In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Eric Topol, the godfather of digital health, to explore the progress and barriers to innovation in healthcare, the potential of AI in transforming the industry, and the challenges faced by startups and big tech companies. Dr. Topol shares his insights on open-source healthcare, evaluating new innovations, and the importance of algorithmic fairness. Tune in to gain deep insights into the future of medicine and the power of technology in reshaping healthcare.

In this episode, we speak to Allison Sasso, CEO of RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that buys medical debt at a steep discount… and then wipes it out entirely. Beneficiaries receive a letter that their debt has been erased. They have no tax consequences or penalties. Just like that, they’re free of medical debt.

As you probably know by now, May Mental Health Awareness Month. But what you might not know is that entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report having a mental health condition, including being:

2X more likely to suffer from depression

2X more likely to have suicidal thoughts

3X more likely to suffer from substance abuse

6X more likely to have ADHD

10X more likely to suffer from bi-polar disorder

In this episode, successful founder and angel investor Andy Dunn talks about living with Bipolar I disorder.

Andy Dunn is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and father. Andy co-founded the menswear brand Bonobos, which sold for $310 million. Last year, he published a memoir called Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind, which detailed his up-until-then private journey with bipolar disorder.

Listen to this important episode as we normalize talking about mental health disorders in the startup community.

In 2008, disillusioned by the medical system, Dr. Lakshmin left her residency to join an extreme wellness commune that turned out to be a cult. She was seeking something outside of mainstream medicine that could help with the anguish she was feeling. She yearned for community, and for something outside of the hierarchical structure of medicine. But what she found was that the industrial wellness complex is just as flawed.

Rethinking Medical Education

April is National Minority Health Month. Health disparities run so deep in this country, that your zip code is a better predictor of your health than your genetic code. Research has shown that the conditions we face as we live, learn, and work— or what researchers call the social determinants of health— have a lot to do with our health.

In this episode, Tia Co-founder & CEO Carolyn Witte talks about trailblazing a new paradigm for women’s healthcare that treats women as whole people vs. parts or life stages.

The healthcare industry has made significant strides in the past 20 years… or has it? In this episode, we sit down with Adrian Aoun, CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system, to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can help us achieve exponential improvements to human health.

March is National Nutrition Month and in this episode, Instacart’s CEO Fidji Simo shares her insights on scaling food as medicine programs, improving nutrition security, and making healthy choices more accessible.

In this episode, Ryan Panchadsaram, co-author of Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving our Climate Crisis, shares what we can do today to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. And what it means for our health.

Like it or not, data brokers have probably monetized your health data. But how do they get it in the first place? And what measures can you take to safeguard your health data? In this enlightening episode, I talk to data privacy expert Lucia Savage to find out.

Lucia was formerly Chief Privacy Officer at the US Department of Health and Human Services, and is currently Chief Privacy and Regulatory Officer at Omada Health.

After explosive growth in the first year of the pandemic, the amount of VC funding flowing into digital health in 2022 was about half of what it was in 2021. Meanwhile, exit opportunities have seemingly dried up.

In this episode, I talk to two of my favorite digital health investors about what the heck is happening and what we can expect in 2023.

More than 40% of Americans qualify as obese, a number that continues to rise. And despite being a multi-billion dollar business — the weight loss industry just isn’t helping people lose weight. Perhaps that’s why new GLP-1 medications, like Wegovy, are getting so much attention.

To learn if Wegovy can be a true game changer, I spoke to Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found, the largest medically-supported weight care clinic in the country which has raised over $130M in venture funding.

Join us as we delve into the history of the weight loss industry, and discuss how telehealth (and responsible prescribing) along with new medications, may just be an inflection point.

Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge judge and SVP for Advancing Health Equity at the Commonwealth Fund, interviews Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha from Tuft’s Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice. The mission of the CBMHRJ is to foster academic and community-engaged research in support of the center’s goals to conduct maternal health research with a focus on Black maternal health and eliminating inequities.

Starting a company is hard, even in the best of times. But now? For many of us, it feels impossible. In this episode, I talk to Sami Inkinen, a founder who has run companies in both bull and bear markets. Sami was the co-founder of Trulia (IPO) and now Virta Health (valued at $2B).

In this episode, I talk to two of my favorite long-time colleagues in digital health: Chrissy Farr and Malay Gandhi.

Chrissy started her career in this space as a digital health reporter for VentureBeat, FastCompany, and CNBC before becoming a venture capitalist at OMERS ventures.

Malay started his career in management consulting before joining me at Rock Health where he served as Managing Director and CEO before going onto be an EIR at Greylock Partners, an executive at Eviction Health, and now Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Benching.

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company

In today's episode, you'll hear from the six semi-finalists of the Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge. Place your votes before end of the month!

This episode was recorded with My Climate Journey to explore the intersection of climate change and human health. Dr. Darragh O'Carroll is a science communicator and emergency physician specializing in emergency, disaster, climate, and COVID-19 medicine. He's making a documentary series called "Infected planet" to illustrate how climate change is affecting global and public health, and highlight the solutions.