Awakening Doctor

What are the odds that a young man from Sluma View, Katlehong, will find himself at Oxford University?
Whatever they are, Dr Wonderful Thabiso Khumalo, medical doctor, Rhodes scholar, award-winning poet, and emerging global health researcher, has defied them. 
In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Thabiso speaks candidly about growing up without his biological father, losing his mother as a teenager, and navigating matric while living alone - often not knowing where his next meal would come from. With extraordinary vulnerability, he shares for the first time publicly the circumstances surrounding his mother’s death, and reflects on masculinity, resilience, and the impact of being “shunted into manhood” too early.
The conversation highlights the many unseen realities behind academic excellence: the loneliness of survival, the quiet strength derived from community, the racism and class disparities embedded within medical training, and the power of service in shaping identity. Thabiso reflects on his years at Wits University, his passion for mentoring and student leadership, and the colleagues and peers who sustained him through some of the most difficult years of his life.
Now pursuing a PhD at Oxford University focused on gun violence in low-resource settings, Thabiso speaks about ambition, purpose, spirituality, and what it means for a young man from Katlehong to become part of Oxford’s “living memory.”
Join us for a powerful exploration of leadership and resilience, and be reminded that behind every accomplished doctor is a deeply human story waiting to be heard. 
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support this work, please consider donating to our podcast fund using the link above. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and keep bringing you great content. No amount is too small, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for listening!

Host:
Dr Maria Christodoulou

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakeningdoctor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningDoctor

Website: https://www.awakeningdoctor.com/podcast

What might change if we allowed ourselves to really be with death? If we turned towards our mortality, rather than away from it?
In this episode of Awakening Doctor, host Maria Christodoulou speaks with end-of-life doula, death educator, and writer Chloe Hope about what it takes to accompany people at the threshold between life and death.
Chloe shares the childhood loss that shaped her relationship with death, why she prefers the 'big talk' of doula work over superficial small talk, and how her wildlife rescue work with hatchling birds mirrors her experience at the bedside, with both beginnings and endings demanding full attention and a willing heart.
Together, they reflect on the love and grief that weaves through this work and explore the cultural tendency to label death as failure. They also consider the subtle violence that arises when we try to solve the 'problem' of dying, and the challenge of discerning what needs intervention from what needs witnessing.
Through personal stories of ritual and community, we learn how presence can transform care, and that acknowledging that the body knows how to die might change the choices we make for ourselves.
Join us for a thoughtful conversation about humanity, mortality, and the courage to stay present at life's most tender edge.
Find out more about Chloe's work here: https://www.liminalcompanion.com/
Read Chloe's Substack, Death and Birds here: https://www.deathandbirds.com/
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support this work, please consider donating to our podcast fund using the link above. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and keep bringing you great content. No amount is too small, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for listening!

Host:
Dr Maria Christodoulou

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakeningdoctor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningDoctor

Website: https://www.awakeningdoctor.com/podcast

Before she even graduates as a doctor, final-year medical student Sarah Stein is already asking questions many doctors avoid.
Her widely published article, What They Don’t Teach in Medical School, in which she wrote candidly about moral distress, emotional isolation, and the realities of becoming a doctor in South Africa’s resource-constrained public health system, travelled far enough beyond the lecture halls that it was quoted in the 2025 national budget speech.
In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Sarah, raised in a family of medical academics, grapples openly with legacy, expectation, and the question of whether medicine is truly her chosen path, or one shaped by forces larger than herself. With rare vulnerability, she reflects on both the brutality and privilege of clinical training; the disillusionment, self-doubt, and life-and-death responsibility carried by young trainees; and the challenge of defining what it is to be a good human.
The conversation turns deeply personal when Sarah shares her experience of losing her father, renowned academic Professor Dan Stein, and what it has meant to grieve this devastating personal loss within the very public spaces he once occupied. Her reflections on mourning, ritual, and community reveal how loss reshapes identity, and how essential kindness, compassion, and presence truly are.
At once thoughtful, questioning, passionate, and self-aware, Sarah represents a new generation of young graduates who are asking not only how to practice medicine, but who they are becoming in the process. Join us for a tender and vulnerable conversation about legacy, responsibility, and the evolving heart of medicine. 
Read Sarah's article here: https://bhekisisa.org/opinion/2025-05-07-what-they-dont-teach-in-medical-school/
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support this work, please consider donating to our podcast fund using the link above. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and keep bringing you great content. No amount is too small, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for listening!

Host:
Dr Maria Christodoulou

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakeningdoctor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningDoctor

Website: https://www.awakeningdoctor.com/podcast

In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we meet Dr Lethukwenama Letsoalo, a medical doctor from Bergville in rural KwaZulu-Natal, whose personal journey into medicine and public health is deeply shaped by community, identity, and purpose.
Lethukwenama reflects on growing up as the only girl in a household of seven children, the early inspiration that drew her to medicine, and the youthful certainty that she would one day be like Cristina Yang or Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy. We explore her decision to study at Stellenbosch University and the challenges of navigating leadership, belonging, and systemic inequities within medical training. 
She also speaks candidly about the realities of clinical work, her choice to complete her training at the rural clinical school, and the moments that led her to question whether medicine alone could address the social realities determining people’s health.
Now a Master’s graduate in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lethukwenama discusses her commitment to health equity and culturally responsive care, and her passion for creating accessible health education content in isiZulu to counter misinformation and empower communities to take charge of their own health.
Join us for a thoughtful conversation about responsibility, representation, and the evolving identity of doctors in a changing health system.
Follow Dr Letsoalo on Social Media:
Instagram: https://tr.ee/kA9cj4h48m
TikTok: https://tr.ee/DnedT80zIO
Facebook: https://tr.ee/vMC0DCUOQp
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LethukwenamaLetsoalo
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support this work, please consider donating to our podcast fund using the link above. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and keep bringing you great content. No amount is too small, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for listening!

Host:
Dr Maria Christodoulou

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakeningdoctor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningDoctor

Website: https://www.awakeningdoctor.com/podcast

What do you do when the plan you’re committed to doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped, but your sense of purpose stays the same? 
Dr Bianca Leigh Edwards - or Dr B, as she’s affectionately known by her patients -  had her heart set on becoming a paediatric oncologist even in her teens. Life, however, had other plans. 
In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we reflect on the early childhood influences that catalysed her passion and learn about her challenging personal journey with medicine. One marked by repeated rejections, years of perseverance, and the courage to keep pivoting in the midst of thwarted ambitions. 
Together, we explore her postgraduate medical school experience and reflect on the harsh realities she faced as a young COVID intern. Bianca speaks candidly about signing multiple death certificates on her first day as a doctor, the fear of bringing the virus home, the difficult decision to postpone her wedding, and the wise friends and small rituals that helped carry her through that time.
We also reflect on how motherhood has changed the way she practices medicine, and the grief and frustration of having to let go her dream of specialising due to a lack of registrar posts. An unforeseen obstacle that eventually forced her to formulate a Plan B.
Today, Bianca runs a thriving GP practice for children in Cape Town, allowing her to reframe her vocation and honour her passion in ways she didn't anticipate. 
If you’ve ever wondered whether being “just a GP” can serve a calling, or how to rebuild a dream when doors are closed and posts are frozen, this episode is for you. Join us for a thought-provoking reflection on the complex interplay between vocation, ambition, individual agency and systemic realities.
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support this work, please consider donating to our podcast fund using the link above. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and keep bringing you great content. No amount is too small, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for listening!

Host:
Dr Maria Christodoulou

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakeningdoctor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningDoctor

Website: https://www.awakeningdoctor.com/podcast