Air Date 11/29/2023
The movement for universal health care is still underway, though it rarely gets recognized in mainstream discourse. The death of Medicare For All (M4A) activist Ady Barkan is an occasion worth using to look at the progress being made to improve our system of promoting the health of all people in the United States as well as efforts to rein in the power of big Pharma that's used to gouge the American people with exorbitant prices. So, that's what we're doing.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Healthcare Activist Ady Barkan Dies of ALS; Watch His 2021 Interview on Demanding Medicare for All - Democracy Now! - Air Date 11-27-23
Healthcare activist Ady Barkan has died at the age of 39 of the neurodegenerative disease ALS. His story is told in the documentary Not Going Quietly. In 2021, Democracy Now! spoke with Ady Barkan just ahead of the film’s premiere.
Ch. 2: Why your health insurance is tied to work - The Weeds - Air Date 10-18-23
The wartime policy that changed health insurance forever
Ch. 3: Rethinking the path to winning single payer - Code WACK! - Air Date 4-10-23
Winning Medicare for All in the U.S. may be at a standstill at the federal level, but it's a different story In the states. In 2021 alone, 18 single-payer bills were introduced in states such as Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Oregon.
Ch. 4: How Can This Predatory Exploitation Be Considered Health Care - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 11-15-23
If Medicare Advantage, the profit-driven entity that is decidedly NOT part of REAL Medicare, could be summed up in three words, they might be: deny, deny, deny.
Ch. 5: Biden vs. Big Pharma Medicare to Begin Negotiations to Lower Price of 10 Costly Drugs & Insulin - Democracy Now! - Air Date 8-30-23
Peter Maybarduk joins us to discuss how the new negotiation process aims to break up drug monopolies and disband the pharmaceutical industry’s profit incentive.
Ch. 6: Inequality Undermines Health & Healthcare in the U.S. - Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff - Air Date 11-14-23
Interview with Dr. Stephen Bezruchka on how economic inequality connects to stress, health problems, and inadequate healthcare."
Ch. 7: Big Pharma Explained Why Are Meds So Expensive [& The Solution] - The Laura Flanders Show - Air Date 6-12-23
Today's three integral guests (listed below) join the Laura Flanders Show to discuss the pharmaceutical industry and how to end Big Pharma companies' monopoly.
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Ch. 8: The Challenge of Caring for Our Elders - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 11-15-23
Reed Abelson, New York Times reporter, talks about the financial challenges of caring for our elders since the United States does not have a comprehensive system to help pay for long-term care as the population ages.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on more good news from the fight against climate change
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE
Description: A photo of Ady Barkan wearing a “Be A Hero” shirt while sitting in his specialized wheelchair and smiling at someone off-camera.
Credit: “Elizabeth Warren & Ady Barkan”, Elizabeth Warren, Flickr | License: CC By 2.0 | Changes: Cropped
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Bonus Sample #308 Let the Kids (and Adults) Play
#1636 The Supreme Court Is In Bad Shape. Like, Really Bad. And SCOTUS Is Going To Take Us All Down With Them
#1635 Democracy on the Decline: The US is not alone in facing threats to democracy, others countries are showing how democracies fail
Bonus Sample #307 Uncertain and Powerless
#1634 Abortion as the Tip of the Iceberg: the fight for privacy, bodily autonomy, and functional democracy after Dobbs overturning Roe v Wade
#1633 Fights for Fair Pay, Journalism vs Sensationalism, Billionaire Bailouts, and Addiction Capitalism: Sports are a Microcosm of the Ills of Society
Bonus Edition #305 Solved It! Conspiracy Theorists, Comment Sections, and Trump
#1134 Unnatural Disasters (Hurricanes and Humans) (Throwback)
#1632 SiliCON Valley: The False Promises, Enshittification Economics, and Misguided Adventures of the Twits of Tech
Bonus Sample #304 Not everything that counts can be counted
#1631 Body Neutrality in the World of Ozempic: Reassessing Weight, Body Positivity, Physical and Mental Health, and even the Economics of Body Size
#1630 Unrivaled Global Arms Dealer: Officially and Illegally Exporting the US Gun Culture Around the World
#929 Looking to avert further tragedy (War on Drugs™) (Throwback)
Bonus Sample #303 At the Carwash: Living in a World Not Built for Humans
#1629 Hitting Where it Hurts in Our Era of Negative Partisanship: Messaging left-wing politics amid cultish politics
#1628 New Era of Antitrust for a New Era of Capitalism, Mega-Corporations and Big Tech
#1627 Campus Protests and the Crackdown: Civil resistance against Israeli genocide in Gaza, responses from university presidents to Biden
Bonus Sample #302 Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize.
#1626 Remix - Protest Crackdown: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand and the Response is Predictable
#1625 Society of Extreme Wealth and its Discontents: Tax avoidance, wealth inequality and the detrimental effects felt by us all
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