Diabetics Doing Things Podcast

By Diabetics Doing Things

Ranking
29th
on Fitness & Nutrition
Favorites
26
Followers
Typical duration
28 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Diabetics Doing Things Podcast episodes

October 28 Episode 369 - Finding Community, Identity & Building The Chronically Illest with Rachael Stickles
Rachael Stickles started The Chronically Illest because, as Rob puts it,
diabetes had absolutely no swag. People with diabetes get beige meter cases
and T-shirts that don’t inspire daily wear. Rachael wanted to change that.
So she and her partner turned their studio apartment into a workshop and
taught themselves how to make stickers, screen printing, and web design,
all while working full-time jobs. Her partner asked "So what have you done
on the business this week?" every single Sunday until it became a reality.
Now, this year it's Rachael's full-time work.
Getting there wasn't the glossy quit-your-job story. Diagnosed with type 1
at twelve, Rachael spent her teens and college years sneaking food,
skipping doses, and taking just enough insulin to get by. She thought she
was the only one, until she posted about it and hundreds of people replied:
me too. As an adult she always held at least one job just for the
insurance, and in this episode she's honest about what finally let her
leave her corporate role.
Rob and Rachael also push back on the "you can do anything with diabetes"
message. You can, Rachael says, but often with extra steps, and being
honest about those steps matters. They get into finding community when you
don't see yourself in the room. Rachael started posting online because she
wanted to find people that looked like her and had similar experiences.
Rachael is half-asian, half-white, and queer. She wanted to find the other
T1D’s that were bolusing for rice! In this episode, we are redefining
success away from A1Cs and follower counts, and explaining why a meetup
with two people is still a meetup.
If you've ever felt like the diabetes community was a room you couldn't
quite fit into, this one's for you.
Chapters
00:00 Rob introduces Rachael and The Chronically Illest
02:01 Twenty years with T1D, diagnosed at twelve
04:35 Skipped doses, DKA, and a secret shame
07:12 Why the teenage years hit hardest
09:40 Finding community online before the DOC existed
12:55 Why one connection is worth it
17:25 The Chronically Illest starts with zero swag
19:44 A studio apartment becomes a sticker workshop
21:44 Learning to say no as an entrepreneur
22:28 The myth of "diabetes can't stop you"
23:31 Insurance, partnership, and quitting the nine-to-five
31:34 How to keep your heart open in hell
34:46 Redefining success: A1C, followers, and money
39:15 Giving back through copay giveaways and picnics
42:08 Advice for anyone who doesn't fit the mold
Resources:
The Chronically Illest shop
Instagram: @thechronicallyillest
Instagram: @thechronicallyrachael
48 min
October 23 Episode 368 - CTO Peter Simpson on the Future of Dexcom CGMs
Peter Simpson has been at Dexcom for over 24 years, back when it was a
small startup, and he says he's more excited about the technology now than
at any point in that run. In this bonus tech episode, Dexcom's CTO walks us
through the upcoming G8 sensor: about 50% smaller, plus a new in-use
calibration system that checks itself every five minutes to account for the
fact that every body is a little different. The goal isn't just a better
average accuracy number. It's fewer of those nights where your sensor and
your fingerstick seem to be describing two different people.
We also dig into the landmark CONNECT study, just published in The New
England Journal of Medicine, which found CGM use lowered A1C by 0.9% more
than routine care for people with type 2 diabetes not on insulin. Peter
shares a surprising finding about people already on GLP-1s, and what
Dexcom's new State of Type 2 report says is really standing between people
and better care: awareness, education, and access.
Near the end, I ask Peter about the recent G7 app terms and conditions
update that briefly kept some users from seeing their glucose data. He
shares how future updates will roll out and answers questions about
metadata and AI. There's more I wish I'd had time to ask, and if I get
another conversation with Dexcom, you'll hear it here first.
