Conversations With Dr Barankin: Joseph Jorizzo, MD

In this episode, Dr Barankin interviews Joseph Jorizzo, MD, about his favorite books, his advice for pursuing a career in medicine, how he maintain a work-life balance, and more.

Dr Jorizzo is a professor of dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.

Dr Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is author-editor of 7 books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.

Transcript

Dr Benjamin Barankin: Hello, and welcome to the podcast, “Conversations with Dr Barankin.” I’m Dr Benjamin Barankin, a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada.

These succinct interviews with our dermatology colleagues will ask these bright and talented minds their thoughts, experiences, and pearls of wisdom that are fun, interesting, and actionable. Now let’s get started.

I’m honored to have with me, today, Dr Joe Jorizzo. Dr Jorizzo was born in 1951, in Rochester, New York. He’s the son of a father who was a physician in Italy, as well as in the United States, after World War II, and an Italian-American mother who worked as a social worker for 65 years.

He completed his AD and MD degrees between 1969 and 1975, at the Boston University School of Medicine, and began his first faculty position as an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, under the direction of Dr Edgar Smith, in 1980, and then, in 1986, accepted the position of professor and chair of the new department of dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

His career highlights include founding the department and residency program at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He’s an adjunct professor at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine and at the University of Genova in Italy.

He was also asked by Jeff Callen to co-edit the textbook on Dermatological Signs of Internal Disease, and by Jean Bolognia and Ron Rapini to be lead author with the two of them on the textbook, Dermatology.

He’s proud to be on the editorial boards of the “Archives of Dermatology” and “The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,” as well as “The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.” Dr Joe Jorizzo has published over 150 articles.

Thank you, Dr Jorizzo, for joining us.

Dr Joseph Jorizzo: Thank you for including me, Ben. I appreciate that. This sounds like a fun series.

Dr Barankin: We’re going to keep things light and lively. We’ll start off, Joe, by asking you what’s your favorite book and why.

Dr Jorizzo: I have thought about this quite a bit, and I’m going to go back a ways to a political classic, which is 1984. It just seems like a very relevant, cautionary tale for today. I remember enjoying it when I read it the first time, and it was great when I re-read it.

I’ve been reading a book lately called, Maestros and Their Music. It was given to me by a friend who was the chancellor of the school of the arts, here at UNC in Winston-Salem, John Mauceri – he’s a well-known philharmonic conductor – and it’s a fun book. That’s a range from heavy to fun.

Dr Barankin: Joe, I was forced at school to read 1984. I never really enjoyed being forced to read any books, but I loved that book, and I think it’s very timely.

Dr Jorizzo: Exactly.

Dr Barankin: Are you into music? Do you have a favorite song?

Dr Jorizzo: I was thinking about a favorite song, and really, they’re oldies. It makes me feel almost 69. When I was a kid, I loved the Rolling Stones, and “As Tears Go By” was my favorite. But when I was moving from Boston to North Carolina, it was around the time that “Carolina on My Mind” by James Taylor came out.

Then, just around the time that I was starting the department here, at Wake Forest, I got into reggae, and I really went with some of the classic ones, like “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley.

Now, I listen to all sorts of weird stuff, including some Italian pop music. How’s that for eclectic?

Dr Barankin: That’s quite good. I’m also a fan of the Stones and Bob Marley, so I share that with you. Tell me, any recent movies that you’ve enjoyed? Any favorite movies?

Dr Jorizzo: The most recent one was Hamilton. I really loved seeing the movie version because the more recent versions don’t have the original cast. It’s fantastic. It’s available on that Disney-plus channel.

But my favorite old ones are Life is Beautiful by Beningi. It was amazing that such a heavy-duty topic had some light moments. When I was in college, I really liked the movie King of Hearts, that idea that the inmates run the asylum kind of thing. It has some political overtones that are relevant, so I like that movie.

Dr Barankin: Are family signed up for Disney-plus specifically to watch the Hamilton movie, and we absolutely loved it and it was well worth it. We’re looking forward to Mulan coming out in a couple of weeks time.

Dr Jorizzo: Great.

Dr Barankin: Any morning rituals for you? Do you meditate or anything like that?

Dr Jorizzo: Well, nothing quite that heavy. Now that I’m approaching 69 in October, I’m stiff when I get out of bed, so I’ve developed a routine of a combination of stretches, yoga.

