Health:Further

Hosted by Marcus Whitney & Vic Gatto

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Aug 2026

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<p>Every week, healthcare VCs and Jumpstart Health Investors co-founders Vic Gatto and Marcus Whitney review and unpack the happenings in US Healthcare, finance, technology and policy. With a firm belief that our healthcare system is doomed without entrepreneurship, they work through the mud to find the jewels, highlight headwinds and tailwinds, and bring on the smartest guests to fill in the gaps.</p>

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August 17, 2026Episode 20357 min

203 - Unemployment Spikes, Trump Blows Up the Vaccine Schedule & Google Loses Its Top AI Mind

Retail sales fell 0.6% in July. Inflation held steady at 3.4%. Jobless claims jumped to 209,000. Marcus and Vic ask if the Federal Reserve (Fed) still has room to cut rates, or if the job market is the next thing to break. President Trump signed an order to cut back the childhood vaccine schedule and repeated a debunked claim linking vaccines to autism. Medical groups pushed back hard. A federal court also struck down a key pricing rule in the No Surprises Act, which could raise what insurers pay out-of-network doctors. Employers are dropping the three biggest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and small businesses are bracing for 14% premium hikes in 2027. Biotech kept raising big money. PTC Therapeutics bought a gene therapy out of Sangamo's bankruptcy sale. Epicrispr raised $90 million. Braveheart Bio went public in a deal worth close to $440 million. A new Tufts University study found that artificial intelligence (AI) agents can deliver up to 82 times the return on investment (ROI) in cancer drug trials. Google DeepMind is losing top talent, including Jeff Dean, who is leaving to start his own company. OpenAI is restructuring ahead of a planned public offering. Tether passed its first clean audit from KPMG, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushed back its crypto rulemaking plan again. Marcus and Vic break down what matters and what's just noise. 00:00 Intro 📊 THE ECONOMY 00:57 Retail Sales Fall 0.6% in July | WSJ ↳ https://www.wsj.com/economy/weak-retail-sales-number-adds-to-softening-economic-data-c047dce9?mod=rss_socialeconomyfeed 02:04 Inflation Holds at 3.4% | WSJ ↳ https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/inflation-federal-reserve-interest-rates-296d1430?mod=rss_socialeconomyfeed 03:01 209,000 File for Unemployment in the Week Through Aug. 8 | WSJ ↳ https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/u-s-jobless-claims-rose-again-last-week-29384997?mod=rss_socialeconomyfeed 💰 VC & BIOTECH DEALS 04:21 Epicrispr Raises $90M for Gene Therapy | Fierce Biotech ↳ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/epicrispr-bags-90m-rewrite-treatment-rare-muscle-disease 05:10 Vaderis Lands $152M for AKT Inhibitor | Fierce Biotech ↳ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/vaderis-lands-152m-squeeze-akt-inhibitor-through-phase-3-and-regulatory-approval 06:09 Khartis Launches with $95M Seed | Fierce Biotech ↳ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/pfizer-chemistry-whiz-debuts-khartis-therapeutics-sights-set-thyroid-eye-disease ⚖️ POLICY 07:17 Trump Signs Vaccine Schedule Order | WSJ ↳ https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/trump-signs-order-to-reduce-childhood-vaccines-repeats-unfounded-autism-link-e9c9651d?mod=rss_socialhealth 09:52 Bill Aims to Protect the 340B Program | MedCity News ↳ https://medcitynews.com/2026/08/340b-drugs-senate/ 🏥 HEALTH PAYORS 14:09 Insurers Seek 14% Premium Hikes for 2027 | Healthcare Dive ↳ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/small-business-health-insurance-premiums-2027-kff-rate-filings/827247/ 🏨 HEALTH SYSTEMS 16:37 Healthcare Faces a Cybersecurity Crisis | Healthcare Dive ↳ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/healthcare-cybersecurity-crisis-def-con/827428/ 18:41 HHS Moves to Decertify an Organ Network | Healthcare Dive ↳ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hhs-decertify-organ-procurement-group-patient-safety-failures-network-for-hope/827334/ 💊 PHARMA & NOVEL THERAPIES 22:19 PTC Wins Sangamo Gene Therapy in Bankruptcy Auction | MedCity News ↳ https://medcitynews.com/2026/08/ptc-sangamo-therapeutics-bankruptcy-auction-fabry-gene-therapybid-wins-bankruptcy-auction-for-sangamo-gene-therapy-ptct-sgmoq/ 23:29 Braveheart Bio's $440M IPO | MedCity News ↳ https://medcitynews.com/2026/08/braveheart-bio-ipo-obstructive-hcm-myosin-inhibitor-cardiomyopathy-brve/ 🩺 HEALTH & WELLNESS 24:39 Health Nerds Feed Data to AI Chatbots | WSJ ↳ https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-datamaxxers-feeding-their-every-health-move-to-ai-df0af9b5?mod=rss_Technology 🪙 WEB3 28:58 Tether Passes First Clean Audit | The Block ↳ https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-08-13-tether-kpmg-first-full-audit-usdt-clean-opinion-411760 32:48 SEC Delays Crypto Rules Again | CoinDesk ↳ https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/08/13/sec-cancels-long-awaited-proposal-of-reg-crypto-postponing-meeting-without-new-date 🤖 THE AI TRACKER 34:58 Google DeepMind Loses Jeff Dean | The Verge ↳ https://www.theverge.com/podcast/979370/google-deepmind-ai-race-lose-jeff-dean-demis-hassabis 39:59 OpenAI Restructures Before IPO | Axios ↳ https://www.axios.com/2026/08/14/openai-executive-greg-brockman-ipo 42:21 Gemini vs. GPT: The Speed Race | Decrypt ↳ https://decrypt.co/375580/google-openai-super-fast-ai-models-gemini-flash-gpt-ultrafast 47:26 Grok Bot Launches | x.ai ↳ https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-bot ----------------- more at healthfurther.com

