‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 2: Hard at Work

18:19I think there's a really interesting conversation to be had about the role of instinct in medicine, right? Like it's like, it's such a human thing about what are the associations you grasp for? What are the fringe cases that you have seen in your experience that like, there's something about this that is off or familiar and your brain is connecting those dots can be incredibly informative, if can also be wildly biased based on your personal experience. And so AI and gut as counterbalances for each other, I love the concept of, are the AI presentations in this show being shown as that compellingly?

18:50Joanna Robinson:Not so far. Not yet. And maybe they will be. And that's kind of what I'm hoping for from Dr. Alashimi is a more convincing case of how this helps. Well, I think what's really interesting is that, you know, I'm trying to think about the pit teaching us how to watch the pit, right? As you talked about. And so like when someone comes in, when a little girl comes in presenting and seemingly a victim of abuse, I think we're all just sort of saying like, hey, is there something else going on here? When a nun has gonorrhea of the eye, is there something dicey? No, she was just changing bedsheets or whatever the case may be.

19:23Joanna Robinson:When Dr. Santos showed up in season one and she was just like a real tough case for the first few episodes. And then when she starts getting suspicious of Langdon and then she's ultimately right, I think that was a show being like, see, gotcha. She was a pain, but she's right. So are they doing something similar with Dr. Alashimi or is it just going to be Robbie is right, which I think is like the less interesting version of that, you know what I mean? They need her to have some legs to stand on. I think they need to do a couple of key things with this character. One, they need to give her some room to have fun or just be a person who is not strictly an advocate for systems.

20:02It's clear that these are passions for her in terms of expediting the process of getting patients in and out of the hospital, getting the numbers up. Like she wants to make this a better experience for the patients and the doctors and caregivers both. That's all very important. She needs to be a human being. And right now they have written her to just be kind of like a device to explain this stuff and fight for AI. And I'm just not pulled in by that yet. I'm really hoping we get some different sides of that character.

20:28Joanna Robinson:We did get a really interesting email about that that I want to read in a second, but I will say like adding to that, you know, what I said in episode one is like, okay, Mel and Dr. Mohan worked with her before and seemed to like her. So that was like a point in her favor, right? But then when Mel is like anxious about her malpractice suit and zero bedside manner from And Dr. Alashimu is like, I've never been sued. So I don't know. Like no moments of kindness, no moments of outreach as of yet. And there's going to be plenty of opportunity for that stuff. But so far, again, she's been written as somebody who is trying to make her case kind of a soft sell.

21:02Joanna Robinson:Yeah. About these AI functions. And I thought it was very notable that when she wants to demonstrate it, she basically calls over all of the youngest people in the room. Right. It's all the student doctors. Yeah. It's like, let me let me try to get you. And Langdon. And Langdon by association. Yeah, he's out quickly. But yeah, like trying to drum up some support from within for something that she thinks will help. But I think the rest of us need to be sold on a little bit. You kids love your devices. They really do. Here we go. Okay. Joy certainly does. What is going on with Joy and her phone?

21:31Joy, chaotic. Chaotic? Good? Maybe.

21:36Joanna Robinson:I don't know. Well, here's the deal. I am so out on Ogilvy that the way that Joy gives him shit brings me joy. So I'm in on Joy. I want to talk about the Ogilvy-Javadi relationship specifically, because I think that's a great wrinkle for the show. I want to get to that. Before we do, Ogilvy, I mean, brown nosing in multiple languages now. Was there a little something extra on his relationship with Dr. Alashimi? Like when he's talking about like specifically the line delivery on like it being enough to break the ice. It was like very breathy. It was very like forward. Maybe that's me reading into it too much.

22:14But it felt like you want a different kind of teacher's petting out of that relationship. You know, like there's just something happening.

22:20Joanna Robinson:He felt like he was on Grey's Anatomy and you were like, that's not the show. I don't want that show. That's not the show. Okay, interesting. Before we go off of Dr. El-Shimi into more Ogilvy stuff, which I do want to talk about. We got this email from Deepa, which I thought was really interesting about sort of how they're setting up the gut sort of cowboy doctoring that Robbie does versus the process and procedure of Dr. Al-Hashimi. And this is what she says. I really, really hope we're not going to a place where what we're trying to say is that Robbie is the better doctor. But I worry that that is partly where we're going.

