By Cristy Gupton

Jonathan Ames' detective novel A Man Named Doll, and its sequel The Wheel of Doll combine the playfulness of Bored to Death (which Ames created) and You Were Never Really Here (which Lynne Ramsay adapted into a film in 2017. It's a tricky balancing act between tones that Ames pulls of with aplomb. Here to talk about why it should be a movie is Aqua…

By Cristy Gupton

Dr. Marcelo Hochman, an accomplished Facial Plastic & Reconstructive surgeon, extends his expertise to a diverse patient base, encompassing both pediatric and adult individuals, irrespective of insurance status—be it insured, self-pay, or pro-bono. Known for his advocacy in legislative initiatives, Dr. Hochman has spearheaded projects such as the r…

Health Plan Fiduciary Compliance, LLC will save you time and money on CAA compliance. Tony Sorrentino is the President of Health Plan Fiduciary Compliance, LLC. He has served within the business community providing professional services in accounting, law, and employee benefits consulting to hundreds of Nebraska based businesses for over 40 years. …

American HealthScare is now available for purchase. Dr. Richard Young is an author and researcher. He wrote the book: American HealthScare. It discusses the efficiency and capability of American businesses, and the disconnect employees feel within the companies. Within the book, he discusses the grim possibility of a bleak feature if we don’t work …

Are hospitals overcharging you? Do you feel stuck with your bad healthcare? Christy Vago serves as Vice President of Business Development at Upland Advocacy. She is a dynamic, accomplished self-insurance leader with a successful track record of driving bottom line growth in new business revenue. Healthcare professional and host, Cristy Gupton, inte…

Blackwell Captive Solutions offers self-funded solutions with their Diamond Standard. Kari Niblack is the President of Blackwell Captive Solutions. She has served as an ERISA and employee benefits attorney involved in U.S. healthcare for more than 25 years. Niblack holds unique perspectives on healthcare, health administration, and health managemen…

Paul Chadwick's long-running comics series Concrete is about a man who's transformed into a hulking cement-like monster, who wants to use his newfound power to make a difference... and isn't really sure how to go about it. Comics writer Ted Anderson (The Spy Who Raised Me, Side Effects, Orphan Age), joins us to talk about why saving the world makes…

2016's The Nice Guys was a terrific action comedy, with a smart script by Shane Black, and two charismatic, bankable leads in Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe. But it barely made its budget back and was quickly forgotten. Screenwriter Scott Myers, who also runs Go Into the Story, the screenwriting blog for The Black list, joins us to talk about why Ho…

Rube Waddell was a pitcher in the early days of baseball with one of the most colorful stories in all of sports. In 1903 alone, he threw 302 strikeouts, won 22 games, started the season sleeping in a firehouse, ended it working as a bartender, and in between starred in a play in which he refused to memorize his lines; met, married, and divorced one…

We're back to kick off season 5 with Preeti Chhibber, multitalented podcaster (Women of Marvel, Desi Geek Girls, Tar Valon or Bust) and author (A Jedi You Will Be, Avengers Assembly, Spider Man's Social Dilemma), who's here to tell us why her favorite Spider-Man movie is a Playstation game. Look for new newest book, Spider-Man's Bad Connection, in …

Healthcare has evolved to make a profit at the expense of reliable, accurate healthcare. Chip Harvey serves as the Regional Vice president for Homestead Smart Health Plans. Harvey studied Economics at the University of South Carolina. He uses his financial knowledge to help with healthcare cost containment. Healthcare professional and host, Cristy …

Should the law impact healthcare? Healthcare professional and lawyer, Chris Deacon, is known for her work as a public sector leader who oversaw the New Jersey State Health Plan. In this position, Deacon created positive change for the state of New Jersey and saved 2 billion dollars for the plan’s members. North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance Mi…

Do you know your doctor? Does your doctor know their own prices? What if you want to improve that situation? Would you be able to? Does your doctor even have the ability to innovate? Ryan Rourke is a Senior Insurance Advisor, Sales Leader, and a Disciple of Disruption. Rourke has been consulting in the healthcare industry for over 20 years. He has …

Can the law impact healthcare? Healthcare professional and lawyer, Christin Deacon, is known for her work as a public sector leader who oversaw the New Jersey State Health Plan. In this position, Deacon created positive change for the state of New Jersey and saved 2 billion dollars for the plan’s members. Healthcare professional and host, Cristy Gu…

1984's Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension was a fun, pulpy mess of a sci-fi adventure, which promised us a sequel... which we never got. Nearly 40 years later, screenwriter Earl Mac Rauch wrangled the rights to the character away from the studio and gave us a novelization of Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, the movie he never…

