Dr Ben and Friends

Knock knock. A surgeon, a scrub tech, and a stand-up comedian walk into a podcast and somehow we end up talking about the duodenum with way more passion than anyone expects. We kick things off by turning a common medical term into a real, listener-friendly anatomy lesson: what the duodenum is, where it sits in the digestive system, and why surgeons treat it with extra respect when ulcers or perforations show up.

Then we play “What The Heck?” with actual operating room instruments, and Brandon’s job is to look at them and make his best guess. The re...

“Jump room.” “Sterile field.” “Hemostat.” “Mayo scissors.” “Bovie.” If those words sound like a weird mix of hospital drama and nonsense syllables, you are exactly the person we made this for. 

We take real operating room terms and surgical instruments and hand them to a comedian with one job: pronounce them, define them, and commit to the guess with confidence. The results are laugh-out-loud wrong in the best way and unexpectedly helpful if you have ever wanted to understand how surgery actually works. 

We walk through what a jump room or swing room really is and why it exists in b...

Surgical jargon can sound like nonsense until you realize it’s describing real, high-stakes work. We bring on operating room tech Herb Coleman alongside comedian Marianna Barksdale and turn a simple guessing game into a surprisingly useful tour of how the OR actually runs, with plenty of punchlines along the way.

We unpack flash sterilization, what it is, when it’s used, and why “we need that instrument flashed” is not as dramatic as it sounds, but still seriously important for infection prevention and patient safety. Then we get into OR turnover: the rapid reset between surgeries that inc...

He’s deadlifting 600lbs, training like a machine, and then one day his body hits a wall. 

Herb Coleman thought he was just getting older until a routine check uncovered something that could have ended everything without warning: a thoracic aortic aneurysm measuring about seven centimeters, plus a leaking valve. 

What happens next moves fast, from echocardiogram to an urgent call back to the hospital to emergency open heart surgery.

We sit down with Herb, a former NFL defensive lineman drafted by the San Francisco 49ers who now works as an operating room tech...

Knock knock, howdy folks, we’re bringing the operating room to the mic, one weird term at a time. Dr. Ben is joined by his teammate in surgery and OR tech Herb Coleman plus the wildly multi-talented comedian, writer, actress, and stunt double Marianna Barksdale for a game we call “What The Heck?” 

The rules are simple: we hand Marianna real surgical and medical field vocabulary, she takes her best swing, and then we reveal what it actually means.

First up, “surgical count” sounds harmless until you realize it’s one of the biggest patient safety guardr...

A pea plant grew inside a man’s lung, and that sentence is not a punchline. 

Our friends kick things off with a round of Headline Or Hoax, putting two outrageous-sounding “medical headlines” in front of Marianna Barksdale and Herb Coleman and asking them to trust their gut, their brain, or both. You get to play along too, and the twist is a reminder that real life medicine can be stranger than anything you see on your feed.

Once we reveal the real story, we dig into the how: inhaling a seed, why the lungs can mim...

He chased quarterbacks for a living, then he switched careers and started protecting patients instead. 

Herb Coleman joins us in Nashville to talk about the real work of an operating room tech, what it means to be a “patient champion,” and how an OR runs on trust, preparation, and tight teamwork long before the surgeon makes the first cut. 

If you’re curious about behind-the-scenes healthcare jobs, patient safety, or how surgical teams stay coordinated under pressure, you’ll get a clear, honest look at the machine that makes surgery possible.

We also hang with...

A lot of people hear medical jargon and instantly tune out, but we think the fastest path to understanding is laughter plus a great story. 

We’re playing “What The Heck,” where our ER physician, Dr Domenic, brings real emergency medicine terms and our Nashville comedian, Kristan Barczak, takes her best shot at guessing what they mean before we translate them into plain English. 

Expect mispronunciations, a brief international apology tour, and the kind of explanations you’ll remember later because they’re tied to a joke. 

We dig into the Glasgow Coma Scale and why...

