The VPZD Show

AI gave Zubin hair in our thumbnail...we truly are at End Times 😁

It's VPZD Ep. 45, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube.

Chronological topic list

Shout out to Dentalica, the Metallica cover band of dentists

Follow up on the failed execution and whether healthcare professionals should take part in executions

Firing squad and livestreamed executions as a case for the state owning its violence

Childhood abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, and whether crime is a medical problem or a moral one

A bilingual doctor barred from speaking Spanish to her patient after failing a hospital proficiency test

Nobel Prize snubs in optogenetics, including Ed Boyden, Feng Zhang, and the Wayne State researcher

Rosalind Franklin, narrative, and why credit in science is so messy

Why science is full of forced moves while art is not, and what that means for AI

Clinical breakthroughs like Gleevec that never win Nobels

Political Nobels, Obama, and Bob Dylan skipping the ceremony

Academic AI studies that are outdated by publication, plus a Lancet “phase one” chatbot trial with no control arm

AI models guessing Trump’s IQ and the case that the voting booth is the health check for politicians

Why Zubin doesn’t vote, and the billionaire tax

The seven levels of wealth and the arc from Rolex to no watch

NYU’s three-year medical school and the cherry-picked comparison groups

Zubin’s fourth year of medical school and finishing Berkeley in three years

Reforming medical training from college through the extra fellowship year

Teaching critical thinking over memorization as the line between charlatan and expert blurs

Zeke Emanuel’s Eat Your Ice Cream, reverse causality, and confounding in observational studies

The descriptive versus prescriptive fallacy in medicine and spiritual awakening

Counseling cancer patients about alcohol

SSRIs, RFK Jr., withdrawal, and why long-term data can’t separate benefit from dependence

Brain zaps and SSRIs in awakening circles

Vinay’s accidental decaf month and the nicotine gum trend

Brain death, advance directives, and who you’d trust to pull the plug

Moral anguish, organ and cadaveric nerve consent, and an ICU nurse’s perspective

Airplane rules, annual PPD testing, and the absurdity of medical bureaucracy

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Should we be medicalizing state-sanctioned executions? Is meditation actually safe? Do liquid biopsies save lives? EASY QUESTIONS ONE AND ALL 😂 Originally streamed ⁠⁠⁠⁠LIVE on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠! (#44)

In this episode, we talked liquid biopsies for multi-cancer screening, the evidence behind recent blood test trials, and the risks of false positives and overdiagnosis. We dove into meditation’s possible benefits and harms, including anxiety, dissociation, and psychosis, as well as concerns about using it as a productivity tool. Finally, we hit physician involvement in state executions and the ethics of lethal injection, along with honest conversations about cancer prognosis and goals of care.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More on Vinay.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More on Zubin.

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Easy topics for easy times 🤭 Originally streamed ⁠⁠⁠LIVE on YouTube⁠⁠⁠! (#42)

Using Beethoven's Archduke Trio as a lens for why AI-generated art still falls short of true creative risk-taking

Whether AI companies calling for regulation are protecting the public or protecting their own competitive lead

The "Chernobyl of AI" idea, and skepticism toward vague doomsday percentage predictions

Burnout across the AI industry, and a personal parallel to burning out in medicine before starting ZDoggMD

Why doctors, unlike coders, are resistant to AI encroaching on their work

A court ruling on whether the raw audio of an AI-assisted medical visit is discoverable in a malpractice suit, and a comparison to body cam data

The DOJ's civil rights division investigation into UCSF and other med schools over affirmative action compliance post-SFFA v. Harvard

Whether standardized test scores, grit, or adversity best predict who becomes a good doctor, and the weak evidence behind racial concordance studies

A broader reflection on how identity and tribalism shape reactions to contested topics, using the Israel-Palestine debate and the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran episode as examples

Institutional neutrality, the NIH funding fight involving Russ Vought, and why one-sided political stances put universities at risk

Addressing a live comment about their COVID-era track record and clarifying actual positions

Closing thoughts and sign-off

⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠More on Vinay.⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠More on Zubin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exploring the issues of the day, (Mackle)more or less 🤭 Originally streamed ⁠⁠LIVE on YouTube⁠⁠! (#42)

Topics covered: the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran controversy over political statements at concerts; land acknowledgments and performative activism; T-Rex body temperature research using tooth enamel isotopes; amateur archaeology and human evolution theories; the fluoride-in-water debate, weighing dental benefits against IQ concerns; a University awards ceremony disrupted by political chanting; Jonathan Haidt's three great untruths and campus culture; why Middle East politics resist typical activist framing; Wall Street Journal's editorial inconsistency on FDA drug decisions; statistics deep dive on p-values, split alpha, and confidence interval interpretation; new ACGME resident work-hour rules and their unintended consequences; administrative burden as the real driver of resident burnout; Angela Duckworth's concept of grit, examined through the lens of descriptive versus prescriptive reasoning; ambition, cortisol, and the psychology of never feeling successful; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as a surprisingly good stage production; a JAMA study on pilots, flight attendants, and radiation-induced cancer; skepticism toward routine dental X-rays; hot tub-associated lung disease and questionable AI-generated medical advice; cold plunge trends and the lack of supporting data; why subtle political art works better than explicit statements; the controversy over AI assistance in solving a famous unsolved math problem; concerns about LG smart TVs recording audio and network data; and closing thoughts on 90s hip-hop versus the explicitness of modern rap.

⁠⁠⁠Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠More on Vinay.⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠More on Zubin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're trying to become better listeners, SO PREPARE FOR SOME SHOUTING 🤭 Originally streamed ⁠LIVE on YouTube⁠! (#41)

We cover the new pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib and its rash side effect, survival benefit, and cost; what makes pancreatic cancer especially deadly; Vinay’s clinical background across hematology and oncology; how mechanistically cancer actually kills; the challenge of finding good podcast guests and why authenticity matters more than plugging a product; vaccine mandates and the difference between individual versus population-level benefit; the USPSTF’s recent upheaval and the challenge of evidence-based guidelines on contested topics like depression screening, mammograms, and prostate cancer screening; observational versus randomized evidence, with examples spanning flu vaccines, shingles vaccines and dementia, and Tylenol in pregnancy and autism; the OpenAI Navier-Stokes controversy and AI’s role in mathematics; AI in medicine and a JAMA perspective piece on AI replacing physicians; statins, coronary calcium scores, and personal decision-making around cardiovascular risk; weight stigma in medical training and the complexity of obesity; alternative medicine, longevity influencers, and Vinay’s evolving views on certainty; the ethics and mechanics of prediction markets and biotech stock betting; and reflections on active listening and communication style on the show.

⁠⁠Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.⁠⁠

⁠⁠Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.⁠⁠

⁠⁠More on Vinay.⁠⁠

⁠⁠More on Zubin.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices