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Insight Unpacked
Season 2: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives

Healthcare: it’s a giant industry with a noble cause—supporting human health. But here in America, it’s expensive and unwieldy, and has inspired decades of (mostly) failed reform attempts. How did we get here? And can we do better?

Welcome to Insight Unpacked, where we delve into complex business topics and emerge with insights from Kellogg School faculty. For our second season, we untangle the often-competing incentives that motivate the major players in the system, from hospital networks and doctors to insurers and big pharma. We even turn the stethoscope on ourselves, the patients.

Join us as we travel back to 1800s America, head across the Atlantic to present-day Italy, and, most heroically of all, attempt to get a quote on a meniscus surgery. Throughout, we ask what it would take to get more for our healthcare dollars.

Subscribe to Insight Unpacked, or check your feed at The Insightful Leader. Episodes drop on Mondays starting June 24. And visit episode links for supplementary materials.

6/20
2024
Introducing Insight Unpacked Season 2 1:09
American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives
6/20
2024
S2E1 | The Problem with Megaproviders 27:48
In episode 1 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we investigate how hospital systems got so big—and what that means for our health and our pocketbooks.
7/1
2024
S2E2 | The Power of the Physician's Pen 31:11
We rely on doctors to keep us healthy. In episode 2 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we learn at what cost.
7/8
2024
S2E3 | The Misadventures of Insuring America 37:12
In episode 3 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we explain how insurance companies became everybody’s favorite villain.
7/15
2024
S2E4 | The Bargain That Fuels Big Pharma 26:04
What will we pay for the next groundbreaking drug? In episode 4 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we explore the trade-off at the heart of pharmaceutical innovation.
7/22
2024
S2E5 | American Healthcare—Is This the Best We Can Do? 49:33
In the final episode of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we travel overseas, and through our own backyard, in search of a way forward.
Season 1: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them

These days, it’s easy to build a brand. So easy, in fact, that the world is full of them. So if you want your brand to stand out, you will need to build an amazing brand. And that’s a lot harder to do.

Welcome to Insight Unpacked, where we delve into a complex business topic and emerge with insights from the esteemed faculty of the Kellogg School. For our first season, we learn all about how to build a new brand (or revive an old one), from naming and logo design to brand storytelling and measuring brand health. We’ll also take you behind the scenes as we build a brand of our own.

8/4
2022
Introducing Insight Unpacked Season 1 1:34
Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them
8/11
2022
S1E1 | Why Does Your Brand Need to Exist? 22:48
In episode 1 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we reveal the key questions you should answer before you start to craft your brand.
8/19
2022
S1E2 | What Should You Name Your Brand? 26:55
In episode 2 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we dig into the importance of finding the right name for your brand. With apologies to Shakespeare, a rose by any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet.
8/29
2022
S1E3 | What Should Your Brand Look (and Sound and Smell) Like? 21:33
In episode 3 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we discuss the associations you want customers to make with your brand, and how to use design to make it happen.
9/5
2022
S1E4 | How Will You Tell Your Brand’s Story? 24:00
In episode 4 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” learn the importance of transmedia brand storytelling—and how to do it right.
9/12
2022
S1E5 | Is Your Brand Working? 26:44
In the fifth and final episode of our series, “Insight Unpacked: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we look at how to measure your brand’s health–and what you should do if you don’t like what you learn.
9/15
2023
S1E6 | So You Want to Be a Luxury Brand 16:43
So opulent! So exclusive! In the first of two bonus episodes, we explore everything that helps brands like Ferrari and Manolo Blahnik scream luxury.
9/25
2023
S1E7 | Why Canada Goose Soared and Shinola Sputtered 13:52
Luxury is dominated by older brands. So what happens when newer entrants try to break through? In the second of two bonus episodes, we show what can go right—and wrong.