Y'all aren't ready. You. are. not. ready. The tomfoolery of this season finale, y'all. Channeling their inner Housewives, the thOTs welcome the sassiest guests they could find in the OT&OS world. Joined by Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh, Dr. Jessica Kramer, and Dr. Karen McCarthy, these housewives - and their token white gay - bring the drama, the receipts, and all the opinions on who truly holds the title of "Occupation Queen." Are you team OS or OT? Both? Neither? A whirlwind of academic drama and...
Oct 09, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Can peer-review be sexy? Well to answer that question, the Dr. thOTs duo touch base with the thOT in Chief, Dr. Stacey Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT). They discuss the fabulous life as an Editor in Chief, the state of the science, peer-review processes, and the politics of trustworthy science. The three docs take research from farm to table to make sure you know where your data is coming from! Highlights include: Stacey being a nerd, Ryan startin...
Sep 22, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Khalilah and Ryan dive into a convo with Dr. Frederick V. Engram Jr. to get real about publishing. From navigating academia to reclaiming voice and storytelling, this episode is all about truth-telling, resistance, and writing for liberation—not validation. Come for the critique, stay for the community. Highlights include: Khalilah telling yo mama jokes, Dr. Engram not letting anybody play in his face, and Academia getting put in its place.
Aug 29, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 12
This week on Dr. thOTs, the duo get into design and branding with Stephanie Kaczynski, a PhD candidate serving up stories and communication . After exploring her "diss" focused on community organizing, police violence, and George Floyd Square, Stephanie breaks down how storytelling, strategy, and branding shape science communication—and why humanizing research actually matters . This one is interdisciplinary, it's pretty, and it’s thOTful. Tune in to rethink how you communicate for change. Highl...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 11
This week, the Dr. thOTs duo grab some time with the very busy Christine Gunningle, program director of Durham Tech's OTA program and educator extraordinaire. She pops off with personal stories and pedagogical pointers, positioning OTA programs as clear launch pads for amazing practitioners. The educators discuss classroom strategies, accessibility, and what OT programs can learn from OTA education and approaches! Highlights include: OTA programs getting their flowers, Christine getting real abo...
Aug 01, 2025•54 min•Season 5Ep. 10
The thOTs are not here for your messy spreadsheets or half-baked interview guides. They’re diving into data evaluation and communication. Your favorite duo unpacks what it really means to produce knowledge that matters. Accuracy? Required. Completeness? Non-negotiable. Relevance? Don’t show up without it. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher, a grad student in the trenches, or just nosy, this convo will get your epistemo-ontological life together. Spoiler, this one's for the nerds. Highlights in...
Jul 18, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Ryan and Khalilah welcome Dr. Jen Newton onto the podcast this week to discuss intellectual and development disabilities, death row, and school systems. The three dive into a difficult conversation about the realities of our justice system, the ways ableism and anti-blackness are leveraged to dehumanize in the US. They also talk about ways occupational therapy practitioners can step up in advocacy to mitigate the school to prison pipeline. Highlights include: A necessary conversation Content war...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Happy Pride thOTs! This week, the Dr. Duo is queering the convo exploring the who, what, and why when it comes to gay bars , tea rooms, lesbian hangouts, queer spaces, and more. From bachlorettes to Maggie Clapp, from 1700s to 2019, Ryan and Khalilah cover it all. They’ve got hot takes and cold truths when it comes to the messiness of who is welcome and who isn't, and why knowing the history is part of the homework. From the dance floor to the discourse, it’s giving intersectional, intentional, ...
Jun 20, 2025•44 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Hold onto your gait belts, y’all—this episode is serving up tech tea with a side of clinical realness. Khalilah and Ryan are joined by the brilliant Sarah Lyon of OT Potential to unpack where occupational therapy meets artificial intelligence. We’re talking AI scribes, clinical decision support, and the big ol’ ethical elephants in the room. The trio dives into how AI is shaking up healthcare, what it means for future OT practitioners, and why we need to stay alert about who’s designing these sy...
Jun 06, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Whew, chile. This episode gets into the thick of it—the Dr. thOTs duo are back at it, peeling back the layers of identity, advocacy, and the messiness of inclusion. From classroom to community, they’re asking hard questions: Who gets to be included? Who should be excluded? Are we all just inside a bush? They kiki about critical pedagogy and managing discomfort while learning. You know these two love a good boundary! But even in research? Racial caucusing, coalition-building across difference, an...
