Hey there. Quick heads up. This episode includes a bunch of cuss words, which we have not beeped because they are perfect just as they are.

So if you're listening with little kids right now, maybe save this one for later.

Otherwise, please get ready for a freaking treat and a ton of great information.

Last time on this show, I talked with Shauna Burns.

She's a 40-something mom who's a star on Tik-Tok,

thanks in large part to a series of videos she posted

about dealing with medical debt.

She doesn't sing or dance, you just talks with lots of cuss words right. with But I held off on one of her big topics, how to deal with debt collectors.

Here's how Shauna describes her authority on the topic.

I did debt collection for many, many years, and I love it when the debt collector calls me,

because I'm like like I know your game

bitches. Oh insider stuff yes please also she's got some stories to tell and

we'll hear a bit of those but I went to fact-checked Shauna's advice and there seemed like there were maybe some legal complexities, gray areas.

The kind of thing I might want to run by a lawyer.

My name is Jennifer Bosco. I am a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and I work on

medical debt advocacy Jen and her colleagues actually wrote a book called

Surviving debt they revise it every year and it's free to read online.

There's a chapter on medical debt, a chapter on dealing with debt collectors, a chapter on what to do if you get sued over debt.

It is great. We will link to it from wherever you're listening to this.

So yeah, I said to Jen, hey, I want your take on these videos and she was like,

This is great because I heard about these videos from my teenage daughter who knows that I work in

medical debt so I think medical debt became a little bit cooler once it had you

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