Dr Glaucomflecken on Comedy, Open Access, and the Future of Medical Communication

In this episode of The Future of Medicine, host Dr. Euan Ashley sits down with William Flanary, MD—better known to millions as Dr. Glaucomflecken—for a candid, funny, and deeply human conversation about medicine, media, and what it means to be a physician in the digital age. Recorded during a Stanford Department of Medicine Grand Rounds event, the discussion blends clinical reality with storytelling and comedy to reveal how one ophthalmologist built a second career as a creator, educator, and advocate.

What you’ll hear

• The path to ophthalmology and the double life: Will explains growing up as a class clown, choosing ophthalmology for his day job, and building a thriving online presence four days a week with podcasts, newsletters, live shows, and animated content.
• The alter ego and the empire: The origins of Glaucomflecken, how the character became a recognizable voice in medicine, and the role of his wife as CEO of the Glaucomflecken Empire—keeping projects organized from concept to stage.
• The craft of medical humor and education: How Will translates real clinical experiences into accessible, accurate content, balancing humor with medical detail, and the research process behind public-facing material.
• Open science and storytelling in publishing: The collaboration with the New England Journal of Medicine to expand engagement with clinical trials, and why journals are exploring creative formats to reach broader audiences while advancing understanding and participation.
• Medicine, policy, and disruption: A broader look at healthcare systems, costs, reform ideas, and physician-led advocacy—how clinicians can contribute to meaningful change without sacrificing patient care or scientific integrity.
• Personal balance and purpose: Will’s life with his wife and two kids, the sources of motivation—curiosity, community, and the belief that education can be entertaining and empowering.

Why this episode matters The Future of Medicine explores how medicine is evolving beyond clinics, and Will Flanary’s story demonstrates how clinical expertise, storytelling, and digital media can improve health literacy, demystify research, and humanize the physician experience. The conversation offers practical approaches for clinicians who want to engage the public while maintaining rigor and patient trust.

Takeaways for listeners

• A blueprint for blending clinical work with creative ventures, including safeguards for patient care.
• Techniques for clear, accurate health communication using humor, visuals, and storytelling without oversimplifying.
• Insight into modern publishing and multimedia dissemination, including why journals embrace creative formats and how clinicians can participate.
• Perspective on healthcare systems, cost, access, and reform, with thoughtful commentary on responsible advocacy.
• Inspiration for nontraditional career paths in medicine—educational content, policy dialogue, and creative ventures that stay grounded in patient care.

Who should listen

• Clinicians and trainees exploring nontraditional career paths in medicine.
• Medical educators seeking fresh approaches to engage students and the public.
• Researchers and publishers curious about multimedia strategies to broaden scientific reach.
• Healthcare professionals interested in health policy, health literacy, and patient advocacy.
• Anyone who enjoys medicine told through story, humor, and real-world experience.

Call to action: If you enjoy The Future of Medicine, subscribe for more conversations with leading scientists shaping the next era of healthcare. Please rate and review the podcast to help others discover these important discussions. Share with friends and colleagues who are curious about how science becomes medicine.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:19 Early Experiences in Education and Comedy
• 3:06 Introduction to Stand-Up Comedy
• 6:22 Journey into Medical School
• 7:33 Transition to Ophthalmology
• 10:06 Engagement with Social Media and Research
• 10:44 Creating Comedic Content from Clinical Trials
• 11:21 The Importance of Open Access Research
• 11:36 Navigating Medical Accuracy in Comedy
• 12:40 Character Development in Medical Comedy
• 16:08 The Impact of Humor During the Pandemic
• 20:38 Family Trauma and Aftershocks
• 26:12 Future Projects and Podcasting

Transcript

0:00:00.080,0:00:05.520
"I don't have a GI character. It's just it's 
too easy." Dr. Will Flanary, also known as Dr.

0:00:05.520,0:00:10.240
Glaucomflecken, is a practicing opthalmologist in 
real life and one of the funniest physicians on

0:00:10.240,0:00:15.840
the internet where he has over a million YouTube 
followers. In our conversation, he shares stories

0:00:15.840,0:00:20.320
from the beginning of his career. "When someone 
offered me a stool to sit on for the first day,

0:00:20.320,0:00:24.800
I was like, 'This is it. I'm an opthalmologist.' 
Like, what is all this standing?" Including his

0:00:24.800,0:00:30.240
personal experience surviving a cardiac arrest. 
"My wife woke up to the sound of me gasping

0:00:30.240,0:00:34.960
for breath. She ended up doing 10 minutes of 
compressions." Welcome to Stanford Department of

0:00:34.960,0:00:39.760
Medicine's inside look at the future of medicine. 
Thanks for coming to Stanford Department of

0:00:39.760,0:00:44.080
Medicine Grand Rounds. What an amazing place. 
Last time I was here, I was interviewing at

0:00:44.080,0:00:49.600
the opthalmology residency program. Yeah. Okay. 
Yeah. Things went in a different direction for

0:00:49.600,0:00:53.840
you. Yeah. You know, things will always work out 
like... They seem to be working out quite well.

0:00:53.840,0:00:57.600
As I mentioned just a moment ago when you were 
talking on stage for department Medicine Grand

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Rounds, I think you may be one of, if not the most 
famous medical doctor alive. There's a few others.

