Is America’s Healthcare System Having Its Own Pitchforks Moment? (with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed joins Nick and Goldy to discuss how the recent assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has thrown a harsh spotlight on the public's visceral anger toward our exploitative healthcare system. Dr. El-Sayed outlines the stark contrasts between the profit-driven U.S. healthcare system and those of other developed nations, arguing that we need a public option to alleviate the burdens of skyrocketing costs and access issues. Goldy also explains how the warnings from Nick’s viral POLITICO piece from 10 years ago, “The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Plutocrats,” feel eerily prescient, as the public reaction to Thompson’s death was a mix of hailing the shooter as a hero, outrage, and people sharing their personal healthcare horror stories online. Is it possible that America’s healthcare system is having its own pitchforks moment? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, and public servant whose work focuses on health equity, resiliency, and environmental justice. He is the host of America Dissected, Crooked Media’s podcast that explores the intersection of health and society with leading experts in science, public health, and policy. Abdul is also the author of Healing Politics and Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide, and he serves as a visiting scientist at Harvard’s FXB Center for Health & Human Rights, as well as a Scholar in Residence at Wayne State University and American University. Social Media BlueSky: @abdulelsayed.bsky.social Instagram: abdulelsayed Threads: abdulelsayed Twitter: @AbdulElSayed Further reading: America Dissected Healing Politics: A Doctor's Journey Into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic Medicare for All: A Citizen's Guide Nick’s OpEd in POLITICO: The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats Nick’s Ted Talk: Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.
0:10.0	It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, not the top down.
0:15.0	Middle out economics is the answer.
0:18.0	Because Wall Street didn't build this country. Great middle class built this country.
0:22.2	The more the middle class thrives, the better the economy is for everyone, even rich people like me.
0:34.0	This is Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.
0:42.1	Welcome to the show.
0:49.5	The name of this podcast, Nick, Pitchfork economics, most of our listeners know.
0:56.3	It comes from a piece you wrote 10 years ago in Politico titled The Pitchforks are Coming for Us Plutocrats.
1:05.3	It was a warning to your fellow plutocrats that if income inequality kept increasing, bad things were going to happen,
1:15.4	and bad thing did happen recently, which has brought attention back to this piece and the TED talk
1:23.2	you did that followed it up, the shooting of a United Health Care CEO in New York.
1:30.2	I think what was most interesting about that assassination was not so much the fact that it
1:35.3	happened.
1:36.3	Right.
1:36.6	Because shootings happen all the time.
1:39.9	I mean, we have school shootings.
1:41.5	Yeah, I think there have been 83 school shootings so far, you know, mass school shootings
1:45.6	this year so far.
1:46.7	And there haven't been 83 CEO assassinations.
1:50.4	Right.
1:50.7	And those school shootings don't really even get the media play that they used to.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -96 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Civic Ventures, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Civic Ventures and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.