Trusted ER doctor Brian Goldman brings you honest and surprising stories that can change your health and your life. Expect deep conversations with patients, families and colleagues that show you what is and isn't working in Canadian healthcare. Guaranteed you’ll learn something new. Episodes drop every Friday.
Latest episodes
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27 min
Her son suddenly changed. She wants a diagnosis
Wendy Wittenberg’s son, Ebel, completely changed after a brief illness. He went from being a confident 10-year-old who loved school, to having separation anxiety, mood swings, and…
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27 min
A bold plan to change PEI’s relationship with alcohol
Ask any Islander and they'll likely tell you that heavy alcohol use on PEI is ingrained. "It's a reality of our culture and our socializing," says Chief Public Health Officer Dr.…
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27 min
Lung cancer isn’t just for smokers
Pope Leo XIV, who isn’t known to be a smoker, has been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. In this episode, Toronto father Winhan Wong shares his journey with that same disease. He…
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27 min
He has 2,000 patients. Why was permanent residency so hard?
Dr. Michael Antil left North Carolina in mid‑2023 with his wife and kids, driven out by an increasingly conservative political climate and COVID-era hostility toward doctors. He’s…
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27 min
Pap parties, hugs and primary care for Black women
For Black women in Nova Scotia, getting basic health care can be a real struggle – so the Nova Scotia Sisterhood, a primary care clinic in Dartmouth, takes a different approach. De…
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27 min
When Canadians go abroad for surgery, who should pay?
Farley Yuras, 74, traveled to Poland to have both knees replaced after the wait in Edmonton became unbearable. He and his wife say that because of long delays, Alberta should reimb…
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27 min
She's a doctor with MS. Why is that a problem?
Dr. Erin Norris used to hide her multiple sclerosis to preserve her career as a rheumatologist. She was following an unspoken rule in medicine: either you practice at 100%, or you…
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27 min
Why U.S. nurses are moving north
Minnesota nurse Shane Tyson was frustrated by patients going without care because they couldn’t afford medication, and shaken by an ICE arrest at his hospital. Meanwhile, Canada ne…
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27 min
Becoming the doctor her community needs
Gurleen Kaur Chahal is one of the inaugural students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s new Peel Region medical school, designed to serve the area’s diverse population. In this e…
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27 min
She left family practice. Now she’s teaching doctors to avoid burnout.
After 25+ years as a family physician, Dr. Fan-Wah Mang closed her practice because she burned out. Now, she’s at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, teaching the next generation of…
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27 min
How a chef and a surgeon are reinventing hospital meals
When Ned Bell’s wife was recovering from cancer surgery at Vancouver General Hospital, the unappetizing food she was served left a bad taste in his mouth. So the five-star chef tea…
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27 min
AI conversations gone too far
Allan Brooks tumbled down a ChatGPT rabbit hole after an innocuous question about pi. Three weeks and 7,000 prompts later, he emerged from a 300-hour spiral. In this encore episode…
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27 min
The roadside ER doctor
When he's not working in the ER, Dr. Nicholas Sparrow spends his spare time in a surprising way. He responds to critical threat-to-life calls over the vast landscape of B.C.’s sout…
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27 min
A new knee for $30k
How much would you pay to get your knee or hip replaced? Calgarian Linda Slater's knee pain became unbearable during her two-year wait to see an orthopedic surgeon. In this encore…
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27 min
Surviving a stroke at 24
When Kyle Brymer went to the ER with altered speech, facial drooping, severe headaches and confusion, the doctor blamed his symptoms on his post-grad academic workload and even his…
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55 min
Introducing IDEAS | How Canada forgot it once had a segregated health system
IDEAS, hosted by Nahlah Ayed is a daily podcast that explores how ideas over place and time shape our world.In the days before her medically-assisted death, journalist Elaine Dewar…
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27 min
The Netherlands’ primary care is better – here’s how
Dr. Tara Kiran knows primary care in Canada can be better. That's why the Toronto-based family physician and researcher went to the Netherlands, a world leader in health, to see wh…
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27 min
Grief built this treatment centre
When sportscaster Scott Oake isn't rinkside at NHL games, he's often hanging out at a substance use treatment centre in Winnipeg. He's there to be close to his late son. An urn wit…
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27 min
How post-traumatic stress led one paramedic to a new mission
Miles Randell says years of working as a Vancouver paramedic led to post-traumatic stress that left him “unemployable.” When the help he needed wasn’t there, he created TEAAM (Tech…
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27 min
Fighting for better births
What if birth care put women and babies first? Dr. Michael Klein’s guiding question came from the Ethiopian midwives who let him “catch” his first babies during a gap year in med s…