Better Odds

6 Episodes

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The Last Baby

2026-08-3128:02

For more than a century, babies were born at Hamilton Hospital in Olney, Texas.Then one day, they weren’t.In this episode of Better Odds, we meet Dr. Chantel Taylor, the FM OB who delivered the hospital’s final baby before its labor and delivery unit closed. For families across the region, the closure meant that one of life’s most predictable emergencies — childbirth — suddenly required a much longer drive.And Olney is far from alone.Across the United States, maternity wards are disappearing from rural communities. More than one-third of U.S. counties have no birthing facility or obstetric clinician, leaving millions of women living in what researchers call maternity care deserts.

The Line Starts at Midnight

2026-08-2424:08

At 3:15 in the morning, a parking lot in Knoxville is already full of patients waiting for free care.In The Line Starts at Midnight, we meet Chris Hall and Remote Area Medical, an organization that transforms gyms, fairgrounds, and convention centers into temporary clinics offering dental, vision, and medical care.Originally founded to bring doctors into some of the most remote places on Earth, RAM now serves communities across the United States—where patients may drive hundreds of miles, sleep in their cars for days, or go without care entirely.It’s a story about extraordinary compassion, extraordinary need, and the Americans still falling through the gaps of the healthcare system.

Right Place, Wrong Time

2026-08-1722:40

For more than a decade, Mayor Sheldon Day fought to bring a hospital back to Thomasville, Alabama.He raised money. Navigated regulations. Survived setbacks. And eventually, against the odds, his small rural community built a brand-new hospital.Then it opened... in March 2020.Right Place, Wrong Time is the story of what happened next—and what Thomasville’s struggle reveals about the economics of rural healthcare in America. Mayor Day takes us inside a fight that has consumed years of his life, as a community determined to save its hospital confronts a system that can make keeping one open feel nearly impossible.Because sometimes doing everything right still isn’t enough.

Private Profit, Public Price

2026-08-1035:01

What happens when a hospital is treated less like public infrastructure—and more like an investment?In Missouri and Pennsylvania, two communities watched essential services disappear, doctors lose the ability to care for patients, and hospitals eventually close—all while financial deals reshaped the institutions people depended on.Private Profit, Public Price follows surgeon Dr. Joseph Corrado and nurse Peggy Malone through the collapse of two hospitals, and asks a troubling question: When healthcare becomes an investment, who pays the price?

Healthcare in the "Middle of Nowhere"

2026-08-0347:53

In Glasgow, Montana, distance is part of nearly every healthcare decision.The nearest specialist may be hours away. An ambulance ride can stretch across hundreds of miles. And when a medical emergency becomes too serious for the local hospital, a small fixed-wing aircraft may be the fastest—and sometimes only—way to reach lifesaving care.Better Odds travels to northeastern Montana to meet the patients, healthcare workers, pilots, and community members navigating medicine on the frontier.Their stories reveal both the extraordinary challenges of rural healthcare and the people working every day to overcome them.Because in a place like Glasgow, “the middle of nowhere” is still home—and where you live shouldn't determine whether help reaches you in time.

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