Episode 13 takes listeners behind the glossy ads and catchy slogans of pharmaceutical marketing. Lydia Green, a former advertising writer who spent decades shaping drug campaigns for pharmaceutical companies before becoming a sharp critic of the industry, joins Pharmanipulation to share her insider perspective on how drug ads are crafted and the ethical dilemmas that come with selling treatments that may not always help patients. Lydia reflects on her journey from insider to reformer, raising questions about informed consent, what patients truly understand, and how industry creates and sells medical concepts along with drugs. From subtle messaging strategies to disease branding campaigns, Lydia discusses what finally made her walk away from the industry and what she’s learned from reflecting on her career.

Additional Resources

Lydia’s Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lydia_green_why_drug_marketing_rules_american_healthcare_and_what_we_can_do_about_it/details

Lydia Green’s article, Confessions of an Advertising Writer: How I Helped Pharma Sell Antidepressants, Mad in America (2025): 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/04/in-brain-chemistry-we-trust-the-gospel-according-to-pharma/

Lydia Green’s article, Confessions of an Advertising Writer: How I Helped Turn Atypical Antipsychotics into a Billion-Dollar Industry, Mad in America (2025): https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/08/confessions-ad-writer-antipsychotics/

Lydia Green’s article, Confessions of an Advertising Writer: What I Learned From Your Stories and Mine, Mad in America (2025): https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/09/confessions-of-an-advertising-writer-what-i-learned-from-your-stories-and-mine/

Lydia’s Organization RxBalance: https://rxbalance.org/

Moynihan R, et al. Selling Sickness: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Disease Mongering. BMJ. 2002;324(7342):886–891.

Episode 12 dives into the world of menopause. With special guests, Garnet Anderson PhD and Cindy Pearson, Pharmanipulation explores the evidence from and controversies about menopausal hormone therapy. Dr. Garnet Anderson is a biostatistician and clinical trialist at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center and is one of the Principal Investigators of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a set of federally-funded, long-term studies of the effects of menopausal hormone therapy on chronic disease risks in postmenopausal women. Cindy Pearson is a women’s health activist who served as the executive director of the National Women’s Health Network for 25 years. Cindy led the Network’s efforts to expand access to health care and to improve research on women’s health.

Additional Resources

Manson JE, et al. The Women's Health InitiativeRandomized Trials and Clinical Practice: A Review. JAMA. 2024 May 28;331(20):1748-1760. doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.6542.

Hickey M, et al. Normalising menopause. BMJ. 2022 Jun 15;377:e069369. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2021-069369. PMID: 35705221.

Series on Menopause from The Lancet: published in March 2024, this series of articles and perspectives considers how we can empower women as they age and transition through menopause.

SWAN Fact Sheets: these fact sheets summarize the results of the Study of Women'sHealth Across the Nation (SWAN). SWAN is the only multi-ethnic long-term natural history of women before, during, and after menopause. They outline the major findings from SWAN on bone health, memory and cognition, hot flashes,sleep, depression, urinary incontinence, sexual functioning, and vaginal health.

Episode 11 features Paul Offit MD, an international expert in virology and immunology. Dr. Offit is a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and director of the Vaccine Education Center; he is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He chats with PharmedOut about the current measles outbreak, the real risks and benefits of vaccines, RFK Jr., the medical freedom movement, and more.

Additional Resources

Dr. Paul Offit’s Beyond the Noise Substack: https://pauloffit.substack.com/

Autism Science Foundation: https://autismsciencefoundation.org/teams/dr-paul-a-offit/

Dr. Offit’s op-ed “Giving Infectious Diseases a Break?” in thePhiladelphia Citizen: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commentary-giving-infectious-diseases-a-break/

Dr. Offit’s open letter to Senator Cassidy about RFK Jr.: https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/07/rfk-jr-kennedy-hhs-secretary-bill-cassidy-measles-epidemic/

“A Boy Who Had Cancer Faces Measles Risk From The Unvaccinated”: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/02/03/383324228/a-boy-who-had-cancer-faces-measles-risk-from-the-unvaccinated#:~:text=To%20Protect%20His%20Son%2C%20A,of%20parents%20refusing%20to%20vaccinate.

Episode 10 highlights examples of how patient advocacy groups influenced pharmaceutical decisions at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a conversation with health policy researcher, author and activist, Sharon Batt PhD, we explore regulatory decisions on Relyvrio (AMX0035), Avastin (bevacizumab), and Addyi (flibanserin) within the context of our latest report “What Needs to Change at the FDA?Protecting and Advancing Public Health.”

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing. 