22:51Joanna Robinson:One of the things that shows like this perpetuate is the idea that, quote, cowboy behavior in medicine is in general good and that you should be suspicious of folks who are to buy the book. I think the pit has awareness of this, but it also loves Noah Wiley. The reality is a woman in medicine would never be allowed to act in the way that Dr. Robbie does in terms of doing certain procedures in the ER versus ICU, things he's never been trained in, et cetera. The show wrote a lot of this off in the first season by using the lack of inpatient beds and the mass casualty to get around those things. But she's like curious to see how it plays out here.

23:22Joanna Robinson:And so like having this female attending be so by the book and be so interested in process and procedure as sort of like a way to make her mark in the medical world versus yee-haw, that is Robbie. I thought that was really interesting. I think it's a great call. And also, again, I don't want to kind of forecast too much with a show like this. But as I'm anticipating, whenever the systems do go down, something like the patient passport program would be immensely helpful. Yeah. Like, so there are elements to her approach that are not just like technology, technology, technology. Like she is not a robot.

23:58Right. There's things that she's preaching that would be legitimately huge for the pit if they actually incorporated them. And there's things that Robbie does that not just because of his cowboy nature and how cavalier it is, but how like hard it would be to replicate or how hard it would be to teach or how hard it is to instill those instincts in other people. I think those could be at odds in a way where she does have, again, like more of a more sound ground under her as she's making that case.

24:23Joanna Robinson:To go back to the sort of malpractice thing where Robbie's like, I've been sued four times. Don't worry about it. She's like, I haven't been sued. It was not the thing to say to soothe Mel in that moment. But also Robbie's just like, whatever. You know what they say. Early bird gets the ultimate 30A vacation rental. Wait, they don't say that? They do now. Book early and save over$530 on select homes for week-long stays with Vrbo. That's the way to 30A. Or sue me. I don't care. Let's talk about Whitaker. Whitaker's two main cases. So we've got Louis. And then we've got the dementia patient. Let's talk about the dementia patient first.

25:00Joanna Robinson:This was devastating. This was something that, like, even if you could see it coming, which, like, for those of us who have had dementia in our family, like, but, like, have to go through that again and again for both Whitaker and this woman was just like really hard to watch. What did you think of it? Well, I think especially the way that Whitaker understandably is like flummoxed by what to do, how to do this. This is not a by the book situation, right? Like I don't even know what the right approach would be if you knew it. And so watching him trying to figure it out in real time and have to reiterate, and I wouldn't say it's played for laughs, but it is played for absurdity to a degree.

25:41You know, like in the moment, there's like a little bit of like a, it's so daunting. Like, what are you supposed to do the second time around? You have to tell this woman that her husband has died. And she is saying the exact same thing she said the first time, but like, oh, he's never, he's not sick.

25:55Joanna Robinson:Don't you feel like the kindness is to like not tell her? Like why put her through that if she's not going to be able to remember it? I feel like you have to though. I think one, like legally, you probably have to, right? Or at least you have an obligation. Maybe it's not legal. How many times do you have the legal obligation? I don't know. But I think that's why it makes sense that the logical end point of that journey is getting her in the room with her husband, right? You can't call her every day and remind her of this as she goes through the rest of her life, but she can have a closure of a kind in that room at that time.

26:28And then after that, like you do what you can, but it's not, it's kind of out of Whitaker's hands.

26:32Joanna Robinson:Yeah. And then we have Louie. And we got a really distressing email about Louie from our listener, Travis, who said, bluntly, no bedside manner in this email. Louie is a goner. Tough. quote, while he does need his abdomen tapped, the fact that they highlighted his dental decay makes me think that he has an infective heart valve, which is causing a shortness of breath. Strep bovis is a mouth bacteria that when introduced into the bloodstream, the mouth sore can land in a heart valve and cause havoc. Dr. Langdon's familiarity with the patient is blinding him from making the correct diagnosis. So Dr.

