DC EKG

DC EKG: Talks with the fmr head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bill Beach

DC EKG Revisits: Mark Paoletta Part 3

This episode explores the enormous historical figure that is Justice Clarence Thomas. Insights on his story are detailed in a discussion about the book Mark co-wrote/edited, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, which discusses Justice Thomas’s early life surviving the deepest of challenges of poverty. We also explored Justice Thomas’s experience being taught by Irish nuns and the profound and systemic racism he experienced growing up in the deep south.

DC EKG Revisits: Mark Paoletta Part 2

This episode covers how the Congress can investigate the FTX scandal, the need to learn what happened with the botched and tragic pullout from Afghanistan, and how to begin the examination of the government’s actions regarding Covid-19. The best ways to conduct an examination of public health mistakes of the last few years include examination of free speech suppression; the conduct of large bureaucracies; the lockdown of schools, and inappropriate influence by outside groups. Mark’s experience a...

DC EKG: Special Edition- speaker turbulence, shutdown looms. and the political landscape

Joe and Eric review breaking news out of Washington. Eric gives a deep cut on the spending crisis and what is in store for both the house andpp senate. Plus McCarthy grief.

DC EKG Revisits: Mark Paoletta Part 1

Over the next three episodes Joe and Eric speak with Mark Paoletta, a distinguished attorney in Washington, a former oversight lawyer on Capitol Hill, and the editor/author of the book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in his Own Words. This episode explores how the new Republican House majority should conduct oversight. The discussion centered on Mark’s experience investigating the malfeasance at Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing, as well as his thoughts on how Congress can inform the public an...

DC EKG: Talks with David Senior Part III

Common misconceptions and why pharmaceutical market is so different. List price, co pays and deductibles, oh my. Bio similars v small molecule, how the evolution here promises great things. Competition is real and generates real savings, and deflation. Opportunity for savings was real, IRA causing disruption to that. Cell and gene therapies are just the latest revolution for patients therapies: branded drugs, generic medicines, small molecule, bio similar. Who pays for these high cost, high rewa...

DC EKG Talks w/ David SENIOR PART II

Discussed: Batch processing versus Continuous flow technology to onshore manufacturing of medicine. The way we increase the reliability of the supply chain is embrace innovation and bring this close to home. National security is improved as well. Supply driven shortages is again a factor, replacing the Covid crisis “demand “driven shortages. On, or near, shore needs to continue. Also discussed: Manufacturing is facing R&D impacts and the IRA is making substantial impact. Uncertainty and chan...

DC EKG: Talks w/ medical supply chain expert David Senior , Part I

Who better to hear from about the condition of the condition of shortages dogging the healthcare supply chain than someone closest to the issue. David Senior is a longtime official with AmerisourceBergen, one of the world’s largest players in that chain. He discusses the historical challenges as well as the pressures of deflation on supply.

DC EKG: Talks w/ Naomi Lopez Part III

Naomi wraps the third segment with a flourish of innovative thought. About how much value is being added by the latest developments in medicine, how the shrinking cost of most drugs are spurring market choices, and how states are driving some exciting developments in health public policy. Plus the importance of staying healthy as we age.

DC EKG: Talks w/ Health Expert, Naomi Lopez Part II

The conversation continues with helpful insights- and cautions- about regulating AI, observations about the ability of Washington to keep up with the pace of change, and how we need to reimagine our approach. Also the invidious efforts to ration cures through the IRA under the cover of price controls. Bureaucracies and political agendas are stepping in to decide that they know better than patients and doctors about the value of your life.

DC EKG: with Naomi Lopez, part I

Goldwater institute health expert, Naomi Lopez, shares her view on why artificial intelligence should not be feared, and can bring great advantages to medicine. elements of it have also been around for a long time, powering every day items like driver assist and crash avoidance. Naomi also talks about her work on behalf of “right to try” and the help it has delivered to people who have been frustrated by slow FDA approval’s.

DC EKG: Talks with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

Recorded on 7/20- the same day the Stamford University president was forced to resign - Dr. Jay offers comment (50:10) on the hostile work environment allowed on campus. The sad and painful story of how the government, big tech, and academia conspired to suppress voices. Blacklisting at Twitter, ruined careers, and zero tolerance for questioning use of masks on children, the efficacy of vaccinees, and lockdowns. The federal government's implied and real threats to ensure censorship. and the terr...

DC EKG: Talks w/ Budget Expert Paul Winfree, Part III

The importance of growing the economy, the promise of AI, and why the future will brighter we needn’t be afraid.

DC EKG: Talks w/ Budget Expert Paul Winfree, Part II

The budget conversation continues with Paul. Here Joe and Eric press the question of the viability of maintaining such a large national debt and how economic growth is so vital. Currently the US is world’s leading asset today but we should de-risk our position by remaining a strong nation and drive economic growth. It’s Paul’s view that you cannot grow revenue faster than you grow the economy.

