16 Minutes News by a16z
84 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 104 ratings16 Minutes on the News is a short news podcast where we cover the top headlines of the week, the a16z podcast way -- why are these topics in the news; what's real, what's hype from our vantage point; and what are our experts' quick takes on these trends?
About the a16z Podcast: Discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future -- especially as ‘software eats the world’. It features industry experts, business leaders, and other interesting thinkers and voices from around the world. This podcast is produced by Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Multiple episodes -- and now shows -- are released every week; visit a16z.com for more details and to sign up for our newsletters and other content as well!
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Episodes
Parasite, the Malaria (Tech & Science) Edition
February 22, 2022 07:34 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBoriginal episode notes and transcript here: https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/malaria-vaccine-tech-science-news/ Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host, and editor Sonal Chokshi shares three best-of episodes as she shifts gears and the show goes on hiatus until relaunched with a new host. As with all of the episodes on this show about tech & science trends in the news, and where they are on the long arc of innovation -- this one is actually a story of human ingenuity over...
Crypto at Congress: 'Watershed' Moment for Regulation and Web3
December 20, 2021 21:17 - 12 minutes - 11.3 MBWelcome to 16 Minutes, our podcast where we discuss tech trends in the news and their impact on the long arc of innovation. Today’s topic is crypto regulation, and specifically, two recent federal government hearings in the news that were focused on crypto and therefore the related trend of web3. In contrast to the model of web2 — typified by very broadly used but also very centralized platforms run by corporations — web3 refers to the idea of a new internet enabled by crypto that is owned b...
Inside the GameStop Drama; The U.S. Constitution, Auctioned
December 03, 2021 20:19 - 21 minutes - 19.4 MBWelcome to 16 Minutes, our show on the a16z podcast network where we talk about tech trends that are dominating news headlines, industry buzz, and where we are on the long arc of innovation. Today’s episode actually features a look back at the GameStop saga — the stock market drama that some headlines described as a “David-and-Goliath battle” that quote “upended Wall Street.” For quick basic context, here’s what happened: A group of Reddit users mass-purchased and drove up prices of stoc...
Steam Halts Web3 Games; FDA Approves Prostate Cancer AI
October 26, 2021 18:53 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MBWelcome to 16 Minutes, our show where we talk about tech trends in the news. We have two segments today: 1) The announcement recently that Valve Software, which operates the massive gaming platform Steam, added a rule against games that use blockchain technologies or that allow users to exchange cryptocurrencies or NFTs – this rule appeared on its “What you shouldn’t publish on Steam” onboarding list for developers. We go beyond the players to the trends at play here, putting the news in con...
mRNA for Flu Vaccine? AI Protein-Folding Goes Open Source
August 02, 2021 17:13 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBIn today’s episode we have two short segments, both on bioscience topics: [0:00] Moderna has started clinical trials for a flu vaccine, called mRNA-1010, that is based on the same mRNA technology that Moderna and Pfizer used for their COVID vaccines, and that several other companies including Sanofi and Glaxo all are actively working on for the influenza use case. Our experts are general partners Vineeta Agarwala and Jorge Conde of the a16z bio team, who have joined us on many of our vaccine...
Opioid Crisis - How, Who, and Tech
July 26, 2021 05:45 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBGiven recent news of drug company settlements, calls to action, policy moves, and more, this episode is a rerun of one of our very early explainers (episode #4 of 16 Minutes, 2019) on the opioid crisis. Bio experts and a16z general partners Jorge Conde and Vijay Pande discuss on 16 Minutes (our shortform show where we discuss the headlines, tease apart what's hype' what's real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation) with host Sonal Chokshi: how opioids work; the questions aroun...
Ransomware Attacks on the Rise; Hackers Target IoT
June 09, 2021 18:03 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBWelcome to 16 Minutes, the a16z show where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype and what’s real, and the long arc of innovation. In today's episode we’re talking about the latest developments and trends in cybercrime – including the trends of ransomware, and, attacks on physical infrastructure. First (0:00 - 6:07), we have the recent attack on the meat processing plant JBS, the largest meat processor in the world; just last week it had to temporarily shut down some operations...
