it's densely adherent, and there's a micro scissor.
- 22:08Speaker 2: It's beautiful micro scissor and that's used to divide where
- 22:12Speaker 2: it's densely adherent and then it comes out comes out
- 22:15Speaker 2: quite nicely. If it's more fibrous. We've got this beautiful
- 22:18Speaker 2: machine called a CUSA CUSA which stands for Cavetron Ultrasonic aspirator.
- 22:26Speaker 2: It's brilliant. It's this fine tip and it uses I
- 22:31Speaker 2: think it's an ultrasonic wave to fracture the tissue at
- 22:35Speaker 2: the tip and then it asperates the fractured tissue, so
- 22:39Speaker 2: in effect, it's like having a pencil and at the
- 22:42Speaker 2: tip of the pencil the tumor just dissolves and goes
- 22:45Speaker 2: up the sucker. So it can be quite fibrous and
- 22:47Speaker 2: dense and it will just literally dissolve it and suck it.
- 22:49Speaker 2: And the beautiful instrument for tumors are a lot more dense.
- 22:56Speaker 2: We joke that the cuser actually c USA stands for
- 22:58Speaker 2: can't use straight up because it takes about forty minutes
- 23:01Speaker 2: to set the thing up.
- 23:02Speaker 1: That's hilarious. Is there any I don't know if I
- 23:06Speaker 1: want to ask this question, but I know you'll answer
- 23:08Speaker 1: it honestly in general terms, like I think people a
- 23:11Speaker 1: lot of people have been essentially led to believe that
- 23:15Speaker 1: if you're going to have surgery, make sure you get
- 23:17Speaker 1: the surgeon. Make sure you get your surgery in the morning,
- 23:20Speaker 1: because that's when the surgeon's at his or her best,
- 23:25Speaker 1: and surgeons are human. I would imagine that that might
- 23:30Speaker 1: be true, or is that not true, or it depends.
- 23:33Speaker 2: I see a patient in the anesthetic bay, and it
- 23:35Speaker 2: doesn't matter where they are on the list. If they're first,
- 23:38Speaker 2: I say, you're first up, everyone's fresh, You're in the
- 23:41Speaker 2: best position. If they're fourth on the list, I walk
- 23:44Speaker 2: in there, I say, we've done three already. Everybody's warmed
- 23:46Speaker 2: up and got their eye, and you're in the best position.
- 23:49Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. They all have a laugh and it
- 23:52Speaker 2: relaxes them. It doesn't matter because every operation, the experience
- 23:57Speaker 2: is the same, which is a laser focus. Sitting around
- 24:01Speaker 2: and waiting is different. You've got a bit more energy
- 24:04Speaker 2: waiting in the morning, and the evening. The waiting is
- 24:07Speaker 2: you know, a bit more painful. But as soon as
- 24:10Speaker 2: the microscope gets wheeled into place, the brain just switches
- 24:15Speaker 2: on and it becomes a laser focus and it's like
- 24:19Speaker 2: nothing has changed. It's like the first case.
- 24:21Speaker 1: Wow, you spoke before about how the idea that you
- 24:25Speaker 1: walk and it's going to be a good day because
- 24:27Speaker 1: you've got the team that you love, You've got your
- 24:29Speaker 1: dream team. Who organizes that, Like do you go, I
- 24:35Speaker 1: want to work with these people or do you just
- 24:37Speaker 1: show up on the day? And it depends who's rostered on.
- 24:41Speaker 2: The nursing staff are rosted, the anesthetic staff. I have
- 24:45Speaker 2: relationships with those guys and have essentially elected to work
- 24:52Speaker 2: with them, And that's the dynamics. Over time, you sort
- 24:56Speaker 2: of start to get the team that you want to
- 24:58Speaker 2: have with the nursing staff and the scrub team they're rosted.
- 25:04Speaker 2: That you start to get more and more time with
- 25:06Speaker 2: the people that you like.
- 25:08Speaker 1: Do you think over time like racking up all the
- 25:12Speaker 1: surgeries that you've done and are doing, and of course
- 25:18Speaker 1: everyone who's doing a job, over time, you know, develop
- 25:21Speaker 1: skill and competence and all of those things. Do you
- 25:24Speaker 1: think that you've become calmer? Not that you were probably
- 25:29Speaker 1: ever chaotic, but like I think most of us doing
- 25:35Speaker 1: obviously most of us wouldn't do what you do, but
- 25:37Speaker 1: something where the potential consequences are so big, you know
- 25:42Speaker 1: one way or the other. I mean, that's for us
- 25:45Speaker 1: mere mortals. That's a recipe for fucking overthinking, self doubt, rumination, anxiety.
- 25:52Speaker 1: But obviously those things don't work being in any of
- 25:55Speaker 1: those states don't work. When you need so much fine
- 25:59Speaker 1: motor skill, so much calmness, and so much presence, how
- 26:05Speaker 1: do you stay calm but also at the same time
- 26:09Speaker 1: fully alert and switched.
- 26:11Speaker 2: On watching a mental watching and learning during the training years. Again,
- 26:16Speaker 2: my guide out in Hobart still the most naturally gifted
- 26:20Speaker 2: guy I've seen around Australia, and I've been around Australia.
- 26:25Speaker 2: It was observing him under pressure and how he reacted
- 26:30Speaker 2: to it. I still remember a pediatric brain tumor case.
- 26:34Speaker 2: It went for ten hours or something like that, and
- 26:38Speaker 2: he just stood there with his shoulders down, his elbows
- 26:41Speaker 2: by his side, risk just moving slowly, slowly for that
- 26:45Speaker 2: whole time. And at the time I was like, why
- 26:49Speaker 2: is he taking so long? I'm tired, I want to
- 26:51Speaker 2: go home, let's wrap this up. Until I had a
- 26:55Speaker 2: case of a pediatric brain tumor that I was doing
- 26:58Speaker 2: on my own. I've told this story before I think
- 27:01Speaker 2: it was. It started at eight or nine and went
- 27:03Speaker 2: through to eleven o'clock that night. Difficult pediatric tumor, and
- 27:10Speaker 2: it was stuck to the brain stem. It was bleeding profusely.
