Episode 125: The Call is Coming From Inside the House

Interviewees:

Neera Jain, PhD — Senior Lecturer, Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland

Hannah Kakara Anderson, PhD, MBA — Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania

Abigail (Abby) Konoposky, PhD— Director of Medical Education Research, Department of Psychiatry, Northwell 

Interviewer: Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA — Professor of Medical Education, The University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago; Host, the Docs With Disabilities Podcast

Description:

In this episode of Stories Behind the Science, we sit down with Drs. Hannah Kakar Anderson, Abby Konoposky, and Neera Jain to discuss a paper that confronts some of the most painful and persistent realities in medical education: The Call Is Coming from Inside the House. Together, they explore how racism and ableism intersect in the experiences of racially minoritized medical learners with disabilities—and why traditional conversations about diversity and inclusion often fail to capture these realities.

Using disability critical race theory (DisCrit), narrative inquiry, and counter-storytelling, the authors illuminate what participants described as a haunted “house of medicine”—a space marked by exclusion, surveillance, distorted reflections of self, and support systems that too often become sources of harm rather than protection. Through powerful metaphors drawn from horror—No Trespassing, Hall of Mirrors, and The Call Coming from Inside the House—the conversation examines how institutional structures and well-intentioned actors alike can perpetuate systems that marginalize learners.

But this episode is not simply about oppression. It is equally a conversation about resistance, agency, and survival. Grounded in Caitlin Seida’s poem Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat, the authors reflect on the fierce and complicated hope carried by learners who persist despite environments that were never designed with them in mind. Their stories are not one-dimensional accounts of struggle—they are acts of testimony, community building, and imagination for a different future.

The discussion reviews:

• How racism and ableism operate as intertwined forces within medical education.
• Why horror became a powerful analytic metaphor for understanding participants’ experiences.
• What it means to be simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible in training environments.
• How institutional actors may unintentionally reproduce harmful systems—and what it means to recognize “the call” within ourselves.
• Why the authors resisted easy solutions and instead invite educators to sit with discomfort before rushing to reform.
• How participants’ stories function as “apocalyptic logs” and acts of “leaving evidence” for future learners and institutions.

Dr. Anderson brings a clinician-educator’s perspective and deep commitment to educational equity, reflecting on disability as both a personal and professional identity. Abby Konoposky offers a linguist’s and educational psychologist’s lens, unpacking agency, metaphor, and the power of story to challenge dominant narratives. Dr. Jain contributes expertise in ableism, disability studies, and anti-ableist practice, connecting participants’ experiences to broader histories of disability rights and racial justice. Together, they invite listeners not only to understand these stories—but to reckon with what they reveal about medicine itself.

This episode asks us to imagine what medicine might become if we listened more closely to the people who have long been navigating its haunted spaces—and if we allowed their stories to reshape the house itself.

Transcript:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWbGNYB_pzptoEUDSKiS7bOr3DHEOGwqundz90i4fVk/edit?usp=sharing 

Bios:

Hannah Kakara Anderson, PhD, MBA, is an Instructor of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on educational equity in medical education, with particular attention to disability equity and the creation of learning environments that support diverse learners and the communities they serve. Drawing from both lived experience and scholarship, her work explores how medical education can better sustain learners with disabilities and advance justice in training environments.

Abigail (Abby) Konoposky, PhD, supports medical education research in the Department of Psychiatry at Northwell Health. Trained in linguistics and educational psychology, her scholarship explores language, agency, and the ways stories shape educational experiences and systems. Her work is informed by both personal experience with disability and a commitment to understanding how narrative and structure interact in medical education.

Neera Jain, PhD, MS is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her scholarship focuses on ableism, anti-ableism, and disability in medical education. With professional experience spanning disability rights, disability resource work, vocational rehabilitation, and disability law, Dr. Jain brings both theoretical and lived expertise to questions of equity, access, and justice in health professions education.

Resources:

Anderson, H. L. K., Konopasky, A. W., Bullock, J. L., Meeks, L. M., & Jain, N. R. (2025). The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Racism and Ableism in US Medical Education. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2025.2581621

Annamma SA, Connor DJ, Ferri BA. DisCrit: Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284446065_DisCrit_Disability_Studies_and_Critical_Race_Theory_in_Education

Mingus M. Leaving Evidence. https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com

Seida C. Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat.https://www.tennesonwoolf.com/hope-is-a-sewer-rat-caitlin-seida/

Key Words:

Disability inclusion · Racism · Ableism · DisCrit · Medical education · Narrative inquiry · Counter-storytelling · Equity · Learning environment · Disability justice