Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe - Travis Stork: From OG Bachelor to Dr. Daddy

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

Travis Stork who made his TV debut as the Bachelor on Season 8 joins Kaitlyn on the premiere week of the new season of The Bachelorette to talk about his experience as one of the OG Bachelors and his life now as a happily married, Board certified ER Physician and his role as a new dad! Just in time for Father’s Day, Travis talks about all the fun things you can look forward to with a baby such as no sleep and the love of changing diapers. Dr. Travis Stork has come a long way since his days on The Bachelor which was a completely serendipitous opportunity that landed in his lap while in med school which was a career path he had no idea he wanted to pursue until later in life. Dr. Travis Stork also talks about his experience working the front line during COVID-19, his personal thoughts and advice on the vaccine and then shares a “sterile” confession that comes as a complete shock to Kaitlyn! You can find Dr. Travis Stork on IG at @travisstorkmd APARTMENTS.COM - Go to apartments.com. The most popular place to find a place. CROCS - If you want to be comfortable all day long, head to crocs.com to get your pair today. BEST FIENDS - Download Best Fiends free on the Apple App store or Google Play. HYUNDAI - Learn more at hyundai.com. GEICO - Go to geico.com and in 15 minutes you could be saving 15% or more on car insurance. ROTHY’S - Head to rothys.com/vine to find your new favorites today. JORDAN HARBINGER - Search for See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Okay, listen up if you love a good slow burn romance, and let's be real, who doesn't? You need to check out the new Audible Original of Pride and Prejudice. It's an intimate performance that literally makes you feel like you're right there swooning with Lizzie Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Marisa Abella as Elizabeth and Harris Dickinson as Darcy, I'm obsessed. So whether it is your first time with Jane Austen or your 50th, this version is such a fresh, fun listen. Go to audible.ca slash Jane Austen to dive in. Hey, everybody, you're listening to Caitlin Bristow's podcast, Off the Vine.

Take it away, Bree. Wine. Lots of wine. Hey, B on the mic, turn it up. Let's go. Hey, ramen, Pino, ready for the show. Everyone's welcome. So come on in because OTV, it's about to begin.

Hey. Welcome to Off the Vine. I'm your host, Caitlin Bristow. Today, I have one of the original. The OG Bachelors on the podcast with me, like I'm talking OG from 2006, so probably better known as the former and original host of The Doctors TV show or his medical and fitness-based Instagram. It's Dr. Travis Stork, but we're going to call him Dr. Daddy because he is a new dad to an almost one-year-old who is the cutest little stinking nugget angel of all time. And he seems like just the best hands-on dad out there. And I'm actually kind of friends with his wife, and she's amazing too.

We talk all about life as a new dad, bringing a baby into the world during a global pandemic, the realities and future of COVID in the medical world, the vaccine, his passion and philosophy of food as medicine, and then yes, we do go way back to his days on The Bachelor. I had to. I'm sorry, Travis, Dr. Daddy. I hope you find this one really informative and educational, as well as you know, my usual level of entertaining. hashtag Dr. Daddy in the house. I love this nickname.

How did this come about? It's not really a formal nickname, but now it's official. You're the first one who's actually said it out loud, Caitlin, so I'll take it. That's amazing. I feel like it's perfect. I feel like at some point I need to get, I'll get Grayson down here so that the nickname will be official. Yes. Oh my gosh.

Imagine he grew up to call you. Dr. Daddy? Yeah. Is that weird? Yeah, especially how you just said it, you know. But oh my gosh, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I am so good. Just, you know, living that engaged life right now. Congratulations. Very excited for you. Yes. It's, it's an exciting time. It was like two weeks straight of just celebrating. And then I find it like, you know, when you go on vacation and then you come back kind of like depressed and like it's like post vacation blues I feel that way about being engaged I'm like is the hype already over I'm like I was really having fun celebrating wait till you get back from your honeymoon that's true that's we came back from our honeymoon and literally

I flew straight from Hawaii to Los Angeles to work yeah and we got into our hotel room Pierce was still with me and someone was nice enough to have a cake there, but I had to get up the next morning and work. And like there was cake and champagne. I'm like, yeah, but I have to go back to work. It's over. And I know. And you don't like prep for it. You like enjoy the moment so much of like the honeymoon and you just had a wedding and you're reminiscing and then you just have to turn around and go to work the next day. And it's just like they should really ease you back into those things. By the way, hey, one of the things. Paris and I did. That was kind of cool. Because on the back end after our wedding, I had to go back

to work pretty quickly. So we actually did a pre-wedding. We did a honeymoon before the wedding and after. So we did a little pre-wedding honeymoon, which was pretty epic because it forced us to get away from the mindset of worrying about the wedding. And we went down to Costa Rica. And we only went for four days, but it was pretty epic. Because then we just rolled back to town. Yeah, we could have been here, getting everything perfect, but we rolled back to Nashville and people started coming in for the wedding. And we had a few great days with family and friends. And then after that, hopped on a plane to Hawaii. So we got, we had the honeymoon on the front end and the back in, which was, which was incredible. That's genius. Actually, I am going to take your advice and run with that

because I feel like even already, I have four meetings tomorrow with different wedding planners just to decide who I want as my wedding planner. And then it's like game on from there because we want a short engagement. And I get very easily overwhelmed with anything to do with planning and people coming into town. And I feel like I am the kind of person that would need to just escape and like take a few deep breaths and relax before the craziness and then get back on the relax train. I'm into it.

