What Tennis Teaches Doctors About Medicine

What Tennis Teaches Doctors About Medicine

What does learning a new sport have to do with practicing medicine? In this episode of Curie, urologist Dr. Fara Bellows reflects on the unexpected parallels between tennis and clinical practice – from procedural muscle memory and strategic thinking, to failure, perfectionism, and the relief of lower stakes. She shares how becoming a beginner again reshaped her relationship to medicine, why hobbies matter more than we often admit, and what physicians can gain from pursuits that exist entirely outside the exam room. A conversation about joy, identity, and why there’s always another point to play.

What an Active Shooter Taught an Oncologist

When an active-shooter alert swept across her hospital campus, oncologist and educator Dr. Beatrice Preti found herself experiencing a level of fear she’d never encountered in medicine before, even after years of caring for patients with life-limiting diagnoses. In this conversation, Dr. Preti reflects on that day, how it reshaped her understanding of vulnerability, and the surprising parallels it revealed between crisis, uncertainty, and the emotional experience of being a patient.

Can Private Practice Be Saved?

* Medicine isn’t being undone by a lack of science or compassion – it’s being buried under bureaucracy. Dr. Scott Tzorfas, a neurologist in private practice for over 30 years, calls it a “slow administrative death spiral.” From endless prior authorizations to crushing documentation demands, he argues that the system has made it nearly impossible for doctors to practice the kind of medicine they trained for. * In this episode, we talk about how bureaucracy took over the exam room, why independent physicians are disappearing, and what it will take to restore autonomy. * Support the movement: Sign Dr. Tzorfas’s petition to save private practice medicine. [https://www.change.org/p/save-private-medical-practice-restore-patient-choice-and-physician-independence?]

Is AI Really Going to Solve Medicine?

In this episode, we explore the real role of artificial intelligence in clinical care today – not the hype, not the doom, but the practical middle ground. AI can scan lab data, imaging, and case literature faster than any human. But only clinicians can translate that into judgment, prioritization, and care. The future of medicine isn’t AI vs. physicians – it’s physicians who know when to trust the model, when to question it, and when to say: This is a human decision.

The Preconception Revolution with Dr. Ann Shippy

What if some of the most important determinants of a child’s lifelong health are shaped months before pregnancy begins? In this conversation, Dr. Ann Shippy shares how her engineering background and personal infertility journey led her to rethink the way we approach fertility and generational health. We explore the science behind preconception health, the roles both partners play, and what physicians can do to support patients – and themselves – during this often overlooked window of care.