Turn on the Lights Podcast

The corporatization of health care is driving a mass exodus from primary care, creating a crisis that affects both physicians and patients alike.

In this episode, Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a physician and advocate, discusses the worsening state of American primary care, shaped by burnout, poor pay, and a loss of autonomy, while sharing how his recovery from opioid addiction inspired him to support other physicians. He also explores the stigma surrounding mental health in medicine, stalled union efforts, and the need for better education and regulation around the safe use of medical cannabis.

Tune in and learn how systemic dysfunction is breaking primary care and how medical cannabis could be part of a more humane, effective future!

One of the biggest drivers of high drug prices in America is the opaque rebate system between pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers, where savings rarely reach the patient.

In this episode, Vinay Patel explains how drug prices are formed, from R&D and manufacturing to complex negotiations involving insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. He breaks down the mechanics of rebates, formulary restrictions, and the consolidation of power among PBMs, showing how these hidden forces raise prices and limit access. He also offers promising alternatives like cost-plus pricing models and calls on employers to take control of their health care contracts to cut costs.

Tune in and learn how this broken system works, and what it might take to fix it!

While universal health care offers immense equity and access, it still faces real challenges around fragmentation, funding, and integration.

In this episode, Dr. Bob Klaber reflects on the values and challenges of the UK’s NHS, contrasting its universal care model with the U.S. system and advocating for whole-person care over over-medicalization. He emphasizes the importance of trust, collaboration across sectors, and the role of prevention and social determinants, remaining hopeful thanks to the next generation of health care leaders.

Tune in and learn how real-world care, leadership, and connection shape a more equitable and effective health system!

The key to ending homelessness is not just more housing, but better systems of collaboration, urgency, and coordination at the community level.

In this episode, Rosanne Haggerty, president and CEO of Community Solutions, discusses how the rising homelessness crisis in the U.S. reflects deeper systemic issues, from healthcare gaps to housing affordability, and explains why solving it starts with stable housing. She shares how the Built for Zero initiative has helped communities like Denver and Houston make homelessness rare and brief through data-driven collaboration and systems thinking.

Tune in and learn how communities are turning coordination into impact and how your city might be next!

Celebrating 100 episodes is no small feat!

In this episode, co-hosts Kedar Mate and Don Berwick look back on their podcast journey, highlighting powerful stories and themes like moral injury, health inequities, and the promise of AI in health care. They reflect on moving moments of resilience and leadership while balancing short-term concerns with long-term optimism for a better future.

Tune in to this milestone episode of Turn On The Lights!

Human error in health care is inevitable, but system-level solutions offer real hope for reducing harm.

In this episode, Dr. Jason Adelman, a leading patient safety expert, shares how a critical medication error propelled his transition from hospitalist to patient safety researcher, leading to innovations like the “retract-and-reorder” method for detecting wrong-patient errors. He explains the importance of a "just culture" in health care, the systemic nature of most medical errors, and how AI could help reduce harm, if used thoughtfully.

Tune in and learn how technology and mindset shifts are reshaping the future of safer care!

The criminal justice system in the U.S. is, at its core, a healthcare issue, one that demands healing, not punishment.

In this episode, Gregg Croteau, CEO of UTEC, shares how his organization helps justice-involved young adults escape cycles of violence and incarceration through education, employment, and unwavering support. Founded by young people in response to gang violence, UTEC now focuses on those aged 18–25, the group most at risk of returning to prison. Through social enterprises like mattress recycling and food services, participants are paid while also receiving therapy, childcare, coaching, and education. Gregg emphasizes the need for systemic change, including better mental health care, reentry support, and human connection, urging a more restorative approach to justice.

Tune in and learn how compassion, structure, and persistence can rebuild lives and systems!

Public health is invisible when it works and only noticed when it fails.

In this episode, Dr. Howard Koh reflects on the chronic underfunding, political challenges, and cultural barriers weakening America’s public health system, drawing from his leadership experience during crises like 9/11, anthrax, H1N1, and the ACA rollout. He underscores the undervaluing of prevention and the difficulty of making invisible successes visible and frames public health as a spiritual calling rooted in meaning and service.

Tune in and learn how we can reignite the public health torch and carry it forward, together!

A 20- to 30-year life expectancy gap between neighborhoods just miles apart reveals the brutal reality of health inequity in the United States.

In this episode, Dr. Steven Woolf, physician and public health expert, explains how U.S. health disparities are driven more by social determinants, like education, income, housing, and systemic racism, than by access to care, with COVID-19 worsening these gaps for marginalized communities. He calls for bold investments in economic and educational equity to reverse these trends, warning that without political will, systemic health inequities and poor outcomes will persist.

Tune in and learn how economic policy, not just medicine, could be the key to saving lives!

The survival of professional trust in medicine depends not only on individual doctors but on the systems and institutions that shape their behavior.

In this episode, Dr. Thomas Nasca discusses the evolution of physician training, the role of accreditation and certification in ensuring national standards, and the need for institutional professionalism to support clinicians in upholding their oaths. He warns that growing financial pressures, particularly from private equity, are threatening the integrity of care and introduces a new center focused on preparing future medical leaders to confront these challenges.

Tune in and learn how the future of health care may hinge not only on medical knowledge, but on who gets to shape the systems that deliver it!