August 8, 2026Episode 20249 min

202 - AI Inflection, Payer Chaos, and the Healthcare Energy Bind | Health:Further

Vic and Marcus discuss the yen carry trade and its implications for the Federal Reserve, the rapid transformation of the U.S. economy by AI, and the growing risks surrounding AI investment and infrastructure. They cover major healthcare and biotech funding, including LifeMine Therapeutics, Function Health, and Quant Health, along with the Senate confirmation of Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director and a 2.3% Medicare hospital payment increase for 2027. The episode also examines CVS Health's GLP-1 partnership with Eli Lilly, Amazon's $50-a-month GLP-1 offering for Medicare patients, rising numbers of uninsured Americans, and a potential AstraZeneca-Bristol Myers Squibb merger. They also discuss extreme heat's growing impact on Americans, rising heart disease rates among younger women, patients using AI to interpret medical results, DeepSeek's dramatically lower AI costs, AI models behaving deceptively during testing, and the accelerating path toward recursive self-improvement and AGI. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 1:30 - Story 1: https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/scott-bessents-yen-trade-has-unintended-consequences-for-the-markets-5297044b?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1 6:57 - Story 2: The AI Boom Is Transforming the American Economy—and Healthcare Must Contend With Energy Constraints [WSJ] 2 — VC Deal Review 15:36 - Story 1: LifeMine Therapeutics Raises $188M Series E From Gates and Bezos to Revive Fungal-Therapeutic Platform [Fierce Biotech] 16:23 - Story 2: Function Health Raises $450M Growth Round to Expand Preventive Care Lab and Imaging Footprint [MedCity News] 17:48 - Story 3: QuantHealth Raises $45M Series B to Reduce Pharma Trial Failure via AI Clinical-Trial Simulation [MedCity News] 3 — Policy 20:30 - Story 1: Senate Confirms Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC Director in Party-Line Vote; First Permanent Director in Year [Becker's Hospital Review] 22:17 - Story 2: Hospital Price Caps Gain Momentum Across Multiple States, Making Affordability a CEO Accountability Issue [Becker's Hospital Review] 4 — Health Payors 23:37 - Story 1: CVS Health Partners With Eli Lilly on GLP-1 Weight Management, Lifts Full-Year Outlook on Strong Health Plan Results [WSJ] 24:11 - Story 2: Amazon Pharmacy Now Offers GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs to Medicare Part D Beneficiaries at $50/Month [WSJ] 5 — Health Systems 25:25 - Story 1: ACA Subsidy Expiration Drives Millions Uninsured; Hospitals Report Rising Uncompensated Care and Revenue Losses [WSJ] 6 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 28:36 - Story 1: 90% of Americans Report Extreme Heat Affecting Their Health and Daily Life; Major Shift in Climate-Health Awareness [Axios] 31:46 - Story 2: Rising Cardiovascular Disease Among Young Women Examined; Prevention Strategies and Risk-Profile Shifts Discussed [New York Times] 33:05 - Story 3: One-Third of Adults Now Use AI to Interpret Medical Test Results Despite Physician Objections [WSJ] 7 — The AI Tracker 34:35 - Story 1: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/deepseeks-new-ai-model-is-by-far-cheapest-well-known-models-run-research-firm-2026-08-03/ 37:44 - Story 2: OpenAI and Anthropic AI Agents Engaged in Sustained Hacking Attempts on Real Infrastructure; U.K. AI Security Institute Reports Deceptive Behavior During Safety Testing [WSJ] 41:17 - Story 3: Leading AI Architects Declare Singularity Threshold Reached; Google Signals Major Leadership Rupture as Industry Enters Intelligence-Explosion Phase [Axios]

August 1, 2026Episode 20159 min

201 - Google's Humanoid AI, Medicare Drug Subsidy Ends, Microsoft and Amazon Cloud Surge