0:01:06.080,0:01:12.320
Yeah, none of them are as funny as you. Maybe um 
in the world of opthalmology, I would say. Yeah,

0:01:12.320,0:01:17.840
you're certainly the most famous internet 
sensation Tik Tok video comedian. Put more

0:01:17.840,0:01:22.560
qualifiers in there. We've ever had at Grand 
Rounds. Well good. But what an incredible story

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and we, you know, record turnout of course to 
to see you. Uh just so many people coming back

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in person, which is what we're hoping for our new 
grand rounds. When we came to think about who we

0:01:31.520,0:01:37.200
could get, who might help us really only one name 
rose to the top. Oh, is that right? It was it was

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your alter ego's name cuz I'm not sure many people 
know your real name. People did a great job of

0:01:42.000,0:01:46.400
like saying Glaucomflecken today. I think everyone 
said it correctly. I sent everyone a picture of

0:01:46.400,0:01:51.360
some Glaucomflecken just to remind them and me. 
Yeah, most people don't know what that is. It's

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a real thing in opthalmology. So, let's go back to 
your Tell me, were you funny growing up? Yeah. You

0:01:57.360,0:02:03.200
know, I I was I always uh I loved making my friend 
group laugh. I was always and I was a class clown.

0:02:03.200,0:02:09.040
I It got me into trouble from time to time. Yeah. 
What sort of trouble? Well, you know, I was also

0:02:09.040,0:02:15.600
a smart kid and so I was I was doing the I was 
in gifted education classes and and um my mom

0:02:15.600,0:02:21.840
actually in sixth grade, she taught the advanced 
language arts class. Okay. So, I was in her class.

0:02:21.840,0:02:27.440
Terrible idea. No, it did not go well. So, she 
was a little harder on me than other kids. Okay.

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At one point, she cuz I kept acting up and she she 
sent me to the principal's office. Okay. And I got

0:02:34.800,0:02:40.720
a discipline report I had to get signed by my dad. 
So, you know. Yeah. Was she funny? Were your mom

0:02:40.720,0:02:44.960
and dad funny? Oh, my Yeah, they they they have 
a good sense of humor for sure. But no, I mean,

0:02:44.960,0:02:50.640
my dad's an engineer, aerospace engineer. Okay. My 
mom's a teacher and and so none of them are in the

0:02:50.640,0:02:56.080
entertainment comedy world. I got started in it 
just uh with a friend of mine. We decided or he

0:02:56.080,0:03:01.200
was actually doing standup comedy in Houston and I 
just was like, I'll tag along. I'll check it out.

0:03:01.200,0:03:04.640
And you were in high school then? I was in high 
school. Senior in high school. Yeah. Okay. And

0:03:04.640,0:03:09.680
before that, you'd just been making your friends 
laugh. Yeah. Just, you know, cutting up in class.

0:03:09.680,0:03:14.320
Yeah. So, what what did it take to move from, you 
know, just making fun of people in a little group

0:03:14.320,0:03:19.920
to getting on the stage with a microphone? It was 
exhilarating. I remember my first time on stage,

0:03:19.920,0:03:23.600
five minutes of jokes. I spent so much 
time writing these jokes. My first joke,

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I don't remember what it was, but it I remember 
it went off great. Big laugh and then I bombed the

0:03:28.080,0:03:32.960
rest of the set. It was like that. I needed that 
first. I was like, "Whoa, this feels so good."

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Just the rush of like making a room full of 
strangers laugh. There's nothing quite like

0:03:37.920,0:03:42.320
it. And this big dopamine rush. Yeah, it seems 
as though I was going to say it must be something

0:03:42.320,0:03:47.520
that you're forever chasing as a... Inherently 
like standup comedy is a bit selfish like you

0:03:47.520,0:03:52.240
all have to listen to me talk for the next x 
amount of time. It's fun to create something

0:03:52.240,0:03:58.720
that results in that response because, you know, 
a laugh is such a just a a basic, you know,

0:03:58.720,0:04:02.880
primal response to something. And so being able 
to get that out of somebody is really fun. Yeah.

0:04:02.880,0:04:08.720
And we know about all the Yeah. the the, you know, 
the the positive health benefits people laughing,

0:04:08.720,0:04:14.080
which is amazing. But then had you thought, what 
did were you thinking of a career at that point?

0:04:14.080,0:04:19.440
I never really seriously considered a career 
in comedy. Um I I I was always I loved science.

0:04:19.440,0:04:25.200
I I was I was thinking about med school early on, 
like in in high school, I was thinking maybe I

0:04:25.200,0:04:29.920
want to be a doctor. The uh the comedy always 
just felt like kind of just something I'd like

0:04:29.920,0:04:36.080
to do. I I you know, whenever you whenever 
it's a hobby, it's there's less pressure,

0:04:36.080,0:04:41.680
right? And it just it kept it fun for me. And 
and so yeah, the whole time I was always like,

0:04:41.680,0:04:46.720
"Oh, this is just something I'll I'll do on the 
side." And turns out I just was able to turn it

0:04:46.720,0:04:52.720
into basically a career. Yeah. Yeah. Two full-time 
jobs now. That Well, that was You were telling me

0:04:52.720,0:04:57.440
earlier you you are an opthalmologist four days 
of the week. Yeah. Yeah. Still practice for That

