The Fragmentation of Medical Authority in the Age of Social Media

Remember when your doctor knew best? Now TikTok tells you to eat oats instead of buying Ozempic, your Apple Watch judges your sleep, and everyone's either biohacking their way to immortality or drowning in wellness anxiety. Welcome to the great unbundling of medical authority.

In this episode, we're joined by Cyril Maury from Stripe Partners, who's spent 15 years studying how people actually behave around health—not what they say they do, but what they really do. Together, we trace a fascinating pendulum swing: from the 20th century's one-size-fits-all pharmaceutical production (where your 60 kg body gets the same ibuprofen dose as someone weighing 150 kg) to today's hyper-personalized health fragmentation.

Here's what we're noticing: We're living through an explosion of diagnostic capabilities—we can measure everything from heart rate variability to glucose spikes—but we're stuck in what Cyril calls the “diagnostic-therapy gap.” Your sleep tracker tells you you're stressed, but it can't change your job. Your CGM shows blood sugar spikes, but it can't make you stop eating that croissant. It's like having a Ferrari dashboard in a bicycle.

The conversation takes us through some unexpected territory:

• Why 30% of sleep tracker users actually sleep worse (hello, orthosomnia).
• Wearables are making a mistake by attempting to replace human senses instead of enhancing them.
• Cyril holds the view that the future doesn't lie in AI coaches telling you to not exercise today, but rather in conversational tools that inquire about your mood before presenting the data.

And yes, we talk about RFK Jr.'s plan to get every American wearing a wearable within four years. Since recording, the picture's gotten even more interesting—his nominee for surgeon general just happens to be the co-founder of Levels, one of America's biggest CGM companies. So we're watching a classic pattern unfold: create the market through policy, then profit from the solution. It's the perfect grift dressed up as public health—mandate the metrics, monetize the anxiety, and call it prevention while you cut actual healthcare coverage.

Chapter Markers:

00:00 - Introduction & Setup

01:57 - Welcome & Guest Introduction

04:40 - The Unbundling of Medical Authority

06:39 - Trust Collapse in Healthcare Institutions

08:58 - From Mass Medicine to DIY Dosing

12:51 - The Pendulum Swings: Mass Production to Personalization

15:21 - Two Tiers of Health Seekers

21:29 - Enablers and Repellers of Change

23:32 - The Diagnostic-Therapy Gap

28:09 - Wearables and Biological Age

32:31 - The Interoception Problem

33:28 - Why Igor Doesn't Track

37:34 - The Wrong Path: AI Prescriptions

41:40 - Designing for Real Life

44:37 - The Evolution of Health Tech

47:57 - RFK Jr.'s Wearables for All Campaign

52:13 - Performance vs. Reality

55:17 - The Underrated Health Intervention

56:42 - Outro

Links:

• Stripe Partners: https://stripepartners.com/
• Cyril Maury on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyrilmaury/
• Pew Research Center
• Trust in Institutions Survey: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/
• BJ Fogg's Behavior Model: https://www.behaviormodel.org/
• John Oliver segment on MAHA and RFK Jr.: https://youtu.be/3lzfH86avIc?si=OR5S_QrbRBdu2VvT

You can also watch this episode on Youtube⁠

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Follow the Rabbit feels like eavesdropping on a fascinating conversation between two well-read friends at a Berlin coffee shop—smart without being pretentious, critical without being cynical, and deeply engaged with contemporary culture while maintaining historical perspective. The podcast occupies a unique space between trend forecasting, cultural criticism, and philosophical inquiry, delivered with warmth, humor, and genuine enthusiasm for understanding how the world works.

Follow the Rabbit is hosted by Igor Schwarzmann & Johannes Kleske

Find out more about ⁠⁠Igor Schwarzmann⁠⁠ 

Find out moire about ⁠⁠Johannes Kleske⁠⁠