Vic and Marcus discuss the return of Trump's tariffs, the Federal Reserve's evolving approach under Chairman Warsh, and the continued strength of AI infrastructure as Microsoft and Amazon report surging cloud growth. They cover major healthcare funding rounds, including AI revenue cycle management, vision therapies, and an AI-powered smart toilet for early disease detection. The episode also examines FTC action against Hims & Hers, the end of Medicare drug plan subsidies, Medicaid work requirement rulings, payer earnings, ACA market instability, rising uninsured rates, hospital consolidation, biotech acquisitions, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, new wearable health monitoring technology, blockchain adoption across finance, AI agents handling payments, AI safety legislation, and Google's latest humanoid robotics advances.cognitive decline remind us that prevention and early detection remain the frontier of clinical care. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 00:33 - Story 1: Healthcare Faces 100% Drug Tariff Shock Starting July 31 [Becker's Hospital Review] 8:54 - Story 2: Fed Holds Rates Steady but Internal Split Signals Future Pressure on Inflation [WSJ] 13:13 - Story 3: Microsoft Azure Exceeds $100B as Tech Giants Diverge on AI Spending ROI [WSJ] 2 — VC Deal Review 14:29 - Story 1: Candid Health Raises $120M Series D for AI-Powered Revenue Cycle Management [MedCity News] 16:49 - Story 2: Claris Biotech Emerges with $118M Series B for Corneal Disease Therapy [Fierce Biotech] 18:03 - Story 3: Throne Science Raises $10M Series A for AI Toilet Sensor in Colorectal Cancer Screening [MedCity News] 3 — Policy 20:22 - Story 1: FTC Sues Hims & Hers Over Illegal Data Sharing With Meta and Snapchat [Gizmodo] 22:59 - Story 2: CMS Ends Medicare Drug Plan Premium Subsidies; Seniors Face Higher 2027 Costs [WSJ.com: Health] 26:57 - Story 3: Federal Court Upholds Medicaid Work Rules; Policy Shift Takes Effect [Becker's Hospital Review] 4 — Health Payors 28:07 - Story 1: Cigna Raises 2026 Outlook on Strong Q2 Employer Plan Growth; $1.7B Profit [Becker's Hospital Review] 28:54 - - Story 2: "Back On Track" Centene Swing more than $1B in Profit in Q2 30:50 - Story 3: Humana Maintains Adjusted Earnings Outlook, Underwhelming Investors 31:44 - Story 4: Humana Retreats From Lower-Margin Medicare Advantage Plans Ahead of 2027 [Healthcare Dive - Latest News] 32:50 - Story 5: ICHRA Adoption Slowed by ACA Exchange Instability and Affordability Concerns [Healthcare Dive] 5 — Health Systems 34:09 - Story 1: Hospital Uninsured Patient Volume Surges After ACA Subsidy Cliff [NYT] 36:27 - Story 2: 29 Large Health Systems Announce M&A: Consolidation Boom Driven by Scale and Capital Access [Becker's Hospital Review] 6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies 38:39 - Story 1: J&J Partners With Sail Biomedicines on In Vivo CAR-T Therapy; $785M Upfront, $2.85B Acquisition Option [MedCity News] 39:57 - Story 2: Argenx Acquires Forte Biosciences for $2B; CD122 Antibody Targets Autoimmune Orphans [MedCity News] 7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 41:12 - Story 1: DRC Ebola Outbreak Now Second-Deadliest Ever; 1,500+ Deaths in Record-Breaking Two Months [The New York Times] 42:44 - Story 2: Smart Ring Sensors Track Nutrition and Insulin Response via Finger Sweat; New Biomarker Frontier [Gizmodo] 8 — Web3 44:21 - Story 1: BNY Mellon Targets $8.6 Trillion Transfer Agency Market via Blockchain; Major Traditional Finance Adoption [CoinDesk] 45:33 - Story 2: Institutional Crypto Trading Hits Record 72% as Wall Street Dampens Market Volatility [CoinDesk] 47:59 - Story 3: MoonPay Embe...

July 25, 2026Episode 2001 hr 4 min

200 - AI, Healthcare, and the Future We've Been Tracking

Vic and Marcus celebrate the 200th episode of the Health Further podcast while reflecting on four years of healthcare transformation, innovation, and policy change. They discuss the financial pressures facing hospitals from Medicaid funding cuts, the future of AI in healthcare, automation's impact on jobs, Google's massive AI investments, OpenAI's cybersecurity incident, the growing debate over open versus closed AI models, and why healthcare leaders may be underestimating the pace of disruption across the industry. Story Lineup 8:35 - Story 1: LA Safety-Net Hospital Braces for $80–100M Annual Medicaid Hit From HR 1 Cuts [Becker's Hospital Review] 10:30 - Story 2: Trump Administration Pauses $1B in Medicaid Payments [HealthCare Dive] 13:33 - Story 3: OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health Nationwide; Claims Models Reason at Clinician Level, Intensifying Healthcare AI Adoption Debate [The Verge] 18:01 - Story 4: Molina Plans Further ACA Exchange Exits in 2027 Despite Stable Medicaid and Strong MA Growth [Healthcare Dive] 30:14 - Story 5: Travis Kalanick's Atoms Robotics Raises $1.7B Series C Led by a16z [TechCrunch] 45:27 - Story 6: Big Tech's AI Capex Binge Raises Doubts on Returns as Google, OpenAI Pour Billions Into Infrastructure [The New York Times] 57:30 - Story 7: OpenAI's GPT Models Escaped Sandbox and Autonomously Hacked Hugging Face in Test Gone Wrong—Major AI Safety Incident [WSJ]

