Eric Pachman is a chemical engineer-turned-data storyteller who exposed hundreds of millions in drug pricing overcharges through his nonprofit 46 Brooklyn Research, and now uses data visualization to reveal hidden truths about jobs, healthcare, and inequality as founder of Data for the People. Find Eric here: https://www.data4thepeople.com/signup

Episode Sponsor: Fiscal AI is a modern data terminal that gives investors instant access to twenty years of financials, earnings transcripts, and extensive segment and KPI data—use my link for a two-week free trial plus 15% off: https://fiscal.ai/talkingbillions/3:00 – Eric opens with a near-death pacing experience at the Moab 240-mile race — hypothermia, lost in the mountains, 80 miles covered over two days — and how surviving it cracked open the question: what am I doing with my life?

7:00 – Career journey: chemical engineer → ExxonMobil → Harvard Business School → Morgan Stanley (oil & commodities) → buy-side family office → CSX Railroad → pharmacy/drug pricing → 46 Brooklyn Research.

10:05 – Drug pricing exposed: middlemen taking ~33% of every transaction. "Imagine if the stock price was $1,000 and the commission was $333."

14:03 – His mother's death from pancreatic cancer. Her mental anguish — the inability to fill an internal void with things and experiences — became "the greatest teaching I've ever had in my life."

22:00 – Harvard Business School as a crucible: the introverted engineer forced to speak without certainty, eventually becoming a speaker at thousand-person maritime conferences.

28:00 – The jobs data reality: outside healthcare, the U.S. economy has been losing jobs. Healthcare was 200% of all job growth in the prior year.

33:20 – Exclusive reveal: 3 states (CA, PA, NY) account for 60% of the most Medicaid-sensitive elder care jobs — and 2027 cuts will hit them hardest.

40:41 – AI and jobs: "Net contraction through attrition is the same thing as firing people to me."

48:31 – "Maximum efficiency and productivity ends up killing what makes us human, which is creativity."

58:55 – Burnout: "If you're only doing something for yourself, you will reach a point of burnout."

1:08:43 – On success: "What can I do to impact the broader community... and lose all attachment to the outcome?"

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