The Other 80

Claudia Williams
  • 5.0 (16)
  • MEDICINE
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY

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. Bending the Chronic Disease Curve with Sean Duffy

    3D AGO

    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...

    40 min
  2. 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...

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

    12/17/2025

    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...

    25 min
  4. Lessons in Disruption with Mark Cuban

    12/03/2025

    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

    43 min
  5. New Life for Old Drugs with Dr. David Fajgenbaum

    11/19/2025

    New Life for Old Drugs with Dr. David Fajgenbaum

    When David Fajgenbaum nearly died of Castleman disease for the fifth time, he decided to take fate into his own hands. Using his medical training, he searched for an existing drug that might save his life—and found one. Now his organization, Every Cure, is scaling the same approach to uncover hidden treatments for other diseases with no known cure. David and Claudia discussed:  How Every Cure is using AI to test 75 million possible disease-drug combinations The perverse incentives that keep generic drug repurposing in the shadowsWhy the hardest part of innovation isn’t discovery, it’s getting proven treatments into clinical practice Repurposing existing drugs makes so much sense. But as David points out, there’s no market for it: “Once a drug is generic.. the price is going to plummet… And even if you were to double the sales of your drug because you found a new disease area, now you've gone from 1% to 2% of what you got before… So there's no incentive whatsoever for our system to find a new use for a generic drug. Zero incentive.” Relevant Links Learn more about Every CureRead David’s book Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into ActionWatch David's TEDTalk Listen to David’s Podcast interview with Adam GrantGet info on the Dada2 FoundationWatch a video on Matt Might’s story  About Our Guest David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is co-Founder & President of Every Cure and a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is one of the youngest faculty members ever to receive tenure at Penn Medicine. He is also the national bestselling author of Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action, which is being adapted into a film by Forrest Gump producer Wendy Finerman.  During medical school, Fajgenbaum discovered a treatment that saved his own life and founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network. He has advanced 13 more repurposed treatments for cancers and rare diseases and co-founded Every Cure to unlock more hidden cures from existing medicines which has received over $100M from ARPA-H and TED’s Audacious Project. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA.  One of the youngest recipients of multiple top NIH and FDA grants, Fajgenbaum has authored over 100 scientific papers in leading journals, including The New England Journal of...

    36 min
  6. Gun Violence Interruption in American Cities with DeVone Boggan and Jason Corburn

    11/05/2025

    Gun Violence Interruption in American Cities with DeVone Boggan and Jason Corburn

    Richmond, California used to be called America’s “Murder Capital”. But when city leaders chose a different path the city’s gun violence problem dramatically declined.  DeVone Boggan and UC Berkeley’s Jason Corburn join Claudia to discuss their new book “Advancing Peace”, which chronicles their efforts to reduce gun violence in Richmond and other cities by focusing on those most likely to pull the trigger. Boggan and Corburn make a case for an approach to gun violence interruption grounded in deep mentorship, community investment and healing and accountability.   We discuss: The book's core ideas: ending urban gun violence with redemptive loveHow public health overlooks community strengths by fixating on riskWhy Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety sits in government - but outside policing DeVone says that the greatest demonstration of this approach has always been Richmond:  “From the moment we implemented the Peacemaker Fellowship in 2010, within 18 to 24 months after we did that, there were dramatic, precipitous reductions in gun violence… Our argument has been [that] when you get the right people to get at the right people the right way over a long period of time, here's living proof and demonstration of what can happen…In 2014, we achieved a 40 year low in gun violence [in Richmond].”  Relevant Links Read Jason and DeVone’s book “Advancing Peace: Ending Urban Gun Violence through the Power of Redemptive Love”Listen to an episode from our archives with Megan Ranney on gun violence as a public health issueCheck out Richmond, California’s Office of Neighborhood SafetyRead more about Jason Corburn’s work at UC BerkeleyGet more information on DeVone’s organization Advance Peace About Our Guests DeVone Boggan serves as Founder and CEO of Advance Peace. Advance Peace interrupts gun violence in American urban neighborhoods by providing transformational opportunities to young men involved in lethal firearm offenses and placing them in a high-touch, personalized fellowship. By working with and supporting a targeted group of individuals at the core of gun hostilities, Advance Peace bridges the gap between anti-violence programming and a hard-to-reach population at the center of violence in urban areas, thus breaking the cycle of gun hostilities and altering the trajectory of these men’s lives.  DeVone is the former Neighborhood Safety Director and founding director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) for the City of Richmond, California. The ONS is a government, non-law enforcement agency that is charged with reducing firearm assaults and associated deaths in Richmond. Under his leadership as Neighborhood Safety Director, the city experienced a 71% reduction in gun violence between 2007 when the office was created and 2016. His work with ONS has been recognized in national publications and media, including the New York Times, Mother Jones, The Nation, Detroit Free Press, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, PBS NewsHour, NPR, NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightline, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN.  Prior to his