July 19, 2026Episode 1991 hr 23 min

199 - Fintech Consolidation, AI Commoditization, and the Hospital Profitability Crisis

Vic and Marcus discuss easing inflation, the growing number of workers locked out of the job market, and major venture funding rounds for AI-powered healthcare companies. They examine proposed Medicare physician payment cuts, prior authorization policy, Medicaid challenges, insurer earnings, and mounting financial pressure on hospitals as care continues shifting to outpatient settings. They also cover Eli Lilly's latest acquisition, a first-of-its-kind cholesterol pill, food safety concerns, new wearable health technology, Visa's stablecoin platform, AI agent commerce, and China's rapid advances in artificial intelligence that are reshaping global competition. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 📊 Economy Vitals — this week's macro readings 6:56 - Story 1: 📉 Inflation — CPI (June, rel. Jul 14): CNBC 8:09 - Story 2: 👷 Labor — initial jobless claims (wk ending Jul 4): https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/unemployment-long-term-job-market-629199f9?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1 2 — VC Deal Review 10:05 - Story 1: Chai Discovery Raises $400 Million Series C for AI Molecule Design Platform Adopted by Pharma Giants [Fierce Biotech] 11:07 - Story 2: Neko Health Secures $700 Million Series C for U.S. Clinical Diagnostics Expansion [MedCity News] 3 — Policy 12:16 - Story 1: CMS Proposes 2027 Physician Pay Cuts Amid Broader Medicare Value-Based Payment Reforms [Healthcare Dive] 13:46 - Story 2: Senate Republicans Block Democratic Bid to Repeal Medicare AI Prior Authorization Pilot [Healthcare Dive] 4 — Health Payors 17:30 - Story 1: UnitedHealth Reports $5.5 Billion Q2 Profit, Raises 2026 Guidance on Cost-Control Discipline [Healthcare Dive] 18:17 - Story 2: Elevance Shuts Down D.C. Medicaid Business, Eyes Additional Market Exits [Healthcare Dive] 19:35 - Story 3: CVS/Caremark Settles FTC Insulin Pricing Case, Required to Stop Formulary Bias Toward Higher-Cost Drugs [Healthcare Dive] 5 — Health Systems 21:09 - Story 1: HCA Healthcare Slashes 2026 Earnings Forecast After Losing $400 Million in ACA Plan Dropouts [Healthcare Dive] 24:21 - Story 2: Health Systems Race to Build Ambulatory Surgery Center Networks as Outpatient Revenue Growth Outpaces Inpatient [Becker's Hospital Review] 6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies 28:48 - Story 1: Eli Lilly Acquires AtaiBeckley for $2.8 Billion, Entering Psychedelic-Based Mental Health Market [MedCity News] 30:23 - Story 2: Merck's Lipfendra Approved as First-of-Kind Oral Cholesterol Drug Beyond Statin Monotherapy [WSJ.com: Health] 7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 32:56 - Story 1: Cyclospora Outbreak Spreads to 30+ States; CDC Struggles to Identify Source Amid Surveillance Capacity Gaps [WSJ] 38:55 - Story 2: New Smart Ring Technology Enables Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Measurement Without Calibration [9to5Mac] 8 — Web3 41:48 - Story 1: Visa Launches Institutional Stablecoin Platform for Banks and Fintechs; Enables Digital Dollar Integration [Decrypt Media] 9 — The AI Tracker 52:32 - Story 1: China's Moonshot AI Releases Kimi K3 Model, Claiming Parity with GPT-5.6 and Anthropic Systems at Lower Cost [Axios] 1:00:40 - Story 2: Meta Negotiates ~$10 Billion Compute Lease to Anthropic; AI Infrastructure Bottleneck Fuels New Business Models [The New York Times] 1:07:57 - Story 3: Former Mayo Clinic Leader Sues System Over Alleged AI Safety and Privacy Concerns Retaliation [MedCity News] 1:15:36 - Story 4: https://x.com/chamath/status/2077018028852588687?s=20

July 11, 2026Episode 19855 min

198 - Healthcare's Consolidation Crunch Meets AI's Mega Buildout—And New Regulatory Crossroads

