Plastic surgery isn’t just about appearance—it’s about reinvention. For Dr. Blair Peters, that theme runs through every part of his story.

After coming out before medical school and finding his place within the queer and trans community, Dr. Peters saw firsthand the inequities in gender-affirming care. Patients traveling across continents for surgery, often with no idea who their surgeon was or how they’d get post-op care—it felt wrong. That’s when his mission became clear.

Today, gender-affirming surgeries like phalloplasty, vulvoplasty, vaginoplasty make up the majority of his practice. But that’s not where the innovation stops. His expertise in peripheral nerve surgery is now transforming care for cisgender patients too—addressing chronic pelvic pain, loss of orgasm, and other conditions that have long lived in the "black box" of genital health.

We discuss:

• The massive, all-consuming nature of gender-affirming surgery as a field
• The unique multi-disciplinary approach required
• His work creating a national fellowship registry for plastics training in gender-affirming care

Dr. Peters also opens up about the resistance he faced in becoming a pioneer:

• The stereotype that trans patients would be too high maintenance
• The internal debate about making an entire career out of being queer
• The real fear of becoming a public target in a national political firestorm

We cover the grim reality many gender-affirming surgeons now face:

• Death threats, doxxing, and needing police escorts
• Being secretly recorded at conferences, with videos landing on right-wing media
• The political machinery driving today’s anti-trans healthcare movement—how it started with trans athletes, moved to youth care, and now threatens adult care nationwide

Dr. Peters explains how state-level policies, executive orders, and forthcoming legislation have created chaos at institutions like his—leaving surgeons to navigate legal, ethical, and personal safety decisions on the fly, often unpaid and unprotected.

Yet through all of it, he continues to operate—literally and figuratively—at full capacity:

• Fielding political crisis calls from 6 am to 10 pm
• Taking urgent meetings between cases
• Consulting with institutional leadership and legal teams
• Wondering daily: Are we still safe to provide care?

We also dive into the joy and creativity that sustain him:

• Designing nerve reconstruction surgeries with sticky notes and sharpies
• Innovating individualized procedures for patients both trans and cisgender
• Finding peace in the OR, surrounded by blue gowns and bright lights
• Reinventing his practice to stay engaged and energized

Dr. Peters shares powerful reflections on visibility and authenticity in academic medicine:

• The exhaustion of assimilation
• The freedom of showing up as himself
• The real question: Is it professionalism… or forced conformity?

We close with a conversation about sustainability, boundaries, and the 30-year plan:

• Guardrails around time and energy
• The wide, interdepartmental future of peripheral nerve surgery
• The healing power of storytelling—both his own and his patients’
• His plans to one day write a book that blends memoir with patient narratives to build empathy in a time when it’s urgently needed

This is a conversation about surgery, identity, advocacy, and resilience. About holding space for others while fighting for your own right to belong.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all just humans trying our best to live our lives in a crazy world.

Follow Dr. Blair Peters on instagram

Tyler Beauchamp is a pediatrician and children’s/YA author from Georgia whose earliest experiences with medicine came not as a student, but as a patient. As a child, Tyler spent years in and out of research clinics searching for answers. He began writing in waiting rooms as a way to cope, and eventually fell in love with both storytelling and medicine.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Tyler pursued both writing and medicine with the quiet hope that someday, he could bring those two worlds together.

In this episode, Tyler shares how being a long-time patient shaped his perspective on medical training and culture, including the deep stigma around being labeled a “pain patient.” We explore what it really means to be a physician or surgeon: Is our job simply to diagnose and treat? Or is there something more intangible—bearing witness, holding space, and being present with patients?

We also talk about why doctors are wired to hate uncertainty, and how that can get in the way of both healing and growth. Tyler reveals the counterintuitive secret that helped him expand his capacity during medical school. The best part is that it’s something you can access too.

Learn more about Tyler and his best-selling book, Freeze Frame, here.

Follow him on instagram here.

Check out Hippocratic Collective here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Psychologist and reparenting expert, Barlas Günay, comes on the show to reveal why the majority of us are really just children in white coats. Toddlers in scrubs. Babies pretending to be adults. And what we can do about it.

In this powerful episode, we explore why traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may fall short for high-functioning professionals—especially surgeons—whose deeply ingrained patterns stem from unmet emotional needs. We dive into the world of Schema Therapy, which addresses the origin of recurring emotional pain, not just its surface-level expression.

