Lifers with Christina Farr

Veteran journalist, investor, and Second Opinion Media founder Chrissy Farr talks with the CEOs and founders who've been in the trenches long enough to know that healthcare doesn't move at startup speed. These aren't the entrepreneurs chasing quick exits—they're the "lifers" who understand that building in healthcare requires endless pivots, regulatory navigation, and decade-long timelines. No hype, just honest conversations about what it really takes. Each episode explores healthcare innovation, startup strategy, medical technology and AI, health system transformation, and investment insights from operators who've navigated regulatory challenges, clinical trials, reimbursement complexities, and the unique dynamics of the healthcare industry.

Lifers with Christina Farr is a technology podcast hosted by Christina Farr, with 79 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Christina Farr hosts Lifers with Christina Farr, a technology show with 79 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #35

  The hospital itself should be a robot | Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA

  Aug 18, 20261h 1mS2

  Christina Farr sits down with Kimberly Powell, VP of Healthcare at NVIDIA, an 18-year veteran who built the company's healthcare business from a single cold call in 2008. They dig into the physician replacement debate ("the task is not the job"), why AI agents made the last six months a turning point for healthcare, and Kimberly's prediction that within five years the hospital itself becomes a robot. Plus: the OpenAI lawsuit and techno-perfectionism, payer agents versus provider agents, why 90% of drugs fail in the clinic, and whether Kimberly says please to her LLMs. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/01905ea7-a624-4859-8530-80e6e0c46dca-009c2hma —SPONSORS:Granola & Baker Health If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to granola.ai/LIFERS   Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity. Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams. Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/—LINKS: NVIDIA: https://www.nvidia.com/ OpenAI lawsuit (CBS News): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-dangerous-medical-advice-openai-lawsuit/ Kimberly's Fortune talk: https://fortune.com/2026/06/10/nvidia-drug-pharma-isomorphic-brainstorm-tech-ai-healthcare-biotech-term-sheet/ Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books  —FOLLOW:Kimberly:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kpowell/ https://x.com/kpowgerade  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:44) Intro(01:24) Kimberly joins NVIDIA(05:13) Early healthcare adoption(08:41) Augment not replace(14:35) Inside the future hospital(16:27) Sponsors: Granola | Baker Health(18:38) Why healthcare matters(23:25) Agents unlock workflows(28:53) Clinicians adapting to AI(33:43) Safety and risk reward(40:19) Agents across industry(44:14) Five year predictions(49:53) AI hireable and ROI(54:02) Personal tech habits(55:59) AI etiquette and hacks(58:52) Wrap

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  Lifers with Christina Farr

  Rounds: Following the Money in Digital Health, Megan Zweig and Arvind Kadaba

  Aug 13, 202657 min

  Co-hosted by Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis, this episode digs into what's really driving digital health right now — mega deals, market concentration, and what's building durable advantage as AI becomes table stakes. Megan Zweig, CEO and President of Rock Health Advisory, joins to break down Rock Health's H1 2026 funding and market report, and Arvind Kadaba, CFO of Aidoc, sits down to talk about fundraising, market forces, and what sets a clinical AI company apart. We'll cover: The latest health tech news — AI's borrowed money problem, a ChatGPT health lawsuit, wearables' big moment (Garmin's new tracker, Eli Lilly's Oura investment), and a CMS proposal threatening remote monitoring Megan Zweig breaks down Rock Health's H1 2026 report — digital health funding hit $7.4B in H1 2026, driven by a growing wave of mega deals Why mega deals now make up 45% of all capital — just 8% of deals absorbing nearly half the funding Arvind Kadaba on Aidoc's back-to-back $150M raises in under a year — and what his Wall Street background reveals about today's funding environment How Aidoc is staying ahead now that "AI-enabled" no longer means anything as a differentiator Hosts and Guests: Christina Farr, CEO, Second Opinion; GP, Scrub Capital Stephanie Davis, Healthcare Industry Analyst Megan Zweig, President & CEO, Rock Health Advisory Arvind Kadaba, Chief Financial Officer at Aidoc Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:46) Oracle's debt and the AI spending boom (2:32) Will Oracle sell Cerner? (3:35) The ChatGPT lawsuit and AI health guardrails (6:11) Garmin's screen-free tracker and the wearables moment (9:39) CMS proposal on RPM/RTM third-party vendors (11:50) Included acquires Firefly Health (13:48) Megan Zweig joins to break down Rock Health's H1 2026 report (20:15) Mega deal concentration (21:37) Behavioral health funding and market saturation (27:19) Why "AI-enabled" is no longer a differentiator (33:56) Megan's closing thoughts and predictions (35:31) Arvind Kadaba, CFO of Aidoc, joins the show (37:53) How AI is changing investor diligence (43:21) Hiring and team growth with AI (46:05) Growth vs. profitability and the Rule of 40 (51:43) Rich vs. king: framework for founders (53:41) Arvind's best advice for founders raising capital Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.

