Hello, everyone and welcome to talk nerdy. Today is Monday, May 11th, 2026, and I'm the host of the show, Dr. Kara, Santa Maria. And as always, before we dive

into this week's episode, I want to thank those of you who make Talk Nerdy possible.

I don't even know if I said it last week, but that was our 600th episode last week. We're now on

601. And it's because of all of the really just like giving and wonderful individuals just like you that we're able to keep this train on the tracks. I'm just so grateful every single day for all of the support that this show has. We use a platform called Patreon. You can visit us at patreon.com slash talk nerdy.

There you'll learn more about the different tiers and the different ways that you can

support on an episodic basis.

This week's top patrons include Chuck Blev, David J.E. Smith, Daniel Lang, Mary Neva,

Will Defraine, David Compton, Brian Holden, Gabbo J, Uririka Hagman, Pascuali Jalati, Rika Maharaj, and Joe Wilkinson.

Thank you all so, so much. All right. So this week, I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Grace

Ferris. She's a physician in Austin, Texas, and an author illustrator of mom milestones and more than a million.

She's also a contributor to Cup of Joe and NPR's Health Shots, and her comics have appeared in, you know, a bunch of really incredible publications, including the New York Times and Vogue and in art

exhibitions all across the U.S., Ireland, and Austria. And she has a new book out. It's called

See One, Do One, Teach One, The Art of Becoming a Doctor, a Graph a graphic memoir. So without any further ado,

here she is, Dr. Grace Ferris. Well, Grace, thank you so much for joining me today.

Oh, thanks for having me. It's an honor to be here talking to you, Kara. Yes, it's going to be a

fun chat. Number one,

because you are a Texas physician, and I am a born and raised Texan who is actually working now out

here in L.A. So I got to ask, are you from Texas, or did you just end up in Texas? Oh, I am. I work at,

one of the hospitals I work at is where I was born. And the other one is where I volunteered in high school.

Oh, that's amazing. I love that so much. Oh, good. So, okay, so Texas is home. You're down in Austin. I'm actually from the suburbs of Dallas. I'm from a town called Plano. But of course, as a Texan, that means I have family in Austin and

Houston and San Antonio area. So, you know, the big great state, we're usually quite connected.

Did you ever leave the state for any of your like residencies or fellowships, or did you manage to

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