‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 4: Friends With Farm Benefits

21:46Like I completely different things to acknowledge and to lump them together, I think would be misleading in the creative spaces. I just frankly don't really want to participate in things that weren't touched by human hands and made by actual people in the medical field. Like I am open to the idea that it could be effective for charting, that it can be effective for diagnosis. It just has to meet certain thresholds. And I think this is one of those things that's a little different person to person about what failures are you willing to accept if they come by algorithmic determination? or they come by generative AI, right?

22:18Like if a Waymo veers off the road and runs over a bunch of kids outside of school, is that different than a human driver doing the same thing? And if so, which one feels like more, neither is okay, but like beyond the pale to you, everyone's going to feel differently about that stuff. I feel like if you're going to welcome in this level of risk, you have to be willing to deal with that level of consequence. And a huge part of the problem, like we discussed last week is like, who bears the liability for an error in AI transcription? Right. And usually that answer, even at most reputable hospitals, is like as far as the buck will pass.

22:50Joanna Robinson:Right. I want to bring up something that Chris Ryan was texting me about. And so I don't want to like I'm sure he and Andy had a really good conversation about this on the watch, which I haven't we haven't had a chance to listen to. But because of when we're recording. But if you go listen to them, I don't want to step on their conversation. But I want to sort of bring it to you. He was texting me about conflict around Dr. Robbie inside of the season. And basically it was a good it was a good episode for him to text me. do I miss Dr. Collins? Because Dr. Collins is present in this episode in a couple ways.

23:18Joanna Robinson:We hear from Whitaker an update on where she is. We hear Louis say, she always helped me out. And we also hear from the woman with an eating disorder about how, like, black women go undiagnosed. And, like, would it be helpful inside of this ER to have more, you know, black doctors around, you know, bring Dr. Ellis onto the day shift or something like that. Well, even in her preference, too, when she finally does come to the realization that it'd be good to speak to somebody, I would love to speak to a black woman. And it makes you kind of rerun the whole scenario in your head where it's like if Dr.

23:51Collins had been her doctor from the jump and not that you would like profile people accordingly. Right, right. But would she have been more open or felt more comfortable? Like would the whole patient doctor dynamic have shifted?

24:01Joanna Robinson:And this is something we saw a lot in season one with Dr. Collins before she was sort of like, you know, exited the show before the mass shooting event. There were a number of cases, one very specific I remember, where there was, you know, a black woman and her son, and she was just so excited to have a black female doctor on the case. And she was just like, she's like, you're amazing. Can you be our doctor for everything? And like saying to her son, you're so lucky to have this amazing woman helping you, you know? So like Dr. Robbie's reaction to overhearing Whitaker talking about Dr. Collins, I think is interesting to think about on a personal basis in terms of how much is Dr.

24:37Joanna Robinson:Robbie's sabbatical connected to Heather, who he had a very tough conversation with at the end of her run on the show last season about, you know, getting pregnant and their relationship and his potentiality of being a father at one point in his life. So hearing that she's like left to do this on her own, how much is that influencing his desire for a sabbatical among other various things that are running around his head? Who's to say with Dr. Robbie? But also, we haven't seen Gloria this season. I don't know if we will, actually. But what Chris's point was in texting me, he was like, do I miss someone pushing back harder on Dr.

25:15Joanna Robinson:Robbie? We have Dr. Al Hashimi, who's not as a successful case here. Heather felt pretty free to push back on Robbie last season. Gloria, of course, is always coming in and hammering him in a way that we were like, oh, brother, get Gloria out of here. But there was pushback there. Dana is usually Robbie's co-captain. She's not really pushing back on him. She'll undercut him with a joke. Right. But not necessarily question where he's going, medically speaking. Right. And then there's, and then like Dr. Langdon certainly is not in a position to do that this season. Samira is not doing that at all in her role in that way.

25:56Joanna Robinson:And so when is Dr. Jack Abbott getting here? Like a really, I really need that. A counterbalance. We've been talking about the wins that Robbie has been having. And like, I don't want him to lose. I want him to do well. I care about him. But the losing is important sometimes. But I need there to be a bit more sort of like back and forth there. So Dr. Al Hashimi, Santo's trying to bond with Robbie about how she sucks in the ambulance bay. Do we like her? Really tough, honestly. But also watching Victoria, Dr. Javadi, or medical student, Dr. J herself, kind of flourish under Dr. Al-Hashimi's attention.