Science (and Tech), the Endless Frontier
May 25, 2021 04:20 - 10 minutes - 9.87 MBGiven recent buzz and ongoing debates around the Endless Frontiers Act -- which some have described as “the most important piece of legislation no one's heard of” -- this episode is a rerun of an episode from last year, recorded after said act was initially unveiled. The short discussion covers the broader topic and theme of funding science and innovation, and R&D in general -- not just in government agencies, but corporations, and the overall landscape there as well. Notably, the name of ...
Malaria Vaccine Breakthrough, Beyond the Buzz
May 02, 2021 01:36 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBPlaying out against the backdrop of a global pandemic (including recent massive surges in regions around the world) is the news that came out a week ago that a candidate "malaria vaccine becomes first to achieve WHO-specified 75% efficacy goal”. While the findings are still in preprint with The Lancet, the resulting buzz and phrases quoted included everything from “unprecedented”, “groundbreaking work”, and “very exciting” to “high expectations”, “highly effective”, and “a hugely significant...
Apple Event: Desktop-Tablet Convergence, Cord-Cutting, "Find Anything," & More
April 25, 2021 02:17 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBIn this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we cover tech trends in the news — and also cover themes from company developer and innovation events! — we focus on the latest coming out of Apple’s event this week. The company announced a bunch of things, ranging from new device colors and form factors to podcast services, but in this episode we asked regular guest Steven Sinofsky (an a16z board partner and former Microsoft Windows president who has appeared on past event episodes inclu...
16 Minutes #62: What's New at Apple — AirTag, iMac, iPad Pro, & More
April 25, 2021 02:17 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBIn this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we cover tech trends in the news — and also cover themes from company developer and innovation events! — we focus on the latest coming out of Apple’s event this week. The company announced a bunch of things, ranging from new device colors and form factors to podcast services, but in this episode we asked regular guest Steven Sinofsky (an a16z board partner and former Microsoft Windows president who has appeared on past event episodes inclu...
J&J Vaccine Pause; FBI Accesses Servers in Exchange Hack
April 19, 2021 18:57 - 15 minutes - 14 MBWe have two brief segments in today’s episode: News and analysis of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine pause, and the widespread hack of Microsoft Exchange Servers across the country (and the dramatic and unusual steps the FBI took in response). Johnson & Johnson: Federal health officials last week revealed that six women who received the vaccine had developed rare and severe blood clots in their brain, in one case fatally. Even more recently, a panel of expert advisors to the Centers for ...
NFTs: What, Where, How, Why, Who
March 28, 2021 05:59 - 56 minutes - 51.6 MBThis deep-dive -- one of our occasional 2-4X explainer episodes on 16 Minutes; (past such episodes have covered everything from Section 230 and Tiktok to GPT-3 and the opioid crisis) -- teases apart what's hype/ what's real -- and the what, where, how, why, who, and other questions top of mind around all things NFTs: what NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are -- as well as the properties of crypto that enable them, just to set some big-picture context; what forms they take, and what is and ISN’T ...
The U.S. Vaccine Rollout
March 20, 2021 02:08 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBToday on our news analysis show 16 Minutes — since this show is all about teasing apart what’s hype/ what’s real and where we are on the long arc of innovation — we're taking a quick pulse-check with the experts on just where we are with the COVID vaccine rollout in the U.S. Our experts today are Dr. Bob Wachter, the Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF — he has come to additional prominence during the pandemic as a regular public resource, providing daily updates & reports on Twitt...
The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine and COVID Efficacy Rates
March 16, 2021 00:52 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBIn today's episode of our news analysis show 16 Minutes, our topic is the ongoing buzz and the mixed news around the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was the third vaccine for COVID approved under Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA just a few weeks ago. Johnson & Johnson reported it as “the first single shot vaccine” and as having 85% efficacy in preventing severe disease across regions studied; meanwhile, STAT headlines reported 66% efficacy overall and 72% in the U.S. in preventing mod...
