1255 Wendell Potter and David Rothkopf
Stand Up! with Pete Dominick
Pete Dominick
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2024
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Today I have 2 great guests. I was unable to produce the good stuff and news again but I think you will like both of my guests. My talk with Rothkopf begins at 32 mins
Following a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, Wendell Potter left his position as head of communications for CIGNA, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, to show the world the dark inner workings of the insurance industry.
Check out his new documentary : American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System healthcareuncovered.substack.com
He has testified before Senate and House committees, briefed several members of Congress and their staffs, appeared with lawmakers at several press conferences, spoken at more than 100 public forums, and has been the subject of numerous articles in the U.S. and foreign media. His recent book – Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans – is an expose of health insurers and a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy.
Currently a senior analyst at the The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan nonprofit that produces original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern, Wendell is also the senior fellow on health care for the Center for Media and Democracy, an independent, non-partisan public interest organization. He speaks out on the need for a fundamental overhaul of the American health care system and on the dangers to American democracy and society of the decline of the media as watchdog, which has contributed to the growing and increasingly unchecked influence of corporate PR. He also serves as a consumer liaison representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Subscribe to Rothkopf's new Substack https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/
Read Rothkopf at The Daily Beast
David Rothkopf is CEO of The Rothkopf Group, a media company that produces podcasts including Deep State Radio, hosted by Rothkopf. TRG also produces custom podcasts for clients including the United Arab Emirates. He is also the author of many books including Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, Superclass, Power, Inc., National Insecurity, Great Questions of Tomorrow, and Traitor: A History of Betraying America from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Stand up. |
| 0:02.5 | Hello, my friends. |
| 0:04.0 | Happy Friday. |
| 0:04.9 | TGIF, am I right? |
| 0:07.7 | I've got two awesome guests joining me today. |
| 0:11.6 | First, the health insurance industry whistleblower, author, journalist, writer, activist, the great Wendell Potter and I. |
| 0:19.7 | We went live yesterday on YouTube, and I've got that |
| 0:22.4 | conversation for you right here. He is so good, so thoughtful, so smart, and I think you'll |
| 0:27.7 | love it. Then, starting at about 31 minutes, I've got one of our all-time favorites who are |
| 0:33.2 | certainly becoming one. It's the great David Rothkopf joining me again. |
| 0:38.3 | He has become a listener favorite here, and I love talking to him. |
| 0:42.8 | I love reading him over at his substack, David Rothkopf.com. |
| 0:47.3 | And I think this is just another great one, rounding out the year. |
| 0:52.8 | It is that time of year when everybody talks |
| 0:54.6 | about the year you're getting your year rap from Spotify or the best of from every single |
| 1:02.7 | media outlet or even the local insurance agent I don't know everybody seems to be recapping |
| 1:09.6 | the year but I'm not I don't have the resources seems to be recapping the year, but I'm not. I don't have the |
| 1:12.2 | resources. And I never really like to do that. I don't know. Look back in the past, much less into the |
| 1:18.4 | future, which is even, well, completely uncertain. So I'm just going to stay right here. How about that? |
| 1:23.7 | My comfort zone is right here smack in the middle of December just before Christmas, |
| 1:30.6 | if you're listening when or around when I drop this conversation. So here I am, and I don't have |
| 1:37.8 | a news rundown for you or the good stuff, which is my thoughtful, hopeful, inspiring opening segment that I've been doing |
... |
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