Nurse Talk

Ever think about your personal vulnerability in the face of a health challenge? A car accident, the flu, or a cancer diagnosis can have severe consequences, including emotional and economic chaos. Why? Because right when we need to focus on getting well, we find ourselves struggling to navigate a confusing health insurance labyrinth designed around someone else’s profit. Join guest Kayla Westergar...

New from Code WACK, A devastating loss, then corporate callousness. An American healthcare story. by Nurse Talk

Join Dr. Howard Pinderhughes and host Brenda Gazzar as they discuss innovative programs that are helping to heal community trauma. Is community healing simply psychological and emotional, or is it more? What is the role of the community in the healing process? How could our healthcare system go beyond treating the individual to promoting community wellness?

The tragic effects of structural violence & community trauma, Featuring Howard Pinderhughes, Ph. D. professor and department chair, Social & Behavioral Sciences Dept, School of Nursing, University of California San Francisco. This is a must listen to podcast!

Assemblyman Ash Kalra represents California's 27th District which encompasses about half of the city of San Jose in the Silicon Valley. The first Indian-American to serve in the state's legislature, he has established himself as a progressive leader on issues ranging from criminal justice reform to the environment to health care and housing. His bill AB 1400, Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, wo...

Check out Code WACK!’s latest illuminating podcast, the first of two featuring Assemblyman Ash Kalra discussing his healthcare legislation AB 1400, California Health Care for All. What’s California’s latest single-payer bill all about? Get the facts from its author, California Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), who introduced AB 1400, California Health Care for All (also known as CalCare), in ear...

Check out Code WACK!’s latest insightful podcast, the second of two featuring Cindy Young, labor advocate and expert in health benefit negotiations, discussing how best to work with the labor movement in the fight for single-payer, Medicare for All. Host Brenda Gazzar and Young, board member of the California Alliance for Retired Americans and vice chair of Healthy California Now, talk about the w...

Check out Code WACK!'s latest podcast featuring Cindy Young, labor advocate and expert in health benefit negotiations, discussing the significance of the labor movement in America’s struggle for healthcare justice, and the need for Medicare for All. Host Brenda Gazzar and Young, a board member of the California Alliance for Retired Americans and vice chair of the Healthy California Now coalition,...

Join Code WACK! for the second of two podcasts featuring Thom Hartmann on America's healthcare fiasco and what we can do about it. After all, how does it help the nation’s health to have insurance industry executives sucking millions of dollars out of the system while Americans deny themselves healthcare because they can’t afford it? And why have our political leaders abandoned us to this mess? Ho...

Join us for a lively discussion with Thom Hartmann about how America’s healthcare system got so screwed up! You probably know Thom Hartmann as America’s No. 1 progressive talk radio show host. But did you know that he’s also a New York Times bestseller? His latest book, “The Hidden History of American Health Care: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich,” is hot off the presses a...

What’s the latest move to sell off traditional Medicare to venture capital and private equity? How will this affect your health care? Join host Brenda Gazzar and Dr. Ed Weisbart, board member of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), to learn about "direct contracting entities." What are they? How do they make money? Why is this a problem? And what can we do about it?

Despite the barrage of television commercials touting Medicare Advantage, is it really superior to traditional Medicare? How do the two programs differ on coverage, access and cost? Join host Brenda Gazzar and Dr. Ed Weisbart, retired family physician, former chief medical officer of Express Scripts and board member of Physicians for a National Health Program, for a deep dive into dismaying develo...

What essential coverage could Improved Medicare for All offer seniors that they can’t get through Medicare? And what’s California up to when it comes to healthcare reform...another commission? Really? Host Brenda Gazzar and Jodi Reid, executive director of the California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA), share updates from the Golden State and talk about how we can trigger the political will...

New from Code WACK, Making Medicare Even Better? The Promise of Improved Medicare for All by Nurse Talk

What is the connection between colonization and the American healthcare system? How has systemic exploitation impacted the health of the most vulnerable among us? How will our healthcare system respond to the new diseases climate change will bring? Could Medicare for All help? Join host Brenda Gazzar and guests Rupa Marya, MD and Raj Patel, PhD in this second podcast on their new book "Inflamed: D...

Is there a link between inflammation of the Earth and inflammation in our bodies? What about the disparate impact of climate change on BIPOC communities? How are concepts like "choice" being weaponized to absolve our responsibilities to one other? Join host Brenda Gazzar and guests Rupa Marya, MD and Raj Patel, PhD in a wide-ranging discussion of their new book "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Ana...

What if you got a really terrible diagnosis in your mid-40s? ”Terrible” as in “unimaginably expensive?” “Terrible” as in “terminal?” Would you want to spend the time you have left on hold, searching for some kind of insurance for the chance to save or at least prolong your life? What are your options, really? Hear heart-failure patient Joel Sloan explain to host Brenda Gazzar what he’s gone throug...

It’s tough enough to be born with a genetic predisposition to heart disease. Tougher still to suffer advanced heart failure at 43. Then add in an HIV diagnosis and a hyper-fragmented healthcare system. What if your health plan won’t pay for your heart transplant because of a pre-existing condition or some other reason? Join Joel Sloan and Brenda Gazzar as they delve into the disturbing details of...

Part 2. How has America’s lack of a national, coordinated response to COVID affected us? What about the attacks on America’s public sector? Why did simply having to go to work turn out to be the single biggest issue Black Americans faced during the pandemic? Join host Brenda Gazzar and Chicago’s own Dr. Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, as they take a deep dive on the structural reasons for America’s fra...

How is racism baked into American society? What role has medicine played in propagating it? How does racism in health care affect Black and indigenous peoples? Listen as "full-time troublemaker" Dr. Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, former Chief Medical Officer - Primary Care for the Cook County Bureau of Health Services and host Brenda Gazzar discuss the artificial separation between social, structural...

Does commercial health insurance - when it's actually affordable - even provide the kinds of coverage restaurant workers need to cope with backbreaking work and emotional abuse? Who would want to risk catching COVID to do a job that pays $2.13 an hour plus tips? Join Brenda Waybrant, union organizer and former long-time restaurant worker, and host Brenda Gazzar as they discuss how COVID was a wake...

What health challenges do restaurant workers face as a result of their work? How did they fare during COVID? Can most restaurant workers really afford to miss a shift due to illness? Join Brenda Waybrant, union organizer and former long-time restaurant worker in Nashville, and host Brenda Gazzar as they discuss how private health insurance - whether employer-sponsored or from the marketplace - rem...

How do health insurance companies avoid insuring more costly patients? What’s a “trojan horse” when it comes to single-payer legislation? Does financing health care through an insurance system make sense? Join Dr. Stephen Kemble, practicing psychiatrist and past president of the Hawaii Medical Association, and Brenda Gazzar as they discuss one of the biggest challenges to winning Medicare for All...

What's long COVID like, after a year? How much does it cost to treat? Are some Americans still having to "stay married for the health insurance" - in 2021? What's one way Medicaid fails special needs kids? Listen as Mariana Pineda, a New York teacher, mother of four and single-payer activist pulls back the curtain on the campaign for the New York Health Act. Why, on the heels of a devastating pand...

As if having Long COVID weren’t enough, does America’s broken healthcare system make things worse? Does the social safety net - meaning Medicaid, unemployment and disability insurance - actually save us? Join Mariana Pineda, a New York teacher and mother of four, as she shares her COVID long-haul nightmare with host Brenda Gazzar. It was hard enough just trying to stay alive and keep her health in...