Podcast Philosophy

This podcast follows my personal philosophy of the punk rock ethos.

Non-conformity and anti-authority: This means not doing things just because others are doing it. Questioning everything and thinking critically. Its about doing what's right and truthful even when it may not be in your best interest, and for me it hasn't been many times.

Anti-coporate greed: This means that on all my content, you should never see an ad, sponsorship, or influence from pharmaceutical or any corporations. It's important to me that I bring you this content free from any influence and that I'm not used as a tool by greedy corporations to send you their message, whether its obvious or subtle.

Anti-consumerism: This means that I will not be selling you anything. No merch, no books, no study guide, no premium content no self-enrichment of any kind. This is an equal space. Everyone will have free access to this information. I may attempt to offer CMEs at some point, but probably not because its fairly difficult, but if I do, it could cost me a lot, so I may have to in that circumstance charge you at cost for the service. However, all other costs associated with running this operation are on me. Your welcome!

DIY: This means that I'm operating this whole thing solitaire. The only help I get is from my daughters doing the art and feedback from friends, family, and you all on how to make it better. So don't expect the most polished and professional product. I've watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to do all this stuff and I have a background in Information Technology, but this is not my profession, so I'm making it the best I can. 

So what's the catch?: You may be asking yourself then why would I do this if I don't plan to make a lot of money. It takes a lot of time and effort, and you're right, it totally does. Shouldn't we be paid for our work. Right again. We should. But I have gotten paid for the last 20 years and I get a nice military retiree pension, so this is on me. I love to teach, and not everything is about money. Giving to others is way more rewarding than getting stuff. My reward is you listening, and hopefully the information here will improve, or even, save some lives.

Why the focus on drugs?: Good question. Well, that's because it's what I know best. I'm actually more about lifestyle changes, therapy, and taking drugs off than adding them, but as an intern I found psychiatry very abstract and overwhelming. I'm more logical minded, and I just found myself understanding the meds much better. I also noticed that most people seemed to focus on the other stuff and not learn the meds so well, so I was like, hey, this could be something that I could use to distinguish myself. So, I've been collecting this information since 2012, and I've got a lot of it. I thought about trying to make it into a book or something since it took probably thousands of hours to put together, but that's just too much of a headache. I'd much rather let everyone have access to it. So, I know the drugs better than I know anything else and I'd like to think better than almost anyone else, and I want you all to know this stuff too, so that we can get better outcomes with our patients. I don't want you to be afraid to use certain medications that maybe you're afraid to use, and I want you to be afraid to use medications that maybe you should be. 

Difference from Other Podcasts

So, I just gave a shout out to all the podcasts that I recommend you listen to if you are interested in topics of mental health and pharmacology, but what sets this podcast apart? I mean if you can just listen to all of those, then why do we need another me-too podcast out there saying the same stuff?

Well, if that's what I thought I was doing here, then I wouldn't be doing it. Here are some of the things that I think makes this place special.

My philosophy: I talked about this above. I've affectionately dubbed myself the punk rock psychiatrist for a reason. I've always been a fan of the music and tried to espouse its principles, and I know a lot of you are probably thinking, "I don't want to take advice from a 40 something guy with a mohawk that listens to punk rock and still wears puffy circa-1995 skate shoes. That crap is loud and disrespectful." Hey, well it may not be your taste in music, but I think you will find the philosophy to be one that we can all appreciate. That means that I'm my authentic, irreverent self on this podcast. I'm not the 20 year military veteran that you are expecting. I'm raw and real, and I hope that comes across, and I hope its something that you connect with. I still wear those skate shoes on the ward, and I can tell you that my patients by and large appreciate it. Maybe they are expecting a stuffy doctor in a tie, but that just ain't me.

Noncommercial nature: As I said above, I will not be charging you or taking money from anyone that is paying me to sell you ontheir drugs, so I hope you enjoy the ad-free content and lack of industry sponsorship.

Organized format: When I listen to a lot of podcasts, they seem more like discussions, which can be great, but do they really put it all together for you? Do they follow an organized and systematic approach to teaching material? I don't really think so, so I think that's where I stand out. I want you to be able to easily and quickly find the content that you want and after listening to it, I want you to be able to safely and effectively prescribe, deprescribe, or not prescribe the medications I will discuss. I want those of you out there that aren't in mental health to be able to prescribe psychiatric medications, and I want you psychiatrists out there to be able to prescribe non-psychiatric medications. And for those of you that don't prescribe, I want you to be better informed, so that you can go to your doctor and ask the questions that are going to meet your goals for treatment as best as possible.

What's that? Prescribe outside my specialty???: I see this all the time. Patients come to me and say that their doctor told them that they can't prescribe them something so they sent them to me. It's not that we can't, it's that we don't know how, don't want to, or don't have the time to learn how to. Well, you've come to the right place. And I know what you're thinking, "yeah right, I'm not risking my license doing something I shouldn't be doing." But wait a second. When you take care of patients on inpatient, you have to manage all of their medications. You can't be calling the specialist for every medication on their list. And you need to know about drug-drug interactions because you may be prescribing something that interacts with something someone else is giving them and vice versa. You also may be asked to treat a symptom that is caused by another medication that they are taking and so it would be a mistake to just add something else on top. Also, how long will it take before they can even see another doctor? Maybe too long. Maybe never. You may be the only one that can help them. I can tell you from personal experience that I pretty much never tell a patient that I can't do something, and I've never had a bad outcome. If you know these medications down pat then you can feel confident and treat the whole person. You know the old problem where you send a patient to a cardiologist and they get a cardiac med. You send them to a GI doctor and they get a GI med. Well if you send a patient to me, I first assume its not psychiatric. I rule everything else out in my mind first before I tack on another medication, and if I think it's something else, I'll order the lab or give a trial of treatment with what I think the problem is before I jump to sitting in my own sandbox. I hope after listening to my show that you feel more confortable doing the same!