offscript

In 2021, OffScrip Health produced The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship, an award-winning 8-part limited documentary series about the people and not the disease.

So, if you're a narrative history podcast junkie, listen to Episode One of The Cancer Mavericks right here on the Out of Patients feed today. Learn how the Black Panthers became breast cancer advocates and how a $250,000 full-page ad in the NY Times shamed President Nixon into giving a damn about cancer. And how 50 years of social justice movements have brought us into today's conversations about healthcare, income inequality, and race relations.

Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cancer-mavericks-a-history-of-survivorship/id1566467305

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/1Viodbe0rNxET08IyCiDmq

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We are hijacking today's episode of Out of Patients to bring you the pilot episode of "Cancer Coaster," a fresh new series from OffScrip Health focused on the many ups and downs of the emotional journey cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers face. For this particular pilot, we're focusing specifically on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia with our partner, The CLL Society, and their CEO — and special guest — Carly Boos. The average CLL patient has extreme highs and lows during their disease, from the lows of diagnosis, relapse, and the unknowns of watchful waiting to the highs of long-term stability and MRD negativity. See what Carly and OffScrip Health have in store for this groundbreaking series that will interview patients and their caregivers to talk about their emotions during their CLL journey, focusing on their feelings and where they went for support and resources.

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The SUNY Binghamton alumni network is rife with incredible humans who are changing the world one day at a time. On the show today, I'm proud to welcome Tom Heymann, President and CEO at Sepsis Alliance, the nation's leading infection prevention and Sepsis education and advocacy organization.

While there may be obvious parallels between oncology and Sepsis (e.g., misdiagnosis, access to care, patient advocacy), the similarities end quite abruptly, as you'll hear on today's show. My only experience with Sepsis was when Tony Soprano got shot during Season Six, Episode Two of The Sopranos, "Join The Club."

While I am grateful not to have dealt with a Sepsis diagnosis personally or in my family, Tom brought a Plus One in the form of Sepsis-survivor Bennett Kleinberg, who regains his comedy of terrors and how Sepsis Alliance became the support community he never knew he needed.

Please enjoy a very serious show with a surprising sense of humor.

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Sometimes LinkedIn DMs come in handy, as this is the case with Dr. Paul Toomey. A cold outreach became a spot on the show when this Board-certified surgical oncologist — and biomedical engineer by trade — began to share his remarkable story with me. Paul is the CEO of Ring of Hires, which claims to hold the mantle of "The Zillow of Healthcare." Paul's hill to die on is helping rural private practices with their staffing challenges to ensure office culture meets the needs of their patients. He's got a compelling and highly relevant narrative to share, so stick around and enjoy the show.

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Prepare the Wayback Machine for today's chat with Leah Shearer, who, for all intents and purposes, was one of the first ten volunteers from 2007 who contributed to the birth of Stupid Cancer and the greater young adult cancer movement.

The "girl so nice she got cancer twice" Leah—a native of Rochester, NY— found out about my efforts when I guest starred as myself on a TV show called "Side Order of Life" for a scene I wrote based on a real-life young adult cancer meetup. (Back then, we called them "Stupid Cancer Happy Hours.") So, she emailed me, and the rest was history.

I hadn't seen her in years, but we've reunited right here in-studio for a nostalgic trip down memory lane about how the sausage was made and what it took to build a global movement from scratch before the Internet, life with dumb phones. At an irreplicable moment in time, everyone dropped their egos and their missions to unite around one cause: Adolescents and Young Adults with cancer deserved better. And we won.

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Erica Hawthorne identifies as a "People-Focused Marketer," has won several industry awards in digital media strategy as a badass "Black Wellness Marketer." I recently heard her speak at a Pharma conference, and she blew the doors of the place, stunning the audience with her no-BS perspective and forthright honesty. She basically tore a hole in space/time, and I had to get her on the program. She joins me in-studio to share her remarkable story, her take on how to "fix" the parts we can, why Pharma Marketing is horrible, and what the "Ultimate Rubix cube" of patient-centricity could be. Even better, Erica is an archetype GenXer, so we throw down the gauntlet on nostalgia, the nineties (which sucked), the eighties (which were awesome), and all the shenanigans you would expect from this show.

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Kicking off Season 8 of Out of Patients, in today's special "Back To School" episode, I'm joined live in-studio once again by my fabulous twins, Koby and Hannah. "Kids say the darndest things" ain't got nothing on this amazing conversation about how we spent our summer vacation, what it means to turn 13, and the looming accelerant that is 8th Grade (and soon High School right around the corner). Enjoy every moment.

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Today's episode is made possible in part by The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN), the nation's leading cancer advocacy organization working daily to make cancer issues a national priority. 

Today I am joined live in-studio by Pam Traxel (ACSCAN Senior Vice President for Alliance Development and Philanthropy), Kate Weisman, a young adult cervical cancer survivor, and Ian Locke, a Ph.D. student in molecular cancer biology at Duke University. 

Kate is a state lead ambassador for ACSCAN Massachusetts, and Ian is a congressional district member for ACSCAN North Carolina. Together with Pam, we talk about channeling anger into action, what lobbying the federal government looks like, and how getting legislation passed across the aisle can help millions of Americans at a clip.

What's more, we invite you — the listener — to join the thousands of cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and advocates fighting on Capitol Hill daily to make healthcare suck less for Americans. 

Why complain when you can do something tangible right now? How would you like to help reduce drug costs, improve access to care, and motivate the FDA to approve new life-saving treatments?

Visit https://fightcancer.org and see how you can actively influence the government to do the right thing and help cancer patients nationwide.

That's https://www.fightcancer.org/pod

Now go and be a badass cancer advocate.

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I sat down with this certified health educator named Julia who, after a storied career in that discipline, found herself in the patient's chair instead. So, she shared her both sides of the coin perspective on what it’s like to be an educator and then a patient and then the importance—the absolute utter importance—of self-advocacy as a person living with cancer. We talk about barriers to treatment all the time on this show and that means different things to different people.

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My guest for this episode is Dr. Tania Small, a returning champion to Out of Patients. She is a pediatric oncologist by trade who crossed over to drug development so she could scale the medicines that could help more children than she ever could in practice. We had a great conversation about the past, the present, the future of oncology, and the impact this year’s conference will have on millions of patients worldwide.

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Dr. Sudhir Gadh is a board-certified psychiatrist and Commander in the US Navy Reserve. He is also Medical Director for the Center for Recovery and Wellness, with a core focus on low-dose Lithium, as a comprehensive approach for patients to improve brain function. Joining Matthew live in-studio, they talk about our nation is failing to address the mental health crisis, empathy in medicine, physician burnout, ongoing stigma, and, most interestingly, the history of 7-Up. You heard that right. In his words, “Psychiatry is about understanding and adjusting your life story towards progress.” Enjoy the show.

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On today's quirky show, I welcome Jen Palumbo, an epic human Energizer Bunny who takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Jen is a freelance writer, Forbes contributor, and women's health advocate, specifically for reproductive rights. In a spirited coincidence, it turns out we both went to the same college at the same time, were both Theater people, and have dozens of friends in common. We are ships in the night for sure. As fellow parents of IVF children, we bonded over the current state of the state. And as fellow Binghamton graduates, we bonded over Wegmans, being Theater nerds, and 1990s dorm life in the southern tier. Jen is a true Long Island: loud and proud. Let the hilarity, dark humor, and GenX Therapy begin. Enjoy the show.

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