You’ve laughed at a comedy special and thought, “I could never do that.” We get it, and we also know there’s a real process behind the magic. Stand-up comedy looks effortless from the crowd, but the truth is messier, funnier, and way more human.

From Nashville, we sit down with Kristan Barczak, a rising comedian and writer, plus Dr. Domenic, an emergency medicine physician and chief medical officer who loves comedy but cannot imagine stepping up to a mic. 

The big question driving everything: how does someone actually get into stand-up comedy without freezing...

How many “ailments” can you remove in 60 seconds without buzzing? We ran a surgical showdown with Kristen Barczak and a patient named Garth with a cowboy boot blister. What would your theme song be?

Before the chaos, we go full operating-room theater with a surgical timeout, a named patient, and a procedure serious enough to deserve a chart but silly enough to spark instant jokes. 

Meet Garth, who rolls into our makeshift OR with a cowboy boot blister and a whole lot of problems that need “fixing.” Kristan talks candidly about why real surgery was never the...

Medical jargon sounds harmless until you learn what it actually describes. We kick things off with a simple premise: hand a comedian a handful of real ER and cardiology terms, ask her to pronounce them, ask her to guess what they mean, then translate the truth in plain English. Comedian Kristan Barczak delivers!

The result is a mix of laugh-out-loud wrong answers, surprisingly sharp instincts, and a clearer sense of how healthcare teams use shorthand under pressure.

Dr. Domenic joins us as the medical translator, and Kristen bravely walks into the “What The Heck” hot seat...

Internet nonsense? A headline about worm larvae in someone’s brain sounds like nonsense until you hear the details and realize it’s a real food safety story.

We’re putting the “med in comedy” with a round of Headline Or Hoax, joined by Dr. Domenic (Chief Medical Officer, ER doc, DJ, pilot) and Kristan Barczak (mom, writer, comedian), and we invite YOU to guess right along with Team Dr Ben!

Once the reveal hits, we dig into what’s actually going on behind the shock value: undercooked pork, contaminated handling, and the very real parasite Tae...

You know that feeling when a hospital shift (or a comedy set) starts with a plan and immediately turns lively? That’s the lane we live in today, and we brought the perfect guests for it. 

Dr. Domenic joins us as an emergency medicine physician who’s now a Chief Medical Officer at a Level 1 Trauma Center in Nashville. He’s the doctor in the executive suite whose job is to keep the whole machine running safely when the pressure spikes.  

Kristen Barzak brings fresh comedian energy and mom-life honesty as we bounce from pilots and DJs...

JOIN US FOR DECODE THE DOCS WEEK!  We're revisiting our most popular episodes about medical word trivia.  This is when our pro comics do the heavy lifting.  Celebrate these heroes who keep you healthy and laughing with Team Dr Ben!

Medical words can sound like spells, pasta dishes, or something a doctor invented on the spot and that confusion is exactly what we’re fixing today. We’re Dr. Ben and Dr. Jennifer (a hospitalist), and we bring comedian Marcus Saputo into a game of “What the Heck?” where he has to pronounce real medical terminology and guess what...

JOIN US FOR DECODE THE DOCS WEEK!  We're revisiting our most popular episodes about medical word trivia.  This is when our pro comics do the heavy lifting.  Celebrate these heroes who keep you healthy and laughing with Team Dr Ben!

A word can be funny until it’s on your chart. We’re turning the most intimidating oral and maxillofacial surgery terms into something you can actually understand, using a simple setup: Comedian Drew Davis takes a bold guess at what the term means, and Dr. Steve (our oral maxillofacial surgeon) explains the real definition with the kind of...

Join us for DECODE THE DOCS Week!

Most people hear a word like “anastomosis” and instantly feel like they missed a semester of medical school. We get it, so we turned that confusion into a game. 

We’re joined by Adam, a surgical first assistant who works beside surgeons in the operating room, and Dr. Ben Sawyer, a history professor and stand-up comedian who’s brave enough to pronounce OR jargon on the fly and defend his wild definitions.