Semiconductor Shortage and the Global Supply Chain Squeeze
March 07, 2021 18:16 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBIn this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/ what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation, the topic is semiconductors – specifically, the ongoing global shortage that began last summer and has intensified in recent weeks. So much so, that the U.S. president signed an executive order just last week to address concerns around the shortage, calling for reviews of supply chains for critical sectors of the economy. Our e...
When Christie's Meets Crypto — The NFT Moment
February 25, 2021 20:23 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBIn this week’s episode of 16 Minutes — where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/ what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation — the topic is NFTs ("non-fungible tokens"); specifically, the news that Christie’s has become the first major auction house to offer a purely digital artwork tied to an NFT or “non-fungible token." We’ll go more into NFTs (as well as whether this is really a big deal or not) in this episode, but here’s the news context: The work of art...
China Steams Ahead in Gaming; MetaHuman Creator and the Uncanny Valley
February 20, 2021 02:15 - 11 minutes - 10.7 MBWe have two brief segments — taking up less than 16 Minutes! — in this week’s episode of "16 Minutes," where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation. Both segments touch on trends in gaming/ online worlds and entertainment — both now and "next." First, Steam China: Steam — the cloud library and marketplace for buying, selling, and storing games that was launched by Valve in 2003 and is now the largest distribution platfo...
Beyond Bezos: Amazon, Cloud, and CEO Transitions
February 06, 2021 18:35 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBAmazon just announced this week that its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos "will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and [CEO of Amazon Web Services] Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that time". So in this episode of 16 Minutes -- our show where we talk about tech trends in the headlines, what's hype/ what's real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation -- we talk not just about this news, but what it signals regarding cloud computing as we...
Anatomy of a Hack: SolarWinds and Ripples Beyond
February 01, 2021 04:14 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBIn this special “3x”-long episode of our (otherwise shortform) news analysis show 16 Minutes -- past such 2-3X explainer episodes have covered section 230, Tiktok, GPT-3, the opioid crisis, more -- we cover the SolarWinds hack, one of the largest (if not the largest!) publicly known hacks of all time... and the ripple effects are only now starting to be revealed. Just this week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency shared (as reported in the Wall Street Journal) that app...
Dall-E AI for Images; Direct Listings, SEC Ruling for Issuing Shares
January 26, 2021 22:21 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBWe've got segments on artificial intelligence and IPO innovation in today's episode of 16 Minutes, where we take a look at the news and what it means for the long arc of innovation. In the first segment (0:00): Take the surrealistic images of Salvador Dali and cross them with Pixar's animated film Wall-E and you've got ... Dall-E! It's a new neural network that creates images based on text inputs, and the worlds of A.I. and machine learning recently got their first glimpse. Last summer, re...
Dall-E + Direct Listings
January 26, 2021 22:21 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBWe've got segments on artificial intelligence and IPO innovation in today's episode of 16 Minutes, where we take a look at the news and what it means for the long arc of innovation. In the first segment (0:00): Take the surrealistic images of Salvador Dali and cross them with Pixar's animated film Wall-E and you've got ... Dall-E! It's a new neural network that creates images based on text inputs, and the worlds of A.I. and machine learning recently got their first glimpse. Last summer, res...
All about Section 230, In the News
January 16, 2021 08:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBAll about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- what does and doesn't it say? How does this law play out against broader questions and debates around platforms, content moderation, and free speech? This conversation between Mike Masnick (founder and editor in chief of Techdirt) and a16z editor in chief Sonal Chokshi was originally published May 2020, in the context of previous protests and presidential tweets (and an executive order then to prevent “online censorship”)-- but is ...
FinCEN Crypto Rule; Haven Healthcare Breakup
January 11, 2021 07:09 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBWe're covering two trends in this week’s episode of "16 Minutes," where we talk about the news, tech trends, and the long arc of innovation: #1 FinCEN, the Treasury Department's financial crimes enforcement arm, proposed a new rule targeting cryptocurrency holders’ ability to transact using self-hosted wallets. These are software applications for storing crypto that allow people to transact on the blockchain directly, rather than going through financial institutions. The rule would require ...
