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
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Sick Note, pt. 2: Dang
Dan’s COVID hung on there for a while, kept him SUPER tired. Yoinks. Back in a couple weeks!
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Sick Note: Dan has COVID. (He's fine, but ...)
He's kinda tired. Back in 2 weeks with a full episode!
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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.
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Swimming with sharks
Pharma and insurance companies play devious, clever games, competing for dollars. They’re sharks! And they want to eat us alive.
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How to avoid the crappiest health insurance.
One journalist almost got roped into a scam. Plus, top health insurance nerds teach us how to find and read the fine print.
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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.
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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.
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A legendary lawyer sued hospitals for price-gouging their patients. And got his butt handed to him.
The lawyer was Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, the lawyer who beat Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Later, he launched a series of ill-fated national lawsuits aimed at getting non-profit hospitals to quit price-gouging low-income patients, and chasing them hard for...
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We’re back! Starting Aug 19. And we’ve got some doozies for you.
We’ve been on a hiatus for a minute, and we are SO excited about what we’re coming back with.These are stories we’ve been collecting for months—some of them for more than a year—and they’re big.
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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.