26:38Joanna Robinson:You know, she's like, good job on the tap. She's like, Victoria, would you like to present? You know, so there's ways in which there are people sort of like flourishing under her attention. I think it's also not an accident that the people who are flourishing are like a little more methodical. And the people who are struggling are like a little more hot-blooded. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little more reactive. And that's clearly not Dr. Alashimi's speed. But what do you think about this idea of Dr. Robbie needing someone to sort of push back on him inside of the makeup of this show? I think it's really important.

27:09Yeah. And we talked earlier this season about how Dr. Alashimi is kind of a consolidation character in that way, right? She's appointed by Gloria. She's in theory fulfilling a similar role as Dr. Collins. the difference is like from the jump when dr collins opposed robbie or was on a different side of an issue like you could understand where she was coming from really quickly right and and feel like oh she's right and she's checking this impulse in robbie that is jumping to a conclusion or self-destructive or whatever it is in that moment and they don't have that with dr alashimi yet and so until they do it's hard to feel like in their conflicts is this supposed to be the kind of thing where i'm even at a question as to which side i'm supposed to fall like one of these characters we've been through a lot with, and one of them has just kind of parachuted in with a lot of dramatic ideas about changing the world vis-a-vis the pit.

27:57I think little by little, they're doing a good job of making her a little bit more of an actual human person over the course of these last couple episodes, but it's a long way to go. And you can only hope that that long road will lead to the kind of validation in that sort of moment when Robbie does inevitably fuck up in a big way. That something Dr. Elashimi has taught or implemented or brought along over the course of this season will help us understand her perspective a little better.

28:22Joanna Robinson:On that note, what did you make of their interaction around the betting board? This sort of like almost flirtatious. How did you read that? I mean, he certainly seemed to read it that way. Like I'll buy you a drink with my winnings. For one, I love, you know, Dr. Oshimi flaunting a little bit, flexing a little bit. This is what I'm talking about. I just want more of these moments and it can be whatever personality type they want to write this woman to be is fine. It's just like you got to let her be a personality. Yeah. And having those moments goes a long way. And maybe a long way in smoothing over relationships with her relationship with Robbie too, right?

28:56They just need to connect on something, even if it is some weird little ancillary thing around the betting pool.

29:01Joanna Robinson:Exactly. On the LinkedIn front, we did get a bunch of emails from people in response to our response last week about what it means to be a person in recovery and how we might expect like, and I don't disagree. there are moments of like very earnest Langdon that makes a lot of sense to me. Cool with that. He's on this journey. 100%. It was mostly the quoting of lengthy passages that we sort of had some issue with. And then reciting them aloud in a workplace context when everyone's like, did we ask him to do this? Great question. But inside of this episode, we'll get to the MRSA moment a little later on, but we're mostly dealing with, we've got the eyelash patient, once again played by Patrick Wall's real life partner back in the mix here.

29:45Joanna Robinson:Great stuff. And then we have this Louis moment, you know, that he comes in to see Louis showing us Langdon's desire to connect, to continue to make amends with Louis, someone that he feels like he definitely owes an apology to. To show us that not only does everyone in this ER know Louis because he's a repeat customer, he knows things about them. He's asking about Langdon's kids. It's true. How are your kids? You know, and Langdon's been out for almost a year, and Louis, like, remembers that he has kids. Yeah. And so on, like, is Louis going to be okay watch, I'm certainly quite worried that, you know, this is an opportunity.

30:27Joanna Robinson:Louis is the kind of, on, like, a story basis. In the CR, so many people are rotating through so quickly, and we don't see people again, but there are some repeat customers. Yes. And Louis represents someone who, the loss of whom would deeply impact all of the characters. Not Ogilvy, perhaps, because he seems like a sociopath, but like almost anyone else here in the ER. He's such a likable guy. He's such a likable character and person. Yeah. That it's like you have both the repeat customer element where everyone does have some kind of relationship with him. You have just like a lot of genuinely like fun or jovial or warm-hearted scenes with him.

31:07Joanna Robinson:Yeah. It's just like, it brings me no joy to say that it's probably the kiss of death on the pit to have that much screen time be that positive. Yeah. Plus all of these potential complications around his tooth and what it could mean and all the fluid. Like, he's just in a bad way. It's tough. I'm not optimistic and I am like sort of pre-devastated about it. Well, plus I think we should say too, we get with the MRSA kind of reveal at the end from someone who has returned back to the hospital. Right. A bounce back is what Donnie called it. Exactly. All of those cases are structurally interesting for a show like this because they force the doctors to reconsider their examinations, to reconsider their initial diagnosis.

31:50And so having someone who's constantly coming back to the hospital is a great device. But then with Louie, you have just all the added emotional baggage of people really wanting this guy to change his life, and he's refusing to do it to the point that he's asking for his midday drink at the hospital. I wish I could say that I could see a vision of this show where he makes it through the season.

