“We're perhaps working now at 10% of where we were working before the COVID infections. It's heartbreaking to think what cancer patients are going through as they're watching their cancers grow, and yet have to deal with this threat of the virus and problems in getting access to care.” When Steven Rosenberg joined the National Cancer Institute more than 45 years ago, he was determined to prove that a patient’s own immune system could be used to fight cancer. His interleukin-2 therapy was approve...
May 04, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 36
“This is a demand shutdown in the economy that's affecting all businesses….If you're a small business, your access to capital in some cases can be limited, [so] that's why getting resources to these small businesses that employ so many is so, so important.” For David Solomon and Goldman Sachs, helping small enterprises navigate the crisis requires access—to expertise, education, and capital. The firm continues its 10,000 Small Businesses program and has pledged more than half a billion dollars t...
May 02, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Vivek Ramaswamy Founder and CEO, Roivant Sciences “Seeing my own family members in New York go through what they're going through has...not only turned our personal life upside down, but also has turned upside down...the near-term priorities of our company to help do our part in addressing this pandemic.” When Vivek Ramaswamy was only 28, he founded the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. When COVID-19 hit New York City, his wife was a frontline medical worker—and pregnant with their son. T...
May 02, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Adam Boehler CEO, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) There are places in the United States now with little to no cases, and if the states have the ability to do contact tracing with some testing to ensure that if there's a flare we can move quickly, then I think it's fine to open up now as long as one could take very quick action. “We're testing 200,000 Americans a day. That's an 80x increase, and we've done 5.2 million tests to date. That's not only number one in terms of ...
May 01, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Francis deSouza President and CEO, Illumina “The first genome sequence of the virus that was published on January 12th online was done on Illumina machines, and so we have been working on this outbreak [since] well before it became a pandemic.” Sequencing DNA quickly and cheaply has revolutionized medicine with new cures and therapies that have extended and saved lives. As president and CEO of Illumina, Francis deSouza has been at the forefront of these advances and is leading his company toward...
Apr 30, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 32
“As we began to see in January the evolution of this virus...we began reorienting ourselves to our inpatient responsibilities and to the potential that the nation would need us to be its backstop in a healthcare system.” Dr. Richard Stone’s job title is as clear and direct as the man who occupies it. As the executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration, the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system, he carries the awesome responsibility of protecting the health of more than 320,0...
Apr 29, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Rodney McMullen Chairman and CEO, The Kroger Co. “We made the decision to share publicly all the work that we were doing internally in case it could be helpful….We're trying to pay it forward just like others paid it forward to us.” When Rodney McMullen took a high school job bagging groceries at his local Kroger, he had no way to know he’d go on to lead the company—now one of America’s largest employers. Another surprise in his American Dream story: that his associates would one day be frontlin...
Apr 28, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Barbara Humpton President and CEO, Siemens USA “We often talk about Siemens as being a company that was built to serve society. And that mission really hasn't changed….We have real expertise in electrification, automation, and digitalization. And that's all coming into play right now as the nation wrestles with COVID-19.” Hospitals. Factories. Data centers. Government facilities. If it’s an essential service or industry in this country, chances are Siemens USA is helping to power and maintain it...
Apr 28, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Ray Dalio Founder, Co-CIO and Co-Chairman, Bridgewater Associates “A financial bomb has gone off. And then you have to say, okay, who are you going to help first?...Choices have to be made. The real question is whether we can do that together in a bipartisan way, in a skillful way, because there's enough money and credit to go around and this can be done.” For master investor Ray Dalio, COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity to create greater fairness in our system. The founder of Bridgewater As...
Apr 28, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Bruce Broussard President and CEO, Humana “Many of our members are alone and in their homes, and that can become quite an impact on their mental health. Having a phone call and being able to talk to somebody sounds so simple, but has been so impactful.” As president and CEO of one of America’s largest health insurance companies, Bruce Broussard considers every aspect of care for Humana’s more than 20 million members. These days, he’s especially focused on making sure his 65-and-over members have...
