- This is Lab Medicine Rounds, a curated podcast
for physicians, laboratory professionals, and students.
Today we're recording a very special episode
to celebrate our 100th episode here at Lab Medicine Rounds.
We're rounding with the full podcast production team,
which includes myself as your host, Justin Kreuter,
the Bow Tie Bandit
of Blood, Transfusion Medicine pathologist
and Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,
Rick Andresen, producer
and director, Melissa Peterson,
MBA, Senior education specialist, and Heidi Zunker, MS,
And education program manager
all here at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
to share their experience,
these behind the scenes stories on starting this educational
podcast and reflecting on past episodes.
It's exciting that it's our hundredth episode.
I think we should start it off by finding out
how did the podcast start out?
So why don't you guys tell us what was the kind
of genesis, how did this all start?
- So it really birthed from a needs assessment
that we sent out to clients of Mayo Clinical Laboratories.
And we found out that people wanted on-demand content,
but, like shorter amounts of it.
And we had never done a podcast before.
So we thought, you know, this might be a great medium for us
to try in terms of providing education to our clients.
And we were told that in order to make a podcast happen,
you need a good host.
And so right away, Melissa and I were talking,
and this is back when we were still in the office
and we're just like, Dr.
Kreuter, like it has to be.
So we reached out to him and thankfully he agreed,
and the rest is history. So yeah,
- We're very grateful that you jumped on board so quickly
too, by the way, because when we were kind
of doing our research
and meeting with other departments
of education throughout Mayo who have done some podcasting,
we were trying to get benchmarks
and, you know, see what we needed to do.
So hosting from, I think we even met with Rick a couple
of times ahead of time being like, you know,
you've recorded some of these,
like, what do we need to know?
And from there we were able to just kind of
piece it together.
- Wow. I'm super glad that you guys had that kind
of needs assessment came out that way.
I think, I'm trying to think back about what year that was
because you know, I think, you know, we kind of knew
what podcasting was.
Rick, you were recording some, I was certainly listening
to some podcasts at the time.
And yeah, when the ask came together, then the opportunity
to hang out with you two was super cool.
'cause maybe what our audience doesn't understand is
that I've, I've been have the privilege of hanging out and,
and working with Melissa
and Heidi for several years about education projects.
Their, their, their hearts also beat for medical education.
So I was, I was super thrilled how this kind
of came together, which then kind of makes us kind
of talk about like, how does this work
around the podcast all, all come together and,
and kind of what's most surprising about it.
Maybe we can kinda tell that story for our audience, kind
of put things front and center.
Heidi, you wanna start us off?
- Sure. Typically the process for us is kind of,
we meet once a month with Dr.
Kreuter and brainstorm different topics.
Maybe there's trending things happening at Mayo Clinic
or in the world, and we really wanna cover those topics.
So then from there, Dr.
Kreuter takes it and invites the consultants
or the guests to the podcast.
And I think the most surprising thing for me is
how much time it does take from start to finish
to complete the whole process. So
- Yeah, I would say regarding the scheduling, it was,
I mean, I've scheduled things on consultant's, calendars
and stuff before, but man, some
of your guys' calendars are insane.
So it, it's really difficult to try to find a time
that works for you, for the guest, that Rick is available
to do the recording
so he can get the editing and things done.
So I mean, I think that
for me has been really like eye-opening
and just having, you know, our questions for the speakers
and the guest speakers laid out, kind
of giving everybody a chance to him
and haw over it ahead of time, which is really nice.
But then sometimes I think people are just
so off the cuff sometimes it, it just comes out
so conversational and so fluid
and I'm like, this was amazing.
I couldn't do that.
- And my, my job actually doesn't start until the recording.
So, and then after, so basically once the recording is done,
I take it and then I take it back in,
in the professional terms, I clean it up
and basically all that really involves is taking out ums
and ahs and pauses.
And sometimes our guests will misspeak
or the.y'll start a sentence and change in the middle of it.
So I'll, I'll clean it all up.
I add music, I add our mid-roll, and then I send it back.
