MZ LIVE at Merkin Concert Hall: 30 Years After Cancer

About this episode

Matthew Zachary hosts a concert and discussion reflecting on 30 years of cancer survivorship and the challenges within the healthcare system.

Matthew Zachary is a brain cancer survivor, healthcare advocate, founder of Stupid Cancer and We the Patients, and host of Out of Patients. In April 2026, he returned to the stage at Merkin Hall near Lincoln Center for his first solo public piano concert in almost 22 years while launching his debut book, We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America’s Healthcare Nightmare. What unfolded became far larger than a concert. Over 2 hours, survivors, clinicians, advocates, nonprofit founders, journalists, pharmaceutical sponsors, and healthcare insiders gathered in one room to reflect on 30 years of survivorship, institutional failure, accidental advocacy, and the emotional afterlife of cancer. The evening moved through original piano performances, live chapter readings, and deeply personal conversations about infertility, disability, financial toxicity, insurance denials, grief, burnout, and what happens when patients spend decades navigating systems designed around transactions instead of continuity. Guests including Wendell Potter, Maimah Karmo, Craig Lustig, Shelly Fuld Nasso, Tamika Felder, and others reflected on how the modern cancer advocacy movement emerged…

People in this episode

Host: Matthew Zachary

Guests: Wendell Potter, Maimah Karmo, Craig Lustig, Shelly Fuld Nasso, Tamika Felder

Topics covered

• cancer survivorship
• healthcare advocacy
• patient experience
• emotional impact of cancer
• healthcare system failures
• financial toxicity
• advocacy movement

Keywords

• cancer
• survivorship
• healthcare
• advocacy
• financial toxicity
• insurance
• patient experience
• emotional health
• nonprofit
• piano concert

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stupid Cancer, We the Patients

Books & works: We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America’s Healthcare Nightmare

Places: Merkin Concert Hall, America

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