The Other 80

Claudia Williams
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The Other 80 podcast — brought to you by Claudia Williams at UC Berkeley School of Public Health — hosts real, honest dialogue about the things that help keep people healthy beyond traditional medical care, like housing, social connections and food, and the cutting edge policies, research and programs supporting whole person health. Join former White House advisor, entrepreneur and host Claudia Williams for deep conversations with the innovators, implementers, researchers and policymakers bringing these new models to life. We’ll talk about what’s working, what’s not and how to move towards whole person health rapidly and equitably across the US.

  1. Can robots save your life? Fred Khosravi on the ambitious plan to bring stroke care to everyone

    1D AGO

    Can robots save your life? Fred Khosravi on the ambitious plan to bring stroke care to everyone

    After moving to the US from Iran at age 17, entrepreneur and inventor Fred Khosravi went on to launch more than 20 companies and earn hundreds of patents. In this conversation, Fred reflects on the power of immigration, freedom, education and what it means to build a life in a new country. He shares how leaving Iran after the revolution shaped his willingness to take risks, his sense of purpose, and his entrepreneurial drive. Claudia and Fred also get into some of the biggest opportunities he sees ahead, from women’s health to the long-overdue shift from a healthcare system organized around visits to one centered on outcomes and connected care. This interview was recorded in person at the JP Morgan - Berkeley healthcare conference in Taipei. Fred and Claudia dive into: How in the age of AI our greatest asset is our humanityWhy institutions like the FDA are essential foundations for innovationHow specialty-driven medicine makes it hard to deliver whole person care Fred says strong regulation is the foundation, not a barrier, to America’s global leadership in biotech: “I happen to believe that the reason American medical technology and American pharmaceuticals are the most sought after in the world, if you can afford it, is because of the FDA. I like to say it's because of entrepreneurs like me, and it's because of everybody who's actually working so hard on it… We could not achieve the results that we're achieving around the world… If it weren't for the systems of standards and highest quality level thinking… that the FDA is bringing to the table.” Relevant Links Learn more about Imperative Care’s vision for treating stroke and other thromboembolic diseases About Our Guest Fred (Farhad) Khosravi is a Silicon Valley medical device entrepreneur who has held management and executive positions in both large and small medical technology enterprises over the last 30+ years. Throughout his career, he has been either the inventor or co-inventor for over 200 U.S. and worldwide granted and patent applications, making him one of the most prolific minds and leaders in the industry. However, Fred’s passion for improving people’s lives goes beyond the medtech field. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank dedicated to providing strategic national security insights to help decision makers chart a course toward a better world; is a member of the Board of Directors at Spirit of America, a nonprofit that promotes private-sector support for the safety and success of our troops and the local people they want to help; and is a convening board member for Technology for America, a nonprofit for promotion of innovation as a way to engage public-private dialogue that benefit all Americans. Fred holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and graduated c*m laude with an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee Tech University. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    32 min
  2. Patient Agency in the Age of AI with Liz Salmi & Hugo Campos

