Ditch The Labcoat

Candid conversations between healthcare experts, every Wednesday at 5am EST on Labcoat.fm, your destination for evidence-based insights into the world of medicine, with no holds barred debate about hot topics in healthcare. This is for all the closet doctors, nurses, pharmacists and all others who are deeply fascinated about medicine but view the headlines with science-based skepticism.

Episodes

Reclaim Your Balance: The Neuroscience of Aging Well with Dan Metcalfe

February 11, 2026 • 55 mins

Welcome back to Ditch the Labcoat for our 100th episode. Today we tackle a challenge that touches millions yet remains widely misunderstood: falls and balance loss in aging adults.

Host Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Dan Metcalfe, Founder and CEO of Born SuperHuman and Total Balance Company, to challenge the dangerous assumption that falling is just "part of getting older." They reveal how falls are actually the number one c...

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Neuroplastic Recovery: Up Close and Personal with Nora Rodden

January 28, 2026 • 48 mins

In this episode of Ditch the Labcoat, Dr. Mark Bonta does something different. For the first time on the podcast, he speaks with a former patient.
Nora Rabah Rodden joins the show not as a clinician, but as someone who lived for years with debilitating symptoms that medicine couldn't explain or fix. Despite normal tests and repeated reassurance, her pain, GI symptoms, fatigue, and nervous system distress persisted. What she...

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Lifestyle Changes to Prevent Chronic Disease: Real Talk with Dr. Ford Brewer

January 14, 2026 • 53 mins

Dr. Ford Brewer’s story is not about hacks or shortcuts. It is about a physician who left the adrenaline of the emergency department to confront a quieter, more uncomfortable reality. Most of the heart attacks and strokes he saw should never have happened. At Hopkins, in public health, and later in his own practice, he realized how profoundly our future health is shaped by habits that feel small in the moment and by metabo...

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New Years Eve Special with Dr. Mark Bonta

December 31, 2025 • 24 mins

In this special New Year’s Eve solo episode, Dr. Mark Bonta steps away from the guest format to reflect on a landmark year for Ditch the Labcoat and to share where the show is headed next.
After surpassing 50 episodes and approaching episode 100, Dr. Bonta looks back on how the podcast evolved in 2025. What started as a more traditional interview-style medical show has grown into deeper, more philosophical conversations abo...

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Real Talk with Pediatrician and Media Personality Dr. Alok Patel

December 24, 2025 • 48 mins

In this episode, Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with pediatrician and medical journalist Dr. Alok Patel to unpack what it really means to keep kids healthy in a chaotic healthcare system and a distracted digital world. Starting with a story about Mark’s nine year old getting injured at hockey, they dive into how parents can respond to injuries and illness without panicking, how to check your own emotions first, and when a situat...

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Stop Fixing Everyone's Problems: Practical Advice with Leah Marone

December 17, 2025 • 48 mins

Psychotherapist and author Leah Marone joins Mark for a grounded conversation about why so many of us fall into the trap of overfunctioning for others. Leah, whose new book Serial Fixer explores this exact pattern, explains how emotional mirroring and urgency cycles show up in families, friendships, and clinical environments. She walks through the patterns she sees when people try to rescue or fix someone who is struggling...

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Treating and Preventing Invisible Illness with Dr. David Clarke

December 10, 2025 • 48 mins

Invisible illnesses shape millions of lives, yet most patients spend years in the system without answers. Dr. David Clarke has spent his career at the intersection of internal medicine, psychology, and mind-body research. His mission is clear. Help clinicians recognize when symptoms are driven by the nervous system rather than structural disease. Help patients finally feel seen. And give the medical community a framework t...

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The Value of Being Vulnerable with Dr. Paul Fedak

December 3, 2025 • 47 mins

In this deeply human episode, Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with cardiac surgeon, scientist, and writer Dr. Paul Fedak for an honest look at the hidden cost of excellence in medicine. Dr. Fedak shares the story of the injury that forced him out of the operating room and into a profound reckoning with identity, purpose, and the culture of silence that surrounds clinician suffering.

Drawing from years as Professor at the Unive...

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Free Speech Is Good For Mental Health with Dr. Chloe Carmichael

November 26, 2025 • 48 mins

Clinical psychologist Dr. Chloe Carmichael joins Dr. Mark Bonta for an important and timely conversation about free speech, emotional regulation, and the psychology of open dialogue. Drawing on her clinical work and her new book, Dr. Carmichael explains how suppressing opinions affects stress, anxiety, and even physical health. She describes her own experience with media self censorship, the impact of masking policies duri...

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Making Mental Health & Addiction Visible with Matteo Esposito from the Invisible Challenge

November 19, 2025 • 52 mins

In this powerful conversation, Matteo Esposito shares the story that shaped his mission to help others reclaim their lives from addiction and mental illness. Matteo is a Certified Addiction Recovery Coach and co-founder of Invisible Challenge, a movement focused on ending the stigma around invisible illnesses including bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, and suicidality.

Mark and Matteo explore the difficult real...

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Voice: The 5th Vital Sign with Dr. Kang Hsu

November 12, 2025 • 38 mins

Your voice says more than you think.
In this episode, Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Dr. Kang Hsu, Chief Medical Officer of Canary Speech, to explore how AI and vocal biomarkers could make the human voice the next vital sign in medicine.

They unpack the science behind this breakthrough, showing how subtle shifts in tone, rhythm, and cadence can reveal early signs of depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s, or cognitive decline l...

