What Would You Pay to Stay Alive?

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Revlimid pill costs about 25 cents to make, and about a thousand dollars to buy—but it’s keeping him alive, so what choice does he have? Guest: David Armstrong, investigates healthcare at ProPublica, author of “The Price of Remission.” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Ava from Vanta.
0:02.0	In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly,
0:07.0	and earning customer trust has never mattered more.
0:10.0	Vanta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure,
0:13.0	with the most advanced AI automation and continuous monitoring out there.
0:17.0	So whether you're a startup going for your first SOC two or ISO-27,001, or a growing
0:22.1	enterprise managing vendor risk, Banta makes it quick, easy and scalable, and I'm not to
0:27.1	saying that because I work here. Get started today at banta.com.
0:31.5	Amazon offers term time working to their employees, like Anton, who's home to look after his daughters during their holidays.
0:40.3	Hello!
0:41.3	To him, this is the best sound in the world.
0:44.3	Daddy!
0:45.3	Actually, maybe that's the best sound of all.
0:51.3	Now that's term time working. Offered at Amazon. Ten weeks
0:56.4	off guaranteed per year. Mix of paid holiday and unpaid time off. Conditions apply.
1:05.6	I want you to think about the most expensive item in your home.
1:16.6	The thing that a burglar would be able to make off with and turn into cash right away.
1:19.6	Maybe it's jewelry, your car?
1:23.8	I asked ProPublica's David Armstrong to ponder this question.
1:29.3	There's not anything terribly valuable in my home that I can think of, a computer.
1:35.3	Except for maybe your pill bottle. Well, very good. You're right. That would be the most valuable thing in my home, by far. David takes this drug called Revlamid.
1:48.5	It keeps him alive. It's also really expensive.
	...

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