In the debut episode of Dirty Little Secrets, Hannah Mamuszka and Lena Chaihorsky introduce themselves and the podcast's central thesis: that the U.S. healthcare system is built on financial incentives that reward treatment over prevention and volume over value, systematically blocking patients from the best data-driven care. Mamuszka, a molecular biologist who moved from cancer drug development into diagnostics, and Chaihorsky, who came to the field through math and finance, each recount early-career moments when validated science was undervalued by the payment system — a high-risk-pregnancy test reimbursed at $11, and a urine test that could spare men unnecessary prostate biopsies but was resisted by urologists whose income depended on the procedure. They argue that patients meet the system at their most vulnerable, unable to shop as empowered  ...