There’s this device called the Sanddune. You run on that for a while, for my cardio part, and it’s very therapeutic for people who have beaten-up knees and ankles and hips and spines. If there’s any meditation at all, it’s done during that half-hour every morning, but I’m pretty religious about it.

Dr Barankin: What three people – let’s say, excluding family and friends –would you like to have dinner with? Where would it be? What topics might you discuss?

Dr Jorizzo: One of the most fascinating people I ever met at work was Richard Branson. I would definitely like to go to his island. He gets a lot of sun. He’s a guy who’s getting up there in age, and he does some of the craziest life-and-death sports that I would never dream of doing, so that would be one.

Another one, that’s relevant to me today, I’d really like to hang around with Anthony Fauci. I came back from my fellowship at St. John’s in London and started my faculty job in Texas, and I was very interested in vasculitis. It wasn’t much after that he was the guy at the NIH who was doing amazing research on what was then called Wegener’s and other vasculities.

Now that he’s so much on the news, and he’s had threats to his life and his family’s life, I’d love to get together with him, in his native Brooklyn, and go to a restaurant there – some really low-key pizza place or something and have him talk about things.

One of the people that I respect, and I may be giving away some politics here again. It’s unintentional in a time when we’re trying to find some unity. But I wouldn’t mind going to Honolulu with Barack Obama and see some of his pokey places and stuff like that and just having him free associate. He’s a guy who’s into sports and he’s into everyday stuff.

I would want to talk to him about that sort of thing, about growing up in Hawaii and seeing the cool food on the islands. Those are my three.

Dr Barankin: That would make a wonderful dinner with those three, fine gentlemen, no doubt. Question for you. What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?

Dr Jorizzo: I would say work hard, be passionate, but have some fun every day and focus on your family. That’s it in a nutshell.

You make your own luck. Don’t sit there and wait for it to come your way. If you work hard and you’re ready for it, it’s amazing when you look back how lucky you’ve been. At 18, you have a certain innocence that’s maybe not prepared for all that.

The focus on family, I was lucky to have a strong family, as you alluded, in the introduction, and I hope that I’ve been that to my family.

Dr Barankin: Reminds me of the quote from Louis Pasteur. He said that, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Dr Jorizzo: There you go. There is an element of that. It really is true.

Dr Barankin: Now, Joe, if you weren’t a physician, what do you think you’d love or be good at doing instead?

Dr Jorizzo: I don’t know that I’d be good at it, but if I was successful enough to be able to support my family, a drummer. That would be my thing.

Dr Barankin: The next Phil Collins, OK.

Dr Jorizzo: Yeah.

Dr Barankin: Any favorite hobbies, favorite forms of exercise?

Dr Jorizzo: I’ll do the exercise one first. I spent 12 years doing CrossFit, and it saved my life. I had dramatic, asymptomatic coronary artery disease, despite having a perfect EKG, normal stress test, and no symptoms. CrossFit saved my life. However, it really hurt shoulders, my elbows, my back, my knees, and my ankles, so I really like Pilates now.

Now that it’s COVID, and I can’t go to the Pilates place I like, I do twice-a-week, mat Pilates with the teacher. It really helps my core and keeps me able to walk.

I really like travel with my wife and when my kids come. We take one of our three kids on a trip to Italy every year, so we rotate the kids and their families.

Dr Barankin: What’s been your greatest travel experience? Where do you hope to travel next?

Dr Jorizzo: I hate to be boring and redundant, but I’m a real fanatic Italophile. My dad died at 49, and he spent his first 31 years in Italy. He instilled in us a special love for the country.

I went for the first time when I was 6, but he sent me by myself when I was 11 and I learned to speak Italian. It really has influenced my life and given me the confidence to do things.

I’ve had fun in every region. Luckily, my wife, who’s Greek-American, loves it as well. We also like to go to Greece.

Dr Barankin: You’re a busy guy, Joe. How do you find balance between your medical career, your family, your personal interests?

Dr Jorizzo: I really enjoy working hard during the day, but as I alluded to earlier, I really like to have some fun every day, and that’s really family fun. I like coming home and doing things with my family, but I’m a really hard guy to be married to, in the sense that I’m very hyper and restless. Luckily, my wife humors me.