Additional Resources 

Full Report “What Needs to Change at the FDA? Protecting and Advancing Public Health”: https://georgetown.box.com/s/n87us836fpmdhtcvdaqopyobfwx7bymx  

Webinar on “What Needs to Change at the FDA?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g9br3wZW-k&t=11s  

Article on “How some drug companies manipulate patient advocates” by Judith Garber: https://lowninstitute.org/how-some-drug-companies-manipulate-patient-advocates/  

Episode 9 features a conversation on opioids with Andrew

Additional Resources

PROP’s Website: https://www.supportprop.org/

PharmedOut on Opioids: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/advocacy/pharmedout-on-opioids

PharmedOut's Journal Article, “Survey of opioid prescribing

“Years into an addiction crisis, a med school lecture still

Fact sheet on opioid marketing: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/3fqr4f0nl4jnviwrcxhn6muaxqqptgsx

Summaries of key articles on opioid marketing: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/xt2rhk3tinq0rqgn9bz2dozm2w4dv84c

Episode 8 features an interview with Shahram Ahari MD, an emergency medicine physician and former drug rep, that explores the world of pharmaceutical samples. We chat about why samples are the most important marketing tactic drug companies have, how samples are used to manipulate prescribing choices, and discuss whether or not drug samples should be banned.

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing.

Additional Resources

PharmedOut fact sheet on drug samples: ⁠https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/y51hkdvu2dju9sv26fjcc976ivlvwtkj

Summaries of key articles on the topic of drug samples: ⁠https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/3052cjlgv9thfw0qf3k9fkuyio978mbr

PharmedOut’s paper “Pharmaceutical marketing: the example of drug samples.” Link: https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-022-00479-z

PharmedOut’s paper “Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors.” Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040150

PharmedOut’s paper “Why lunch matters: Assessing physicians' perceptions about industry relationships.” Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chp.20081

Dr. Ahari’s op-ed in The Washington Post “I was a drug rep. I know how pharma companies pushed opioids.” Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-was-a-drug-rep-i-know-how-pharma-companies-pushed-opioids/2019/11/25/82b1da88-beb9-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html

Episode 7 features an interview with Peter Whitehouse MD, PhD and Lon Schneider MD, MS exploring dementia and mild cognitive impairment. We chat about the medicalization of normal aging, the overdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, problems with new drugs and tests for Alzheimer’s disease, and how to prevent dementia. 

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at

Additional Resources

PharmedOut resources on Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive

Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of

Making the Case for Accelerated Withdrawal of Aducanumab.

Dr. Peter Whitehouse’s latest letter to the editor, “Cummings

American Dementia: Brain Health in an Unhealthy Society

The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren't Being

Episode 6 invites Ragen Chastain, activist and author, and Joel Lexchin MD of York University, to discuss myths about weight and health, the hype around Ozempic and Wegovy, and the unclear connection between weight loss and health. 

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a project at Georgetown University Medical Center that advances evidence-based prescribing.

To learn more about Ragen Chastain and her work, please visit her website: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/

Additional Resources

Dances With Fat Monthly Workshop – September: Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office date changed from September 27 to October 11 to avoid overlap with ASDAH’s annual meeting. Link: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/ 

Books

“Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia”

“Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as

Articles

"Semaglutide: a new drug for the treatment of obesity" by Joel Lexchin and Barbara Mintzes. Drug Ther Bull. 2023 Oct 25:dtb-2023-000007. doi: 10.1136/dtb.2023.000007. Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37879878/

“How the ‘It's Bigger Than Me’ Campaign Is Harming Fat People for Profit" by Ragen

“Weighing the Consequences of Weight-Loss Drugs” by Judy

Igho J. Onakpoya, Carl J. Heneghan and Jeffrey K. Aronson. Post-marketing withdrawal of anti-obesity medicinal products because of adverse drug reactions: a systematic review. BMC Medicine 2016;14:191. Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27894343/

Prescrire’s "Semaglutide (Wegovy°) for excess body

Please note: the full article is available for subscribers

PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual

Episode 5 invites Tony Scialli MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive toxicologist, to talk about the overuse of gynecologic surgeries – namely hysterectomies and Cesarean sections.

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/1bdbxvaezezlpu0qsm02q3101mmhsi3a

To learn more about Dr. Tony Scialli, please visit his website:

Additional Resources

The Cultural Warping of Childbirth by Doris Haire. Link:

Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective.

Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. Link: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31385160493&ref_=ps_ggl_17730880232&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade_10to20-_-product_id=COM9781570671043USED-_-keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1_SkBhDwARIsANbGpFs4ExX1P9YXQFUuTueJytlUy2VdelLMIBU7neywgGu14aYawh1w7hkaArxfEALw_wcB

PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations.

Episode 4 invites medical anthropologist Sylvia Önder PhD and cultural psychologist Yulia Chentsova Dutton PhD to discuss the differences among disease, sickness and illness and explore the concepts of invented diseases, folk illnesses, and the social value of certain diseases. 

Pharmanipulation is produced by PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center rational prescribing project. For a transcript of this episode, please visit: https://georgetown.box.com/s/ufrrmreu5d26cbfvorbu863uz32qkih9

PharmedOut Conference: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/resources/conferences/2023-conference

Bonnie O’Connor. Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions. 1995. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhvd3

Irving Zola. Medicine as an institution of social control. 1976. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43618673

Michel Foucault. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/55034/the-birth-of-the-clinic-by-michel-foucault/ 

PharmedOut is supported primarily by individual donations. To donate, please visit: https://sites.google/com/georgetown.edu/pharmedout/donate