And you can tell your family and friends, you know, that last week, everyone, everyone is calling you. It's your wedding. So, hey, Caitlin, I, I missed such and such an invite. What time do I need to be here or there? You just tell them that you're so sorry, but you don't have cell phone. Also, how is parenthood going? Because I feel like you are just like fully embracing this. Is this something?

Have you always pictured yourself as a day? dad because you like people say dad goals okay maybe i should just save this for the confession part we can jump into confessions right now there's no order here there was a lot of doubt as to whether or not i wanted to be a father not because i couldn't see myself as a father but there's a part of you that isn't sure because i'm an older father and so there's a little bit of you that isn't sure how much it will change your life and will it change it so much that you won't even recognize yourself. So Paris, my wife, there was some convincing. And I think after time, I realized that this is something that I would probably regret forever. And, you know, it's really

interesting. But the minute, I'm not even kidding when I say the minute that guy was born and every minute since, I love being a dad. But until you're an actual dad, you don't know what it will feel like but oh my gosh see you're already a mom sorry my dog being a being a puppy mom it's the same concept and it's just the katelyn i'm telling you there are days where our dog charlie is harder than our son bracing oh yes they're 100% charlie has days where do they though well i mean have you met charlie no i haven't met charlie so the only reason Charlie isn't barking right now. Yeah.

And up in the computer screen is because she is, I'm actually in our living room. She is closed off in the office because she will get into everything. Whereas Grayson, he's pretty chill. Is he'll hang out and he'll, he'll just look at you. The dog, I'm telling you, if you have raised a dog who is a bit of a problematic dog, raising the kids is surprisingly easy. Okay, so this is a good training session because, I mean, my one dog, Pino, I have two dogs and they're both kind of crazy and they switch off on times that they want to be crazy. Like when Pino's really chill, Raman will be a crazy dog and when Raman's chill, Pino decides to be annoying and it's like they sleep on our head.

So I guess we don't really get that much sleep, which I think is like par for the course with having a child. yeah so just imagine when you know if and when yeah if if you two have a child combine that third element of loss of sleep and all these other things but after I think Grayson he was a really bad sleeper for about eight months and then something happened Caitlin and the kid goes to bed at 7 p.m. and sleeps till 7 a.m. so there's 12 hours a day you have to yourself right it's pretty remarkable wait how did you do that you did you guys have like training in place or did this just naturally happen paris had us on a pretty strict schedule and he just but but for some reason i think it's because the kid loves food he's seven months and we have friends who told us by

three months their kid was sleeping through that grayson would wake up twice in the middle of the night for food until he was eight months old but then i think once he started especially especially eating real food, because now he eats what we eat. So he fills his little belly up. And then when he goes to bed, he's like, dad, mom, I'm out. I'm ready to go. I'm out. I will see you at 7 a.m.

And I'll be ready to rock and roll. And once that happens, that transition for us, it changed our lives. Because when your kids waking up in the middle of the night, you know this with your dogs. When they wake you up in the middle of the night and you're exhausted, you love your kid's death. Yeah, but when the, you're like, oh, no, not at, oh, no, it's 2 a.m. son, oh, just go back to bed. And that's when you're thinking, hmm, was it such a good idea to have a kid or not? And the answer is always yes, but. We all know how much sleep is important to how you function.

in the next day. So when you don't have it for a certain amount of time, you start to like lose your noodle a little bit. But that's good. I relate to that so hard. I would love to go about seven and wake up, but seven, I'm such a sleeper. Like, okay, yesterday, I was kind of feeling like not motivated. I didn't have anything really scheduled to do. And I napped for, I don't want to rub this in, but I, I guess you get 12 hours now, but I napped for four hours. And I woke up and I was like, oh, and then I went back to bed at 9.30, no issues. you napped as in actually slept for four hours straight we're not friends I don't know what's wrong with me no it's amazing I'm so impressed and I'm proud of you because if you gave me four hours in the middle of the day the way my brain works zero

percent chance I'm falling asleep yeah I cannot sleep during the day I am so impressed by you Jason is the same way, like he, his brain is wired to just always be doing something. I am really, really good at shutting my brain off, which is definitely a gift that I get from my dad. My mom has problem sleeping. My dad can sleep like through anything. And it was, I was like, you know what? I'm just like feeling a little bit lazy. I just went into the room. I was like, I'm probably going to watch the crown and have a little nap. I woke up four hours later. And I was like, hmm, good for me. Gave myself a little high five. Good for me. Oh, I wanted to know what the thing is that you were least prepared for as a dad that now you're like, whoa, I did not know it was going to be like that.

All right. Since we're talking about this, I'm going to, I'm, he's upstairs. I'm going to, can I bring him down for a minute? Please do. I would love that. How old does he know? He is 11 months. So he's, he's a little toddler.

He can't fully walk yet. But this is the part, here he is. what's up little guy is paris there too you want to say hi to katelyn paris is right here she says hello hi cutie oh my goodness hi honey you probably can't hear me but i try to be like you smiling he can see you waving hi oh my gosh he's such a he's such a cool little kid he's really he is such a a blessing and so he's just so chill what's that bud oh he is an actual angel look at him he's so chill oh my gosh i know people say this all the time but like i definitely want to nibble his cheeks you know it's one of those things where i never so what one of the things i never

expected is i want to give him more hugs than he gives me he's he yeah he's he loves hugs he he loves hugs, but he's like, all right, you know, dad, mom, you know, I, I want to be left to my own devices here. But he's, he's such a little rambunctious kid. Hi, buddy. Oh, my goodness. And he's, the other cool thing we didn't know with the pandemic, we were all stuck at home. So the first eight months of his life, we're not really out and about. Right. But now we can, we can take him out to dinner. And he loves people watching. Does he? So he'll just. sit there and watch people and he'll laugh and giggle and then we'll feed him what we're eating because he loves I mean the kid has expensive taste I'm not kidding Caitlin if you order something

on the menu and it's expensive he wants it really he's going to be a little foodie he is a foodie that's amazing oh my gosh well think about it because he he probably loves people watching because for eight months he's like it's only seen you two and now he gets oh my gosh he's so precious. I can't even handle it. Yeah, he's, he's such a great little kid. And, you know, that's the thing that I never. So what I didn't expect, and you, you might think that my answer would be something that's difficult. Right. And obviously, I don't think I fully understood the lack of sleep. Right. Because we had literally no help. And like, not one second of help, the first half year of his life just based, because our families don't live here, the pandemic.