U.S. Government Hacked; Scaling Ethereum
December 16, 2020 02:10 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBWe're back to covering multiple items on our show 16 Minutes -- which covers the news, occasional explainers, and teases apart what's hype/ what's real -- as well as where we are on the long arc of innovation: #1 Hackers spied on U.S. Treasury emails and other federal agencies through malware installed (indirectly via a third-party provider) over a year ago, but the hack was just revealed this weekend and confirmed in a statement from the National Security Council yesterday. It could be one...
AlphaFold! Protein Folding, Beyond the Hype
December 07, 2020 05:01 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBIn this episode of our show 16 Minutes -- where we talk about the headlines, and where we are on the long arc of tech trends -- we cover the news around Google DeepMind's AlphaFold system for predicting the 3-D structure of proteins outperforming 100 teams across 20 countries in the 14th Community Wide Assessment on the CASP (Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction) challenge. The challenge, which takes place every other year (over several months) tracks progress, key metrics, and state-...
Transparency in Pricing, Ruling Healthcare
November 20, 2020 18:55 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MB[simplecast-embed src="https://16minutes.simplecast.com/episodes/16mins-transparency-in-coverage-rules-cms-hhs-healthcare-pricing-cost-patients-payers-hospitals-comparison-competition?dark=true"] The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the latest in a series of “historic" rules a few weeks ago; the controversial rules -- which have been in the works for a while, but are now final -- are intended to increase price transparency in (what's been described by the U.S. Departmen...
Apple Silicon: A Long Game, Changing the Game
November 18, 2020 04:55 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBWe cover the latest coming out of Apple’s event last week, where they announced the first new lineups of devices based on Apple Silicon M1 chips, which officially came out today. And since there’s already plenty of analysis on performance, benchmarks, and more, we cover the big picture: Apple’s moving away from Intel chips, and to their own chips (that run on the Arm instruction set); what does it all mean? And given our penchant on this show for orienting where we are on the long arc of in...
Covid Vaccine! Beyond Science via Press Release
November 14, 2020 06:48 - 21 minutes - 15 MBA vaccine for COVID seems to be (almost) here... or is it? What's hype/ what's real beyond the headlines (and beyond the press release), when it comes to the announcement earlier this week from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19? Of course, this was just the first interim efficacy analysis -- so how close or far are we? What's the significance of the readout and case numbers? How do we put this (and related approach...
Gaming Is Among Us
October 25, 2020 17:32 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBAliens are among us. Well, the online multiplayer game Among Us is -- a murder mystery set in space, where the group must figure out who the alien imposter is (a variation of party games like Werewolf or Mafia) -- has seemingly suddenly become very popular. And not just because a major politician livestream-played it earlier this week, which is what makes this news. So on this episode of 16 Minutes on the News -- our show where we talk about what's in the headlines; tease apart what's hype/...
A Nobel for CRISPR! When, Who, How, What Now
October 10, 2020 21:16 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MB"It's CRISPR!" This week, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (also an a16z co-founder, of Scribe Therapeutics), for the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome editing -- a technology that's "had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies, and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true". While many describe this technology as "genetic scissors", one of the sharpes...
Nvidia + Arm, Because, Apple!
October 03, 2020 18:03 - 23 minutes - 15.8 MBWe cover the latest news since Nvidia (maker of GPUs among other things) announced its intent to acquire Arm (provider of silicon IP for system-on-chips inside billions of devices), arguing that "This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry." But how so, when critics are worried about channel conflict, shepherding the broader ecosystem of users, and other issues? Some believe the deal may not go through, and there are also concerns abo...
Nvidia + Arm
October 03, 2020 18:00 - 23 minutes - 15.8 MBWe cover the latest news since Nvidia (maker of GPUs among other things) announced its intent to acquire Arm (provider of silicon IP for system-on-chips inside billions of devices), arguing that "This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry." But how so, when critics are worried about channel conflict, shepherding the broader ecosystem of users, and other issues? Some believe the deal may not go through, and there are also concerns about it for...
