What does learning a new sport have to do with practicing medicine?

In this episode of Curie, urologist Dr. Fara Bellows reflects on the unexpected parallels between tennis and clinical practice – from procedural muscle memory and strategic thinking, to failure, perfectionism, and the relief of lower stakes. She shares how becoming a beginner again reshaped her relationship to medicine, why hobbies matter more than we often admit, and what physicians can gain from pursuits that exist entirely outside the exam room.

A conversation about joy, identity, and why there’s always another point to play.

When an active-shooter alert swept across her hospital campus, oncologist and educator Dr. Beatrice Preti found herself experiencing a level of fear she’d never encountered in medicine before, even after years of caring for patients with life-limiting diagnoses.

In this conversation, Dr. Preti reflects on that day, how it reshaped her understanding of vulnerability, and the surprising parallels it revealed between crisis, uncertainty, and the emotional experience of being a patient.

• Medicine isn’t being undone by a lack of science or compassion – it’s being buried under bureaucracy. Dr. Scott Tzorfas, a neurologist in private practice for over 30 years, calls it a “slow administrative death spiral.” From endless prior authorizations to crushing documentation demands, he argues that the system has made it nearly impossible for doctors to practice the kind of medicine they trained for.
• In this episode, we talk about how bureaucracy took over the exam room, why independent physicians are disappearing, and what it will take to restore autonomy.
• Support the movement: Sign Dr. Tzorfas’s petition to save private practice medicine.