This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, we're exploring overcoming adversity and stressful times for a very special "best of" episode.

The snippets from today's podcast focus on viewing your career as a marathon, staying positive through unimaginable circumstances, and embracing a mindset of humility through leadership, teambuilding and mentorship over the course of your career in academic health.

We're featuring important highlights from three episodes in our archive:

• Episode 130 – Habits and Hacks with Barbara Fivush, MD
• Episode 150 – Habits and Hacks with Fawaz Al Ammary, MD, PhD
• Episode 312 – Life Lessons in Informal Learning, Mentorship, and On-the-Job Education with David J. Skorton, MD

We start out hearing from Dr. Skorton, who reflects on his own approach to overcoming the persistent waves of adversity he must address while leading the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

After that, we hear from Dr. Al Ammary, who shares how he turned a vicious and unprovoked physical attack into a source of positivity, with a take-home message of staying positive no matter what.

We close with Dr. Fivush. She outlines crucial tips for building a team to get things done and chats about why working on your career is a long-term process, a marathon and not a sprint. She also touches on how staying focused and resilient through the inevitable ups and downs of a career is a must.

Lauren Maggio, PhD, MS(LIS), Editor-in-Chief of MedEdPORTAL, visits the Faculty Factory this week for a comprehensive look at the value of submitting to this open-access, peer-reviewed publication and why utilizing its resources throughout your career is a must.

In addition to her role with MedEdPORTAL, Dr. Maggio is a Professor and the Director of Research in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

She also serves on the editorial boards of Academic Medicine and Perspectives on Medical Education.

Founded in 2005, MedEdPORTAL is the Association of American Medical Colleges' journal of teaching and learning.

"MedEdPORTAL is a diamond open access journal. And what that means is that not only can everyone around the world read what's in MedEdPORTAL for no charge, there's also no charge for you to publish in MedEdPORTAL. So there are no fees for the authors and for the readers. Which to me, as someone who came up in information science and open access, is incredibly important," Dr. Maggio said.

MedEdPORTAL also supports the creative commons approach to protecting the intellectual property of those who are published, while allowing others to utilize its value.

"We use Creative Commons licenses, which ensure that you have your copyright, that you will get credit for your work, but you are allowing others to reuse your work and modify it for their own context. Because at the end of the day we want our colleagues around the world to be able to take those off the shelf and put them into play in their classroom," Dr. Maggio added.

This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, David Niesel, PhD, tackles one of the most underexplored questions in academic medicine: do you actually know how to be happy outside of your career? It's a provocative starting point, but one that gets at something real in a broader discussion on being strategic when approaching retirement and transitions for leaders in academic health.

"Not everybody is ready for retirement at the same time," Dr. Niesel said, "and that question of readiness sits at the heart of this conversation."

Over the course of his career, Dr. Niesel rose through the ranks of academic leadership, serving as Vice Dean for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Department Chairman, Dean, and ultimately as the Chief Research Officer at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

He retired from full-time employment in 2021 and continues as an adjunct professor.

He also co-hosts Medical Discovery News, a weekly radio show that recently surpassed 1,000 episodes and publishes a 500-word column each week. You can find out more and tune in here: https://www.medicaldiscoverynews.com/

Dr. Niesel makes the case that skills you've built over decades don't disappear when you step away from the institution. They remain in demand, and that's exactly why intentionality matters. You can't afford to live this next stage by default.