Tiktok and 'Seeing Like an Algorithm'
September 18, 2020 21:31 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBIn one of our special "2x" episodes of 16 Minutes (32ish minutes;) -- our show where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more -- we cover the algorithm that powers TikTok, the short video-sharing platform that grabbed massive marketshare in cultures and markets never experienced firsthand by the engineers and designers in China, beating out other apps in the United States. Now, with talk of U.S. ownership/partnership for TikTok, what...
Apple and the 'Doctor’s Office on a Wrist'
September 17, 2020 02:45 - 19 minutes - 13.1 MBWe cover the latest coming out of Apple's event yesterday, focusing on their new watches (including a lower price model); new sensors (including blood oxygen); and services for healthcare. Is always-on, (relatively) low-cost, passive monitoring for fitness and mainstream consumers really, finally the wedge into data for clinical applications as well? What features -- cost, efficacy, battery power, convenience, data, business model -- do and don't matter when it comes to filling in the gaps b...
A Faster, Cheaper Test -- Will It Really Democratize Coronavirus Testing?
September 02, 2020 17:05 - 17 minutes - 12.3 MBIn this episode of 16 Minutes, we cover the recent news around the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization approval of Abbott Lab's latest COVID-19 test, which takes 15 minutes and will cost $5. At that speed and price point -- as well as the fact that it doesn't require lab equipment at point of care -- it should definitely increase testing capacity, making it a potential "game changer" in this pandemic... But does it truly democratize coronavirus testing (in an available-to-everyone-everywhere w...
Teladoc & Livongo, Is Virtual Care Fully Here?
August 10, 2020 14:00 - 23 minutes - 15.8 MBIn this episode of 16 Minutes -- our show where we cover recent headlines; tease apart what's hype/ what's real; and help orient where we are, trends-wise, on the long arc of innovation -- we cover the merger of Teladoc and Livongo, which was announced just a few days ago. The $18.5B deal is a big deal not just because of the dollars and validation in public markets, but because it's aimed at creating "the first true health tech giant", and an end-to-end digital health platform at scale. How...
GPT-3, Beyond the Hype
July 29, 2020 21:56 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBIn this special "2x" explainer episode of 16 Minutes -- where we talk about what's in the news, and where we are on the long arc of various tech trends -- we cover all the buzz around GPT-3, the pre-trained machine learning model that's optimized to do a variety of natural-language processing tasks. The paper about GPT-3 was released in late May, but OpenAI (the AI "research and deployment" company behind it) only recently released private access to its API or application programming interfa...
Funding Science & Innovation; Remote Work & Future Silicon Valley
July 10, 2020 01:44 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBThis holiday break episode of 16 Minutes on the News (#36) covers two timely and still developing-news topics: #1 The National Science Foundation could rebrand as the National Science AND Technology Foundation -- as well as get up to $100B more in funding for 10 focus areas among other things -- if a new bipartisan proposal called the "Endless Frontiers Act" (inspired by the name of this Vannevar Bush memo that led to the NSF being created 70 years ago) goes through. What does this mean fo...
Apple App Clips, Program the Offline World!
June 29, 2020 01:30 - 20 minutes - 13.8 MBA number of features were announced at Apple's WWDC/ Worldwide Developers Conference this week, but this episode of 16 Minutes on the News focuses on just one: Apple's "App Clips" coming to iOS14. Because App Clips -- small, lightweight, fast, parts of a full app that can quickly execute just one specific action for users in context, when and where they need them -- and App Clip Codes -- stickers that encode a URL and incorporate an NFC tag so the code can be scanned by camera, much like QR ...
Videogames as Medicines -- So What Is/Isn't a Digital Drug?
June 21, 2020 17:05 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBThe FDA just approved the first ever videogame that can now be legally marketed and prescribed as a medicine. It's a game called EndeavorRX (formerly known as Project EVO and developed by Akili Interactive based on technology licensed from a neuroscience lab at the University of California San Francisco) -- and is for 8-12 year olds with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. So where does this fit in the broader category of "digital therapeutics", which have proven to be effecti...