We were doing a lot of North Carolina and New York. Now, with COVID, we’re going on the weekends to Charlotte, which is about an hour and 10-15 minutes away. It’s where the grandkids live. I have another son who lives in Asheville, and my daughter’s going to be moving to Charlotte for work, from New York.

We’ve had a lot of fun in that city. It’s an evolving city. I didn’t like it much when I first came here 35 years ago to North Carolina, to Wake. I was an intern and resident at Chapel Hill in the ‘70s. But I really like it now.

That’s a combination of eating out, and doing little walks, and walking the dog, that sort of thing, family things.

Dr Barankin: Now, Joe, what would you tell your children or friends about going into medicine today?

Dr Jorizzo: I’m very optimistic about it. I absolutely love it, and I’m going to die in the saddle. There’s 16 physicians in my family, in my dad’s generation and my generation.

My dad was the oldest of five physicians in his sibling family, and I’m the oldest of the 11 cousins. In the next generation, my younger brother’s son is a sophomore in Oregon, at medical school.

But none of my kids chose medicine. They said, “Dad, you did that. We want to blaze our own trail.” I have a son in business and a son in theater and education, and a daughter who does marketing. They’ve chosen things that fulfill them, and as a parent, you can answer their questions.

It’s hard for us to picture what the world is going to be like. I find that they teach me a lot about what’s going on and what’s best for them, and I try to listen.

Dr Barankin: Sure. Any cool websites or apps that you’re using that maybe not everyone would know about?

Dr Jorizzo: I’m embarrassed almost to mention it because it’s so self-indulgent. My mother was born in 1915 said, “Always buy the highest quality things on sale.” So I like Gilt. When I’m going to buy my Italian stuff, I can get it 70% off. I’m Gilt if I play my cards right, G-I-L-T.

Dr Barankin: I’m writing this down as we speak. OK, I like that. I agree with your mother. It reminds me of Warren Buffett talking about buying high-quality companies at low prices, that’s right.

Dr Jorizzo: Yes. It’s the classic, growing up in the Depression. She really had her high standard, but was frugal.

Dr Barankin: No, it makes sense. Any favorite quotes?

Dr Jorizzo: Yeah. I like the one, “Be yourself because everyone else is already taken.” I forget who said it, but I like it.

Dr Barankin: Yeah, that’s a great one. Any ways that you like to de-stress? Italian cooking? Music? What do you do?

Dr Jorizzo: I’ve kind of alluded to it. A great meal at home, with a nice glass of wine. A nice meal at a nice restaurant. We’re foodie/wine people. Family, friends, including them in that sort of thing.

I do meditate. Like I said, it’s not really meditation, but I zone out when I’m doing yoga stuff and mat Pilates in the morning. I really do like low-key travel. I don’t stress when I travel. It really calms me. I don’t feel like I’ve got to see everything.

I feel like, well, I’ll come back. I like this place. My job is just to have fun here for these couple of days and then pick the stuff I like, and I’ll come back. I’m not one of those people with a guidebook, that’s got to do everything.

Dr Barankin: Joe, if you were offered a free trip to space, the Moon, or to Mars, would you take it, and why?

Dr Jorizzo: I want to tell a story about Richard Granstein was my boss at Cornell. I’m still a volunteer faculty member there, but I’m not seeing patients there as of three weeks ago. I was doing video visits since COVID.

He would kill to go to space. I had a conversation with him, last thing on Earth I would do. I mentioned earlier, Richard Branson. You’d have to come up with a couple hundred thousand to do it.

Dr Barankin: I’ll try to get the money ready for you, Joe, so you can get up there.

Dr Jorizzo: Thanks. I’m still going to probably pass. I’m a little bit of a chicken on that one.

Dr Barankin: Fair enough. Joe, listen, it’s been wonderful talking to you and getting to know you. I really appreciate your time and your insights. Thank you, once again, for everything.

Dr Jorizzo: Thanks for including me, Ben. I appreciate it. Have fun with this.

Dr Barankin: Thank you. I hope you enjoyed a peak into the mind of a medical colleague and picked up some useful and actionable ideas from this podcast.

If you enjoyed it, please subscribe and share it or tell a friend about it. Thank you for listening. Until next time.