We’ve rounded up some of the best podcasts for medical students and for practicing physicians. With a wide range of topics and episode lengths spanning over 20 podcasts, there’s bound to be a show that meets your interests.
The Best Medical Podcasts for Medical Students
While you’re training to become a doctor, medical podcasts can help you learn about the future of your career, prepare for exams, narrow down your focus, and more. We found some of the best medical podcasts for students, with episode lengths ranging from a few minutes to a few hours.
Docs Outside the Box
Docs Outside the Box features innovative doctors who are doing things you won’t read about in medical textbooks. You’ll learn about how to manage money as a student and a practicing physician, as well as “Sh*t I wish I knew in residency.”
Episode length: 30-60 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.9
EM Basic
Dubbed “Your Boot Camp Guide to Emergency Medicine,” this podcast was created for medical students and emergency medicine interns to learn about common emergency room complaints. From bronchiolitis to opioid withdrawal, each episode features a different chief complaint.
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
The Short Coat
The Short Coat Podcast covers everything they don’t tell you about in medical school but should. Learn about the pros and cons of having babies in medical school or tips and tricks for your first year of medical school.
Episode length: 60 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.7
Raise the Line
Raise the Line is a podcast designed to help strengthen the healthcare system, and med students can learn a lot from the experts on the show. The podcast discusses topics med students care about like “Can Learning Medicine Actually Be Fun?” and “A Flexible Alternative to Student Loans.”
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
Everyday Emergency
This podcast, brought to you by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), recounts stories from the frontline of humanitarian emergencies. Episodes feature topics like “Colombia: Venezuelan Women’s Struggle for Healthcare” and “COVID-19: Sexual and reproductive health in the midst of a pandemic.”
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.9
The Undifferentiated Medical Student
Although there haven’t been any new episodes since 2019, this is still an excellent podcast that helps med students choose a specialty and plan their careers. Learn about specialties like ophthalmology, sleep medicine, and interventional radiology.
Episode length: 2-4 hours
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
Board Rounds
Board Rounds helps medical students prepare for the USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1 exams. Most episodes consist of short scenarios and complaints. The hosts walk through the problem to find the diagnosis.
Episode length: 10 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 3.8
The Best Medical Podcasts for Medical Professionals
While the end of medical school is a relief, it doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly have time to sit down and review the latest research every morning or solve the problems of the healthcare system overnight. What you can do is listen to some medical podcasts—many of which are very short—to stay up to date on the latest techniques, learn from other physicians, and improve your practice.
The Curious Clinicians
This podcast asks and attempts to answer many of the “whys” in medicine. Some questions the podcast has covered include why furosemide can improve dyspnea in acute heart failure and why uremia interferes with platelet function.
Episode length: 20 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
JAMA Clinical Reviews
This podcast explores the latest clinical reviews via author interviews. Recent episodes include “General Health Checks in Adult Primary Care” and “Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease Without Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia.”
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.6
Pediatrics on Call
This podcast, brought to you by the American Academy of Pediatrics, features new research and hot topics in pediatrics. Learn about topics such as caring for gender-diverse youth and food allergy prevention.
Episode length: 30-40 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.6
AFP: American Family Physician Podcast
This podcast examines clinical points from issues of American Family Physician (AFP). Some recent clinical reviews they have discussed include topics on screening for carotid artery stenosis, active management of the third stage of labor, and repeat bone mineral density testing.
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
Raise the Line
Raise the Line explores solutions in healthcare, speaking to top experts about ways to improve the system. Recent topics include the provider-patient relationship in rural health and reinventing healthcare after the pandemic.
Episode length: 20-30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
NEJM This Week
This podcast summarizes the latest research and reviews from the New England Journal of Medicine, providing a succinct way of staying up to date when you’re short on time. Recent summary topics include Wolbachia-infected mosquito deployments for dengue and left atrial appendage occlusion during cardiac surgery.
Episode length: 30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.3
TED Talks Science and Medicine
Listen to TED talks from the world’s greatest scientists, doctors, and medical researchers. Daniel Kraft talks about how COVID-19 transformed the future of medicine, and Andrew Pelling questions whether we can treat spinal cord injuries with asparagus.
Episode length: 10-20 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.1
Straight Talk MD
In this podcast, Dr. Frank Sweeney attempts to create positive change by exploring hot-button issues in science, medicine, and healthcare. Many episodes take a closer look at COVID-19 as well as healthcare in the United States.
Episode length: 20-60 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.7
Legends of Surgery
If you need a break from current events and new research, this podcast takes you back in time by telling the history of modern surgery. Learn about the history of blood transfusions and the story of the mitral valve.
Episode length: 30-40 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.7
Out of Patients
This podcast, which is hosted by a 25+ year cancer survivor, is designed to help healthcare suck less. Episodes cover a range of topics, such as vaccines, cancer, applied psychology, and fertility.
Episode length: 30 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.9
The Podcast by KevinMD
The Podcast by KevinMD aims to give voices to those who rarely get heard from, all in short episodes. Recent episodes include titles like “Artificial Intelligence, COVID-19, and the Future of Pandemics” and “What I Learned from Stepping Away from Medicine for a Year.”
Episode length: 20 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
Bedside Rounds
In Bedside Rounds, host Adam Rodman examines medical history and the stories that have made modern medicine what it is today. The podcast examines topics such as past pandemics, mankind’s history with germs, and outdated medical practices.
Episode length: 45 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
Physician’s Guide to Doctoring
This is a practical podcast aimed at helping physicians improve their practice. Dubbed the podcast that answers the question, “What should we have been learning when we were memorizing the Krebs Cycle?” Episodes include titles such as “Making Magic in Medicine the Disney Way with Jake Poore” and “Use Humble Inquiry, Don’t Make an A$$ out of U and Me with Edgar Schein, PhD, and Peter Schein, MBA.”
Episode length: 40-60 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.8
The Nocturnists
The Nocturnists is a medical storytelling community that gives healthcare workers a platform to share stories of joy, sorrow, and self-discovery. In addition to general content, the podcast has two diary series: “Stories from a Pandemic” and “Black Voices in Healthcare.”
Episode length: 30-45 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 4.9
Talk2MeDoc with Andrew Tisser
This podcast, hosted by physician Andrew Tisser, interviews guests both inside and outside healthcare. Some podcast topics include the future of telemedicine, medical alert devices, and finances for physicians.
Episode length: 30-45 minutes
Average rating on Apple Podcasts: 5
Which Medical Podcast is Best?
The best medical podcast is one that adds value to your life as a provider or medical student. All of the above podcasts are designed to inform, entertain, and/or better the healthcare field.
In a world where we are always on the go, podcasts provide a time-effective way to consume information while multitasking. Choose a podcast that resonates with you, subscribe to it, and you’ll always know when a new episode is available.
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