Usually that takes anywhere between a week or so.
And then I'll send it back to Heidi and Melissa
and then they can review it
and then it's up to them to post it.
- Yeah. So from there we take those files
and we get closed captioning for YouTube.
We post them both to transistor and YouTube
and make sure everything's published on Mayo Clinic
Lab's website as well.
So,
- And the social media.
- Yes. Yep.
We do create little promo ads so
that we can promote the podcast on social media.
And Dr. Kreuter has a great Twitter
following, as you all know.
So
- It's been kind of cool to see how that's been growing.
Right. In the sense
that this podcast originally truly was a podcast.
Actually nobody saw us. Yeah.
What the audience doesn't know is this is actually our first
time being here in the studio
where this was actually birthed.
Right. And,
and we were always just recording audio only I was,
you know, very much looking at notes and,
and looking at the people we're interviewing.
But then, then with Covid we really kind of transitioned to,
to virtual, which then kind
of opened up the opportunity since we had video
to get on YouTube.
Right. Which kind of, you know, I guess, did
that change anybody's work process?
No. Whenever we do a recording,
I record the audio and video together
and then basically I'll make two files.
I'll make an audio file only,
and then I'll make a video file as well for Heidi
and Melissa to post on online. So
- You always did that?
Always.
- I Didn't realize that I always did that.
Only because some of my other customers here at Mayo
who do podcasts take the video part of it
to use for promotion.
So they'll take a clip of the video
and they'll have a little clip
of an expert talking about something
and they'll use that to promote it.
And they'll put that on Instagram
or they'll put that on LinkedIn
or they'll put it somewhere
so they can get more eyeballs on it.
Sure. Yeah. So now from your standpoint, what do you have
to do to prepare for one of their podcasts?
Yeah, it is a great question.
One that's changed in the very beginning.
I remember we'd invite experts
and so since we were inviting an expert in a lot
of times was, you know, kind of, we'd love
to have you on your podcast.
Like what are some, some, you know, questions
that I could ask you, you know, kind of deferring to their
expertise of course.
And I think those first couple asks,
of course we had people accept,
but there was a lot more work it seemed like,
because, you know, number one, you're asking them
to do some work to put together the questions.
And then, you know, sometimes people don't actually
post maybe the best questions
or ones that kind of lead to a story.
Or even just thinking about our audience
particularly, right?
So physicians, laboratory professionals and students.
Sometimes we would have to kind of tweak those questions
so there'd be back and forth.
And after doing that, in the beginning, I sort of came
to appreciate, let me just try and,
and then I started where I would actually invite somebody
to the podcast and I would just propose four questions.
And I would say, Hey, here's a draft, feel free to edit.
And I have to say that probably 99% of people
just say, those are great, right?
Let's, let's go. And, and every now
and then you get people that actually do wanna tweak
and something that works great.
But that seriously, I think has cut down on, I think,
at least for me, the amount
of work I do going into it in the beginning.
And then also I think from the getting somebody to commit
and accept the invitation, I feel like we get a little bit
of a higher success rate.
And so with all these kinds of, the learning process
of us kind of starting from scratch,
really not knowing much about podcasts than that, kind of,
let's take a step back
and think about what was the overall goal?
What was kind of the, the mission statement
of the podcast when we, when we started?
- Yeah. So I remember brainstorming this.
Do you remember that meeting Dr. Kreuter? We sat in a room.
- I remember the room. I remember the table.
Yeah, I think we had a whiteboard.
- Yes. And we were just like throwing ideas out there.
And we landed on connecting lab medicine
with the clinical practice through insightful conversations
or educational conversations.
So, and really I would say
another huge goal is every episode Dr.
Kreuter does such an awesome job of, of reaching each one
of those target audiences.
So laboratory professionals, physicians and students.
And he always has like great takeaways.
And so it's, yeah, that's kind of,
yeah, the goal. And I will
- Say, I mean, coming from like Heidi
and my perspective, we don't have the laboratory background.
You know, we have more
of like the business professional side of things.