DC EKG: Talks w/ Budget Expert Paul Winfree, Part I

Paul shares his career history, the journey to his newly minted PhD, and useful context for today’s fiscal strife in DC. In this first part of a three-part conversation, Joe and Eric dive into what brought Paul to the fold of federal budget expertise, and useful top line takeaways from his London school of economics training.

DC EKG: Economist Tomas Philipson, Part III

Part III of Joe and Eric’s talk with economist Tomas Philipson focuses on his role as acting head of the Council of Economic Advisers from the start of the Covid crisis. What it was like to watch the “blue collar boom” and 3%+ GDP growth get undone by the pandemic, and how public health attitudes toward prevention at any cost, cost us dearly. And how the two tier approach (protect venerable / keep economy open) advocated by CEA lost out to fear and public health virologists who were not okay wit...

DC EKG: Economist Tomas Philipson, Part II

In the second part of a three-part interview, hosts Joe Grogan and Eric Ueland glean more gems from University of Chicago economist, Tom Philipson. Discussed are the damaging results of the two-year decline in US real wages, market volatility caused by government largesse, and the asymmetrical focus on bureaucrats over actual economic supply and demand metrics. Part one of this discussion begins with a unyielding dissection of the damage be done by the IRA to medical discovery. This week they di...

DC EKG: Talks w/ Economist Tomas Philipson, Part I

From the public announcements of discontinued research, the fuzzy CBO math that is under-counting the reductions in cures, to the bloated use of taxpayer dollars to implement price control. Its a data rich discussion that's sure to send shivers down the spines of policymakers, practitioners , and patients alike. Tom can be found: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomas-j-philipson-02878024/

DC EKG Revisits: Conversation with Casey Mulligan, Part 2

In a wide-ranging discussion, the boys explore the cause-and-effect of both the legal and illegal opioid epidemic. The role of an unsecured southern border has on the drug trade, the long-lasting impact of covid shutdowns on children and American health productivity, and current threats from inflation and possibility of recession. *Episode originally aired July 21, 2022*

DC EKG Revisits: Conversation with Casey Mulligan, Part 1

The boys discuss the work and background of PhD economist, and University of Chicago's own, Casey Mulligan. Part one looks into how as a member of President Trump Counsel of Economic Advisors (CEA) informed and updated the president on socialism, wages, and the historic deregulatory effort his administration was undertaking. *Episode originally aired July 21, 2022

DC EKG Revisits: Conversation with Tevi Troy, Part 3

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

DC EKG Revisits: Conversation with Tevi Troy, Part 2

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

DC EKG Revisits: Conversation with Tevi Troy, Part 1

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

Ep8: Part 3: Conversation with John Czwartacki

CZ and the guys wrap up their talk and bring us to the current day. He now grapples with his current disability by focusing his efforts on preserving the hope and innovation that benefited him… and millions more. He sees real threats to the pipeline of breakthroughs as a result of 40 years of bipartisan public policy that unleashed 40 years of medical miracles. All that changed under “the cover of Covid” with health provisions tucked into the IRA law passed on a party line vote in 2022. Today wi...

Ep8: Part 2: Conversation with John Czwartacki

CZ continues his discussion on DCEKG with sharing how having the hope of a breakthrough drug rescued him from a life cut short; how his MS issued a near-knockout blow, sending him to live stuck in his parents’ Long Island basement, dependent, and unproductive. Hope arrives in the form another innovative drug. Soon after he begins his second DMT, he goes from single, wheelchair bound, and alone, to married, with four kids, and career Forest Gump would find implausible. He credits the science and ...

Ep8: Part 1: Conversation with John Czwartacki

Veteran of high-stakes DC public policy and communications, co-creator of this podcast, and a good, long time friend of both Eric and Joe, John “CZ” Czwartacki maps his career with how his 30 year battle with multiple sclerosis began. Long in public service, CZ has never discussed his MS publicly… until now. This program reviews the early part of his career - Kemp, Boehner, Paxon, Dole-Kemp, and Lott - and how his diagnosis of an incurable disease, and his battle with it, played out. More from t...

Ep7: Part 1: Conversation with Tevi Troy

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

Ep7: Part 2: Conversation with Tevi Troy

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

Ep7: Part 3: Conversation with Tevi Troy

Tevi Troy, best-selling presidential historian and a former senior government official, joins DC EKG

Ep6: Part3: Conversation with Tyler Goodspeed

Joe and Eric continue their discussion with Tyler Goodspeed and explore disruptions that come from inflation. Tyler reveals that the best indicator of how the economy is doing in high and medium inflation environments is the consumer, better than government economists and academics. Tyler explains how the US dollar is the world's reserve currency and is not under threat by China, or any other entity at this time. But he does say that he could see other central banks diversifying into more than U...