Chapters
01:22 Meet Dexcom CTO Peter Simpson
02:01 Why innovation is speeding up after 24 years
03:21 G8 preview: 50% smaller, more accurate
04:15 How factory calibration actually works
05:05 Real-time calibration that adapts to your body
06:03 MARD explained: fewer bad sensor outliers
07:15 Type 2 barriers: health and tech literacy
07:48 Inside Dexcom's State of Type 2 report
09:08 CONNECT study: CGM results without insulin
10:25 GLP-1s plus CGM: the biggest impact
11:38 Addressing the G7 terms and conditions
12:12 "We made an error": what changes now
13:15 Metadata, pump partners, and AI explained*
15:07 What's next for type 1 and type 2
Resources:
The CONNECT Study published in The New England Journal of Medicine
Dexcom
18 min
October 21 Episode 367 - Diabetes Is Political: The Insulin Act, Public Pharma & Your Vote with T1 International
A lot of people think the $35 copay cap fixed insulin. For most of us, it
didn't. In 2024, 36% of people responding to T1 International's
out-of-pocket survey said they were rationing insulin, twice the rate in
2016. With midterms weeks away and the Insulin Act up in both the House and
Senate, we brought in two people who have been in the room for this fight
for years.
Shaina Kasper, Executive Director of T1 International, returns to the show
alongside first-time guest Kristen Whitney Daniels, who co-leads T1I's
federal working group with Shaina. Both live with type 1, and both have
rationed insulin themselves. Kristen walks through the Insulin Act in plain
language: the difference between a copay cap and a true price cap, why the
IRA only covered part of the Medicare market, and how the House and Senate
versions differ. One of the biggest differences is only the Senate bill
includes a pilot program for people without insurance, which is why T1
International endorsed the bill for the first time.
From there, Kristen and Shaina explain exactly what to say when you call or
email your representatives They explain why your personal story matters
more than any statistic, and why 2026 is T1I's Year of Public Pharma:
California's CalRx glargine at $55 for five pens, Connecticut's ArrayRx
discount card, and a tribal nation studying generic manufacturing. We close
on patent reform, maybe the least flashy but It's what gives public
manufacturers and biosimilar makers the legal room to compete and bring
prices down for the long haul.
Diabetes is political, which means your story matters. Email your
representatives about the Insulin Act, because your story could be the one
that moves the right person.
Chapters
00:00 Why the Insulin Act matters before midterms
04:20 How T1 International became a global movement
08:15 Copay cap vs. price cap, explained simply
11:47 Why people think insulin is already fixed
13:13 Who the Insulin Act helps and misses
14:33 Insulin rationing has doubled since 2016
16:12 Senate vs. House: the uninsured pilot program
18:29 Insurance gaps and the 2027 coverage squeeze
22:38 What lawmakers don't know about diabetes
25:53 Storytelling lessons from Magic Johnson
27:47 How to call or email Congress
31:54 Why 2026 is the Year of Public Pharma
34:08 Discount cards, GoodRx, and pharmacy closures
36:34 ArrayRx and a tribal-nation manufacturing study
39:07 Patent reform and the December 11 deadline
Resources:
T1 International: Take Action: Email your House rep and both senators about
the Insulin Act
2025 Impact Report
Start a Fundraiser
CalRx Biosimilar Insulin Initiative
ArrayRx discount card
Donate to T1 International
T1 International Access Survey: over 30% of people rationed insulin due to
cost in 2024
ADA 2026 National Access and Affordability Survey: 41% rationed due to cost
last year, and 2 in 3 reported higher out-of-pocket insulin costs in 2026
than in 2025
Health Affairs research: a quarter of adults with type 1 have experienced a
lapse in insurance coverage
KFF: Key Facts About the Uninsured Population
43 min
October 14 Episode 366 - Living With Type 1 Diabetes as a Touring Acrobat with Leah Orleans, Tiny Girl Big Show
Leah Orleans shoots a bow and arrow with her toes, juggles fire, puts
knives on her face, and performs around 300 shows a year as Tiny Girl Big
Show. In her late twenties, in the middle of a tour, she landed in the ER
with an A1C of 14. A few months later, a well-meaning doctor asked what
other skills she had, and suggested she start looking for a desk job.
She didn't. Instead, she got loud about it. Leah started writing comedy
about diabetes (it turns out it's a genuinely funny word), performed a song
called "Diabuddies" using a giant cardboard pancreas, and now when she asks
"Who's diabetic?" from the stage, hands go up all over the crowd. We talk
about the $2,000-a-month reality of living with type 1, how the logistics
skills of a touring performer turned out to be life-saving, and why she has
convinced food vendors near her stages to keep an insulin pen in their
fridge for her. (They've never said no.)