- 27:13Speaker 2: Progress was super slow. At times. It was hard to
- 27:16Speaker 2: make out what was tumor and what was normal brain stem.
- 27:19Speaker 2: And the brain stem is highest priced real estate you
- 27:21Speaker 2: can get in the brain. I touched that and there
- 27:24Speaker 2: are huge consequences. So that was extremely incredibly stressful operation.
- 27:31Speaker 2: And I thought, this is probably what my mentor was feeling.
- 27:33Speaker 2: This is the emotions he was feeling during that ten
- 27:36Speaker 2: hour case. He was looking at that structure, going is
- 27:39Speaker 2: that tumor or? Is that is that I need? I
- 27:41Speaker 2: don't know. I imagine that that's what was going through
- 27:44Speaker 2: his head. And I only worked that out when I
- 27:46Speaker 2: was doing the case, But at the time he was
- 27:49Speaker 2: just composed and just went millimeter by millimeter. I just
- 27:52Speaker 2: remember that, and during this pediatric tumor case of mine,
- 27:56Speaker 2: I just replicated that. I just kipped my head, kept
- 27:59Speaker 2: my car and knew that it was okay just to
- 28:02Speaker 2: proceed slowly. I learned a huge amount just watching this guy.
- 28:09Speaker 2: The other thing. Do I stay calm, I think I get.
- 28:12Speaker 2: I am definitely calm and get calmer with time, but
- 28:17Speaker 2: I get not agitated. But I don't think grumpy is
- 28:23Speaker 2: the right word either. But it's essentially I get shorter
- 28:29Speaker 2: and clearer and maybe a little bit blunter with instructions
- 28:33Speaker 2: in theater because I know more now the value of
- 28:40Speaker 2: nipping any variable in the bud, any new variable that's
- 28:45Speaker 2: introduced during theater. If you allow too many new variables
- 28:48Speaker 2: to accumulate, that's when you start getting complications. So my
- 28:53Speaker 2: instructions are crystal clear, and I'm actually quite blunt, and
- 28:56Speaker 2: if there is a minor variation to that, I stop,
- 29:01Speaker 2: corrected and then move forward. And it can be the
- 29:04Speaker 2: simplest thing. The screen needs to be facing this particular way,
- 29:08Speaker 2: the drape needs to be on a certain way, The
- 29:11Speaker 2: instrument needs to always be the same. Told the story
- 29:15Speaker 2: of the hammer they handed me during a spine operation,
- 29:18Speaker 2: a hammer that I was not expecting. It was a
- 29:19Speaker 2: slightly smaller one. They had a laugh, and I was
- 29:24Speaker 2: quite short and blunt back at them, not because I'm
- 29:29Speaker 2: just a toxic a difficult personality, but I was nipping
- 29:32Speaker 2: a variable in the bud. They don't understand that variable,
- 29:34Speaker 2: but if you have enough of them, it just disorientates you.
- 29:38Speaker 2: And then once you start getting disorientated, that's where complications occur.
- 29:43Speaker 2: Every time, almost invariably, if there's a complication, you can
- 29:47Speaker 2: trace it back to a root pause. It's when this
- 29:50Speaker 2: step wasn't normal, but you accepted it and thought, oh,
- 29:53Speaker 2: that's okay, we'll just get on with the case and
- 29:55Speaker 2: move forward. And so again, my guy down in Hobart,
- 30:00Speaker 2: he had white line fever. If anything change in theater,
- 30:04Speaker 2: he would just he would just get so angry. And
- 30:07Speaker 2: I couldn't understand it at the time, and I don't
- 30:09Speaker 2: condone that sort of behavior, but I understand the concept
- 30:13Speaker 2: of of what he was, what his philosophy was. Don't
- 30:17Speaker 2: give me a new variable. It's the same time every time,
- 30:19Speaker 2: because if I do that, then I'm least likely to
- 30:24Speaker 2: have a complication, and I'm going to do my best work.
- 30:28Speaker 1: And I think, also, that's amazing, thank you for that.
- 30:32Speaker 1: Like dealing with people like every every day, you're dealing
- 30:37Speaker 1: literally with life and death, like literally like and so
- 30:42Speaker 1: you don't really.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Happen in hups. It's worse than that. It's not life
- 30:44Speaker 2: and death. It's it's life and life with a morbidity.
- 30:51Speaker 2: The worst thing is for someone to I mean, obviously
- 30:54Speaker 2: death is bad, but that really happens. The bad thing
- 30:57Speaker 2: if someone goes in and they're normal and they come
- 31:01Speaker 2: out with a neurological deficit. They have to live the
- 31:04Speaker 2: rest of their life with that neurological deficit. Right, That's
- 31:08Speaker 2: that's the worst outcome. You go in there and you're
- 31:11Speaker 2: able to speak, and you come out and you can't speak,
- 31:13Speaker 2: Or you go in there and your foot is working
- 31:15Speaker 2: and you come out with a foot drop. It's a
- 31:17Speaker 2: huge burden on your quality of life. That's that's really that. Yes,
- 31:24Speaker 2: death is bad, but it really happens. It's causing a
- 31:27Speaker 2: irreversible problem that they then have to live with for
- 31:29Speaker 2: the rest of their life. That's the thing we really fear.
- 31:32Speaker 1: Yeah, I had not thought of that. That is fucking terrifying.
- 31:37Speaker 1: And I guess also when you're under that pressure and
- 31:40Speaker 1: you're making decisions and doing the thing that you don't
- 31:46Speaker 1: you don't really in that moment have the bandwidth to
- 31:49Speaker 1: be able to want to or have to cater to
- 31:52Speaker 1: people's individual emotions and to keep everyone you know happy
- 31:59Speaker 1: in because you're just doing your thing, so it's not
- 32:02Speaker 1: your job to take or to be responsible for how
- 32:05Speaker 1: everyone's feeling in the middle of that surgical reality.
- 32:10Speaker 2: I don't even think about it. Teamwork is really important.
