The 12 Best Junior Doctors Podcasts (2026)

Sharp Scratch has been around since 2009, which in podcast years makes it practically ancient, and the fact that it's still going strong after 154 episodes says a lot. Published by The BMJ (that's the British Medical Journal for the uninitiated), the show pairs medical students and newly qualified doctors with expert guests to talk about everything medical school sort of forgets to mention. Hosted currently by Zaynah Khan, the conversations feel candid without being reckless. One episode tackles what it's actually like working night shifts as an FY1, another asks whether the GMC is silencing young medics, and there's a genuinely memorable Halloween special about dissection horror stories. The format varies between interviews, panel discussions, and more intimate two-person chats, usually running 20 to 40 minutes. It's biweekly, which gives you enough time to process one episode before the next lands. What sets Sharp Scratch apart from other junior doctor podcasts is the institutional backing combined with real vulnerability. These aren't polished PR segments; they're honest conversations about navigating deafness in medicine, dealing with surgical anxiety, and figuring out your identity as a new doctor. The show earned a 4.8-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and the 150th episode celebration in January 2026 featured a retrospective on whether a universal medical school experience even exists. If you want something that respects your intelligence while acknowledging that being a junior doctor is genuinely hard, this is the one to start with.

Dr Abdul and Dr Amz have built something unusual with The Scrubbed In Show. It's a podcast for doctors who are curious about what happens beyond the ward, at the intersection of healthcare and entrepreneurship. With 195 episodes and counting since 2019, the two junior doctors turned hosts interview founders, healthtech builders, and clinicians who've taken unconventional paths. Recent conversations include a compliance expert in healthtech, a dermatology AI startup founder, and a clinician who pivoted into venture capital. Episodes run 30 to 55 minutes, released weekly. The tone is warm but substantive. They don't shy away from asking how someone actually made the leap from clinical medicine to building a company, which is refreshing when so many career-adjacent podcasts stay vague about the mechanics. Powered by Peerr, a knowledge-sharing platform for healthcare professionals, the show sits in a sweet spot between medical education and business inspiration. Listeners have called it life-changing, and it holds a perfect 5.0 rating on Apple Podcasts, albeit from a small review pool. For junior doctors feeling restless or curious about portfolio careers, side projects, or healthtech, this show makes those possibilities feel concrete rather than abstract. It's less about leaving medicine and more about expanding what being a doctor can look like.

Dana created Junior Doctor's Corner as a resident medical officer with one clear mission: help junior doctors not just survive their early years, but actually enjoy them. Over 70 episodes released between 2018 and 2023, the show built a loyal following by tackling the subjects most doctors think about but rarely discuss out loud. Burnout, perfectionism, family planning during training, imposter syndrome — it's all here, handled with genuine care rather than clinical detachment. The format mixes solo episodes where Dana shares personal reflections with guest conversations and a listener-driven segment called ISBAR, where audience members contribute their own experiences. Episodes on clinical exam preparation sit alongside discussions about healthy eating habits when you're working 12-hour shifts, and a thoughtful introduction to psychotherapy aimed at doctors who might benefit from it. The show's strength is its intimacy. Dana speaks like someone who's been through it and wants to make the path easier for whoever comes next. At 5.0 stars on Apple Podcasts, listeners clearly appreciate the approach. While the show wrapped its run in mid-2023, the back catalog remains deeply relevant. The advice on advocacy in medicine, managing insulin resistance during stressful training periods, and navigating work-life balance hasn't aged. If you're a medical student or foundation year doctor looking for a podcast that treats you as a whole person, not just a clinician in training, this archive is worth working through.

Dr. Kirtee Koushi Conhyedoss goes by Koushi, and the podcast they've built lives up to its subtitle. The Unspoken Truth is exactly what this show delivers: raw, vulnerable conversations about the parts of medicine that stay bottled up. Across 43 monthly episodes, Koushi creates space for healthcare professionals to talk about patient death, workplace bullying, racism in clinical settings, and the emotional weight of cases that follow you home. Episode 41 is particularly striking, exploring the cases that haunt clinicians long after the shift ends. Another features a 28-year Navy medicine veteran reflecting on a career most people can barely imagine. The format relies on extended, multi-part conversations rather than quick takes. That means episodes can run long, but the depth rewards patience. Koushi's interviewing style is gentle and probing, allowing guests to sit with difficult feelings instead of rushing past them. This isn't a clinical education podcast. It's about the human cost of practising medicine and what happens when doctors are finally given permission to be honest about it. The show touches on parenting during deployment, navigating loss, and the cultural dynamics within nursing and medical teams. For junior doctors who feel isolated in their struggles or wonder if anyone else is carrying the same weight, hearing these conversations can be genuinely reassuring. It normalizes the hard parts without pretending they're easy.

