Why Did I Become A Doctor South Africa

This episode is brought to you by Bedfordview Dental Care. https://bedfordviewdentalcare.co.za/

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Dr Kiash Arjun is a 26-year-old dentist working in private practice in Pietermaritzburg — and a recording artist with original songs on radio, an EP, an album, and a history of gigging his way through dental school. He takes us from growing up in Verulam and receiving his first guitar as a seventh birthday gift from his late grandfather, to opening for Jeremy Loops at Park Acoustics, to navigating the jump from community service at KwaDabeka to private practice.

Kiash speaks candidly about what dental school at the University of Pretoria actually looks like from the inside, the friendships and the band he built along the way, and why he was terrified of Pietermaritzburg before growing to love it. He talks about his mentor Dr Elvin Naidoo — whose philosophy of treating the whole patient, not just the problem, changed how Kiash thinks about dentistry — and about the postgrad in dental aesthetics he is currently pursuing through the University of the Western Cape.

But this conversation keeps returning to music. Kiash explains how he writes songs, why he records voice memos at the gym and in the car, how he got his song to number one on the 5FM pop charts, and why he is still figuring out whether he is a dentist who does music or a musician who does dentistry. He also opens up about imposter syndrome, the doubts that come with being a young dentist, and why having an outlet matters more than people admit.

Along the way, he performs several original songs — including "Lady Smith," available now on all streaming platforms — covers a Justin Bieber classic, improvises a wedding song on the spot, and closes the episode with his go-to song, "Stay."

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
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Daniel Kapelus had never heard the word vaccinology before 2019. By 2020, he was rotating through real COVID-19 clinical trials as a master's student at Wits — thrown into one of the most consequential public health moments in living memory.
In this conversation, Daniel breaks down how vaccines actually work, why the COVID vaccines were developed so quickly without cutting corners, what mRNA technology does inside your body, and why you simply cannot copy-paste one country's vaccine schedule onto another. He also reflects on why science communication matters so deeply to him, the gap between evidence and policy, and what he hopes to contribute to public health over his career.
A passionate, humble, and genuinely illuminating listen.
Topics covered:
Growing up in a legal family and choosing science instead
Leaving biomedical engineering and discovering genetics
How he found his way into vaccinology — and started his master's just as COVID arrived
How clinical trials work, and how COVID vaccine trials were accelerated without sacrificing rigour
mRNA vaccines explained in plain language
Vaccine hesitancy, risk perception, and the power of storytelling in science
The autism-vaccines claim — what two decades of evidence actually shows
The return on investment of vaccines: 154 million deaths averted over 50 years
Why different countries have different vaccine schedules
Career paths in vaccinology — academia, pharma, NGOs, consulting
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, and finding a meditative outlet amid a demanding PhD
Co-hosted by Dr Yash Naidoo and Dr Yakshen Lindy | Recorded at Bedfordview Dental Care
This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
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🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

Dr Eric Louw has been a family physician in Standerton, Mpumalanga since 1990. While many of his peers emigrated, he stayed — and built something rare: a full-service GP practice that does obstetrics, surgery, gastroscopies, ultrasounds, and procedures most specialists would hesitate to attempt in a small-town setting.

In this conversation, Dr Louw talks about growing up in the gold fields of Virginia in the Free State, his father's unfulfilled dream of studying medicine, the Chamber of Mines bursary that got him to the University of Pretoria, and the years he spent working in the KaNgwane homeland during a politically turbulent era. He reflects honestly on the deterioration of the public healthcare system, the referral bottlenecks that leave patients waiting dangerously long, and the informal public-private partnership his practice has developed to fill the gap.

He also talks about what it means to truly belong to a community — to be the doctor who has cared for two generations of the same families, who gets greeted by name at the shop, and who has no intention of retiring anytime soon.

And then there is the other Eric Louw: the painter, the wildlife photographer, the self-taught welder who builds metal sculptures in his garage, and the author of The Complexity of Being Human, published by Austin Macauley and available on Amazon and Takealot.

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
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🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with MedicalBrief. Stay informed with trusted reporting, expert insights, and analysis that matters to healthcare professionals. From breaking news to in-depth features, MedicalBrief keeps you up to date with everything happening in healthcare. Subscribe free at https://bit.ly/3Pei7o1.

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Dr Reggie Reddy is a dentist with over 35 years in practice. He holds a post-graduate diploma in periodontology and has worked extensively across community dentistry, oral medicine and orthodontics, with a particular focus on holistic dental medicine. Over three decades in Springs, he built a patient base of 25,000. He has served as national president of the Sathya Sai Organisation of South Africa and remains a passionate mentor to young dental graduates.

Reggie grew up on a thousand-acre farm outside Kloof, where his family lived completely off the land. That world ended when the Group Areas Act declared the area a Black township. Given 90 days' notice, his family lost the farm and relocated to Greenwood Park in Durban with nothing. He was six years old.

He excelled at Sastri College and set his sights on dentistry from the age of four, inspired by his uncle, Prof Jairam Reddy, the first Black dean of the UWC dental faculty. After being rejected by Wits, he enrolled in a BSc at the University of Durban-Westville. What followed was extraordinary — involvement in the ANC underground, an escape through the Swaziland border crawling through grass in the dark, safe houses in Mozambique, transit camps in Tanzania, and eventually dental school in Lucknow, India.

He returned to South Africa, completed his conversion exams, earned a diploma in periodontology at UWC, and did his internship in Soweto — where he worked with Prof Ruben Sher on one of the country's earliest HIV/AIDS studies involving dental patients. His entry into private practice came through stepping in to help a colleague in Durban after a devastating car accident. That path led him to Springs, where he built one of the largest practice bases in the area.

A remarkable conversation about resilience, spirituality, mentorship and what it means to stay and serve.

Co-hosted with Dr Yakshen Lindy.

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
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• Twitter (X)
• LinkedIn
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🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with MedicalBrief. Stay informed with trusted reporting, expert insights, and analysis that matters to healthcare professionals. From breaking news to in-depth features, MedicalBrief keeps you up to date with everything happening in healthcare. Subscribe free at https://bit.ly/3Pei7o1.

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Dr Farouk Satar is a dentist and practice owner of The Health House in Boksburg, with special interests in implantology, facial aesthetics and conscious sedation. In this conversation, he shares an honest account of how a pivotal conversation with his grandfather at 12 years old shaped his career, the realities of building and rebuilding a dental practice, and why he's now branching out into an entirely new industry.

Farouk takes us back to his roots in Tongaat, his years at Orient Islamic School on bursary, his time at UWC dental school, and his early career as Head of Department at a young age — a secure, well-paid role he ultimately walked away from to start private practice in Boksburg. Almost 15 years later, he reflects candidly on what practice ownership has cost him, the team dynamics that brought him to rock bottom, and the difficult decision to rebuild his team from scratch.

He also opens up about his new high-protein smoothie business, Protein Pig — why he chose a deliberately disruptive name, the backlash from parts of his community, and what he's learnt about running a venture completely outside healthcare.

Co-hosted with Dr Yakshen Lindy.

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests do not necessarily represent those of the podcast or hosts and do not constitute professional advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for medical, financial, or career decisions.
🎙️ Why Did I Become A Doctor shares honest, unscripted conversations with doctors, dentists, healthcare professionals, and other inspiring individuals who are shaping the future of healthcare and beyond.
💬 Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it really helps us grow and inspire the next generation.
🔗 Connect with us:
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter (X)
• LinkedIn
• WhatsApp Channel
🚀 Want to collaborate, support the show, or find out more?
Visit whydidibecomeadoctor.com or email us at info@whydidibecomeadoctor.com.