Life-Sparring Podcast - Round 15: Henrik Widegren (MD) - Never Google Your Symptoms
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Life-Sparring Podcast - Round 15: Henrik Widegren (MD) - Never Google Your Symptoms
Synopsis:
I always get real experts in their respective feels to join me in the virtual Life-Sparring ring. However, this time, I hit one out of the ballpark and convinced an actual rockstar of medicine to spar with me. Henrik Widegren (MD) is based in Lund, Sweden, where he works in the university clinic as Otolaryngologist or Ear, Nose & Throat doctor.
When Henrik is not seeing patients or is participating in clinical research, he is composing, writing, and performing songs about healthcare and medicine. He published several albums in Swedish and English, and in 2019, Henrik landed a viral hit with his song “Never Google Your Symptoms,” attracting more than 4.3 million views on YouTube.
My conversation with Henrik covers a lot of topics. As usual, we start at the very beginning, in Henrik’s case, playing the recorder in a community music school and eventually taking over his sister’s guitar. We cover Henrik’s musical youth, how he settled on studying medicine, and why he chose otolaryngology of all things over fancier specializations, such as neurosurgery.
Interestingly, Henrik’s choice of a medical specialization was influenced by similar criteria as was Dr. Ki Chan’s, who was a guest on round 6 of Life-Sparring. Both Doctors were highly influenced by the role models they were working with during their internship.
Further in our discussion, we cover how Henrik became the most prominent singing medical professional in Sweden since Dr. Alban (“It’s my Life,” you remember?) and how it felt to be a viral sensation. We discuss what motivated Henrik to write the song and how it resonated differently in India and Africa. And, of course, we discuss Henrik’s musical influences.
Henrik and I both have a side gig (his singing, my podcasting, and blogging) that we treat as a second job, and we discuss why we believe that Kabir Sehgal was right with his HBR article. “Why You Should Have (at Least) Two Careers.” Henrik and I both agree that his musical career makes him a better doctor and why you possibly would benefit from a side gig too.
Last but not least, we talk about the state of the medical profession and what we believe could improve the communication between doctors and patients. We also discuss critical medical topics such as the Man Cold, snoring, excessive earwax, and losing your voice to a spicy Malaysian dish.
I had an absolute blast talking to Henrik, and I am sure you will also enjoy this one.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Henrik Widegren’s Official Website
Henrik’s YouTube Channel
Henrik’s Viral Hit “Never Google your Symptoms” on YouTube
Henrik’s Artist page on Spotify
Havard Business Review Article: ”Why you should have at least two careers”
Kyle Sue, The science behind “man flu”, British Medical Journal, BMJ 2017:359
An authentic recipe for Beef Rendang: Rasa Malaysia
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About the Life-Sparring Podcast:
Sparring is an important part of martial arts; it is the reality check of your abilities. As Mike Tyson famously said: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Life-Sparring takes the sparring from the ring into real life. Hear Life-Sparring host Fabian Gruber punching above his weight, interviewing top experts in their respective fields, trying to fight (his own) mediocrity one round at a time.
The Life-Sparring podcast is hosted by Fabian Gruber and produced by Thomas Latter.
Intro and Outro beat is produced by Markezi Producer.
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