Dr Ben and Friends

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 l...

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...

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 ...

“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 a...

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 orthope...

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...

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-e...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 c...

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 abo...

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 hu...

“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 medi...

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 light...

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....

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 n...

A surgeon opens a chest with a Swiss Army knife he also uses to cut lunch. Sit with that for a second, then press play, because we turn it into a game where your job is to spot the real headline before we reveal just how strange the truth can be. Our “Headline Or Hoax” round pits two surgical stories against each other, and the debate quickly gets into what the operating room is supposed to look like: sterile markers, p...

If you’ve ever wondered how surgeons put faces back together after devastating injuries, this conversation gets surprisingly specific, surprisingly human, and occasionally ridiculous. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends 

We sit down with HEALTHCARE HERO, DR.STEVE, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who focuses on facial trauma, to explain how modern technology is reshaping facial reconstruction. 

Listener, join PRO COMIC DREW DAVIS ...