We break down what these terms actually mean in real clinical life, from anastomosis as the cr...

Your gut can turn into a microbrewery, and that’s not a metaphor. 

We kick things off with our “Headline or Hoax” challenge, then follow the truth to autobrewery syndrome, a real medical condition where gut microbes (often involving yeast) ferment carbohydrates and produce ethanol. That means someone can show up slurring their words, fail a breathalyzer, and still be telling the truth when they say they didn’t drink. We talk through what’s happening inside the gut microbiome, why it’s so surprising, and why “outlandish” doesn’t always mean “fake” in medicine.

Next we get into snake...

Someone hands the surgeon the exact instrument they need at the exact second they need it, and most patients never even learn that person’s job title. 

As our friend Professor Ben Sawyer walks into this medical podcast, we sit down with Adam, a certified surgical first assistant.  Adam explains what the role really is, how the OR team works, and what it feels like to manage pressure when the patient on the table is counting on you to get it right.

We also get into the culture of the operating room, including the surprisingly inte...

Some mental health terms sound like prank words until you learn they describe real experiences people live with every day. We bring you into a fast, goofy game where I quiz Dr. John Delony on hard-to-pronounce psychiatry vocabulary while Dr. Brian keeps us honest with the clinical meaning. The laughs are real, but so is the learning, and you end up with a mental health glossary that actually sticks. 

We unpack formication, that creepy-crawly “bugs on my skin” sensation that can show up with stimulants, high doses, or psychosis. We also talk about inappropriate laughing and how sympt...

BONUS EPISODE: A single great dad joke can change the mood of an entire room, and we put that theory to the test with two guests who know a thing or two about people. 

We hang out with child and adolescent psychiatric medicine physician Dr. Brian Bradford and mental health champion Dr. John Delony for a fast, funny run of clean comedy, puns, and family-friendly humor that will make you smile. 

We start with a listener-submitted Pavlov joke that “rings a bell,” then keep building the bit with a librarian twist that mashes up Pavlov’s dog an...

Nicotine pouches that turn a noisy mind quiet in minutes sound like a miracle until you realize how fast “helpful” can become “hooked.” We’re joined by mental health expert Dr. John Delony and child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Brian for a candid, funny, and surprisingly practical talk about focus, anxiety, and the performance culture pushing people toward chemical shortcuts. Dr. Ben shares a personal N=1 experiment with nicotine and what it felt like when the mental chatter finally stopped, then we ask the hard question: what’s the real cost of that kind of relief?

We zoom out to...

You think surgery looks simple until someone explains the sterile field, and suddenly you’re imagining a single sneeze ruining the whole day. We kick things off by pulling back the curtain on the operating room: what counts as “sterile,” why the drape and the instrument table are treated like sacred ground, and the tiny rules that keep patients safe. Along the way, we keep it light because we all need a place to decompress from serious work.

Then we turn medicine into a game with the Dr. Ben Buzz Battle, where Dr. John has 60 seconds to “fix” a s...

A headline says certain childhood traumas are linked to fewer mental health problems in adolescence and our brains immediately split in two: curiosity and alarm. We start with a quick round of “Headline Or Hoax,” then unpack why a clean, counterintuitive claim can be both interesting and easy to misuse, especially when it gets reduced to a clickable takeaway instead of a careful conversation about data, definitions, and outcomes.

We dig into the idea that adaptation isn’t healing. Sometimes what looks like resilience is really masking, suppression, or a survival strategy that pays off in the short...

Your kid isn’t “broken” because they’re anxious, shut down, or fighting every boundary you set and neither are you. From the Nashville skyline, we bring on national mental health rockstar Dr. John Delony alongside Dr. Brian, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, to talk about what’s really behind rising anxiety in teens, depression in kids, school refusal, and the kind of “acting out” that leaves families exhausted and scared.

We wrestle with the hard question many parents feel but rarely say out loud: what if your child’s symptoms are a normal nervous system response to an abnormal e...

