Episodes

Sept. 29, 2020

Dr. Guy Maytal: "Being Ill" vs "Having an Illness"

Today on the show, a peek into the fascinating world of psychiatric oncology with my friend Dr. Guy Maytal, Chief of Integrated Care and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. I’ve often heard the phrase “ambassadors of dignity” when referring to the e…
Sept. 24, 2020

Lenox Hill, Part Two

Welcome to Part Two my conversation with Dr. David Langer, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital, Co-Founder of Playback Health, and star of the critically acclaimed Netflix series, Lenox Hill. If you’ve listened to Part One — and I hope you did because it’d be weird if …
Sept. 22, 2020

Lenox Hill, Part One

Some of you may have heard about the acclaimed Netflix series, Lenox Hill. If you haven’t, you’ve to to check it out. Four doctors at New York's storied Lenox Hill Hospital balance their personal lives and their dedication to their patients in this documentary series. And one of those doctors joins…
Sept. 18, 2020

[BONUS] Lifehacking COVID-19: Back-to-School Insanity Edition

Today, a frenetic BONUS episode with my dear friend of 30+ years, the always eclectic, impossibly talented Half-Greek/Half-Italian spitfire no BS unicorn that is Elura Nanos. As two exasperated Gen-X parents of young kids, we needed a COVID-19 venting session to outgas our egregious misgivings with…
Sept. 17, 2020

They're Real and They're Spectacular: Board-Certified Patient Advocates

Get ready to learn a lot on today’s show. For example, did you know there are Board Certified Patient Advocates? You heard that. And it’s not what you think. It’s better. Joining me to discuss this — and OH SO MUCH MORE — is Dr. Grace Cordovano, the CEO of Enlightening Results and the Co-Founder of…
Sept. 15, 2020

Kara McGuirk-Allison: A Not-So-Hidden Brain

Today on the show, what happens when a legacy, award-winning NPR radio producer/young adult cancer survivor is interviewed by a gracefully aging, semi-legacy, non-award-winning, non-NPR producer/young adult cancer survivor? Does a media event horizon manifest in the clouds along with the token inte…
Sept. 10, 2020

GATTACA CHATTACA: Is Our DNA Our Destiny?

On the show today, DNA Science Superhero Dawn Barry, President and CEO at LUNA, a public benefit corporation that is restoring power to the people by giving them back control of their genomic health information for the greater good? What a novel idea. While we would have loved to spend the entire s…
Sept. 8, 2020

Dr Saralyn Mark: You Can Be a Winner at the Game of COVID-19 Whack-A-Mole

On the show today, another stellar returning champion, Dr. Saralyn Mark, Former Senior Medical and Policy Advisor to The White House, NASA, and the Department of Health And Human Services, Physician Women’s Leader at the American Medical Women’s Association and Author of “Stellar Medicine: A Journe…
Sept. 3, 2020

Tricia Brouk: So you want to be a speaker? You want to tell your story?

So you want to be a speaker? You want to tell your story? Spoiler alert, it’s not so easy, and I think you might know why. Anyone can tell their story, but that doeth not maketh them a storyteller. There is a definitive art, method, and process to be a storyteller, nee, perhaps even an orator. But …
Sept. 1, 2020

What Happens When The Health Coach Gets Cancer?

Today on the show, I welcome Andrea Ottaiano, recovering agency, Pharma, and media veteran, research junkie, health coach, Founder of Silver Lining Holistic Health AND — if that’s not enough — 13-year survivor of breast cancer, liver cancer, and cholangiocarcinoma. So what happens with the Health C…
Aug. 27, 2020

Staying Angry: Michael Millenson is "Demanding Medical Excellence"

Author and journalist Michael Millenson is one of the original agitators of the status quo of healthcare. He is a friend, mentor, and someone I have consistently referred to as the “older, angrier, and more sagacious version of me.” His activism over the past 20+ years has paved the way for scores …
Aug. 25, 2020

Come again? Confronting Infertility with Barb Collura

Today’s show about fertility and family planing is very personal to millions of people. Because, while you may want to be a biological mom or dad one day, bad things happen to good people. Joining me is perhaps one of the most unsung advocacy heroes you may never have heard of, Barb Collura, the Pr…
Aug. 20, 2020

