672. What Makes Judy Faulkner Run?
4/24/20261 hr 1 min
Epic Systems manages the electronic health records for hundreds of millions of people. This makes Faulkner a healthcare heavyweight and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in history. So why haven’t we ever heard much from her? Stephen Dubner travels to Verona, Wisc., to explore the Faulknerverse.
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SOURCES:
- Judy Faulkner, C.E.O. and founder of Epic Systems.
- Seth Howard, executive vice president of research and development at Epic Systems.
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RESOURCES:
- "Epic Systems (MyChart)," by Acquired (2025).
- "Federal antitrust lawsuit against Wisconsin-based Epic Systems will move forward," by Joe Schulz (Wisconsin Public Radio, 2025).
- "Bill Gates meets Willy Wonka: How Epic’s 82-year-old billionaire CEO, Judy Faulkner, built her software factory," by Ashley Capoot (CNBC, 2025).
- "Epic: The Future of Health Information Technology," by Regina Herzlinger and Brian Walker (Harvard Business School, 2024).
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EXTRAS:
- "Can A.I. Save Your Life?" by Freakonomics Radio (2026).
- "How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsStephen Dubner· Host0:00
[music] In the rolling hills of Verona, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison and far from the usual software epicenters, you will find one of the biggest tech campuses in the United States. It is home to a company called Epic Systems. You may not know Epic, but there is a very good chance that they know you. Over eighty percent of Americans have at least one electronic health record with Epic. If you've ever used MyChart, that's Epic. They make the software used by many of the biggest and best healthcare systems in the U.S., and they now operate in fifteen other countries too. Epic does have rivals like Oracle and Meditech, but for decades it has been the biggest player in this industry. The campus sits on seventeen hundred acres. There's an underground auditorium that seats eleven thousand. There are playful sculptures all around, and the inside of the office buildings are dressed like movie sets. Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz. So who's the wizard behind the curtain at Epic?
Judy Faulkner· Guest1:04
Judy Faulkner, also known as Judith Ruth Faulkner, and if you take away my middle name, I'm ruthless.
Stephen Dubner· Host1:11
[music] Faulkner founded Epic in nineteen seventy-nine and is still the CEO. Epic is an unusual company, and as you will hear today, Faulkner is an unusual leader. But I'm not sure that ruthless is the right word.
Judy Faulkner· Guest1:27
I've got one house, one