Sisters Simone, 29, and Sophie Bernstein, 21, along with brother, Jake, 27, grew up in Clayton attending Congregation Shaare Emeth. For more than a decade, the siblings have been at the helm of some cool, innovative projects. Simone and Jake, for instance, founded VolunTEEN Nation in 2009,  a nonprofit that links teens and tweens to organizations seeking volunteers. Three years later, they took the organization national.

At age 15, Sophie created Go Healthy St. Louis, which brings fresh, healthy produce from community gardens to area food banks. She was one of 15 teenagers nationwide to receive the 2015 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award, which is given to teens who make a positive influence in their community. Two years earlier, brother Jake won the same award for VolunTEEN Nation.

Now Dr. Simone, a second-year psychiatry resident at Washington University, and Sophie, a first-year medical student at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, along with Simone’s fiancé, Dr. Alex Gu, an orthopedic surgery resident at George Washington University in Washington, D.C, have created a podcast to help ease the transition and anxiety of interviewing virtually for residency positions around the country.

“Inside the Match” is a podcast designed to help medical students navigate the residency application process and provide a resource for future residency applicants. 

They explain that COVID safety precautions have made it impossible to interview in-person with the program director and faculty, meet with current residents to ask questions or really get a sense as to whether the city where the position is located would be a good match for one’s residency training. 

The trio interviewed 33 residents throughout the nation in a variety of specialties along with an associate program director. These short episodes focus on tough and unique residency application interview questions residents were asked, how they answered, questions they asked programs and how they ranked programs. 

To date, over 20,000 listeners have downloaded “The Inside Match” podcast. Find episodes on Apple, Google or Spotify podcasts: http://bit.ly/inside-match.

You can also follow Inside The Match on Twitter and Instagram for even more helpful tips for residency applicants and medical students @Inside_TheMatch.