The name says it all. Naabil Khan and Chloe Jones are medical students documenting their journey through training in real time, and the result feels refreshingly unpolished in the best way. Very Junior Doctors runs biweekly across 29 episodes, mixing personal stories from the hosts with interviews featuring doctors at various stages of their careers. They cover GP training pathways, foundation programme preparation, healthcare management, and the transition from student to junior doctor, all from the perspective of people who are actively figuring it out themselves. What makes this show work is the honesty. Naabil and Chloe aren't dispensing wisdom from the far side of a successful career. They're asking the questions that current medical students actually have, like what an F3 year really involves, how to network at medical conferences without feeling awkward, and what charity work during med school actually looks like on your CV. Episodes also feature conversations about women in STEM, public speaking skills, and mental health advocacy. The production is straightforward, just two friends talking and occasionally bringing in guests who can speak to specific specialties or career paths. If you're in medical school right now or about to start your foundation years, this is the podcast that feels most like it was made specifically for you. It doesn't pretend to have all the answers, and that's exactly what makes it trustworthy.

Choosing a medical specialty can feel paralyzing when you're staring down 61 GMC-recognized options, and Chantal Corbin made A Doctor's Insight specifically to fix that problem. Over 32 weekly episodes, the show follows a consistent format: a specialist doctor introduces their field, walks through the pathway they took to get there, and then offers practical advice to medical students and junior doctors considering the same route. It sounds simple, and it is, but simple done well is exactly what this audience needs. Episodes cover everything from general surgery and haematology to plastic surgery and emergency medicine. There are also episodes on the less-discussed realities of junior doctor life, such as surviving night shifts, handling your first day on the wards, and navigating those tricky on-call situations that nobody prepares you for. Later episodes explore clinical teaching fellowships, F3 gap years, and even working in Australia, which opens up the conversation beyond UK-centric training paths. The structure makes it genuinely useful as a reference tool. You can skip straight to the specialty you're curious about without losing context. Chantal brings a straightforward interviewing style that keeps guests focused on practical details rather than vague inspiration. For medical students in their clinical years trying to figure out where they belong, and for foundation doctors wondering what comes next, this is one of the most practical resources in podcast form. Each episode is essentially an informational interview you didn't have to schedule yourself.

The YODPOD comes from You Okay, Doc?, a charity with a straightforward mission: change how the medical profession thinks about mental health. The host is Tom Mitchell, which might surprise you, because he's a former England Rugby 7s captain and Olympic silver medallist, not a doctor. But that outside perspective turns out to be an asset. Tom brings a performance athlete's understanding of pressure and mental resilience to conversations with wellbeing experts, healthcare professionals, and industry leaders across 58 episodes and six seasons. The discussions are biweekly and tend to run 40 to 50 minutes, long enough to get past surface-level answers. A standout episode features Kate Beed remembering her colleague Liz and talking about suicide and grief with devastating honesty. Others tackle career changes from medicine, redefining work-life balance, and what it actually means to thrive rather than just cope. The show earns its 5.0 rating by refusing to be preachy. It doesn't lecture junior doctors about self-care or suggest they just need more yoga. Instead, it puts real people in front of the microphone to share what broke them, what helped, and what they wish they'd known earlier. The charity backing means there's no commercial agenda, just genuine concern for healthcare workers' wellbeing. For any junior doctor who's struggling quietly or knows a colleague who is, The YODPOD is the kind of podcast you listen to and realize you're not alone in feeling overwhelmed.

Medical school teaches you physiology, pharmacology, and how to take a history. It does not teach you how ISAs work, what to do when you're broke in August, or how to start a business on the side. That's where What Medical School Doesn't Teach Us fills the gap. Produced by Medics' Money as part of their broader podcast network, the show is hosted by Sanay, Cyra, Max, and Matthew, all medical students or foundation year doctors themselves. Across 42 weekly episodes released during 2023 and 2024, they cover the practical life stuff that medical curricula consistently ignore. Financial literacy episodes explain ISAs and tax planning in language that doesn't assume you have an accountancy degree. Career development episodes feature interviews with doctors who've launched startups or built content creation businesses alongside clinical work. One memorable episode profiles Dr. Ramdoo's journey from scalpel to startup. Others explore diversity in medicine, the realities of taking a year out in London, and how to evaluate side hustle ideas realistically. The conversations feel peer-to-peer, like getting advice from the slightly older student who's already made the mistakes. Episodes run around 25 to 35 minutes, which is perfect for a commute or a quick lunch break. The show fills a genuine need. Junior doctors are notoriously underprepared for the financial and career management side of their lives, and having a resource that tackles these topics without condescension is valuable.