- 32:15Speaker 2: And when a scrub nurse hands me something that is perfect,
- 32:20Speaker 2: which means I'm looking down the microscope, I hand out
- 32:22Speaker 2: my hand and they put the instrument in my hand
- 32:26Speaker 2: in such a way. I just got to close my
- 32:28Speaker 2: hand and put it back in. And if they do that,
- 32:30Speaker 2: I say, perfect, that was perfect, thank you. And if
- 32:36Speaker 2: I hold my hand out and then they give it
- 32:39Speaker 2: to me as if what's easy for them, Like they
- 32:41Speaker 2: grab the instrument in their hand and they hand it
- 32:43Speaker 2: to me, so it's pointing the wrong way. I've got
- 32:45Speaker 2: to move my hand then to grasp that. I don't
- 32:48Speaker 2: even do that anyway. I say give it to me properly.
- 32:50Speaker 2: I actually give it back to them. Say give it
- 32:51Speaker 2: to me properly. And because it's teamwork, you know, they
- 32:58Speaker 2: get the best out of me when I get the
- 32:59Speaker 2: best out of them. So I reinforce great behavior and
- 33:06Speaker 2: I ask for it in return. We have something called
- 33:09Speaker 2: the Mayo table, which is a It sounds fancy, but
- 33:12Speaker 2: essentially it's just a tray that sits on top of
- 33:14Speaker 2: the bed, but it's got some legs onto the floor.
- 33:17Speaker 2: It's called basically sit instruments on this on this mayo table.
- 33:21Speaker 2: And when that mayo table, it's got a lot of
- 33:23Speaker 2: instruments that the scrub nurse is using. It's the stuff
- 33:26Speaker 2: that I'm using is going on and off, backward and forwards.
- 33:28Speaker 2: When that mayo is organized, all the instruments are lined up, dunk.
- 33:33Speaker 2: I say that the mayo is a is a glimpse
- 33:36Speaker 2: into the scrub nurse's mind. The mayo is a reflection
- 33:39Speaker 2: of the mind. When that mayo is organized, I feel organized.
- 33:43Speaker 2: I feel they are organized, and I'm confident in them.
- 33:47Speaker 2: And I say that, I actually say that. I said
- 33:48Speaker 2: that your mayo is very clean and tidy. Clearly, your
- 33:52Speaker 2: mind is very clear clear at the moment, I appreciate that.
- 33:55Speaker 1: Yeah, how quickly or slowly does neurosurgery evolve? I feel
- 34:05Speaker 1: it's probably not linear. It's probably on an incline at
- 34:09Speaker 1: the moment. With tech or what the fuck do I know?
- 34:14Speaker 2: Give us a fascinating question. And I've written an article
- 34:17Speaker 2: on this. There is some technology at the moment, like
- 34:22Speaker 2: a robot or the endoscope for spine surgery quite a
- 34:27Speaker 2: bit of tech at the moment where it's a huge
- 34:31Speaker 2: expenditure to develop that tech, massive expenditure and the price
- 34:37Speaker 2: to purchase this equipment is phenomenal, the million dollars for
- 34:41Speaker 2: a piece of equipment, and the benefit to the patient
- 34:47Speaker 2: is extremely marginal. And the reason I say that you
- 34:52Speaker 2: just wind back the clock not far at all. CT
- 34:57Speaker 2: scan which revolutionize medicine. I mean Planet Earth probably stopped
- 35:01Speaker 2: spinning for about two seconds when the CT scan arrived
- 35:04Speaker 2: at address Planet Earth. That was developed on a shoe
- 35:08Speaker 2: string budget by a guy from the Second World War
- 35:12Speaker 2: who is working with radar, and over three years persevered
- 35:17Speaker 2: and against expectations, came up with the CT scanner. Minimal expenditure,
- 35:25Speaker 2: exponential effect on medicine and patient outcomes. The same with
- 35:32Speaker 2: MRI scan and in eurosurgery. There's some beans and texts.
- 35:37Speaker 2: The big one for us is stereotactic. That is using
- 35:40Speaker 2: a computer to be able to decide where something is
- 35:43Speaker 2: inside the brain or the spine that's mainly inside the brain,
- 35:49Speaker 2: and so we use it all the time. If there's
- 35:50Speaker 2: a tumor that's three centimeters below the surface of the brain,
- 35:53Speaker 2: this computer can tell us on the skin where that
- 35:55Speaker 2: projection is, so we can get the cut on the
- 35:57Speaker 2: scalp in the perfect position. Stereotactic surgery revolutionize the game,
- 36:05Speaker 2: and now it feels like industry brings out technology for
- 36:12Speaker 2: the purposes of maintaining earnings for the quarter, and in
- 36:17Speaker 2: a way without being cynical, in a way, a lot
- 36:20Speaker 2: of tech at the moment gives whoever's got that tech
- 36:24Speaker 2: a commercial advantage. If this hospital has got a robot
- 36:28Speaker 2: and this hospital does not have a robot, then obviously
- 36:31Speaker 2: this hospital is better and that's where people should go.
- 36:36Speaker 2: And that's a big part of a landscape at the moment.
- 36:39Speaker 2: So hospitals are forced to buy this equipment because another
- 36:43Speaker 2: hospital has got it without it at a disadvantage in
- 36:46Speaker 2: terms of their quality of care. But really the quality
- 36:48Speaker 2: of care is almost unchanged. And it's a really dangerous
- 36:52Speaker 2: landscape that we're entering where there's becoming more and more
- 36:55Speaker 2: of a push by industry to adopt this technology for
- 37:00Speaker 2: their shareholders and less so for actual patient outcomes. Huge
- 37:05Speaker 2: expenditure for very very marginal outcome, But it's a really
- 37:10Speaker 2: easy sell to the patient. I use a robot, How
- 37:14Speaker 2: could you resist that I use an endoscope for spine surgery.
- 37:20Speaker 2: It's truly keyhole surgery. How do you say no to that?
- 37:24Speaker 1: Yes?
- 37:26Speaker 2: Yes, the reality behind the scenes is slightly different, and
- 37:30Speaker 2: it's much harder to sell the fact that perhaps that
- 37:33Speaker 2: robot doesn't actually change very much at all, and there's
- 37:37Speaker 2: a different reason that hospital has a robot. That's a
- 37:40Speaker 2: hard sell. But just to say we have a robot
- 37:43Speaker 2: is a very easy cell.
