Women were excluded from U.S. clinical trials until 1993. That decision shaped drug safety, outcomes, and cost for decades. This essay breaks down the incentives, capital flows, and regulatory gaps that sustained it and what must change next.

Shannon Burkett joins Out of Patients to tell the story of her son’s lead poisoning, the systems that failed him, and how she turned rage into action. Actor, nurse, filmmaker, and mother breaking down how environmental harm hides in plain sight.