27:09Joanna Robinson:Langdon being sort of wrapped up in his emotion and Whitaker perhaps in his inexperience missing something, I think whether or not Travis is right I do think it would be for Louis someone we spent several episodes with in season one and is prominently featured in these first two episodes to lose a patient like that but is that interesting for Whitaker who went through something like that in season one with a heart patient that he had that sort of like suddenly passed away because he missed something does that feel repetitive? Is that interesting? What do you think about that? It definitely could be repetitive.

27:45I mean, that's a risk with any medical drama, right? There are certain things, there are certain patterns that are going to repeat. And one of them is missing symptoms. It's one of the most glaring parts of any medical process. Like it's damning for anybody. I do wonder in this case, if it's one where we could get the AI part of the conversation looped into it. Like we got an email from Jackson, who's a statistician who's done a lot of medical research. And one of the things that Jackson talked about was like conceptualizing AI in medicine as like chat GBT is thinking about it all the wrong way, right?

28:13And it's taking hyper-specific vetted sources of research and data and using those to make associations that you might not otherwise make. And so in this case, yeah, your blindness based on your familiarity with the patient or the fact that Louie's been in so many times, it's like, we're just doing this again. Here we go. Yeah, he knows what to do. Yes, exactly. It's another day at the spa. And so you get into the pattern of not even looking at the tooth in the way that you need to look at the tooth. but you plug those symptoms into a system that has more tailored data. Interesting. And maybe all of a sudden there's some different kind of alarms going on.

28:45Joanna Robinson:So what you're telling me is we are now a pro AI podcast? I'm not saying that. Wow. Stunning turn of events. Did you have a favorite moment in this episode? I have one, but I want to hear if you have one first. Favorite moment. Let me hear yours first while I stew. Okay. So Mel falls on the ground, hits her head. Who does Dana get to like help her? Dr. Langdon. Of course. This is already great. The cops from season one are back, right? Officer Underhill, who is like missing Dr. Collins a lot, is back. They've distressed Mel. Langdon ushers them out, goes to close the door, turns off the light.

29:23Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Which is something that Mel taught him in season one when they were dealing with a neurodivergent patient. And she turned off the light and was like, it's really noisy in the ER. When Langdon did that for her, Rob, I cried. I don't blame you. I'm sorry I cried. Like, I thought it was so beautiful. And they've put me in such a good position re-Langdon this season. Like, I'm just really rooting for him. And, like, I love a comeback narrative. I love all of his interactions. Like, Dr. Alishimi being like, I've heard all about you. Sure. You know, and Javadi and Whitaker being like, that was weird and awkward.

29:57Joanna Robinson:And then the conversation he had with Mel, where he's, like, going around and making amends to people, working up to talking inevitably to Santos and to Robbie. I don't know about working up. They're actively avoiding each other. And it's mutual. But he's got to get there before. One would hope. Before midnight chimes on July 4th, you know. And so his relationship with Mel was very special in season one. So to like have this moment, I just really loved it. I think you're right too. And it's one of those moments, again, Mel, a character who we're all invested in and care about. And seeing her get decked by this asshole.

30:30Fuck that guy. We're furious, right? Like I'm on the trail. I'm on the hunt. Right. I'm trying to get this guy behind bars. Yeah. And to have someone like Langdon.

30:40Joanna Robinson:Sure, he knocked over like a convenience store, but more importantly. We don't know that story. He knocked over Mel King. This is what matters to us. Yeah. And Langdon doing something for Mel, as you said, that not only reflects their past history, but it's like the kind of thing you do for somebody, the kind of kindness you show them when you really see them and understand them. Right. And it was just like such a beautiful moment inside of season one when Langdon was doing a bunch of shit that was really aggravating when Mel handled that neurodivergent patient in season one. And he's like, that was amazing.

31:09Joanna Robinson:Like, how'd you do that? That was incredible. Like you taught me, you know, I'm not just teaching you, you're teaching me cheesy, but you know, to watch him sort of put those principles into practice for her. I just thought that was really good. This is another reason I have high hopes for a Dr. Alashimi rehabilitation image-wise over the course of the season. There's really not any other characters in this show who are an asshole to everyone or incompatible with everyone. There's a corner for everybody to find kind of their people among the staff. And this is a perfect example of that where you put Langdon and Santos in a room and it's like, yeah, fuck this guy sometimes.

