Your Thesis Won’t Change the World (and Here’s Why)

The path to discovery is paved with bureaucracy Einstein was a patent clerk when he first proposed his famous equation that explained our universe...something that could never happen today. This week, we’re calling out the slow, tangled mess that is academic science. Why do some of the best ideas never leave a lab notebook? Why are 20-somethings with world-changing potential still spending 8 years writing theses that probably won't be read? And why does grant funding seem allergic to risk? MD/PhD student Riley Behan-Bush is juggling frustration, big ideas, and the reality of PhD science, and M3 Jeff Goddard, MD/PhD student Jess Smith, and M1 Sarah Lowenberg question whether Einstein would even make it today. Should the NIH institute a funding lottery? Jeff thinks Dave's ringtone means he needs to grow up. And we finish strong by turning a stack of random medical words into fake personal statements. It’s messy, it’s a little salty, and it'll make you wonder how anything changes in medicine or science.

Om Podcasten

Featuring a variety cast of medical students from the University of Iowa, The Short Coat is a brutally honest look at medicine, med school, and what life is like here at the margins of medicine. Skip this show if you'd prefer not to know and hate laughter. The opinions we share with you are formed by the sleep deprived, and are thus likely ill-considered and noticeably spur-of-the-moment. And definitely not those of the University of Iowa.