Featured episodes of Definitively Speaking

What does it mean to be transgender? Dr. Ben Haseen, an openly transgender author, health advocate, and physician resident at Duke University Health System, joins Justin—and returning colleague Catherine Wright—to dig deep into the science, politics, and cultural factors underlying this deceptively simple question. Dr. Haseen dispels common misconceptions around gender identity and sexuality, outlines the challenges that trans people face when seeking healthcare, and explains how activism through academia means focusing on “the things that we don’t talk about, but we should.”

Justin, Catherine, and Dr. Haseen explore the personal and systemic aspects of the transgender experience: Does the medical education system adequately prepare providers to care for trans patients? Why are physical and mental health so closely related in transgender healthcare? And how is technology supporting trans people and their physicians?

The American Colleges of Nursing projects a shortage of 230,000 nurses by 2031, a figure that spells trouble for the country’s aging, increasingly sick population. Sean Burke, president of healthcare for Ascend Learning, joins Justin to examine the challenges facing the nursing pipeline—including workforce attrition, lack of professional preparedness, and constraints to educational capacity and access—and explore how providers, academia, and the government can contribute to a much-needed solution.

Justin and Sean discuss why it’s worth expanding the nursing pipeline to include more opportunities for allied health professionals, students from diverse backgrounds, and career switchers. They also raise questions about nursing’s emerging trends: Are travel nurses a double-edged sword for financially strained providers? Can simulations and generative AI help nursing schools do more with less faculty? And are coaches and academic partnerships the key to getting students ready for a career that’s more demanding than ever?

In the last five years, retail care has grown 200%, giving patients a more accessible and affordable pathway to preventive primary care outside of the traditional practice model. Is specialty care the next frontier for retail medicine? Network Eye CEO Jeremy Kirsch and Executive Chairman Steven Wisch join Justin to discuss how their company is using AI to bring ophthalmology into the retail setting, make diagnosis faster and less expensive, and blaze trails for other specialties in the retail care space.

Justin, Jeremy, and Steven examine how retail care and AI can get higher-risk patients into the care continuum earlier and keep them out of the emergency room. They also explore the mutual benefits of partnerships between medical specialists and retailers, the role of retail care under the transition toward value-based care, and why the retail model ultimately elevates—not replaces—private practices.