31:46But you put these two together and he never let her down, even though he definitely let her down.

31:50Joanna Robinson:He definitely let her down, which he acknowledged. Also, it never affected my work, my guy. It affected your work. I don't know what to tell you. Someone on Twitter put up a screen grab of our first shot of Langdon in chairs at the beginning of episode one in his penguin's hat. And the caption was just like, that feeling when your back hurts a little. I was just like, yeah. How's your back doing, guy? Joe, how did you feel about Mel? Well, another one of my favorite moments of this episode is before Boba Guy runs out on her and we find out his true colors, he's kind of prodding about what she likes to do for fun.

32:28Yeah. And there's two parts. One, I want to get your take on the Ren Faire elements of this. I'm very curious.

32:34Joanna Robinson:Of course, I have takes on this. She doesn't seem like a mead girl per se, but I think she'd have a great time there. Wow, what a shout out. Shout out to the mead. But moreover, Mel being the kind of person who has to take a second to think about what she actually likes is really sad, but also makes sense given her life. Right. The scene that we had at the end of season one where she's like picking up her sister. Yeah. And, you know, she's like, what movie should we watch? It was an elf again. It was an elf again. And she's like, or we could watch literally any other movie. And then her sister's like, no, elf.

33:07Joanna Robinson:And she's like, all right, then. Another day of life. We'll get pizza and pasta and watch Elf. Sounds great. So yeah, like the fact that she only can think about things that her sister likes to do. But I'm so excited for Mel King Ren Faire nerd. This is really exciting to me. She has an alter ego, which is a 17th century French woman is what she said. And I mean, we deserve. Yes. We deserve in season three for Mel to be called in from the Ren Faire. I have the same thought. She's in the bodice, hip, hip, aza. Yep. And we get to like, she's got to do the accent for us. Like, we got to get the whole alter ego going.

33:44Joanna Robinson:Like, I demand it. I demand it. We all deserve this. We absolutely do deserve it. And you know what? Yeah, we can stage whatever time of year is necessary to make it appropriately festive. Yeah. But we do need it. Depends on where you are in the country. But like, fall is a good time for a rent fair. I would think so. So yeah. And we, you know, sounds good to me. Okay. On the Dr. Landon front, he's got the girl with the glued eye. Okay. Who said she wanted to talk to Dr. J who worked in the ER. And he's like, I don't think so. The only Dr. J, and she's not a doctor, is Dr. Javadi, right? Sure.

34:21Oh, and Julia Serving, yeah. Right. Just to be very clear.

34:26Joanna Robinson:Rob's like, I have a reputation to maintain. This is Pennsylvania. Do you feel like she was talking about that Dr. J? I don't think so. I think she does say she, no? Yeah. So who is this Dr. J who knows everything? And Langdon's like, I don't think so. Is there a mystery imposter doctor? Oh, I would love an imposter doctor. You know, there's a lot of weird storylines we could unspool. But yeah, I have no idea who Dr. J could be other than Javadi. Yeah. So that was just like a curious little moment. Seed dropped. Somehow, I mean, yeah, I don't think it would be Javadi under these circumstances.

34:59Joanna Robinson:Because Victoria wouldn't be like, I don't know what to do. She's not cowboying around the ER. But she is strutting her stuff. She's posturing. Oh, absolutely. posturing. So where are you? Ogilvy versus Javadi. There's really no question. It's Victoria. How could you be on Ogilvy's side? That guy sucks. That guy sold out Whitaker. Fuck him, honestly. I really don't like Ogilvy. He does know a lot, clearly. Sure. He's got great hair, but... He's got hair. He's got hair. Tough from Dr. Sidebangs over there. Wow. Well, maybe that's his problem. needs more sidebang, needs more swoop. Okay. We're often saying.