Right. His mom and I spend credit to his mom because with pumping and everything else, it just takes a lot. But the thing that I did not expect, and I mean this sincerely, not to be cheesy, like, he's my guy. So in the morning you wake up and I never thought I would be the guy who'd be excited to get my kid out of bed and change a diaper. Right. but I do. I like it. And I get absolutely pumped up to see them in the morning. And when you put them down at night, I know it sounds silly, but sitting there reading a book to them and then putting them down. Yeah. I didn't think I would enjoy that part, especially at the age where

they're a baby. But I'm a sucker. I love it. I love it. Yeah. That's sweet, though, because you probably, well, what it sounds like and what I sometimes go back and forth. In my 20s, I went back and forth all the time not knowing about kids. Now I'm like, I definitely want to have one. But I feel like when you don't have your mindset on something your whole life, you just don't really know what to expect. Like my sister grew up being like, I am put on this planet to be a mom. Like I can't wait to have babies.

That's like she thought about it all day, all night. She was just so focused on becoming a mom. It was her purpose. And when you don't have that feeling and then you realize it is your purpose and this little child that you've created is your purpose, it just changes everything. And everything's probably a surprise to you of like what being a parent is, which I love what you said. You said something about like having a kid makes you a parent, but being present makes you a dad. Yeah. And I believe that to be true. I love that. Explain more because I love being. That's why I love podcasting because I feel

like everyone can be present and in the moment of having a nice conversation, which we don't get to do very often anymore. And I'm sure like pandemic probably had something to do with being a little more present. But explain to me more about that. Well, I think part of that's true with life in general. And not to be sarcastic, but, you know, I think about life goals. A, you know, I wanted to be I became a doctor, love being an ER doctor. Other big life goal was to be the bachelor. I thought you're serious. I was like, was that really? life goal? No, no, no, no, no. Things happen in life. And I call that, we can talk about this all day long. I live my life by the Helen Keller quote, life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

And, you know, what's funny is in that vein, I thought maybe having, when we had grace and I thought, all right, you know, the adventure part of life is over because now it's about caretaking and everything else. And one of the things back to parenting versus being a dad, when you do have a child, that is the act of being a parent is just having a kid and I realized that I'll always be his quote unquote parent but when I'm spending time with him and I mean he's Paris wouldn't be upset if I said this but he's a little bit of a daddy's boy he's you know he and his mom have such an awesome unique relationship and it's so fun to watch them but then he and i have our own unique relationship where like he's been teething lately and a lot of times when he's teething like

he wants his daddy really oh that's special and and i am such a softy now with that and those are the moments where i'm not literally looking in the mirror but i'm thinking to myself I'm his dad and right now he just needs his dad to be there with him and if I hadn't established that connection

because obviously he's not he's not going to remember any of this but at the same time the time that I spend with him is cultivating who he'll become I wanted to know when you realized you wanted to be a doctor

so preconceived notions would be that I would have wanted to be a doctor my whole life So the truth is, I come from a family from the Midwest, my parents, Nebraska, Iowa, farmers, no one in my family was a doctor. I didn't know I wanted to be a doctor until I was about 24 or 25. Oh, no way. Yeah, I was, I didn't study any medicine in college. I didn't do any of my premed classes.

So I was volunteering at a free clinic living in Washington, D.C. And it was, it was just one of those aha moments where I was trying to find something. that that sparked a passion, right? And I had yet to find it. I was a, Kaelan, I was a math major in college. So I was, my first job out of college was I did a lot of, I was an actuarial scientist. I don't want to get into this.

It's boring. But I would use numbers to forecast future events. And I did a lot of algorithms. I was very much into the computer and programming. And it didn't really fit my. personality and I started volunteering at this free clinic and something just clicked with me because they they taught me how to take vitals and I would work in the front of the clinic taking blood pressure, people's weights, et cetera. And I think about the sixth time I volunteered, I went out

the doctors who volunteered there invited me to go grab a beer after. And I was at the time so in awe of them because A, they're volunteering their time. B, it's the definition of of doing something you're passionate about. And after a while volunteering there, I finally just threw out the question to some of these doctors, whether or not it's even feasible. I didn't even thought of it. Would it be feasible?

Is it silly for me to even think about changing career paths? And God, it's crazy, but I started taking classes. I would go take classes after work or before work. And so I went through this very non-traditional path to become a doctor. And I didn't go to medical school until I was 27. Holy God. I didn't know that. Yeah.

And that's where you never know where life's going to take you. But it was just one of those things where instantly I knew what I was meant to do. And also, even once I got to medical school, I knew I loved that interaction, that that sacred one-on-one interaction doctor-patient relationship. But then in med school, my first routine. in the emergency department, that hit too because I just knew immediately that I wanted to be the kind of doctor when you're in distress or you're sick and you're in need of hopefully a calming presence, hopefully having the medical knowledge. But I really liked that environment strangely of chaos and the unexpected.

