Out of Patients EP417: Family Reach: The Charity America Forced Into Existence
Carla Tardif has been holding the system accountable longer than most of us have been able to pronounce “social determinants.” She runs Family Reach, a nonprofit built on one premise: cancer costs money. Real money. Like lose-your-home, feed-your-kid-prescription-formula kind of money. And no, insurance doesn’t cut it.
I wanted her on Out of Patients because she’s a lifer. Seventeen years in the same seat, refusing to look away. She’s met the system, seen its apathy up close, and built something that works anyway. She's been escorted off panels for saying out loud what everyone else whispers. She’s been told she scares people. Good.
Carla isn’t here for awards. She’s here because a dying NFL player made her promise to fix what no one else would touch. And somehow she still finds time to throw down about Wegmans, Syracuse, Cheers, and John Ratzenberger, because dark humor is how you survive this work without getting buried in it.
She taught me that anger isn’t a liability. It’s a compass. And that staying in the fight means finding the nerve to say, put me in—even if it terrifies the room.
Matthew Zachary
Producer
Matthew Zachary invented healthcare podcasting before podcasting was a thing. In 2007, fresh off building Stupid Cancer, he grabbed a mic, launched The Stupid Cancer Show and started broadcasting patient stories on internet talk radio when everyone else was still writing blogs.
17 years and 400+ episodes later, Out of Patients is still the most unfiltered healthcare show anywhere.
Matthew doesn't do softball interviews. Brain cancer at 21 taught him that time is finite and bullshit is expensive. He gets guests to say things they'd never tell Congress. CEOs admit what's broken. Patients name what actually hurts. Scientists explain what industry doesn't want you to know. The conversations other shows won't touch because of sponsor concerns or political correctness.
What makes him different: He's been on both sides of the mic. Featured in documentaries, testified before Congress, keynoted hundreds of conferences.
But he's also been the guy puking from radiation, fighting insurance denials, and watching friends die from paperwork.
That dual perspective creates interviews you won't hear anywhere else. He knows which questions make power squirm because he's asked them from hospital beds and boardrooms both.
No pre-approved questions. No PR handlers. No seven-minute segments. Just real conversations with people brave enough to tell the truth about healthcare. After 17 years, Matthew's still the guy Mark Cuban reposts when he wants to understand what patients actually think. Read More
Out of Patients EP425: Doctor No More: MaryAnn Wilbur
