The Prescription Drug Playbook (Full Version)

An Arm and a Leg

Documentary, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While we’re busy working on some big projects this summer, we’re re-releasing some of our most ambitious and useful reporting to date.

Last year, we set out on a mission: Collect all the best advice about what to do when your prescription drugs cost more than you can afford.

Our listeners wrote to us about their experiences getting around this most demoralizing — and distinctly American — problem in order to get the medicine they need.

Those responses allowed us to map a whole landscape of potential fixes — none a guaranteed solution for everyone, every time — but all worth knowing about.

In this episode, you’ll meet some of the intrepid navigators charting the path — including a dad on a mission to afford his daughter’s epilepsy medication, a Medicare coach who helps seniors save tens of thousands of dollars on meds, a pharmaceutical sales rep with a brilliant short-term fix, and other generous and smart fellow travelers.

We documented all their advice and more in our Prescription Drug Playbook.

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support comes from Snow Isle Libraries. Kick off a summer of reading at Snow Isle Libraries. All ages are invited to read with us and attend fun events.
0:10.5	Read for 10 hours to get a prize. Kids get a free book and sticker and adults get a free tote bag.
0:16.7	Whether you love graphic novels, e-books, audio books, or newspapers, all reading counts.
0:22.3	To start your adventure, visit your local library or go to snow-isle.org.
0:29.0	Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question.
0:32.9	What happens if we refund tariffs?
0:35.9	Why are groceries so expensive?
0:38.5	At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious,
0:42.3	because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see.
0:46.3	Follow NPR's Planet Money, wherever you get your podcast,
0:49.3	and start seeing how the economy really works.
0:52.6	Support comes from Snow Isle Libraries. Kick off a summer of reading at Snow Isle Libraries.
0:58.8	All ages are invited to read with us and attend fun events. Read for 10 hours to get a prize.
1:05.1	Kids get a free book and sticker and adults get a free tote bag. Whether you love graphic novels,
1:14.4	e-books, audiobooks, or newspapers, all reading counts. To start your adventure, visit your local library or go to snow-asile.org.
1:22.7	Seattle restaurants are serving up incredible doses.
1:26.4	I'm talking about golden, crispy, fluffy, and the size of a mini telescope.
1:32.3	Hey, I'm Brandy Fullwood, host of Seattle Eats. And on the latest episode, we'll tell you more about the fermented rice and lentil crepe and where you can find the best ones in Seattle.
1:43.1	Listen to Seattle Eats on the KUOW app
1:45.7	or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:50.4	Hey there.
1:51.6	We are working on some big projects this summer.
	...

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