So being in those meetings with you
and just the way you draft those questions
and the way you ask people things,
I think it's really easy to follow
and understand even for someone like me
who doesn't have the background, the medical background.
So, I mean, a lot of times the information is over my head,
but a lot of times I actually, I'm like, oh, okay,
I understand this better now than what I did before.
- I have to say actually for all three of you, I think
that it's the ultimate compliment.
Like when we finished doing a recording
and you guys are like, wow, that was really great.
Right? Because then I, I know that, right?
We've, you know, with your experience Rick, in, in listening
to so many podcasts and you know, Melissa
and Heidi, from your experience in understanding
medical education, what seems to resonate with people,
it's kind of like the ultimate compliment of okay,
we've told a good story and and packaged it up well.
Right, right. And for me it's always, at least the ones
that have the greatest impact are the ones for students.
Because you could tell they're at the beginning
of their career and you're giving them advice
or telling them, here's things
that these other people have done in their careers.
And I always feel like that those mean the most
because you're basically helping the future generation
of physicians.
So we've done a hundred episodes, that's a lot
to be together for four years or
however many years we've been together.
So what are your guys like, takeaways, funny things,
things that Dr.
Kreuter does that annoys you
or that we always look forward to?
- Well, I know, 'cause we've talked about this before.
So Rick, why don't you start with yours?
- So, because I have to edit these
and I basically sit
through the whole recording the first time,
and then I sit through it again
as I go in and re-edit everything.
There are certain phrases that Dr.
Kreuter likes to use that keep coming up,
and I always get a little chuckle with them.
The the one that always says is,
is it makes my heart go pitter patter.
He always says that one.
The other ones I like is, I'm kind of curious that,
that one you say a lot when you're interviewing
and then let's unpack that or, or let's dive into that.
Those are a couple other things that I,
I hear frequently when I'm doing the
record, when I'm doing the editing.
Well, you didn't miss a beat there.
- He's been thinking about it for a while.
Yeah, well, a hundred episodes, that's a lot.
Well, sorry Heidi,
but I mean, to that point we've kind
of had chuckles at your expense from it and,
but we've included you so you're in on it too.
But I think some of the other stuff was just sometimes
someone would give a really great answer
and something that you hadn't thought of
that they were gonna respond with and you go genius.
Or like, you have some of these like phrases
and we kind of made it into a game.
We're like, oh, tally won for Genius. Yep.
We'll be behind the scenes chatting each other on teams
and we're just like, oh, there comes heart goes
pitter patter down.
- I have to say, right? Like, that's something that,
like you say, I, you guys have brought me in on that
and that's been one of the cool things
for me as a host, right?
Like, you know, life is busy
and a lot of times I'm coming from various clinical things
and, and I think when we kind of come together
and usually we kind of joke about those things when we're
about to start recording, I think that for me is my kind
of like, you know, taking a beat, center, getting,
getting my game face on.
So to level the playing field now.
- Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. We all know,
- We know Rick gives some great pointers to our presenters.
So that's how we kind of get them settled in. Right.
And so as our audience maybe interested
in podcasting
or just curious of what some of that prep goes,
which I know part of it is probably getting them
to feel comfortable.
I'm kind of curious if you'd share
for our audience how you do that.
Absolutely. So a lot of people,
especially medical professionals sometimes are great in
front of their peers giving presentations,
but the instant you stick a camera in their face
or a microphone, it's, it's unnatural.
It's a little weird. So I always try
to get them to relax a little.
So the first thing I always tell them when we do a mic check
to make sure I'm getting good audio levels is I'll say
something like, tell me what you had for breakfast,
or tell me about your favorite vacation you've taken.
And that gets them talking about something unrelated
to what's about to happen.
And so, and sometimes if I can tell they're
really nervous, I'll add something.
Oh, really? What was skiing like at Vaylor?
You know, something just to get them talking off camera.
I always make sure that their video looks good,
so I make sure that there's nothing behind them
that they wouldn't want people to see.
