The Bolus Trailer

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I want to talk a bit about burnout. Not the typical diabetes burnout, where you just get tired of managing your blood sugars and the endless highs and lows, until you just don't want to manage it at all. And not the burnout of dealing with our healthcare system, which I call the management of managing diabetes. Where you're doing things like trying to figure out which insurance plan will cost you the least. If they cover the drugs you need. And then fighting with them when they don't cover the things that they said they would when you signed up.

No, I want to talk about recreational diabetes burnout. The diabetes stuff we deal with outside of what we need to, to stay alive. That could be as simple as reading news stories about healthcare. Or even the more fun stuff like in-person meetups, online forums or groups. Or checking out memes on social media.

Now, when I first found the diabetes online community, the DOC, it was mostly forums with people complaining about diabetes or offering advice. A way to empathize and connect with other people with this disease, when you might not know anyone in your normal, offline life.

And that's one of the reasons I started the Beta Cell podcast. To help share deep and thoughtful stories about diabetics to people who might not realize there are others going through the same things with this disease too.

And sometimes this recreational diabetes is extremely productive. We would not have had the progress with insulin policy we've had, if it weren't for all the unpaid advocates talking to journalists and politicians. The most helpful diabetes education for athletes happens in Facebook groups. And talking to other diabetics is the best way to get a handle on managing diabetes in the real world.

But there's a bad side to all this recreational diabetes stuff too. And I'm not just talking about all the awful stigmatizing jokes you read on Twitter. You see, as much as there are people who want to help others. There are plenty of other people whose real aim is to just help themselves. So maybe that's a company like Risely Health who pressures, diabetics to find a way to pay for their very expensive programs that they can't afford.

Or maybe that's people who are paid to post ads for pharma. Or terrible diabetic friendly foods that really aren't that healthy.

It could be someone trying to become a diabetes influencer by posting Dexcom thirst traps or inspiration porn all the time. Sometimes it's seeing parents who would rather give their kids eating disorders, then ownership over their diabetes.

And there's always the people defending Beyond Type 1's pharma partnerships to hopefully score some free Nick Jonas concert tickets. And more and more, it feels like this side of the DOC, the bad side, is most of what you see when you sign online.

So for me, trying to spend time sharing stories about the stuff going on beneath the surface of the diabetes world, stories that I think are really important, meant that I was constantly barraged with all this awful content too. And since I do this as a hobby in my free time, subjecting myself to all that burned me out from the diabetes world. And that's why there hasn't been as many Beta Cell podcast episodes as there used to be.

Now, I know you all love the long form storytelling of Beta Cell episodes that are unique to the diabetes podcasting space. But these episodes can take anywhere from 40 to 60 hours to produce. Between researching, interviewing, editing, adding music and so on.

And because it takes so long, I feel like there've been a lot of really important stories going on in the diabetes world that I haven't gotten a chance to talk about because it doesn't seem worth the 60 hours to make that episode. As someone who does this as a hobby and also doesn't want each episode to start with six dozen ads.

But this is all been a long prelude to some good news. I'm introducing a new show, the Bolus. Super short op-ed episodes that take on some of the most pressing and least pressing stories that I come across. And in typical Beta Cell fashion, they'll hopefully reveal a little something more about ourselves and the world.

You'll find episodes of The Bolus right in this Beta Cell podcast feed. And to make sure you don't miss anything. You can follow us on Patreon for free.

In addition to this little introspective trailer, I'm launching some podcast versions of some classic blog posts that have appeared on Instagram in the past. So make sure you're subscribed your podcast app. Thanks for sticking with me.