Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

Behind The Knife bills itself as the world’s number one surgery podcast, and with 500 episodes, 1,293 ratings averaging 4.8 stars, and a hosting team that includes multiple practicing surgeons, it’s hard to argue. Started in 2015, the show covers an enormous range of surgical specialties — trauma, transplant, colorectal, vascular, critical care — with a focus on practical education that’s actually useful for people in training. The core team includes Jason Bingham, John McClellan, Kevin Kniery, Scott Steele, and Patrick Georgoff, and they regularly bring in guest surgeons from major academic centers. Episodes typically run 30 to 50 minutes and drop twice a week. The format bounces between interview-style conversations with surgical leaders, journal club discussions breaking down recent research, and high-yield board review content. If you’re preparing for surgical boards, they’ve built out a whole ecosystem around that, including oral board review courses and a trauma surgery video atlas. What makes it stick is the tone. These are surgeons talking to other surgeons (and surgical trainees) without the stiffness you get from formal lectures. They’ll crack jokes, share honest takes on controversial techniques, and occasionally get into the weeds on operative details that textbooks gloss over. It’s not really designed for general audiences — you’ll want at least some medical background to follow along — but for anyone in surgical training or practice, this is basically required listening. The consistency over a decade of episodes speaks for itself.