We also get into the Big Nonprofit Insulin Party happening in Brooklyn on
Friday, October 23, benefiting Project Insulin, the nonprofit working to
sell insulin at cost. And we land on a question I keep coming back to: what
are you optimizing for? If you've ever been told to trade the life you want
for the one that feels safe, this conversation is for you.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome and meet Tiny Girl Big Show
03:01 From touring acrobat to an A1C of 14
05:26 Following your passion versus healthcare security
06:13 Turning a $2,000 monthly bill into logistics
07:31 Diabetics are everywhere, even at Ren Faires
08:57 Why "diabetes" is a hilarious word
10:25 Diabuddies and a giant cardboard pancreas
11:22 Health content doesn't have to be sterile
13:13 The Big Nonprofit Insulin Party in Brooklyn
14:24 Why Project Insulin's mission hits home
17:02 The doctor who said find a desk job
20:10 Advice: pick the problems you want to solve
22:43 Systems, habits, and insulin in strangers' fridges
24:12 What are you optimizing for?
28:25 Where to find Leah and her diabetes content
Resources:
Tiny Girl Big Show Website & Schedule
Tiny Girl Big Show Instagram
The Big (Non-Profit) Insulin Party Tickets
Youtube Channel
33 min
October 07 Episode 365 - How His Wife's T1D Diagnosis Led Aurelian Briner to Build Snaq
When Aurelian Briner's wife was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about twelve
years ago, the hardest questions kept coming back to the plate: how many
carbs are in this or how big is this portion? Aurelian, a product manager
with a business background and an entrepreneurial itch, decided that was a
problem worth solving. In 2017 he co-founded Snaq, and today the app has
more than 300,000 registered users and around 20,000 monthly active users
around the world.
In this episode, Rob and Aurelian trace Snaq's evolution from a photo-based
carb counter, to a platform that connects meals with CGM, pump and activity
data, to the AI Nutritionist, a 24/7 companion built to help people reach
their nutrition goals. They also dig into what it takes to bring AI into
healthcare responsibly: fast product iteration on one side, slow and
careful clinical validation on the other, and why both matter.
Rob makes his case: he doesn't want your vibe-coded diabetes app. Not
because building your own tools isn't exciting (it is), but because there's
a huge gap between a weekend prototype and a product that's used, trusted
and clinically backed. Aurelian breaks down Snaq's moat (users, data and
clinical validation), shares an MIT finding that app releases roughly
tripled while engagement stayed flat, and explains why building got easier
for everyone while marketing got harder.
Snaq's published RCT showing a 6.6% time-in-range improvement on top of AID
systems, upcoming research on the AI Nutritionist versus standard of care,
a US study on T1D pregnancy (one Aurelian's family lived firsthand), the
shift from reactive apps to proactive AI agents, and the founder lesson
Aurelian would give his younger self: it always takes longer than you
think, so make sure you care enough to stay.
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Aurelian Briner, CEO of Snaq
01:10 Why AI health tech changed in 2026
02:20 A wife's T1D diagnosis sparks Snaq
03:42 From carb counter to AI companion
05:10 Late-night questions and clinically safe AI
06:20 Build fast, iterate, then prove it clinically
08:09 Why insulin pumps lagged behind iPhones
09:26 Rob's case against vibe-coded diabetes apps
11:40 Snaq's moat: users, data, clinical validation
14:05 Triple the apps, flat engagement: MIT study
17:13 What users say about the AI Nutritionist
19:49 New research: 6.6% more time in range
21:05 Studying T1D pregnancy while living it
22:14 From reactive tools to proactive companions
24:50 Ten years in: lessons for founders
Resources:
Snaq.ai
29 min
September 23 Episode 364 - Resilience & Building a Big Life with Liz Van Voorhis
At 15, Liz Van Voorhis landed in the ER on spring break with a blood sugar
of 1,200. She weighed 78 pounds. She had two questions for the doctor.
First, when could she get back to cheer conditioning? Second, did this mean
she couldn't finish her Halloween candy? It was April. That mix of grit and
humor is Liz Van Voorhis.