0:04:57.440,0:05:02.400
surprises people. Yeah. Uh because they see all 
the content and think like how on earth is he able

0:05:02.400,0:05:08.080
to also see patients and you have two kids and 
two kids and a wife and Yeah. And so life is busy,

0:05:08.080,0:05:12.960
but I have a lot of help. So the Glaucomflecken 
and it's never it's not just me and it can't be

0:05:12.960,0:05:17.920
there's no way I could do all of this by myself. 
So I a lot of credit to my wife obviously uh who

0:05:17.920,0:05:23.920
who runs the Glaucomflecken Empire. Right. Right. 
Yeah. Well, you were just describing the show that

0:05:23.920,0:05:27.840
you've done with her this year. Yeah. We did a 
we did a show called Wife and Death, which uh

0:05:27.840,0:05:33.520
we we toured it around to uh theaters and comedy 
clubs uh last year and a little bit this year as

0:05:33.520,0:05:38.560
well. Just telling our story. Yeah. And you were 
doing that on the weekends. Yeah. The weekends.

0:05:38.560,0:05:43.440
The family would go. Any free time. Yeah. Exactly. 
They bring the kids. They'd run the merchandise

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booth. They run the They put up signs and stuff 
and that's great. Yeah, they love it. Hulking

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the merchandise for you. It's good. Probably 
pretty good sales people. Oh, yeah. Well, you

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It's hard to turn down a little cute 10-year-old 
with curly blonde hair. Yeah, I get that. I get

0:05:57.120,0:06:01.200
that. That's probably a very profitable step. 
He's like, "Do you want this picture of my dad?"

0:06:01.200,0:06:05.360
He or you can Oh, you can get this one and this 
one. Look. Don't you like this one? Yeah. So,

0:06:05.360,0:06:09.840
she's a good Very effective. Very effective. Just 
don't tell her Just don't tell her that uh that

0:06:09.840,0:06:15.600
she um uh doesn't get commission. Yeah. Oh, she 
doesn't have Hourly rate. Hourly rate. I see. No,

0:06:15.600,0:06:20.400
no pocket money commission there. Yeah. You told 
a great story a few moments ago on the stage about

0:06:20.400,0:06:26.240
how you ended up in opthalmology like and not in 
not in vascular surgery. No. No. Give us a little

0:06:26.240,0:06:31.440
sense of that. Oh man. I So I didn't know what 
I wanted to do uh when I got into med school.

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I just knew I wanted to be a doctor. And um it it 
took a long time for me to figure that out. I was

0:06:36.080,0:06:40.000
banking on the clinical rotations like being the 
thing like okay I'll figure it out doing all the

0:06:40.000,0:06:45.840
rotations. My first clinical rotation was vascular 
surgery, which is a heck of a way to a hard way to

0:06:45.840,0:06:51.280
jump into the hospital, hospital medicine. Hard 
rotation. I I remember the first week, you know,

0:06:51.280,0:06:57.520
just trying to survive, like trying to just just 
do what I can to be helpful. Uh I remember I had

0:06:57.520,0:07:06.320
my short white coat on, full of bandages and tape. 
It's like a pack mule just holding all this stuff.

0:07:06.320,0:07:10.080
And then at the end of the first week, the 
chief resident pulls me aside. He's like,

0:07:10.080,0:07:17.680
"Will, we really need you to hit the automatic 
door buttons earlier on rounds." And it's like,

0:07:17.680,0:07:22.880
I didn't know uh this was a core competency. 
No one told me. I had to time it perfectly. So

0:07:22.880,0:07:28.000
they don't have to slow down. So they do move very 
quickly for the hospital. Um and then eventually,

0:07:28.000,0:07:32.080
you know, I realized I loved surgery, but that 
rotation wasn't for me. That that specialty

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wasn't for me. Five hour, six hour, seven hour 
surgeries just standing in the operating room.

0:07:37.040,0:07:41.280
I left that rotation. Yeah. And started a 
two-week opthalmology elective and someone

0:07:41.280,0:07:46.320
offered me a stool to sit on for the first day. 
I was like, "This is it. I'm an opthalmologist.

0:07:46.320,0:07:51.040
That's all I needed. I just sit down like what's 
all the standing?" No. Yeah. A little less blood

0:07:51.040,0:07:57.920
as well. Yeah. A little bit very much opposite in 
so many ways to vascular surgery. Yeah. Yeah. It's

0:07:57.920,0:08:02.720
amazing how our our specialties are are really so 
specialized. I mean, they are. And it's just it's

0:08:02.720,0:08:06.800
just getting more and more subspecialized over 
time. And I've lost track of how many internal

0:08:06.800,0:08:11.440
medicine fellowships there are that you can do. 
Yeah, I should know that. I probably Can't you do

0:08:11.440,0:08:18.160
like a vein fellowship? I don't know. Pretty much 
you know the left anterior vennea as you just one

0:08:18.160,0:08:22.880
at a time. Yeah, exactly. But yet somehow and you 
you talked about this on stage, but in order to

0:08:22.880,0:08:26.800
do comedy at the level you do, I mean this is one 
of the reasons I think you've been so successful.

