What Pop Culture Can Teach Us About Medicine, Trauma & Empathy

What can Get Out, Kafka, surrealist art, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and contemporary film teach us about medicine?On this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei Hardin, MD, and Colin sit down with clinical psychologist Sacha McBain, PhD, to talk about Pathologizing Pop Culture, her long-running Hippocratic Collective column exploring healthcare, illness, disability, trauma, and recovery through movies, television, literature, music, and art.Sacha explains why art can give language to experiences long before medicine does, and how engaging with stories can expand perspective, empathy, compassion, and even our own capacity for emotional processing.The conversation moves through some of the column’s most memorable pieces, including Get Out and its relationship to medical racism, trust, and the history of harm within healthcare. They also discuss Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, surrealist art, disability, grief, and how abstraction can sometimes help us understand experiences that are difficult to put into words.In this episode:• Why pop culture belongs in conversations about healthcare• How art can build empathy and perspective• Get Out, medical racism, and trust in healthcare• Trauma, illness, disability, and recovery in art• Why horror and science fiction can make difficult ideas more accessible• The role of storytelling in emotional processing• What clinicians can learn from patients’ favorite music, movies, and art• How creativity can make healthcare professionals more human• Why art sometimes understands suffering before medicine doesA conversation about what happens when we stop treating art as separate from medicine and start asking what stories can teach us about the people we care for.Pathologizing Pop Culture: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/pathologizing-pop-cultureArticles mentioned: 1 Year Anniversary: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/the-benefits-of-pathologizing-your-pop-cultureGet Out: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/get-out-a-horror-story-of-medicineRuPauls' Drag Race: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/chronic-illness-and-disability-on-rupauls-drag-raceMatt Sesow: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/matt-sesows-choice-life-and-art-after-amputationThe Metamorphosis: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/post/the-metamorphosisHost: Frances Mei Hardin, MDGuest: Sacha McBain, PhDConnect with Sacha: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/sacha-mcbain-phdPresented by: The Hippocratic CollectiveFollow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimdAnd subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.