35:34But honestly, even apart from whose side we're picking, Samira Mohan, reaction shot queen of our time. Absolutely. As she plugs stuff in on the computer, just like, why the fuck am I in this room right now? Tremendous.

35:49Joanna Robinson:She's like, this is a classic diabetic, we'll just do the procedure. Yeah. Real like sort of Fuji from Shogun sort of level. And it's fun to see Mohan in this role because as we talked about people moving up the org chart, doesn't she just seem more senior in these first two episodes? For sure. Seems more senior. And she's kind of rounded the corner in a way that certainly the student doctors have not and the younger doctors have not. All right, Ogilvy. So here's my villain ranking for this season. One, Maggots. With a bullet. Number one, Maggots. Number two, AI. Number three, the guy who knocked Mel King over.

36:28Joanna Robinson:And number four, Ogilvy. Those are my villains of the season. Do you have anything on your villain ranking? If I didn't know about The Pit and you just wrote those things down on paper, I'd be like, are these Mission Impossible villain rankings? Ogilvy does sound like a Mission Impossible villain. Absolutely. Yeah. But no notes. That checks out to me. You have nothing to add. In terms of other villains? Yeah. I mean, who else do we even have in the middle? I guess if there is like an abusive father to this little girl, that would be a villain. What a segue. Should we talk about Santos? Oh, and I do want to add bottom.

36:56I want to be very clear. Bottom of the villain list. the woman who poured bacon grease down her cousin's sink.

37:02Joanna Robinson:Yeah, well, simply will not stay in Rob's kitchen. Not in my kitchen, not in anyone's kitchen. That is, you're asking for serious plumbing problems. No, like, I really agree with that, but I also, why would you ever pour bacon grease down a sink when anyone was even near it doing dishes? This is why she's on the villain list. You're right. She's number five, I think. All right, let's talk about Santos, this little girl, and the new social worker. so we got a bunch of emails from people with like various other diagnoses for this little girl that is not necessarily pointing to abuse so a lot of like the medical professionals who watch the show are like it could be this, it could be that as Robbie said, don't jump to conclusions as Dylan said, don't jump to conclusions Santos is like I'm here, conclusions are here I had nowhere to jump, here they are so there's a couple things going on On the one hand, when Robbie's like, hey, you want to join this trauma?

38:01Joanna Robinson:You know, think about season one Santos. What's next? What's new? What's like, what's the coolest case that I get on? She's like, no, I want to stay here. I want to get this right. Yeah. So that's growth. We love that. Hotheaded assumptions from her where she has blind spots. I don't know. How are you feeling about this? I mean, like glaring personal blind spots, right? Like this is a heat-seeking missile of a case for someone. like her, understandably. Why wouldn't she think that this would be a possible like end point? Right. I think the thing I'm flagging is this little girl Kylie is warned about, you know, the blood draw they're about to do about like, oh, you can look away.

38:38Oh, let us know if you want to, you know, a distraction basically.

38:40Joanna Robinson:A great Perla moment. Great Perla moment. She's not really bothered or fussed in any way whatsoever. Yeah. In a way that makes me wander with all of the bruising that's happening, all of the injuries that she's sustained through. She says like soccer and skateboarding and all those things. What if those are true? And she just doesn't really experience pain in the way that other people do. It's that Jack Quaid movie. Yeah, she is a super. She is Novocaine. Okay. I hope it's that and not something much darker. And I hope she's going to be okay. All right. Do you want to talk about the patient who took a double dose of AD medicine?

39:22Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. What do you want to say? I guess if we have to, I mean... Mr. Randall. This has been a huge week for prosthetics on the Prestige feed overall. Yeah. You know, just a lot happening. Yeah. This was one, I gotta admit, did not see coming. Oh, crazy. Look, I walked into it. That was purely accidental. Of all the things I thought we were going to see on the pit, I probably should have anticipated this. I bet if we reach out... We've seen one in season... We saw in season one. Oh, this case. I mean, this very specific thing happening. This has to happen with alarming frequency, I would think.

