Turn on the Lights Podcast

What happens when a health system decides that quality comes first? In this episode, Dr. Gary Kaplan, who retired as the longtime CEO of Virginia Mason and currently serves on the Board of Stewardship Trustees of CommonSpirit Health, discusses leading one of America’s most influential physician-led health systems through a radical transformation focused on quality, safety, and patient-centered car...

The energy is electric at the IHI Forum, even before the forum officially begins. In this episode, co-hosts Kedar Mate and Don Berwick discuss how AI, patient safety, and administrative waste are shaping the future of health care. They explore the excitement and uncertainty around AI’s growing role in diagnostics, coordination, and clinical decision-making. They discuss why clinicians need real tr...

What happens when clinicians stop hearing the very people they’re trying to help? In this episode, Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan, a Consultant Physician in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and Deputy Director of the SHARE Collaborative at Queen Mary University of London, discusses how patients are often disbelieved or dismissed in healthcare. She shares her own experience of bein...

The collapse of a major hospital system set off one of the most complex healthcare emergencies Massachusetts has ever faced. In this episode, Dr. Gregg Meyer, Incident Manager for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, discusses how the state responded to the unprecedented Steward Health Care crisis and worked to protect patients, communities, and hospital staff. He explains how years of d...

Medicaid is a massive, life-sustaining program whose new work requirements and funding cuts risk stripping coverage from millions of people who can’t afford to lose it. In this episode, Cindy Mann, partner at Manatt Health and former director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, explains how Medicaid was created alongside Medicare in 1965 and has grown into the nation’s largest public cov...

What if the biggest threat to our survival isn’t the next virus, but our failure to learn from the last one? In this episode, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Regents Professor and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, explains why America’s public health system is dangerously underprepared for the next major outbreak. He shares how misinf...

A nation’s promise to those who served becomes a lesson in how health care can truly heal. In this special Veterans Day episode, Dr. David Shulkin, the ninth Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the Trump Administration and VA’s Under Secretary of Health in the Obama Administration, talks about the mission, history, and transformation of the Veterans Health Administration, one o...

Our information environment has become a social determinant of health. In this episode, Joshua Sharfstein, a public health leader and professor at Johns Hopkins, and Joanne Kenen, journalist in residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discuss how the collapse of local journalism, the design of social media algorithms, and politicization have created an “information sicknes...

“I just went there for a routine knee replacement, or so I thought.” In this inspiring episode, Rosie Bartel, a patient partner and advocate, educator, and survivor, shares her journey from a devastating MRSA infection acquired during a routine knee replacement to becoming a global voice for patient safety and health care reform. After surviving 58 surgeries, more than 200 hospitalizations, and mu...

The healers we need now don’t stop at the exam room; they go upstream to the causes of suffering and make safety, dignity, and trust part of the clinical job. In this episode, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, a physician and academic leader, calls for a broader, more human-centered definition of health care, one that addresses substance use, firearm injuries, pain, and the social realities that shape well-bein...

The integrity of evidence-based policy is under threat when political agendas override scientific rigor. In this episode, Dr. Robert Califf, former FDA Commissioner and cardiologist, reflects on his experience leading the FDA and the agency’s critical role in protecting public health through rigorous, science-based regulation across multiple sectors. He warns that political interference, disinform...

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 othe...

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, formular...

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, collaboratio...

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 st...

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...

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 imp...

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...

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 mak...

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...

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....

The U.S. ranks worst among developed nations for maternal and child health outcomes, highlighting a systemic failure that demands urgent attention. In this episode, Rebekah Gee examines the crisis of maternal mortality in the U.S. and how structural inequities and lack of home-based care continue to harm vulnerable families, drawing on her own life experiences and leadership in Medicaid expansion....

Health care fundamentally lacks accountability to the humanity of its patients due to systemic profit-driven motives.  In this episode, Dr. Thomas Fisher, an emergency room physician, discusses his journey through emergency medicine and public policy, illustrating how health care reflects systemic societal challenges, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on personal and professional ex...

One of the most overlooked but transformative tools in health care is the courage to face hard truths, especially at the end of life. In this episode, Dr. Jessica Zitter shares how burnout and a pivotal confrontation early in her ICU career led her to embrace the palliative care movement and shift toward more human-centered healing. Through her films Extremis, Caregiver: A Love Story, and The Chap...

The most powerful antidote to a fragmented health care system may be something deceptively simple: listening. In this episode, Maureen Bisognano shares how compassion, curiosity, and relational care can transform health care by improving communication, trust, and outcomes for patients and providers alike. Through personal stories and global initiatives like What Matters to You and Kindness in Heal...