Out of Patients EP399: Jen Finkelstein: Wigs, Wegmans, and War Stories

Jennifer Finkelstein should come with a warning label: Highly Infectious Authenticity. If you don't know her, you will—and you’ll wonder how you survived cancerland without her kind of energy lighting a fire under you. Jennifer is a 20-year young adult breast cancer survivor who decided sitting still was not an option. She founded 5 Under 40 at a time when finding another young person with breast cancer was like finding a payphone that still worked.

I wanted Jen on the show because she's the real deal. She speaks fluent Gen X, no-filter, hard-earned wisdom—and she’s lived every minute of it. In a healthcare world still trying to put pink bows on trauma, Jennifer shows up with scarves, wigs, therapy referrals, and the brutal, hilarious truth. She’s what happens when you mix a little Sarah Connor, a little Tina Turner, and a little Dorothy Gale—and let her build her own damn yellow brick road.

Listeners are going to hear why creating peer support isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s survival. Why mental health services aren't an accessory. Why laughter might actually be medicine. And why starting a nonprofit is somewhere between masochism and destiny if you want to change anything.

Along the way we fanboy and fangirl over Wegmans, trash-talk bad SNL eras, share how finding a tumor can be weirder than you think (hint: remote controls were involved), and argue about who would play her in a Netflix series. It’s the kind of conversation you can't script—and wouldn’t want to.

If you’ve ever needed proof that resilience, rage, and ridiculousness can exist in the same story—this episode is it.