Women Surgeons, click here if interested in the retreat in Cabo.

Master storyteller and fellow disrupter, Dr. Frances Mei Hardin comes on the podcast to discuss the article The Impossible Oath.

We talk about what the Hippocratic Oath is and, perhaps more importantly, is not.

You'll learn how the system grooms us for "betrayal blindness" and why a better-you-than-me, cut throat mentality isn't good for anyone.

Dr. Hardin recounts a residency moment when she was wrongly reprimanded, an experience many of you will recognize.

Finally, we address the disproportionate number of women and minorities placed on remediation plans.

Learn more about the Hippocratic Collective here.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Frances Mei Hardin, MD, is a reformed gunner. She survived ENT residency, practiced solo in the rural South, and then peaced out of medicine entirely to start the Hippocratic Collective. She decoupled her self-worth from her identity as a surgeon, survived an ego death, and is now entering her mogul era—writing her first book, building a physician-led media empire, and making the kind of stuff she wishes existed back when she was white-knuckling her way through surgical training. She no longer thinks being a doctor is her whole personality. You shouldn't either.

Are you a woman surgeon ready for a transformative January (1/9/26-1/11/26) retreat in Cabo? Click here to book your call and see if it’s the perfect fit for you.

Your self-concept is the story you tell yourself about who you are. It shapes everything: the decisions you make, the risks you take (or avoid), and the way you show up in the world. But most of us never consciously choose it. Instead, we inherit it from cultural messages, past experiences, and unconscious beliefs we’ve never questioned.

In this episode, we explore the hidden beliefs that quietly steer your career, relationships, and happiness as well as the behaviors and emotions of imposter syndrome, people-pleasing, or perfectionism.

Because changing your self-concept is not about waiting for confidence to arrive; it's about deciding to become the person you want to be, and then stepping into your power.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Pearson Ravitz here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Hippocratic Collective here.

What happens when the surgeon becomes the patient? When the body you relied on to do your life’s work… stops cooperating?

Today’s guest, Dr. Stephanie Pearson, walks us through her powerful, often painful journey, from aspiring pediatrician to ObGyn surgeon to founder of PearsonRavitz, a physician disability insurance firm born from lived experience.

This episode is a raw, inspiring conversation about loss, identity, reinvention, and the deep cracks in our medical system that no one talks about until it’s too late.

We cover:

🔹 Wanting to be just like her childhood pediatrician, and realizing in med school she couldn't make kids cry

🔹 The inappropriate OR moment that changed her surgical trajectory (and the perfect clapback that still lives rent-free)

🔹 Falling in love with ObGyn by accident and matching into her dream program

🔹 The career-ending injury: torn labrum, frozen shoulder, being called a “pussy” by an orthopedic surgeon, and ultimately losing her surgical identity

🔹 The spiral that followed, and how a puppy and her husband saved her life

🔹 What happens when physicians become the meanest part of your grief

🔹 Losing everything that brought joy: martial arts, rock climbing, her career

🔹 Trying to rebuild through med mal, biotech, editing, until nothing lit her up

🔹 The disability insurance nightmare (rejected workman’s comp, denied group policy), and why she sued the state of Pennsylvania

🔹 Getting licensed in insurance and crying in her car when she passed... because she didn’t get an A

🔹 Why musculoskeletal injuries are just the tip of the iceberg for physician disability

🔹 The “emotional ergonomics” of surgery and why we need an ergonomic time-out

🔹 What it means to “protect the asset”

🔹 People-pleasing, perfectionism, and the impossible standard for woman surgeons

🔹 How understanding both medicine and insurance is her value add

🔹 Building a mission-driven business (Pearson Ravitz just turned 8!)

🔹 Why she won’t be satisfied until every resident is covered

🔹 The quiet truth: Physicians are human. Health issues happen. And identity can evolve.