ASN Podcast

ASN Podcast is the podcast of the American Society of Nephrology, and it works less like one show than like a bundle of series sharing a feed. Each has its own name and its own hosts. Rewired, hosted by Navdeep Tangri and Garnadeep Singh, covers artificial and augmented intelligence in kidney care. Both are introduced through the ASN Partnership for Responsible AI in Kidney Health, and Tangri chairs it. The talk there is about method. In 'Breaking Down Machine Learning, Predictive AI, and More', one exchange makes the case that ordinary regression often performs as well as a boosting model or random forest. It adds that treating all physiology as non-linear is a quick route to overfitting. The Emergency Preparedness and Response series is hosted by Srinath Edilopally, a nephrology fellow at Indiana University School of Medicine. Its measles episode is framed around what every nephrology professional needs to know, with vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis on the agenda. The advice is concrete: check transplant candidates for measles immunity, vaccinate before transplant because live attenuated vaccines are generally not given afterward, and vaccinate close contacts. The Infection Prevention and Transition of Care series brings in Jillian K. Warejko-Rossi for 'Talking with Teens about Fistulas'. That conversation treats body image, autonomy and needle phobia as part of the clinical job. It argues that a long relationship with a pediatric nephrologist is what gets a guarded teenager to share their worries. It also looks ahead to older adolescents moving into adult units. Then there is policy. 'From the Hill to the Witness Table: ASN's Big Month on Capitol Hill' is a National Kidney Month conversation about research funding and the gap years of lower investment have opened between kidney disease and other conditions. One speaker notes that kidney patients are often too unwell to go to Washington and lobby, which makes a unified voice across organizations matter more. 'The Corporatization of Dialysis and the Need for Nephrology Leadership' gives the advantage of scale as the reason fewer companies now provide dialysis. A speaker there wants nephrologists to show trainees that they are leaders and entrepreneurs across the whole field, from pre-dialysis care and home dialysis to new technologies and onconephrology. A nephSAP guest editor interview brings together Alice Sheridan, the editorial director, associate editor John Francis, Christopher Chan and Clement Young to talk about home hemodialysis. They compare Canadian and American practice on training patients to dialyze at home alone, and one of them calls requiring a partner arbitrary. Episodes include a disclaimer that the material is informational rather than medical advice, and at least one ends with a pitch for ASN membership, which is free to fellows and trainees. For a first listen, try Rewired for method, the measles episode for practical guidance, or the fistula conversation for the human side of vascular access.