- 37:45Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, What about I don't even know if this
- 37:49Speaker 1: is a good question, So if it's dumb, I'll take
- 37:51Speaker 1: it out. What about current or future surgical treatments for
- 37:59Speaker 1: neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and so on? Is there
- 38:06Speaker 1: do you ever do? Is that a thing?
- 38:08Speaker 2: Alzheimer's No, Parkinson's, Yes, Parkinson's disease. The surgical treatment for
- 38:16Speaker 2: that is phenomenal. The fuck has three parts of the rigidity,
- 38:20Speaker 2: the hand tremor, and then they walk really stiff and slow,
- 38:24Speaker 2: and it can be completely debilitating. There are drugs for it,
- 38:28Speaker 2: but there's an operation called deep brain stimulation. The target
- 38:31Speaker 2: is a few millimeters wide, deep in the center of
- 38:34Speaker 2: the brain, and the target was discovered by accident. A
- 38:37Speaker 2: number of years ago. But now we've got the target
- 38:39Speaker 2: and we can put a probe into that target and
- 38:41Speaker 2: stimulate or cause a lesion in that target. The effect
- 38:45Speaker 2: is phenomenal. A patient can be completely immobilized and incapacitated
- 38:51Speaker 2: by their Parkinson's symptoms and then post surgery getting towards
- 38:58Speaker 2: barely recognizable, almost back to normal. There's another condition called
- 39:02Speaker 2: a central tremor, which again is a type of neurodegenerative condition. Essentially,
- 39:08Speaker 2: when their hand is at rest, it's fine, but when
- 39:10Speaker 2: they go out to reach something, the hand starts shaking violently.
- 39:12Speaker 2: You may have seen it. They reach out to grab
- 39:14Speaker 2: a glass of water, and the closer you get to
- 39:16Speaker 2: the glass of water, the hand just starts just shaking uncontrollably.
- 39:20Speaker 2: It's obviously they can't use their hand for anything because
- 39:22Speaker 2: as soon as they go to do something, it's called
- 39:24Speaker 2: an action tremor. As soon as they use the hand
- 39:26Speaker 2: for anything, the hand just completely starts flailing around. And
- 39:30Speaker 2: then after deep brain stimulation, the hand works completely normally
- 39:34Speaker 2: like it's a phenomenal before and after video. So that's
- 39:37Speaker 2: been around for a while. The accuracy is what's improved,
- 39:45Speaker 2: exactly where that probe goes in what location and ensuring
- 39:48Speaker 2: the accuracy. That is certainly improved. The instruments we have
- 39:52Speaker 2: to do the surgery have improved, making it easier to
- 39:54Speaker 2: manipulate tissues and do things safely. But for lo the
- 39:58Speaker 2: philosophy is the same. Surgery is a game of physicality.
- 40:02Speaker 2: It's removing something that shouldn't be there, or putting something
- 40:05Speaker 2: back in its normal place, or fixing something that's physically broken.
- 40:09Speaker 2: That's essentially the name of the game. If it comes
- 40:12Speaker 2: to brain tumors, the outcomes for a lot of them
- 40:15Speaker 2: haven't changed in fifty years. Surgery hasn't changed. The only
- 40:18Speaker 2: thing that's really going to change that is drugs.
- 40:21Speaker 1: So a friend of mine's got an essential tremor. I
- 40:25Speaker 1: did not know what you just told me, So I'm
- 40:28Speaker 1: going to ring him after this. How long?
- 40:32Speaker 2: How long does that procedure take? Give or take not
- 40:36Speaker 2: long at all? The planning takes a while going to
- 40:38Speaker 2: do a scan of the brain and identify that target
- 40:41Speaker 2: and his minuscule harps. It's a tiny target deep in
- 40:43Speaker 2: the brain. Planning is a big part of that. Doing
- 40:46Speaker 2: the operation, they'll do it in under an hour.
- 40:48Speaker 1: Wow, And what's the chances of a good outcome.
- 40:53Speaker 2: In someone who's experience, who knows how to do the
- 40:55Speaker 2: planning and to minimize risk, and has experience in minimizing
- 40:58Speaker 2: the risk and the one of the big challenges is
- 41:01Speaker 2: that the brain moves, so it moves with each heartbeat,
- 41:04Speaker 2: so you kind of have a moving target. You have
- 41:06Speaker 2: a moving target when you put it in, but also
- 41:08Speaker 2: when it's actually in the brain's still moving, so it's
- 41:10Speaker 2: still like a moving target for the stationary tip. People
- 41:14Speaker 2: have experienced doing that and know how to work around that,
- 41:19Speaker 2: their chances of success are high.
- 41:22Speaker 1: What's the bit of the brain called where you said,
- 41:24Speaker 1: we accidentally found this out and it's like a bit
- 41:27Speaker 1: of the brain that's a few millimeters what's it called.
- 41:30Speaker 2: One of them is called the VIM which I think
- 41:32Speaker 2: is the ventral intermediary something. I'll have to look that up.
- 41:37Speaker 2: I can't remember. V im is is the acronym. There's
- 41:41Speaker 2: a couple of targets. There's a subthallomic target. I'm not
- 41:44Speaker 2: an expert in this, but there's a subfalloming target. There's
- 41:47Speaker 2: a couple of other targets. It was absolutely discovered that
- 41:50Speaker 2: the story goes. I think it was. I think it
- 41:54Speaker 2: was last century. A guy was doing a blood vessel
- 41:57Speaker 2: operation like in ancient times, and he clipped the wrong
- 42:01Speaker 2: blood vessel as he would do because he didn't have
- 42:05Speaker 2: microscopes and modern instruments. He clipped the wrong blood vessel
- 42:09Speaker 2: and the patient woke up and their tremor was gone.
- 42:13Speaker 2: He hadn't fixed the original blood vessel problem that he'd
- 42:15Speaker 2: set out to fix, but he couldn't help but notice
- 42:18Speaker 2: the patient's tremor had completely disappeared. And I think that
- 42:24Speaker 2: they did. They didn't even have a scan of that time.
- 42:26Speaker 2: I think they did a post mortem and worked out
- 42:28Speaker 2: where that stroke was in the brain and then started
- 42:32Speaker 2: putting two and two together.
