Shows / The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The HONEST guide to medical school, featuring real students from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine–skip this show if you’d rather not know (and hate laughter)!
Episodes
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Students Check Out the Undercarriage
Content warning: this episode contains frank discussions of male anatomy exams] It’s 12:15, the exam is at 3:30, and one student is deciding which fingernails…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Hypothetically Speaking
Our planned show fell through, so Dave pivoted to hypotheticals with Esha Patel, Nikki Chang, Moesha, and a rotating cast of M1s (flexibility is a medical…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
What's Med Student Research For?
What does research actually do for a medical student, and who is it really for? The Short Coats--M2s Jonah Albrecht and Regan DeMaris, and M4 Radha…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Blechardy! The trivia Game That No One really wins
It's Blechardy, the trivia game with jelly beans, and it's a total rip-off of other games that don't have jelly beans. Dave Etler hosts, producers Winnie…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Does Your Personality Pick Your Medical Specialty?
Does Your Personality Pick Your Medical Specialty? The guy who discovered handwashing prevented deaths after childbirth was kind of a jerk, calling everyone…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Back in the Closet on a Rural Rotation: Queer in Medicine
M3 Jacob Thompson, M2s Charis Edwards and Cyrus Barati, and Dr. Katie Imborek talk about being LGBTQ+ in medicine: coming out over and over to preceptors and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Five Med Students on Thriving in Clerkships
Dave sits down with a crew of M3s and one asterisked MSTP M4 — Riley Behan-Bush, Samantha Gardner, Srishti Mathur, Sahana Sarin, and Sarah Upton — to talk…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Students React: Social Media from Helpful to Hogwash (Recess Rehash)
On this episode, M3 Fallon Jung, M1s Alexis Baker and Cory Karasek, and M2 Maria Schapfel let loose on the internet's wildest health content We react to…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Imposter Syndrome, Uncomfortable Fails, and Med School's Real Ups and Downs
The Short Coat records in front of a live audience — a room full of brand-new medical students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine during…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
DNP Doubts, Prepping for Patients, and Smarts Self-Doubt--listener questions answered! (Recess Rehash)
Real answers for your real med school dilemmas. We’ve had some listener question stacking up like it’s the ER waiting room at shift change—and now we’re…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
How A Neurologist Thinks about The Self, ft. Masud Husain
Dave's got a brain — he's pretty sure, anyway, since the MRI never mentioned otherwise — and this week he, with M3 Gizzy Lundquist and M2s Akshaj Joshi and Isa…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
From Bartending to Bedside: What Our Pre-Med Jobs Taught Us About Medicine (Recess Rehash)
If you're thinking of starting over and going to med school, you might wonder what your previous jobs have done to prepare you for it. Good news: your old jobs…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Clown Shoes, Attending Feedback, and a Very Quiet Goose
This week M3s Srishti Mathur and Zach Grissom are joined by CCOM admissions expert Rachel Shulista and the PA Program clinicals coordinator Andrew Dao. You…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Feedback, Filler Words, and Fights Over Naturopathic Medicine
M2s Akshaj Joshi, Anna Royer, Charis Edwards, and Cory Karasek talk about giving and receiving feedback, what it's like reading a stack of evaluative comments…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Should Medical Students have Babies (spoiler: yeah, baby!)
M2 Jack Klitgaard and M4 Fallon Jung are both expecting newborns in the coming months. M2 Regan Demaris has a couple toddlers already, and CCOM Registrar and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Free Med School and a Mission: Is Military Medicine For You?
