In this week’s episode of Routes of Healing, Dr. Siri Chand Khalsa sits down with Dr. Michelle Quirk, a board certified pediatrician and certified run coach through the Roadrunners Club of America. Dr. Quirk is the founder of Mindful Marathon, where she helps busy professionals make running feel approachable, enjoyable, and sustainable through practical coaching and a mindset rooted in recovery, flexibility, and self trust.

Together, they explore how burnout can quietly shape a clinician’s life long before we name it, and how a simple decision to run five minutes around the block can become a turning point. Dr. Quirk shares how grief after the loss of her father deepened her relationship with movement, and how marathon training opened a new kind of inner quiet that felt both restorative and creative. They also discuss recovery as a daily practice, the myth that running is bad for knees, the power of easy pace and zone two training, and why you do not need a race on the calendar to train for life.

If you are a clinician rebuilding your relationship with movement, a former athlete trying to start again without shame, or a human who wants a healthier nervous system and a steadier mind, this episode offers a grounded path forward.

If you’re inspired by our exploration on Routes of Healing, a physician-led podcast uplifting the wisdom and lived experience of integrative and lifestyle medicine doctors, subscribe to receive new episodes weekly. Subscribe and follow along!

🔑 Key Topics & Takeaways

Burnout before burnout had a name, noticing the moment when your advice does not match your life.

Starting low and going slow, why five minutes around the block is enough to begin.

Grief and movement, how running can hold sorrow without forcing it to resolve.

Recovery as a daily practice, shifting from reward coping to true restoration.

Flexibility over perfection, why missing a run does not mean you cannot reach your goal.

The knee myth, why sedentary living can be harder on joints than an appropriately paced run routine.

Easy pace and zone two, building aerobic fitness without living in huff and puff.

Letting go of numbers, how effort based training can reduce intimidation and increase consistency.

Mindfulness in motion, the reset that happens when the mind goes quiet on the trail.

Training for life, why a race is optional and the routine can evolve over years.

⏱ Chapters

00:30 — Welcome and Introduction to Dr. Michelle Quirk

01:54 — Burnout in 2012, A Wake Up Call in the Emergency Department

04:40 — Loss, Grief, and the Role of Movement in Healing

06:51 — Being a Pediatrician With a Hybrid Coaching Business

10:32 — What Recovery Really Means for Clinicians

13:00 — Marathon Training, Perfectionism, and Learning Flexibility

16:08 — Not an Athlete, Starting Again With Grace

19:27 — The Coaching Spark That Became Mindful Marathon

22:01 — Training Plans vs Building a Business as a Physician

24:37 — The Knee Myth and the Benefits of Small Doses of Running

28:11 — Heart Rate Zones, Brisk Walking, and Aerobic Threshold

31:15 — What Kids and Non Athletes Need to Learn About Running

35:03 — The First Marathon Story, Disney, Doubt, and Mile 25

40:24 — Running as Spiritual Time and Deep Relationship Building

42:18 — Mindfulness, Zoning Out, and the Creative Mind in Motion

47:24 — Returning After Illness or Life Disruption Without Shame

52:29 — Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, How Training Frameworks Differ

54:03 — Season of Life Changes, Adapting Goals and Capacity

55:14 — Simple Fueling, A Plant Forward Smoothie, and Practical Recovery

58:17 — Favorite Places to Run, Monterey and Maui

59:07 — Favorite Races and Why Disney Still Matters

1:00:09 — Music, Bruce Springsteen, and Running...

In this week’s episode of Routes of Healing, Dr. Siri Chand Khalsa sits down with Dr. Wendy Schofer, a pediatrician, lifestyle medicine physician, and founder of Family in Focus. Dr. Schofer helps parents recapture joy, strengthen relationships, and build healthier family systems at any size by centering emotional health as the foundation of lifelong wellbeing.

Together, they explore how many clinicians and parents were trained to minimize feelings, even though emotions shape behavior, habits, and connection. Dr. Schofer shares how repeated burnout, identity strain, and “not fitting the mold” became a turning point that led her toward coaching, community-based work, and a broader definition of what family care can be. They also talk about social emotional learning in schools, supporting educators and parents, addressing weight stigma, and why humor and play are not extras, they are tools that create safety and trust.

If you are a clinician navigating burnout, a parent trying to support a child without power struggles, or a human who wants better relationships with food, movement, and feelings, this episode offers practical insight and permission to be more fully yourself.

If you’re inspired by our exploration on Routes of Healing, a physician-led podcast uplifting the wisdom and lived experience of integrative and lifestyle medicine doctors, subscribe to receive new episodes weekly.

🔑 Key Topics & Takeaways

Emotions as the full spectrum, why you cannot “remove one color” from the rainbow.