0:08:26.800,0:08:32.880
I mean you you you really are razor sharp with 
the things we like to make fun of of ourselves,

0:08:32.880,0:08:38.640
the things we understand about ourselves and your 
your sense of being able to observe that then make

0:08:38.640,0:08:43.760
fun of it in a very generous way I should say is 
just straight on. But that can't come you can't

0:08:43.760,0:08:48.000
remember all that from medical school surely. No, 
no. How do you Tell us about your process. Yeah,

0:08:48.000,0:08:53.840
a lot of the characters I draw on interactions 
I've had with people for sure. Um, there's a

0:08:53.840,0:08:59.120
neurologist that I remember from med school, very 
much like my neurologist. Big glasses, big brain.

0:08:59.120,0:09:04.400
Yeah, exactly. Big hair and all this stuff. And 
then, you know, the the the typical surgery,

0:09:04.400,0:09:10.640
anesthesia dynamic. So, all the the personalities 
and the the how they interact with each other. I

0:09:10.640,0:09:16.640
that's all med school pretty much. I do have to 
whenever I include like actual medical knowledge

0:09:16.640,0:09:20.880
because there has to be some of that, right? 
I have to do more and more research. Yeah. I

0:09:20.880,0:09:26.880
don't remember any of that stuff. I'm getting on 
like Reddit threads from like eight years ago,

0:09:26.880,0:09:31.200
you know, basically trying to figure out what 
are the pet peeves that different specialties

0:09:31.200,0:09:36.080
have and what kind of irritates this person versus 
that person. If you're making content for a bunch

0:09:36.080,0:09:39.680
of physicians, bunch of people in medicine, like 
the first thing they're going to do is point out

0:09:39.680,0:09:43.920
any kind of medical errors, right? Regardless, it 
could be the funniest thing in the world. If you

0:09:43.920,0:09:50.720
said something wrong about furosemide, like you're 
going to hear about it and that's all people latch

0:09:50.720,0:09:55.600
on to that and that's it. So, I do have to be 
careful to make sure I'm as accurate as possible.

0:09:55.600,0:10:00.080
Yeah. Yeah. Which makes you probably one of the 
most generalist opthalmologists. I probably do.

0:10:00.080,0:10:04.800
I'm got to be top 1% of opthalmologists that 
know something about body medicine. About body

0:10:04.800,0:10:08.720
medicine. Right. Right. Well, and now you you've 
been doing a few of these videos. I've seen one

0:10:08.720,0:10:12.640
or two for the New England Journal of Medicine. 
You know, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. Thinking

0:10:12.640,0:10:17.600
about how to expand the message even of a clinical 
trial. You must have had to learn a few words for

0:10:17.600,0:10:22.640
those. So, for those that was an interesting 
arrangement. I give a lot of credit to the New

0:10:22.640,0:10:27.440
England Journal. Yeah. Because they were thinking 
outside the box. They were like, "Okay, how can

0:10:27.440,0:10:32.480
we increase engagement? How can we get people to 
pay attention to research? It's harder and harder.

0:10:32.480,0:10:37.280
Journals are not they're, you know, it's kind of 
an old-fashioned way of publishing, right? So,

0:10:37.280,0:10:41.840
how do you get that kind of engagement in the 
world of social media?" And so, they reached out

0:10:41.840,0:10:45.440
and they're like, "Hey, what if we give you some 
trials? You can just take a couple of them every

0:10:45.440,0:10:49.760
month, make a skit about it." Right? And I was 
like, "I'll do it on one condition. I don't have

0:10:49.760,0:10:53.440
to read all these trials. That's right. Someone 
will summarize them. I'm an opthalmologist. Like

0:10:53.440,0:11:00.320
I'm So I was like, give me a one-page summary and 
the pertinent points. I'll I'll make a skit about

0:11:00.320,0:11:06.080
it. And um and then my other thing with that was 
I want to make sure that the trial that I make

0:11:06.080,0:11:12.000
a skit about is published open access. I hope 
that anybody can have have access to is really

0:11:12.000,0:11:18.160
important. Um and so it's worked out really well. 
I I think there the engagement's through the roof

0:11:18.160,0:11:23.040
compared to you know what it has been. Uh and 
people just love storytelling. They love comedy.

0:11:23.040,0:11:29.040
And if you can combine that with research 
on education on education absolutely Comedy

0:11:29.040,0:11:33.440
abstract that's basically right comedy. More 
journals should do that. There might not be enough

0:11:33.440,0:11:38.080
comedians. There may not. Yeah. I certainly can't 
do all of them but really the message is just you

0:11:38.080,0:11:43.760
can't keep doing the same thing. Media is changing 
so much. You have to adapt. you have to think of

0:11:43.760,0:11:48.480
other ways to reach people. And I think one of the 
things we all love about your comedy is it it also

0:11:48.480,0:11:52.960
has a moral center. And you've been you've been 
vocal in relation to the publishing companies, for

0:11:52.960,0:11:57.520
example. So the idea that that any any articles 
you're going to be commenting on are open source.

0:11:57.520,0:12:03.200
I think that that's really important. And it I was 
very very intentional of who I would do something

0:12:03.200,0:12:07.920
like this with and the New England Journal is 
one of the better ones. It's actually a not for

0:12:07.920,0:12:12.720
profit. It's a nonforprofit. I'm sure many people 
know that. Yeah. Yeah. compared to some of the

0:12:12.720,0:12:18.000
other bigger journals that you know some of these 
publishing companies have profit margins of 20%.

