Is the medical system broken? And what does plastic surgery really do?

In this episode of the Unknown Variables Podcast, Dr. Anthony Rojas speaks with Dr. Kianna Jackson, MD, Chief Resident in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Vanderbilt University, MIT graduate, and founder who challenged the residency application system itself.

Most people think plastic surgery is about Botox, breast implants, or celebrity aesthetics. Dr. Jackson explains why that’s wrong—how plastic surgery is about form and function, restoring faces after trauma, burns, and cancer, and helping patients reclaim their identity when their ability to speak, smile, or be recognized has been taken from them.

Dr. Jackson also shares her experience as a Black woman in surgery, confronting imposter syndrome and the “DEI hire” narrative despite graduating first in her medical school class and becoming the first Black student to win Vanderbilt’s highest academic honor. She offers a nuanced, honest discussion of affirmative action, equity vs equality, and why diversity in medicine leads to better patient outcomes.

The conversation goes deeper into the broken medical training pipeline. Dr. Jackson recounts spending thousands of dollars applying to residency, uncovering a system that extracts over $100 million annually from medical students, and building CentralApp, a platform that disrupted the residency application process nationwide—forcing ERAS to lower its fees. She also shares hard-earned lessons from founding a startup while working 80-hour weeks as a surgical resident.

This episode explores:

1. What plastic surgery really is (beyond aesthetics)
2. Facial reconstruction and restoring identity
3. Burn, cancer, and trauma reconstruction
4. Being a Black woman in surgery
5. DEI, affirmative action, and imposter syndrome
6. Why residency and medical school admissions are broken
7. The true cost of becoming a doctor
8. Lessons from building (and losing) a medical startup
9. Mentorship, medicine, and choosing the right path

Whether you’re a premed student, medical trainee, physician, healthcare professional, or simply curious about how medicine actually works, this conversation will change how you see plastic surgery—and the system behind it.

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