32:34your garden beds with earth grow mulch, five bags for just$10. Start your spring with low prices now through April 1st. Available at the Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See homedepot.com slash price match for details. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. All right, baseball fans, get ready. For the first time in history, the major league season kicks off with one exclusive opening night game live on Netflix. The New York Yankees led by seven-time all-star Aaron Judge. Roll into the San Francisco Bay to battle Raphael Devers and the San Francisco Giants. The wait is over. It's time to play ball.

33:10Watch MLB opening night, the New York Yankees versus the San Francisco Giants live on Netflix, Wednesday, March 25th at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific time. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. You know, with just one trip to Whole Foods, you can travel the world. First stop, discover the taste of the Mediterranean with big sales on brands like De Seco, Oreos, and San Pellegrino. With Whole Foods prepared foods, dinner is solved. You can roam the world with empanadas, burritos, soups, and more. Maybe expand your snack repertoire to South America with colorful and crunchy Peruvian potato chips.

33:47Then straight to Mexico for dessert. You can pick up a Tres Leches family pack cake for only$10 every Friday. All aboard? Save on regional flavors at Whole Foods Market. it. He's in a live, but it just really doesn't feel like it.

34:02Joanna Robinson:Let's talk about Dr. J herself. Finally revealed. This is the first thing I said was I was like, Javadi's the only one I can think of, but I don't think it's her. And then we sort of went down the joy path that we were like convinced by our listeners was true. We were like how dumb we were to not think it was Joy. But I guess it's Victoria this whole time. Yeah. It turns out Joy is just disaffected and bored at work and on her phone like the rest of us. I love Joy. Joy v. Ogilvie is honestly one of my favorite things that's happening this season. But, uh, so Shibana Aziz plays Victoria Javadi.

34:33Joanna Robinson:And something I think that's really interesting about Javadi this season is, you know, we met her on her first day last year. Her first day, overwhelmed, sort of spiky and defensive about how young she is, dealing with her mom, sort of hovering and her reputation, dealing with having to work with Matteo, one of the handsomest guys alive, like all this sort of stuff like that. Well, until the radiology department phones in. Oh, wow. I'm just saying he's got competition now. Great call. Okay. Okay. But what's been really interesting to me, sort of interacting with the press tour that the actress have done, is that Shibana, who plays Javadi, is like much more of a tuned into social media sort of pop girly, I guess, than I interpreted Victoria being in season one.

35:21Joanna Robinson:And so I'm wondering if this sort of, she talks about, oh, I didn't peg you for an astrology girlie to Whitaker. I didn't peg her for a cancer, if we're just going to flip the script on that. Okay, let's pause. I didn't peg you for an astrology girlie, Rob Mahoney. Tell me what you think about people being cancers versus otherwise. What are you? I'm not, but I am a cancer. Oh. And so this is where I'm like, do I see the through line between me and Javadi? What are the characteristics of a cancer? I mean, water sign, as I understand it, typically quite emotional. Okay. And I mean, she clearly can be, but I feel like she's a little more process driven.

35:56Joanna Robinson:Okay. But maybe this is just something I'm not identifying in myself enough. Okay. Maybe I am a Javadi. Do you have any other takes on any other zodiac signs that you would care to share? I'm out of my depth, but I was just a little surprised to hear that she was a cancer based on the slim amount that I know about cancers. Okay. So it's PressGTV at Spotify.com. Yeah. If anyone listening has some thoughts on Rob Mahoney being a cancer, what that means. I'm a Libra, if anyone has any thoughts about that. Maybe it's like a rising issue. Maybe like Victoria and I have different rising signs. What's your rising sign?

36:28Joanna Robinson:You don't know. This is a problem. Maybe I need to find out. Okay. And if anyone has any thoughts, Kai Grady, what's your zodiac sign? I was worried that this was going to come to me. Capricorn question mark? Capricorn question mark. Yeah, not an astrology girlie myself. What do the astrology girlies, no gender required, think of a Libra and a Capricorn and a Cancer making a podcast together? Yeah, let's just do the synergy chart on that. Yeah, what does that combination mean? I love you, no, Joe. This has been a big thing in the NBA world where certain team compositions, they will chart out and be like, oh, these players are compatible because of their sign alignment.

37:04Joanna Robinson:Okay. Sometimes they can tell the future. Sometimes in the spirit of astrology, it does not. It's not. Okay, interesting. To go back to Victoria Javadi, I feel like they're kind of oozing her character into the person that the actor is a little bit. That's really poorly stated. But I don't want to say oozing in any art context. But I feel like, yeah, they're melding sort of the character. They're mapping the character a bit more onto who the actor is. Yeah. And in a way that doesn't feel like, it just feels like this Victoria feels a bit, I would never have guessed. that the Victoria we meet in season one would be a social media influencer.

