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Cardiac Cowboys

Cardiac Cowboys

By: iHeartPodcasts
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The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind?

Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies.

Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.

2025 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia World
Episodes
  • Introducing: Cardiac Cowboys

    Introducing: Cardiac Cowboys
    Sep 18 2025

    Listen to the series when all episodes drop Mon., Sept 29.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    3 mins
  • The Starting Gun

    The Starting Gun
    Sep 29 2025

    America is in the midst of a cardiac health crisis. It’s the height of the Baby Boom, and American children are dying from heart disease in greater numbers than ever before in history. The doctor who sets out to solve this problem may just be the most fascinating man you've never heard of. Racing against his own terminal cancer diagnosis, Dr. Walt Lillehei embarks on an impossible mission: curing congenital heart defects in kids. His proposed solution outrages the medical community, threatens to end his career and risks the lives of both his young patients and their parents. But it opens the door to a new frontier of medicine.

    Presented by: Chris Pine
    Written and Narrated by: Jamie Napoli


    Executive Producers: Cristina Everett for iHeartPodcasts; Dub Cornett and Jason Ross for OSO Studios; Gerald Imber; Eric A. Rose, M.D.; John Mankiewicz; Joshua Paul Johnson; and Jamie Napoli

    Supervising Producer: James A. Smith

    Editing and Sound Design by: Joshua Paul Johnson

    Composer: David Mansfield Cover Artwork by: Alexander Smith

    Production Companies: iHeartPodcasts, OSO Studios, and 13th Lake Media

    Production Legal Services: Jacqueline Eckhouse & Mel Pudig, Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo; and Lincoln Bandlow, Lincoln Bandlow Law

    Archival Materials Courtesy of: The University of Minnesota Archives, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library; and G. Wayne Miller, author of "King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery"

    Additional Archival Materials Courtesy of: "The Dick Cavett Show" (ABC 1970); "The Twentieth Century" (CBS 1966); "March of Medicine" (NBC 1954); KGU; C-SPAN; "Nova" (WGBH Boston & PBS 1988 & 1999); "The Vision of Perseus: Norman Shumway" (Stanford University Libraries 1993); and the Minnesota Historical Society.

    Additional Music & Stock Media Provided by: EdRecords / Pond5; EpicRecord / Pond5; Music Bed; Premium Beat; Storyblocks; Artlist; APM; Envato Market; Tribe of Noise; ccMixter (TuneTrack); Incompetech; and Podcast Music.

    This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement. For more information on the history of open heart surgery, check out Dr. Gerald Imber's book "CARDIAC COWBOYS: The Heroic invention of Heart Surgery."


    Copyright 2025, TTB, LLC. All rights reserved.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    46 mins
  • Ready... Fire... Aim

    Ready... Fire... Aim
    Sep 29 2025

    Two of the country’s most ambitious surgeons join forces to make Houston, Texas the new cardiovascular capital of the world. Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley’s complementary talents make them a surgical dream team. But a friendly rivalry turns them from close colleagues to fierce competitors.

    For more information on the first cardiac surgeons, check out Dr. Gerald Imber's book "CARDIAC COWBOYS: The Heroic Invention of Heart Surgery," published by Post Hill Press in 2024.

    Presented by: Chris Pine
    Written and Narrated by: Jamie Napoli


    Executive Producers: Cristina Everett for iHeartPodcasts; Dub Cornett and Jason Ross for OSO Studios; Gerald Imber; Eric A. Rose, M.D.; John Mankiewicz; Joshua Paul Johnson; and Jamie Napoli

    Supervising Producer: James A. Smith

    Editing and Sound Design by: Joshua Paul Johnson

    Composer: David Mansfield Cover Artwork by: Alexander Smith

    Production Companies: iHeartPodcasts, OSO Studios, and 13th Lake Media

    Production Legal Services: Jacqueline Eckhouse & Mel Pudig, Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo; and Lincoln Bandlow, Lincoln Bandlow Law

    Archival Materials Courtesy of: Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library; and G. Wayne Miller, author of "King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery"

    Additional Archival Materials Courtesy of: "March of Medicine" (NBC 1954); Johns Hopkins Medical Archives; Vanderbilt University; "Something the Lord Made" (HBO 2004); American Academy of Achievement; "DeBakey" (Dr. Tony Herring and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children 2016); and the Society for Vascular Surgery

    Additional Music & Stock Media Provided by: StockMusicCom / Pond5; Music Bed; Premium Beat; Storyblocks; Artlist; APM; Envato Market; Tribe of Noise; Incompetech; Podcast Music; and Hollywood Edge

    This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement.


    Copyright 2025, TTB, LLC. All rights reserved.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show More Show Less
    44 mins
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