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The MedLife Support Podcast

The MedLife Support Podcast

Lisa Muehlenbein, PhD 56 episodes Nov 10, 2026

The MedLife Support Podcast explores the personal and relational pressures of life in medicine. Host Lisa Muehlenbein, PhD, draws on her background in health psychology and her experience as a physician spouse to discuss burnout, boundaries, and connection. Episodes offer practical strategies, research-informed insights, and candid stories for physicians, partners, families, and leaders. The show focuses on how medical careers affect marriages, partnerships, families, and the organizations where physicians work.

Episodes

55. The Invisible Cost of Medicine on Physician Families: Loneliness, Resentment & Belonging | Replay from the Transformational Doc Podcast
55. The Invisible Cost of Medicine on Physician Families: Loneliness, Resentment & Belonging | Replay from the Transformational Doc Podcast Nov 10, 2026 53:29 A Gratitude Series replay with Elizabeth Landry, featuring Drs. Erin Hurley and Joanne Sotelo of Create Meaning in Medicine   Being married to medicine can mean loving and admiring the work your partner does—and quietly grieving what that work has cost your own life. You can be proud of the physician who cares for other families and still feel lonely in your own home. Those feelings are not mutual
54. The Unseen World of Physician Spouses: Invisible Labor, Identity & Burnout Spillover | Karen Conlon, LCSW
54. The Unseen World of Physician Spouses: Invisible Labor, Identity & Burnout Spillover | Karen Conlon, LCSW Nov 3, 2026 01:13:09 Throughout November and December, The MedLife Support Podcast is doing something a little different. For this special Gratitude Series, I'm turning the microphone around and sharing selected conversations from podcasts that have welcomed me as a guest. These hosts have opened their platforms to conversations about physician burnout, medical marriage, physician-family well-being, and the often-unse
53. The Addiction No One Sees: Substance Use, Recovery & Physician Health Programs | Chris Bundy, MD, MPH
53. The Addiction No One Sees: Substance Use, Recovery & Physician Health Programs | Chris Bundy, MD, MPH Oct 27, 2026 53:32 A physician can be succeeding at work, caring for patients, and advancing professionally while a substance use disorder is quietly changing everything at home. In this episode of The MedLife Support Podcast, Dr. Lisa speaks with Chris Bundy, MD, MPH, Executive Medical Director of the Washington Physicians Health Program and Chief Medical Officer of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs
52. The Cost of Powering Through: Midlife Health, Hormones & Reclaiming Yourself | Erin Trier
52. The Cost of Powering Through: Midlife Health, Hormones & Reclaiming Yourself | Erin Trier Oct 20, 2026 01:07:28 What happens when the strategies that helped you keep everything together for years suddenly stop working? For many women, midlife arrives in the middle of an already demanding season—raising children, managing a household, building a career, supporting a spouse, carrying the invisible mental load, and trying to keep everyone else moving forward. In physician families, where call schedules, late n
51. When Women Physicians Carry Too Much: Burnout, Invisible Labor & Career Redesign | Christina Adams, MD
51. When Women Physicians Carry Too Much: Burnout, Invisible Labor & Career Redesign | Christina Adams, MD Oct 13, 2026 57:19 Women physicians are not burning out simply because medicine is demanding. They are often practicing inside systems that expect more emotional labor, more accessibility, more accommodation, and more unpaid work from them—then going home to cultural expectations that may still position them as the person responsible for remembering, organizing, managing, and caring for everyone else. In Episode 51
50. The Other Side of Medicine: A Husband's View of Marriage, Fatherhood & Physician Family Life | Chris Herring
50. The Other Side of Medicine: A Husband's View of Marriage, Fatherhood & Physician Family Life | Chris Herring Oct 6, 2026 59:12 When people picture a physician spouse, there is still a tendency to picture a woman married to a male physician—the person adapting her career, managing the home, carrying more of the parenting load, and keeping family life moving around the demands of medicine. But physician families do not all look the same. In Episode 50, Dr. Lisa sits down with Chris Herring, co-founder of Other Side Med, for
49. Rich, But Not Wealthy: A Physician's Path to Financial Independence | Bill Yount, MD
49. Rich, But Not Wealthy: A Physician's Path to Financial Independence | Bill Yount, MD Sep 29, 2026 01:33:30 BRIEF CONTENT NOTE This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide involving a child as Bill describes the emotional burden physicians may carry from working in emergency medicine. A physician can earn a substantial income and still look at their finances at 40, 50, or even 60 and wonder: How are we not farther ahead by now? Medical families follow a financial timeline that looks very differen
48. When Loss Changes Everything: Grief, Guilt, and Finding Meaning After Suicide | Erin Blechman
48. When Loss Changes Everything: Grief, Guilt, and Finding Meaning After Suicide | Erin Blechman Sep 22, 2026 01:16:44 When Loss Changes Everything: Grief, Guilt, and Finding Meaning After Suicide. A mother's candid conversation about mental illness, suicide loss, family grief, and learning to live fully after devastating loss with special guest, Erin Blechman. TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE, LOSS OF AN YOUNG ADULT CHILD This episode includes discussion of suicide, mental illness, depression, suicidal ideation, and grie
47. Suck It Up, Buttercup: Burnout, Betrayal, and the Fight to Change Healthcare | Todd Otten, MD
47. Suck It Up, Buttercup: Burnout, Betrayal, and the Fight to Change Healthcare | Todd Otten, MD Sep 15, 2026 01:03:42 Welcome to Episode 47: Suck It Up, Buttercup: Burnout, Betrayal, and the Fight to Change Healthcare with Todd Otten, MD Why physician burnout is not a personal failure—and what it will take to rebuild trust in healthcare What happens when "suck it up" stops being a phrase and becomes the culture of medicine? Todd Otten, MD, FAAFP, knows what it is like to reach the far end of physician burnout. Af
46. When Medicine Feels Unsustainable: Small Changes That Can Make a Big Difference | Diane Shannon, MD, MPH
46. When Medicine Feels Unsustainable: Small Changes That Can Make a Big Difference | Diane Shannon, MD, MPH Sep 8, 2026 52:09 Burnout can make everything feel too big: the inbox, the unfinished charts, the patient messages, the schedule, the family logistics, and even the idea of changing anything. But meaningful change does not always require a dramatic exit from medicine or a complete overhaul of your life. In Episode 46 of The MedLife Support Podcast, Dr. Lisa sits down with Diane Shannon, MD, MPH, a former primary ca
45. When Medicine Can't Protect the Family: Estrangement, Grief, and Reconnection with Adult Children | Sally Harris
45. When Medicine Can't Protect the Family: Estrangement, Grief, and Reconnection with Adult Children | Sally Harris Sep 1, 2026 38:43 Physician families spend their lives surrounded by expertise, responsibility, achievement, and caregiving. But none of those things makes a family immune from heartbreak at home. Estrangement from an adult child is one of those experiences many families carry quietly. And while we may imagine estrangement as a complete cutoff, disconnection often happens gradually: conversations become shorter, co
44. Inside the AMA Alliance: Educate. Advocate. Connect. And Why It Matters for Physician Families
44. Inside the AMA Alliance: Educate. Advocate. Connect. And Why It Matters for Physician Families Aug 25, 2026 51:28 What exactly is the AMA Alliance—and what does it offer physician families today? For more than a century, Alliance organizations have brought physician families together around a shared commitment to educate, advocate, and connect. Yet as medicine and medical families continue to change, so does the role of the Alliance. In this special multi-voice episode of The MedLife Support Podcast, Dr. Lisa

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