Out of Patients EP438: First in (Wo)Man: Jessica J. Federer
Women were banned from U.S. clinical trials until 1993. Not because they didn't matter. Because the system decided protecting them meant ignoring them. For decades.
Jessica Federer spent 10 years inside Bayer as the first female Chief Digital Officer in Big Pharma. She watched the machine from the inside. She knows where the bodies are buried.
In this episode, she drops the receipts: FDA guidance on sex based differences didn't arrive until December 2025. Women still experience side effects at 2x the rate of men. Female mice cost more because nobody orders them. And clinical trial participants who give their bodies to science? They get taxed on their stipends.
She made me laugh. She made me think. She made me angrier—in a good way.
Listen to this episode. Then do me a solid—leave a review. Tell Apple or Spotify what you really think. Five stars help us reach more people who need to hear these stories. One review makes a bigger difference than you know.
Out of Patients is proudly the #1 independent healthcare podcast worldwide. New episodes every Tuesday. We've been turning medical trauma into momentum for 17 years. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Producer
Matthew Zachary invented healthcare podcasting before podcasting was a thing. In 2007, fresh off building Stupid Cancer, he grabbed a mic, launched The Stupid Cancer Show and started broadcasting patient stories on internet talk radio when everyone else was still writing blogs.
17 years and 400+ episodes later, Out of Patients is still the most unfiltered healthcare show anywhere.
Matthew doesn't do softball interviews. Brain cancer at 21 taught him that time is finite and bullshit is expensive. He gets guests to say things they'd never tell Congress. CEOs admit what's broken. Patients name what actually hurts. Scientists explain what industry doesn't want you to know. The conversations other shows won't touch because of sponsor concerns or political correctness.
What makes him different: He's been on both sides of the mic. Featured in documentaries, testified before Congress, keynoted hundreds of conferences.
But he's also been the guy puking from radiation, fighting insurance denials, and watching friends die from paperwork.
That dual perspective creates interviews you won't hear anywhere else. He knows which questions make power squirm because he's asked them from hospital beds and boardrooms both.
No pre-approved questions. No PR handlers. No seven-minute segments. Just real conversations with people brave enough to tell the truth about healthcare. After 17 years, Matthew's still the guy Mark Cuban reposts when he wants to understand what patients actually think. Read More
Out of Patients EP436: “But You Look Great” with Monique Gore Massey