And so I fell in love with emergency medicine my first day of that rotation. So it's, it's just life evolved. And it seems like so long ago, because it was, but it's, if I hadn't volunteered that free clinic, I probably would have never become a doctor. And probably my whole life would look different. Right. And I don't know how it would be, but it's just funny because it's, being a doctor is such a huge part of who I am.

Yeah. And yet, I never once thought about being a doctor until. until I was older. That's so interesting. Yeah, because when earlier you said, like, life goal, so I thought it was something that you, like, dreamt about since you were little, like, that's what your life goal was, but it didn't happen until your mid-20s. That's wild.

Wow, good for you because I know, like, for, you know, most doctors, you have to get into that pretty early or take a specific road to get there. So it's cool that you just found your passion and went after it. Well, and more and more, interestingly, more and more people are doing that in medicine because the traditional path was you're in high school, you know, you want to become a doctor, you go to college. And I actually recommend anyone who's listening to this, whether it's themselves or maybe a loved one who's thinking about becoming a doctor or going into healthcare, it's completely fine to go to school to become a doctor. That's fine. But

being a good doctor also means being well-rounded. And I think for me, and I had a number of colleagues who also took this non-traditional path, I think it's important to have other experiences as well, because especially in the emergency department, for me to be able to understand all of the problems, which a lot of times are social in addition to medical, it helps to have the broad set of experiences. So I'm, I feel very lucky that I didn't just go to college, take all my premed classes, go straight to medical school, because it's actually a very, medicine. is a very uh what's the word i don't want to say it's a closed in environment but it kind of is because it takes so much time so much energy and and i'm glad that i had other life

experiences beforehand because i think it did help me become a better doctor yeah oh for sure and i wouldn't change a thing and the other part about it is i obviously never knew i would end up on tv i never knew i i would end up posting a show called the doctors i never never knew that I would have a chance to write books and work with really cool products that I believe in. And all of that happened. I mean this sincerely, all of that happened because luckily in my early 20s, I took a chance on doing something that I thought would bring passion to my life. And it all worked out. And the beauty of that is, you know, back to that Helen Keller quote of life is either daring adventure or nothing you never know unless you try and so i'm so

glad that i did all of that even though at the time i did i asked myself am i crazy i don't i don't know no one in my family's been okay let's do this you broke the blueprint of what the family says and does and that's i preach that all the time to people and uh that's kind of what jason talks about and a lot of his business stuff that he does is breaking that blueprint and finding your passion and how it's never too late and how doors open from that and taking those risks if it's something that you're passionate about. And I mean, obviously, you can speak to that. It's so interesting, too, because you talk about medicine and everything that's going on in the world with COVID. Like from a doctor's perspective during a time of COVID, what has that been like?

Because there's been so many, obviously, challenges and hard times and sad times and there's some good that's come out of it. But what has it been like for you personally to be in that world during a pandemic that we've never experienced before? Well, I think that the biggest challenge has been the battle of rhetoric versus science, believe it or not. And I don't want to get into this too deeply, but when I originally went to medical school, it was, okay, you're becoming a medical scientist. And I think that, I think it was challenging for a lot of people in health care to deal with the pandemic, not only because

people were dying from it, but there was so much misinformation out there. And for the first time, I think I realized how easily misinformation is spread when it comes to our health. And I think, honestly, there's a part of me that's scared for the next big pandemic because I know this is really maybe not a popular thing to say. But in some ways with COVID, so many people suffered. There are still people who have lingering symptoms from having gotten COVID a year ago. Obviously, people lost their lives. But when this first hit, you have to understand that we didn't know if the mortality rate was 10%. You didn't, there was, there was no data to so.

So we got strangely, we dodged a bullet of a virus that, you know, is going to kill 5% of the people to infects or maybe even greater. It's still quite deadly, but all those unknowns and then all the, the, the quite frankly, misinformation that was out there just created, I think, an environment that was. really hard for anyone in health care. And quite frankly, the neighborhood grocery store became when people start wearing masks, I think it really brings it home how health care doesn't just happen in the hospital. Right. And for me, especially as a public health advocate, this was really a strange time because usually I'm telling people, hey, eat healthy food and live a healthy lifestyle. But it was challenging for me, even with, I'll just be honest, I had friends who refused to ever wear a mask and who told me that they thought the pandemic was not a real thing.

And I'd have to sit there and say, no, if you came to the hospital right now, you would see that there are two floors filled with people on ventilators. This, like, everyone, this is there. You're like, I live in it daily. It's real. It's real. And, you know, I worry a little bit about if and when the next big pandemic happens, because I hope we learn some lessons here, which is when a pandemic happens, and I don't want to get on my high horse here, but it really is one of the rare times where we're all in it together. Because with any virus, particularly one that's potentially airborne, we all end up being petri dishes. is. And it really is something where you and your neighbor, your health affects one another. And I'll tell you, Papa Bear Travis, you know, I was, I wasn't taking any chances with my son. We, we had him in the hospital right in the midst of it. And, um, and so it was like half of me was was Dr. Travis. Half of me was daddy doctor. But more than anything, I was just a dad. And I'm like, hey, y'all, we don't yet know what this.

does to babies. And so I have one job right now and that's to protect my son. And, and, you know, I, I'll just be honest with you. I, I, I, I wouldn't, my friends, you thought the pandemic wasn't a real thing. I wasn't, no way I was going to spend. No, I was, we were, we were. Yeah. The store family was very small at that point in time. Yeah. No, I totally get that. And I, I feel like, especially because you are in it and you see it, how can you not be any other way. While this is on my mind, did you deliver your own baby? No, but I was, let me just say, I was very involved in the delivery. Yeah, okay.