May 23, 2025•51 min•Season 5Ep. 5
This week, the Dr. thOTs duo welcome a guest from 17 time zones away. Dr. Isla Emery-Whittington joins Ryan and Khalilah in a warm conversation about decolonizing practices. With a true auntie vibe, Dr. Emery-Whittington names and frames the importance of building communication, building movements, and building concrete strategies in the work of reconnecting our separated world, including looking deeply into ourselves. Highlights include: Nova making a keynote, Isla publishing in a circle, and R...
May 09, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In this homegrown heart-to-heart, Khalilah and Ryan get all up in their feelings (and their plants) to talk about what makes a space feel like a place. We’re talking aesthetics, sensory vibes, cultural grounding, and the divine chaos that is cohabitation. From Khalilah’s sacred order to Ryan’s plant-based messages of care, this episode unpacks how our environments reflect our identities, values, and that fine line between "intentional design" and "creative clutter." Highlights include: Ryan thin...
Apr 25, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This episode is a LONG time coming! Ryan and Khalilah wanted to make sure this one got its due. Spurred by a calling in, the duo invite Dr. Emily Grullón and Dr. Alondra Ammon to discuss complex racial identities. History, age, geopolitics, and learning are the hot topics of this episode, unpacking Latinidad, Blackness, and the relationship between the two. Highlights include: Emily giving historian realness, Ryan challenging clients, Alondra bringing the data, and Khalilah proposing a situation...
Apr 10, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Beaten, bruised, but they are back! The Dr. thOTs duo is up to good trouble yet again, launching their 5th season of the podcast with spicy nicknames, real talk to the front, and some self care resolutions! Khalilah and Ryan give you the run down on what they've been up to the last few months and what they are excited about in the upcoming season. Join the duo as they launch the next season of the Dr. thOTs podcast! Highlights include: Khalilah talking q-tips and thermometers and Ryan singing fo...
Mar 21, 2025•36 min•Season 5Ep. 1
That very important time of 2024 is approaching y'all! November 5th is election day and the Dr. thOTs want to make sure you are ready to vote! On this special election episode, the thOTs duo interview Dr. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, Occupational Therapist, Associate Professor, and State Congresswoman of Indiana! She is doing it all! She discusses life in the state house, leadership, and working to make change she believes in. Highlight includes: GET OUT THE VOTE!
Oct 22, 2024•44 min•Season 4Ep. 15
What a season! The 4th epoch of the Dr. thOTs podcast has come to a close. Khalilah and Ryan recap the topics and conversations of the last 14 episodes, thanking their guests, listeners, and team along the way. They discuss the deep conversations of the summer but also the importance of reclaiming time care of self. If you want to get a taste of the topics and guests for Season 4 before diving in, this is the episode for you. Highlights include: Khalilah rejecting two monitors, Ryan failing at b...
Sep 20, 2024•35 min•Season 4Ep. 14
The Dr. thOTs duo are joined by Trey Washington (@whatsonemorepothos) who occupies "the intersection of fried fish / porch sitting / Fantasia’s barefoot antics / communalism / anti-carceral, anti-capitalist politics and doing the chicken-head to every song like it’s still 2001" (WhatsOneMorePothos.com, 2024). The trio digs into Trey's journey to occupational therapy, community organizing, and plant care, exploring the everyday roots of justice and injustice. To close, Trey highlights some concre...
Sep 06, 2024•57 min•Season 4Ep. 13
We all know these two thOTs can't chart a straight path across an open field, but at least they try. Khalilah and Ryan talk professional boundaries and wandering scopes. What makes occupational therapy? They've got opinions on research, capstone, and policy impact on practice roles and identities. Lines are drawn and lines are crossed but not a single one is straight. Werk. Highlights include: Khalilah asking for an alien abduction, Ryan being occupationally blasphemous, and hell freezing over....
Aug 23, 2024•49 min•Season 4Ep. 12
The Dr. thOTs duo is excited to offer this special mini episode to introduce you to a mini-diva! Chanel Jackson, niece of non other than Dr. Khalilah Johnson joins the Drs. on the podcast. In just 30 minutes, this 9 year old fashionista lets us in on her future plans, opinons on other nine-year-olds, and some advice for her Auntie Kiki - the little one reads above her grade level on this one. Y'all, the library is open. Highlights include: Ryan being analog, Khalilah lacking a family discount, a...
Aug 09, 2024•35 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Kahlilah and Ryan are joined by the one and only Raheleh Ghasseminia, an up and coming doctoral student but long-time experienced occupational therapy practitioner. Raheleh leads these thOTs into the wonderful world of intimacy, sex, and occupation. The hosts discuss how she arrived in the intimacy area, how sex sits in practice, and where fingers should be pointing when it comes to talking about this ADL. Theory, socio-cultural contextualization, and sex puns abound. Highlights include: Ryan ge...