Hosted by a rotating team of UK medical students including Afrida, Mez, Hannah, and Krish, How To Become A Doctor is the Medic Mentor podcast that documents daily life in medical training with 119 episodes of genuine insight. The show started in 2020 and has kept going through 2024, covering an impressively wide range of topics from specific intercalation degrees to foundation programme experiences across different UK deaneries. What stands out is the specificity. Instead of generic "day in the life" content, you get detailed breakdowns of what studying neuroscience as an intercalation actually involves, or how the Aberdeen medical school experience differs from a London teaching hospital. Episodes on public health sciences, infectious disease pathways, and medical technology give aspiring doctors a real sense of what their options look like. The hosting style is relaxed and student-led. These aren't scripted presentations; they're genuine conversations between people who are living the experience and want to share what they're learning. The show earned a 4.5-star rating on Apple Podcasts and invites listener feedback through Instagram. For pre-med students, the early episodes lay out pathways clearly. For current medical students, the foundation programme coverage across multiple regions is particularly useful for deciding where to apply. It's not the most polished production, but the authenticity and practical detail more than compensate.

Run the List might be the most efficient medical education podcast out there. With 112 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from 248 reviews, this show has earned serious credibility among medical residents and students. Hosted by Walker Redd, Emily Gutowski, Navin Kumar, Joyce Zhou, and Blake Smith, each episode runs under 30 minutes and covers a single internal medicine topic with laser focus. The format is consistent: clinical presentation, diagnosis approach, management plan, and clinical pearls. That's it. No rambling intros, no tangential storytelling, just the information you need delivered clearly. Topics range from colon cancer screening and septic shock to a three-part deep series on SIBO covering presentation, diagnosis, and treatment. Pulmonary embolism, gout, and obesity all get the same thorough-but-concise treatment. The show also provides downloadable handouts for many episodes, which makes it genuinely useful as a study resource rather than just passive listening. Listeners consistently praise the evidence-based approach and the direct delivery style. For junior doctors starting their internal medicine rotations or residents preparing for board exams, Run the List functions almost like a portable textbook, one you can absorb during a commute or a gym session. The bimonthly release schedule means the catalog grows steadily without overwhelming your feed. It's the kind of podcast you recommend to every colleague starting their rotation.

Dr Cheryl Martin has a particular talent for getting doctors to talk about the things they usually guard closely. Over 88 episodes of The Mind Full Medic Podcast, she's built a show focused on physician wellbeing, professional fulfillment, and what optimal performance actually looks like when you're also trying to be a functioning human being. Based in Australia and sponsored by the Medical Benevolent Association of NSW-ACT, the show carries a 5.0-star rating from listeners who appreciate Cheryl's ability to draw out guests who think differently about healthcare. Conversations run long, often past the hour mark, which gives guests room to breathe and share properly. A recent episode with Dr Graham Walker MD explores bringing joy and humanity back to medicine in practical terms, not abstract idealism. Another features Associate Professor Vikram Palit on healthcare innovation and technology. There's also a strong thread of evidence-based wellbeing research throughout, including a conversation with Colin West MD PhD on what actually works for physician wellness versus what just sounds good on paper. The show works because Cheryl genuinely listens. Reviewers note her desire to find doctors who operate outside conventional boxes, and the conversations reflect that curiosity. For junior doctors who want to build sustainable careers rather than burning through their twenties and thirties on fumes, this podcast offers both inspiration and practical frameworks. It takes the long view on medical careers in a way that most training-focused shows don't.

Med, Nik, Emezie, and Ayo are four junior doctors working in the UK who decided to put a microphone in front of the conversations they were already having privately. The result is Doctors Don't Talk, a short but impactful eight-episode series recorded across 2020 and 2021. The title is pointed: these are the discussions that happen in break rooms and WhatsApp groups but almost never in public. The show launched during the pandemic with "Life on The Front Line," capturing what it was actually like to be a junior doctor during COVID-19. From there, the episodes tackle Covid conspiracies and misinformation, mental health in the profession, workplace equality, work-life balance, and the four-day working week debate. Episodes run 30 to 46 minutes, long enough for genuine discussion without dragging. The group dynamic works well because you get four distinct perspectives rather than a single narrative. They disagree, they laugh, and they share frustrations that will feel familiar to anyone who's worked in the NHS. The series finale, "Moving on," wraps up their first chapter together with real reflection on growth and transitions. While the show only produced eight episodes, each one is dense with honest conversation. It's less of an ongoing commitment and more of a contained series you can work through in a weekend. For UK junior doctors specifically, there's a specificity to the NHS experience here that broader medical podcasts often miss. Sometimes the most valuable thing a podcast can do is simply say what everyone's thinking, and these four do exactly that.