The Backstory Podcast

Does love have a place in health professions education?In this episode of The Backstory Podcast, Justin, Hannah, and Ben explore “A Thick Description of Love’s Contours for Health Professions Education,” a thought-provoking paper by Katie Lee Bunting and colleagues. Drawing from philosophy, critical pedagogy, and feminist scholarship, the paper challenges us to consider love not as sentimentality, but as a transformative practice that can shape relationships, learning, and power in healthcare. Tune in for a lively discussion about the people who taught us about non-romantic love, what it might look like to bring love into our work as educators and clinicians, and a few unexpected pop culture detours along the way.Citation:Lee Bunting K, Krumeich A, Nimmon L. A thick description of love's contours for health professions education. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. Published online February 26, 2026. doi:10.1007/s10459-026-10504-4Time Stamps:00:00 - Introductions04:02 - An introduction to the paper04:50 - Personal experiences with non-romantic love07:50 - Methods and results16:42 - Hot takes20:38 - Katie Lee Bunting joins The Backstory PodcastVisit our website for show notes, transcripts, and to become a subscriber!Keywords: Love, Medical Education, Humanism, Relationships, Critical Theory

What happens when supervisors intentionally allow trainees to fail? And when does that kind of failure become a powerful learning experience, versus something harmful?In this debut episode of The Backstory Podcast, Drs. Ben Kinnear, Hannah Kakara Anderson, and Justin Bullock explore the Medical Education paper “Trainees’ perceptions of being allowed to fail in clinical training: A sense-making model” by Dr. Jennifer Klasen and colleagues.Together, they unpack the complicated emotional and educational terrain of failure in clinical training — from growth and resilience, to shame, interpretation, and trust.They then welcome on the lead author Dr. Jennifer Klasen, surgeon and medical education researcher at the University of Basel, to explore the deeper story behind the study. Dr. Klasen shares how personal experiences shaped the research, how her thinking has evolved since publication, and what educators often misunderstand about failure in clinical training.Whether you’re a learner, supervisor, or educator, this episode invites you to reconsider how we think about mistakes, supervision, and growth in medicine.Citation:Klasen JM, Teunissen PW, Driessen E, Lingard LA. Trainees' perceptions of being allowed to fail in clinical training: A sense-making model. Med Educ. 2023;57(5):430-439. doi:10.1111/medu.14966Time Stamps:00:00 - Introductions03:32 - An introduction to the paper05:48 - Personal experiences with failure09:24 - Methods and results17:06 - Hot takes18:46 - Dr. Klasen joins The Backstory PodcastVisit Our Website for show notes, transcripts, and to become a subscriber!

In this introductory episode of The Backstory Podcast, we share the inspiration behind the show and what you can expect from future episodes. From unpacking impactful research to sitting down with authors, we’ll explore the real stories behind the scholarship—the pivots, challenges, and moments that don’t make it into the final manuscript.Because in health professions education, there’s always more to the story, its just how far back you are willing to go.

Meet The Backstory Podcast—where the stories behind the scholarship finally get told.Every publication has a journey: the moments of doubt, the unexpected pivots, the conversations that changed everything, and the questions that refused to let go. Yet in the final manuscript or conference presentation, those human elements are often left out.In this trailer episode, we introduce the vision behind The Backstory Podcast. In each episode, we’ll explore thought-provoking research in health professions education—and then sit down with the authors to uncover what really happened along the way.