Aug 02, 2024•55 min•Season 4Ep. 10
A Dr. thOTs favorite joins yet again to make us laugh but this time brings the tea on embodied leadership. George Barret steps out of his good judy role into his working girl role talking with Ryan and Khalilah about embodied leadership, creative meeting strategies, community building, and modeling for the next generation. Per usual, these three are a hoot with a healthy does of insight. Highlights include: Ryan attempting modern dancing, George flocking it up, and Khalilah leaning into emotions...
Jul 19, 2024•48 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Khalilah and Ryan are joined by none other than everybody's favorite ADA nerd, Dr. Katie Sorensen. We roll through this episode about accessibility with an undefeated champion of musical chairs and ADA certified specialist. The thOTs talk going wheels up with disabilities, managing flying, educational accommodations, and ADA policies in public spaces. Katie discusses the hills and valleys of sitting up for disability rights and accessibility advocacy. Highlights include: Khalilah stealing candy,...
Jun 28, 2024•48 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Ryan and Khalilah get into a hairy situation, cutting it up about body hair, grooming, and all things structural stigma. They talk Crown Act buzz and bush commercials, shame and discrimination, gender and personal boundaries - a true salon of ideas. This episode is definitely not a wash - at least not with shampoo. Highlights include: Ryan growing trees under his arms, Khalilah calling for waxing at her wedding, and an occupational werewolf being born.
Jun 13, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 7
We got students in the house! Khalilah and Ryan are joined by Jaime Leitre Jr. and Rebecca Parkin for a lively discussion about publication, studenthood, and the structures of power in the process. Becky has recently published a critique of whiteness in the science in JOS and Jaime on dissident genders and sexualities in AJOT. They give us all the tea on publishing challenging and disruptive content as students. Highlights include: Jaime being a bear, Becky giving a great plug, and the hosts bei...
May 31, 2024•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 6
Khalilah and Ryan warmly welcome Dr. LaRhonda Manigault-Bryant - to the podcast but also to Carolina! After a delightfully contentious conversation about shades of blue, the three docs get into it about Black women in media, in church, and in big bodies. The three discuss the narratives of Black women, the power of documentary for dissemination, and the work that still needs to be done in representation. Highlights include: Ryan bringing the ice to the cookout, Khalilah finding the thigh gap, an...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Ryan and Khalilah, representing no organizations or institutions they are affiliated with, recorded this episode as a special conversation about student movements given the current situation within the US and global context. In the episode, they discuss there own experiences as faculty, student activists, and ongoing supporters of students' right to protest. They emphasize the importance of critical interrogation of media and narratives while at the same time historicizing student movements in a...
May 03, 2024•51 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Your girl Dr. Khalilah Johnson and colleagues wrote a whole paper about the State of the Science when it comes to DEIJAB in occupational therapy in the United States. The thOTs talk the limits of DEI and how it sits with decoloniality, and decolonization. Khalilah discusses why she thinks Black women are leading these risky efforts and why DEI often focuses on race. Highlights include: The first ever Dr. thOTs blooper that you get to hear and a white man standing in front of a Black woman asking...
Apr 18, 2024•48 min•Season 4Ep. 3
The Dr. thOTs duo welcome Whitney Harris to the podcast this week to talk everything leadership, inclusion, and identity. Whitney discusses how she got involved with COTAD National Leadership and what drives her forward in the work, particularly from her experience as a mixed race practitioner. The thOTs discuss the ways leading can look differently and finding your own way in the work. Highlights include: Ryan creating a new "academic uncle role", Khalilah getting into her DNA, and Whitney doin...
Apr 04, 2024•58 min•Season 4Ep. 2
The Dr. thOTs duo is back for a jam packed Season 4! Joining the duo for this season opener is Seth Mitchell, PhD student in occupational science and Dr. thOTs onboarder, helping hand, and assistant extraordinaire. The thOTs welcome Seth to his podcast debut and spill the tea on working with these two wannabe celebrities. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Lavalley give some updates on what's been going on in the run up to this season including some awards, grant applications, position switches, and advocacy c...
Mar 21, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 1
We did three seasons y'all! The Dr. thOTs duo wraps up this season of the podcast in this finale review! If you prefer to pick and choose your podcast episodes, this is a great episode to get some sneak peeks at previous Season 3 discussions and guests and see which episodes might tickle *wink* your fancy. Ryan and Khalilah reminisce about their beginnings as podcasters and discuss what they've learned this season about leadership, difficult conversations, joy, activism, luxury, and more. The th...
Sep 29, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 14