39:52Joanna Robinson:There was so much. They drained so much out of that penis. It's a lot. Again, there's a lot of fluid coming out of Louis, like gallons of fluid or liters of fluid. And then, yeah, this is a lot of blood. There's so much blood. This is why you don't cast Luxatio Erecta. Is that the spell? Don't cast it. This is what happens. That's great. That's good stuff from you. Anything you want to say about Dr. McKay? We haven't talked about her much in this episode. Yeah, I mean, she's... So what is her caseload right now? She's got the guy with the erratic sort of personality that he's going for a CT scan.

40:27Joanna Robinson:And he seemed quite pleasant in this episode. Quite. Yeah. He's all over the place. I assume we're going to learn something from that scan, but we have not seen the results yet. Oh, actually, my favorite Dr. McKay moment is when she clocks what's going on with Robbie and Hastings. And she's like, yeah, okay. You don't have to be a master empath to clock the way these two are just like eye-fucking each other in the middle of the ER. But still, when she's just like, okay. And Robbie's like, she's quite perceptive. Robbie just like quoting Shakespeare as he is wont to do. So funny. All right. And then on the Hanson pit crew, the old bacon grease thing.

41:02Joanna Robinson:Given that we saw two members of his family come in with those matching shirts, doesn't it feel like we're going to see many more members of the Hanson family throughout this Fourth of July? One was in the waiting room, right? Right. Their father or somebody's father. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, I just feel like if you have like the family reunion shirts, like we could just be getting Hansons all day long. I would really, I mean, I don't hope so for their case, but it would be a nice bit, kind of just stringing them along. If anyone's going to blow their fingers off due to fireworks, don't you think it's the Hanson Pitt crew?

41:30They are the prohibitive favorites in the room so far.

41:33Joanna Robinson:Of all the people we've seen, I would absolutely buy it. I do want to talk about Javadi and Santos. Yeah. Not a rivalry in the way that she has with Ogilvy. Now. Well, yeah, newly formed. Yeah. But Javadi's comments to Whitaker about the shitty nickname thing, about kind of insinuating, is she really your friend? For all of the chumminess we see among the staff to start this season, they've been working together for quite a while now. But it's interesting, this very clear dividing line between Javadi and Santos. Yeah, I think that's interesting because it felt like in season one, Whitaker and Javadi are bonding over Santos being such a pain in the ass.

42:12Joanna Robinson:But now Whitaker's her roommate and bestie. Like it's a different dynamic. So maybe Javadi is missing. And he's been promoted up, you know, because he's a year ahead of her. So now he's no longer like a med student with her. So she doesn't really have like an equal on the floor. Because there's like Joy and Ogilvy, but they're like quite new. And then. But she's not that far ahead of them. No, she and Ogilvy, I think, are the same year. They're fourth years. I believe so. But I just mean he's like new on the floor. She doesn't have something like a comrade in arms who's still at her level. because Whitaker is now getting a doctor's paycheck.

42:46So, you know, lonely times for Javadi. It seems like. Alienated by her mom, or at least consistently angered by her mom.

42:54Joanna Robinson:Right. Lost her ally who's like, Santos sucks, right? You know, so. And Mateo's on the night shift. What's a girl to do? What is a girl to do? Mateo needs to come back earlier. He really does. Earlier than later, yeah. Anything else? I mean, this was also, as far as the ongoing gnarly watch of this season. Yeah. I mean, a lot of candidates. I mean, there's a needle into a giant prosthetic boner. Like, I don't love seeing it. I'm going to be honest with you. When they were talking about massaging it, how did you feel about Robbie's moment when he was like, better her than me? And then he's like, I didn't mean that.

43:21Joanna Robinson:I'll be outside in the ambulance bay. Don't at me. I like that he's kind of constantly stepping in it. Don't call HR, please. I mean, this is the thing. If you're going to have him be the cowboy, be the cowboy a little bit. Like, we know he can be incredibly empathetic and considerate, but he's also a little fast and loose on stuff. You know what we haven't talked about, really? Who's that? Is Dana. because she touches a lot of, you know, she's constantly bopping in and out with like charts on people or checking in on people. But in terms of her own storyline, there's a conversation she has with Robbie about like how punchy she is, right?

