The Great And Powerful Wendell Potter
During a recent trip to Philly, I had the extraordinary pleasure of reuniting IRL with one of my healthcare heroes—Wendell Potter—who has been renting space in my head since September of 2011 when the publishing world collided with healthcare for the mic drop release of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. (A timeless must-read)
Two months later, on December 19th, 2011, I welcomed him to The Stupid Cancer Show as part of his book tour and press junket, and our instant friendship was forged.
On March 30th, 2012, he took the stage at Stupid Cancer's 5th Annual OMG! Cancer Summit for Young Adults at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas to address an unprecedented attendee base of over 750 AYA patients, caregivers, families, doctors, researchers, academics, nonprofit leaders, industry leaders, and a host of healthcare luminaries in the room.
A deserved standing ovation followed as he demonstrated to the roaring crowd that it's possible to call out corruption and shame an entire industry into mainly doing more of the right thing. (Maybe it's more of a "less-worse" situation, but I know we all have our thoughts on the sector.
His second book, Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It. Rightfully so, it rattled even more of the right cages, proudly reasserting his stature and influence as a fearless activist not to be trifled with, representing the interest of the American people.
Today, his substack, "HEALTH CARE un-covered: Pulling back the curtains on how Big Health hurts Americans and how we got to this point." is appointment reading, and I encourage all y'all to check this guy out if you have not already.
Wendell Potter defines and embodies the term American Advocate, and I am proud to call him an inspirational mentor and friend.
HEALTH CARE un-covered Substack
Stupid Cancer Show Episode
Author Page on Amazon