We have had a few instances
where people had their dirty laundry on their bed
behind them, or they had a bookshelf
with maybe some pictures of them goofing off, you know,
on vacation or with their kids
or maybe a book title
that they didn't want people to know about.
So I always make sure that they, you know, take a look
around and make sure there's nothing around
that you don't want people to see,
because people will, will look and see what's behind them.
And then after that it's really just, you know,
take a deep breath and, and try to relax
and try to have fun with it.
So I know for me that sparked some fun memories. Yes,
- Sure.
Does
- Do you guys have a favorite memory?
Keep in mind, right audience? This is during Covid times.
As, as you know, we don't have any professors
with their laundry in their offices. But
- Yes, I, okay, do you guys, this is by far one
of my favorites, and if he's listening to this,
he will know it's him, but that is okay
because he's awesome.
I remember when we first transitioned
to recording these at home via Zoom, you know
how you can pick your background in Zoom?
We had one consultant come on,
and he looked like he was driving a spaceship.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
So I kind of recommended you, you know,
you might want to change it to like a Mayo Clinic background
or maybe Mayo Clinic Laboratories.
And he's like, oh, okay.
So he's like, I'll find the right one.
And I remember he scanned through
and he is like, yep, this is the one.
And it was Darth Vader in the background,
and I'm like, oh, nope, nope, he's serious.
This is what we're rolling with.
So I just, oh yeah, it was great.
How about you, Melissa? Oh gosh.
- Well, didn't one of the physicians have
his mic in his hand? Oh
- Yeah.
- That, that is my personal favorite
because I feel like you were saying, well, yeah, one
of the things you say when we're prepping is kind of like,
oh, it's usually like, do you have a headset mic?
Because you know, when you got a headset mic, no matter
how you turn your face,
like the audio level is gonna be the same.
And this particular attending didn't have one of those.
And, and so he said, oh yeah, no problem.
I'll, I'll, you know, hold it right here, you know,
right in the center of my chest and I'll talk.
And so we're like, okay.
And we get in and like, you know, question one,
tell me a story, and all of a sudden the mic is going out
and it's going in and I, you know, you,
you almost like think that this,
this person is like playing the trombone or something.
I, and I just, I think I held it all eggs.
I was just like thinking, oh man,
Rick, Rick's gonna be sitting there.
I had to reverse engineer every time he pulled it away.
I'd have to bring the levels up and when he brought
it back, I'd have to bring him down.
- Well, and I mean, it's a podcast
and you're trying to make it, I mean, it's not live,
but you're trying to make it flow and things do happen.
I mean, there was what, one episode two where one
of the consultants had a headset
and every time he would start talking about the podcast
and like try to answer one of your questions,
his mic would cut out completely
and it would just go silent.
Yeah. And so then we'd finally like, like, okay, stop, stop.
We're not, we're not hearing you. Right.
And then all of a sudden it would start working
and he is like, you can't hear me.
I'm like, well now we can. But then he'd start talking about
the podcast and giving his
responses and it would cut out again.
- Yeah. So all of those are great stories
and yeah, always fun to have.
So let's talk about, now we've done a hundred of these.
What do you think is different from when we started
the first one that we did here in this studio
to the 99th one that we've just finished?
- Okay. I'm just gonna call it out because I can't help it.
Dr. Kreuters's hair. Can we just talk about that?
- Are - You talking about my covid project?
- I mean, no facial hair whatsoever.
It wasn't long when we first started, you know,
then I think it was the long hair
and then the beard appeared.
It was just all the things.
So I feel like, you know, we might just have
to show a progression of that because
- Oh, definitely.
That was also one of the things
that we would always laugh about.
Like, did you see Dr. Kreuter's hair today?
Like, we haven't seen him in a month.
I know, like it has grown a lot. Yeah.
- Yeah. I had, I had to, for the audience, I had
to trim the, the beard once I started to kind
of get in the way of the bow tie, so the bow type bandit.
And people would just see me reach for my,
- Yeah, I think, ah, something else
that changed a lot just from the progression of COVID.
You know, when we started here we had our teleprompters
going, so you could look into the camera,
you could read the intro and the outro.