43:52Joanna Robinson:And which you quoted, but like, you know, Dana's mindset after the Doug Driscoll incident last season and what is sort of weighing, is or isn't weighing on her. Is she as cavalier as she seems? You know, she gets to be, you know, guiding poorly little lost lamb Emma around. I believe she handed her like a vomit bag when the maggots came out, right? But she planned it. She knew. She was ready. She was ready with it. But what's going on with Dana? You know what I mean? I'm curious. You're telling me that kind of abrasiveness could be a defense mechanism? What? That's crazy, Joe. Couldn't be me. Couldn't be me.

44:27Absolutely not. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, look, she's uniquely positioned because she is bouncing between literally every case on the floor, really.

44:34Joanna Robinson:Yeah. How could you not, one, steal yourself from some of the things that are happening around you, just with the incredible level of tragedy and pain flowing through the ER at all times. But in particular, what she saw over the course of season one and what was inflicted on her personally, I think anyone would recoil a little bit, would pull back a little bit. And she can't take herself out of it, clearly. Like, she is a sicko for this kind of work and the way that Robbie is and everybody else is. Like, they want the adrenaline rush. They want the panic. It's like, and yet they're also weighed down by it and burdened by it.

45:05It's the full package.

45:06Joanna Robinson:It's everything. Anything else we should talk about? Along the gnarly lines. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, I do want to nail down like what was, I assume the maggots are the most unpleasant part of this episode for you. For me personally, yes. But is that worse than a shoulder getting popped back into place, exposed? Is that worse than, you know, needles into sensitive areas? Should I tell you my maggot story? If you're comfortable. Okay. Will I be comfortable? When I was a kid, my cousins would come over on Easter and we would do Easter egg hunts. My parents would hide not only the plastic Easter eggs, but also a hard-boiled egg that we had dyed.

45:43Joanna Robinson:Sure. Wait, question. The egg is still in there? It's not just the shell? Do you not? Yes. Joe. I have notes, but please continue. You would de-egg your Easter eggs? Yeah, you drain the shell, then you dye the shell. How do you drain a egg? You make a little hole, a little incision? I'm a surgeon. Egg surgeon? You did this? Yes. I mean, I know that Russian crafts people do it when they sort of batik an egg or whatever. It's very achievable. Okay. We did not do that at my house. And it's a very sad ending. What can I tell you? That's how you get maggots. That's why you always leave a note. Okay.

46:23Joanna Robinson:So listen, but one Easter egg hunt was not enough for us that year. So we, the cousins, the four of us, like hid Easter eggs for each other. We're like, you know. Yeah. Someone's going to be. We went down the age list. Then the youngest hid some eggs around the house. And we collected them and we were missing one. And she said, I don't know where I hid it. And we were like, oh, okay. Well, what could go wrong? Turns out she hid it in the like, I had like a trundle bed, like a drawer beneath my bed. and she like hit it in there, which had just like a bunch of like childhood stuff in it. So one day I opened that drawer to take out something and there, I just made a sound, there were just maggots everywhere.

47:08How many are we talking here?

47:10Joanna Robinson:I didn't take a head count wrong. I screamed and ran from the room and I slept in a different room that night. Is there an egg covered in maggots or is it like the whole trundle bed is covered? Not the whole one. A corner of the trundle bed was a mass of maggots. Look, that's already too many maggots. I agree. I'm not saying it's not bad. One is too many maggots. All right? Agreed. Okay. So that's my thing with maggots. Look, I get why that would be traumatic. Yeah. I get why you would see this and be like, hell no. Frankly, I would be too. The idea of removing a cast of all things and finding maggots feasting on your flesh underneath.

47:43Have you broken a limb before? Oh, I have. Just this past year.

47:47Joanna Robinson:Oh, that's right. Yeah. Broke a bone in my hand. But that wasn't, you didn't have like a cast on for a very long time. I had a hard cast pretty briefly. Yeah. So it was not the kind of thing where maggots would be festering underneath. I broke my arm like several times as a child. This one arm. Biking, rollerblade, like any wheel sport, basically. With love and respect to my own hygiene, casts don't smell good no matter what when they come up. There's nothing you can do. No matter what. And then maggots. Guys, I'm sorry I've spun out so much about maggots, but this is a really deeply personal thing for me.

