September 3, 2025
Violin with Lynn
Description
Galaxy class violinist Lynn Ngai Gerber glissandos into our tiny concert hall on the reverberations of her latest solo performance to share her lifelong passion for the violin, the art of being a musician physician, and her true feelings about the viola.
Episode
Bio
Lynn Gerber is the Co-Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) and a Clinical Instructor Affiliate at Stanford Health Care. A former chief resident at Stanford, she earned her MD from USC while a member of the Keck Tennis Club. In high school, she was captain and MVP of the varsity tennis team. Along with a 10th-level Superior Certification in erhu from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China, she was the associate concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Images

What Jason Learned
Pirates use eye patches because they spend a lot of time on the deck of the ship but also the innards of the ship; eye patches allow pirates to adjust to the bright lights of the deck and the darker settings of below deck as one eye is already acclimated to darkness (pirates will switch eye patches to the other eye or flip it up).
What Kelcey Learned
Bannister Effect - when a previously unachievable barrier is broken, a mental shift occurs, enabling many others to break past it (named after Roger Bannister who in 1954 to break the 4-minute mile).
Top Five Staying passionate about violin

  1. It takes decades of practicing

  2. Enjoy the process without focusing on the destination

  3. Don't aim for perfection (Lynn aims for 80%)

  4. Be the audience

  5. Prioritize practicing with intention

Fact or Fiction: Violins

  1. The word violin comes from the word vitula, Latin for both “stringed instrument” and “life spirit” - FICTION - vitula also means “female cow”

  2. A modern violin is made up of over 70 pieces of wood, usually spruce or maple. - FACT The oldest violin still in existence was made by Andre Amati in 1165 - False, 1565

  3. The oldest violin still in existence was made by Andre Amati in 1165 - FICTION, 1565

  4. Playing the violin burns the same amount of calories per hour as playing one hour of olk (assuming walking the course and carrying your own clubs) - FICTION, burns 170 calories per hour, which is the same as playing a half hour of golf

  5. Mongolian male horse hairs are used for the finest bows. Why male and not female? Because the urine of the stallion makes their hair extra resilient - FACT

Recommendations

  • Music: Stefan Jackiw - Scottish Fantasy

  • Movie: Inside Out

  • TV: The Bachelor / Bachelor in Paradise

  • YouTube Video: Ms. Rachel

  • Life hack: Live with your parents!

Won't You, Haiku?
Violinists rock
Galaxy-class violin
Not like viola