Liz is an executive coach and founder of The Fit Collective. She has built
wellness programs for brands like Equinox, Peloton, and Lululemon. She
tells Rob about the 15-year corporate career she walked away from after
losing her mom to brain cancer. She also talks about her "brain sabbatical"
year teaching 15 spin classes a week, where her class quietly became a safe
space for people with Type 1 all over New York. She explains the values
exercise from 2004 that she still revisits every New Year's Eve (her
birthday) to decide what gets her commitment.
They also go back to the January 2025 LA fires. Liz used her
retail-operations background to help organize more than 400 volunteers and
get diabetes supplies to around 50 displaced families, which earned her the
self-appointed title "diabetes drug dealer of Southern California."
Along the way, Rob and Liz dig into several other topics:
* Rob's thesis that diabetes doesn't get easier, but you get better at
it
* A million-dollar business loss
* A prayer for financial abundance that was answered by a stolen car
* Why "we are meaning-making beings" beats "everything happens for a
reason"
* Why Liz put off switching to Omnipod for years for purely vain
reasons, and how much she regrets it
If you've ever wondered whether you can build a big, beautiful life with or
without type 1, this one's for you.
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Liz and the Thailand retreat
01:38 How the 2015 diabetes Instagram connected us
03:13 Diagnosed at 15 with a 1,200 blood sugar
08:11 From church-basement aerobics to corporate career
11:41 Losing her mom and blowing up her life
13:00 Teaching spin and finding her T1D community
14:13 Alignment and the courage to walk away
15:45 The values exercise that changed everything
18:51 Organizing diabetes supplies during the LA fires
26:04 It doesn't get easier, you get better
30:09 Breakthroughs, a $1M loss, and a stolen car
35:19 Meaning-making vs. "everything happens for a reason"
36:44 Identity, basketball camps, and embracing who you are
38:42 Tuning out the noise and never drinking
43:29 Omnipod, Dexcom, and getting over vanity
Resources:
1. The Fit Collective
2. Liz Van Voorhis Instagram
50 min
September 09 Episode 363 - Danica Doble and Lucas Silva: A T1D Couple's Story
Rob sits down with a rare three-person interview: Danica Doble
(@type1deeabetes) and her partner Lucas, who both live with type 1
diabetes. Their story starts with a genuinely wild diagnosis arc. Lucas was
told he had type 2 diabetes, put on metformin, and left to figure it out on
his own for over a year. It wasn't a doctor who caught the mistake. It was
Danica, watching his Dexcom numbers from the outside and refusing to let it
go until he got a GAD antibody test. She was right.
The conversation moves from that misdiagnosis story into what it's actually
like to build a life and a relationship around two people managing the same
disease. They talk about pre-bolusing habits rubbing off on each other,
supply emergencies solved by sharing pods, and the strange comfort of
dating someone who doesn't need diabetes explained to them. Danica also
opens up about a year of debilitating fear around low blood sugar that came
out of nowhere in 2022, how it shaped what she couldn't do, and how she
worked her way back out of it.
There's also a real look at Danica's path as a creator from a fitness
account that hit 300K on TikTok to launching as its own page, growing to
60,000 Instagram followers in under a year, and running a six-week fitness
challenge built specifically for the T1D community. She talks candidly
about online hate, why she doesn't shy away from clapping back, and how
she's learned to hold onto the good instead of fixating on the one negative
comment.
It's a funny, honest episode complete with the story of a PowerPoint
presentation Danica made to teach Lucas about type 1 diabetes, a jiu jitsu
sensor casualty count, and a love story that started at a casino. Press
play for the full conversation.