    MAR 25

    Patient Agency in the Age of AI with Liz Salmi & Hugo Campos

    Patient innovators Liz Salmi and Hugo Campos join The Other 80 to discuss the evolving role of patients in healthcare, using the recent release of ChatGPT Health as a central lens. They delve into how AI is shifting the power dynamic by enabling greater patient agency and creating new expectations for health systems. Drawing on their personal experiences, including Liz's work with OpenNotes and Hugo's long struggle for access to his cardiac device data, they explore how technology can serve as a bridge for collaboration, rather than a source of conflict, between patients and clinicians. Claudia, Liz and Hugo talk about: How patients who are sick and scared often choose sharing over privacyWhy Hugo still can’t access his implanted device dataThe need for a new doctor-patient relationship grounded in collaboration, not control Liz says AI is surfacing the same reactions she saw around patients googling health information: “It makes me think of the Dr. Google era of when clinicians were like, ‘patients shouldn't go online and look for information about their own health because they don't know how to search accurately for their own health information’. And I think we're at this early stage of the tension between health systems wanting to still control how patients find their own health information, versus our own curiosity and exploration of digging into our own health information and… asking the questions that are important to us and then discovering the answers ourselves in our own journey.” Relevant Links Read Liz and Hugo’s paper on Critical AI Health Literacy Watch Hugo’s TEDx Talk on Fighting for the Right to Open His Heart Data Learn more about the patient data transparency movement at OpenNotes Read the full text of the 21st Century Cures Act About Our Guests Hugo Campos is an internationally recognized patient advocate, combining creative and technical expertise to promote participatory medicine and patient-centered, AI-enabled healthcare. Named a White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine by President Obama in 2015, he advocates for patient rights and health data access while managing his own cardiac condition. Hugo serves on the NIH’s All of Us Research Program Steering Committee, co-leads patient engagement for PCORI’s THRIVE trial, and advises UCSF/UC Berkeley’s Computational Precision Health program. A TEDx Cambridge speaker, his advocacy has been featured in national media and scientific publications. Hugo lives in Oakland, California, with his husband, elderly father, and Memphis the cat. Source Liz Salmi is the Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes. In this role, Liz helps clinicians, hospitals and health systems understand through “the patient’s eyes” the changing nature of patient-clinician communication in an age of growing transparency. Her research areas of interest include: the effects of transparency on patient-clinician communication, stakeholder engagement, research dissemination, and the role of social media in patient-clinician-researcher collaborations. As a person living with a low grade malignant brain tumor, Liz is passionate about helping all people engage in their own health care by improving their experience as patients. Over the last 17 years she has been: a research subject; an advisor in patient stakeholder groups; a leader in “patient engagement” research initiatives; and an innovator, educator and investigator in national educational and research projects. In addition to her work with OpenNotes, Liz led the Brain Cancer Quality of Life Collaborative, a multi-stakeholder group dedicated to advancing science and improving the quality of life for people with malignant brain tumors. In fall 2021, members of the BCQoLC team (along with established investigators), were awarded a $12.8 million Center Grant from the National Cancer Institute to determine optimal methods for patient enrollment in a brain tumor registry. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    42 min
  3. Missing the Nobel Call with Fred Ramsdell

    MAR 11

    Missing the Nobel Call with Fred Ramsdell

    Newly-minted Nobel laureate Fred Ramsdell joins Claudia to discuss his groundbreaking work on regulatory T cells, which act as the immune system's natural "brakes." His research aims to "reset" the immune system to cure autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid arthritis and MS) moving beyond mere symptom management. Fred reflects on his new role as a science advocate, addressing the crisis of public trust in science and the need for greater diversity in biomedical research. During this conversation, recorded at the UC Berkeley/JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in Taipei, Claudia and Fred discuss: How Fred missed the Nobel Prize call while off-grid campingHis shifting goals in retirement post Nobel winWhy he chose biotech: collaboration, speed, and being "wrong fast"The deeper threat to science: funding vs. trust, and his surprise in Sweden Fred says he’s excited to see what other advances are possible in what he calls “the early innings” of scientific discovery: “As humans, we're really good at solving technological problems. If we know what the problem is, historically, we're pretty good at figuring out an answer. [We’re] pretty confident now that we know the problem in peripheral tolerance, that is the breakdown of our immune system recognizing our own tissues. Now we know what at least part of that problem is, we'll be able to engineer our way into a solution.” Relevant Links See more about Fred’s Nobel win and read the UCLA press release Fred’s Nobel prize lecture See Fred and his co-laureates accept their prize Read more about Fred’s 2025 co-laureates Mary E. Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi About Our Guest Fred Ramsdell, PhD, is a veteran biotechnology leader in immunology with nearly three decades of experience and was named a winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. A co-founder of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Dr. Ramsdell was the former Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and current Scientific Advisory Board Chair of the Company. Dr. Ramsdell earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cell biology from the University of California, San Diego. Following a fellowship at the NIH, Dr. Ramsdell joined Immunex studying T cell activation and tolerance, with a focus on gene discovery and functional characterization. He later joined Darwin Molecular (which was later acquired by Celltech R&D) to establish the immunology program. Amongst other programs, he led the team that discovered and characterized FoxP3, a gene critical to the function of regulatory T cells. Dr. Ramsdell joined ZymoGenetics in 2004, where he led teams studying novel proteins with potential regulatory activity in lymphoid cells. In 2008, Novo Nordisk brought on Dr. Ramsdell to help establish the company’s new Inflammation Research Center in Seattle and lead the Immunobiology group. Prior to SonomaBio, Dr. Ramsdell was the CSO at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) where he helped to build and advance multiple research programs from the inception of the Institute. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    39 min
  4. Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness with Kunal Modi