Apr 28, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Joe Tsai, Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Alibaba Group; Governor, Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty - “When we reopened, we were very tentative about letting people back into the office….You have to show your health code, which is attached to the Alipay app. It'll show a green, yellow, or red code; basically it reflects a lot of data—where you've been, who you've been with.” If you’ve never heard of Alibaba, chances are you aren’t one of the 700 million active annual consumers living i...
Apr 25, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Tom Wyatt, CEO, KinderCare Education - “[Our teachers] write me, they call me, they are so taken aback by the grateful comments they get, the emotional letters and emails they get from the doctors and nurses and others saying that they could not be doing their work without our support.” With more than two-thirds of his 1,500 KinderCare centers now closed, Tom Wyatt feels it is his civic duty to keep the remaining ones open to serve the children of parents who must work—including those on the fro...
Apr 25, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Kurt Newman, President and CEO, Children’s National Hospital - “We've been around for 150 years and we want to be around for another 150 years. So we'll figure out a way to deal with the finances. Right now we're just focused on doing the right thing for these kids and families.” Putting patients first—in this case, young patients who often require special care and immediate attention—has long been Kurt Newman’s priority at Children’s National. This conviction has held true through the unprecede...
Apr 24, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Baseball - “They may not be perfect with large crowds at Dodger Stadium. It may look a little different. But I really am committed to the idea that it's important as part of our recovery to get the game back on.” A month after what would have been opening day, the national pastime remains in limbo. For Commissioner Rob Manfred, deciding when to play ball this year means reflecting on the example set by his predecessor after 9/11, when baseball helped bring Americans ...
Apr 24, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Robert Bradway, Chairman and CEO, Amgen - “This is, of course, unlike anything any of us have experienced before. This synchronous global shutdown caused by what is a pretty tricky virus – a virus that had a head start on all of us. But we're gaining ground fast.” Under Robert Bradway’s leadership, Amgen is aggressively pursuing SARS-CoV-2 on a number of fronts. Some of their efforts build on past successes, focusing on antibodies and the immune system. Another looks to the small island nation o...
Apr 23, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Vas Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis - “Our thinking is, how do we create a protease inhibitor that could work on future coronaviruses, not just the current coronavirus? … Fundamentally, our ability to withstand pandemics is likely going to center around our ability to think of this more as a defense topic than a health topic.” As the CEO of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Vas Narasimhan knows what a unique moment in history this is. That’s why he’s spending hundreds of millio...
Apr 23, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Jeff Skoll Founder and Chairman, Skoll Foundation, The Jeff Skoll Group, Participant, and Capricorn Investment Group “About a month ago in the US we had about a thousand confirmed cases; today we have about 600,000. The developing world is very much on that same pathway.” Jeff Skoll knows pandemics. More than a decade ago he launched an organization whose current name reflects its mission: Ending Pandemics. Skoll, who once served as eBay’s first president, also sounded the alarm (presciently, it...
Apr 22, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Rick Scott US Senator; former Governor of Florida “If we do anything to get this economy going again, make it easy for the entrepreneurs in this country.” As two-term governor of Florida, Rick Scott led his state through crises including hurricanes, mass shootings, and the Zika virus. Now, as a US Senator, he’s helping see the nation through COVID-19. While the roles are different, Scott’s philosophy is the same: he spends his days listening and helping people solve their problems. A champion of...
Apr 22, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Harry Reid Former US Senator “At this stage, we have to recognize that there’s going to be some downtime here. But I think that with the experience we’ve had around the country, especially in New York, it’s something we can handle.” Senator Harry Reid knows about handling adversity. Born during the Great Depression, he grew up in a shack in Searchlight, Nevada with no indoor toilet, telephone, or hot water. He fought—literally, as an amateur boxer—to earn money to advance himself. As a law stude...
Apr 22, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Steve Ballmer Founder, USAFacts; former CEO, Microsoft; Co-Founder, Ballmer Group; Chairman, Los Angeles Clippers “There is an information-collection problem from the counties, which is where most of the data lives. We've got a team that literally goes through both by hand and using technology. … one of the things I'd say we're very proud of is being able to help CDC with some of that.” In 1980, Steve Ballmer left Stanford’s MBA program to become Microsoft’s 30th employee. Thirty-four years late...