We take a break from the usual format this week to present the Snubby Awards, given to the best films and performance that were not nominated for an Oscar. Douglas Laman, film critic from The Spool, joins me to present and discuss this year's nominees. Films were nominated and winners were chosen by The Dissolve Facebook group, a community of film-…

In the 1890s, a British shipping clerk named Edmund Morel noticed the Belgians were shipping vast quantities of rubber from the Congo, then a Belgian colony, but the only thing they were sending in return were guns, explosives, and chains. Morel uncovered a scandal that shook the world, as it turned out Belgian King Leopold II was running Congo as …

Franklin Roosevelt was wildly popular when he was in office, and is universally acknowledged as one of our greatest presidents. But in 1933, not everyone agreed. Shortly after FDR took office, a cabal of wealthy businessmen who were worried the New Deal would undermine profits, recruited General Smedley Butler — a widely respected WWI hero and crus…

Billy Haines was a silent movie star who made the transition to sound, but when the studio head made the openly gay actor an ultimatum — a sham marriage to a woman, or the end of his movie career. Haines chose love, quitting the movies, holding onto a relationship his friend Joan Crawford called "the happiest marriage in Hollywood," and got the bes…

Boo Morcom was heavily favored to win the gold in pole vault at the 1948 Olympics. But he was playing hurt, in the rain, and missed his shot at the gold. So he tracked down the competitors who beat him, and challenged them all to rematches, just to prove he was the best. Morcom's grandson, former editor-in-chief of Gameological Society and The A.V.…

Mark Olmstead found out he had HIV at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, when the disease was a death sentence. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he pulled off a string of scams including credit card fraud, insurance fraud, dealing crystal meth, and faking his own death, assuming he’d be dead for real before any of the consequences caught up to him…

For forty years, police in Saskatchewan, Canada were in the habit of arresting Ingdigenous men for minor offenses, or sometimes no reason at all, leaving them to freeze to death. And to this day, the police haven't been held accountable. Comedy writer and performer Tom Murphy joins us with a deadly serious story; the drama behind Canada's deadly "S…

In 1966, an El Paso theater actor bet his screenwriter friend he could produce a horror movie all on his own. The result was Manos: The Hands of Fate, an incoherent, no-budget movie considered one of the worst films ever made. And yet, it did somehow get made, and 50 years later, people are still watching it. Pop culture writer and bad movie evange…

Legendary Old West lawman Wyatt Earp fought at the O.K. Corrall, and then rode off into the sunset... but the story doesn't end there. Scott Bunn, who co-hosts the sports podcast Run That Back and authors the Bob Dylan blog ReclinerNotes.com, joins us to talk about Wyatt Earp resurfacing in 1910's Hollywood, where he worked as a bounty hunter and m…

Robert Smalls was an enslaved sailor on a Confederate ship, until late one night, he hijacked the ship, picked up his family and his crew's, and sailed into enemy lines. He went on to be a naval captain, a war hero, and a Congressman, but most importantly, a free man.

In the 1870s, traveling by train through Palisade, Nevada was a heart-stopping experience. It was a Wild West hive of scum and villainy, with a constant tumult of fistfights, gunfights, and robberies in broad daylight. Except it was all fake — a show put on by the townspeople because they were bored and thought it would be funny. No guest this week…

DC Comics has had a mixed record at the movies, but Boston Globe writer Nick Zaino, host of the podcast Department of Tangents, and first-ever WITNAM guest, returns to tell us why long-running, lesser-known DC title The Spectre is a better bet for the big screen than yet another take on the Joker.

In 2020, a local TV host from Nebraska gained internet fame for a montage of her hilariously blunt interviews with A-list actors from the '70s and '80s. But her story goes far beyond one viral clip, as Drake burst into a male-dominated field and succeeded on her own terms, hosting and producing two TV shows that ran for decades, and interviewing ev…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so this week we have a true-life story from Kate Ranta, author of Killing Kate: A Story of Turning Abuse and Tragedy into Transformation and Triumph. Her seemingly happy marriage turned into a nightmare of abuse and attempted murder, but she survived and became and activist who's devoted her life to spe…

Something different this week, as we're talking about something that already is a movie: The Moment, a film that's edited in real time by an audience member's brainwaves. Director Richard Ramchurn talks to us about the technology behind his remarkable film, and the hithero-impossible storytelling possibilities it opens up. You can learn more about …

Welcome back to Season 3 of Why Is This Not a Movie?! Every schoolchild knows the story of the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk. But less well known is what came next — a tense couple of years in which the Wrights perfected their design for an airplane in secret, worried that someone might steal credit for their world-changing idea. Matt…

We wrap up Season 2 with a remarkable story, as journalist and author Suki Kim tells us about the six months she spent undercover in Kim Jong Il's North Korea, teaching the children of the country's elite while in constant danger of being discovered. She recounted her experiences in a book, Without You, There Is No Us, now hear how she survived und…