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  Episode #34

  Why 10,000 texts a day is the future of primary care, with Dr. Zeyad Baker of Baker Health

  Aug 11, 20261h 4mS2

  Dr. Zeyad Baker, a pediatrician who scaled a 24-hour primary care practice, sold it to Optum, and spent five years as their tri-state market CEO, joins Christina Farr to argue that the scarcest resource in healthcare is not data or technology but the doctor-patient relationship itself. He walks through how Baker Health is built around that claim: clinics with no waiting rooms, a 24/7 synchronous chat staffed by board-certified physicians, physicians required to certify in lifestyle medicine, and a specialist network held to three hard rules including a 72-hour access guarantee. The conversation gets into where AI genuinely helped him, including an atypical Crohn's diagnosis that three clinicians had missed, and where he thinks it will not, and Chrissy shares her own recent autoimmune diagnosis and the role an LLM played in it.—SPONSOR:Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity. Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams. Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/  The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get seen the same-day.Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers —LINKS: Baker Health: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ Bob Wachter on Lifers: https://youtu.be/p6U1fX1JgVk Midjourney episode on Lifers: https://youtu.be/jigG63wHooE Delaware prior authorization episode on Lifers: https://youtu.be/zNVH9O1X8Es  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books —FOLLOW:Zeyad:https://www.linkedin.com/in/drzbaker https://x.com/DRZ_BAKER  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:34) Intro(01:36) 24 hour primary care(03:16) Lifetime care vision(04:19) Pediatrics and trust(07:15) Why pediatrics is hard(09:40) Async care and texting(11:59) BakerHealth app workflow(13:48) One Medical lessons(16:02) Three pillars tech holistic hospitality(17:58) Hospitality tricks no waiting room(21:17) Specialist referrals without chaos(26:14) Scaling specialist network(28:04) Wearables data and coaching(30:40) Patients data doctors together(31:17) Myth of worried well(32:21) Patients take the wheel(35:45) AI listening finds diagnosis(38:05) Doctors using AI wisely(41:37) Midjourney scans hype vs harm(44:45) Primary care shortage math(47:01) AI cuts admin burden(50:05) Dashboards value based targeting(53:19) Messaging and payment fixes(56:35) Making primary care cool(59:09) Innovation needs humanity(01:02:57) Wrap

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  Episode #33

  Matthew Rothstein, VP of Engineering at Akido, on building the first AI native health system