37:44Joanna Robinson:And not only a social media influencer, but when Langdon questions her about it, she's like, more than you think, Dr. Langdon, like really sassy. And that seems to be what Shibana's actual personality is a bit more like. And so I don't see it as a contradiction because that was Victoria's first day. Totally. You know, overwhelming circumstances. But I kind of like this idea that this other side of her is emerging and it is connected to who this actress actually is in her day-to-day, which she seems very, very delightful. And like all of her castmates, when they're asked sort of, who's the best at memes or who's the best at them, they're all like, oh, Shabana, Shabana, Shabana.

38:19Joanna Robinson:Every single time. So I just thought that was a really interesting development. How do you feel about the Dr. J reveal? I was delighted by it. And in particular, yeah, like I love Javadi as is. So I love getting these new wrinkles to her. I also really enjoyed that Langdon didn't undercut it at all. He kind of played with it a little bit and made some jokes, but he also wasn't going to be the first to say, Dr. J is not an actual doctor. Right. He's just sort of like, Dr. J, great to meet you. Hand it off. Sure. And apparently can be asked for by request in the ED. Huge news for everyone involved.

38:52Joanna Robinson:And for him to be like, oh, I'd love to watch that video on getting along with problematic coworkers. We need that supplementary content. I really need to see it as well. Okay. Great stuff. I thought this was a great reveal and a great handling of it. Fantastic. Let's talk about, let's go back to the astrology girly himself, Huckleberry Whitaker. Huckleberry and Amy and farm benefits. The way that Jabari said, what are farm benefits? It's really funny to me. We have seen a milking machine for the record, you know? This brings me to my next point. And for this, I have a visual aid. Oh. I'm so sorry to do this to you.

39:27Joanna Robinson:I couldn't help myself. Have you heard of the book Morning Glory Milking Farm? No. Okay. Should I have? This is a USA Today bestseller, whatever that means. I actually don't know how USA Today manages their numbers. Was that you, New York Times bestseller, Joanna Robinson, turning your nose up at USA Today bestsellers? I just genuinely don't know what makes a USA Today bestseller versus a New York Times bestseller, but apparently they're different lists. Makes sense. Okay. Written by CM Nacosta, part of a series. Would you like to guess what Morning Glory Milking Farm is about? Morning Glory Milking Farm.

40:05I mean, I'm guessing this is a romance novel of some kind.

40:07Joanna Robinson:It is, yeah. Who is involved? I mean, look, the formula says a big city girl who's disillusioned with her job going for a simpler life meets an unusually attractive man at like outside the feed store or something when she goes back to deal with her parents' funeral in the small town that they grew up in. Okay. Wow, you know your way around a plot. That's not right. Okay. But it was really admirable. I would now like to show you the cover art of Morning Glory Milking Farm. And I do, I mean, it's nothing we can, we'll be able to show this on the podcast. It's nothing like you can't look at. And I would like to introduce you to a new corner, hopefully, of romance.

40:49Oh boy. Okay. Yeah, so I wasn't expecting this.

40:53Joanna Robinson:Can you describe for the listeners what you're seeing here? I would say it's a woman canoodling in very traditional romance novel fashion, as if she would be curling up with like a Fabio type. A pirate, perhaps. Absolutely. Except instead of the pirate, it is a bull man. A minotaur is, I think, the technical term. I mean, he does look like a minotaur. That seems fair. I got questions about the milking part, I guess. Great. I'm happy to read the plot description to you. Violet is a typical down-on-her-luck millennial, mid-20s, overeducated, and drowning in debt. I gotta say, so far I got it. On the verge of moving into her parents' basement.

41:28Joanna Robinson:Okay. When a lifeline appears in the form of a very unconventional job in the neighboring Cambric Creek. She has no choice but to grab at it with both hands. Morning Glory Milking Farm offers full-time hours, full benefits, and generous pay with no experience needed. There's only one catch. The clientele is grade A certified prime beef with all the manly meaty endowments to match. Milking minotaurs isn't something Violet ever considered as a career option, but she's determined to turn the opportunity into a reversal of fortune. Hi, Phelan. So I would just like to go back to the line, you ever seen a milking machine?

42:09Joanna Robinson:In the context of Morning Glory milking bars. This wasn't the kind I anticipated, I have to say. So that is— This literally came up in organic conversation over dinner last night that someone else brought up. I have not read this book. Okay. I did check it out from the library, the audiobook, because I was very curious about it a couple months ago. And I started and I said, no, thank you. I said, not for me. I said, some bridges are a bridge too far. And this is one for me. But I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum. And like monster romances are a big thing right now. So, but it's not my thing, but it exists.