- 42:33Speaker 1: So they had to kind of reverse engineer it to
- 42:36Speaker 1: figure out how that fucking fixed it correct.
- 42:40Speaker 2: That is, that is the one I wound up understanding
- 42:44Speaker 2: the human brain. The only way that we have gathered
- 42:47Speaker 2: any valuable information about the function of human brain is
- 42:50Speaker 2: to observe the broken and work backwards.
- 42:53Speaker 1: It wasn't that the way that they discovered viagra as well.
- 42:57Speaker 1: Wasn't that meant to be like some kind of vasil
- 43:02Speaker 1: vaso dilator or something for blood pressure and it ended
- 43:05Speaker 1: up giving blokes hard cocks?
- 43:07Speaker 2: Yep. It was for pulmary hypertension and this side effect.
- 43:14Speaker 1: And then they're like, hey, we invented this, We've we've
- 43:17Speaker 1: solved one of the biggest problems for men of all time.
- 43:21Speaker 1: You're welcome. And then nobody solved it at all. They
- 43:24Speaker 1: just fucking stumbled across it.
- 43:26Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a phenomenal story, isn't viagra? And with the
- 43:29Speaker 2: tie it's a great name, it's a great product that
- 43:32Speaker 2: that will be if if that was your project that
- 43:35Speaker 2: fires or whoever made that, that's that's a legacy, that is
- 43:38Speaker 2: that's a game changer.
- 43:40Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever have you
- 43:45Speaker 1: ever encountered a case of been involved in a case
- 43:49Speaker 1: that fundamentally changed how you viewed the brain or consciousness
- 43:56Speaker 1: or the way that you just looked at it in general,
- 44:00Speaker 1: or perhaps you heard of a case or you reviewed
- 44:03Speaker 1: a case or something, or there's been no real surprises, but.
- 44:10Speaker 2: There was one central case that changed the way I
- 44:14Speaker 2: looked at the human brain. Awake Cranny oto me patients
- 44:18Speaker 2: awake during surgery. And I've done it many times before.
- 44:23Speaker 2: This was the first time I was doing it as
- 44:24Speaker 2: a consultant, so fully qualified, and the thing that rattled me.
- 44:29Speaker 2: The thing that I realized for the first time in
- 44:32Speaker 2: my career was essentially the mystery of the physical and
- 44:36Speaker 2: the non physical, that gap between the physical and non physical.
- 44:39Speaker 2: So what I mean is I could see the human brain,
- 44:41Speaker 2: and I'd seen it a thousand times before, and because
- 44:44Speaker 2: the patients awake under the drape, I could see them
- 44:48Speaker 2: having a conscious experience, and I understood for the first
- 44:51Speaker 2: time what people were talking about between that gap between
- 44:54Speaker 2: the physical brain and this non physical thing that is experience,
- 45:00Speaker 2: you know, feelings, seeing, hearing, all that sort of stuff.
- 45:06Speaker 2: And it was it was, it was. It was a
- 45:08Speaker 2: game changer for me to see that played out in
- 45:10Speaker 2: theater and there was what was really was. I don't
- 45:15Speaker 2: know why I only thought about it at that particular time.
- 45:17Speaker 2: I remember the day that it happened and I just sort
- 45:21Speaker 2: of started thinking deeply about it. I just never thought
- 45:23Speaker 2: about it, and all of a sudden it did a
- 45:25Speaker 2: deep dive in theater in that moment exploring the topic.
- 45:30Speaker 2: During the operation, there was no clue on the surface
- 45:33Speaker 2: of the brain of how that physical brain was connecting
- 45:37Speaker 2: with the non physical world. There was just no clue.
- 45:40Speaker 2: It was just pulsating with a heartbeat, but it wasn't
- 45:44Speaker 2: glowing green, and there was no sparkles and no distortion
- 45:46Speaker 2: in the atmosphere, which there should have been, because it's
- 45:52Speaker 2: still the greatest mystery known to man how the human
- 45:55Speaker 2: brain does that. It's a complete void, how that physical
- 45:59Speaker 2: brain creates the non physical phenomena of experience. There should
- 46:03Speaker 2: be some supernatural evidence of how it's doing that, and
- 46:11Speaker 2: it's and there just isn't. It's just a white brain pulsating.
- 46:14Speaker 2: It's as physical as your arm or your delt muscle
- 46:17Speaker 2: or you know, your heart. It's as physical as everything else,
- 46:20Speaker 2: yet it's got this magical quality of creating consciousness. And
- 46:23Speaker 2: looking at the brain, I realize what everybody was talking about.
- 46:27Speaker 2: There's just no evidence about how it's doing that. I
- 46:30Speaker 2: couldn't hear any voices from heaven. I couldn't. There was
- 46:32Speaker 2: just nothing. And it was a unique situation because the
- 46:35Speaker 2: patient was actually awake, having a conscious experience, where usually
- 46:38Speaker 2: there are sleeps of general anisex bond them mount but
- 46:41Speaker 2: they're having the actual non physical experience and I can
- 46:45Speaker 2: see the physicals, I can see the physical, and I
- 46:47Speaker 2: can see the evidence of the non physical in the
- 46:49Speaker 2: same person and no link between the two of them.
- 46:54Speaker 2: And I thought, that is that is a cool mystery.
- 46:56Speaker 2: Like I get what people are talking about when they
- 46:59Speaker 2: say that's the thing they really want to understand before
- 47:02Speaker 2: they die. I mean, that is that's a that's a
- 47:06Speaker 2: brain breaker. That is I remember that day. I was like,
- 47:09Speaker 2: I get it. That is that actually is very cool.
- 47:12Speaker 2: That is that is the greatest mystery known to man
- 47:15Speaker 2: playing out right in front of me. It's like a
- 47:17Speaker 2: front row seat, no answers, but you know, I kind
- 47:22Speaker 2: of like the mystery. I like it hasn't been solved,
- 47:25Speaker 2: but as a found moment to see it actually played
- 47:27Speaker 2: out in front of you, it'd be like, are you're
- 47:29Speaker 2: visiting a black hole? Like that's just imagine if Eli
- 47:33Speaker 2: Must said I can fly you to a black hole.