Maybe more than I wanted to be. Really? I assume because I'm like, well, I don't know with the pandemic. I didn't know if like you can be there during that time. I'm assuming because you are a frontline worker, you could and all this stuff like being at appointments. I know that that was like a hectic thing for a lot of people who were having a baby. But Caitlin, the hospital was still trying to figure out. protocols. It was a very uncertain time. And there were also huge staffing shortages because

of the pandemic. So I had to get really, really involved in the delivery because it ended up being a complicated delivery. And there was there was no doctor around when things were going south. And it was just a very weird. Talk about a weird night in your life. Yeah. It was surreal because Grayson obviously hadn't been born yet, but he got caught in his mom's pelvis he started having what we know is heart rate accelerations which is not a good thing so he was decompensating my wife like she had been pushing for three four hours developed a fever her heart rate went way above 150 so all of this was happening and i'll just be honest with you there were no doctors around holy and we had a brand new nurse

quite frankly I don't I'll just stop there all I know is on that particular night in the middle of COVID I was very blessed that I had a background in medicine no kidding and that you function in chaos and that you have that background and that you were able to be there for your own family wow well I was lucky because in med school I spent I spent a full six weeks delivering babies in Roanoke Virginia and I probably delivered I don't know 60 plus babies and then during residency. I spent another month on the OB ward.

So I'd had a lot of experience. And you don't ever want to be in this situation. But getting back to the pandemic, you know, all bets were off. When you're in a pandemic, the normal, the things we take for granted, which is just normal staffing,

normal. And it also gets back to one other thing. And I will say this till the cows come home. If you're not in medicine and you're not in health care, but you are a loved one, you feel like you're like something's not right and you're not getting taken seriously by the health care system. It's okay to raise your hand and say, wait a minute, this isn't like we've got to do something here because, you know, if I, if I'm just telling you it was, it wasn't it wasn't a, it wasn't a good night in the deliver room. And my baby had to go immediately to the NICU. It was, it was just a really scary night. Yeah.

And I often think back to if I hadn't been in medicine, what, like, what could have happened, but also, boy, oh boy, the amount of faith we put in the health care system. Right. My gosh, that's so true. Well, I mean, that's so terrifying. I'm so glad that that all worked out and that everyone's okay because that, I mean, yeah, I mean, you can't even go there of what if you weren't in there because you were and you saved the day, Dr. Daddy. Yeah, certainly was not the postcard delivery that you watch in the Hallmark movies.

No, no, no, no, no. But everything's okay and the baby's okay and mom is okay. And that's all that matters. That is. That's amazing. Well, I'm happy for you guys. And I mean, there's so many skeptics and conspiracy theorists out there. can you just give myself and my listeners a bit more information behind the safety and ultimately

like the encouragement to get the vaccine because I'm pro vaccine. I'm assuming because you've seen it all and you're, you know, in it, you're the same way. Well, the first thing I would say, Kailen, is to be completely forthright. I personally believe that vaccines in general are one of the greatest accomplishments in modern medicine because there are a lot of illnesses that created a lot of death that we don't even talk about anymore. Having said that, I also appreciate people's concerns with a vaccine that is made very quickly. And I initially, back in the fall, I think I even posted on Instagram, look, right now, there isn't enough data for me to take this. As more data came out, I follow the data, the science. And I'll be the first to tell you, I'm fully vaccinated. My wife is

fully vaccinated. And I not only enjoy my life more now, because I'm fully vaccinated, but I felt really good about the data on the vaccines. Yeah. Despite acknowledging that I completely empathize with people who are wary of a vaccine that has produced that quickly. Yeah. But you're also talking about in life and in medicine, you're always talking about risk reward. So the risk of COVID is death, long-term sequela that we're still. only now trying to figure out. And when you look at the, the vaccine, so many doses have been given

now. And with any vaccine, there's always the potential for side effects. But boy, oh, boy, the side effects from COVID and the number of people affected is so far outweigh any risks with a vaccine that I encourage everyone I know and love to get it. But then, of course, I'll take this a step further and tell you that we have an 11 month old baby and again when you look at it it's it's not like COVID has created a huge problem luckily so far in his age range and you know and I'm not running out there beating down the door to you know to experiment so to me the best advice I can give folks out there is when it comes to anything read from a trusted source the science or listen to someone you trust and quite frankly if you're if let's just say never take advice from

someone who pretends they know everything and so let's just say you're debating whether or not to take a vaccine and the person telling you about it is someone who focuses on their focus is Botox injections right just an example yeah your plastic surgeon isn't the person to give you advice on vaccines. Your chiropractor is not the person to give you advice on vaccines. I'm just being straight up. And nothing bothers me more in medicine than when, you know, someone is steps outside their lane and acts like an expert and raises fears.

So the person, the people we need to listen to are the infectious disease experts, read the data, and then you make your own choice. And as I told a lot of members of my family, because a lot of my family and Nebraska, they weren't sure about it. And I said, look, the minute this vaccine was available to me, I took it. Because to me, it's safe. To me, the reward is huge. And I recommend you get it as well. And that's, that's all I'll say. I do not believe we should take tart every single thing we hear in healthcare. I think not to go off on a tangent, but I think there are a lot of things that we do in health care that aren't good. That's another conversation for another time. Yeah. And I,

just would leave with that thought, which is I totally respect when people are a little bit wary of the health care establishment. But, but in general, for me, vaccines is actually the one place where I think health care has done a heck of a good job compared to maybe, you know, you go in with back pain and you walk out with a surgery you didn't need. That stuff happens way more than you could ever imagine. So, oh my gosh. I'll leave it at that. That's terrifying. I know. But okay, that was very helpful. So thank you for saying that. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this. We went into our pantry yesterday, Caitlin.

