Zapping parts of the brain to know where to cut, operating a mouth-controlled microscope that's worth more than a house, and carrying the weight of life-or-death decisions with Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic. How do you preserve a mathematician's expertise when removing tumors? And how did he go from picking tomatoes to performing brain surgery?
Dr. Q wrote about his remarkable journey to the operating room in the book, Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon.
He was also featured in the Netflix documentary series The Surgeon’s Cut.
IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: Check out what it's like to be a hospice nurse, a nurse, a veterinarian.
WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.
GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at jobs@whatitslike.com
FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at partnerships@whatitslike.com
WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.
We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.