Medical words can sound like spells, and that confusion has a cost. When you don’t understand what a clinician just said, it’s harder to advocate for yourself, follow instructions, or spot a real emergency. So we built a game: we put everyday emergency medicine and toxicology terms in front of a stand-up comedian and let her take her best shot at pronunciation and meaning, then we translate everything into plain English without losing the nuance.

We dig into computed tomography (yes, the CT scan), what it actually does, and why contrast matters. We decode choledocholithiasis into...

A headline claims a man regrew the tip of his finger with powder made from pig bladder. Another claims coffee can reduce phantom phone vibration syndrome by 23%. Both sound just believable enough to fool you, which is why we love playing Headline Or Hoax. 

With comedian Paula Kosienski and healthcare hero Dr. Mike on the mic, we put our instincts on the line and then dig into what the real story actually suggests.

After the reveal, we unpack the fingertip regrowth case in plain language, including why “miracle cure” headlines can outrun the evidence and how n...

“Do not bring a live snake to the emergency room” is advice you never expect to hear. Our healthcare hero, Dr Mike, medical toxicologist and emergency room physician breaks down how poisoning, overdoses, and antidotes work in the real world. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends 

Comedian and true crime enthusiast Paula Kosienski keeps the laughs coming as we move from antifreeze and snake bites to myths, drug testing, and how to avoid accidental medication mistakes.  Dr. Mike, also an addiction medicine specialist, helps us understand some bizarre situations we hopefully never experience!

We get into how toxicolog...

A “whirly bird” in an operating room sounds like a joke, until you hear what it actually does to pull bone back into alignment. We kick off a fast, playful game where orthopedic traumatologist Dr. Kate shares real surgical instrument names and comedian Seth Hayes tries to pronounce them and guess their meaning, then we unpack the real-world trauma surgery behind the punchlines.

Along the way, we translate orthopedic jargon into clear visuals: minimally invasive plate fixation of the tibia, why a flexible Gigli saw exists, and how a femoral distractor uses pins and a threaded rod to a...

A medical headline about laughter curing an autoimmune spine disease sounds like the kind of internet nonsense we’re trained to ignore and that’s exactly why we put it on the whiteboard. We kick off with “Headline or Hoax,” make our guesses, and then unpack the real story behind Norman Cousins, ankylosing spondylitis, and the surprisingly practical question hiding underneath the punchline: what does laughter actually do to pain, stress, and sleep, and where does it belong alongside real medical care?

From there, we fact-check a too-good-to-be-true claim about eating chocolate before bed and “boosting IQ,” using it as...

A broken bone sounds simple until you learn what trauma surgeons actually manage around it: crushed soft tissue, infection risk, evolving wounds, and a hospital full of moving pieces that have to click into place fast. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends

We sit down in Nashville with Dr. Kate, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, and get the clearest explanation you will hear of what “bone doctor” work looks like when the injuries are high-energy and the call shift runs 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. 

We dig into the real workflow behind orthopedic trauma care: early morning scan review...

Some medical words sound like pasta, spells, or something your doctor made up on the spot and that’s exactly why we play “What The Heck Is That?” Dr. Ben is joined by Dr. Jennifer, a hospitalist who lives in the world of hospital medicine, plus comedian Marcus Saputo, who tries to pronounce wild-looking terms and guess what they mean before we translate them into plain English.

We unpack pancytopenia (when multiple blood counts are low), then jump to pneumoperitoneum, a term that matters because it can point to free air in the abdomen and a true surgic...

Wild medical stories travel faster than careful medical advice, and that’s exactly why games like “Headline or Hoax” are such a useful antidote to health misinformation. When you hear a claim that sounds unbelievable, your brain wants to decide instantly: true or fake. This episode leans into that impulse on purpose, then slows it down with humor and basic medical reasoning. Along the way, we highlight a key media literacy skill for anyone scrolling social feeds: plausibility is not proof, and “natural remedy” phrasing can make weak claims feel legitimate even when the evidence is thin.