That kind of all changed when Covid came too.
And everybody was just kind of on their own screens. Right?
So just kind of trying to remind everybody, like, okay, if,
if you have your talking points, that's great, keep those,
but put them maybe closer to the camera for you.
Otherwise you're looking here, but we're over here.
So just trying to line that kind
of just like those small little details that
you don't really think of right away that now seem,
you know, pretty intuitive to us.
- But - Yeah. Yeah.
I think for me, that reminds me of, again, one
of these things about recording in a studio versus
how we transitioned to over Zoom.
It was like, in the studio, I think we were pretty much bound
to, we could only record people
that were here in Rochester, Minnesota.
Right? I do distinctly remember doing one pre covid
interview where somebody was remote,
but I was here in the studio.
And I have to say like, that was super challenging
because I couldn't see them.
And so that was like the one interview
where I was constantly interrupting them
or they were interrupting me
because that sort of, that, the visual cues
of somebody who is about to speak not present.
And so that's another way,
like this transition has been really good.
Because as, as everybody knows, we've been able to get a lot
of guests from, you know, internationally, we've been able
to bring in a lot of students
and talk with them from a lot of different places.
And that, that's been a really cool way
I think this podcast has,
has changed is it's been a lot more welcoming, open
and got, got a lot more diversity.
Right. Yeah. All right.
So we've, it should be a milestone
that we've hit a hundred, which is great.
So now let's talk about the next hundred.
What do you see Dr. Kreuter
for the coming podcasts in the future?
Well, I think, you know, like we've said,
I think the important thing for this podcast is
that we're putting together these interesting stories
and sharing these perspectives.
So I think that going forward, we want to
lean into this diversity that we have.
And to say that it's also a challenge
because we've tried to reach out to some people
and invite them onto the podcast where I think people think,
oh, you know, you know, why me?
Like, wouldn't you rather have, you know,
like particularly when we've even tried to reach out,
sometimes Allied Health is kind of felt like, well,
there should be a physician that's on there.
It's like, well, no, we really want
that perspective in the mix.
I have to say, our students that we've interviewed, some
of them I've been able to reach out to,
but a lot of them have been students that have been here
and rotated and, and proposed the idea.
So I think maybe
as we talk about leaning into the diversity,
interviewing people from different places,
I encourage the audience, you know, if, if you know,
we can please reach out
to us if you're interested in sharing your story,
your perspective on some aspect that again, bridges that,
that clinical practice and the, and the laboratory practice.
And I think, you know, we'll continue doing this process
of bringing out these perspectives and, and these stories.
And what about for you guys?
What do you think next a hundred episodes?
- Well, I would just like to kind of chime in on what Dr.
Kreuter just mentioned, is that for anyone listening,
if you do get our emails
that we send out when the episodes go live,
you'll see a little link at the bottom
for a quick little survey.
And if you have like thoughts or ideas
or suggestions on things that you,
as the audience want to see, we encourage you to click there
and fill that stuff out.
We check it regularly
and we would just love to hear
what you guys all have to say about it.
- Yeah, good, good call out.
I would just say I'm just excited to see what the next
a hundred episodes, you know,
like from when we started day one, I definitely
didn't foresee the future of where we are today.
I mean, it, it's been a fun journey
and probably one of my favorite projects
that we have in education right now.
So yeah, that's, thanks to you guys.
- Ditto. I mean this, this team is a joy.
And I just wanna say hat tip for, you know,
getting this group that has done so much work from
behind the scenes and bringing up front,
this has been wonderful to do this
reflection with each of you.
Yeah, I agree. So we've been rounding
with the full production crew of lab medicine rounds.
So from all of us involved in the show, all four of us,
we'd like to thank you for your support
and for joining us to celebrate this fun milestone
of our 100th episode.
And if you have any suggestions for the show, we invite you
to send your thoughts via email
to MCL education@mayo.edu.
And lastly, if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe
until our next rounds,
we encourage you to continue to connect lab medicine
and the clinical practice through insightful conversations.