- 47:35Speaker 2: Not only can you stand on the edge of the
- 47:36Speaker 2: black hole, I'll let you go in for five seconds
- 47:38Speaker 2: just to see what it's like. You'd be like, oh, yeah.
- 47:41Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's funny because my job kind of
- 47:44Speaker 1: is the mind and your job is the brain, and
- 47:46Speaker 1: we know they're related, but we kind of don't really
- 47:48Speaker 1: know how you know, and that the truth is we
- 47:52Speaker 1: don't really have evidence of a mind only evidence of
- 47:55Speaker 1: a brain, you know, and we know that there's consciousness
- 47:58Speaker 1: and we know that there's a brain, but we don't
- 48:00Speaker 1: know how one arises from the other. And neuroscience is
- 48:04Speaker 1: having a big crack at it. But I don't know
- 48:07Speaker 1: that we're going to understand that anytime soon. And maybe
- 48:09Speaker 1: it's good that we don't. Maybe that is that spiritual part,
- 48:14Speaker 1: Maybe there is, maybe there's you know, well, there's definitely
- 48:17Speaker 1: stuff that we you know. I think that when we
- 48:21Speaker 1: can't understand or explain something in science, we're very uncomfortable
- 48:27Speaker 1: to go, well, it exists, but we don't get it.
- 48:33Speaker 1: And I think sometimes we've just got to say, you know,
- 48:35Speaker 1: on our current level of with our current level of
- 48:38Speaker 1: knowledge science, you know, ability to examine whatever we don't know,
- 48:43Speaker 1: and it's okay that we don't know, you know. And
- 48:46Speaker 1: even some of the things we think we do know,
- 48:49Speaker 1: we find out in ten years, oh, we didn't know
- 48:51Speaker 1: that at all. We only thought we knew.
- 48:53Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two things I want to say about that.
- 48:55Speaker 2: It's interesting. Number One, I feel like technology will be
- 48:57Speaker 2: the antsick because it has been the answer up till date.
- 48:59Speaker 2: If you'd said to Caesar Julius Caesar, DNA, Show me DNA,
- 49:03Speaker 2: tell me about it, what does it look like, how
- 49:05Speaker 2: does it work? He would just lock you up in
- 49:08Speaker 2: an asylum. You think you're crazy. He's got no chance
- 49:12Speaker 2: of understanding an atom or what it looks like, or
- 49:15Speaker 2: what DNA is, And just that's completely ethereal concept, not
- 49:19Speaker 2: even a concept, and technology, through X ray technology and
- 49:25Speaker 2: mathematics was able to uncover that. So I feel like
- 49:29Speaker 2: consciousness today is much of a bizarre concept as DNA
- 49:33Speaker 2: would have been to Julius Caesar, solved by technology, and
- 49:37Speaker 2: so there's a lot who feel that probably will be
- 49:39Speaker 2: the answer for this as well. But there is an interesting,
- 49:43Speaker 2: interesting catch with the mind, as you know, it's called
- 49:48Speaker 2: the other minds problem, meaning I can never examine I
- 49:52Speaker 2: can never experience someone else's mind. I can only experience
- 49:55Speaker 2: my own mind. I can only examine my own mind.
- 49:59Speaker 2: I could never I mean I can do it through
- 50:01Speaker 2: some surrogate Marcus, asking some questions and things like that,
- 50:04Speaker 2: that I can never enter your mind to experiment on
- 50:08Speaker 2: it and try and study it.
- 50:11Speaker 1: Yeah, well that there's a whole area of research in
- 50:14Speaker 1: psych called theory of mind, which is that which is
- 50:18Speaker 1: trying to understand the mind of somebody else. And then
- 50:22Speaker 1: you know, but again it's it's really just high level guessing,
- 50:26Speaker 1: or in some instances low level guessing, trying to understand
- 50:30Speaker 1: somebody else's version. And you and I have spoken about
- 50:33Speaker 1: this between ourselves. But you know, when we go, all right, well,
- 50:37Speaker 1: let's say ten thousand people listen to this chat, nobody's
- 50:40Speaker 1: going to have an identical experience. There might be some
- 50:43Speaker 1: very similar experiences, but that's it's it's likely now that
- 50:48Speaker 1: some people have already tuned out and gone, fuck this,
- 50:50Speaker 1: this is bullshit, And there's it's likely also that some
- 50:54Speaker 1: people are going, this is ace. I hope it keeps
- 50:56Speaker 1: going for as long as possible. Some people are this
- 50:59Speaker 1: is in enlightening some people. This is boring some people,
- 51:02Speaker 1: this is confusing. And you know, so there's the stimulus,
- 51:06Speaker 1: and then there's the individual's reaction cognitive, emotional, psychological reaction. Yeah,
- 51:12Speaker 1: and trying to have an insight into like me, trying
- 51:16Speaker 1: to have an insight into in real time into how
- 51:19Speaker 1: you think or how you're feeling, or how this is
- 51:21Speaker 1: going for you as a conversation, but also simultaneously me
- 51:26Speaker 1: having a greater than me awareness of the listening experience
- 51:30Speaker 1: for thousands of people, And so when I ask a question,
- 51:34Speaker 1: I'm like, what's the best question that I can ask,
- 51:38Speaker 1: which hopefully will be broadly interesting to the biggest percentage
- 51:44Speaker 1: of people that I can, you know, rather than I
- 51:48Speaker 1: want to know things that I'm fascinated in as well.
- 51:51Speaker 1: But if I think I'm the only one fascinated by
- 51:53Speaker 1: this question, I'm not asking it, not in this context anyway.
- 51:57Speaker 2: Does it frustrate you?
- 51:59Speaker 1: No, I'm fascinated by I mean ergo my PhD. Right,
- 52:04Speaker 1: But I'm fascinated with how others think and how others see.
- 52:10Speaker 1: You know, And then you think about, like, where does
- 52:13Speaker 1: your version of right, where does your personal experience come from? Well,
- 52:19Speaker 1: part of it comes from part of it is genetic,
- 52:21Speaker 1: and part of it comes from the brain and the
- 52:23Speaker 1: biochemistry of the brain. Correct me if I fuck anything
- 52:26Speaker 1: up from your end. But part of it is about
- 52:29Speaker 1: your interpretation of what's going on. You know, some people
- 52:34Speaker 1: are interpreting this as interesting, and therefore they're in the
- 52:38Speaker 1: moment experience is that they are interested, that they are fascinated.
