Shows / Cut & Tell
Cut & Tell
Cut & Tell is a real-time account of becoming a surgeon—at the exact moment the training wheels come off. Hosted by plastic surgery chief resident Elizabeth Malphrus, this show follows the transition from residency to “year one”: the first, most disorienting, and most defining stretch of a surgical career. It’s where the identity you’ve spent a decade building is suddenly tested—clinically, professionally, and personally. This is not a retrospective. It’s happening now. Through solo episodes…
Episodes
- Cut & Tell
Why price transparency didn't make healthcare cheaper: the ACA, chargemasters, and the Veblen effect
Why hasn’t showing patients prices made healthcare cheaper? For more than a decade, policymakers bet that price transparency would let patients shop around and…
- Cut & Tell
Residency Interview Advice: Mind Games, Board Games, and Managing the Vibes
What do interviewers actually remember about you? It isn’t your answers. In this episode, plastic surgeon Dr. Liz Malphrus goes past the standard “be yourself”…
- Cut & Tell
You can sue your doctor, but not your insurer?
What if doctors ran medicine the way lawyers run law? Lawyers, accountants and dentists have kept control of their professions, while physicians have lost…
- Cut & Tell
Coaching, panic, and the arrival fallacy: a surgery chat with Mel Thacker, MD
What happens when you become the surgeon, pay off the loans, and still feel empty? On Cut & Tell’s first guest episode, Dr. Mel Thacker (ENT, surgeon coach…
- Cut & Tell
Financialization of Healthcare: How Money Became the Mission
Administrative bloat, skyrocketing CEO pay, hospital mergers, rural closures. These aren't separate problems. They're symptoms of one syndrome…
- Cut & Tell
Healthcare's Obsession with Metrics, and Why it keeps Backfiring
What happens when a well-intentioned healthcare metric gets turned into a target? Nothing good — and Liz has the receipts. Before medical school, she spent two…
- Cut & Tell
Private equity is eating healthcare alive
Would you send someone you love to a hospital owned by private equity? Dr. Liz Malphrus breaks down exactly how private equity works, why it's poured billions…
- Cut & Tell
Prior auths, step therapy, and AI: how doctors lose their professional sovreignty
Every week, doctors spend 13 hours fighting insurance companies just for permission to treat their patients — and now, under a new Medicare pilot, some of…
- Cut & Tell
CPT codes in the news: everything you need to know
CMS is proposing a rule that could cut your pay in half just for treating more than one problem per visit — and the comment period closes September 14th. Liz…
- Cut & Tell
How Do Doctors ACTUALLY Get Paid? What Doctors and Residents Need to Know
How does a doctor's visit actually turn into a paycheck? It's more convoluted than how a bill becomes a law — and almost nobody, including most doctors…
- Cut & Tell
A Noble Profession Tries to Get Paid: The Historical Roots of a Modern Healthcare Crisis
This is Episode 2 of our series on health policy and economics for doctors! This episode is about laying the historical groundwork for the rest of this season…
- Cut & Tell
Doctors Don't Know How Healthcare Works. Here's Why.
What if doctors understood how the healthcare system actually works? In the first episode of Season 2 of Cut & Tell, Dr. Liz Malphrus kicks off a new series…
- Cut & Tell
How to Choose the Right Medical Specialty | My Journey to Plastic Surgery
Choosing a medical specialty is one of the biggest and most stressful decisions in medicine. In this season finale of Cut & Tell, newly graduated plastic…
- Cut & Tell
My First Day as an Attending Plastic Surgeon | Life After Residency
What does the first day as an attending surgeon actually look like? After years of medical school and plastic surgery residency, Dr. Liz Malphrus officially…
- Cut & Tell
Starting My First Job as a Plastic Surgeon (What I Had to Buy)
Starting your first attending job means more than just showing up on day one. It means building an entire practice from the ground up. In this episode of Cut &…
- Cut & Tell
How to Find Your First Doctor Job (What Nobody Teaches You)
No one teaches physicians how to find their first job. After years of medical school and residency, new attendings are suddenly expected to navigate…
- Cut & Tell
Confessions of a Former People-Pleasing Plastic Surgeon | Cut & Tell
After six years of surgical residency, I expected to leave with better technical skills. I didn't expect to leave without one of my defining personality…
- Cut & Tell
Chief Resident Advice No One Teaches You | How to Lead a Residency Team
What actually makes a great chief resident? After finishing plastic surgery residency, Dr. Liz Malphrus reflects on one of the most important leadership roles…
- Cut & Tell
How to Survive (and Thrive) During Intern Year | Advice From a Graduating Resident
Starting residency can feel overwhelming. New city, new hospital, new responsibilities, and suddenly everyone expects you to know what you're doing. In this…
- Cut & Tell
Why Residency Feels Financially Impossible Today | "Back in My Day", Part 2 | Cut & Tell
Residents today earn roughly the same inflation-adjusted salary as residents did decades ago. So why does training feel so much more financially difficult? In…
- Cut & Tell
"Back In My Day" - Why Today’s Residents Feel Less Prepared Than Ever | Cut & Tell
Attendings often tell stories about residency "back in the day" - more autonomy, more responsibility, more independence. But was training really better, or has…
- Cut & Tell
The 3 Books Every Resident Should Read Before Graduation | Cut & Tell
What if the most important lessons of residency aren't found in a textbook? With graduation just days away, Liz shares the three pieces of writing that most…
- Cut & Tell
What Actually Makes a Great Resident | Cut & Tell
What makes a good resident? And beyond that — what actually makes someone great? In this episode of Cut & Tell, Dr. Liz Malphrus breaks down the unwritten…
- Cut & Tell
My Museum of Failures | The Stories Behind Becoming a Surgeon
Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest. In this episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus opens up about the failures, regrets, rejections, and detours that never make it…
- Cut & Tell
Residents Are Being Exploited (And Everyone Knows It) | Cut & Tell with Dr. Liz Malphrus
Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest. In this episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus gets real about the hidden economics of residency training, and why so many…
- Cut & Tell
Cut & Tell with Dr. Liz Malphrus | The Truth About Residency (That No One Says Out Loud)
Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest. In this first episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus, a plastic surgery chief resident, opens up about what residency is actually…