What do accidental career pivots and the fight for policy change have in common? Everything, according to Eric Pachman. We show him a clip from our conversation with Eric Markowitz and Elie Jacobs about serendipity and creating things that last - and watch Eric explain how he's become a professional hopscotcher, landing in a chemical engineer-turned-data-activist role. His latest/upcoming project, Data 4 The People, investigates why SNAP is so underutilized relative to poverty, and what that reveals about us - but the real spine of this episode is Eric's reframed life around doing work that won't be finished in his lifetime: "Everything I've done is trying to fill a void. Now that I realize the void can't be filled, what can I do that lasts beyond my lifetime?"
February 21, 2026