Burnout and shame, how “I’m the problem” thinking keeps people stuck.

Creating a non-linear career, experimenting, learning what settings fit your strengths.

Family as a system, expanding the definition beyond titles and traditional roles.

Emotional health as the missing link in lifestyle change, why scripts do not translate at home.

Social emotional learning in schools, supporting teachers and parents so kids are not carrying it alone.

Connection before correction, reducing friction with food, movement, and health habits.

Changing relationships without requiring the other person to change, the power of shifting your part.

Family in Focus, building a space for parents to speak honestly without “little ears listening.”

Weight concerns vs weight stigma, creating safer conversations for teens and families.

Humor as regulation, how play reduces threat and opens communication in clinical care.

Urgent care realities, using warmth, curiosity, and pattern recognition to build trust quickly.

Naming what feels “thick” in the room, giving emotions language so they can soften.

⏱ Chapters

00:00 — Emotions as a Rainbow, Why You Cannot Remove One Color

00:35 — Welcome and Introduction to Dr. Wendy Schofer

01:17 — The Tapestry, Joy, and “Teach Feelings”

04:15 — Training Path, Pediatrics, Lifestyle Medicine, and Navy Medicine

06:12 — Defining Family as Connection, Not Titles

08:08 — “How Is This Possible for Me”, Burnout, Shame, and Finding Fit

13:57 — Expansive Questions That Create New Paths

15:02 — Medical Training Era, Role Models, and What Was Missing

16:25 — Gen X Mentorship, Vulnerability, and “Be More You”

20:08 — Emotional Intelligence in Pediatrics and Clinician Burnout

21:29 — Social Emotional Learning in Schools, Teachers and Parents Need Support Too

26:04 — Why Plans Fail, What Was Missing in Lifestyle Counseling

32:16 — How Family in Focus Was Born

37:30 — The Mother-in-Law Story, Proof That Relationships Can Change

40:52 — Building Offers Beyond the Office Visit

46:57 — Schools, Improv for Healthcare, and Weight Stigma Work

52:34 — Humor, Contradictions, and Recapturing Joy

56:54 — Pediatric Urgent Care, Connection in High-Stress Visits

1:00:32 — Naming the Elephant, Making Space for What Is...

In this week’s episode of Routes of Healing, Dr. Siri Chand Khalsa sits down with Dr. Michelle Gordon, a triple board-certified physician (Surgery, Obesity Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine) and menopause expert who helps high-performing midlife women feel like themselves again.

Together, they explore what happens when women hit the “second act” collision course: menopause, body changes that don’t respond to old rules, aging parents, identity shifts, and the quiet (or not-so-quiet) realization that serving everyone else has come at a cost. Dr. Gordon shares her own pivot from a 15-year surgical career to telehealth-based, physiology-forward medicine rooted in behavior change, hormones, metabolism, sleep, brain health, and compassionate truth-telling.

This conversation moves through the cultural fallout of the Women’s Health Initiative, why many clinicians stopped prescribing hormones (and why the science has evolved), the promise and pitfalls of GLP-1 medications, and why individualized dosing, follow-up, and “dose vs. volume” literacy matter—especially in a world of fast, protocol-driven telehealth.

If you’re navigating midlife, questioning “why nothing works anymore,” or you’re a clinician hungry for a more honest model of care, this episode offers clarity, permission, and a powerful reframe: a belief is just a sentence repeated and you can rewrite it.

If you’re inspired by our exploration on Routes of Healing, a physician-led podcast uplifting the wisdom and lived experience of integrative & lifestyle medicine doctors, subscribe to receive new episodes weekly.

1. Midlife reinvention: menopause, empty nest, aging parents, and purpose
2. “Beliefs are sentences”: how early programming shapes destiny—and can be changed
3. From surgeon to prevention: why Dr. Gordon left surgery and rebuilt her identity
4. Menopause symptoms that get dismissed: flushing, weight gain, brain fog, sleep disruption
5. The Women’s Health Initiative fallout: what many clinicians were taught, and what’s changed
6. Hormones today: transdermal estrogen, progesterone for sleep, testosterone, vaginal estrogen
7. GLP-1s in real life: benefits, side effects, titration, and why individualized dosing matters
8. Obesity as a disease: inflammation, insulin resistance, leptin resistance, “food noise”
9. Why “eat less, move more” fails for many: energy balance without shame
10. Nutrition anchors: protein targets and practical breakfast strategies
11. Compounding pharmacy caution: understanding dose vs. volume and doing the math
12. Board certification in Obesity Medicine: why expertise matters (and how rigorous it is)
13. Executive health model: care outside insurance, built for continuity and outcomes
14. Confidence as a clinical...