What does medicine look like when the next generation refuses to be broken by it?

In this episode of Social Rounds, we’re joined by Shay Taylor Allen, a fourth-year medical student at Howard University, class vice president, and future anesthesiologist—whose journey took her from working as a hospital janitor to interviewing for residency in the same system she once cleaned.

Together, we talk about the growing generational divide in medical training:

Why younger doctors are pushing back on brutal hours,

Why “that’s how we did it” isn’t a solution,

And how mental health, mentorship, and purpose are reshaping what it means to become a physician.

Shay shares her perspective on Gen Z and nontraditional medical students, the reality of burnout culture, and why healthier doctors make safer patients. We also dig into communication breakdowns between trainees and attendings, whether medicine mistakes resilience for suffering, and what real change could look like inside a system that resists it.

This conversation is about more than medicine—it’s about who gets to belong, who gets heard, and how one person’s story can expose what’s broken in an entire profession.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Guest: Shay Taylor Allen

Connect with Shay: @shayy.taylor

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

This week on Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee is joined by fan-favorite guest host Joan Chan, MD for a wide-ranging, wildly unfiltered episode that somehow connects vaccines, cocaine-addicted founding surgeons, and prestige gay hockey television.

First up: a much-needed PSA on flu shots, herd immunity, and why “you can still get sick” is not the dunk anti-vaxxers think it is. From there, Tony dives into one of medicine’s most unhinged origin stories — how William Halsted’s cocaine addiction helped shape modern residency training — sparking a serious (and hilarious) debate about whether doctors should experience more of what patients actually go through.

Then, Joan takes us deep into the cultural phenomenon of Heated Rivalry: why gay hockey romance has taken over the internet, why the sex scenes actually matter, and why sometimes what burned-out clinicians really need is a well-written, deeply horny escape with a guaranteed happy ending.

Come for the public health facts. Stay for the medical ethics, pop culture analysis, and elite-level yapping.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Joan Chan, MD: @joanchanmd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

In this episode of Social Rounds, Frances Mei and Tony Chin-Quee do what they do best: give unsolicited, deeply opinionated advice on medicine, relationships, and modern life.

They start with a deceptively simple question — what’s on your feet? — and unpack how bad shoes, bad posture, and worse training habits quietly wreck physicians’ bodies over time. From Dansko regrets to sneaker conversions, this is the advice no one gives you early enough.

Then things escalate.

The duo breaks down internet relationship dilemmas involving:

1. “Work wives” and why emotional intimacy absolutely counts
2. Sleeping in another woman’s hoodie (hard no)
3. Wedding photo body-shaming disguised as “aesthetics”
4. Grown men missing real-life commitments for MMO leadership roles

Along the way, they talk emotional cheating, boundaries, aging out of bad systems, and the difference between being technically allowed to do something and it actually being okay.

As always, no medical advice — just honesty, humor, and the perspective of two former surgeons who’ve seen enough to call it like it is.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

What do you do when a patient says “I love you”?

Is it ever okay?

And why do residents have less mobility than college football players?

On this episode of Social Rounds, Frances Mei Hardin and Tony Chin-Quee are joined by a very special guest: Frances Mei’s partner (and longtime behind-the-scenes editor), Colin. Together, they unpack:

1. Patients getting too familiar with their doctors
2. Professional boundaries in medicine (and how to hold them without being cold)
3. Why some patients choose doctors based on attractiveness 👀
4. Dating invites from patients (yes, really)
5. And a surprisingly compelling idea: a residency “transfer portal” inspired by college football

If athletes can change programs, why can’t resident physicians?

This episode blends humor, honesty, and structural critique of medical training—covering everything from awkward patient encounters to why lack of mobility keeps residents trapped in unhealthy systems.

🎙️ Social Rounds is where medicine, culture, and real life collide—no institution spared.

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🔗 More shows and writing at hippocratic-collective.com

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

In this episode of Social Rounds, Tony Chin-Quee, Frances Mei Hardin, and Ryan Montoya kick off 2026 with chaos, candor, and consequences.

The conversation starts with a surprisingly brutal EHR statistic—what it means to be in the zero percentile (or the 99.97th)—before spiraling into a sharp, necessary discussion about social media in medicine. Should medical students and residents be influencers? Is authenticity worth the professional risk? And why does the medical establishment still punish visibility while quietly profiting from it?

The trio breaks down the uncomfortable truth: the internet is written in ink, medicine is deeply unfair, and “just being yourself online” can have real-world consequences—especially for trainees navigating competitive specialties and institutional gatekeeping.

Later, they shift to medical news, unpacking the FDA approval of a non-hormonal medication for low libido in menopausal and post-menopausal women, why it took so long, and what it reveals about whose discomfort medicine takes seriously.

The episode wraps with a lighter—but still thoughtful—final segment on solo travel, unconventional relationships, music recommendations, and the surprisingly dark origins of the words “cliché” and “stereotype.”

Unfiltered, funny, and honest—this is Social Rounds doing what it does best: saying the quiet part out loud.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Ryan Montoya: @ryan_montoya_art

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

In this episode of Social Rounds, Tony, Frances Mei, and returning “friend of the pod” Ryan Montoya get honest about joy—how medical training erodes it, how it’s weaponized against trainees, and what it actually takes to reclaim it.

From phone detoxes and small daily creative rituals to reading fantasy novels in secret and hiding cultural lunches in elementary school bathrooms, this conversation moves from playful chaos to deeply personal territory. The trio also debuts a new segment, Majority / Minority, unpacking the first moments they realized they were “different” and how those moments shape identity, ambition, and survival in medicine.

Funny, uncomfortable, and unexpectedly tender, this episode is a reminder that joy isn’t frivolous—it’s protective.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Ryan Montoya: @ryan_montoya_art

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective

Tony shares a moment that restored his faith in humanity: a vaccine discussion in a parents’ group chat that didn’t implode.

From there, he and Frances Mei unpack why rational health conversations feel so hard to come by, especially in the U.S.—and why community matters more than ever. The episode winds down with real-life holiday talk: family traditions, work-life tension, vision boards, and how people actually reset for the year ahead.

In this episode of Social Rounds, Frances Mei and Tony take on a dynamic that almost every woman doctor has felt but few talk about openly: dating while out-earning your partner. They dig into the cultural scripts that still tell women to downplay ambition, the discomfort some men feel around female success, and the quiet identity negotiations that happen inside modern relationships.

Instead of offering tidy answers, they share real stories, ask better questions, and explore what it means to build relationships that can hold two full, complex people. It’s a sharp, honest conversation about money, ego, partnership, and the freedom that comes from refusing to shrink.

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective