What are Med Students Reading: Book Club!

If reading makes better docs, these guys will be incredible. What if the cure for doctor-speak was actually just… reading more books? This week M1s Anna Royer, Sophia Hueser, Gwen Sewell, and Ellie Johnson have a genuinely great conversation about what it means to be a reader in med school. They dig into audiobooks vs reading brain research (turns out your brain basically doesn’t care, per a possibly unvetted Instagram-posted study that may or may not have been published in JAMA), why narrative medicine is big in medical education, and how the habit of losing yourself in someone else’s story might be the best training you can get for actually understanding their patients. If you’re a pre-med or pre-PA student wondering whether your English minor or your tattered copy of When Breath Becomes Air has any business being on your application, this episode will make you feel very seen. The crew also gets into something that doesn’t come up nearly enough in medical education: the real stakes of clinical documentation language and substance use disorder stigma. For example, writing “patient denies alcohol use” versus “patient reports no alcohol use” is not a small stylistic choice — it’s the kind of thing that shapes how the next provider sees a real human being, and now that patients can read their own notes, the pressure is on in a whole new way. Plus the group shares their full reading lists across good books, fun books, and smart books, and makes a genuinely compelling case for why reading and empathy in medicine aren’t soft skills — they’re the whole job. Grab your books for medical students TBR list and hit play. Episode credits: Producer: Ellie Johnson Co-hosts: Anna Royer, Gwen Sewell, Sophia Hueser The views and opinions expressed on this podcast belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa, the Carver College of Medicine, or the State of Iowa. All discussions are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Nothing said on this podcast should be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition. Always seek qualified professional guidance for personal decisions. We Want to Hear From You: YOUR VOICE MATTERS! We welcome your feedback, listener questions, and shower thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with something we said today? Did you hear something really helpful? Can we answer a question for you? Are we delivering a podcast you want to keep listening to? Let us know at and we’ll put your message in a future episode. Or email theshortcoats@gmail.com. We need to know more about you! (email a screenshot of the confirmation screen to theshortcoats@gmail.com with your mailing address and Dave will mail you a thank you package!) The Short Coat Podcast is FeedSpot’s Top Iowa Student Podcast, and its Top Iowa Medical Podcast! Thanks for listening! We do more things on… Instagram: YouTube: You deserve to be happy and healthy. If you’re struggling with racism, harassment, hate, your mental health, or some other crisis, visit and send additions to the resources there to theshortcoats@gmail.com. We love you. AI disclosure: Voices of host, co-hosts, and guests are human. Some other voices–such as listener questions or questions/comments from the internet–may be AI generated.

You can listen to What are Med Students Reading: Book Club! online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What are Med Students Reading: Book Club! is an episode from The Short Coat Podcast by The Students of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

This episode is 54:56 long.

This episode was published on Apr 9, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Short Coat Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.