Chapters:
00:00 Cold open and guest introduction
01:20 Welcome and introductions from Danica and Lucas
02:18 Lucas's symptoms begin and the misdiagnosis story starts
04:36 ER visit ends with a type 2 diabetes diagnosis
06:37 Danica suspects type 1 and pushes for testing
08:47 GAD antibody test confirms type 1 diabetes
10:00 Onboarding to insulin and Danica's PowerPoint presentation
12:52 Danica's content creation origin story begins
16:48 Danica's year-long fear of low blood sugar
20:04 How diabetes shows up in their relationship
23:05 Inside Danica's six-week fitness challenge
25:31 Handling online hate and diabetes stigma
28:23 How they actually met: the casino night origin story
33:03 Closing reflections and advice for listeners
34:53 Jiu jitsu, sensor casualties, and daily management tips
Resources:
1. Danica Doble Instagram
2. Danica Doble TikTok
37 min
August 12 Episode 362- Living a Creative Life with Dave Holmes (MTV, Esquire)
Dave Holmes spent the late '90s and early 2000s as one of the faces of MTV,
and these days he's a sharp, funny voice at Esquire — but before any of
that, he spent six years being told he had type 2 diabetes when he actually
had type 1. This week, Rob sits down with Dave to talk about that
misdiagnosis, the strange cluster of friends who were diagnosed around the
same time, and a diabetes-age chart Rob saw at a conference that will
change how you think about who gets T1D.
From there, the conversation turns into a real, unpolished look at what it
takes to live a creative life. Dave and Rob are both working through Julia
Cameron's The Artist's Way right now — morning pages, artist dates, and all
— and they get honest about guilt, perfectionism, and the fear of putting
out work that isn't ready. Dave, a professional writer with a book and a
byline at one of the biggest magazines in the country, admits he still
feels like a fraud turning in a rough draft. It's a good reminder that
"getting easier" was never really the goal — getting better at the hard
parts is.
Along the way, Dave and Rob swap stories about the universe nudging you
toward where you're supposed to be — a DJ gig that came out of nowhere, a
stranger at a DVD store, a maintenance worker who turned out to also be
living with diabetes. It's the kind of episode that starts as a diabetes
story, turns into a conversation about creativity, and ends up being about
paying attention to your life.
And because no DDT episode is complete without some fun, Dave and Rob close
it out with a segment they're calling the Bad Advice Song Draft — three
rounds each of picking the most beloved songs with the absolute worst
advice buried in the lyrics. Stalking anthems, teenage recklessness, and
one song so ethically questionable that Kidz Bop wouldn't touch it. Tune in
for all of it.
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Dave Holmes: MTV VJ turned Esquire writer
02:52 Dave's six-year road to the right diagnosis
05:54 The surprising truth about T1D and age
07:13 How The Artist's Way found them both
08:37 Why Dave restarted the 12-week program now
12:48 Comparing morning page routines and habits
15:39 Getting unstuck: movement, walks, dumb writing
17:30 An artist date leads to an unplanned DJ gig
20:10 Beginner's mind and the fear of being filmed
21:09 Dave on perfectionism and feeling like a fraud
25:18 Resilience: "it doesn't get easier, you get better"
27:36 A screenwriter's ultimatum sparks Dave's fiction project
30:41 Meditation, synchronicity, and a DVD store coincidence
33:28 The ball-spinning experiment: "you can just do stuff"
38:05 Signs from Rob's dad, and a Disney parking-lot miracle
42:19 The Bad Advice Song Draft begins
Resources:
1. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
2. Dave Holmes on Instagram
3. Dave Holmes at Esquire — his latest writing and pop culture
commentary.
1 hr
August 03 Episode 361 - Rob Solo Episode: The AI Tool, the Trial, and the Retreat
It's episode 450 of Diabetics Doing Things — a milestone Rob almost forgets
to mention until he's three topics deep. Fresh off Friends for Life in
Orlando, he lays out what he calls the diabetes conference pyramid: the
industry side (ADA, ADCES, ATTD, EASD) built for HCPs and brand messaging,
and the community side, where Friends for Life stands alone as the one
event he'd choose if he could only pick one. He also previews the upcoming
Diabetes Legends Dallas clinic and makes his now-recurring case for why
kids with diabetes belong on a team.
Then Rob shifts from the conference circuit to something he's been quietly
building: a searchable AI archive of every Diabetics Doing Things episode —
all 450 of them — that surfaces clips, timestamps, and quotes on demand. He
walks through a live demo, asking it about diabetes and mental health and
watching it pull exactly the right moments from years of the show's back
catalog. It's his first real answer to a question he's been sitting with:
what do you actually build for people with diabetes when you have this much
lived experience and the tools to use it.