    FEB 25

    Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness with Kunal Modi

    When Mayor Lurie took office, San Francisco was spending nearly $1 Billion a year responding to homelessness, yet the number of people living unsheltered had not budged in years. In this episode, Kunal Modi, the city’s Chief of Health and Human Services, shares how the Lurie administration is tackling the intersecting homelessness, mental health and addiction crises. Rather than layering on new programs, the city is attempting something harder: redesigning how fragmented systems work together. Kunal and Claudia discuss: The city’s move to unify fragmented and siloed outreach teamsThe importance of shifting accountability and decision-making to the front linesHow San Francisco’s strategy is leveraging the community supports in CalAIMWhy solutions need to reflect the intersecting nature of the homeless problem Kunal reminds us that ending the cycle of homelessness is far more complicated than just finding housing: “This is more than a homelessness crisis, it's an intersecting homelessness, behavioral health, and drug addiction crisis that we need to bring our healthcare system and our social service system in closer alignment… We need to reorient our Public Health strategies to not only support those in crisis, but to think about the broader communities and neighborhoods.” Relevant Links See Mayor Lurie’s thoughts on the “Breaking the Cycle” initiativeGet more information on the City’s new RV parking restrictionsRead the Crankstart report on tackling homelessness in San Francisco About Our Guest Kunal Modi is the policy chief of health, homelessness, and family services in San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration. In this role, he coordinates eight agencies, including the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Department of Children, Youth and Families and the Department of Early Childhood, while also serving as liaison to San Francisco Unified School District and City College. He brings extensive experience in cross-agency collaboration and reform, aiming to deliver compassionate, effective solutions for the city’s most pressing health, housing, and family needs. Before joining City Hall, he spent over 11 years as a partner at McKinsey & Company’s Bay Area office and previously served on the boards of Larkin Street Youth Services and St. Anthony’s Foundation. His educational background includes an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.P.P. from Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. from Northwestern University. Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    41 min
  5. Bending the Chronic Disease Curve with Sean Duffy

    FEB 11

    Bending the Chronic Disease Curve with Sean Duffy

    Not many digital health companies go public. And even fewer do so with a model designed to fix what’s truly broken in U.S. healthcare: episodic, fragmented care that fails to support the behavior change required to manage chronic disease. Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy joins Claudia to discuss the company’s journey from scrappy startup to public company—and his biggest ambition for the future: bending the nation’s chronic disease curve, both in cost and in human suffering. Claudia and Sean talk about: Omada’s “full stack” approach to chronic careWhat Omada’s IPO signals for digital health’s futureWhy GLP1s are a catalyst for behavior changeHow employers have quietly driven healthcare innovation Sean says for Omada to actually shift what consumers pay out of pocket every month for their premiums we need to make big changes: “Affordability is the thing… That's the burden we're bearing as a country… And so, the only way to bring down healthcare costs are completely transformed care models. That's the only way… Thank goodness we're at a moment where those models are being supported and being scaled nationally. Thank goodness we're at a moment where technologies like AI can help add even more efficiency and help scale… Our only way out are different care models [that] leverage new technologies.” Relevant Links Access more info in Omada’s research library Get details on Omada Health’s S1 IPO Filing See the GLP-1 research Sean mentions: Omada members maintain weight loss after discontinuing GLPs Get more info on the CMS ACCESS model About Our Guest Sean Duffy co-founded Omada in 2011 with the aim of merging medical trends and cutting edge technology to revolutionize health care of chronic disease as we know it. Today, he proudly serves as CEO and has been instrumental in steering Omada toward global recognition, such as being hailed a potential “medical triumph” by The New York Times, and one of Fast Company’s 50 most innovative companies in the world. A longtime devotee of healthcare and technology, Sean also founded a largely automated lifestyle business around Excel Everest, the interactive Microsoft Excel training tool he created. He formerly covered healthcare innovation as writer and editor for Medgadget, a popular medical technology blog. As CEO of Omada, Sean cares deeply about honing the organization’s exceptional products, values-driven approach to healthcare, and the innovative ways in which primary care can continue to better humanity. More recently, Sean has been spending more and more of his free time learning how to build and fly first-person view drones. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    40 min
  6. Free Childcare for All with Elizabeth Groginsky