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Erections: A Window into Cardiovascular Health? with Dr. Eliott Justin

November 5, 2025 • 37 mins

Welcome back to Ditch the Labcoat. This week, host Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Dr. Elliot Justin, emergency physician, innovator, and founder of FirmTech, for a conversation that’s equal parts fascinating, funny, and paradigm-shifting. Together, they explore a topic that most people find awkward to talk about—but everyone is curious about: male sexual health.

Dr. Justin shares how a personal injury and a deep curiosit...

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Trick, Treat or Trauma with Dr. Mark Bonta

October 29, 2025 • 28 mins

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Life Span - Redefining longevity with anti-aging expert : Dr. Filippo Ongaro

October 22, 2025 • 42 mins

Welcome back to Ditch the Labcoat. This week, Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Dr. Filippo Ongaro. He is a physician, bestselling author, and former flight surgeon at the European Space Agency who joins Dr. Bonta in the studio to explore a topic that’s redefining how we think about aging: the pursuit of healthspan over lifespan.

In a world obsessed with biohacking, supplements, and quick fixes, Dr. Ongaro brings the conver...

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Gut Health: A collaborative episode with The Gut Doctor

October 15, 2025 • 43 mins

In this week’s episode of Ditch The Labcoat, host Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with gastroenterologist and podcast host Dr. Neil Parikh—known from The Gut Doctor Podcast—for a fascinating journey through one of the most complex and misunderstood systems in the human body: the gut.

Together, they unpack the modern obsession with “gut health,” the hype around the microbiome, and why everyone from wellness influencers to scien...

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Unlocking Peak Performance With The Mindset First Approach (Part 2)

October 8, 2025 • 43 mins

This episode applies a clinical lens to the mindset first philosophy shared by Dr. Cassidy Preston in Part 1.

In this insightful episode, Dr. Mark Bonta, Dr. Sebastian Mafeld, and Dr. Cassidy Preston delve into the intersection of mindset and medicine. They explore how principles from sports psychology can enhance medical practice, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, presence, and continuous learning. Through p...

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Unlocking Peak Performance With The Mindset First Approach (Part 1)

October 1, 2025 • 44 mins

In this conversation, Dr. Mark Bonta and Cassidy Preston explore the critical role of mental resilience in high-stress environments, particularly in sports and medicine. They discuss Cassidy's journey from being an elite athlete to a coach focused on mental skills training, the evolution of mental coaching in various fields, and the importance of measuring success through mindset rather than just results. The discussion al...

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Try Before You Dialyze: Reinventing Kidney Care with Dr. Bijal Patel

September 24, 2025 • 46 mins

This week's episode will be with Dr. Bijaj Patel a nephrologist who has done amazing work developing transitional dialysis centers.
DISCLAMER >>>>>> The Ditch Lab Coat podcast serves solely for general informational purposes and does not serve as a substitute for professional medical services such as medicine or nursing. It does not establish a doctor/patient relationship, and the use of information fro...

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What Healthcare Can Learn from Navy SEALs with Brian Ferguson

September 17, 2025 • 48 mins

Welcome back to Ditch the Labcoat, where we break down the highs, lows, and real talk of life on the frontlines of medicine. In this episode, Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Brian Ferguson—a former military special operator and founder of Arena Labs—to explore what it truly means to perform under pressure in today’s healthcare landscape.
Drawing on his unique experience in both military special operations and high performance...

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Why Access, Not Innovation, Holds Healthcare Back with Mike Druhan

September 10, 2025 • 48 mins

Welcome to this episode of Ditch the Lab Coat, hosted by Dr. Mark Bonta—a show where curiosity meets science and skepticism, all in the name of practical healthcare innovation.
This week, we tackle a problem plaguing healthcare systems across Canada (and beyond): the painfully long wait times to see a dermatologist, especially when it comes to skin cancer. Our guest is Mike Druhan, President of Dermatology Services at MedX ...

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Ditch The Labcoat

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Reclaim Your Balance: The Neuroscience of Aging Well with Dan Metcalfe

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Neuroplastic Recovery: Up Close and Personal with Nora Rodden

Lifestyle Changes to Prevent Chronic Disease: Real Talk with Dr. Ford Brewer

New Years Eve Special with Dr. Mark Bonta

Real Talk with Pediatrician and Media Personality Dr. Alok Patel

Stop Fixing Everyone's Problems: Practical Advice with Leah Marone

Treating and Preventing Invisible Illness with Dr. David Clarke

The Value of Being Vulnerable with Dr. Paul Fedak

Free Speech Is Good For Mental Health with Dr. Chloe Carmichael

Making Mental Health & Addiction Visible with Matteo Esposito from the Invisible Challenge

Voice: The 5th Vital Sign with Dr. Kang Hsu

Erections: A Window into Cardiovascular Health? with Dr. Eliott Justin

Trick, Treat or Trauma with Dr. Mark Bonta

Life Span - Redefining longevity with anti-aging expert : Dr. Filippo Ongaro

Gut Health: A collaborative episode with The Gut Doctor

Unlocking Peak Performance With The Mindset First Approach (Part 2)

Unlocking Peak Performance With The Mindset First Approach (Part 1)

Try Before You Dialyze: Reinventing Kidney Care with Dr. Bijal Patel

What Healthcare Can Learn from Navy SEALs with Brian Ferguson

Why Access, Not Innovation, Holds Healthcare Back with Mike Druhan

Popular Podcasts

Reclaim Your Balance: The Neuroscience of Aging Well with Dan Metcalfe

Neuroplastic Recovery: Up Close and Personal with Nora Rodden