0:12:18.000,0:12:22.960
They're make billions of dollars and so I think 
that's a big problem and so I was happy to be able

0:12:22.960,0:12:26.960
to do this with the New England Journal. Yeah. 
Yeah. Let me go back to your characters because

0:12:26.960,0:12:30.800
of course that's how we all really know you 
through you know you talk about how you get the

0:12:30.800,0:12:35.600
pet peeves and some of the material but but when 
you're developing a character how do you how do

0:12:35.600,0:12:39.200
you get to decide what they're going to what's the 
prop going to be and you know how how do you get

0:12:39.200,0:12:43.840
what's the magic sauce there? That kind of because 
I didn't want to have to when I would make a

0:12:43.840,0:12:50.560
video I I didn't want to have to put text to like 
reintroduce the character every time. Right. Cuz

0:12:50.560,0:12:55.360
everybody wears scrubs. Yeah. Right. So, it's like 
something I had to do something to differentiate

0:12:55.360,0:12:59.920
who these people are. So, I was like, "Okay, well, 
how is the internist going to be different from

0:12:59.920,0:13:05.280
the nephrologist, the nephrologist versus the 
cardiologist?" The the props are just my way of

0:13:05.280,0:13:11.120
like showing so that people can see a character 
and know immediately that's the nephrologist.

0:13:11.120,0:13:16.320
Yeah, that's the emergency physician. And the 
props are the easiest way to do it. Um, and it's

0:13:16.320,0:13:21.200
just more of a natural way of of of introducing 
the characters and they just stuck. You know, the

0:13:21.200,0:13:26.880
the salt, you know, was just about hyponatremia. 
Yeah, that's that was a common joke for me. I've

0:13:26.880,0:13:33.520
made so many jokes about about sodium over the 
years that it made Yeah, it made sense to uh to

0:13:33.520,0:13:39.600
just have the Morton salt container. Still waiting 
for Morton Salt to reach out to We were trying.

0:13:39.600,0:13:45.280
We're trying, but you know, how much advertisement 
does salt need? I don't know. Probably not much.

0:13:45.280,0:13:51.040
Every character like I try to make it make sense, 
the props like the the emergency physician,

0:13:51.040,0:13:56.800
you know. So, it's um that's fun. That's one of 
the best parts is I've got a closet full of random

0:13:56.800,0:14:00.640
the most random things you can think of. Well, 
and it's amazing because I wouldn't have guessed

0:14:00.640,0:14:06.400
that a bicycle helmet would define an emergency 
physician for me, but it does. And every single

0:14:06.400,0:14:11.280
one I speak to go, "Yeah, that's exactly right." 
Yeah. You know, the the adrenaline junkies,

0:14:11.280,0:14:17.920
you know, they're always on a bike or or doing 
some kind of dangerous activity. Yeah. You know,

0:14:17.920,0:14:23.600
many comedians talk about how their much of their 
comedy comes from some amount of suffering they've

0:14:23.600,0:14:28.480
had. That's a sort of a common thing for comedians 
to talk about. And you've obviously had your own

0:14:28.480,0:14:34.640
medical challenges. You talked a little bit about 
them. Give me a sense of of of those and and how

0:14:34.640,0:14:39.600
they've informed your your approach to life. Yeah, 
it's really common to to use humor as a coping

0:14:39.600,0:14:44.480
mechanism. I certainly have. You know, my I was 
diagnosed with testicular cancer as a med student

0:14:44.480,0:14:50.560
and then again in the other testicle uh about in 
residency and then four years after that I had a

0:14:50.560,0:14:56.160
cardiac arrest that was unrelated to the cancer. 
Yeah, that is um not lucky. No, definitely not.

0:14:56.160,0:15:02.720
I was just and I've broken the four-year curse. 
Yeah. That's been five years now. So, I'm I'm free

0:15:02.720,0:15:07.520
to talk about that. Yeah. you know, and with the 
first cancer diagnosis, I I'd kind of gotten away

0:15:07.520,0:15:14.960
from comedy a little bit, but going through that, 
um, it reignited my interest in I was like, what

0:15:14.960,0:15:19.920
am I what else am I going to do? Might as well 
just tell jokes about it. Just it it's a way to

0:15:19.920,0:15:26.320
to take whatever that horrible thing is that's out 
of your control and and make it yours again. Yeah.

0:15:26.320,0:15:33.040
And uh, you know, turn it into something that you 
control. Yeah. and can share a laugh about it with

0:15:33.040,0:15:37.920
others. It's a very powerful cathartic, you know, 
thing. And that's why so many people use humor,

0:15:37.920,0:15:42.880
especially medicine. Like funny people everywhere 
in medicine. Sometimes we have to just, you know,

0:15:42.880,0:15:47.200
laugh about it. Yeah. Yeah. But it's also a gift, 
I think, that you're giving other people, other

0:15:47.200,0:15:51.280
sufferers, people who've been through the same 
sorts of things. A lot of the feedback I've heard

0:15:51.280,0:15:57.920
over the years is related to the pandemic and that 
people use my content to to help them have a laugh

0:15:57.920,0:16:03.360
at the end of a terrible day. And that that means 
a lot to me because first of all, there's only so