Telehealth with Dr. Joe Mikhael: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Today on the show, returning champion Dr. Joseph Mikhael, Professor of Applied Cancer Research at the TGen institute for City of Hope AND the Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation. We are talking all things Telehealth, telemedicine, tele-patients, tele-hospital, and video te…
Aug. 18, 2020

The One With Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Today's show is not a "very special episode" of Different Strokes, Facts of Life, Family Ties, Webster, or Blossom, BUT it is a "very special episode" nonetheless. Jane Sarasohn-Kahn has been a friend, a teacher, a mentor, a sherpa, a conscience, and a big sister to me for over 15 years. I mean it …
Aug. 13, 2020

The Forgivably Canadian Dr. Joe Mikhael, Myeloma, and Justin Trudeau Clickbait

On today’s show, Dr. Joseph Mikhael, Professor of Applied Cancer Research at the TGen institute for City of Hope AND the Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, an incredible nonprofit advocacy and research organization that I’ve been proud to call a partner for many many yea…
Aug. 11, 2020

COVID-19 Facts? Dr. Jean-Luc Neptune Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts!

On today’s show, returning champion Dr. Jean-Luc Neptune, physician, entrepreneur, innovator, technologist, digital health guru, and Founder at Suntra Modern Recovery, a Telehealth platform offering personalized recovery solutions for people with substance use disorders. As two separate possessors …
Aug. 6, 2020

Can Science Speak "Person"?: A Quandary for Dr. Catharine Young

On today’s show, returning champion Dr. Catharine Young, former Senior Director of Science Policy at the Biden Cancer Initiative, and current Executive Director at the SHEPHERD foundation. A human of many hats, she’s also a TED Fellow, Presidential Leadership Scholar, and Doctor of Philosophy with …
Aug. 4, 2020

Stop Innovating and Do Something: TJ Sharpe

On today's show, friend, colleague, fellow young adult cancer survivor, advocate, speaker, blogger, and Stage IV melanoma bald guy, TJ Sharpe. He just celebrated his 8-year cancerversary and — spoiler alert — is still here alive, kicking, and staying just angry enough to keep poking a stick at the …
July 30, 2020

John Gorman: Medicare 101 and Racial Disparities in Healthcare

On today’s show, John Gorman, Founder of the Gorman Health Group, member of the Board of Directors of Henry Ford Health System’s Health Alliance Plan, and the Chairman at Nightingale Partners LLC which — to paraphrase — make things suck a whole less for underserved and economically disadvantaged co…
July 28, 2020

The Accidental Patient Radvocate: Christine Hodgdon

Christine Hodgdon is a globe-trotting, human Fodor conservation biologist turned patient “radvocate” (that would be my neologism for radical advocate) by way of her enduring the loss of her father to rare cancer at the same time of her own Dx of Stage IV Metastatic Cancer AND Thyroid Cancer. Gesund…
July 23, 2020

Find Your Pack: Trevor Maxwell on Creating Man Up to Cancer

On today's show, we welcome Trevor Maxwell. Trevor is a husband, a writer, and a father to two teenage daughters. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with stage four metastatic colon cancer. He is a powerhouse advocate who never envisioned becoming an advocate. But that's how it works, right? You recog…
July 21, 2020

You’ll Pay for This: Julie Croner on the Value of the Patient Experience

On today's show, we welcome Julie Croner, Vice President of the Patient Leader Network at WEGO Health. Julie is a rare disease activist who has been educating and empowering patients for more than a decade with tools to better advocate for themselves and others. She and I met a while ago at one of …
July 16, 2020

Advocates Are Not Born. They Are Made: Lilly Stairs and the "Donut Hole of Patient Access"

Lilly Stairs is the Founder of Patient Authentic, which is exactly as it sounds: a bully pulpit that takes (1) the chocolate that is the health tech sector and (2) the peanut butter that are the nonprofits, and makes the Reeses Peanut Butter cup of social change that puts the patient at the forefro…
July 14, 2020

"Such a Beautiful Thing": Susannah Fox on How 21st Century Patients Find Their Tribes

On today's show, my good friend, long-time partner-in-crime advocate, and Princess Leia Jedi Master of Health Tech, Susannah Fox, who I consider to be one of the most insightful, introspective and influential unicorn, renaissance human beings around. Susannah was the Chief Technology Officer for th…