And I literally said to Paris, we've got to stop. We've got to stop stockpiling these disinfectants. It's Paris. We're on the tail end. We're because she was so mama bear. And I so respected, but she had a, I'm telling you, Kayling, she could not go to the store. Even after you didn't really, she could not go to the store without coming home with wipes. Every single time, she comes home with more wipes.

Yeah. More wipes, Caitlin. Gosh, you never, like you saw it happen with a toilet paper. What if the next pandemic hits and you guys are fully stocked? I'm coming over to your house because I know you live in Nashville. Well, we'll keep some. I convinced her to give some away to the homeless shelter because we need room in the pantry for food. Come on now.

Do you really think another pandemic is going to happen? I suspect in our lifetimes, knock on what meaning hopefully we'll live long, happy, healthy lives. I think it's inevitable because what people forget is humans have evolved so quickly. it was not genetically and everything else it's not like our immune systems were designed to fly from China to Australia to Malaysia to America all in the course of 24 hours so these viruses in particular they're having a heyday in modern society because they get to go all the way around the world in 24 hours and find a new host, and their job, their only job, a virus's only job is to replicate.

And so in modern society, viruses, especially when there's a new virus that our immune systems are not privy to, these viruses spread literally like wildfire. And the best example is, you know, why does a wildfire spread so quickly? Well, in a windstorm, one little ember can be blown. I don't know exactly, but like maybe a mile away and start a completely different fire in a completely different valley. And that's what these viruses do. And so to me, if there's a silver line with this pandemic, it would be that I don't think anyone is going to be hopefully ill prepared next time. And I would hope that the powers that be are, they're ready.

yeah because yeah that's the way this thing played out you and I both know i mean it was a full on shit show yeah yeah and honestly it's it's going to happen again it's inevitable and i'm not i don't want to scare people but it's all it takes is and we've heard of all these scary viruses that are incredibly Ebola's an example and you know not to give stories out but my roommate during my second year residency was an ID doctor infectious diseases doctor and it's been written about so I'm not giving anything away but Ian had moved to Africa and back during the latest Ebola outbreak he got infected and almost died wow came back to the states and found we found out that the virus was still like living in his lacrimal secretions my point is viruses are a lot of them

are clever even though they're they don't have brains like they just they love to replicate so I don't want to scare people okay um but the movies I watch those movies and I literally am laughing I've been talking about it because it seems so far-fetched. I'm like, nope, yeah, 100% that could happen. 100%. I watched Contagion, like, years ago on an airplane. And I was like, what if that happened? No, that surely couldn't happen.

And I got so freaked out. And then when this all happened, we watched that movie again. And it's like everything is so similar of what we're going through. And it was really freaky. And I highly recommend no one watch that movie right now. It was terrible. I watched it in the middle. I can't help myself.

I know. I watched it again in the middle of it. And I was like, what am I doing to myself? But it is, it was freaky how many parallels there were. Well, it's the parallels and,

you know, you can never believe Hollywood really quickly. Never believe in Hollywood, for instance. Someone gets shot. And then they always take some smoldering piece of iron. And they'll say, hold on.

And they'll put a, you know, like an iron prong. And it'll sizzle the skin. and everyone's okay. Like, that's not how, that's not how that works.

Not how it works. But, but some of these movies like contagion, like yeah, they're scarily accurate. They're like, yeah, that could happen.

Okay. That could happen and it did happen. I know. Now I'm just waiting for aliens to land because I'm like, well, obviously that's next. Like this, everything I see now,

I believe is going to happen and everything that's taught. I'm not even going to get into aliens. I'm, I'm not letting you get away without two things before I let you go. One, a confession. and two, like, 30 seconds of Bachelor talk. So give me your confession first.

And then I'll make you suffer for the last minute of the podcast. All right. Well, two quick confessions. The first is boring and lame. Okay. But my wife said it. I shouldn't say it. It's that I'm actually a huge introvert.

So. Are you really? Which makes sort of everything I've done in life. I was always most comfortable with that doctor-patient one-on-one. I am not a very, I'm not, I'm someone who can spend all day by myself and it gives me energy. So I'm a huge introvert, although I love people, but I love, I'm a huge introvert. So. Interesting.

I kind of am too, which is interesting. Right? Like I can be extroverted, but I am like to, like, my genuine self is more introverted than extroverted. and but I can be an extrovert but yes okay well and point is if you can if you can hang out in your bed for four hours taking a nap love it you're able to be introverted I just learned a long time ago and and I'll answer the bachelor stuff in a minute but the bachelor just overwhelmed me oh my gosh yeah you you've been through it anyone who's it's just the craziest experience and when you're an introvert and you suddenly

are very extroverted out there. It's kind of overwhelming. But the second confession is so silly. But my wife drinks my urine. What? Are you being funny or serious? So I have, a quick story. What?

She hates me for this. You said it so like, well, my wife drinks my urine. I'm like, huh? So, Caitlin, I do, I do something that I had surgery on my spine and my wife. wife. When I left the surgery center, she asked for a few of those extra bedside commodes, right? Because for a few days, I couldn't really get out of bed. So she got some extra bedside commodes. And I kind of got used to the lifestyle. It's kind of nice. Like, you're laying in bed. You got to go the bathroom. You don't even have to get up. You just grab the commode.