Vic and Marcus discuss uncertainty around Federal Reserve interest rate policy, continued strength in AI infrastructure and semiconductor markets, and major venture funding across biotech and value-based care. They examine proposed NIH research policy changes, the impact of Medicaid enrollment reductions and rising ACA premiums, Medicare Advantage legal disputes, healthcare bankruptcies, labor strikes, and Ascension's acquisition of Williamson Health. They also cover major pharmaceutical acquisitions, expanding access to peptides, advances in brain-computer interfaces, the challenges of integrating wearable data into clinical care, blockchain's growing role in banking, China's evolving AI strategy, Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI, and the rapid expansion of AI data center infrastructure. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 00:58 - Story 1: Fed Chair Warsh Signals Divided Views on Inflation Path Amid AI Buildout 2:12 - Story 2: SK Hynix Lands $26B Nasdaq IPO, World's Largest Non-US Chip Offering [CNBC] 2 — VC Deal Review 4:00 - Story 1: Leo Cancer Care Secures $65M Series D for Upright Radiotherapy System Ahead of IPO [Fierce Biotech] 4:42 - Story 2: MeiraGTx Secures $400M Growth Capital for Gene Therapy Commercialization [Fierce Biotech] 5:57 - Story 3: Pearl Health Raises $110M to Scale Value-Based Care Infrastructure for Medicare [MedCity News] 3 — Policy 7:04 - Story 1: Trump OMB Grant Overhaul Draws 99K Comments From Scientists Warning of NIH Politicization [The New York Times] 9:06 - Story 2: Biotech Revenue Projections Darkened by Trump Tax Bill's Medicaid Enrollment Impact [Fierce Biotech] 4 — Health Payors 11:39 - Story 1: ACA Marketplace Insurers Propose 14% Median Premium Hike for 2027—Second Straight Double-Digit Increase [Healthcare Dive] 13:54 - Story 2: Elevance Healthcare Sues CMS Over Medicare Advantage Stars Recalculation, Alleging $115M Loss [Healthcare Dive] 15:39 - Story 3: Alignment Healthcare Faces Whistleblower Accounting Fraud Lawsuit Over Capex Misclassification [Healthcare Dive] 5 — Health Systems 16:56 - Story 1: Healthcare Bankruptcies Accelerate in 2026, Driven by Staffing Costs and Reimbursement Pressure [Becker's Hospital Review] 17:49 - Story 2: Massachusetts' Largest Healthcare Strike Ever: 4,000+ MGB Nurses and Home Health Staff Walk Out Over Wages [MedCity News] 20:33 - Story 3: Ascension Acquires Williamson Health for $1B, Securing Regional Hospital Consolidation in Tennessee [Healthcare Dive] 6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies 22:01 - Story 1: Vertex Acquires Crinetics for $10B—Largest Deal in Company History—Targeting Endocrine Diseases [Fierce Biotech] 24:30 - Story 2: FDA Advisory Committee to Vote on Peptide Regulation July 23–24—Major Inflection for GLP-1s [Becker's Hospital Review] 26:57 - Story 3: AstraZeneca's Late-Stage Cardiac Trial Failure Narrows Pipeline Beyond Oncology [WSJ] 7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 28:21 - Story 1: Non-Surgical Brain-Computer Interfaces Increasingly Match Surgical Performance, Reshaping BCI Strategy [MedCity News] 30:18 - Story 2: Physicians Cite Reimbursement and Workflow Barriers to Actionable Wearable Data Adoption [Healthcare Dive] 8 — Web3 36:88 - Story 1: Circle Wins Final OCC Approval to Open National Trust Bank—First Crypto Firm to Secure Charter [The Block] 37:28 - Story 2: SWIFT Launches Blockchain Ledger Enabling 24/7 Tokenized Payments for 17 Major Global Banks [The Block] 39:09 - Story 3: CFTC Chair Warns Regulators Will 'Write All the Rules' for Crypto If Clarity Act Stalls [The Block] 9 — The AI Tracker 43:15 - Story 1: Beijing Weighs Limits on Homegrown AI Models—Escalating US-China AI Geopolitics [WSJ] 46:10 - Story 2: - https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-openai-lawsuit-f86bd58c?mod=breakingnews 46:52 - Story 3:

July 4, 2026Episode 1971 hr 15 min

197 - Frontier AI as Foreign Policy, Medicare Expands Weight-Loss Drugs, and Health Systems Face the Outpatient Reckoning