- 52:43Speaker 1: Somebody else's interpretation of the exact same stimulus could be
- 52:47Speaker 1: this is boring, and their literal experience is boredom. But
- 52:52Speaker 1: either way, those experience are self created. They're stimulated by you,
- 52:56Speaker 1: and I bet they're created by the interpreter of the
- 53:00Speaker 1: data or the stimuli.
- 53:02Speaker 2: It's interesting what you say, and it fascinates me how
- 53:06Speaker 2: little control we actually have, how easily an external stimulus
- 53:11Speaker 2: can change the way we feel, think or what we say.
- 53:16Speaker 2: And it's almost like we don't have any real control.
- 53:21Speaker 2: I'm a product of my genetics, shore and my biochemistry,
- 53:26Speaker 2: but it doesn't take much for me to change the
- 53:29Speaker 2: way I view the world on a particular day. So
- 53:34Speaker 2: who am I really? I feel like I'm just a
- 53:37Speaker 2: complicated stimulus response machine.
- 53:40Speaker 1: You in some ways you are in some ways we
- 53:43Speaker 1: all are. And you made a good point, and that
- 53:46Speaker 1: is that nine am Alex might be quite different to
- 53:50Speaker 1: seven pm alex, depending on you know, whether or not
- 53:55Speaker 1: you've eaten, how tired you are, whether or not you
- 53:57Speaker 1: had a blue with Karli, you know whether not it's raining,
- 54:01Speaker 1: whether or not one of the dogs did away in
- 54:03Speaker 1: the house, you know, like that in the moment version
- 54:07Speaker 1: of you. Sometimes I said this to Melissa yesterday. I said,
- 54:12Speaker 1: I don't want to jinx it, but I'm not even
- 54:14Speaker 1: sure why. But lately I feel fucking amazing, and I've
- 54:19Speaker 1: been trying to figure out what I'm doing that makes
- 54:22Speaker 1: me feel I'm not saying I am amazing, but I
- 54:24Speaker 1: feel amazing, you know, like mentally, emotionally, cognitively, I feel sharp,
- 54:29Speaker 1: I feel physically strong. I'm strong in the gym. I'm
- 54:34Speaker 1: fucking solving problems like a motherfucker. I'm like everything is
- 54:39Speaker 1: just and I'm trying to I'm trying to reverse engineer
- 54:42Speaker 1: what am I doing that is making this this state
- 54:46Speaker 1: that I'm in because it's not psychological, because it's been a.
- 54:49Speaker 2: Surprise I was about to finish their PhD to me.
- 54:54Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. Maybe I can just see the light
- 54:57Speaker 1: at the end of the academic tunnel. Maybe this all right.
- 55:01Speaker 1: Let's wind up with one or two questions. Right, this
- 55:04Speaker 1: is not really your field or your area of expertise,
- 55:07Speaker 1: but it's in your area of kind of and I
- 55:11Speaker 1: can chime in on this, but we're not interested in me.
- 55:17Speaker 1: What advice do you have for people who want to
- 55:20Speaker 1: look after their brain? And I know that you're not
- 55:24Speaker 1: really the lifestyle guy or the you know, but I
- 55:27Speaker 1: mean you work with brains, and therefore you must have
- 55:30Speaker 1: advice for people on you know how to best look
- 55:33Speaker 1: after their brain so that in terms of their choices
- 55:38Speaker 1: and behaviors, they can keep it working whatever optimally is
- 55:43Speaker 1: for them.
- 55:45Speaker 2: Great question, it's quite simple. Don't stuff it up because
- 55:49Speaker 2: you've only got one. Basically, there reason I say that quickly.
- 55:53Speaker 2: Story eighteen year old guy drunk got into a fight.
- 55:57Speaker 2: This was in Perth when I was training, got into
- 55:59Speaker 2: a fight, got king hit. During the fight. King hit.
- 56:03Speaker 2: For those who don't know, that's being punched in the
- 56:05Speaker 2: back of the head, so you don't see the assailant coming,
- 56:08Speaker 2: so you haven't got any of your defenses up, so
- 56:11Speaker 2: your arm's down by your side. You don't see it coming.
- 56:14Speaker 2: And when you get punched in the back of the head,
- 56:16Speaker 2: it knocks you out cold. So you hit the deck,
- 56:19Speaker 2: which means because you're out cold again, none of your
- 56:22Speaker 2: defenses are mobilized, your hands don't reach out to break
- 56:25Speaker 2: your fall or anything like that. So the skull hits
- 56:28Speaker 2: the concrete flush and it causes a catastrophic brain injury.
- 56:34Speaker 2: And this guy had several operations permanent brain damage. Basically
- 56:41Speaker 2: a vegetable and there was one day that really struck
- 56:45Speaker 2: me and rattled me. I remember the day clearly, walking
- 56:48Speaker 2: into his room. We're talking three or four months down
- 56:51Speaker 2: the track, and he's in a hospital bed. He's on
- 56:53Speaker 2: a ventilator, he's rigid, he's staring into space. Lights are on,
- 56:57Speaker 2: there's no one home. It's a severe brain injury. His
- 57:01Speaker 2: parents are there. He's got sweat on him, he's got
- 57:03Speaker 2: a fan on his brain, stems misfiring, he can't regulate.
- 57:07Speaker 1: It's just a.