For pre-meds staring down six figures of debt, the military offers something rare: a fully funded path through medical school built around a mission bigger…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
These Iowa PA Students Are Riding 68 Miles for Cancer Prevention (BONUS EP)
Isabel Ahmann, Alex Fouts, and Nia Tanui, and Giana Michels just survived their first year of PA school alongside the MDs, and to celebrate they're riding 68…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Roshan Sethi on Med School Simpering and Making It in Hollywood
The book club is back, and M2s Anna Royer, Ellie Johnson, and Sofia Hueser, and M4 Alex Nigg all crowd around to grill an actual Hollywood director about his…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Medicine is Changing. Step Up and Shape It
As societies and governments wrestle with the rise of artificial intelligence, The Short coats sit down with Dr. Lindsey Knake, a CCOM alum neonatologist and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The No-Guilt Summer: Med Students Finally Breathe
It's freeform Friday on the pod, which means the Iowa City parking situation is excellent, the rising M2s are bored and slightly guilty about it, and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Game of Med School — We Actually Made It
Can The Short Coats make a card game that captures the twists and turns of medical school? Well, we've given it a try, and now we finally play it — the Game of…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Foreign Competition for Residency: The Data vs. The Rhetoric
The $100,000 H-1b visa fee landed in September 2025 like a fire alarm in the hallways of medicine—hospitals panicked, advocacy groups mobilized, and a lot of…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med School Stereotypes Shattered: What We’re Really Like Inside (Recess Rehash)
We've all got that mental image of medical students – the type-A perfectionists grinding through textbooks even on the porcelain throne, right? Well, our…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
From EKG Meltdowns to OSCE Roller Coasters (or Treadmills): '25-26 Med School Vibes Recap
The Carver Carnival is the Carver College of Medicine's unofficial exhale — an end-of-year celebration where students who have been running on caffeine and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
MD/PhD: The Long Game of Medicine and Research
Riley Behan-Bush found the MD/PhD program through a Google search. Hannah Van Ert had already started a career in nursing before a research lab changed her…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Iowa City Haunts and Med School Hot Takes
For the full list of our favorite places, visit https://theshortcoat.com/haunts. Iowa City is small enough that you can bike from the hospital to a wood-fired…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Medical Students Judge Reddit’s Messiest Dilemmas (AITA)
Dave and his M1 co-hosts Lily Schmidt, Melia Patrick, Jonah Albrecht, and Anna Royer, take a field trip to Reddit's AITA sub— because self-reflection is not…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Their Last Free Summer: How Four M1s Are Spending It
Four medical students— Lily Schmidt, Melia Patrick, Jonah Albrecht, and Anna Royer— talk through how they landed on their "last free summer ever" plans…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Doctor Doesn't Know Either: Inside the Diagnostic Crisis
Author and New York Times Health and Science Opinion Editor Alexandra Sifferlin has spent years as a journalist fielding emails from patients who couldn't get…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Blechardy Returns: Trivia, Wet Dog Beans, and Bad Guesses
Blechardy is back, this time in Jelly Bean Mode — where every correct answer earns you a mystery BeanBoozled jelly bean that could be peach or could be barf…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
"Ego Death?!" M4s Talk Audition Rotations
Among all the strange things about medical school, there's the so-called "away" or "audition" rotation. M4s Aditi Katwala, Hend Al-Kaylani, Lena Volfson, and…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
What are Med Students Reading: Book Club!
If reading makes better docs, these guys will be incredible. What if the cure for doctor-speak was actually just… reading more books? This week M1s Anna Royer…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Medical Student Identity: What the White Coat Means
You're on stage at the "White Coat Ceremony," putting on that short coat for the first time, and honestly? It feels kind of weird. Like you're playing dress-up…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
From Fire Hose to Final Decision–How Med Students Choose Careers (Recess Rehash)
All of med school leads up to one moment: Match Day. But how do get there? Dave Etler sits down with graduating M4s Mallory Kallish (surgery), Matt Engelken…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Step Exams: Ready Or Not Here They Come
If you're a pre-med, you may have heard about Step exams. But what are they? When the hell are you supposed to start studying? Should you be doing Anki cards…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Med School Traditions That Make Lifelong Bonds
Tradition is a big part of medical school--med students willingly tie themselves to comedy shows, charity 5Ks, and yearly ceremonies when they're already…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Things You Can Do To Prepare for Med School (and One Thing You Shouldn’t!)
What should you do with the time between getting accepted to medical school and orientation week? Fallon Jung, Anna Royer, Jonah Albrecht, and Charis Edwards…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Choosing a Professional Identity: Beyond Medical School Classes
Looking at medical school and wondering what you'll actually *do* with all that training? Like, you know you'll doctor...but in what way? What will that look…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Students on Long Distance Love: Does It Last?
Medical students dish on the messy, tender, and surprisingly philosophical reality of long-distance relationships during med school, from navigating five-hour…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Medical Students and Love: Do Their Spouses Really Know Them?