Snapchat & Bitmoji: Mobile, Social, Cloud Gaming, Identity
June 21, 2020 17:00 - 19 minutes - 13.7 MBAt last week's Snap Partner Summit, a number of announcements -- including a navigation redesign and Bitmoji for Games -- have broader implications for the gaming industry and beyond. Especially when such messaging games, built on HTML5 and "mini programs" or apps-within-apps (as discussed by Connie Chan in context of WeChat and more), merge the key trends of mobile, social, and cloud gaming; in fact, they: could be a serious contender in the "cloud gaming" wars, but coming at it from the l...
Section 230 CDA: Content Moderation, Free Speech, the Internet
May 31, 2020 13:15 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBIn this special "2x" episode (#32) of our news show 16 Minutes -- where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more -- we cover the tricky but important topic of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996 law has been in the headlines a lot recently, in the context of Twitter, the president's tweets, and an executive order put out by the White House just this week on quote- "preventing online censorship". All of this is pla...
The Security and Privacy of Contact Tracing
May 23, 2020 05:03 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBWhile governments, policymakers, and employers around the world are all figuring out how to reopen the economy, contact tracing -- which includes identifying and warning contacts of exposure in order to stop chains of transmission -- is a key strategy for preventing further spread of a disease like COVID-19. But approaches vary from manual to automated. And different regions have different frameworks, whether combined with GPS (location data) and CCTV as in South Korea -- or mainly Bluetoot...
CRISPR for Covid Testing and FDA EUAs
May 17, 2020 20:17 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBAs calls for better, faster, cheaper, portable testing for COVID-19 disease are heard around the world -- given the important role of test-trace-isolate in re-opening the economy! -- the FDA recently issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a CRISPR-based diagnostic. It's the first authorized use of CRISPR technology for an infectious disease test. So we discuss this topic in this week's episode of 16 Minutes -- our show where we cover the news headlines, tease apart what's hype/what...
The Case of Zoom and Scaling Cloud Security
April 12, 2020 09:00 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBZoom has not only experienced unprecedented, rapid growth (from 10M to 200M daily active users) due to the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place -- but is also seeing a shift in use cases from primarily enterprise to more consumer as well. At the same time, there have been several security issues and concerns around Zoom, including "zoombombing" porn; home-grown encryption; and key-management systems, servers, and engineers in China. The company had to correct and clarify the record as ...
Drugs & Debates: Real World Data, Randomized Controlled Trials
March 29, 2020 06:45 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBIf the best way to know whether a medicine is effective is through a clinical trial, then where does (and doesn't) real-world data and real-world evidence come in? The topic is always top of mind in drug development, with additional focus as of 2016 thanks to the 21st Century Cures Act -- but is especially heated lately given recent concerns and claims around particular drugs in the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic. So in this short-but-deep dive episode of 16 Minutes on the News, ...
The Economic Virus - Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, and Small Business
March 22, 2020 16:34 - 18 minutes - 16.5 MBThe U.S. Federal Reserve recently made a range of moves -- from cutting interest rates to near zero (which it also did in the 2008 financial crisis) and using other tools -- to support "the flow of credit to households and businesses, thereby promote its maximum employment and price stability goals" during this current pandemic and public health crisis. However... what does this mean for small businesses, which may be most impacted? What's the difference between monetary and fiscal policy h...
Hospitals' Historic Moment & the New Data Rules
March 14, 2020 22:12 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MBThis episode of 16 Minutes on the News covers the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' "historic rules" to provide patients more control of their data. They've been a long time coming, and despite recent fights over them, the final rules are now finally here as of this week. So in this short but deep dive, a16z bio experts -- general partner Julie Yoo and Venkat Mocherla in market development (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) -- go into: 0:47 how the rules fit into our healthca...
Gaming & Chrome OS/Steam; Going Cashless; Coronavirus Latest
March 08, 2020 21:48 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBThis episode of 16 Minutes on the news covers: Google could bring Steam support to Chrome OS, according to an earlier unconfirmed report, and what that could mean for the broader gaming ecosystem, developers as well as devices -- with a16z general partner Andrew Chen and Jonathan Lai on the consumer team; New York restaurants and retail establishments can no longer reject cash payments under legislation that was passed by the City Council there; what this says about the banking system more...