Dr Death podcast is hosted by Laura Beil and discusses and reports a series of medical malpractices. 

The first episode of the show was aired on September 4, 2018. Up till now, the podcast has aired 3 seasons, all of which are a massive success. 

The podcast has a crazy fan following, owing to its USP which is to web the talks on the lines of fiction and true story. 

However this is one of the drawbacks for the program as well, because it questions whether all the details in the podcast are factual or fictional.

But surprisingly, criticisms like these create more publicity around the podcast, attracting a larger audience. 

The Creator Behind the Podcast

Laura Beil is a freelance medical journalist awarded the 2018 Victor Cohn prize for medical science reporting.

She has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of science and medical writing. 

Laura “was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in 2015, and has received top awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.” (source)

Laura has a decent following on her social media handles. Her Twitter has 5,043 followers.

The podcast Dr Death is produced by Wondery, an American podcast company, popular for publishing some of the most controversial cases in various white collar professions. 

Reach of the Podcast 

After the first successful season, the trailer of the second season of the podcast recorded more than 33k views on YouTube.

Check out the trailer here. 

The podcast is featured on Wondery which has 49,800 followers on Youtube, 50,300 followers on Instagram, 122.400 followers on Twitter, and more than 7000 followers on Facebook

(Note – These stats are for the overall production channel Wondery Media)

There are several pages of the show on TikTok, garnering millions of views. Some pages are even episode and character specific, which feature hundreds of shorts created around the podcast. 

The podcast is rated 4.6/5 stars and has more than 2k ratings on Apple Podcasts.

On youtube, where view statistics are readily available, the podcast receives between 354,000 views and 125,000 views per episode.

Based on this analysis, we estimated that the Dr Death Podcast receives more than ten thousand listens each time an episode goes out across Apple, Google, Youtube and Spotify podcast networks.

Themes and Topics Covered

The podcast was created as a form of medical journalism, focusing on a charming medical practitioner who takes a step into uncharted territories, causing severe injuries to his patients. 

It aimed to report the horrible actions of pharmaceutical practitioners who misused their power and harmed others in the process.

As mentioned above, the podcast has aired a total of 3 seasons so far. 

The first season opens by recording the actions of Christopher Duntsch, a surgeon convicted of wrongful practice after more than thirty of his patients were severely injured, and two died after he operated on them.  

The second season tells the story of Farid Fata, a medical professional who prescribed chemotherapy to patients who either did not have cancer or did not need such therapy.

The third season unravels the chilling story of Paolo Macchiarini, a medicine researcher who was convicted of research fraud and unethical experiments that led to the death of several patients.   

Dr Death episodes are available on the Wondery channel on YouTube where other series like “This is Actually Happening” are also featured. 

Its playlist contains reports on true crime in a series format like Dr Death and The Devil Within. (source)

The episodes dig deep into the human psyche and try to explain what makes a person act in such terrible ways.

These series and episodes attract a fair amount of listeners as they discuss spine-chilling macabre hidden in plain sight. 

The sense of mystery surrounding each episode glues the audience to tune in to the latest episodes.

The Format of the Podcast

The podcast maintains a fine line between entertainment and medical journalism, taking creative lead wherever necessary to make the show more exciting for the listeners. 

The show begins with a second-person point of view. It treats you, the listener, as an innocent patient who has put too much trust in their doctor. By the end of the episode, you will be their new victim. 

As the episodes continue, the listeners learn about the horrific actions committed by these doctors. 

Each episode discusses a new malpractice case with a patient and its devastating results. 

Episodes range from 30 to 35 minutes each. They immediately plunge the listener into the on-going story and let them evaluate the good and the bad. 

The only drawback is the in-content advertisements. The podcast features sponsors in between which are total disruptors of the mysterious environment created by the story.

Check out the comment below:

“TOO MANY ADVERTS!!

I love the podcast, it’s really gripping. But for relatively short episodes, there’s way too many adverts. I am constantly having to skip forward to avoid listening to them.

Reception and Impact

The premier of the Dr. Death podcast was very well received. GQ magazine highly appreciated the concept and called it one of the scariest podcasts of the year. 

Season 2 received the Ambies award in 2021 for the best true crime podcast.

The show made a wide impact on audiences. Several people took to the internet and expressed their concerns regarding hospitals and medical practitioners. 

An influencer even shared a TikTok video saying that the podcast has made him question all doctors.

The hashtag #ChrisopherDunstch was trending on the mass video platform for some time then as well. 

Check out the review below: 

“Great podcast. Incredible and almost unbelievable story that leads into a difficult debate about the accountability of the medical profession. Profound!” – Dean Pelton (source)

The podcast is hyped a lot and garners thousands of listeners. 

Patrick Macmanus decided to turn the podcast into a TV series that was released in 2021. Joshua Jackson starred in it as the main character. 

Based on critics’ reviews, the show did just as well as the podcast. Rotten Tomatoes shows a 92 percent approval rating and IMDB gives it a score of 7.2/10. 

Conclusion

Dr Death is an amazing podcast that you must listen to yourself to believe and understand the horrific truths of the otherwise deeply respected medical community. 

It is shocking how a doctor could get away with such malpractice, but it is reassuring that through combined effort these stories are now coming to light.

The podcast is based on first class medical journalism and research. It is worth listening to and is widely available across numerous media platforms.

Apple Podcast and Google Podcast have all three seasons available.

The show is available on the official Wondery platform as well. 

Other platforms like Amazon Music and Spotify, also feature all podcast episodes.For mysterious podcasts like the Archive 81 Podcast and other genres check out our collection.