The first...

The hospital can turn into a blur the second you get admitted, and we wanted to slow it down and make it make sense. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends

Dr. Jennifer, a board-certified hospitalist in Nashville, joins us to explain what a hospitalist actually does, how patients move from the ER to the floors, and why inpatient medicine is equal parts detective work and coordination. 

Comedian Marcus Saputo keeps the laughs coming while asking the kinds of questions most people are thinking but never say out loud.

We get into the real mechanics of mode...

Your skin does two jobs you never think about until it’s gone: it keeps fluid in and it keeps infection out. 

So what happens when a major burn breaks that barrier and every decision has to be made fast, with the right words, the right math, and the right plan? We jump into a rapid-fire round of “What The Heck Is That?” with Dr. Tommy and pro comedian Tara Brown, turning burn surgery terms into clear, usable concepts you can actually remember. 

We start with TBSA (total body surface area) and the surprisingly simple tools cl...

Two headlines hit the board, and only one can be real. One claims cracking your knuckles builds extra bones over time. The other claims a man’s hands ooze yellowish cholesterol nodules after living on an extreme meat, cheese, and butter diet. We make our picks, talk through why certain health myths stick, and then reveal the truth behind the grossest story of the day. 

From there, we get surprisingly practical about the science: what that knuckle “pop” likely is, why joint noise doesn’t automatically equal damage, and why visible cholesterol deposits can be more than a weird h...

OUR FIRST VIDEO EPISODE!

You can’t “walk it off” after a serious burn, and you also can’t underestimate the quiet courage it takes to rebuild after one. We sit down with Nashville burn and critical care surgeon Dr. Tommy to get clear, practical answers on burn treatment, burn first aid, and what actually happens inside a burn center when the injury is easily preventable. 

Tara Brown joins us with sharp humor and real heart, tying healing to something bigger than medicine: owning your voice and showing up as yourself. She shares the story behind he...

“Hiatal hernia” sounds like a problem you should keep quiet about, and “choledocholithiasis” sounds like a spell from a medical musical. We decided to make both terms make sense. I’m Dr. Ben, and I’m joined by comedian and university professor Brynn Daniels plus Dr. Jameil, a general and bariatric surgeon, for a fast, funny round of “What The Heck Is That” where we translate real medical terminology into plain English.

We start with hiatal hernia and get specific: how the diaphragm separates your chest from your abdomen, how the esophagus passes through, and how part of the stomach c...

A man gets seizures from Sudoku? That sounds like a punchline- was it a real medical case? We kick things off with our “Headline or Hoax” game and watch how quickly all of us can get fooled by a medical headline that feels just believable enough to share. 

Team Dr Ben unpacks prior medical history to help to understand head injury, anoxic events, and how specific triggers like intense focus or flashing lights can tip a vulnerable brain into a seizure. 

We also talk about the viral “garlic in your nostrils for congestion” trend and why irrita...

GLP-1s are everywhere right now and the hype is loud, the brand names are confusing, and the real tradeoffs can feel impossible to pin down. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends 

We wanted a straight answer, so we brought in Dr. Jameil, a board-certified general surgeon and fellowship-trained bariatric surgeon, to explain how obesity medicine actually works when you’re sitting across from a real clinician, not an ad or a comment thread. 

With comedian, filmmaker, and professor Brinn Daniels in the studio, we keep it light while we get serious about what patients need to know. <...

A single medical word can hide a whole anatomy lesson, and it gets even better when someone tries to guess the definition first. We play a fast, funny round of What The Heck? with comedian Drew Davis and Dr. Steve, turning intimidating oral and maxillofacial surgery vocabulary into plain-English takeaways you can actually remember.

We dig into cleft lip repair and why it’s done early, not just for appearance, but for nursing, speech development, and restoring healthy function. From there we get into LeFort fractures and the LeFort osteotomy, translating what “midface classification” really means when trauma...