- 57:08Speaker 2: Total disaster physiologically and everything. And the thing that got
- 57:14Speaker 2: me with the photos up on the wall, and there
- 57:17Speaker 2: was the eighteen year old kid with his dad and
- 57:21Speaker 2: holding a fish for memory. And then there was another
- 57:25Speaker 2: photo of his eighteen year old kid smiling with his
- 57:27Speaker 2: girlfriend at I presume end of view, end of school
- 57:31Speaker 2: formal smiling pull a potential, a perfectly firing brain, eighteen
- 57:37Speaker 2: year old kid's brain, all the potential in the world,
- 57:40Speaker 2: can think, clearly, can do anything. It's his number one
- 57:44Speaker 2: asset is his brain. And then there's another photo with
- 57:47Speaker 2: him and his mates doing something up on the wall
- 57:49Speaker 2: as well. And then I look at him lung in
- 57:54Speaker 2: the bed and he's lost all of that and The
- 57:59Speaker 2: message is very clear. It's you know, people say, what
- 58:02Speaker 2: can I do to look after my brain? Well, quite
- 58:06Speaker 2: literally that just look after it. It's the best asset
- 58:09Speaker 2: you ever have. And it doesn't matter what knock to
- 58:13Speaker 2: the head you have, what insults your brain has, you
- 58:16Speaker 2: will pay the price for that. You may lose one
- 58:19Speaker 2: or two IQ points, or you may lose your entire future.
- 58:23Speaker 2: Just don't stuff it up. Is quite literally as simple
- 58:26Speaker 2: as that. You don't get a second chance with the brain.
- 58:30Speaker 2: Sometimes the effects are not immediately obvious, but the effects
- 58:34Speaker 2: are certainly there, and it doesn't repair itself. You've got
- 58:37Speaker 2: one look after it, use it. Just don't stuff it up.
- 58:42Speaker 2: Beer Yep.
- 58:45Speaker 1: So I'm guessing the UFC is not high on your
- 58:48Speaker 1: list of career options for now.
- 58:51Speaker 2: What's UFC? Absolutely enthralled by it and then I cringe
- 58:55Speaker 2: out at the same time. It's like this dichotomy of
- 58:58Speaker 2: experiences when watching it. I love the I mean, it's
- 59:01Speaker 2: just it's visceral to see combat. I'm sure that's why
- 59:05Speaker 2: the Romans loved it. Build a Coliseum, because there's something
- 59:09Speaker 2: natural about seeing a blood sport and two people in combat.
- 59:14Speaker 2: It just it just gets you in a way that
- 59:15Speaker 2: you can't really explain. But then I see the slow
- 59:20Speaker 2: mods of the punch to the head and I know
- 59:22Speaker 2: what that means in terms of brain function. I know
- 59:24Speaker 2: what that will look like on a CT scan. But
- 59:29Speaker 2: the context is different, isn't harps. They're getting paid to
- 59:31Speaker 2: take damage. Basically, that is their career. That's what they've
- 59:33Speaker 2: signed up for. I guess so, and.
- 59:35Speaker 1: They know, and you know what. So yeah, I'm it's
- 59:38Speaker 1: funny you say that. I've said essentially what you said.
- 59:41Speaker 1: It's for me. It's a dichotomy because on the one hand,
- 59:44Speaker 1: I'm an excise scientist. I love I love athleticism and
- 59:49Speaker 1: power and speed and skill and those guys and girls
- 59:52Speaker 1: in the UFC and more broadly, you know, mixed martial
- 59:56Speaker 1: arts across the spectrum. You know, there's so many great things.
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: There's that unavoidable thing, which is you are going to
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: at the very least damage your brain a bit, if
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: not completely fuck it up. Like nobody gets out of
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: full contact sport. Nobody, zero people with zero damage. Nobody
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: has no damage. But I don't know, if you're across this,
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: this is going to make you shudder. So Dana White,
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: who who is the boss of the UFC, who you know,
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: you know who he is?
- 1:00:30Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: So also, I mean people hate him. I fucking I
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: find him hilarious. I don't agree with everything he says,
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: but here's what I do love about Dana White. You
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: will never not know what he thinks.
- 1:00:45Speaker 2: I was going to say. He has a very clear mind.
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: He has no filter, and he gives no fucks if
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: people agree or disagree, and he's not doing it to
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: be controversial or for attention. And he's built this fucking
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: incredible brand from nothing to this multi billion dollar thing.
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: And he's just a knock about bloke who's a visionary.
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: And yeah, he's got all these flaws and all these
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: chinks in his art and all that shit, but he's
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: just take he saw I think it was two years ago.
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: There's this thing there's face slapping competition, right, which happens
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: in lots of countries around the world. But he took
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: this idea and he turned it into power slap. So
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: these I think it's I don't know if women are involved.
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: Maybe women are, fuck but all the ones I've seen
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: the men where they literally stand with their hands behind
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: their back. It's almost like they're leaning over a bench,
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: which is for arm wrestling, but they just they just
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: stand there and this bloke on the other side just
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: winds up and smacks them with an open hand across
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: the face with like ridiculous force. So they're just getting
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: struck in the head. And this has gone from nothing
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: to now being it's it's like I heard him talking
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: about it the other day, where it's it's becoming this
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: big spectator sport. Clearly not for everyone. I don't I
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: don't watch it. I've just seen some reels. I can't
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: watch it. I can't get on board. I can get
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: on board the UFC, but I can't get board this.
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: But I'll send you. I'll send you a clip and
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: you as a you as a neurosurgeon, mate, you're just
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: gonna fucking shake your head.
- 1:02:36Speaker 2: I've seen his clips from India, the slap competitions from India.
- 1:02:39Speaker 2: These Begindian guys. It's it's bizarre. I've got like this,
- 1:02:43Speaker 2: this respect of each other and this courtesy and then
- 1:02:47Speaker 2: they wind up and fucking so bang.
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: That's not good. All right, mate, I love chatting with you.
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: This has been one of my favorite chats. I feel
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: like there was a lot of great information and a
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: lot of great insight in we'll chat off here. Is
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: there anything you don't want to got nothing to sell?
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: I always say to my guests, where do you want
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: to send our listeners? We are There is some news
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: coming from Alex next year. There's going to be some
- 1:03:13Speaker 1: big shit. I'm going to be involved in a little bit.
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: I'm the one percent, he's the ninety nine. But I'm
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: gonna I'm going to have my toe in the in
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: the Alex door next year to help him do a
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: couple of things. But we'll let you know more about
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: that in the future. But for the moment, mate, love
- 1:03:28Speaker 1: talking to you, Appreciate you and thanks for being on
- 1:03:31Speaker 1: the new project yet again.
- 1:03:33Speaker 2: Thanks Harts, really enjoyed it. Great to see you.