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Unstable Vitals
Welcome to Unstable Vitals, where healthcare experts Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners navigate the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. Adam, an emergency physician, professor, and founder of ABIG Health, brings a wealth of leadership experience and expertise in healthcare strategy and DEI. Lara, a nationally recognized educator and co-founder of Calla Lily Clinical Care, combines clinical insights with business expertise to address the industry's most pressing challenges.
In each episode, Adam and Lara break down complex topics, offering practical insights and clarity in the often unstable world of healthcare. From policy shifts to healthcare economics, they provide the knowledge you need to navigate today's healthcare system.
Tune in for fresh perspectives, expert analysis, and a dose of reality in every episode!
Episodes
28 episodes
The Waiting Room: Infertility, Loss, and the Stories We Don't Tell with Audrey Ward
Why does almost nobody talk about how hard it can be to get pregnant?Dr. Lara Zibners and Dr. Adam Brown are joined by Audrey Ward, a former Sunday Times writer and editor and the author of The Waiting Room: Stories of Love, Loss, an...
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Closing the Knowledge Gap: Why Medical Schools Are Failing Menopause
Only 6-7% of doctors feel adequately trained in menopause care, and Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners argue that gap is costing the healthcare system billions.In this episode, they unpack their new white paper, "The Business Case for I...
No Insurance Card, No Copay: What US Doctors Learn Living Under the NHS
Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners reunite from London for a deep dive into how American and British healthcare actually compare, not in theory, but from two physicians living it. Lara walks through her own visit (no insurance card, no copay, ...
Beyond the Prescription: Dr. Lucy McBride on Fixing a Broken Healthcare System
Unstable Vitals is back, and this time Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with primary care physician, Substack favorite, and Beyond the Prescription author Dr. Lucy McBride.Lucy has spent 25+ years watching medicine become tra...
Cleared by the FDA, Ignored by Everyone Else: The Real Medtech Journey w/ Allison Komiyama
Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with Allison Komiyama, PhD, RAC, former FDA reviewer, founder of Bluestocking Health, and self-proclaimed "med tech hype woman", to demystify what actually happens when a medical device tries to reac...
Pre-Sell the Thing That Doesn't Exist Yet: Dr. Alison Curfman on Building a Pediatric Powerhouse
What does it take to leave a steady hospital job and build a value-based care company for the most medically complex kids in America?In this episode, Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with Alison — pediatric emergency physicia...
The Safety Net You've Never Heard Of: Inside America's FQHCs with Dr. Rui Ariyapala
What if there were a network of clinics quietly delivering full-suite care — primary care, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, prenatal, mobile units — to anyone who walks in, regardless of their ability to pay? Spoiler: there is, and most Ame...
The Women's Health Funding Gap: Why Nobody Opposes It but Nothing Gets Done with Kathryn Schubert
Endometriosis affects as many women as diabetes. Diabetes research gets $1 billion a year from NIH. Endometriosis gets $28 million. That kind of gap doesn't exist because people are against women's health research, it exists because it hasn't b...
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Ringworm, MRSA & Broken Buckles: The PPE Problem Nobody's Talking About w/ Justin McKay
You put on a lead apron and assume it's keeping you safe. But what if it's carrying MRSA, ringworm, and nearly 10 times the bacteria of a gas station pump handle? Even worse, what if nobody's required to clean it?Justin McKay, founder of...
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The NHS Up Close: Emergency Care and Lessons from Across the Pond With Robert Pinate
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners are joined by a very special guest, Lara's husband, Robert Pinate, a nurse consultant with over 30 years in UK emergency medicine.Rob helps emergency departments ret...
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Saving the Independent Practice: How One Company Is Trying to Stop Healthcare's Consolidation Crisis
What happens when a Canadian finance guy with zero healthcare experience decides to take on one of the most broken systems in the world? You get Alex Barrett, co-founder and CEO of Meroka, and a genuinely different perspective on why independen...
Season 2: We're Back. And Healthcare Is Still a Mess
Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners are back for Season 2 of Unstable Vitals, and they're wasting no time. After catching up on life, including Laura's Arctic Circle dog sledding adventure, Adam's new London life, Calla Lily's first Bi...
Season 1 Finale: Unstable Vitals 2025 Year in Review
In this special year-end episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Lara Zibners and Dr. Adam Brown reunite for their funniest, most unfiltered conversation yet. From GLP-1 mania to AI hype, from the workforce crisis to the seismic impacts of the 2025 ele...
Policy, Patients, and Public Service: A Conversation with Mac Deford
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, we sit down with Mac Deford, former local government attorney, community advocate, and congressional candidate from South Carolina. From his time in the Coast Guard to his work in behavioral health a...
Why Smart Women Still Get Silenced with Alison Fragale
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Lara Zibners and Dr. Adam Brown welcome Alison Fragale, organizational psychologist, professor, and author of Likeable Badass, to talk about the science of respect, influence, and why wo...
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Stronger Bones, Stronger Health: Rethinking Orthopedics with Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, hosts Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with orthopedic surgeon, researcher, and author Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein. Together, they dig into an often-overlooked area of medicine: bone and joint health as...
Regulation Nation: When Policy Kills or Promotes Innovation with Dr. Steven Farmer
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners welcome Dr. Steven Farmer, former senior leader at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (and Adam’s husband).Between playful banter and sharp com...
National Physician Suicide Awareness Day: A Conversation with Dr. Stefanie Simmons
Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion of physician mental health and suicide. If this topic is distressing, please consider listening with support nearby or using local mental health resources.In this episode of ...
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Profits, Patients & the Great Incentive Game Part 2
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners dive into one of the biggest challenges in healthcare today: misaligned incentives. Should our system prioritize profit or patients? How do payment models, public policy, a...
Profits, Patients & the Great Incentive Game Part 1
Why is the U.S. healthcare system so expensive, yet so ineffective? In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners dive deep into the tangled web of patients, profits, and misaligned incentives driving instabil...
Residency, Startup Life, and the Struggle to Survive with Dr. Jared Dashevsky
Residency: the rite of passage every doctor must survive before practicing on their own. But is the system built to train (or to break) young physicians?In this episode of Unstable Vitals, Dr. Laura Zibners and Dr. Adam Brown si...
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The Vagina is Everyone’s Business with Dr. Marina Gerner
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, we dive into a staggering truth: women make 80% of healthcare decisions, yet only 4% of R&D dollars focus on women’s health. Dr. Marina Gerner, award-winning journalist, author of
The Politics of Health: RFK Jr., Nutrition & National Wellness
Can we really Make America Healthy Again?In this dynamic and slightly unconventional episode, our hosts Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners combine a spin class with a candid conversation on the fragility of the American public health sy...
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Fighter Jets, Frontlines & First-Gen Dreams: A STEM Life with Dr. Owais Durrani
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, ER docs-turned-entrepreneurs Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with Dr. Owais Durrani — emergency physician, media personality, STEM advocate, and Coldplay superfan — for an unfiltered con...
Paging Dr. Burnout: When the White Coat Comes Off
In this episode of Unstable Vitals, hosts Dr. Adam Brown and Dr. Lara Zibners sit down with Dr. Melissa Parsons, a former top pediatrician turned life coach, to unpack the emotional cost of surviving in the healthcare system. Melissa s...