Right. So as I got better, I was like, honey, is it cool if I just leave one of these here just on any given night? You know, maybe. So eventually she made me get rid of all those because she thought was the weirdest thing ever. Well, um, I'm not kidding. A number of months ago, you know, your new parent, you're tired. Oh, no. We had a little too much to drink. Oh, no. And I had an analogy bottle back to next to the bed. And it was the middle and I'm like, I, I, I just can't. So I did. I like lean over the side of the bed, went in the analogy bottle. Well, unbeknownst to me, Paris rolls over two hours later, thinking that I have water. No!

Next to me, she grabs it and she chugs it. No! I think I ruined her life forever. Oh my gosh, that is the worst thing. That is up there in like top three confessions over my last four years because it's like, it's like funny because you have to confess that you used one of those. and then it's also a confession for her that she drank it. Oh, my freaking gosh. She's still married to me, though.

She didn't divorce me, so it must have tasted good. I thought you meant she drinks it like it's like good for her system. Like there was some trick that I didn't know about that she drank it every. Okay, oh my goodness. Urine is sterile, though, for everyone listening, urine is ironically sterile. So it's not like it causes harm. She said it did not taste good, however. And two days later, she actually put her breast milk in my bottle.

So I was in my bike bottle like this and I took a big chug of it. And although not urine, it wasn't pleasant. Oh, my gosh. That's a great confession. Thank you for sharing that with me. And it just reminds me of that. Have you seen the movie Dodge Ball? Love that movie.

When Patches-O-Hulahan talks about drinking his own urine because it's sterile and he likes the taste. That's what it reminds me of. Okay. Moving along. Oh my God. That's hilarious. I love how confident you said it to my wife drinks my urine. Okay. Just, just quickly to breeze over it, just because I think it would be so interesting to know. How did you end up becoming The Bachelor? Because obviously in that time, it wasn't like it is now where, you know, you get sent home second or third and you become the Bachelor. How did you become The Bachelor?

It was a Friday. I was in the Vanderbilt, ER, left a shift with a couple of my buddies. We went to over to Division Street and someone came up to us and started buying us beers and then it turns out it was a casting director for The Bachelor and they were in town casting for, I guess, the women for the next season of The Bachelor and literally one thing led to the next. I left, I guess my friend gave my phone number and within, it just happened so quick because it was also in it was in Paris that year. Yeah. And, uh, it wouldn't have happened it, but I'm just telling you everything happens for reason. My sister found out, she said, oh my God, Travis, that is my favorite show. You have to go do this. Even, even my colleagues in the ER stepped up and

said, Travis, just go. Go. You always say life is a daring adventure. Go do this. So it just randomly happened and that obviously changed my life forever and um i'm still not sure it was for the better but i have no regrets yeah um but that's how it happened yeah it was it was one of those just random things in life and one thing led to the next and and there you are the bachelor and there i was it it's crazy because it was season eight wasn't it season eight that's i mean of course that's a long time ago but i for some reason thought it was earlier than that but do you have okay you said you have no regrets about it because obviously it has led you on this path that you're on now um do you have a favorite memory or anything that stands out to you

and then my second question is do you still watch to this day or are you like now i'm done i'll answer the second part first which is my wife forces me to watch every single episode of the bachelor and the bachelor we even we even watched the the bachelor and i liked it the one in nashville what was it called the listen to your heart yeah yeah so we are we are huge bachelor fans So much so that I randomly were at a wedding in Atlanta, ran into Matt, James. Yeah. And it was just funny because there were so many years after I was The Bachelor when I didn't watch it because, quite frankly, as you know, once you've come off of the show, it's so overwhelming that you almost need a detox. 1,000%. I had to do the same. But for me, now that I've been in TV for a while and I hosted the doctors for 12 years and just left.

doing that and all these things have happened. And all of them I consider a blessing. But I genuinely can say this. I got to go over, think about it this way. I was in residency in emergency medicine. Yeah. I was able to go over to Paris, France. And I had been working, working, working. I really hadn't had any time to date. I get to go over to Paris, France. And they treat, I have to say this, like, they treated me right. The bat, everyone on that show, treated me with respect I was able to the first two weeks before even we started filming I was able to finally take some time in my life and I remember I was in a hotel and I would go across the street to this little cafe and drink coffee and then it was like life came back to me before we even

started filming it reminded me of who I was before I had started residency and I have so many awesome memories of going around Europe and and I'm everyone on on my season I really liked and the only like literally the only negative thing that I would say and you know this too is the hardest part about being the bachelor or I assume the bachelor's at is that when you get towards the end it gets real and yeah it's hard and it's there's still huge. emotion involved and you're torn in so many different directions and then the whole world is so invested in your relationship and that part you know obviously that part is harder to deal with but when you look back and now like I'm married I have a son but I can look back now and say wow

we took a helicopter down to champagne France and drank champagne in the in the cellars of like oh my gosh I had dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower right oh my gosh. how amazing. Yeah. And I met cool people. Yeah. Oh, I love that you have a positive experience, though, through it and that they treated you right. I love hearing that because I just think every year the show changes so much.

