Medical Media Mixer: The Perfect Cocktail

In this episode, we're shaking up The Tilt Table-Rita — a salty, passion-fruit margarita that doubles as a nod to one of the first-line treatments for our medical topic tonight — and diving into Netflix's buzzy new true crime documentary The Crash (2026). The film revisits the 2022 Strongsville, Ohio case in which 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion...

This week we're chasing sunlight and shadow. We start with the Sunshine Daydream, a bright, citrus-forward vodka cocktail built for imagining yourself somewhere better even when you're stuck inside. From there we head somewhere much darker: Lars von Trier's Palme d'Or-winning musical tragedy Dancer in the Dark, where Björk's Selma escapes a life of poverty, failing eyesight, and looming disaster by slipping into elaborate musical d...

This week on Medical Media Mixer, we're diving into Grady Hendrix's beloved horror novel My Best Friend's Exorcism (2016) and its Amazon Prime Video film adaptation (2022) — a love story about female friendship set against the backdrop of 1988 South Carolina, demonic possession, and a tapeworm that crawls out of someone's mouth in the middle of school. (Yes, really.) The medical pivot point is impossible to ignore: the demon ...

This week, Tara and Nicole pour a Hypnosis (vodka, Hpnotiq, and Squirt) while diving into one of the strangest true-crime-meets-medicine stories out there: Florida high school principal Dr. George Kenney, who wasn't a licensed hypnotherapist but ran one-on-one hypnosis sessions with more than 70 students over five years — three of whom (Marcus Freeman, Wesley McKinley, and Brittany Palumbo) died within weeks of each other in ...

What does Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster Jaws have in common with the real-life story of teenage surfing champion Bethany Hamilton? More than you'd think — and the medicine in between is worth every minute. In this episode, Tara and Nicole pair two very different shark stories to explore what actually happens to the human body during a shark attack, how trauma surgery has evolved over the past 50 years, and why the antibiotic y...

Cyclosporiasis cases have surged past 3,000 across at least 31 states this summer, with Michigan alone reporting more than 1,500 cases since late June — roughly 25 times its typical annual total. In this episode of The Shot, Tara breaks down what's driving the surge, why cases are concentrated in southeast Michigan, and what's still unconfirmed about the sourc...

What do Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Carrie Fisher, Demi Lovato, and Brian Wilson all have in common? They’ve all lived — and created — with bipolar disorder. In this episode of Medical Media Mixer, Tara and Nicole pour the Bipolar Christy (a tart, jewel-toned vodka and pomegranate cocktail as mood-shifting as the condition itself) and dive deep into one of the most misunderstood mental health diagnoses of our time. ...

In Episode 78, Tara and Nicole use the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club as a lens to explore one of the most consequential medical crises in modern history: the HIV/AIDS pandemic. From the 1981 CDC reports of a mysterious illness decimating a community to the 2024 IAS-USA guidelines recommending single-pill daily ART, this episode traces the full arc — the science of HIV pathogenesis, the evolution of antiretroviral therapy, the ...

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This week MMM hits the road for a Making Rounds episode, broadcasting live from Bellemara Distillery in Hillsborough, NJ — New Jersey's first single malt distillery, where every spirit is made grain-to-glass on-site. Sipping on their craft cocktails, Tara and Nicole dig into a stacked lineup: the Netflix dark comedy Sirens, w...

SHOW NOTES

What happens when the algorithm becomes your therapist, your confidant, and your reality? In this episode, Tara and Nicole use Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 13 — "The Rabbit Hole" — as a launchpad into one of the most urgent and underexamined mental health crises of the AI era: chatbot psychosis. When a patient arrives at Dr. Wolf's neurology unit in a full mental health break driven by her relationship w...

This week on Medical Media Mixer, we're pairing a sunrise in a glass with one of the most raw and courageous documentaries in recent memory. We're watching Introducing, Selma Blair (2021, Discovery+) — a film that follows actress Selma Blair through a years-long diagnostic odyssey, a harrowing stem cell transplant, and the daily reality of living with multiple sclerosis. Blair, best known for Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentio...

What does a mob boss in a bathrobe, a serial killer faking split personalities, and a bartender with a fabricated cocktail story all have in common? A great performance changes everything. In Episode 75, Tara and Nicole break down malingering and factitious disorder — two conditions where people fake, exaggerate, or manufacture illness — and why the distinction matters enormously in clinical and legal settings. Anchored...

** TRIGGER WARNING FOR SA**

Episode Summary: In this episode, we examine The Pitt Season 2, Episode 7 and its portrayal of a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). We explore how the episode handled the forensic exam process with realism and care, then break down what SANE nurses do in real life — including training requirements, certification, evidence collection, and trauma-informed practice.

What makes an ordinary person follow an order they know is wrong? This week on Medical Media Mixer, Tara and Nicole explore one of psychology's most disturbing questions through two films that refuse to look away. Compliance (2012) recreates a real-life phone scam in which a caller posing as a law enforcement officer manipulated fast food employees into increasingly harmful acts — and got away with it for years across multipl...

Listen for the latest on the Bundibugyo virus, one of the rarest Ebola species, and the current outbreak.

Complete Show Notes Source List:

After decades of patient frustration, clinical confusion, and a name that never quite fit, polycystic ovary syndrome has officially been renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) — and the science behind that decision is long overdue.

In this episode of...

In this episode, we explore the historical inspiration behind Enola Holmes 2, diving into the real-life dangers of white phosphorus in Victorian match factories and the devastating occupational disease known as phossy jaw. We compare it to the Radium Girls tragedy, examine the chemistry behind bone necrosis, and discuss how these industrial disasters shaped modern workplace safety and medication safety practices. Plus — we pa...

SHOW NOTES The Refill — Ep 27: The Sea Breeze

We're refilling your glass.

Episode 27 was our deep dive into cruise ship medicine alongside ABC's Dr. Odyssey — what really happens ...

The latest on the troubled teen industry and the reform schools we've been watching — an update you need to hear. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/05/11/asheville-academy-shut-down-teens-mental-health-help/89881288007/