    48 min
  7. Smarter Venture Bets with Nancy Brown

    10/22/2025

    Smarter Venture Bets with Nancy Brown

    Investor Nancy Brown joins us at Aspen Ideas Health to share her blueprint for impactful investments. Identify public health breakthroughs that deliver measurable cost and quality improvements — then show how they can thrive in the marketplace. You don’t have to look far to see this playbook in action. One of the year’s biggest health exits, Omada Health, is a digital version of the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program. At Oak HC/FT, Nancy has partnered with entrepreneurs who are redefining how America stays healthy — and she’s eager to see more people with public health roots take the leap into building impactful companies. Please note: this conversation happened before HR1 was passed, so big Medicaid cuts were a threat but not yet a reality when we spoke. In this episode, we discuss: Lessons from Todd Park in the early days of athenahealthHow to turn good ideas into great businessesNancy’s advice in an era of policy disruption: keep on building and proving valueThe lesson Kaiser Permanente is still teaching us Nancy reminds us that in reality, even a brilliant idea needs to have ROI built in: “We look for entrepreneurs, for innovators, who have really defined a way in which to find a cohort of patients,  it could be pregnant Medicaid moms... And they have identified if they apply a certain clinical process consistently to that population, they will get a consistently good outcome, quality outcome, and they can do it in a sustainable [way] at a sustainable price.” Relevant Links Read Oak HC/FT’s AI Investment PolicyExplore businesses Nancy mentioned from Oak HC/FT’s investment portfolio:Maven ClinicOshi Health  About Our Guest Nancy Brown is a General Partner at Oak HC/FT, a leading venture and growth equity firm investing in transformative healthcare and fintech companies. Since joining Oak HC/FT at its inception in 2014, Ms. Brown has focused on identifying and supporting technology-enabled healthcare services that deliver measurable clinical and financial impact. She focuses on growth equity and early-stage venture investments in healthcare, serving on the boards of innovative companies such as Firefly Health, Groups Recover Together, InterWell Health, Maven Clinic, Oshi Health, Regard, Unite Us, and Wayspring. Her portfolio also includes Noom, TurningPoint Healthcare Solutions, Limeade (ASX: LME), OncoHealth, and OODA Health. Ms. Brown brings over three decades of operational and leadership experience to her investment role. Prior to Oak HC/FT, she was Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at McKesson Technology Solutions and Chief Growth Officer at MedVentive (acquired by McKesson in 2012). Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Services and Corporate Development at athenahealth, and earlier held senior roles at McKesson and Harvard Community Health Plan. She also co-founded Abaton.com, one of the first web-based clinical solution companies, which was later acquired by McKesson. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire (B.S. in Zoology) and Northeastern University (MBA), Ms. Brown is an active mentor and advisor. She serves on Northeastern’s D’Amore‑McKim School of Business Dean’s Executive Council and is involved in the Roux Institute’s Future of Healthcare Founder Residency program. a...

    31 min
  8. Stories Move the World with Zoanne Clack

    10/08/2025

    Stories Move the World with Zoanne Clack

    Grey’s Anatomy Executive Producer and physician Dr. Zoanne Clack joins The Other 80 at Aspen Ideas: Health to talk about what public health leaders can learn from Hollywood storytelling. After training as a doctor and working for the CDC, Zoanne followed her childhood dreams and moved to Hollywood. With no job or warm leads, Zoanne set out to use the power of storytelling to drive health change.  We discuss: What Shonda Rhimes taught Zoanne about standing in powerMaking it as a Hollywood “showrunner”Why public health leaders should lean into storytelling Zoanne reminds us that stories - even about fictional characters - have the ability to help us move the world:  “I think just having that, that feeling of belonging, that feeling of these are my people, and I am very interested in what they're doing and thinking is just a great way for the media in Hollywood to have impact.” Relevant Links Watch the two episode Zoanne mentioned are her favourites: “Fight the Power” (Season 17, Episode 5) and “The Time Warp” (Season 6, Episode 15)See Zoanne’s filmography About Our Guest Zoanne Clack is executive producer and showrunner for “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Station 19.” An emergency medicine physician turned TV writer and showrunner, Clack is best known for her influential writing roles on these critically acclaimed ABC-TV series, where she combines her medical background and artistic flair, offering a unique and authentic touch. As a writer/producer on "Grey's Anatomy" since the show began, she has played an integral role in the show's longevity and cultural impact. She uses her knowledge of entertainment education to promote global public health issues through the media, advocating for representation and inclusivity and providing diverse characterizations as well as poignant social commentary. Clack is co-chair of the Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society program at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism and serves on the board or as an advisor of several global health groups. 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!

    34 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
    68
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Claudia Williams
  • Show Website
    The Other 80

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