Vital Times: The CSA Podcast
Vital Times is the podcast of the California Society of Anesthesiologists, bringing you conversations about anesthesiology, anesthesia care, patient safety, medicine and health care. Tune in every second Tuesday of the month with your hosts Ludwig Lin, MD, and Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP, FASA. Each episode features insights and perspectives for anesthesiologists, physicians, medical professionals, trainees and anyone interested in the practice of medicine. Whether you're looking to stay informed on the latest in anesthesia, perioperative care, patient safety, or learn from experts in the field, Vital Times is your go-to source. Join our community of listeners and enrich your knowledge and experience with every episode! *Views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual guests and hosts.
Episodes
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Welcome back to Vital Times, the podcast of the California Society of Anesthesiologists.
The news: CSA is launching its first Podcast Host Contest. We're looking for new voices for this show — and we're looking for it among you.
Who's eligible: Anesthesiology residents and fellows at California programs. Medical students at California medical schools with a demons...
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Decreasing insurance reimbursements, rising costs, longer hours, lower pay, less agency over your working conditions, and increasing administrative and educational requirements. These are just a few of the issues that many anesthesiologists and physicians face. Meanwhile, governments make ill-considered rules, cut funding, prevent fair and equitable negotiations, and non-ph...
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Dr. Beth Duggan, Vice Chair of faculty development at UAB, and Dr. Daryl Oakes, Stanford Associate Dean of Post Graduate Medical Education, speak on ways anesthesiologists can escape being pigeonholed to instead craft a fulfilling and sustainable career.
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When Congress celebrated July 4 by enacting House Resolution 1 (known as H.R. 1 or the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), experts warned of massive impacts on Medicaid programs nationwide and the more than 70 million people who rely on them.
H.R. 1 cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, the largest funding reduction in the program’s 60-year history. The nonparti...
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Dr. Ludwig Lin (@LudwigLin) of CSA’s Vital Times Podcast catches up with one of the Match 2026 viral stars - Shay Taylor Allen (@Shayy.Taylor), a MS4 at Howard University School of Medicine, whose clip of herself jumping up and down in celebration when she matched to her first choice of Yale Anesthesiology Residency. As the first episode in a CSA Vital Times podcast a...
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Welcome to another episode of Vital Times.
In January 2026 the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) issued an updated joint communication regarding severe neurologic complications, including stroke and death, in healthy young adult (oldest reported so far is 36) and pediatric patients of Venezuelan ancestry following rout...
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This episode of Vital Times features a conversation with clinician-scientists Dr. Jamie Sleigh and Dr. Elizabeth Whitlock, whose work focuses on delirium and perioperative brain health. They explore the emerging role of intraoperative processed EEG monitoring and its potential to improve postoperative neurological outcomes. This discussion highlights the evolving tools and ...
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Today’s episode features a truly special conversation with Dr. Diana Ramos, California Surgeon General, and Dr. Calvin Johnson, Professor of Anesthesiology—both dedicated advocates for improving maternal health.
Dr. Ramos is a distinguished public health leader who earned her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at USC and completed her OB-GYN training...
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Welcome to another episode of the CSA’s Podcast Vital Times
In September 2025, a landmark ruling by a California judge stated that nonphysicians could not use the term “Doctor” in a clinical setting. This was a ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by Three California-based nurse practitioners. They challenged California Business and Professions Code ...
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Dr. J.W. Beard, a UCSF-trained anesthesiologist and Chief Medical Officer of GE Healthcare’s Patient Care Solutions division, joins the Vital Times podcast to discuss his remarkable career journey. As a member of the Board of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, Dr. Beard shares how his background in anesthesiology uniquely prepared him for leadership in the medi...
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The CSA and the Vital Times podcast are proud to recognize Dr. Ana Maria Crawford of Stanford University, recipient of the 2025 ASA Nicholas Greene, MD Award for Outstanding Humanitarian Contribution.
In this episode, host Dr. Ludwig Lin speaks with Dr. Crawford about her decades-long commitment to advancing global health. To learn more about opportunities to get involved in...
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Dr. Ludwig Lin of the CSA Vital Times Podcast sits down with Dr. Adjoa Boateng Evans, a former Stanford ICU and anesthesia attending and now faculty at Duke University School of Medicine to discuss her pioneering work in bringing Humanities and personal expression into academic anesthesiology. She shares how this approach can help healthcare professionals navigate the stres...
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Dr. Jason Leong began his career as a night-shift nurse in the emergency department, quickly advancing to the role of charge nurse. Determined to further his impact in patient care, he went on to attend medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He then completed a combined Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology residency at Stanford University, follow...
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Welcome to another episode of Vital Times, the CSA podcast!
I'm your host, Dr. Rita Agarwal, and today we’re revisiting an important topic: mentorship. We've discussed mentoring before, but its significance in the lives and careers of anesthesiologists makes it worth exploring again.
Strong mentorship can have a transformative impact, especially for early career an...
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In this episode of the CSA Vital Times podcast, host Dr. Ludwig Lin explores the role of Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants (CAAs). He speaks with anesthesiologists who have experience working alongside CAAs and navigating the legislative efforts to establish a CAA system in clinical practice. The episode also features a CAA who is a leader in education and practice mana...
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Catch this episode where *both* of the Vital Times podcast hosts, Drs. Rita Agarwal and Ludwig Lin, show up, and discuss how they fell in love with Anesthesiology, and podcasting.
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We were all shocked by the murder of Brian Thompson the United Health Care CEO in early December. What was just as surprising was the comments deny, delay and depose written on the bullets. Once the alleged shooter was arrested, information started to trickle out that he suffered from low back pain and spondylisthesis. Speculation ran rampant that the problems with his back...
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For Black History Month, Dr. Ludwig Lin is honored to speak with someone who’s been through all of it. Dr. Marilyn Hill Harper, raised in the South, educated at a HBCU and then training in the Midwest, joined the prestigious UCSF faculty in the 1970s, at a time when both women and Black physicians were rare. Her story is ever relevant.
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Host: Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP, FASA
Guests: Rakhi Dayal, MD, and Amber Borucki, MD
Welcome to another episode of Vital Times, the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Podcast with your host Dr. Rita Agarwal.
Pain is the most common reason that people seek medical care and since the beginning of time, we have searched for better ways to treat pain. For many years opium...
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There have been a lot of questions recently regarding the appropriateness of patients scheduled for care in an ambulatory surgical center (ASCs). It appears that sicker and more complex patients are being scheduled for care in an ASC, and many anesthesiologists are increasingly concerned about the safety of anesthetizing these patients in locations that may lack resources t...
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