How to Be Patient
by Human Content
Optogenetics with Dr. Singh Alvarado
About this podcast
You may have noticed a new trend lately. Everyone is loud and proud about their mental health struggles (and thank goodness)! For practitioners, this movement is as exciting as it is frustrating. As each mental health taboo falls by the wayside as it enters the cultural zeitgeist, a new aspect of our specialty thus emerges. One we just don’t have enough hours in the day to keep track of, let alone engage with. From better understanding our patients’ (and our own) relationships with their conditions in a changing world, it’s more important than ever that we learn: HOW TO BE PATIENT!
Each week, join Dr. Preston Roche (Psychiatry Resident & Digital Influencer) and Dr. Margaret Duncan (Psychiatrist & Content Creator) on their quest to better understand the patients we dedicate our lives to and the evolving paths they’re bound to travel beyond the clinic. By engaging with stories and perspectives that challenge our shared understanding of a condition, we hope you’ll similarly gain new perspectives as we look at our patients, and their mental health struggles, with further nuance and empathy. (And with Dr. & Lady Glaucomflecken producing, we've been mandated to include plenty of weird medical jokes too).
Speaking of which, a key part of this is hearing YOUR stories! What’s changed your understanding of patient care? Do you have an experience that shines new light on something we’ve discussed on-air? Get in touch at: howtobepatientpod.com
Episodes
The newest 20 of 88 episodes
- Optogenetics with Dr. Singh Alvarado · 49 minIn today’s episode Margaret and I are joined by Dr. Singh Alvarado a PhD neuroscientist to talk about the mysteries and beautiful applications of optogenetics. We discuss how the…
- Thinking about Thinking (brief episode with Preston) · 16 minIn this solo episode with Preston we (me) discuss the neuroscience concept of metacognition and how it may apply to some of our conceptualization of current psych illnesses…
- Excerpts from the American Journal of Insanity (July 1851) · 50 minIn today's episode we take a look back towards the history of psychiatry and read from the publication “The American Journal of Insanity.” This is the journal that predates the…
- Child Psychiatry Training Explained · 39 minIn this episode, Margaret and Preston talk about Margaret’s experience halfway into child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. Margaret discusses the general requirements or…
- How does image guided TMS stack up against the current method? · 48 minIn this episode we're doing another journal club, this time reviewing the first randomized clinical trial comparing image-guided TMS to the traditional method using scalp…
- The Theory of the Crunch: Holding Difficult Dynamics in Therapy · 60 minIn today’s episode, Preston and Margaret discuss the psychotherapy paper The Theory of the Crunch, by Paul Libby, a psychoanalyst. In this episode and in the paper, the idea of…
- Psychiatric Effects of GLP-1s (What We Know So Far) · 59 minIn this episode, Margaret and I take on the en vogue topic of GLP-1s. They have been utilized for T2DM for several years and just recently took center stage in the zeitgeist for…
- Nuances in Prescribing Antidepressants · 59 minIn this episode, Margaret and Preston present how two psychiatrists think about prescribing medications for depression. Using different common clinical scenarios, they discuss…
- Psychiatric Roots in Greek Mythology · 1 h 6 minThe Greeks described two kinds of madness, and both are fun to talk about on our pod. Inspired by the recent hullabaloo around The Odyssey, we are going to be breaking down the…
- Climate Change Impacts on Mental Health with Child Psychiatrist & Pediatrician Elizabeth Pinsky, MD · 54 minIn today’s episode, Margaret and Preston are joined by pediatrician and child psychiatrist Elizabeth Pinsky, MD. Dr. Pinsky works as a pediatric consult-liaison psychiatrist at…
- Lessons from Improv Comedy · 1 h 9 minLaugh all you want (please laugh it’s supposed to be funny), Preston has been doing improv from the last year and he has some thoughts. Not just “yes ands” about how it makes him…
- Kung Fu Panda & Residency: Growth Mindset · 55 minMargaret is back and today our episode pulls themes from Carol Dweck’s work and book Growth Mindset, as well as a favorite sophisticated film: Kung Fu Panda. In this episode…
- THROWBACK: Alcohol: Examining Alcohol culture, history, and use disorder (Season 1 Episode 15) · 1 h 34 minIn Episode 15, Preston and Margaret open a bottle—of questions, stories, and science—about alcohol use disorder. What do we get wrong about “moderate” drinking? Why is detox more…
- Sex Differences in Aging Cognition with Dr. Sullivan · 53 minIn today’s episode we bring on Dr. Campbell Sullivan, PsyD to discuss the interesting field of neuropsychology, a complicated niche that focuses on eliciting deficits in…
- THROWBACK: The Lithium Episode (Season 2 Episode 14) · 1 h 16 minIn this preston-led episode, we take a deep dive into the history of lithium and its use in psychiatry. But because Preston is very literal, we are starting at the very…
- Missed Diagnoses in History Part II: Joan of Arc and King George the III · 36 minIn this episode of historical psychiatric diagnoses we continue the “arc” (get it) with the story of a young girl with vivid hallucinations who galvanized the French army and a…
- THROWBACK: Heart of Psychiatry (Season 2 Episode 1) · 1 h 24 minWe're pulling a throwback from season two for this one, and it's the episode I will go to the mat for as one of the most clinically useful hours of psychiatry content we've ever…
- ADHD may be more of a reward problem than an attention problem · 24 minToday we'll talk through this one study from 2010 out of the Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology, "Task-related default mode network modulation and inhibitory control in…
- THROWBACK: Motivational Interviewing (Season 1 Episode 8) · 1 h 36 minWe're going back to one of our oldies but besties. This is our motivational interviewing episode from season one, which Margaret and I both agree is probably the best episode we…
- Missed Diagnoses in History: Story Time: Charles VI and Mary Todd Lincoln · 46 minI figured we'd do something I've been wanting to do for a while: story time. Specifically, the kind where I take some of history's most famous figures, walk you through what…







