Episode Summary:

• What emotions did you feel watching Mike and Amanda's struggle with Rivermind’s ever-increasing costs? Did anything feel familiar or exaggerated compared to real-world healthcare experiences?
• In the episode, the company offers a life-saving treatment as a subscription service with escalating fees and new restrictions. Do you think this is a fair metaphor for how some healthcare or tech services work today? Why or why not?

• The episode shows a single company (Rivermind) with total control over a life-saving technology. In a real free market, do you think other companies would step in to offer better or cheaper alternatives? What might prevent that from happening?
• What are some ways that competition can help lower healthcare costs or improve quality? Can you think of examples where competition has made things better—or worse—in healthcare or other industries?
• If you could design a healthcare system from scratch, how would you balance the need for innovation (new treatments and technology) with the need for affordability and access?

• Rivermind claims to be the only company able to offer this treatment. What do you think might allow a company to have such exclusive control—patents, regulations, or something else? Is this a good or bad thing for patients?
• Patents are designed to reward innovation by giving inventors exclusive rights for a period of time. Do you think this system works well in healthcare, or does it create problems like high prices and limited access?
• If there were no patents or fewer barriers to entry, do you think Mike and Amanda would have had more choices or lower costs? Why or why not?

• The episode raises the question: Should access to life-saving care depend on your ability to pay? What are the pros and cons of a system where healthcare is treated like any other product or service?
• How do you feel about the idea of companies inserting ads or restricting features in exchange for lower prices on essential services like healthcare? Where should we draw the line between business models and human dignity?
• What responsibilities, if any, do companies have to ensure that their innovations are accessible to everyone, not just those who can pay the most?

• Free market thinkers argue that competition and consumer choice would prevent the kind of exploitation seen in the episode. Do you agree or disagree? What might get in the way of true competition in healthcare?
• Some believe that government regulations and patents create artificial monopolies, leading to higher prices and fewer choices. Others argue these protections are necessary for innovation. Where do you stand?
• If you were Mike, would you have made different choices to try to find alternatives, or do you think the system left him with “no choice”? What could have changed that?

• What is one thing you would change about the current healthcare system to make it more just, affordable, or innovative?
• After watching "Common People," do you feel more hopeful or more concerned about the future of healthcare and technology?

Flock & Forage Photos

Chef Samantha DeMichael

My name is Sammy, I am the owner and chef of Flock & Forage.  My supper club focuses on market-driven ingredients and the awareness of where your food comes from. I am inspired by the farmers and sustainable ingredients that are available to us in the Midwest. Working closely with Green City Market and local farmers for the past 9 years has been my true inspiration and what really ignited my passion for finding ways to cook with only local ingredients from our region. Nothing brings me more joy than hosting an intimate dinner and knowing the importance of what's on your plate.  My seasonal, rotating menus are simple, yet sophisticated, highlighting the best each season has to offer!

There will also be biodynamic wine from Oakwood Vines, vodka from Broda, and blueberry basil kombucha, French rhubard pie (ingredients: organic Einkorn wheat flour, pastured pork lard, water, pastured eggs, baking soda, real salt, rhubarb, organic maple sugar, raw honey, and organic vanilla extract), chocolate chip cookies (ingredients: organic unbleached pastry flour, organic sugar, organic butter, organic eggs, chocolate chips, organic whole wheat pastry flour, rapadura sugar, baking soda, unrefined salt), and fudge from Pleasant Pastures, a farm in Pennsylvania.

Oakwood Vines

Oakwood Vines from Lake Forest, IL represents the Boisset Collection of wineries located in Napa Valley, Sonoma, & Burgundy. The Boisset wineries are one of the most highly awarded & sustainable family owned wineries in the world. Thousands of wines rated over 90 points from hundreds of sustainably farmed vineyards.