Why the Midterms Matter: Live with Wendell Potter

Tension between moral authority and commerce has been present in healthcare since the days of Hippocrates. But lately that tension has intensified and it's wreaking havoc on patients and physicians alike.  Pablo Gaston, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and the author of the new book "The Moral Economy of Care: Work and Power in the American Hospital", joins us to explain the origin and interplay of modern tensions in healthcare, and what happens when clinicians cede the high ground.

Recorded live at the Pen & Pencil Club in Philadelphia one week before the midterms, former insurance executive Wendell Potter joins us on stage to talk about the perfect storm brewing in healthcare right now, how to spot and counter propaganda, and how to hold our elected officials accountable for change. For more on Wendell's work, check out Health Care un-covered on Substack.

Stories are the heart of advocacy. They're why messages hit home and data comes to life. Chip Fleisher, Senior Editor of Steerforth Press, an imprint of Pushkin Press, helps us break down the elements of a great story and how to tell it so people will listen.

According to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, "PE has invested over $1 trillion in the US healthcare sector over the last decade, touching virtually every corner of the industry – including hospitals, outpatient providers, clinical research, durable medical equipment, home health and hospice, prison healthcare, and more".  Jim Baker, Executive Director of PESP, joins us to talk about how the landscape of private equity is changing and what that might mean for healthcare."

In guiding our kids along the traditional path to professional success, are we really setting them up for failure?  College is heralded as necessary for a promising career, but many colleges today can't deliver on the promises they make - and they know it.  New York Times reporter Noam Scheiber joins us to talk about his book Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College Educated Working Class, and our collective responsibility to the next generation.

Conflict is inevitable, but lip service in lieu of resolution doesn't need to be.  Dr. Donna Hicks, Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and author of "Dignity", walks us through the key elements that contribute to positive outcomes in conflict resolution, and how we can maintain our dignity - and the dignity of others - while at the negotiating table.

It took forty years of neoliberal policy choices to dig the 'profits over patients' hole the American health care system has fallen into today.  How long will it take to dig us out of it?  And how can we do it?  John McDonough, professor of practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health tries to answer all of those questions in our conversation about his new book, America's Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era.

Vertical integration, loss of competition, and encroachment of cartels.  Sound familiar? What drove our nation to Prohibition, and why and how we emerged from it a hundred years ago, have uncanny resonance today.  In this special summertime episode, Wendy and Matt break down what the lessons of Prohibition can teach us about the business of healthcare.

What does it sound like when two seasoned podcasters, who admire each others' work but don't pull punches, sit down for a chat?  In this special crossfeed drop, we're bringing you the unedited version of a recent episode of How I Doctor with Graham Walker featuring our very own Wendy Dean. It's an hour-long master class in moral injury you don't want to miss.

What does a morally defensible, healthy, legal, commercial marketplace look like, and how can we design one for healthcare? Nobel laureate Alvin Roth, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard University, joins us to about his new book, Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work.