The back half gets more personal. Rob is wrapping a 90-day clinical trial
on an unreleased insulin pump algorithm — a strange experience in handing
over control of his own management — and talks candidly about what "locking
in" has looked like lately: earlier mornings, journaling, lower-carb meals
without the guilt spiral, and a real 30-day discipline streak. He closes
with an unguarded account of the Diabetes Sangha meditation retreat he
attended this spring, why the "woo-woo" label doesn't scare him off, and a
new mental health resource from Omnipod and Calm worth knowing about.
If you're weighing whether diabetes conferences are worth your time,
curious what an AI trained entirely on this show can actually do, or just
want to hear someone talk honestly about discipline and burnout without the
performance — this one's worth the full listen.
Chapters
00:00 Episode 450 and fresh Friends for Life recap
02:22 Mapping the diabetes conference pyramid: industry side
05:41 Why Friends for Life beats every other conference
08:20 TCOID, Connected in Motion, and Camp Diabetes
11:07 Diabetes Legends Dallas and youth sports advocacy
14:41 Insulin Sensitivity Playbook recap and fan-favorite guests
17:02 Unveiling the DDT AI archive (live demo)
22:00 Personal update: the 90-day clinical trial
25:51 Locking in: mornings, journaling, and low-carb peace
28:21 Inside the Diabetes Sangha meditation retreat
30:52 Omnipod x Calm partnership and mental health resources
32:46 What's coming next and how to find Rob
24 min
July 08 Episode 360 - Highs, Lows, and Hormones: Aging with Type 1 Diabetes with Melissa Slemp
Melissa Slemp has lived with type 1 diabetes for 44 years — since she was
diagnosed in 1982, before glucometers, before CGMs, back when insulin came
from vials and syringes and "boiling your needles" was still a recent
memory for a lot of people. In this episode, she and Rob trace that whole
arc: what early management actually looked like, the high-risk pregnancy
she navigated in the 90s, and the moment — after more than four decades on
injections — she finally switched to a pump. If you've ever wondered what
it's like to hand over that much control after that much time, this is the
conversation.
But the real heart of this episode is the part almost nobody is talking
about: what happens to blood sugar when a woman with type 1 diabetes hits
perimenopause. Melissa walks through her own experience of watching her
basal insulin needs climb for no obvious reason, the years she spent
without an explanation, and what she eventually learned about estrogen,
progesterone, and insulin resistance — knowledge she says she had to dig up
herself, because most endocrinologists and OBGYNs simply aren't trained in
the overlap. That research became the reason she wrote Highs, Lows, and
Hormones, a survival guide for women navigating diabetes from their monthly
cycle through menopause.
Along the way, Rob and Melissa get into hormone replacement therapy, why so
many women blame themselves before they ever think to blame their hormones,
and the bigger pattern underneath it all: how much of diabetes research and
care has historically centered men, and what it costs women when it does.
There's also a genuinely great story about how Melissa met her husband, who
also lives with type 1 — on the side of the road, of all places.
This one's for anyone managing type 1 diabetes as a woman, anyone who loves
someone who is, or anyone who's ever felt like their body changed the rules
without telling them why.
Chapters
* 00:00 — Cold open and introducing Melissa Slemp
* 01:21 — Welcome, and 44 years living with type 1 diabetes
* 02:24 — Diagnosed in 1982, before glucometers existed
* 04:03 — Reframing: the best and hardest time to have diabetes
* 04:59 — Growing up rural with limited access to healthcare
* 07:09 — Early management: injections, mixed insulin, urine strips
* 07:46 — A high-risk pregnancy in the 90s
* 08:13 — Switching to a pump after 40+ years on injections
* 10:24 — How Melissa met her husband, also living with T1D
* 13:06 — Introducing the hormone and diabetes connection
* 20:14 — Rising basal needs and insulin resistance in perimenopause
* 25:25 — Community stories and menopause's hidden career toll
* 29:44 — The gender gap in diabetes research
* 33:04 — Hormones, GLP-1s, and insulin as hormone therapy
* 36:03 — Advocating for yourself with doctors and specialists
42 min

About Diabetics Doing Things Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Hosted by T1D Rob Howe, Diabetics Doing Things tells amazing stories of people with diabetes from across the globe, digging deep into everything it takes to Live Well with Diabetes and sharing…