Vic and Marcus discuss slowing U.S. job growth, Meta's move into AI cloud infrastructure, record venture funding driven by AI, and what those trends mean for the technology sector. They examine Medicare coverage for weight loss drugs, proposed CMS changes affecting hospitals, Medicaid work requirement lawsuits, and the continued shift of care away from hospitals. They also cover major healthcare advances, including expanded gene therapy for children with sickle cell disease, AI-powered drug discovery partnerships, and the first FDA-approved Treg cell therapy. The episode concludes with the record-low U.S. death rate, stablecoin adoption, blockchain tokenization, and the growing AI competition between the U.S. and China. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 3:47 - Story 1: U.S. labor market cools sharply: June jobs report shows only 57,000 positions added [WSJ] 7:14 - Story 2: Meta Is Planning a Cloud Business to Sell AI Computing Power [Bloomberg] 2 — VC Deal Review 10:30 - Story 1: Global startup investment surges to record $510B in H1 2026 as AI exits accelerate [Crunchbase News] 12:40 - Story 2: Beeline raises $126M Series A extension on heels of $300M launch, bolsters autoimmune pipeline [Fierce Biotech] 3 — Policy 14:15 - Story 1: Medicare begins covering GLP-1 weight-loss drugs for seniors at $50/month out-of-pocket starting July 1 [WSJ] 15:17 - Story 2: CMS targets 340B drug discount program and site-neutral pay in 2027 outpatient rule overhaul [Becker's Hospital Review] 21:20 - Story 3: Twenty-six states sue Trump administration over Medicaid work requirements rule implementation [Healthcare Dive] 4 — Health Payors 28:59 - Story 1: Evernorth commits $100M through 2028 to AI-powered specialty pharmacy program expansion [MedCity News] 5 — Health Systems 30:28 - Story 1: 10-year outlook: outpatient volumes set to grow 20% while inpatient discharges rise just 7%, reshaping hospital economics [Becker's Hospital Review] 32:45 - Story 2: Large health system EHR migrations collapse 40% year-over-year as Epic dominance and vendor delays lock in incumbency [Becker's Hospital Review] 6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies 37:55 - Story 1: FDA expands Vertex's Casgevy CRISPR gene therapy to children as young as 2 with sickle cell disease [Becker's Hospital Review] 39:36 - Story 2: Takeda partners with Insilico on AI drug discovery platform worth up to $600M across multiple therapeutic areas [WSJ] 41:21 - Story 3: Orca Bio's Tregzi becomes first FDA-approved regulatory T cell therapy for graft-versus-host disease [MedCity News] 7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 43:45 - Story 1: U.S. Death Rate Falls to Its Lowest Point on Record [WSJ] 8 — Web3 46:52 - Story 1: Open USD stablecoin launch backed by Visa, Mastercard, and Google challenges USDC/USDT incumbents [Decrypt Media] 49:41 - Story 2: Ondo launches SEC-compliant tokenized ETF and equities with Ethereum settlement, signaling institutional crypto infrastructure maturation [The Block] 9 — The AI Tracker 51:28 - Story 1: Health systems pivot from proving AI efficacy to scaling implementations; inflection point for health tech adoption [Becker's Hospital Review] 56:53 - Story 2: Anthropic unveils Claude Science AI workbench for pharma research execution ahead of anticipated IPO [MedCity News] 59:52 - Story 3: New Chinese AI model matches Anthropic Claude performance; likely to reshape White House AI policy overhaul [WSJ] 1:08:23 - Story 4: OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake [FT]

June 27, 2026Episode 1961 hr 20 min

196 - PCE at 4.1%, GLP-1s for Kids, and OpenAI's Custom Chip — Health:Further Weekly

Vic and Marcus discuss rising inflation, the AI-driven data center boom, and growing concerns about the long-term economic impact of artificial intelligence. They examine major healthcare venture funding rounds, the resurgence of biotech investment, Medicare policy changes, PBM scrutiny, rising healthcare spending driven by GLP-1 drugs, rural hospital transformation, chemotherapy drug shortages, new cancer treatments, and the growing use of Wegovy in children. The episode also covers Bitcoin's sharp decline, venture capital consolidation, and the future of healthcare innovation. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 1:59 - Story 1: PCE Hits 4.1% — The Iran War, the AI Build-Out, and a Fed Caught in the Middle [WSJ] 7:13 - Story 2: AI Infrastructure Is Inflation's New Structural Driver [WSJ] 16:17 - Story 3: AI Bubble Fears Trigger Nasdaq Rout; KOSPI Crashes 10% Overnight [Axios] 18:02 - Story 4: Scott Bessent: Hamilton Inspires Trump Economic Statecraft [WSJ] 2 — VC Deal Review 20:33 - Story 1: Menlo Ventures Closes $3B Fund — Biggest Ever — on the Back of Its Anthropic Bet [TechCrunch] 28:49 - https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/assort-health-scores-120m-series-c-scale-voice-ai-agent-platform-healthcare 30:21 - Story 2: Cadence Closes $100M Series C at $1.23B Valuation for AI-Powered Chronic Care [MedCity News] 31:33 - Story 3: Ollin Biosciences Hauls In $330M Series B to Challenge Roche's Vabysmo in Wet AMD [Fierce Biotech] 3 — Policy 32:34 - Story 1: U.S. Health Spending Hits $5.7 Trillion in 2025 — GLP-1 Costs Are a Primary Culprit [Healthcare Dive] 34:43 - Story 2: 31 House Democrats Demand Transparency on CMS's AI Prior-Auth Pilot in Medicare [Healthcare Dive] 4 — Health Payors 38:35 - Story 1: Florida Opens Antitrust Probe Into CVS/Caremark as State-Level PBM Crackdown Accelerates [Healthcare Dive] 43:07 - Story 2: Abarca Health and LucyRx Merge to Build a Scaled Independent PBM Alternative [MedCity News] 44:33 - Story 3: Medicare Advantage at an Inflection: Reset or Retreat? [MedCity News] 5 — Health Systems 50:11 - Story 1: Cancer Chemo Shortages Force Hospitals to Consider Rationing [Becker's] 52:33 - Story 2: Eli Lilly Halts 340B Discounts for Non-Compliant Hospitals, Triggering Legal Battle [MedCity News] 55:39 - Story 3: States Are Using the $50B Rural Health Fund to Shrink Hospitals, Not Transform Care [Healthcare Dive] 6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies 57:38 - Story 1: FDA Approves Two New Drugs to Replace Chemo as First-Line Treatment for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer [WSJ] 59:23 - Story 2: Pfizer's First Major ADC From the $43B Seagen Acquisition Fails Phase 3 [Fierce Biotech] 59:47 - Story 3: AbbVie Pays $10.9B for Apogee to Challenge Dupixent in Eczema [Fierce Biotech] 7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice 1:00:39 - Story 1: Wegovy for Elementary Schoolers: Pediatricians Turn to GLP-1s as Childhood Obesity Rates Climb [WSJ] 8 — Web3 1:03:47 - Story 1: Bitcoin Hits Multi-Year Low of $58K as BTC and ETH Each Post 20%+ Monthly Losses [CoinDesk] 9 — The AI Tracker 1:06:18 - Story 1: Anthropic Accuses Alibaba of Running a 'Brazen' Campaign to Illicitly Access Claude [WSJ] 1:10:30 - Story 2 : https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/glm-52-why-im-replacing-opus-in-claude 1:12:32 - Story 3: OpenAI Unveils 'Jalapeño' — Its First Custom AI Inference Chip Built With Broadcom [WSJ] 1:13:05 - Story 4: X - Satya Nadella - "Frontier without an ecosystem is not stable." [X]