0:16:03.360,0:16:08.800
much an opthalmologist can do during a respiratory 
pandemic. Yeah. Uh, and so if I can at least help

0:16:08.800,0:16:16.480
the people who have been helping people laugh 
and feel good, have some kind of hit of dopamine,

0:16:16.480,0:16:21.280
you know, to to just, you know, whenever they've 
had there's seen so much suffering, like that

0:16:21.280,0:16:29.200
feels good. Yeah. And that's what actually kept 
me going and kept kept reinforcing uh my desire to

0:16:29.200,0:16:35.840
to make comedic content is because of that kind of 
feedback. Yeah. And we've um as we talked earlier,

0:16:35.840,0:16:41.600
I'm I mean I'm a cardiologist with an interest 
in inherited causes of sudden cardiac death. And

0:16:41.600,0:16:46.480
so we see a lot of patients here at our Stanford 
Center who've been through exactly what you have.

0:16:46.480,0:16:51.440
And it's, as you point out so well, it's it's 
not just the patient in some ways patients going

0:16:51.440,0:16:55.440
through it. They they have a lot to deal with, 
but it's the people around them. And in your case,

0:16:55.440,0:17:00.880
it was even more dramatic than that because it 
wasn't just that your your family were nearby.

0:17:00.880,0:17:06.800
They were actually part of the Yeah. My wife woke 
up to the sound of me gasping for breath at 4:00

0:17:06.800,0:17:12.240
in the morning. And she is not in medicine, so she 
didn't know what was going on. She just thought I

0:17:12.240,0:17:17.520
was snoring, tried to get me to wake up, but I 
wasn't budging. So, she called 911. Uh, turns

0:17:17.520,0:17:22.640
out I was having agonal breaths. Uh, which a lot 
of people don't realize, you know, are these, you

0:17:22.640,0:17:27.440
know, purposeless kind of breaths. You know, they 
don't, you're not actually breathing. Uh, but it's

0:17:27.440,0:17:34.640
a sign of cardiac arrest. And so, um, she didn't 
realize that. And the the dispatcher um asked her

0:17:34.640,0:17:40.960
two questions that uh that they're trained to ask. 
Are you able to wake him up? Like is he arousable?

0:17:40.960,0:17:45.920
Like you know that's the first question. The other 
question is is he breathing normally? And if the

0:17:45.920,0:17:51.840
answer is no to both of those, the decision is to 
do chest compressions and so uh she ended up doing

0:17:51.840,0:17:57.040
10 minutes of compressions and and Had she been 
trained in CPR before? So she was being talked

0:17:57.040,0:18:02.240
through that by the dispatch. Yeah. Yeah. The 
the instructions. We've listened to the 911 call,

0:18:02.240,0:18:08.480
you know, dozens of times at this point because 
we when we do live shows together, we'll uh we'll

0:18:08.480,0:18:14.480
play that call. It's very dramatic. Yeah. Very 
dramatic uh um audio. Yeah. And you were on the

0:18:14.480,0:18:18.720
bed at the time. I was on the bed. I I'm like 100 
pounds heavier than her, so she wasn't moving me

0:18:18.720,0:18:24.240
and just kept doing it until they showed up. That 
is really good CPR. It is. It's amazing. I still

0:18:24.240,0:18:31.440
don't know how she did it. Um but you know it was 
a v-fib arrest and uh shocked me a bunch of times.

0:18:31.440,0:18:36.000
Oh, so when when the ENT came. Yeah. When the ENTs 
came and this is at the height of COVID. So that's

0:18:36.000,0:18:40.880
why you know it took 10 minutes because they had 
to protect themselves. We didn't have vaccines.

0:18:40.880,0:18:47.120
We didn't have anything really. Barely had PPE 
and that's what took so long. And then my back

0:18:47.120,0:18:53.840
door was locked. So they busted open, knocked it 
down and then shocked me I think five times. And

0:18:53.840,0:18:59.360
Right. Yeah. And I mean any of us know who've had 
to do CPR just how hard it is to do like after a

0:18:59.360,0:19:05.840
minute. She was a bit sore after the next day. 
Absolutely. That was I it's amazing, you know.

0:19:05.840,0:19:10.400
Yeah. Even two minutes, right? You're supposed to 
We swap the residents out because they're tired

0:19:10.400,0:19:15.360
after 2 minutes and you know that's and it's it's 
really hard work and to do good CPR is when it's

0:19:15.360,0:19:21.040
a loved one it's different. Yeah. You know. Yeah. 
Just remarkable a remarkable story. And what you

0:19:21.040,0:19:26.960
emphasize so well in your in your when you tell 
these stories is is what it is as a family to go

0:19:26.960,0:19:33.680
through cardiac arrest. Yeah. Everybody thinks 
about the patient, right? And and of course like

0:19:33.680,0:19:42.400
it happened to the patient, but um my cardiac 
arrest, it was in my body. My cancer was in my

0:19:42.400,0:19:47.360
body, but it happened to her. It happened to 
my wife. It happened to Kristen. And and a lot

0:19:47.360,0:19:52.880
of times it's these types of things are just as if 
not more traumatic for the family. And usually for

0:19:52.880,0:19:56.320
an out of hospital cardiac arrest, as you know, 
it's usually the family members who respond,

0:19:56.320,0:20:02.320
right? It's trauma is what it is. We're telling 
people all the time, learn CPR, learn how to do

0:20:02.320,0:20:08.000
chest compressions, but that's not a trivial thing 
to do. We take it for granted in medicine. We do,

0:20:08.000,0:20:14.080
right? And then the after effects of that are 
something that we just don't recognize. And so

0:20:14.080,0:20:20.480
Kristen uses this term co-survivorship, which is 
a fantastic term to really describe, you know,

0:20:20.480,0:20:26.320
what it is that she's experienced because there's 
PTSD. There's there's trauma associated with doing

0:20:26.320,0:20:32.240
what she did. We've been talking a lot about 
co-survivorship. She does amazing advocacy work.

