David and Ben, Saloni and Jacob

I love the Acquired podcast hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. Each episode tells the story of a different company (usually a technology company). The early episodes were about companies that were eventually acquired (hence the name). It goes very deep - episodes are generally several hours long and some companies get 2 to 3 episodes each. Ben and David put a lot of research into their subject and then they record a conversation in which David will tell the story to Ben, who will interject with his own questions, comments and research. This format is great and it works because the hosts have a deep enthusiasm for understanding and sharing the nerdy details of these stories.

Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen have just launched a new podcast, Hard Drugs (supported by Works In Progress and Open Philanthropy. Its a very similar format to Acquired, which is a good thing, but each episode tells the story of a medical innovation. In the first episode Saloni does a great job of telling the story of HIV drug development to Jacob, starting in the early 80s with AZT up to the present day with Lenacapavir. Jacob asks great questions and helps clarify the story. Its fantastically long and detailed and I am here for it.