    JAN 28

    Free Childcare for All with Elizabeth Groginsky

    In 2025, New Mexico made history as the first state in the nation to commit to free childcare for all families. Elizabeth Groginsky, who leads this effort, joins Claudia to discuss what Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has described as a “cradle-to-career education system”—and why investing early pays dividends from school readiness to family economic stability. Claudia and Elizabeth dive into: The critical link between fair worker wages and childcare capacityHow New Mexico’s early childhood trust fund is helping the state stay the courseWhy NYC and other cities and states want to replicate New Mexico’s moveUnexpected allies in the state’s quest to provide free childcare Elizabeth underscores this is not only good social policy but also a smart financial investment: “If we believe the Heckman equation, if we believe the economists coming out of the Federal Reserve, this is your best investment. If it's a 7 % return, that's better than anyone's getting on any portfolio. It could be as high as a 13 % return… And so it's not going to be a question of ”How can we afford it?”, but “How can we not afford to invest in universal child care?”” Relevant Links Find out more about New Mexico’s Childhood Education and Care DepartmentRead more about Universal Childcare in New MexicoWhat is the Heckman Equation?See information on the “Developing Futures” Campaign About Our Guest Elizabeth Groginsky has more than two decades of executive leadership experience administering public and private human service organizations at the national, state and local levels. She previously served as the assistant superintendent of early learning for the District of Columbia, a role she held for nearly five years where she administered a $160 million annual budget that funded programs to ensure equal access to quality services for the District’s most vulnerable children and their families. The District of Columbia was first in the nation in 2009 to pursue universal pre-K and today has the highest U.S. participation rate, with 85 percent of all 4-year-olds and 75 percent of 3-year-olds. She previously directed early childhood education for United Way Worldwide, where she helped expand the number of communities collecting and using population-based early childhood data; and she was the first executive director of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, a national coalition to improve state policies and practices in the development and use of early childhood data system. Her experience with Head Start programs is extensive: She began as a family services coordinator, later administered a county program and then directed the Head Start Collaboration Office for Colorado. In Washington, D.C., she oversaw one of only eight state Early Head Start Child Care Partnership grants. Groginsky earned a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Colorado at Denver and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    36 min
  7. Making Drugs More Affordable with Paul Markovich (Encore Episode)

    2025-12-17

    Making Drugs More Affordable with Paul Markovich (Encore Episode)

    This week, we close out our three-part series on rethinking drug access and costs with a must-listen encore episode. After detailing the scope of the drug price crisis with Mark Cuban and how we can re-purpose drugs to treat rare illnesses with David Fajgenbaum, we turn to a leader who is actively changing the dynamic: Paul Markovich. Now the CEO of Ascendiun (the parent company of Blue Shield of California), Paul argues that healthcare affordability isn't just a patient pocketbook issue - it’s a massive economic crisis for the nation. In this episode, Paul and Claudia discuss: His conviction that reducing healthcare costs is essential to averting a national fiscal crisisThe upside-down economics that make PBMs reject cheaper drug pricesPaul’s candid advice on what it takes to be a courageous leader in a dysfunctional system Paul Markovich challenges healthcare leaders to shift from explaining high costs to being accountable for lowering them: “Almost everybody in the entire value chain, whether it's health plans or hospitals or all the way through, they want to explain why healthcare is so expensive and why there's this inflation rate as if that absolves them of any responsibility to make it different. And so, what I really want is accountability, and a level of accountability that doesn't exist yet in our industry, to say, 'Hey, we own this' ".  Relevant Links Part 1: Listen to our episode “New Life for Old Drug with David Fajgenbaum” Part 2: Listen to our episode “Lessons in Disruption with Mark Cuban” Rethinking how Americans get affordable medications California’s new PBM reform law About Our Guest Paul Markovich is president and chief executive office of Ascendiun, a nonprofit corporate entity as part of the new parent to the family of organizations that includes Blue Shield of California. Paul Markovich was president and chief executive officer at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with $25 billion in annual revenue, serving 6 million members in the state's commercial, individual, and government markets. Paul launched and led numerous initiatives to drive innovation and help reimagine health care, including funding support for a statewide provider directory to make it easier for Californians to find physicians and facilities in their plan; supporting the development of a statewide health information network for patients’ records, enabling more seamless and holistic care; and investing in a partnership with the California Medical Association to help physicians pilot new care delivery models and leverage technology. At Blue Shield, Paul previously served as chief operating officer (responsible for healthcare services, network management, e-business, marketing, product development, and customer operations). He was senior vice president of the large group and CalPERS business units. He led the company’s product development unit, introducing numerous products and services such as the first California Health Maintenance Organization to allow self-referrals to specialists and initiating online access to member benefits. He currently serves on the board of the Chicago-based Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the national umbrella organization across the country. Together, these plans provide health coverage for more than 100 million Americans. Paul also serves on the board of America’s Health Insurance Plans. Paul is a North Dakota native and Rhodes Scholar with a master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University. He is a graduate of Colorado College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Political Economy and played Division I hockey. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-markovich/ Stay Informed Sign up for The Other 80 Newsletter to receive a monthly update with reflections, news, events, jobs and funding curated for you by Claudia. Click here to sign up. Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn.

