Out of Patients EP442: Faith, Fraud, and Finding Himself: Ben Unger
Ben Unger grew up Orthodox in Brooklyn and trained in Israel to become a rabbi. At 19 he told his community he was attracted to men. Their prescription: ritual baths, marriage to a woman, and this gem from his therapist. "If there's friction, it works."
He entered conversion therapy through JONAH, where grown men claimed they could cure him. Naked therapy circles. Tangerines as props. Exercises that belonged in deleted scenes from an 80s thriller.
Years later he helped sue them for consumer fraud. And won.
I wanted Ben on the show because Out of Patients interrogates power. Religion wrapped itself in authority and called abuse treatment. That structure feels familiar to anyone told to sit down, comply, and trust the experts.
His story forces a hard truth: institutions protect themselves first.
Listen. Then leave a review. Five stars help us reach more people who need these stories.
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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.
19 years and 2000+ episodes later, Out of Patients is still the most unfiltered healthcare show anywhere.
Matthew does not do softball interviews. Brain cancer at 21 taught him that time is finite and bullshit is expensive. He gets guests to say things they would never tell Congress. CEOs admit what is broken. Patients name what actually hurts. Scientists explain what industry does not want you to know. The conversations other shows will not touch because of sponsor concerns or political correctness.
What makes him different: he has been on both sides of the mic. Featured in documentaries. Keynoted hundreds of conferences. Published in The Hill. Now marching into Washington with a national patient constituency behind him.
But he has also been the guy puking from radiation, fighting insurance denials, and watching friends die from paperwork.
That dual perspective creates interviews you will not hear anywhere else. He knows which questions make power squirm because he has 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 American healthcare.
Still the show where whistleblowers go first. Still the show … Read More
Out of Patients EP455: SurgeON: Dr. Jeremy Heffner
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