Dr. Anne Marie Morse walks into the studio like a one-woman Jersey Broadway show and leaves behind the best damn TED Talk you’ve never heard. She’s a neurologist, sleep medicine doc, narcolepsy expert, founder of D.A.M.M. Good Sleep, and full-time myth buster in a white coat. We talk about why sleep isn’t a luxury, why your mattress does matter, and how melatonin is the new Flintstones vitamin with a marketing budget. We unpack the BS around sleep hygiene, blow up the medical gaslighting around “disorders,” and dig into how a former aspiring butterfly became one of the loudest voices for patient-centered science. Also: naps, kids, burnout, CPAPs, co-sleeping, airport pods, the DeLorean, and Carl Sagan. If you think you’re getting by on five hours of sleep and vibes, you’re not. This episode will make you want to take a nap—and then call your doctor.

RELATED LINKS

dammgoodsleep.com: https://www.dammgoodsleep.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marie-morse-753b2821/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dammgoodsleep

DocWire News Author Page: https://www.docwirenews.com/author/anne-marie-morse

Sleep Review Interview: https://sleepreviewmag.com/practice-management/marketing/word-of-mouth/sleep-advocacy-anne-marie-morse/

Geisinger Bio: https://providers.geisinger.org/provider/anne-marie-morse/756868

SWHR Profile: https://swhr.org/team/anne-marie-morse-do-faasm/

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gigi Robinson grew up with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease that turns your joints into overcooked spaghetti. Instead of letting it sideline her, she built a career out of telling the truth about invisible illness. We talk about what it takes to grow up faster than you should, why chronic illness is the worst unpaid internship, and how she turned her story into a business. You’ll hear about her days schlepping to physical therapy before sunrise, documenting the sterile absurdity of waiting rooms, and finding purpose in the mess. Gigi’s not interested in pity or polished narratives. She wants you to see what resilience really looks like, even when it’s ugly. If you think you know what an influencer does, think again. This conversation will challenge your assumptions about work, health, and what it means to be seen.

RELATED LINKS

Gigi Robinson Website: https://www.gigirobinson.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gigirobinson

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsgigirobinson

TikTok: @itsgigirobinson

A Kids Book About Chronic Illness: https://akidsco.com/products/a-kids-book-about-chronic-illness

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode Description:

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Bronx-born pediatric nurse with stage 4 colon cancer survives, raises a kid, becomes a policy shark, and fights like hell for the ignored, meet Vanessa Ghigliotty. She’s not inspirational. She’s a bulldozer. We go way back—like pre-Stupid Cancer back—when there was no “young adult cancer movement,” just a handful of pissed-off survivors building something out of nothing. This episode is personal. Vanessa and I built the plane while flying it. She fought to be heard, showed up in chemo dragging her kid to IEP meetings, and never stopped screaming for the rest of us to get what we needed. We talk war stories, progress, side-eyeing advocacy fads, TikTok activism, gatekeeping, policy wins, and why being loud is still necessary. And yeah—she’s a damn good mom. Probably a better one than you. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll want to scream into a pillow. Come for the nostalgia. Stay for the righteous anger and iced coffee.

RELATED LINKS

Vanessa on LinkedIn

Colorectal Cancer Alliance: Vanessa’s Story

ZenOnco Interview with Vanessa

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Risa Arin doesn’t just talk about health literacy. She built the damn platform. As founder and CEO of XpertPatient.com (yes, expert with no E), Risa’s taking a wrecking ball to how cancer education is delivered. A Cornell alum, cancer caregiver, and ex-agency insider who once sold Doritos to teens, she now applies that same marketing muscle to helping patients actually understand the garbage fire that is our healthcare system. We talk about why she left the “complacent social safety” of agency life, how her mom unknowingly used her own site during treatment, what it’s like to pitch cancer education after someone pitches warm cookies, and why healthcare should come with a map, a translator, and a refund policy. Risa brings data, chutzpah, and Murphy Brown energy to the conversation—and you’ll leave smarter, angrier, and maybe even a little more hopeful.

RELATED LINKS

• XpertPatient.com

• Risa Arin on LinkedIn

• XpertPatient & Antidote Partnership

• XpertPatient Featured on KTLA

• 2024 Health Award Bio

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Jamie Wells is back—and this time, she brought a book. We cover everything from biomedical design screwups to the glorified billing software known as the EHR. Jamie's new book, A Clinical Lens on Pediatric Engineering, is a masterclass in what happens when you stop treating kids like small, drunk adults and start designing medicine around actual human factors. We talk about AI in pediatric radiology, why drug repurposing might save lives faster than biotech IPOs, and the absurdity of thinking one-size-fits-all in healthcare still works.

