The Newcomer Podcast

On this episode of the Newcomer podcast, host Eric Newcomer is joined by co-host Nayeema Raza for conversations with some of the most influential voices in healthcare and venture capital. Bob Kocher, Partner at Venrock, and Annie Lamont, Founder and Managing Partner of Oak HC/FT, share their perspectives on business models in healthcare, the rise of AI applications, the promise and pitfalls of longevity drugs like GLP-1s, and the future of Medicare Advantage. Later, Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures, brings his trademark candor to a wide-ranging discussion about AI’s role in healthcare, regulatory challenges, global competition, and how startups can reimagine the system from the ground up

Journalist Nayeema Raza—host of Smart Girl Dumb Questions—joins Eric Newcomer to preview Deus Ex Medicina, their AI–health–longevity summit happening Tuesday, Sept 9 (San Francisco). They discuss the big themes going into the conference: how longevity went mainstream, why precision medicine and novel bio are finally feeling real, and who wins the race to own the patient. Eric and Nayeema get into the policy whiplash in D.C., HIPAA’s fraying edges in a wearables world, and whether or not AI will actually discover something novel, like a new drug or cure for Alzheimer's? Plus, what they’re most excited to ask on stage at Deus Ex Medicina. Timecodes: * 00:00 — The story behind the creation of Deus Ex Medicina * 08:39 — Longevity goes mainstream (the GLP-1 moment) * 12:42 — Precision medicine gets practical (targeted therapies & trials) * 17:11 — Bundles, frenemies, and who owns the patient * 22:31 — D.C. shake-ups, privacy stakes… and can AI invent a drug?

Former CIA officer and three-term Congressman Will Hurd [https://www.willbhurd.com/] joins Eric Newcomer [https://x.com/EricNewcomer], Tom Dotan [https://x.com/cityofthetown], and Madeline Renbarger [https://x.com/maddierenbarger] to break down Washington's defense tech boom and tackle the burning question: Is this all just hype? Hurd explains how Ukraine has changed the face of warfare and opened the door for new companies to break into the fold. However, it's one thing to build a prototype, but it's another to actually earn recurring revenue.We discuss how to really sell to the Pentagon, LA's role as a hub for the new defense tech wave, and Hurd's own Chaos Industries and their modular counter-drone systems. 00:00 — Meet Will Hurd from CIA to Congress to Chaos 06:00 — How Hurd would solve partisan redistricting 13:24 — The defense-tech moment 24:20 — Air superiority isn’t dead 36:32— How to sell to DoD

Is the AI bubble popping—or just catching its breath? Eric Newcomer and Tom Dotan spar over Nvidia jitters, Sam Altman’s “bubble” dinner, the MIT “95% fail” headline, app-vs-model margins (Cursor, Claude Code), and Chamath’s SPAC-as-casino shtick. Then Eric sits down with Vercel founder/CEO Guillermo Rauch for a fast, idea-dense jam: assistants → agents → multi-agent teams, why GPT-5’s real story is coding, “vibe coding” and code-last workflows, who gets paid in the era of AI factory-builders, whether to study CS, why taste beats code, and Guillermo’s six-month prediction for a breakout vertical agent. 00:00 Did the AI “bubble” pop? Altman dinner & sell-off vibes 01:16 MIT survey “95%” headline vs reality 09:04 Capitalism, incentives & Chamath’s SPAC “casino” 18:17 Interview starts — Guillermo Rauch (Vercel) 22:07 GPT-5 reality check & the “Einstein-in-a-box” test 37:37 Future of engineering + should you study CS? 48:36 6-month prediction: a breakout vertical agent; underestimating GPT-50

For this episode, we brought on Ed Zitron to make the bear case against large language models and walk us through his “Hater’s Guide To The AI Bubble.” In this fiery debate with Eric Newcomer, Tom Dotan, and Madeline Renbarger, we dig into whether generative AI is the next platform shift or a $500B mirage. From the viral TaskRabbit CAPTCHA myth to SoftBank’s high-stakes bets, we debate the hype, shaky economics, and media spin driving the AI boom.