Cover of Still Practicing with Sue Daniels, MD

Still Practicing with Sue Daniels, MD

Still Practicing with Sue Daniels, MD

By: Susan Daniels
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Summary
 If I've learned one thing from a career in healthcare, it's that colleagues train hard, show up, do the work, and quietly burn out. I saw it happen to others, but I didn't really understand the struggle until it happened to me. I'm Dr. Sue Daniels, a pediatrician and survivor of what happens when a healthcare professional blinks and finds herself lost in a career she once loved. I'm also proud to say I found my way back, and if I can do it, so can you. Every other week, I invite you to join me on Still Practicing as we explore what happens AFTER burnout prevention has run its course and you're left wondering what's next. Spoiler alert: it's not about coping better. It's about realistically answering one essential question: What kind of life and career are actually worth coming back to? Through honest conversations and lived stories, my guests share how they've reclaimed meaning, ambition, and agency in their work and lives. Pediatricians are the center of gravity here, but this is an inclusive space for fellow healthcare workers who have drifted from center, still care deeply, and know something has to change. Optimistic, thoughtful, and grounded in real experience, Still Practicing is for anyone who knows the journey back might not be easy, but it's time to begin. A Human Content Production© 2026 Susan Daniels, MD. All rights reserved. Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Physical Illness & Disease
Episodes
  • If I Don't Enjoy It, I Don't Do It | Dr. Tommy Martin

    If I Don't Enjoy It, I Don't Do It | Dr. Tommy Martin
    29 Oct 2026
    My guest is Dr. Tommy Martin, a med-peds hospitalist at Boston Children's, a children's book author, a Rabkin Fellow in medical education and a TikTok creator who has spent a decade debunking medical misinformation. What struck me most is that Tommy has never experienced burnout, and he knew very early what it takes to stay a healthy person in medicine. He works enough to feel fulfilled and to support his family, but no more than that. He says no when he needs to, and he protects the passions that fill his cup. We talk about the patient encounter that steered him away from surgery, holding patients' hands through the COVID ICU, and how he juggles Ironman training with two little boys. I also share my own pandemic burnout and my fantasy of running away to Hawaii. I think you're going to love this conversation.Takeaways: Protect your passions outside medicine, even if it's only five minutes a day. They fuel your love of the work. Work enough to be fulfilled and to make the living you need, but not beyond that. Remember why you became a physician: to be with patients. Offload whatever keeps you from them. In hard moments, try reframing the burden as a privilege. It can soften the pain. It's okay to ask for help. Build a team that supports your dreams, and support theirs. -------Want your burnout story featured on the show? Email us at it ⁠hello@stillpracticingpod.com⁠ for a chance to be read on an upcoming episode. Follow the show: Instagram @suedaniels.md and @stillpracticingpod Learn more and get transcripts for EVERY episode at www.stillpracticingpod.com For Sales Inquiries & Ad Rates, Please Contact: Sales@Human-Content.Com Connect with Human Content on Socials: @humancontentpods Produced by: Human Content Chapter:0:00 - Intro1:44 - From Surgery to Med-Peds5:29 - The Secret to Zero Burnout10:55 - Surviving COVID in the ICU24:40 - Life Beyond Medicine34:40 - Advice for Young Physicians36:54 - MedTictorial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    48 min
  • A Pediatrician's Marathan Back to Herself | Dr. Michelle Quirk

    A Pediatrician's Marathan Back to Herself | Dr. Michelle Quirk
    15 Oct 2026
    I loved this conversation with my guest is Dr. Michelle Quirk. She's a general pediatrician, a run coach and the founder of Mindful Marathon. Right out of residency she was newly married, in a new hospitalist job and caring for her dad through his cancer diagnosis and death. She got so depleted that she'd sit in the parking garage crying and picturing herself working at Starbucks. I can absolutely relate to that fantasy. Michelle found her way back one step at a time, starting with a walk around the block, then a marathon, then a whole new career in coaching. She asked for what she needed again and again, and when the system couldn't give it to her, she made big changes. We also talk about runDisney, and for the first time in my life I'm thinking, "I might be a runner." Hope you enjoy it. Takeaways: Burnout often looks like "something's wrong with me," but more often the system is failing you. Asking for what you need is worth it, even when the answer is no. Sometimes a no shows you it's time to go. A regular schedule and a slightly lower FTE can make a much bigger difference than they seem to on paper. Time alone with yourself, like a run with no earbuds, is where real processing happens. FMLA can cover caring for a sick family member. Many of us never knew that in training. ------- Want your burnout story featured on the show? Email us at it ⁠hello@stillpracticingpod.com⁠ for a chance to be read on an upcoming episode. Follow the show: Instagram @suedaniels.md and @stillpracticingpod Learn more and get transcripts for EVERY episode at www.stillpracticingpod.com For Sales Inquiries & Ad Rates, Please Contact: Sales@Human-Content.Com Connect with Human Content on Socials: @humancontentpods Produced by: Human Content Chapter: 0:00 - Intro 1:32 - Why Pediatrics?5:02 - Burnout Begins13:31 - The Starbucks Fantasy15:14 - Running as Therapy20:32 - Building Mindful Marathon29:11 - Setting Boundaries41:57 - Advice & runDisney Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 min
  • Coping with Burnout as a Pediatrition and Cancer Survivor | Dr. Cora Breuner

    Coping with Burnout as a Pediatrition and Cancer Survivor | Dr. Cora Breuner
    1 Oct 2026
    For this episode I am welcoming Dr. Cora Breuner, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital. She details her journey, beginning with a marine biology detour in college to a Navy scholarship that landed her on a ship with 1,400 people, to years overseas in Japan, to eventually building a career in pediatrics and adolescent medicine. From an over-booked schedule that forced her to cut back to part-time, to a divorce that nearly took her under while raising three young kids, to a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis in the middle of it all, Cora definitely knows the feeling of burnout well. She offers honest insight into the bold, sometimes messy moves it took to keep loving this work despite everything trying to knock her off her feet. I'm so grateful Cora came on to share with us, it's refreshing to hear how she's made peace with the chaos. And today, she shares how movement, mindfulness, and a hand-picked "mentoring family" are what keep her grounded. Takeaways: We can sometimes recognize burnout in our colleagues long before we recognize it in ourselves. As in Dr. Breuner's case, cutting back to part-time can allow you to sustain a decades-long career rather than leaving medicine entirely. A 2017 metastatic breast cancer diagnosis reshaped how Dr. Breuner approaches both work and her self-worth. Building a "mentoring family", a group of trusted people who fill different supportive roles, has been central to her resilience. Movement, music, and journaling are tools she credits with helping her process grief, stress, and major life transitions. ------- Want your burnout story featured on the show? Email us at it ⁠hello@stillpracticingpod.com⁠ for a chance to be read on an upcoming episode. Follow the show: Instagram @suedaniels.md and @stillpracticingpodLearn more and get transcripts for EVERY episode at www.stillpracticingpod.com For Sales Inquiries & Ad Rates, Please Contact: Sales@Human-Content.Com Connect with Human Content on Socials: @humancontentpods Produced by: Human Content Chapter: 00:00 - Intro 01:52 - Why Pediatrics? 11:22 - Navy, Japan & Mindfulness 17:14 - Spotting Burnout in Peers 25:17 - Hitting Her Own Wall 42:16 - Cancer & Acceptance Therapy 57:11 - Build Your Mentoring Family Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 20 min
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