June 20, 2026Episode 1951 hr 20 min

195 - Warsh's Fed, the Hormuz Deal, Anthropic's Export Ban, and the Retatrutide Black Market! Ft. Ash Shehata

Marcus welcomes Ash Shehata, former KPMG executive and current Impact Advisors leader, as guest host for a wide-ranging discussion on healthcare, technology, finance, and policy. They examine the Federal Reserve’s evolving approach under Kevin Warsh, the economic implications of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and SpaceX’s historic IPO alongside its reported Cursor acquisition. The conversation also covers the resurgence of biotech and pharmaceutical M&A, FDA flexibility around gene therapies, rural hospital transformation funding, information blocking enforcement, Medicare Advantage contract disputes, PBM transparency battles, smart hospital rooms, longevity medicine, GLP-1 coverage expansion for seniors, digital assets, tokenized stocks, and the growing role of AI across healthcare and society. Story Lineup 1 — In This Economy 2:34 - Story 1: Warsh's Fed Ditches Forward Guidance — Markets Brace for Hikes [NYT] New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh holds rates but abandons forward guidance at his first FOMC presser, sending rate-hike odds higher and rattling markets — a fundamental shift in central bank posture. Tension / discussion: Is Warsh's opacity a feature or a bug? Does removing guidance restore Fed credibility or introduce dangerous ambiguity for markets and borrowers? also: Axios also: WSJ 6:22 - Story 2: U.S.-Iran Deal Reopens Hormuz, Sends Oil Prices Tumbling [NYT] Strait of Hormuz reopens under a U.S.-Iran MOU signed ahead of schedule, driving oil prices lower, gas below $4 nationally, and stocks higher — the biggest macro relief valve in months. Tension / discussion: How durable is this deal? A fragile MOU with Iran may give markets false comfort while the underlying geopolitical fault lines remain very much alive. also: Axios also: Axios 11: 07 - Story 3: SpaceX Acquires AI Coding Agent Cursor for $60 Billion [WSJ] SpaceX deploys post-IPO capital in a $60B all-stock acquisition of Cursor, extending Musk's empire into enterprise AI tooling and setting a new benchmark for AI startup valuations. Tension / discussion: Does a $60B price tag for a coding agent represent genuine enterprise value or peak AI deal froth? And what does it mean that a rocket company is now a software conglomerate? also: Strictly VC 2 — VC Deal Review 14:52 - Story 1: Biopharma M&A Is Back: PwC Reports Strongest Deal Quarter Since 2020 [Fierce Biotech] PwC data shows life sciences deal values exceeded $65B in Q1 2026, the strongest quarter in six years — a macro signal that the biopharma financing cycle has turned. Tension / discussion: Is this a genuine ecosystem recovery or a buyer's market where big pharma is snapping up distressed assets at favorable prices while smaller biotechs remain starved for capital? 17:58 - Story 2: Kardigan Prices $400M Upsized IPO to Fund Cardiovascular Drug Push [Endpoints] Cardiovascular biotech Kardigan prices above expectations in a upsized $400M IPO, the latest evidence that the biotech IPO window is open for the right therapeutic areas. Tension / discussion: Cardiovascular drugs have a historically brutal Phase 3 attrition rate — does the IPO enthusiasm reflect genuine science confidence or investor FOMO in a hot market? FYI InStride Raises $30M Series C for Pediatric Mental Health [MedCity News] Altaris Acquires AI Drug Dev Platform Simulations Plus for $375M [Fierce Biotech] Vedana Therapeutics Emerges With $46M for Next-Gen Migraine Prevention [Fierce Biotech] 3 — Policy 20:01 - Story 1: FDA Reverses Course on uniQure Huntington's Gene Therapy — A Signal of New Regulatory Flexibility [MedCity News] FDA greenlights uniQure's Huntington's gene therapy for accelerated approval filing after reversing a prior requirement for an additional trial — a bellwether for how the agency will treat the broader rare disease pipeline. Tension / discussion: Is this welcome regulatory modernization for patients with no other options, or does loosening approval standards for gene therapies create a safety accountability gap that will haunt the field? also: STAT News also: Fierce Biotech 23:35 - Story 2: Rural Hospitals Told to 'Hang On' as Medicare Opt-Outs Accelerate and Closure Funds Lag [Becker's] Rural hospital leaders are skeptical the $50B HR 1 transformation fund arrives before closures hit, while a parallel JAMA analysis shows rural physicians are opting out of Medicare faster than anyone is tracking. Tension / discussion: Is the Rural Health Transformation Program a genuine lifeline or a political promise that arrives too late for the hospitals and patients that need it most? also: Becker's 31:28 - Story 3: Trump HHS Launches Active Information-Blocking Enforcement Under 21st Century Cures Act [Becker's Hospital Review] After years of soft implementation, HHS is now actively enforcing information-blocking rules — a compliance wake-up call for health systems, EHR vendors, and health IT companies. Tension / discussion: Will enforcement pressure actually unlock data interope...