    25 min
  8. Lessons in Disruption with Mark Cuban

    2025-12-03

    Lessons in Disruption with Mark Cuban

    Investor and healthcare disruptor Mark Cuban joins The Other 80 to talk about his online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, that is bringing affordable drugs with transparent markups to American households. Mark lays out his basic formula for taking overhead and complexity out of the US healthcare system by disaggregating huge vertical businesses and disintermediating middlemen. In this episode, Mark Cuban pitches: That direct contracting with hospitals is his next healthcare disruptionWhy he thinks medical schools should be freeHow financial audits are a first step to lowering healthcare pricesWhy price transparency is contagious Mark thinks the best way to make change is from outside the system: “What makes [Cost Plus Drugs] radical is when we started, everybody presumed and expected that we would work within the system. That we would partner with the big three wholesalers that control 98% of the sale of drugs - that we would partner with the big three PBMs that control 85% of prescriptions. And, we did the exact opposite because we knew they were the problem.” Relevant Links The Cost Plus Drugs mission statementRead and watch Mark Cuban testimony for the Senate Special Committee on Aging More on Mark’s hospital negotiation strategy About Our Guest Mark Cuban is an investor who lives for his family, his "Shark Tank" companies and the Dallas Mavericks. He is the owner of the 2011 World Champion Dallas Mavericks and bestselling author of "How to Win at the Sport of Business," and was an entrepreneur from the early age of 12 when he sold garbage bags door to door. Today, Cuban is the highly successful entrepreneur and investor with an ever-growing portfolio of businesses. A lifelong entrepreneur and investor, Cuban has started and built multiple industry-changing organizations including Costplusdrugs.com, which sells medications at industry low pricing with total cost transparency, which he founded with Dr. Alex Oshmansky. Named a winner of the GQ Men of the Year in 2006 and included in The New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas, Cuban is recognized as being among the most influential people in both the cable and sports industries. He may be best known for his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 4, 2000. Under his leadership, the team's home games have become a total entertainment experience. Prior to his purchase of the Mavericks, Cuban co-founded the first commercial streaming company AudioNet, which became Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the Internet. Broadcast.com was sold to Yahoo! Inc. in July 2000. MicroSolutions, a leading national systems integrator, was co-founded by Cuban and partner Martin Woodall in 1983, and later sold to CompuServe. In 2001, Cuban founded AXS TV (www.axs.tv) and sister network, HDNet Movies, the very first all high-definition TV network. He also co-owns the Landmark Theater chain, Magnolia Pictures, Magnolia Home Video and 2929 Productions along with partner Todd Wagner. With the release of the movie "Bubble" in 2005, Magnolia and Landmark Theaters pioneered the release of the movie's "day and date," meaning the movie was released in theaters, on TV (HDNet Movies) and on DVD all on the same day. Taking this process one step further, Cuban created the Ultra VOD platform, releasing movies to video on demand on both cable and satellite up to four weeks prior to their release in theaters. As an executor producer for 2929 and HDNet Films, Cuban has been nominated for seven Academy Awards® for "Enron," "The Smartest Guys In the Room" and "Good Night and Good Luck." He later sold HDNet in 2018. Source Connect With Us For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn Subscribe to The Other 80 on YouTube so you never miss our video extras or special video episodes!

    43 min
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About

The Other 80 podcast — brought to you by Claudia Williams at UC Berkeley School of Public Health — hosts real, honest dialogue about the things that help keep people healthy beyond traditional medical care, like housing, social connections and food, and the cutting edge policies, research and programs supporting whole person health. Join former White House advisor, entrepreneur and host Claudia Williams for deep conversations with the innovators, implementers, researchers and policymakers bringing these new models to life. We’ll talk about what’s working, what’s not and how to move towards whole person health rapidly and equitably across the US.

Information

  • Creator
    Claudia Williams
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Claudia Williams
  • Show Website
    The Other 80

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