Jamie’s a former physician, a health policy disruptor, a bioethicist, an MIT director, and a recovering adjunct professor. She’s also a unicorn. We dig into the wonk, throw shade at bad design, and channel our inner Lisa Simpsons. This one’s for anyone who ever wondered why kids’ hospitals feel like hell and why “make it taste like bubblegum” might be the most important clinical innovation of all time. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, and you might get angry enough to fix something.

RELATED LINKS

Jamie Wells on LinkedIn

Book: A Clinical Lens on Pediatric Engineering (Amazon)

Book on Springer

Drexel BioMed Profile

Global Blockchain Business Council

Jamie’s HuffPost Articles

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Erica Campbell walked away from corporate life, took a hard left from the British Embassy, and found her calling writing checks for families nobody else sees. As Executive Director of Pinky Swear Foundation, she doesn’t waste time on fluff. Her team pays rent, fills gas tanks, and gives sick kids' parents the one thing they don’t have—time. Then, breast cancer hit her. She became the patient. Wrote a book about it. Didn’t sugarcoat a damn thing. We talk about parking fees, grief, nonprofit burnout, and how the hell you decide which families get help and which don't. Also: AOL handles, John Hughes, and letters from strangers that make you cry. Erica is part Punky Brewster, part Rosie the Robot, and part Lisa Simpson—with just enough GenX Long Island sarcasm to make it all land. This one sticks.

RELATED LINKS

• Pinky Swear Foundation
• The Mastectomy I Always Wanted (Book)
• Erica on LinkedIn
• Think & Link: Erica Campbell
• “Like the Tale of a Starfish” - Blog Post
• “Cancer Diagnosis, Messy Life, Financial Support” - Blog Post

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Allyson with a Y. Ocean with two Ls. And zero chill when it comes to changing the face of cancer care. Dr. Allyson Ocean has been quietly—loudly—at the center of every major cancer breakthrough, nonprofit board, and science-backed gut punch you didn’t know you needed to hear. In this episode, she joins me in-studio for a conversation two decades in the making. We talk twin life, genetics, mitochondrial disease, and why she skipped the Doublemint Twins commercial but still ended up as one of the most recognizable forces in oncology. We cover her nonprofit hits, from Michael’s Mission to Let's Win Pancreatic Cancer to launching the American Jewish Medical Association—yes, that’s a thing now. We get personal about compassion in medicine, burnout, bad food science, and microplastics in your blood. She also drops the kind of wisdom only someone with her résumé and sarcasm can. It's raw. It's real. It's the kind of conversation we should’ve had 20 years ago—but better late than never.

RELATED LINKS:

– Dr. Allyson Ocean on LinkedIn

– Let's Win Pancreatic Cancer

– NovoCure Leadership Page

– Michael’s Mission

– American Jewish Medical Association

– The POLG Foundation

– Cancer Buddy App (Bone Marrow and Cancer Foundation)

– Dr. Ocean at OncLive

FEEDBACK:

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sponsored by Invivyd, Inc.

Nobody wants to hear about COVID-19 anymore. Especially not cancer patients. But if you’ve got a suppressed immune system thanks to chemo, radiation, stem cell transplants—or any of the other alphabet soup in your chart—then no, it’s not over. It never was. While everyone else is getting sweaty at music festivals, you’re still dodging a virus that could knock you flat.

In this episode, Matthew Zachary and Matt Toresco say the quiet part out loud: many immunocompromised people may not even know they have options beyond vaccines. Why? Because the system doesn’t bother to tell them. So we’re doing it instead. We teamed up with Invivyd to help get the word out about tools other than vaccines that can help prevent COVID-19. We break down the why, the what, and the WTF of COVID-19 risk for cancer patients and why every oncologist should be talking about this.

No fear-mongering. No sugarcoating. Just two guys with mics who’ve been through it and want to make sure you don’t get blindsided. It’s fast, funny, and furious—with actual facts. You’ve got more power than you think. Time to use it.

RELATED LINKS

Expand Their Options

Invivyd

Matt Toresco on LinkedIn

Out of Patients podcast

FEEDBACK

Like this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship inquiries, email podcast@matthewzachary.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.