Marcus and Vic break down a turbulent week across geopolitics, markets, technology, and healthcare, starting with escalating conflict involving Iran and the economic volatility rippling through global markets. They examine rising uncertainty in the economy, the growing push for European tech independence from U.S. platforms, and how reliability concerns are driving companies toward self-hosted AI models. The conversation moves into financial risk as private credit giants like Blackstone face redemption pressure, the legal chaos surrounding $130B in tariff refunds, and several major healthcare venture deals including Sage, Third Way Health, KeyCare, and Grow Therapy. They also explore policy shifts such as RFK Jr.’s push to add nutrition to medical education, payer industry developments including potential sanctions against Elevance, leadership changes at Cigna, CVS partnering with Google for a new consumer health platform, and Eli Lilly going direct to employers with obesity drugs. The episode closes with a deep dive into crypto’s accelerating integration with traditional finance, OpenAI’s Pentagon controversy and the lukewarm reception to GPT-5.4, and a broader look at how companies from Oracle to Morgan Stanley to Colgate are restructuring their workforces around AI.

LInks

Story # 1 Economy Volatility

5:59 - Stock Market Today: Dow Drops 1.6%, Oil Pushes Above $80 WSJ

11:37 - Blackstone Played Down Private-Credit Risks. Now It’s Been Hit. WSJ

17:02 - Judge Orders Government to Begin Refunding More Than $130 Billion in Tariffs WSJ

Story # 2 VC deals

19:56 - Sage: $65 Million Raised For AI-Powered Senior Care Platform Pulse 2.0

20:24 - Third Way Health Secures $15M to Streamline Front-Office Operations for Medical Practices MedCity

21:07 - KeyCare raises $27.4M to scale Epic-integrated virtual care platform Mobi Health

22:28 -  Grow Therapy Raises $150M to Expand Employer, Health System Partnerships MedCity

Story #3  Medical Shools add Nutrition 

23:59 - How Kennedy Is Trying to Revamp Medical School NYT

26:21 - Dozens of medical schools meet RFK Jr.'s call for greater nutrition education Fierce Healthcare

Story # 4 Payor Rundown

31:10 CMS threatens Elevance with Medicare Advantage sanctions Healthcare Dive

30:07 - Cigna Names Brian Evanko CEO as David Cordani Retires WSJ

31:10 - CVS unveils Health 100, its new Google-powered consumer engagement platform Fierce Healthcare 

Story # 4 Lilly Extends Advantage 

33:36 - Eli Lilly launches its direct-to-employer platform for obesity drugs Fierce Healthcare

Story #5  Web3 migrating into Traditional Finance

34:53 - Kraken Becomes First Crypto Firm to Win Access to Fed’s Core Payments System WSJ

39:01 - NYSE owner invests in crypto exchange OKX at $25bn valuation X

40:04 - Trump sides with crypto firms in trillion-dollar battle with banks over stablecoin yield CNBC

Story #6 Open AI

47:09 - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Defends Pentagon Work to Staff, Calls Backlash ‘Really Painful’ WSJ

49:05 - OpenAI introduces GPT-5.4 with more knowledge-work capability ArsTechnica

Story #7 AI Corp Reorgs

53:26 - Oracle Reportedly Plans Thousands Of Layoffs Amid Growing AI Spend Stockwits

54:56 - Morgan Stanley Lays Off 2,500 Employees Across All Divisions WSJ

56:09 - The AI Evangelist Shaking Up a 220-Year-Old Toothpaste Maker WSJ