42:41Frankly, if there's like a supporting part in one of the audiobooks in this series, like I would love to be a random townsperson or something. I don't think I have the gruff to be the Minotaur himself. So I don't know that I could play that, but I would love to participate in some way. I still have questions about Minotaur milking. Is it strictly not safe for work milking, or does he have udders?

43:02Joanna Robinson:No, it's not safe for... Then what's the profit in that? What's the business model? Well, you know what? You can read the book to find out. I'm sure they get into it. Kai Grady, Capricorn that you are, any thoughts on Morning Glory Milking Farm that you'd like to share? I think this is what will break Rob into fiction. I'm still back. All I needed was minotaur sex. So that was one avenue that I went down this morning when I was doing research for this particular episode. Joe, you're having a very normal one. There's also parkour as almost an Olympic sport. I was trying to figure out what was the height of parkour's fame.

43:42Joanna Robinson:What do you think the height of parkour's fame? We get a guy who fell through a glass ceiling onto some ferns, I guess, because he was busy making content. Vince Cole, 23, busy making content with a pal of his. Well, as Kai Grady knows, those social feeds aren't going to populate themselves. It's hard work. It's true. What do you think the height of Parkour's fame was? I would say 2006.

44:07Joanna Robinson:The date that Casino Royale came out? I mean, honestly, true. That's what I put in my notes. Casino Royale, 2006. It's about that. It's like 2008, 2006. How does that scene play to people who weren't there? Well, Vince Cole, who's 23, was three years old when Casino Royale came out. So this is like a very older sort of sport for the Vince Coles of the world. I guess that's true. That was really interesting. When his partner in parkour said that it was almost an Olympic sport, I was very curious about this. and this is in fact true, that the gymnastics umbrella of the Olympics tried to claim parkour and get it into the, I think, the Tokyo Games.

44:51Joanna Robinson:Okay. And it did not work out for them. But this is apparently like a controversial thing around the Olympics that I didn't know. And sorry, we will get back to medical stuff in a second. But a various sort of like sport umbrella institutions trying to claim certain things. There was controversy when the Canoeing Federation and the Surfing Federation tried to claim stand-up paddleboarding in the 2017 Olympics. I mean, look, stand-up paddleboarding is not surfing. That's just not. Parkour did not make it. Baseball, softball, karate, sports climbing, surfing, and skateboarding did. Paris, breakdancing, of course.

45:32Joanna Robinson:And this year in Milan, we're getting a bunch of new winter sports, but they're all like basically skiing. There's SkiMo. Do you know what that is? What is SkiMo? Ski mountaineering. So basically like you have to climb up the mountain and then ski down it. So it's like cross-country skiing with incline? I guess so. And then the one that I'm really excited about, I love the Olympics, by the way. I know that you think I don't know anything about sports and that's true. I don't believe that. I know that you're a secret sportsman just waiting in the wings to jump on your chance. I like high stakes sort of sports.

46:03Joanna Robinson:You know, that's why I like a playoff game or something like that. Or the Olympics. What could be higher stakes than that? And also like the whole globe is involved in watching. We're doing double moguls this year. So like you're pitting two people doing moguls, downhills mogul skiing against each other. Okay. Which I think is really exciting. That is exciting. Feels like a lot of moguls. I'm not going to lie. Too many to you? Too many moguls. What is too many? I'm in favor of direct competition. Do you have a favorite Olympic sport? I mean, basketball, obviously. Oh, sorry. Other than the one you cover for a living?

46:35I love team handball. Love full volleyball, not sand volleyball, which is a travesty. I'm trying to think what else. Table tennis is thrilling.

46:44Joanna Robinson:Okay. In your Marty Supreme era. I mean, I'm perpetually in my Marty Supreme era, unfortunately, for all of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you love the Olympics or are you medium on the Olympics? I'm medium. I mean, look, the IOC is hideously corrupt. It's a weird institution. Facts. There's a lot of stuff happening around it. Like, do I feel myself swell with the glory of Biathlon? I can't say that I do, but I do respect it. Do you feel like maybe swell with the glory of the Biathlon should be the logline on a new romance novel that you do a voice for a town person for, perhaps? That one I'm willing to play the lead.

47:22Okay, great. Great.

