I don’t hide my disdain for Eric Topol, and of course one has to wonder whether professional jealousy plays a role; he is, after all, a high-profile doctor with thoughts about technology. But this morning I found an excellent counterfactual in Peter Attia who is slightly closer to me in age, moves in high-profile circles, and spends time “creating content” about what I think is a bit of a time-waster for rich people: prolonging lifespan healthspan. In other words, he carries the perfect confluence of properties to create even more disdain on my part; and yet, I think that overall he is an upstanding guy who is smart, no-nonsense, and great at communicating complex ideas.

This was a long-winded intro to my recommendation for today’s episode of EconTalk, which has confirmed my priors and reminded me that it’s never too early in the week to call Topol a hack. Him and Attia are so similar on paper, so different in reality.