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This episode is 51 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Freakonomics Radio

650. The Doctor Won’t See You Now

October 24, 2025

51 min episode · 2 min read

Rochelle Walensky

Episode

51 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 7, 2025

What It Covers

America faces a physician shortage of 187,000 doctors by 2037 due to aging population, limited medical school slots, and burnout driving doctors away.

Notable Moment

Walensky describes calling hospitals as CDC director during COVID, discovering they could not connect vaccination records with hospitalization data due to fragmented systems.

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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode

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Books

Flexner ReportBy guest
by Abraham Flexner
“How did the 1910 Flexner Report reshape medical education permanently? Abraham Flexner's 1910 evaluation closed two-thirds of medical schools, reducing infant mortality by eight percent but limiting physician supply permanently.”
Bookshop Amazon Audible trial