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Dan Weissmann

Creator and Host, An Arm and a Leg

About

Prior to creating An Arm and a Leg, Dan was a staff reporter for Marketplace and Chicago’s WBEZ. His reporting has appeared on outlets including 99 Percent Invisible, Planet Money, Reveal, Code Switch, and NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Before working in audio, he spent many years as a print reporter, frequently musing, “Audio seems like where the real fun is. How do I break into that?” His work reflects sophisticated reporting, an engaging narrative voice. Dan has a knack for snappy, accurate breakdowns of complex subjects, from urban segregation to the economics of America’s largest crop to the engineering miracles that turned the Chicago River into a sewer. Dan lives in the beautiful village of Skokie, Illinois, with his beautiful family.

Podcasts

Stories

  • Fighting for the Right to Help

    It’s illegal to advise someone who’s being sued for medical debt. (Unless you’re a lawyer.) As in, you could go to jail. Two New Yorkers are fighting to change that.

  • Swimming with sharks

    Pharma and insurance companies play devious, clever games, competing for dollars. They’re sharks! And they want to eat us alive.

  • The Insurance Warrior takes on a $61B Company

    When Mattew Lientz needed surgery to save his life, his insurance wouldn’t cover it. Enter: Laurie Todd, the Insurance Warrior. Her first task: Figuring out who Matthew was really fighting, and how big the battle really was.

  • Meet the Insurance Warrior

    In 2005, Laurie Todd needed surgery to save her life. Her insurance company had no intention of paying for it. She went to war. Won. And has been helping other do the same ever since.

  • Wait, that was legal until now?!?

    Hospitals in Maryland were suing patients over bills that should’ve been forgiven. It wasn’t illegal. Until now. How a coalition changed that. This year. Plus, our friends at Dollar For build their bill-crushing army, one Zoom training at a time.

  • A whole book about fighting effed-up medical bills? Yes, please.

    For years, at ProPublica, Marshall Allen has been exposing health care grifters. (He’s our kind of guy.)Now, he's written a book… about how to fight back. It’s called “Never Pay the First Bill.” We talked. It was a whole vibe.

  • Revisiting insulin, as relevant (and expensive) as ever

    Updating a story we first reported in 2019, about how insulin got to be so horribly expensive—the scientists who discovered it did NOT want price or profits to keep it away from people who need it—and what some people are doing about it.