The Rock Docs Podcast: An Electric Blue Production

In this episode, I interview Dr. Anne Aspler, an emergency physician, professor at the University of Toronto as well as the Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Director at North York General Hospital and with the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration.  She is the mom of two young girls and an author currently writing a memoir about processing family shame.  In this episode, Anne opens up about how our performance of Fight Song at Canada's Got Talent was life changing for her and how the Voices Rock community has helped her through family challenges during the pandemic.  

This episode is a round table with all of the child and adolescent psychiatrists in Voices Rock Medicine: Drs. Elyse Dubo, Chetana Kulkarni, Rachel Mitchell, Diane Philipp, and Moni Ravi.  In this chat, you'll hear powerful insights about the parallels between choir and therapy as well as how our choir became a lifeline for so many, particularly in the disorienting and scary early days of the pandemic.  

Dr. Jenn Brokenshire is a hospitalist, the medical director for two summer camps, and a member of the online Voice Rock MED-CONNECT choir.  In this conversation, we talk about how the same magic runs through all the Voice Rock choirs, how choir has been a critical source of support for her during the isolation of the pandemic, and how Voice Rock MED-CONNECT has been able to foster a powerful community despite having never met.  

Dr. Susan Thouin is an emergency and palliative care physician.  In this episode, Susan shares the origin story of Voices Rock Medicine and Voices Rock MED-CONNECT as Susan was the one who started it all.  Susan had the vision to start this choir and approached founder Cheryl Bower with the idea after seeing how much her daughter and husband loved being a part of the Voices Rock Kids and Voices Rock Ensemble choirs.  Over the past two years, Susan has been an incredible leader and has poured so much into creating a really special, tight-nit and welcoming community, one that simply could not have existed without her.

Dr. Mariella Ferreyra is a family physician working in Toronto, Canada. In this episode, we talk about how choir has helped her find a community for the first time since being in Canada for the past 14 years, how it's given her a way to really take a pause from the demands of her work, and how choir has spurred her to find and prioritize other activities that she loves.

Dr. Sheryl Seidman is an emergency physician working in downtown Toronto. Sheryl talks about how she was initially not so sure that choir was the right fit for her, how grateful she is for the Voices Rock community, and how choir has brought music back into her life.  

Dr. Christine Song is an allergist and clinical immunologist and the residency training program director for Allergy and Immunology at the University of Toronto.  In this conversation, we talk about how choir has helped us be better role models for our kids and how singing has been an essential piece of self-care that we didn’t realize was missing.