David Schactman: Dad, it's Paige...we really need to talk about where organs actually come from

This week on Zoomers 2 Boomers, Paige and her dad sit down with David Shactman, a Harvard-trained healthcare policy expert, longtime Brandeis University faculty member, and now a novelist. Over the course of his career, David studied the U.S. healthcare system from the inside — shaping policy, testifying before Congress, and co-authoring the book The Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care.Today, he’s turned his attention to fiction, using storytelling to shed light on the hidden realities of privilege, systemic injustice, and the gray zones of medicine. His debut novel, Mortal Choice, is a gripping thriller that weaves together healthcare, morality, and suspense — offering a new way to explore topics he spent decades analyzing through data.In this episode, David shares his winding path from business and real estate to Harvard’s Kennedy School and into the world of health policy, before reinventing himself as a novelist. The conversation covers the dark realities of the black market for kidneys, the moral questions surrounding organ sales, and the challenges of writing healthcare issues into compelling fiction. You’ll also hear David’s reflections on generational responsibility, the state of healthcare today, and why he believes the next generation has the chance to fix what his didn’t.This Week on Zoomers 2 Boomers:David’s journey from Brookline, MA to Harvard and Brandeis UniversityCalling a strike at Columbia Business School during the Vietnam War eraHow a career in real estate led to policy work at the Kennedy SchoolInside stories of U.S. healthcare reform and the near-pass of Nixon’s planThe billion-dollar black market for kidneys and its global impactThe plot and moral dilemmas at the heart of Mortal ChoiceThe challenges and lessons of shifting from nonfiction to fiction writingWhy David believes Boomers failed — and his hope that Zoomers can do betterConnect With David Shactman:WebsiteBooksFacebookInstagram LinkedInBluesky Connect With Paige & David BittermanDavid’s LinkedInPaige’s LinkedInZoomers 2 Boomers PodcastListen on AppleListen on Spotify