When Ria Mulherkar was preparing for the USMLE Step 1 exam, she often felt guilty during the moments she wasn't studying, such as when she was folding laundry or cooking food. Now a fouth-year medical student, Mulherkar has created something she wishes she had available to her then: a podcast.

Spoonful of Sugar is a podcast for first- and second-year medical students, created by third- and fourth-year medical students. Its goal is to provide another way for students to review information for free at their convenience while also creating a community of medical students who help each other and pass forward knowledge.

"Third- and fourth-year medical students provided the most efficient and useful advice to me as I was preparing for Step 1," explains Mulherkar. "They recently took the exams, so their pointers were really directed toward the exam."

Each episode focuses on a single topic. Currently there are episodes available on congenital heart defects, myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and shock, among other topics. The episodes are in a question and answer format, where the host asks a question and pauses, giving the listener time to think about the answer before the host dives in.

Though she doesn't really consider herself a podcast person, Mulherkar found herself listening to The Curbsiders, an internal medicine podcast designed for internists, when she was driving to and from her clinical rotations. While she enjoyed the episodes, she felt that the information was more advanced than her stage of education.

Spoonful of Sugar has the first- and second-year medical student in mind, and the response from listeners has been positive so far. Mulherkar hopes the interest in the podcast increases so that after she graduates from medical school, there will be a new group of third- and fourth-year students interested in keeping the project going by recording episodes.

Learn more about a Spoonful of Sugar at the website, and stream episodes on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play.