In this Valentine's Day episode, four medical students sit down to play the ultimate compatibility game—answering questions their partners answered about them…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Students React: Social Media from Helpful to Hogwash
On this episode, M3 Fallon Jung, M1s Alexis Baker and Cory Karasek, and M2 Maria Schapfel let loose on the internet's wildest health content We react to…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Surprising Connection Between Hobbies and Medicine
Medicine will take everything you have, if you allow it to. What this means is that you have to carve out time for your own interests, whether you're a…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Students Take the Hot Nugget Challenge
What happens when medical students, extremely spicy chicken nuggets, and microphones collide? Regret. M1s Reed Adajaar, Trever Maiers, Ben Cooper, and Matt…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Tips and Tricks for Crushing it in Clerkships
What to expect for med students moving from classroom to exam room The beginning of clerkships mark a medical student’s progress from theoretical learning to…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
They Way Most Docs are Paid Doesn’t Lead to Healthier Patients (Recess Rehash)
The way docs are paid can make patients sicker...or can lead to healthier ones. The payment schemes most docs work under incentivize them to fix patients…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Demand to Be Called ‘Doctor,’ or Let It Slide (AITA)? (Recess Rehash)
Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” makes us question everything. It showcases the best and worst in people—and this week, we’re analyzing some choice cases through…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Another Path to Med School: Masters of Clinical Anatomy
An alternative to postbac programs? Postbac programs are okay, but what if there was another path to medical school? M2s Sarah Upton, Alec Marticoff, and Kevin…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Unexpected Power of Student Doctors (Recess Rehash)
Clinical students are sometimes the only ones who have time to listen. In the clinic, med students can feel like bystanders, but they can make all the…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
How to Survive The First Semester of Med School
M1s Jonah Albrecht, Trever Maiers, Alex Johnson, and Chris Ceplecha review the M1 semester and how they survived it. You'll hear about what habits they had to…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Family expectations, culture clashes, and career priorities: Who’s the A-Hole? (Recess Rehash)
We’re passing judgment—because someone has to. This week’s Reddit-fueled medical panel takes on uncomfortable questions that your group chat definitely isn’t…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Universal Experience that Medicine Hates Talking About Most
Of course, med students train to be healers, to fix what is broken. But a conversation about the end of life, and the patients' goals for that most solemn…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Harsh Truth: Most Pre-Meds Don’t Get Accepted
Co-hosts M2 Daniel Haws, M3 Fallon Jung, and M2 Cara Arrasmith talk about why they had to try an extra time or two--what they did wrong and how they fixed…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
The Rural Doc Crisis and the Med Students Who Plan to Be Where They’re Most Needed
The Truths and Solutions for Small-Town Healthcare. We’re talking about rural medicine, where the needs are huge, the systems are broken, and sometimes, you…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med Student Leaders: Juggling Roles at School and Home
Is “work-life balance” is a myth in medical school? What do successful students do to manage leadership positions, marriage, kids, and academics? Our…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Med School Stereotypes Shattered: What We’re Really Like Inside
Turns out medical students are regular humans who happen to need to memorize the Krebs cycle. We’ve all got that mental image of medical students – the type-A…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
My Family Thinks I’m a Doctor Already
What med students wish their families actually understood about medical school. Your family means well… but when you start med school, suddenly every ache…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
From Bartending to Bedside: What Our Pre-Med Jobs Taught Us About Medicine
No med student starts with a blank slate. If you’re thinking of starting over and going to med school, you might wonder what your previous jobs have done to…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
Federal Loan Caps & Medical School Debt: What Future Doctors Need to Know
Medical School is Now More of a Gamble thanks to the “Big Beautiful Bill.” We sit down with Chris Roling, University of Iowa’s financial aid guru, alongside M1…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
PA Week: Don’t Sleep on this Career!
MDs have main character energy, but don’t ignore Physician Assistants. We talk a lot about medical students on this podcast, but at Iowa we also have a…
- The Short Coat (Audio): An Inside Look at Getting Into and Getting Through Medical School
From Broke to Bank: Money Lessons Med School Skips
Med School ROI: Still Worth the Debt? Doctors make bank, so why do they feel poor? We’re breaking down the brutal reality of medical money myths—starting with…