You’ll learn about the concept of “limited reparenting”, the 18 core maladaptive schemas, and the one that often plagues high-achievers: unrelenting standards and hypercriticalness. We explore how the environments of surgical training—hierarchical, elitist, and shame-based—reinforce these painful inner narratives.

What You’ll Learn:

• What schemas are: core beliefs developed through repeated unmet needs in childhood
• How trauma gets “stuck” in the body when fight-or-flight is inhibited
• The cycle of negative feedback in training, and how it impairs learning and emotional development
• Why positive reinforcement—not criticism—is the most effective teaching tool
• How to reconcile compassion for others with righteous anger and boundary-setting
• Why mental self-flagellation is learned, not necessary
• How it’s possible to be a brilliant surgeon with the frustration tolerance of an 8-year-old
• The link between repressed anger and chronic illness (“Repression of anger will f*ck you up”)
• Somatic and schema therapy techniques that actually help you heal, not just cope

Modalities We Discuss:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) – how moving your eyes during trauma recall helps decouple the emergency response
• Somatic Completion – allowing the body to finish survival reflexes that were blocked
• Imagery Rescripting – going back into a childhood memory and rewriting the experience to reclaim power

Core Insight:

You can be competent, accomplished, and admired—and still be psychologically underdeveloped. It’s not your fault. But it is your responsibility to grow.

Final Thought:

Emotions are just data. Anger is not dangerous—it’s a vibration. Learn to feel it without reacting to it. Only then can you choose wisely.

Join more than 83k others and follow Barlas on instagram here and join his reparenting community. We all know we need this.

Join Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In this episode, Dr. Mel Thacker sits down with cardiac surgeon, Dr. Alexandra Kharazi. Together, they explore what it means to operate—literally and figuratively—from a place of purpose rather than fear.

We discuss:

• The emotional rewards of caring for high-risk cardiac patients who have few options left
• The "Black Swan" framework for surgical decision-making: a grounded process for choosing wisely when the stakes are highest
• Why just because we can, doesn’t mean we should—and how she decides when not to operate
• Why post-op cardiac care is never à la carte—and how communication defines outcomes
• Why self-flagellation after a complication sabotages future decision-making—and how to shift from fear-based to mission-based thinking
• What skydiving teaches about emergency preparedness, trust, and rapid execution
• How anxiety, fear, and trauma must be processed after the fact—not in the middle of the OR
• Using celebration and reflection to build self-trust and resilience
• Reclaiming your identity in medicine by anchoring to mission, not job title

This episode is a powerful invitation to rethink risk, courage, and how we serve. If you've ever struggled with self-doubt, anxiety about litigation and complications, or the emotional toll of high-stakes surgery—this conversation is for you.

Alexandra Kharazi, MD, is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, author, speaker and skydiver.

​Dr. Kharazi is board certified in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery. She has publications in numerous medical journals including The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Innovations: Technology and Techniques in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management.

In addition to her medical degree, Dr. Kharazi holds a masters degree in biology, having completed a masters thesis titled "Generation and molecular analysis of dominant negative alleles of anthrax lethal factor in Drosophila."

Having received multiple honors and recognition for patient satisfaction, she has been featured in regional and national media outlets and peer-review journals, Medium, KevinMD, and Doximity among a few. Dr. Kharazi is the author of “The Heart of Fear” and offers realistic success plans that help her audience to become better … both personally and professionally.​

She is a member of the American College of Surgeons.

Follow Dr. Alexandra Kharazi on instagram here.

Connect with her on her website here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

In a profession that demands perfection and endurance, it’s easy to default to survival mode. But what if the real evolution happens when we shift from self-preservation to purpose?

In this episode, we unpack the 6 core human needs—belonging, autonomy, mastery, esteem, trust, and purpose—and how understanding them can change the way you show up in the OR, in leadership, and in life.

We dive into powerful mindshifts specifically for surgeons, like:

🔹 Perfectionism → Service

🔹 Scarcity → Abundance

🔹 "I have to" → "I get to"

🔹 "I don't know" → "I'm figuring it out"

🔹 Triggered → Curious

🔹 "I can’t say no" → "I only say yes when it’s a hell yes"

🔹 Self-focus → Other-focus

🔹 Waiting for the other shoe to drop → Trusting you'll be okay no matter what

These aren’t just affirmations. They’re tools for resilience and power—the kind that help you lead, advocate, and operate from your values, not just your training.

Whether you're burned out, bored, or just ready for something more aligned—this episode will help you remember what’s possible when you start leading from your whole self.