0:20:32.240,0:20:38.640
She's creating a guide to help other people, 
other co- survivors to to navigate that that

0:20:38.640,0:20:43.920
trauma. And there's another way that I think we 
often talk about in our clinic that these kinds of

0:20:43.920,0:20:49.280
conditions are often genetic. And so there's also 
an implication even beyond the immediate family,

0:20:49.280,0:20:53.920
right? Who who are obviously have witnessed a 
given event. But then there's the question of

0:20:53.920,0:20:59.120
well could this affect family members. Well, and 
that's that you know the after effects we call

0:20:59.120,0:21:05.840
them aftershocks. Yeah. Of this event. One of 
them is just fear. Like I was afraid of being

0:21:05.840,0:21:11.120
alone for a long time. Like I would never have 
come here because I had to be in a hotel room by

0:21:11.120,0:21:17.520
myself. Yeah. There's no way. Yeah. Um I would 
for for weeks I would wake up to find my wife

0:21:17.520,0:21:21.120
checking to make sure I was breathing. Yeah. In 
the middle of the night checking to make sure the

0:21:21.120,0:21:25.200
kids were still breathing. Yeah. This is exactly 
what I'm saying. Yeah. And and they they're they

0:21:25.200,0:21:32.560
had they had echoes. They had they're evaluated 
totally fine, but it's just that that uncertainty

0:21:32.560,0:21:37.280
of of it. So. And I think like an aftershock, I 
think it's a great metaphor. You mean it's it's

0:21:37.280,0:21:42.160
most at the beginning, but then there's little 
ripples that happen and eventually they get

0:21:42.160,0:21:46.240
smaller. They never really go go away, but they 
get smaller. They don't. Still haven't gone away,

0:21:46.240,0:21:52.960
you know? It's it's a it's a continuous process of 
putting your life back together um after something

0:21:52.960,0:21:57.920
like this. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. through your 
comedy, you've also when we touched on it just

0:21:57.920,0:22:02.640
a little bit earlier about the moral center 
of this and a little bit about the publishers,

0:22:02.640,0:22:07.920
but you know, I think partly because of those 
experiences, you've sort of understood not

0:22:07.920,0:22:11.520
just from a doctor's perspective, but from 
a patient's perspective, how how absurd our

0:22:11.520,0:22:16.960
healthare system is. This event really kicked 
off the all my content that I make about the

0:22:16.960,0:22:22.240
health care system because I learned so much 
experiencing it from the patient side of things.

0:22:22.240,0:22:28.160
I had a huge fight with my insurance company to 
cover all the bills. They I had surprise bills

0:22:28.160,0:22:32.720
that They told you you were supposed to determine 
while you were unconscious. So the ambulance took

0:22:32.720,0:22:37.840
me to an in network hospital but the doctors in 
the hospital were out of network. Yeah. And you

0:22:37.840,0:22:43.600
should have known. I I should have known like I 
I didn't call first before to check, you know.

0:22:43.600,0:22:49.520
So it's and and and the thing is when we talk 
about advocacy, this whole thing kicked off a

0:22:49.520,0:22:54.080
bunch of advocacy that I I I do about the 
healthcare system. Advocacy works. And now

0:22:54.080,0:23:00.000
we have the No Surprises Act which what happened 
to me wouldn't have happened. Yeah. Yeah. If if

0:23:00.000,0:23:06.880
that was in place and so it works. Yeah. It works. 
Sometimes we get into this feeling like like it's

0:23:06.880,0:23:11.680
our healthcare system is so dysfunctional that 
there's nothing we can do to make it better. But

0:23:11.680,0:23:16.960
I always push back on that, right? Because we can 
and we've seen wins. Yeah, we see that I think and

0:23:16.960,0:23:22.080
that message came through today from you, one of 
hope, right? We can make things better. Of course,

0:23:22.080,0:23:26.080
we're used as doctors to looking at the patient in 
front of us and trying to make their lives better.

