You Can Have It All, Just Not All at Once with Dr. Joan Chan

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with family physician and educator Dr. Joan Chan for a conversation about ambition, burnout, identity, and the myth of “having it all.”Together, they unpack the pressure many physicians feel to optimize every area of life at once — career, relationships, creativity, wellness, leadership — and why that mindset so often leads to exhaustion and loss of self. Joan shares what she’s learning while helping build a new residency training site from the ground up, including the tension between preserving institutions and protecting the humans inside them.The conversation explores medical education, agency, tradeoffs, focus, seasons of life, and the difference between suffering for something aligned versus suffering inside deep misalignment.Topics include:Why “you can have it all” is incomplete adviceThe hidden cost of trying to do everything simultaneouslyBurnout in medicine and academic systemsBuilding residency programs differentlyInstitutional culture vs. human sustainabilityCreativity, fulfillment, and feeling “alive” againWhy protecting people matters more than preserving systemsA thoughtful, funny, and deeply honest conversation about building a life intentionally — and what medicine gets wrong about success.Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MDGuest: Joan Chan, MDConnect with Joan: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/joan-chan-mdPresented by: The Hippocratic CollectiveFollow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimdAnd subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.