48:19Joanna Robinson:It's a prominent part of the episode. I also thought that, you know, for a show that can sometimes, not indulge, but showcase these incredibly grisly parts of medical work. Yeah. Just kind of yada-yada'd past that we're going to cut off this bacon-greased-burned man's skin. Yeah, just snip it away. We're just going to snip it all away. Yeah. I'm not saying I wanted the close-up, but I've been conditioned to expect it, and we didn't get it. Well, there's still time. There's still time for the Handsome Pit crew to surprise and delight you. All right. Well, that has been the Pit Season 2, Episode 2.

48:49Oh, before we go out, Joe.

48:50Joanna Robinson:Oh, please. I want to flag one thing. Please. Look, a lot of cases being juggled. A lot of cases from the premiere we didn't even get back to in this one. I had my mind on one person in particular, and it's the guy who came in with three full bags of prescription medicine and, like, you know, homeopathic medicines. Oh, his supplements, yeah. Of all the things he was taking. His natural path. It was, like, too big a beat to not come back, right? On the one hand, maybe. on the other hand, that's just a shorthand for like, we got emails about it from doctors being like, we've seen this in the ER.

49:21Joanna Robinson:This woman with a small dog in a bag and like many, many like totes of like supplements and opinions. It was like, it's like Robbie's rant about Dr. Google last season, right? It was just sort of like they come in thinking they know more than we do because they've Googled. And as someone who takes many supplements myself, I see myself in this photo, I don't like it. But I would never take a small dog into the ER. So there's that. I've got that going for me. All right. Well, drsibangs.gmail.com. PrestigeTV at Spotify.com. We're doing Industry this season. We are. With Jody Walker, the great Jody Walker.

49:57Joanna Robinson:A legend. Season four of Industry rolling along. We got a ton of emails for that show, but we have not nailed down a specific one yet for that show. But PrestigeTV at Spotify.com. Is there anything you want, Joe, from our emailers for the pit? Oh, for something this episode? Is there anything you're curious about? Any perspectives you're... Have you ever seen a maggot? Just in life? All your maggot stories? Tell me your maggot stories. Maybe it'll like inure me to the maggot trauma if we get a ton of maggot emails. Right. Yes. Send us your maggot stories. The frequency of maggots undercasts in hospitals.

50:31I guess I would be curious about also the frequency of double ED dosages.

50:35Joanna Robinson:Yes. Have you ever drained a penis over the course of an hour? I guess, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hours. Have you ever massaged the clots out? It's a great question. Sometimes you got to go analog, you know? You really got to do it. How do you dispose of bacon grease in your household? What's your method, Rob? I'm going to like to put it in the jar. Yeah, you save it because you use it for something else. Or you just use a ramekin, honestly. Heat safe. Great for everybody involved. How many ramekins do you own, Rob? Oh, so many. Different sizes. You never can have too many. You're a real ramekin guy. That is your vibe.

51:08Best use, green onion pancakes with bacon grease. Very good. Highly recommend.

51:14Joanna Robinson:Listen, do you think if you were to get a vanity license plate, it would just say ramekin on it? Do you think that captures your vibe? It really does. It does. It's really you. Look, I love a small dish. Yeah. I love a crate and barrel, you know? All right. I think we're tapping into something. Guys, if you have any ramekin deals for Rob, press YouTube and Spotify.com. I'm sad that the pigeon suggestions have dried up for you. That was like one of my favorite eras in the email. I've got to admit. Thank you to Kai Grady, who's right over there in the room. I know. What a legend. What a thrill. Justin Sayles.

51:48Yes, always.

51:49Joanna Robinson:For his work. To you. Thank you, Joe. Thanks to my cousin Corinne for traumatizing me about maggots for the rest of my life. And we'll see. You know what? Thanks to Dr. Langdon for turning off that light, for doing a nice thing for Mel in this episode. You made me cry. I was like screaming about maggots and then I cried. The Pit has everything, truly. We'll see you soon. Bye.