A podcast and live event series · Grants Pass, Oregon

Small Medicine

What would healthcare look like if it were small enough for a community to own?

Season One explores it in public, one piece at a time, with the people who run each piece today. Then we pick a few ideas worth testing and try them for real.

Get involved See Season One
  • Season One Nov 2026 to Apr 2027
  • 8 episodes recorded live
  • 1 finale Small Medicine Live
  • 2166 NW Vine St next to Club Northwest

The idea

Healthcare got big. Our lives stayed local.

Most of what keeps us well happens close to home. A doctor who knows your name. A price you can see before you pay it. An employer who wants its people healthy. Neighbors who show up.

Somewhere along the way, the system grew past all of that. Small Medicine asks what it could look like to bring some of it back to human size, and which parts a community could own.

$28,303

Average employer premium for family coverage in 2026, up 5% in one year.

KFF, 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey
$9,687

What workers at small firms pay toward that family premium themselves.

KFF, 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey
$197M

First-year federal rural health transformation funds awarded to Oregon.

Oregon Capital Chronicle, Jan 2026

The pressure is real and the money is moving. Southern Oregon already has the pieces: direct primary care arriving at Club Northwest, a medical-grade building next door, and a state that already holds regions accountable for their own health.

How we hold this

Nobody fixes American healthcare from a podcast studio. We aren't trying to.

The goal is smaller and more useful. Draft a few options that might work here, build them, test them in the real world, and learn from what breaks. Then do it again, and keep going toward what actually serves people. We expect to be wrong about parts of this. Testing is how we find out which parts.

  1. Listen
  2. Draft
  3. Test
  4. Learn

The format

Each episode designs one piece of the system.

Every guest runs a real part of healthcare today. Clinicians, insurers, employers, pharmacists, benefits advisors, funders. Together we sketch what a community version of their piece could look like, out loud, in front of a live room.

Each conversation leaves a Blueprint Card behind: the idea, the math, and what we still don't know. Together the cards become a first draft, ready to test.

Blueprint CardRung 2 · Pricing
The idea
The math
What we don't know
Template. Filled in live, one per episode.

  1. Cold open

    A real local story from a patient, an employer, or a clinician.

  2. The layer

    How this piece of healthcare works today, in plain words.

  3. Signature segment

    Follow the Dollar

    The guest traces one premium dollar through their corner of the system.

  4. Signature segment

    Where It Breaks

    Someone who knows names exactly how the community version could fail.

  5. Signature segment

    The 90-Day Move

    One thing Grants Pass could actually try next quarter.

Six river stones stacked into a cairn on a mossy riverbank at dawn, largest at the bottom.
Image generated for Small Medicine

The Shrink Ladder

Six stones. Each one has to stand on its own.

A cairn goes up one stone at a time, and every stone has to hold before the next goes on. Season One works the same way. Each rung tries to bring one piece of healthcare down to community size, and each has to work even if the next never arrives.

Then we try to knock it over. Episode 7 is the stress test. Most of the 23 co-op health plans launched under the Affordable Care Act collapsed within a few years. We study why, and ask honestly whether our draft would fare any better.

Season One

Six months from first conversation to a room full of builders.

We start in November. The space and the studio are ready now.

BuildName, finale date, blueprint session, national invitations
PilotEpisode 0 recorded and released
The seasonSeven episodes, one every two weeks, each recorded live at 2166
FinaleSmall Medicine Live, late April
  1. Episode 0 · December

    Why Small?

    The origin story. What a 2019 industry roundtable saw coming, and what Southern Oregon is already doing about it.

  2. Episode 1 · Rung 1

    Relationship

    Direct primary care, and what changes when a doctor has time to know you.

  3. Episode 2 · Rung 2

    Pricing

    What a prescription, a scan, or a therapy visit costs when the price is on the wall.

  4. Episode 3 · Rung 3

    Pooling

    How local employers could share risk and build coverage around primary care.

  5. Episode 4 · Rung 4

    Prevention

    Gyms, kitchens, trails, and friendships, treated as part of the care system.

  6. Episode 5 · Rung 5

    Ownership

    Who gets a vote. Patients, employers, and clinicians at the same table.

  7. Episode 6 · Rung 6

    Region

    What it takes for one county to answer for both its health and its costs.