47:25Joanna Robinson:Anything you want to say about Ogilvy and the Glass Shard? I mean, the great humbling of Ogilvy. I would think. One would hope. One would hope. If there is a path to us liking this character or not hating this character at any juncture, this kind of thing had to happen, right? I still don't know if it's going to be enough. Still feels like a long road to get there. Everybody hates this guy, not only including us, but the look that Dr. Bangs and Robbie give each other as joy cuts him down. Yeah. I mean, just brought me the greatest delight. Possibly my favorite part of the episode is when Robbie gives Whittaker the double fist bump and then just leaves Ogilvy hanging.

48:02He wanted it so bad.

48:03Joanna Robinson:Really, really good stuff. Couldn't even scrounge up a single fist bump after all that. No, no. Okay. Mr. Samba, Jean Jean Samba, 54, with a heart condition. This was a really good season one callback because, as you might remember, Whittaker lost a patient, Mr. Bennett, due to a cardiac incident in season one. A patient that he was attending to, who he was bonding with, who they basically like put in a gurney in the hallway. And like while he was there, he like died. And later in the season, there was another patient, Harvey Chang. That's when they got the ECMO machine out, that like really insane, very cool machine that they use to sort of try to keep someone's, like, lungs and heart going when their body can't.

48:55Joanna Robinson:And when that happened, Whitaker was asking, like, why couldn't we do that for Mr. Bennett? And Langdon said that Mr. Bennett needed to have CPR within five minutes, an initial rhythm of V-fib or V-tac, or the ECMO wouldn't have worked. So the fact that—please forgive all of my bungling of jargon— But the fact that Whitaker was not only a little bit more on it than Santos was about sort of thinking about the possibilities of a heart condition inside of this particular patient. But when Jesse comes in, he's like, oh, you already put the pads on for the defib paddles? And he's like, yeah, just in case.

49:36Joanna Robinson:And to me, that's him saying, like, if we need to do defib, like, we need to not have anything standing in our way. I need to not have another Mr. Bennett incident happen. And so this was just like, this is why he gets the double fist bump for Robbie, but this was like a great win in Safer Whitaker and also just like some season one trauma hanging over him as he handles this patient. What did you think about that? I mean, Trax, absolutely, in terms of doctors being unusually attuned to the very specific things that haunt them. Yeah, yeah. And the ways you're willing to go the extra mile to attach the defip pads, to like be ready for the thing that's like probably statistically not going to happen.

50:14But if it does happen, you don't want to be in that position again. And I thought that's why this episode overall, last week to me was so much about the patient cases. And it was so much about like identifying with these people we don't really know and finding like these quick emotional connections with them in ways that were really effective and some a little clumsy or another's, you know, a mixed bag. This one was all about the doctors. It was all about past cases, past wins, current expectations, current pressures, how you're paying off, like the cost of precociousness, the cost of ambition.

50:44Like it was so much more of like a workplace drama this week in ways that I thought worked, but also just like I constantly was like trying to find my footing overall in this episode because of it.

50:54Joanna Robinson:Interesting. I thought this episode was, for me, much more successful than last week. I didn't have any moments that I really bumped on the way that I did. Same. Last week, it all felt just a bit smoother to me. But I hear what you're saying. I guess the only way – the place that I would push back on that is the Diaz family, right? Orlando Diaz, his wife Lori, and their daughter. That's a good point. And the insurance case here that we have. We have Lori Diaz who comes in. This case has been percolating for a couple episodes now. We've got the full family here now. Lori comes in having not been able to get the bus that she needs to get there.

51:32Joanna Robinson:She's wearing her work shirt, and we get this conversation between Noel Hastings and Samira. Samira already knows this, but it's for the benefit of us at home. Why can these people who have multiple jobs not afford health care? Here's the very specific crack they fall into inside of this very flawed system of why they can't have the coverage they need for this. And how can we figure out a way through the system? This is something I'm going to be really interested to track. What can Nurse Hastings do? What can Samira do? What is the solution here for this family? Orlando talks about he's not taking his medication that he needs in the dosage that he needs because they can't afford it.

52:12Joanna Robinson:We talked already in this episode and previous episodes about shame, the shame in Lori's voice when she's like, we can't afford this ER stay. What are we going to do? Should we just leave sort of thing? And Samira's like, we'll figure it out. this was just like very at the core of what the pit wants to tell us definitely and you could see it all over their faces when she walks into the room and sees her husband like we can't do this like I know like in the moment it's inarguable you're in a hospital bed you're in a hospital room but it's like how is this all going to make sense financially and realistically for our family and I thought they do a great job of carrying that that dread that tension that anxiety throughout the whole case also another case where as you mentioned And Samira Mohan's like a little bit over-promising.