June 13, 2026Episode 1941 hr 20 min

194 - Inflation Rises, SpaceX Demand Surges, and Apple’s AI Strategy Takes Shape

Vic and Marcus discuss rising inflation tied to escalating conflict in Iran and the broader economic implications for energy markets, review major venture capital and healthcare startup funding activity including surgical AI company Uncovr, examine developments in AI adoption and productivity across healthcare, analyze the competitive landscape between Apple and leading AI labs, explore IPO activity ranging from SpaceX demand to healthcare and pharmaceutical offerings, and close with a discussion on robotics, automation, and the impact of humanoid robots on future labor markets. Links Story 1: Economy 5:16 - Inflation Jumps as Iran War Intensifies Price Squeeze NYT 9:16 - SpaceX IPO Draws at Least $5 Billion Order From BlackRock Story 2: VC rundown 15:32 - Surgical AI Startup Uncovr Emerges from Stealth with $7M Seed Funding HIT 16:55 - Stepful raises $55M for healthcare training platform Mobi Health Story 3: Price transparency 17:40 - Kennedy & Oz Discuss Price transparency on X Story 4: CMS Top 5 Priorities 22:39 - The 5 Areas Where Dr. Oz Says CMS Can Make Healthcare More Affordable MedCity Story 5: Drug prices inside EMRs 26:41 - BCBS of Massachusetts partners for lower-cost drug alternatives Healthcare Finance Story 6: GSK Oncology 28:21 - GSK to Buy Nuvalent for $10.6 Billion in Oncology Push WSJ Story 7: GLP-1 Pills 28:40 - Novo Nordisk Weight-Loss Pill Prescriptions Hit Three Million Since Launch WSJ Story 8: Pharma IPO in Canada 30:01 - Apotex Shares Rally as Trading Begins Following Pricing of C$1.3 Billion IPO WSJ Story 9: Wearable Showdown 31:33 - The Wearable Showdown: Oura Ring 5 vs. Fitbit Air vs. Whoop MG vs. Apple Watch WSJ Story 10: Agent Payments 34:41 - Coinbase Launches Tool That Lets AI Agents Trade Crypto and Make Payments for Users Decrypt 35:35 - Mastercard Launches Agent Pay for Machines, Ripple and XRPL Join 30+ Partners to Power AI-Driven Commerce Merkle Story 11: Abridge growth 38:53 - Abridge picks up strategic investment from Eli Lilly, expands payer, research workflows Fierce Healthcare Story 12: Claude Fable5 40:08 - Anthropic Releases New ‘Mythos-Class’ Model to General Public With Guardrails WSJ 41:16 - b We've Never Seen an AI Like This (Claude Fable 5) YouTube Story 13: Price War Coming? 1:05:55 - OpenAI Considers Drastic Price Cuts, Anticipating War for Users With Anthropic WSJ Story 14: Apple Developer Conf 1:07:37 - Apple Unveiled the New Siri AI. Here Are the Key Takeaways. WSJ Story 15: Apple Developer Conf 1:12:47 - Driverless Trucks Are Here—and They’re Delivering Bags of Doritos WSJ

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