And like, obviously right now it's in such a changing time. And I do think they're, you know, like from what I saw being, I'm on this next season coming out from what I saw, it was much different from my season in a positive way. And I was really happy about that because I feel like there was a short period of time where there was some serious. manipulation going on and people's mental health was like not thought about. And I feel like I saw them really caring about people this season and like making the proper changes. And I was really pleasantly surprised by it. Well, I'm of the opinion. And it's interesting now that I've been on the other side of the camera. And obviously I've learned a lot about production. But

I've always been of the opinion that if you actually share real stories and it's certainly when it comes to relationships, genuine, not manipulated, that that's more meaningful. And if you're watching, and it's one of the reasons why my wife and I, again, she won't let me miss an episode because if it's genuine, I think in a weird way, we can learn a lot about ourselves, too. And when it's the manipulation stuff, which by the way, we know happens in all types of reality TV. All TV. yeah you know my experience wasn't that which was great but that's just everyone's experience is different I always tell people just being when you're the bachelor it's not like my experience could be

completely different than someone who was on season 12 of the bachelor it's it's a complete just like I'm a different person everyone's experience is different but I'm I'm like incredibly happy because I know you are involved in the next season. I think it's important that, you know, the franchise has been around for so long. Yeah. And I think it's important. Authenticity is huge. Mm-hmm.

I agree. And that should be what this is all rooted in. And I think you, you know, you yourself, one of the things that I think people love about you is you're authentic. You're real. Thank you. And I, and I'm glad that that's what, that was my experience. And I, you know, it seems. to me like that is really the focus going forward to. Totally. I think people are starting to realize

just how, especially now in the world we're living in, like, people who are, you know, pitching TV shows and networks that are looking for things. Everybody is craving authenticity and community and like positivity, which I think is amazing moving forward for shows like that. So it's really, that's cool. And thank you for talking about it because I know sometimes I don't even want to talking about it. So I know you're very into, you know, being healthy, nutrition, everything. So, like, four rapid fire questions of just something that you can, you know, help people and listeners squeeze into their daily routine. What are some of the quick and effective exercises that you can use that people can do at home?

Did I see you jumping rope backwards? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. While you're watching The Bachelorette or The Bachelor, you jump rope backwards during the commercials. No, I'm a big fan of jumping rope backwards because one of the things, as we, over time, and this happened to me, all we do is lean forward in life. Every movement is forward. I'm doing that right on. So at the end of the day, people need to consciously do things that exercise sort of their back muscles.

And so jumping rope backwards forces you to bring your shoulders back and get your spine back in alignment. So that's a really cool, easy trick for people to do. Just remind yourself that muscle memory of not always leaning. everything forward. Oh my gosh. I'm so guilty of that. I'm always leaning forward. It's bad.

Okay. What are some of your favorite on the go snacks? Okay. I'll do a shameless plug here. So nuts. Nuts are, they're heart healthy, loaded with fiber,

protein. I'm even working, I'm working with some farmers in California, walnut farmers. We're working on a new walnut snack brand. Amazing. Can we know what it's called?

or is it out there yet? It's called snack primal. Snack primal. And it's really about, instead of grabbing a candy bar, you know, the thing I've learned, nuts can help you lose weight. They help you feel full fiber, protein. And so to me, that's been my go-to, especially with all the traveling that I do. Nuts are everything.

Nuts are everything. Okay. Take away from this podcast, nuts are everything. And I love my nuts. Okay, last one, favorite short on time yet healthy go-to dinner. My one-minute bean burrito, Caitlin. Tell me more. I take a strain a can of like black beans, pinto beans.

I'll take a whole wheat tortilla and I will use the black beans. And if I have any leftover veggies or anything, literally just throw them in there. yeah um you know we're my wife and i'll openly admit it we're into some of the like oat based cheese we we will mix in regular cheese but also some of the vegan cheese i love vegan cheese guacamole salsa hot sauce you throw that in the microwave it takes one minute and it literally it's almost like you have homemade taco bell that's healthy wow okay one minute dr daddy burrito okay i'll stop I'll stop. And Gray and Grayson loves it.

And, you know, that is, I will say it. It's a doctor daddy special. It's hot. I, when I met Paris, I think one of the ironies is the first time she came over, I made, I have another recipe, which is essentially the same thing, but it's nachos. But instead of using unhealthy chips, I'll use either bean-based chips or cauliflower chips. And all you have to do, literally, if anyone has a strainer, you strain beer, you strain beans you can you throw like cut up olives in there and you can literally take this just like

throw it on top of healthy bean based chips or cauliflower chips use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and and all the toppings avocados all these things and I made that for her because we were in a quick hurry and I think that may have been the moment she fell in love with me because that'll do it she's like wow one minute nacho and they're pretty good. Look at this guy. All right. That's what turns her on is the Dr. Daddy burrito and bean dip.

I'm actually like hungry and I'm like, wait, I think I could do that in my kitchen right now. I'm going to do it. Well, and post it and I'll tell you if it looks appropriate. Okay, perfect. That's amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the pod. You were such a pleasure to talk to and tell Paris, I say hello, and give those cheeks a little nibble for me on Grayson. and tell everybody where they can find you.

I am, I'm getting better. I'm getting better, Caitlin, about social media, but Travis Stork, MD for Instagram and then Travis StorkMD. just started a website. So, hey, I'm evolving, Caitlin. I'm proud of you. That's really impressive. That's, it's the way of the world now.

So I'm glad you're on it. I was going to say before I go, Paris also wanted to send her congratulations to you. We're really excited for you and Jason. genuinely. And as fellow Nashvilleians, we're just really excited to, you know, that you guys are going to be tying the nod and just embracing life

in this wonderful city. Oh, thank you guys so much. Thank you. And tell Paris, thank you, too. All right. Take care, Caitlin. I'm Caitlin Bristow. I'll see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening to Off the Vine with Caitlin Bristow. Get new

episodes every Tuesday exclusively on podcast one.com, the Podcast One app and subscribe on Apple Podcasts.