0:23:26.080,0:23:30.720
And we've always felt agency over that. Sometimes 
less and sometimes more. But that feels like

0:23:30.720,0:23:35.760
something we can control. But what we often feel 
we can't control and causes stress within doctors

0:23:35.760,0:23:41.200
is of course the system that you know is very hard 
to control. But I think you've also shown us that

0:23:41.200,0:23:45.440
with through the power of of comedy, through the 
power of your following and your network, these

0:23:45.440,0:23:52.160
advocacy elements can can move the needle one step 
at a time can move towards a better system. That's

0:23:52.160,0:23:56.000
the way to I think to approach it, you know, 
and and everybody can do it, you know, either

0:23:56.000,0:24:01.200
in person or social media like just educating 
people about the healthare system is advocacy,

0:24:01.200,0:24:07.920
right? And we love we had Mark Cuban come to to 
Grand Rounds uh recently and and talk also about

0:24:07.920,0:24:12.080
how he's thinking about disrupting the healthcare 
system from the outside. He's he's obviously not

0:24:12.080,0:24:16.480
a physician but someone who's been involved in 
the health care system and realize how absurd it

0:24:16.480,0:24:22.160
is and thinking of ways of That's great. I I love 
what he's doing. Yeah. With cost plus drugs and

0:24:22.160,0:24:30.080
um that's an area that as physicians we don't 
really know a lot about coming out of our

0:24:30.080,0:24:33.600
training. No. No, the pharmacy side of things. 
Yeah, we when he was here I had I did show of

0:24:33.600,0:24:38.640
hands to say who's heard of a pharmacy benefit 
manager? Thankfully in a way in a way. Nobody

0:24:38.640,0:24:43.920
really did. Right. And I didn't. Yeah. And it it 
took me I actually went and and because I' I've

0:24:43.920,0:24:47.680
made a couple videos about PBMs because once I 
started hearing about them I was like I cannot

0:24:47.680,0:24:52.480
believe this is what pharmacist are dealing with. 
This is what our patients are dealing with. I was

0:24:52.480,0:24:57.360
a practicing physician at this point. I I went to 
a a community pharmacist near where I work. I was

0:24:57.360,0:25:02.480
like can you explain this to me? I can't even 
wrap my head around what exactly they do. Yeah.

0:25:02.480,0:25:07.600
And it's just eye opening and and that's that's 
an area that we all need to be more informed

0:25:07.600,0:25:13.040
about because um you know the insurance companies 
they have their hands in so many different places,

0:25:13.040,0:25:17.440
pharmacy being one of them. Uh but now they're 
United Healthcare is the largest employer of

0:25:17.440,0:25:22.960
physicians in this country. Yeah. So it's this 
vertical integration that that their tendrils kind

0:25:22.960,0:25:28.880
of infect everything that we do in healthcare. 
And so it's not something we can ignore. Yeah,

0:25:28.880,0:25:32.960
that education through entertainment. Is that that 
something you actively think about or it just sort

0:25:32.960,0:25:38.720
of comes about? I I can't I can't be serious about 
anything. Yeah, I know it's, you know, I'm always

0:25:38.720,0:25:44.000
looking for some kind of angle or some some way 
to to add some humor to it. Part of that's just

0:25:44.000,0:25:50.480
my nature, but also that's just how you reach 
people. Yeah. Now. You know, it's people respond

0:25:50.480,0:25:54.880
to to humor. Yeah. And comedy. And so, you're 
going to get more people looking at your stuff

0:25:54.880,0:25:58.640
and you're going to spread your message a little 
farther. Yeah. Well, we had absolutely standing

0:25:58.640,0:26:03.360
room only today. That was great. It would appear 
you are at the peak of your powers, but where

0:26:03.360,0:26:08.720
where do you go? Where does Dr. Glaucomflecken 
go from from here? Good question. I've never

0:26:08.720,0:26:13.600
been a major like future thinking person. You 
got to get my wife in here. She's She runs the

0:26:13.600,0:26:21.760
business. Yeah. Yeah. She is the CEO like like 
strategy for I just I just make my silly videos.

0:26:21.760,0:26:26.400
Um but we we have projects that we've been wanting 
to do. Obviously we have our we have our podcast

0:26:26.400,0:26:31.200
which has been a lot of fun doing more deep dives 
into topics having guests on. I talk a lot about

0:26:31.200,0:26:36.960
opthalmology people who want to somebody's got to 
somebody's got to exactly uh and so that's knock

0:26:36.960,0:26:44.080
high with the Glaucomfleckens. We have different 
ways we're trying to reach people um and every now

0:26:44.080,0:26:48.240
and then we put a live show out there. So yeah 
the live shows I'd love to catch one of those.

0:26:48.240,0:26:54.160
your animated series is a new thing. That looked 
a perfect fit for your Yeah, we we self- financed

0:26:54.160,0:26:59.280
it ourselves. I realized how expensive animation 
is. So, we did a few episodes that's based on our

0:26:59.280,0:27:03.920
characters because I've always thought these 
characters are they're cartoonish in a way.

0:27:03.920,0:27:08.240
Yeah. No, perfect. So, like lends itself and and 
so we we want to do this and what we're going to

0:27:08.240,0:27:13.280
do is we're going to try to see if we can find 
some external funding and or maybe pitch it to

0:27:13.280,0:27:17.440
different streamers. See if anybody wants to pick 
it up. Yeah, we'd love to see you on mainstream TV

0:27:17.440,0:27:22.560
in the network. At the very least, it was just a 
fun it was a fun project. Fun to see. Yeah. Well,

0:27:22.560,0:27:28.480
you've made so many people's lives brighter, Will, 
and obviously your own patients, but by reaching

0:27:28.480,0:27:32.640
this really huge audience. You've been such an 
inspiration and we can't thank you enough for

0:27:32.640,0:27:37.920
being here. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks so much. 
The preceding program is copyrited by the board of

0:27:37.920,0:27:44.880
trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University. 
Please visit us at med.stanford. stanford.edu