Apr 21, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Jonathan Simons President and CEO, Prostate Cancer Foundation “This is why we all went into medicine—for moments like this where we come together.” For Jonathan Simons and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, global collaboration and team science were a way of life long before the pandemic. The organization’s support of groundbreaking science has changed our understanding of cancer—from organ-specific to mutation-specific—and has thus translated into effective solutions for patients across more than ...
Apr 21, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Judy Faulkner Founder and CEO, Epic “We do have a culture of ownership, of working hard, of wanting to be heroes helping heroes. That's one of the things you hear our staff say.” The story is familiar, even mythic: brilliant young student builds out a new technology in her garage and changes the world. But Judy Faulkner never made it to Silicon Valley. The medical software company she founded in a Madison basement four decades ago remains in Wisconsin—while Epic’s importance to the world of heal...
Apr 21, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former Chancellor, UCSF; former President of Product Development, Genentech From serving as a frontline physician treating HIV patients in Uganda, to overseeing new therapies for a leading biopharma company, to running a renowned health sciences university, to heading the world’s largest philanthropy – Sue Desmond-Hellmann has seen it all. It’s little surprise, then, that when she surveys the current pandemic she sees possibl...
Apr 17, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Jo Ann Jenkins CEO, AARP - “It is that American spirit and willingness to give of oneself to make life better for others that is behind everything that we do at AARP.” Since taking the helm of the largest nonprofit for Americans 50 and older, Jo Ann Jenkins has built a culture of community among her staff, 60,000 volunteers, and her organization’s 38 million members. Recently, this has been made easier by the fact that years ago she implemented powerful two-way communication infrastructure for h...
Apr 16, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Carmine Di Sibio, Global Chairman and CEO, EY “We've stressed to all our people and in particular our partners around the world that now is the time they really needed to be close with their clients, help them in any way they can, whether large clients, small clients and so forth, including doing work pro bono to make sure that they're surviving longer term.” For EY’s 300,000 global employees – including 25,000 in China – the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted what it means to serve clients as...
Apr 15, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO, Tempus “Today, if somebody’s positive for COVID-19, it still doesn't tell you what's likely to happen next. And what we're trying to do by combining clinical and molecular data is really be able to predict what's likely to happen to them next.” When Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky’s wife was diagnosed with cancer, he found a lack of data maddening. Outside of her hospital, it was the 21st century, but once he passed through the doors he felt he was being ushered t...
Apr 14, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine; Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration “I always said it was a question of when , not if , we would have to combat a global pandemic. But I never really thought I'd be watching it play out in real time.” Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg has devoted her life to elevating the best in public health while anticipating the worst. As New York City Health Commissioner, she curtailed the spread of tuberculosis. She served as seni...
Apr 10, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman, Google “We're going to need … some kind of shock treatment for seven, eight, nine days where we shut down everything to stop the spread…. And when I say shut down, I mean shut down.” That’s Eric Schmidt’s bold plan to put a stop to the pandemic so we can start to return the nation to some semblance of normalcy. Schmidt, who led Google from a startup to one of the largest and most influential companies in the world, now chairs the Defense Innovation Advisory...
Apr 10, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Andrew von Eschenbach MD President, Samaritan Health Initiatives Inc.; former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; former Director, National Cancer Institute “If we think of the game-changers of what is going to get America and the world back functioning normally, the FDA is probably right now the most central and critical of all the federal agencies.” Long before Andrew von Eschenbach served as Commissioner for the FDA, he was crucial to Mike Milken’s decades-long efforts to transfo...
Apr 08, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Mike welcomes two guests on this edition of the podcast: Pam Sharma and James Allison. Partners in marriage and professional collaborators, the couple are leading immunologists who have dedicated their careers to cancer treatment and research. Sharma is an immunologist and oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, while Allison serves as executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at the same institution. In their conversation with Mike, they highlighted the primacy o...
Apr 08, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 7
