Zapping Away OCD: The Future of Brain Surgery Is Soundwaves
Sickboy
CBC
4.8 • 524 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if the secret to fixing your brain was as simple as a thousand tiny sound beams and a really close shave? In this special live episode from the CTO Conference in Toronto, the fellas sit down with Rima, a clinical trial participant who traded Lysol face wipes for focused ultrasound treatment in her battle against debilitating OCD. Dr. Nir Lipsman, a neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, joins to explain how his team is revolutionizing brain surgery by making precision "strikes" without ever opening the skull. From Chuck E. Cheese anxiety attacks to groundbreaking clinical trials, this episode explores the intersection of mental health innovation and patient care. Dr. Lipsman drops the mic with "It's better to have no brain than bad brain" - a statement that's both terrifying and oddly reassuring. Stick around to hear how a thousand tiny sound beams and one brave patient are changing the future of mental health treatment.
Hear our previous fascinating chat about OCD here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's becoming pretty clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is ripping up the political |
| 0:05.3 | playbook. |
| 0:05.8 | And when it comes to what it all means for Canada, well, as they say, it's complicated. |
| 0:09.8 | But our podcast, two blocks from the White House, is a way to make sense of it all. |
| 0:13.8 | Join me, Willie Lowry, and senior Washington correspondents, Paul Hunter and Katie Simpson |
| 0:18.6 | every week as we break down the headlines from Capitol Hill |
| 0:22.1 | with a Canadian spin. Find and follow two blocks from the White House on your favorite podcast |
| 0:27.3 | app, including YouTube. This is a CBC podcast. All right, folks, we have got something really special for you this week. |
| 0:44.8 | A live episode recorded at the CTO conference in Toronto. |
| 0:49.1 | For those of you who are not in the know, that's the Clinical Trials Ontario Conference. |
| 0:54.9 | And basically, it's the leading Canadian form for innovation in clinical trials. |
| 1:00.4 | You've got all the usual suspects there, pharmaceutical industry leaders, medical device folks, academics, healthcare bigwigs. |
| 1:09.1 | And then there's us, three ding-dongs who started a podcast |
| 1:12.2 | based on poop jokes. But real quick, before we get into it, I've got a massive shout out to |
| 1:19.3 | Elise Johnson, the communications lead at Clinical Trials, Ontario. Not only is she a day one sick boy |
| 1:26.8 | fan, but she's the mastermind who made this whole |
| 1:29.9 | thing happen. So at least you are an absolute legend. This episode is extra special because we get |
| 1:37.2 | to hear from Rima, a woman who lives with debilitating OCD, and we get to hear from her doctor, Dr. Neer Lipsman, a neurosurgeon |
| 1:47.1 | and scientist at Sunnybrook, who is pioneering this wild new treatment using focused |
| 1:54.1 | ultrasound or boos to essentially zap away parts of the brain. It's wild. |
| 2:03.4 | He explains it way better than I do. |
| 2:06.1 | So I'm just going to let him tell you what it's all about. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of CBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.