  Jul 31, 202653 minS2

  Matthew Rothstein, VP of Engineering at Akido, joins Christina Farr to talk about what changes when a technology company becomes a health system. He built a credit card, sold it to Goldman Sachs, helped launch the Apple Card, and now works on the AI foundation for a bi-coastal network of nearly 100 clinics and a street medicine program in LA and San Francisco. They get into his case for open weights models over commercial frontier models in medical imaging, why he thinks an AI answer is information rather than care, and whether benchmarking AI against a panel of clinical experts is a fair test when most patients never get access to that panel.—SPONSOR:Akido is a technology company re-engineering healthcare around AI. Its AI-native health system frees physicians from the cognitive heavy lifting of medicine and partners on the investigation and discovery, so doctors can focus on judgment and care. This stretches a limited physician supply to reach far more people. Akido operates a national network of more than 1,000 providers across 26 specialties and six markets. Founded in 2015 out of USC's Digital Health Lab, its Series B was led by Oak HC/FT. For more information, visit www.akido.com—LINKS: Aikido: https://www.akido.com/  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books —FOLLOW:Matthew:https://www.linkedin.com/in/marothstein  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:37) Intro(01:23) From NIH to fintech(03:12) Life inside Goldman(04:38) Fintech vs health tech(07:26) AI aha moment(09:51) How genAI changes teams(12:31) Staying relevant by building(14:27) Rebuilding healthcare systems(17:38) Why care delivery wins(20:34) Designing for clinicians(22:37) Prioritizing impactful AI(23:36) Scaling complex care(24:33) Open models explained(27:28) Data access and privacy(30:01) Synthetic data and twins(32:52) ChatGPT triage reality check(36:42) Doctors plus AI tools(39:28) General vs specialized models(42:35) Reimbursement and value based care(45:14) AI reshapes engineering teams(49:13) Empathy in care delivery(50:46) Akido rebrand and AI native system(51:41) Wrap  

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  Episode #32

  The 80-year-old mistake at the heart of US healthcare | Mark Bertolini, Oscar Health

  Jul 30, 202648 minS2

  Mark Bertolini, CEO of Oscar Health, has run healthcare from every seat: CEO of Aetna, co-CEO of Bridgewater, and now head of the insurer he calls a pirate ship among Spanish galleons. He and Chrissy trace how an 80-year-old wartime workaround became the employer-sponsored system nobody is incentivized to fix, and what replaces it: one risk pool, a portable bucket of your own money, and a plan you keep for life. Along the way: the ICHRA mechanism, the $32 shower chair, the system priced at $468, and the personal story behind his hospice reform at Aetna.—SPONSOR:Oscar Health, Inc. is on a mission to give people greater power over their healthcare by building a more consumer-driven healthcare system. By leveraging technology to place individuals at the center of their healthcare experience, Oscar is transforming the industry into one that is proactive, personal, and transparent. Through its insurance subsidiary, Oscar Insurance, the company provides individual market health plans, innovative digital tools, and support for models such as ICHRA, helping people make more informed decisions with greater choice and coverage tailored to their needs. Dive into our conversation on Oscar's blog: https://www.hioscar.com/blog/future-of-healthcare-conversation-mark-bertolini?utm_source=lifers_youtube-organic&utm_campaign=all_null_christina-farr-mark-bertolini&utm_medium=national_all_null&utm_term=future-of-healthcare-blog —LINKS: Oscar Health: https://www.hioscar.com/ Lucie Health Marketplace: https://www.luciehealth.com/  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books —FOLLOW:Mark:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbertolini  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Preview(00:25) Why employer loyalty doesn't exist anymore(02:12) How World War II built the system we have(03:02) Three economic models pushed together(04:47) The $23,000 question at CNBC(06:23) Conflating financing and investment(08:18) The three employer-sponsored insurance markets(09:57) Pooling every American and giving them their own bucket(11:09) The churn problem and lifetime value(14:32) Squaring the morbidity curve(16:48) What ICHRA is and why Oscar is betting on it(18:45) Curated pricing, the Lucie Health marketplace(21:53) What the system refuses to curate(23:23) Rewriting the hospice program(26:22) Dignitas and how we talk about dying(28:25) Why CEOs haven't dropped healthcare yet(31:03) Machiavelli and the tenure problem(32:43) Which employers tip first(34:14) Growing up in Detroit(34:51) Never count anyone else's money(37:22) From the Ford assembly line to accounting(39:05) Why spreadsheets give the illusion of certainty(40:45) Choosing Oscar(43:38) Reasons to believe(46:14) Wrap

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