Dr. Sharon Stein is a colorectal surgeon, professor, coach, and creator of The Intentional Surgeon. In this episode, she shares her unconventional path to medicine—from outdoor education and real estate to academic surgery—and how she carved out a career aligned with her values. We explore her rise through academic leadership, the stresses of trying to fix a broken system, and the moment she realized the job she worked so hard for wasn’t the job she wanted.

We talk about the cost of “doctor-pleasing,” the power of saying “no,” and the importance of waking up to the beliefs we inherit from medicine. Sharon opens up about taking a sabbatical, discovering coaching, and now enjoying a mix of surgery, speaking, and professional development—all rooted in her values.

If you’ve ever questioned the system or felt torn between who you are and what medicine asks of you, this one’s for you.

Sharon Stein, MD, FACS, FACRS is a Harvard trained colon and rectal surgeon with over 10,000 cases under her belt. Laparoscopic, robotic, open - all of the cases. Textbook author. The kind of surgeon people went to when other surgeons couldn't figure out what to do next. Always an advocate for her patients. Professor of surgery with over 150 articles in peer reviewed journals. Moderator, course director and faculty for more than 150 programs internationally. Program director for surgical fellowship. Board examiner. Former president of Association of Women Surgeons, Committee chair for American College of Surgeons, Executive Council for American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. With 100's of hours of coaching under her belt, Sharon provides her clients with insight, perspective and skills that they need to be more effective as a surgeon and communicator. Sharon trained as a coach at Weatherhead School of Business, Case Western Reserve and completed diversity and leadership training at Kellogg School of business/ Northwestern University. She is internationally known as a coach, speaker, and host of the Intentional Surgeon Podcast.

Connect with Dr. Sharon Stein via her website here.

Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

Anonymously share your story with me here.

In this impactful conversation, we dive deep with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Colleen Balkam into the emotional, physical, and cultural terrain of surgical practice—particularly in orthopedics and geriatric care.

What we cover in this episode:

• Coaching, reframing excitement as anxiety, and the importance of pausing when things get hard.
• Facing your first complication as an attending.
• The emotional weight of complications post-training versus during residency.
• Growing up the daughter of an orthopedic surgeon—rounding in soccer cleats and witnessing community impact.
• The torn ACL that inspired her path into orthopedics.
• Giving birth to her first child during residency—and what it took to keep going.
• Trailblazing as one of the first two women in her fellowship program, and how much she loved it.
• Navigating “ortho bro” culture.
• The growing pains of her first year in practice.
• Ergonomics in orthopedic surgery—and how to operate smarter, not harder.
• What enrages her about how the system treats grandma’s hip—and why it matters.
• Going head-to-head with the head of medicine as a resident advocating for patients.
• The sad reality: if healthcare workers don’t advocate for geriatric patients, no one will.
• Understanding hip fracture care as end-of-life care—and reframing what that means.
• Knowing when to go above and beyond for the people who need it most.
• The parallel between breaking barriers as a female surgeon and the women we care for who once broke barriers themselves.
• Seeing herself in her older patients—and why that connection matters.
• Setting boundaries thoughtfully—who are we saying “no” to and why?
• Carving out time for meaningful conversations within a system that rarely makes space for them.
• Her dream to collect patient stories and write a book that honors their lives.
• The privilege of hearing people’s stories at some of the worst moments of their lives.
• Remembering our impact—how a two-hour surgery can define a patient's entire life.
• Why caring deeply is both a gift and a burden for highly empathetic surgeons.
• Sound advice from an ER resident: “Every time a patient is horrible, I remember—they’re having the worst day of their life.”
• And finally: Don’t mess with little old ladies with hip fractures. They are history. They are human. They matter.

Follow Dr. Colleen Balkam Balk on instagram here. Whether you are a medical student, resident, or practicing physician, she’d be honored to serve as a sounding board for you!

Find out more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.

“First Do No Harm” is an impossible oath—a wonderful intention but an unlikely reality. So how do we create safety for ourselves in this profession, knowing we’ll inevitably cause harm?

This episode will teach you actionable steps to go from the “distract and avoid” type of surgeon to the “process and create” type of surgeon. The result for you? Empowerment.

Speaking of empowerment, if this resonates, you are going to want to sign up for the Empowered Surgeons Group! Learn more here.

Get Cesar's and Steven's book, Great Speech! here.

Watch my TEDx talk, How to Save Lives with Two Minutes of Listening here.