52:59And it's one of these things that we see with doctors across the board in the show. There's like some cases they're very hesitant to do it. We see it with Javadi in this episode where she's hesitant to almost like say too much about what Jackson's potential diagnosis would be. The law student who's had this like episode. And his sister's there. Exactly. And it's like, let's wait and see the tests. Whereas Samira's saying, we will find a way. When she has to know on some level, they might not find a way. And to the family's credit to this point, like the clearest sense of any kind of way forward is the closest thing we have in this country to a working insurance system.

53:31And that's GoFundMe, unfortunately.

53:34Joanna Robinson:This is the final quote that I'll read from this John Wells interview, right? When he was talking about the response to season one, was he surprised that season one was such a hit? And he says, it turns out that people are really concerned about this. Things have gotten very dramatic within the healthcare system and all the changes that people have been trying to do to the Affordable Care Act for years. I was surprised that the serious subject would immediately resonate. And every week as the show dropped, there were more people who were tuning in and talking about it. Healthcare professionals started to talk about it.

54:02Joanna Robinson:So this is part of their mission statement. They want to talk about, he mentions, violence in hospitals towards healthcare workers. We got that, of course, with like the Nurse Dana plotline, how difficult urban hospitals were getting, changes in healthcare, after effects for healthcare workers after COVID, and the massive flaws inside of the incredibly corrupt insurance system in the U.S. And so this family and their journey through the ER and what can we do to help you almost game the system, how can we figure out a solution is something that I presume we'll be tracking as we go forward. I would hope so.

54:39I mean, this certainly has the legs of one of the cases that could go three or four episodes, if not more. And we're in need of those. at this point in the season. Like we've closed a lot of cases. They've turned over a lot of beds. A lot of the patients that we know already have been discharged, have been moved on or like have moved on to another part of the hospital.

54:55Joanna Robinson:Right, right, right. I think in terms of things that are looming, there's this case clearly going forward. There's a side mention of the abandoned baby. I know. One of the patients is like, what about that baby? Many people are asking, what about the baby? You guys remember that baby? Yeah. Other than that, I'm trying to think like - Harlow with the ASL interpreter. And we see that one introduced this week. Like, I guess technically Boba Guy is still at large and could be hiding in a supply closet somewhere. Most other things have been closed up to this point. And that's why you have to, you know, the waitress with the foot pain that may or may not be MRSA coming back.

55:29Like, we're starting to kind of refresh what is happening in the ED.

55:33Joanna Robinson:And we've got the betting board that we're watching, sort of like what's happening there. That's not a patient, but like that's an ongoing. Well, that's how you refill the ER. Is the other hospital shut down? We got to fund all the ambulances here. I will say one thing that's kind of noticed and I don't think followed up in this episode, Pamela Perry comes in on one of those ambulances with abdominal pain after eating chilaquiles. Chilaquiles. This is the biggest tragedy of the whole episode. Well, it's not a tragedy. This is a fact-checking moment. Chilaquiles wouldn't hurt a fly. I really agree.

56:00Joanna Robinson:Has never harmed anybody. I really agree. I know that this is like your Tex-Mex, but I love chilaquiles. As you should. I think it's like one of the best breakfast options. Melking would not eat it because it involves eggs. No. That's okay. I really agree with you. More for us. Do not vilify chilaquiles. I resent the implication. We will not stand for that. This is my July effect moment. It's like, how dare you invoke chilaquiles in this fashion? I make chilaquiles, well, often, but every, it's my New Year's Day, like, we have people over, I make chilaquiles. Fuck yeah, Joe. It's really good for, like, volume-serving people.

56:34That's beautiful.

56:35Joanna Robinson:MRSA. Let's talk about it. This is the last thing we're going to talk about. I learned about Olympic sports, milking farms, and MRSA for this podcast. Methicillin - You really can't do it all. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. I really nailed that pronunciation for sure. MRSA. I believe it's one in 30 people have MRSA on their body at any given moment. And it is not a problem to have this bacteria on the surface of your body. Okay. The problem is when it gets into the deeper layers of you. And that is why it often shows up in a hospital setting when you're getting sort of like various things penetrating your body phrasing.

57:15Joanna Robinson:So like if it can get— Save it for the milking part. This is a resistant bacterial infection. If it turns into sepsis, it can be fatal. Okay. And it's highly contagious as well, which is why Langdon and Donnie are like, oh, fucking shit. It could be MRSA, right? the pain and the like the warmth coming off of her skin and all that stuff like these are sort of classic MRSA indicators. They mention cellulitis. That's the layer of tissue below the skin. So when MRSA gets there or I believe it's like in the lungs and the esophagus of like that, like that's when you encounter true problems. So it shows up in, like, nursing homes and hospitals a lot and increasingly, you know, in other places because we are doing a bad job of taking care of ourselves.

