69 episodes

Welcome to PeerSpectrum, where we dive deep with uncommon conversations in and around medicine. Expand your practice by exploring the world and ideas beyond it and get ready to make your downtime count. Get ready for PeerSpectrum with Dr. Keith Mankin and Colin Miller.

PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine Keith Mankin, MD & Colin Miller

    • Science
    • 4.8 • 15 Ratings

Welcome to PeerSpectrum, where we dive deep with uncommon conversations in and around medicine. Expand your practice by exploring the world and ideas beyond it and get ready to make your downtime count. Get ready for PeerSpectrum with Dr. Keith Mankin and Colin Miller.

    The Business Of Disruption & “The Geek Way,” With Andrew McAfee, PhD

    The Business Of Disruption & “The Geek Way,” With Andrew McAfee, PhD

    There's no shortage of books on Silicon Valley, with a quick Amazon search yielding over 40,000 results. Our guest today believes that most, if not all, of these books have overlooked a crucial element of the story: how these high-tech, disruptive, and revolutionary companies are actually run. How they implement and cultivate an organizational culture that is “freewheeling, fast-moving, egalitarian, evidence-driven, argumentative, and autonomous.”

    Today, we're thrilled to have Andrew McAfee with us. Andrew is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the co-founder and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. His latest book, 'The Geek Way,' is aptly described by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, who wrote the foreword: 'By combining management theory, competitive strategy, the science of evolution, psychology, military history, and cultural anthropology, he has produced a remarkable work of synthesis. This work, which he dubs 'the geek way,' finally explains, with a single unified theory, the reasons why the tech startup approach has taken over so much of the world.
    This was a great conversation, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. With that said, let’s get started.

    • 55 min
    “We Are Electric” Cracking Our Bio-Electric Code with Science Journalist, Sally Adee

    “We Are Electric” Cracking Our Bio-Electric Code with Science Journalist, Sally Adee

    Welcome back! Today, we have science journalist Sally Adee with us to discuss her new book titled 'We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for our Body’s Bioelectric Code, And What the Future Holds.' This book and our conversation delve into a fascinating area of biology now known as the electrome. Decrypting this bioelectric code, as it has been termed, holds incredible promise for understanding ourselves and developing new treatments and interventions, ranging from spinal cord injuries to reversing aging.

    • 1 hr 15 min
    “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, & Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis” -Adam Hochschild

    “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, & Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis” -Adam Hochschild

    All right, welcome back. “Too many Americans are indifferent to their own history and know too little about it. This ignorance makes the present more baffling than it needs to be.” That from a Washington Post review of today’s book is the perfect start for today’s episode. If you think our current political atmosphere, divisiveness and the daily onslaught of negative news is unprecedented in American history, consider the period between 1917 and 1921. A period many of us have forgotten but a time that included the first world war, widespread suppression of speech and the press, mass imprisonment, horrifying lynchings of black Americans (including black veterans), labor strikes and yes, the Spanish flu pandemic.

    Our guide through this tumultuous period and today’s guest is journalist, historian and professor, Adam Hochschild. Adam is the author eleven books including his most recent, “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.”

    It’s a fantastic book, well researched book that delivers some much-needed context and perspective as all of us try to make sense or our own times. We really enjoyed having Adam with us and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. With that said, let’s get started…

    • 59 min
    Boozed Based Medicine. The medicinal history of alcohol with Camper English.

    Boozed Based Medicine. The medicinal history of alcohol with Camper English.

    It’s the holiday season with New Year’s just a few days away.  What better time to take a fun filled tour through the medicinal history of alcohol? Today’s guest is the perfect guide. Camper English is a journalist, author, and recognized expert in the world of cocktails and spirits. A member of the United States Bartenders' Guild, Camper is also an innovator, having invented something called "directional freezing," a technique to make perfectly clear ice that used in bars around the world.

    His recent book, “Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails,” is on tap for today’s conversation. We hope you enjoy. With that said, let’s get started…

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Inside the hidden world of North Korean Medicine with Neurosurgeon, Dr. Kee Park.

    Inside the hidden world of North Korean Medicine with Neurosurgeon, Dr. Kee Park.

    Have you ever wondered what its like being a doctor one of the most isolated and restricted countries on earth? We have. It’s a question Keith and I have explored and discussed many times over the years since starting this podcast. But how do you find and connect with someone in country where virtually all citizens are prohibited from contact with the outside world, and heavily surveilled when doing so?
    Today’s episode is one we were beginning to think we could never do. Finding the right person to interview involved overcoming barriers beyond our control. We even considered the possibility of interviewing a physician defector. Even if we could find such a person, how would we verify their identity, and cross check their stories? How would we really know who we were talking with? So, we tabled the idea, always hoping that one day we could find the right person.
    Today we have that person, and it turns out we were looking in the wrong places. We should have been looking closer to home. Dr. Kee Park is a faculty neurosurgeon at Harvard Medical School, Director of the North Korea Program at the Korean American Medical Association, and member of the National Committee on North Korea and the Council of Korean Americans. He’s a world-renowned researcher and expert on global health and humanitarian medical aid.
    Since 2007, Kee has visited North Korea over 20 times, working alongside North Korean doctors, attending North Korean medical conferences, and even operating on patients in North Korean hospitals. There are few outsiders (especially Americans) that we are aware of with greater firsthand experience and trusted access in North Korea. As we’ll soon see, that trusted access has been hard earned over many years. It’s what enables Kee to continue his mission, helping patients in North Korea and around the world. As all of you will understand, we have no desire to do anything that could jeopardize Kee’s ability to continue his work or endanger his personal safety. While this is was an eye-opening conversation, it did not include any political discussions or questions regarding the current North Korean regime.
    This was an amazing episode, and journey into a world most of us know very little about. With that said, let’s get started.

    • 48 min
    Small Steps & Giant Leaps. History of surgery with Dr. Ira Rutkow.

    Small Steps & Giant Leaps. History of surgery with Dr. Ira Rutkow.

    All right, welcome back. Today we’re exploring the history of surgery; taking a speedy but deliberate journey from prehistoric brain surgery to our modern high tech operating suites. As Rudyard Kipling once pointed out, “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” And this episode is all about the stories. Stories about heroes, risk takers and the gruesome reality that preceded all the medical and surgical advances we take for granted today. We’re joined by general surgeon and medical historian, Dr. Ira Rutkow. Ira is the author of eight books including his most recent, Empire of the Scalpel, which we’ll be covering today. This episode was a blast (especially for two guys like us who used to spend a lot of time together in the OR). We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. With that said, let’s get started…

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
15 Ratings

15 Ratings

KK Norton ,

Excellent Podcasts!

I highly recommend PeerSpectrum. Informative, interesting, well produced. I look forward to more!

Peer Spectrum ,

Lean toward risk: conversation with 54 year old medical student, Suzanne Watson

Many things I admired about Dr Suzanne Watson:
She tragically lost her husband & had to move forward w/ raising 4 children, starting her ministry in the Episcopal church while facing financial challenges. She pursued her dream of a medical career despite the obstacles in her life. I admire what she's done to reduce the stigma of mental illness w/ education & good resources. Suzanne has taken a personal tragedy & turned it into something that can help her patients & others. This was an excellent podcast w/ Keith Menkin & Colin Miller. Hope Dr Watson will agree to another podcast in the future. We have so much to learn from her, which can guide us in how to help others too!

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