  8. Episode 7 · The full inversion

    Stress Test

    We try to knock the whole cairn over, with the people who know best how it could fall.

  9. Finale · Late April

    Small Medicine Live

    The first draft on stage at 2166, and a room ready to test one piece of it.

The home

Every recording is an open house.

Episodes are recorded on video in front of a live room at 2166 NW Vine. Guests and audiences walk the building before they sit down. Clips run on ClubTV and social, and full episodes go out as audio and video.

22,000square feet, medical grade
30 to 40people in the room for each episode
Next doorto Club Northwest
The great hall at 2166 with a vaulted wood ceiling, iron chandeliers, and an open wood floor.
The great hallHome of Small Medicine Live
Aerial view of the 2166 NW Vine building with its parking lot and evergreen trees.
2166 NW Vine StGrants Pass, Oregon
ConceptConcept image of a podcast set: two armchairs and microphones in a sunlit room, surrounded by audience chairs.
The recording setTwo chairs, a circle of neighbors
The commercial kitchen at 2166 with a center island and wood cabinets.
The kitchenFood is one of the rungs
A clinic wing at 2166 with a reception desk and exam room doors.
The clinic wingReady for practitioners

The finale · Late April 2027 · 2166 NW Vine

Small Medicine Live

One day in the great hall. We share the first draft, rung by rung, with the people who shaped each piece, open questions included. Then the room picks one idea to test for real.

Afternoon · Invite only · About 40 seats

The Builders' Table

Funders, health system leaders, employers, and national guests work through the Blueprint Cards and pressure-test a 12-month community pilot.

Evening · Public · 150 to 250 seats

The Show

The season finale, recorded live on stage. Then a reception with local food and the practitioners who could call 2166 home.

  1. ArriveWalk the building first. Every space shows what it could become, with a Blueprint Card at the door.
  2. The peakThe first draft on stage, presented by the guests who shaped it.
  3. CommitOne clear ask: help test one idea for 12 months as a funder, an employer, or a provider. Then we report back what worked and what didn't.

Who belongs in the room

  • Regional foundations
  • Family philanthropy
  • Health systems
  • Coordinated care organizations
  • Community health centers
  • Southern Oregon employers
  • Universities
  • National voices in direct primary care
  • Price transparency leaders
  • Employer health reformers
  • Future 2166 practitioners

Get involved

Three ways in.

Season One is taking shape now. The earliest partners help decide what it becomes.

Sponsor the season

Put your name behind an honest conversation about care in Southern Oregon. Packages fit local businesses and national partners alike.

  • Season SponsorNamed in every episode, with two seats at the Builders' Table.
  • Rung PartnerYour rung's episode and Blueprint Card carry your name.
  • Finale UnderwriterRecognized on stage, first in the conversation about the pilot.

Join a conversation

You run a piece of healthcare today. Come help design the community version of it.

  • Who we're looking forClinicians, insurers, benefits advisors, employers, pharmacists, and researchers.
  • How it worksA pre-interview first, then a live recording at 2166. No gotchas.
  • What you leave withYour piece of the first draft, with your name on it.

Build the pilot

Funders, employers, and providers who want to help test the most promising ideas in the real world.

  • Start nowHelp shape the season and what goes on stage in April.
  • The commitmentA 12-month community pilot that starts with the first rung.
  • What we learnShared openly, including what didn't work.
How we keep it honest Sponsors get recognition, never editorial control. No pitches on mic. Business happens over coffee afterward. We publish what fails along with what works.
Small Medicine cover art: a cairn of six stones, the second from the top in orange, above the title and a forested river valley at dawn.
Season One cover

Your host

Trever Yarrish

Trever builds community infrastructure in Southern Oregon. He founded The Hivve, a coworking and event space in Grants Pass, and built and facilitates the Rogue Leadership Training Experience. Before that he spent 11 years at Dutch Bros, finishing as marketing director, then 12 years as CEO of the software firm ZEAL, launching more than 30 products.

He facilitates 1 Million Cups every week, has served on numerous boards including the Rogue Workforce Partnership, and was named the Chamber's 2026 Person of the Year. Small Medicine is his way of learning in public about the hardest system we share.

Let's build it small, together.

Start the conversation

Sponsors, guests, funders, and future tenants: reach out directly.

Call or text(541) 659-8738
Small Medicine is in development. Season One begins November 2026.