Botox and Burpees

Sam Rhee sits down with Liz Tanzola @liz_tanzola, head coach at CrossFit Bison, to talk about how she goes from zero coaching experience to leading hundreds of classes plus an entire staff of coaches. We dig into class prep, athlete cues, scaling decisions, and the harder part of the job: leading a coaching team with trust and honest feedback. • starting coaching without experience and leaning on a desire to help people • early nerves and the logistics of starting and ending cla...

Cultural identity exists in the spaces between languages, generations, and countries. When Sasha joins her father for this candid conversation, they unravel what it means to grow up Korean American through their distinct generational lenses. Sasha, a third-generation Korean American with suprising Korean reading and speaking abilities, proudly embraces her heritage while acknowledging its complexities. Her father takes a different stance—having consciously distanced himself from certain Kore...

Magnesium has become the one of the most popular supplements in the world, but does it deserve the hype? As both a physician with nearly three decades of experience and someone who's relied on magnesium to combat debilitating muscle cramps, host Sam Rhee looks at the science behind this popular mineral and his personal journey with the supplement. Beginning with his experience during surgical internship and years later starting magnesium supplements himself, Sam takes a deep dive into magnes...

College admissions - the high-stakes game that dominates the lives of high school students and their families. In this episode, my guest is my spouse Susan Rhee @susanrhee as we unpack how our two children successfully navigated their way to Duke University, despite both facing deferrals in the early decision round. Susan shares the rollercoaster of emotions we experienced as parents - from the crushing disappointment of initial deferrals to the eventual triumph of acceptance. Together, we c...

Does yoga have a place in a CrossFit athlete's training regimen? In this eye-opening conversation with yoga instructor Kristen Fazio @kristenfazyoga, we explore the surprising synergy between these seemingly opposite disciplines. Kristen, who brings an athletic approach to her yoga instruction, explains why mobility matters tremendously for CrossFit performance. Most athletes struggle with depth in squats, overhead positions, and various other foundational movements—not because they lack str...

What happens when you miss your competitive goals despite giving your all? In the world of CrossFit, where success is measured in seconds and pounds, missing qualification cuts can feel devastating—especially when you made it the year before. This raw, honest conversation with @crossfitbison athlete Kristen Torres @kristenan explores the emotional rollercoaster that follows disappointment in competitive fitness. We unpack the experience of watching leaderboard rankings drop from the top perc...

Join host Sam Rhee on this episode as he explores the surprising empathy skills of AI chatbots and what we can learn from them to become better listeners. Drawing from Jamil Zaki's insights, we discuss how chatbots like ChatGPT often outperform humans in making people feel heard and understood. He explains how chatbots avoid common human mistakes by focusing on the other person, validating their feelings, and asking follow-up questions, rather than jumping to solutions or sharing perso...

In this fun episode of Botox and Burpees, host Dr. Sam Rhee is joined by his daughter Sasha Rhee for an in-depth discussion on skincare. They unravel the myriad of products Sasha orders from Amazon, showcasing Sasha's diverse skincare routine, influenced heavily by Korean beauty trends and TikTok recommendations. Sasha reviews some of her favorite products, and highlights the importance of a multi-step skincare regimen, the role of different products like toners, moisturizers, a...