58:02Joanna Robinson:And it has to do – my understanding is this idea of, like, you know, methicillin-resistant staph is, I believe, connected to – PrestigeTB at Spotify.com. I am not a doctor. I really watched some YouTube videos this morning about MRSA. Fun fact. But it has to do with our over-treating things with antibiotics. And so we are, for one thing, hand sanitizer, which we see them use constantly in the hospital. But the way in which we're sort of irresponsibly over using antibacterial substances is causing more and more resistant strains of bacteria in the world. Jesus Christ. I believe that to be true.

58:45Joanna Robinson:If that is a myth, press UTV at Spotify.com, and I'm certainly happy to correct the record. I hope it's a myth. As someone who is hand sanitizing an apparently distressing amount, I really hope that's not true. Are you a big—I've never seen you. Maui Rubin's a huge one. I've never seen you do it, though. Carry with me almost at all times these days. Look, we all responded to COVID differently. This has been a real before and after transition for me. It's true. All right. Anything else you want to talk about? Did we get it all? One last thing, Joe, and we've mentioned this in earlier pods, but it felt especially prominent here.

59:17Dana has been missing stuff all day. Just like weird little mistakes where in this episode, it's like said there were two patients going to be rolling in from the ambulances when three were called in. In an earlier episode, she like tries to debrief McKay on her patients that are not her patients.

59:31Joanna Robinson:It's like there's little things happening that feel flagged at this point. An accumulation of something happening with Dana. Do you feel like it's related to that sort of PTSD email that we got? That to me, it feels very in line with exactly. And maybe I'm just primed to see it now since we got that email. But it does feel like we're seeding that idea. Interesting. How do you see that playing out? Or do you? I'm not sure. You don't care. I mean, frankly, this is one of those things where this ER does not work without Dana. She's such a binding element for all of the disparate parts of it. that if she does have like her own Dr.

1:00:08Robbie, I need to like huddle in a ball in Pede's moment. I don't know how anyone gets by without her. So it could be another tough thing that they have to confront of like, not only whatever's gonna happen that's gonna force Robbie and Dr. Elashimi to come to a head or come together. But in addition to that, if Dana's at all indisposed, that's brutal for everyone else.

1:00:28Joanna Robinson:Speaking of brutal and unless, there's one thing we did not like linger on that I think we should. What's that? Which is, let's go back to like patron saint of this pod, Dr. Bangs, and the broken coccyx and how she had to fix that. Should we just like, we should touch on that, I think. I don't want to touch on that. Not even with gloves? That's not my job. She didn't want to touch on that. Not even with gloves and like medical grade lubricant, you're like, no, thank you. I mean, I will give him credit. Like the idea of undergoing that for the sake of keeping your social calendar intact, for the sake of love.

1:01:04Joanna Robinson:or I mean at least a certain kind of entertainment like he has his priorities straight in a sense I just want to shout out this actor who once again I mentioned was a heartthrob of the 80s was on the OC has done a lot of things is a heartthrob of today I don't know if you heard how many dates he has I think the bravery of showing us his butt was I just would like to applaud it you know it's very queer suit and, you know, it was a thing we saw on this show. Not everyone will recognize it, but we applaud butt bravery here. We do, we do. All right. That has allegedly been another episode of the Prestige TV podcast.

1:01:47Joanna Robinson:Morning Glory Milking Farm by CM DaCosta is the first in a series. There are more coming, so phrasing did not mean to say that. Also, what's the series called? Does it have a snazzy title? The Cambric Creek series, I believe. That's disappointing. Real missed opportunity. Okay, well, Prestige TV is Spotify.com. or drsidebangs at dmail.com if you have a better title for this book series. We also solicited nicknames for Dr. Santos. And Rob, you determined that we have not yet found the winner. Yeah, I think some very promising, well-intentioned leads. But nothing that's really making me feel like the search is over.

1:02:21Joanna Robinson:Okay, so we would like to continue to receive those emails. I would love to. Any corrections of medical mishaps we might have made. Wag those fingers. We love to learn. Thank you to you, Rob Mahoney. Thanks, Joe. Thanks to you, Kai Grady, for getting on the mic multiple times this episode. And thank you to Justin Sales always for his work on this feed. And we'll see you back for Industry. Jodie Walker will be back with us. Industry is very good this season. It really is. If folks aren't watching it. So tune in for that. I would say there's like a similar amount of stuff going into orifices on both shows somehow right now.

1:02:53Joanna Robinson:What a promise to make. We'll see you soon. Bye.

1:03:07This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in. With a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles, you can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stock the fridge for tip-off with a variety of non-alcoholic craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com. Near beer, fit for all times.