In partnership with

I have a hard time trusting doctors.

Oddly enough, that’s what I was in college to become before I dropped out to tell jokes for a living. And oddly enough, I somehow found that what I feel making people laugh is such a deeper root solution than any pill or injection.

Yesterday I ran into an issue with my health insurance. Which, I might add, is expensive as s*** because I work for myself. Hundreds of dollars a month I pay to just never see a doctor.

Last week I called my health insurance and last minute got an opening to see my doctor for the first time since December of 2023. It was yesterday morning at 7:30am. I jumped on it.

My experience yesterday morning:

7:00 AM: Catch a cab to the closest facility in-network, which is pretty fucking far away.

7:17 AM: Check-in to desk number one downstairs

7:19 AM: Check-in at a dirty ass kiosk screen wondering what disease I’ll pick up

7:24 AM: Check-in upstairs at another desk to wait for my name to be called

7:33 AM: Called to desk. Somehow cannot pull my Blue Cross member ID. They scan me in anyway.

7:34 AM: I’m on hold with Blue Cross. Somehow my payment didn’t hit their AI in time even though it auto deducts on the 31st. Coverage was cancelled on accident over the weekend.

7:52 AM: Nurse weighs me in. I’m still on hold with Blue Cross. “Whoops our bad…” they say.

8:16 AM: Nurse comes in to check blood pressure. Still on hold with Blue Cross. Obviously having absolutely no effect on blood pressure whatsoever…

8:42 AM: Doctor comes in. Still on hold with Blue Cross. Doctor speaks to me for all of 4 minutes. I tell her I’d like to get hormones checked since I’m over 40 now. She says “We don’t do that unless you’re showing symptoms of something.” I say, “What about preventative care?” She replies, “We don’t do that.”

She offers a blood work panel. I opt to do it on next visit. We make up a “symptom” so we can include a hormone test.

8:49 AM: Blue Cross hangs up on me on accident. I have to dial back. I get a new person. This happens twice

9:06 AM: Finally get the right lady.

9:12 AM: She says the AI didn’t pick up that my payment had gone through because it hadn’t posted to their account yet (the 31st was a Friday, hence my coverage being canceled over the weekend). I’m reassured that coverage will be reinstated it just takes 48 hours. I said it better be — you just took over $800 from my account. I’m also told I might accidentally be sent a bill since the ONE DAY I finally come to the doctor I’m technically not covered. If so, I have to call back and they will fix it. Sure you will…

9:17 AM: Call a cab to catch my SolidCore class at 9:30

9:30 AM: I take out my frustration in planks and extra weights in my workout. WooSaaaah

Happy fucking Monday!

Something stuck with me from that four whole minutes I got with my doctor.

I asked about getting my hormones checked. Reasonable request. I'm 41, I work at a cellular level to take care of my body — workouts, nutrition, sleep (mostly aspirationally, but I try), stress management. I want data. I want to know what's actually happening inside this machine I live in.

"We don't test unless you're showing symptoms."

I'm sorry, WHAT?

So the entire premise of modern medicine is that we wait until something goes wrong before we investigate why it might go wrong? We don't look under the hood until the engine is smoking? We gotta wait til the bald tire explodes mid-freeway to get the fucking totaled car fixed??

I asked about preventative care. She said they don't DO that.

So what exactly are we doing here? What DO you do??

What is the point of health insurance that costs hundreds of dollars a month, a 7am $48 cab ride across town, two hours on hold with Blue Cross, and a dirty kiosk screen of unknown diseases if the conclusion is "come back when something’s terribly wrong?"

I left that appointment more frustrated than when I arrived. Not just about my morning.

About the entire system.

We are so reactive. In medicine. In business. In life. We wait for the crisis before we pay attention. We wait for the breakdown before we ask questions. We treat the symptom instead of investigating the source.

WHERE have we gone where the root cause is no longer the point of the investigation?

Comedy, ironically, works the other way. You have to connect to the room before anything goes wrong. You have to sense the energy, adjust, adapt — preventatively.

Maybe comedians ARE better doctors.

The Hustle

Taking care of yourself in a system that wasn't built to do it for you forces you to have to become your own advocate.

Loudly. Unapologetically. Sometimes annoyingly.

Traditional medicine is reactive by design.

It's built to treat crisis, not prevent it. Which means if you want to actually understand what's happening in your body before something goes catastrophically wrong, you have to go find that information yourself.

On it.

I spent a month in the hospital watching my dad fade away. The system failed him too. There was no prevention or even recognition of his cardiogenic shock and heart failure. By the time they were “reacting” to what was happening, it was too late.

Modern medicine is exhausting. Expensive. It can save your life if you get the right doctor who truly cares, and it can break a family’s hearts and change their lives forever if something completely preventable goes months or even years undetected.

The reactive approach to life is actually killing us.

It doesn't just show up in medicine. It shows up everywhere.

In business, we wait until revenue drops before we look at why customers are leaving. In relationships, we wait until someone is already gone before we ask what went wrong. In creative work, we wait until we're burnt out and creatively bankrupt before we prioritize rest and inspiration.

We are a culture of "fix it when it breaks" when the smarter, cheaper, less painful approach is always "understand it before it does."

The proactive people — in health, business, creativity, relationships — aren't lucky. They're just paying attention earlier than everyone else.

I made up a symptom to get a hormone test yesterday. Which is both hilarious and deeply indicative of a broken system.

But I got the test approved. Because I showed up, pushed back, and refused to leave without something useful.

That's the whole move. It’s the only move. In the doctor's office and everywhere else.

Smart starts here.

You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.

Join for free today!

The Chill

In a few hours I head to Madison for Madison Comedy Week.

A Wisconsin girl, coming home, to do the one thing that might actually be the best preventative medicine we have.

Make people laugh.

Comedy is the opposite of reactive. It requires you to read a room before anything goes wrong, sense what people need before they know they need it, and deliver something that makes them forget — even briefly — whatever they walked in carrying.

It’s real connection.

Madison has been carrying something heavy lately. I'm not going to fix that. Not alone anyways. No comedian can.

But I know what a room full of strangers laughing together feels like.

I know what happens when people who've been tensed up for weeks finally exhale at the same time. I know that shared laughter is one of the few things that reminds us we're more alike than whatever's dividing us right now.

That's not nothing. That's actually everything.

My TED talk is literally about this. Laughter heals broken hearts. It also heals broken systems, broken communities, broken years full of big loss and broken weeks that started with two hours on hold with Blue Cross.

So while modern medicine told me to come back when something's wrong, I’ll be continuing to bring levity to people who need it before shit hits the fan. Or as a reprieve once the shit is already flying around the room.

Preventative care. Comedy style.

See you out there, Wisconsin. 🧀

Upcoming Shows

MADISON COMEDY WEEK - Headlining Friday August 7th - tickets are going fast so jump on it and tell your peoples!

Love you all and cheers to the hustle + chill. We are proactive in life, and thus, we LIVE.

xx NPH