In 1856, a 23-year-old woman named Kate Warne walked into the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency and demanded a job. They had never hired a woman to be anything other than a secretary, but she impressed them so much they made her America's first female detective. She caught bank robbers, embezzlers, murderers... and prevented the assassination of Ab…

In part 2 with Doug Aldeen, we get into more commentary about hospitals and how being honest and fair with people has the makings of a very good payday if you approach it with integrity. But will they do that? We also drop a bombshell called for in Section 501R of the internal revenue code. Find out more on this episode of Healthcare Solutions! Tim…

Dorothy Kilgallen was a beloved entertainment reporter, a regular on What's My Line, when she took a hard left turn into crime reporting. She covered murders and organized crime. She was the only person to interview Jack Ruby after he killed Oswald, and got to see the Warren Commission report even before LBJ. But when she started to challenge the o…

Cristy Gupton and Doug Aldeen have a great discussion about fiduciary duty and how the new transparency law is going to make it easier for those charged with that task to honor their duty. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:20 Doug Aldeen's background 03:28 So, what is the price? 04:30 If you're uninsured or underinsured you need to be asking for yo…

In the 1980s, American journalist Bill Gentile travelled to Nicaragua during the Sandanista revolution, and El Salvador during that country’s decade-long civil war, risking life and limb to tell human stories from these wartorn countries. Now he's written a book, Wait For Me: True Stories of War, Love and Rock & Roll, and joins us to talk about why…

Tune in for the continuation of my conversation with Dr. Keith Smith, medical director of Surgery Center of Oklahoma and co-founder of the Free Market Medical Association. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:20 From last week's episode 04:55 This trend started by Surgery Center of OK is growing 06:09 What is it like to come to SCO? 06:18 Side note: the firs…

In the Golden Age of Korean Cinema in the '60s, director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee were making acclaimed films as a glamorous power couple. But their lives took a turn for the worse as their divorce and new censorship laws hurt both their careers. And then they were both kidnapped... by brutal dictator and rabid cinephile Kim Jong Il. A…

Dr. Keith Smith literally changed my life. As a "broker" selling employee benefits I stumbled on another podcast (way back when) where Dr. Smith was the guest and transparency was the subject of the day. It shook me out of my comfort zone and led me to the advisor I am today. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:27 How I came to know Dr. Keith Smith 03:05 Th…

The Russian Revolution wasn't just a political and economic revolution. In the brief moment between the idealism of a revolution that overthrew a monarchy to establish a workers' paradise and the ugly reality of the totalitarian state the USSR became, Russia had its own Roaring 20s, with artists and bohemians exploring the freedom of a society that…

Tune in for part 2 of the conversation with investigative healthcare journalist Marshall Allen and Cristy Gupton in the world of medical bills and Marshall’s path through the industry Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:25 On last week's episode 03:00 Marshall's new book "Never Pay the First Bill: and other ways to fight the healthcare system and win" will …

History remembers Genghis Khan as a violent brute, destroying everything in his path. But the truth is more complicated than that. Ostracised from his community as a child, captured and enslaved, he escaped, became a leader, a warrior, united the fractured Mongols, and then conquered an empire twice as large as the Romans. The lifelong military cam…

Tune in to investigative journalist Marshall Allen & Cristy Gupton as they delve into the world of Medical bills in the greater healthcare system. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:20 Side note: release date for Marshall's book "Never Pay the First Bill: and other ways to fight the healthcare system and win" got pushed up to June 22, 2021 03:10 I skipped …

Friend of the show Scott Bunn (Run That Back) returns so we can co-pitch an adaptation of Lloyd Alexander's delightful YA fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain, which was upending genre tropes only a decade after Tolkein had established them. We discuss Disney's botched attempt to compress the books into The Black Cauldron, give thanks to our 4t…

In 1959, nine friends went on a hike in Russia's Ural Mountains and never returned. Their bodies were found with a bizarre set of injuries, including head trauma, internal bleeding, exposure, and traces of radiation. 60 years later, the Dyatlov Pass Incident is one of history's great unsolved mass deaths. Pop culture writer Lauren Thoman (Collider,…

Continue the conversation with Cristy, Scott Ray, and Heath Potter in understanding current healthcare transparency, hospital negotiations, and reference-based pricing. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 05:32 Many employees don't realize their employer is the health plan 06:18 Lots of employee education is needed 06:38 The irony of change can be comical 07:1…

Join Cristy with Scott Ray and Heath Potter in understanding current healthcare transparency, hospital negotiations, and reference-based pricing. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:39 2020? See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya! 01:25 Intro to 6 Degrees, Scott Ray and Health Potter 02:37 Better for Less $$? Sign me up! 02:57 Medicare Rate Sausage? How is it made? 0…