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SXSW 2026: We’ve Been Building Health Apps Wrong - E92
15 Plays4 hours ago
A few weeks ago, I attended SXSW 2026 and walked away with a bunch of questions: What if the very way we’ve been designing health apps is the reason they fail most people?
Why do tools built to improve our wellbeing so often rely on perfect daily use - something almost no one can sustain?
After attending SXSW 2026, one thing became clear: the dominant model of digital health is broken. Measuring success by engagement, streaks, and time on app doesn’t reflect how humans actually behave - and it’s limiting real impact.
In this episode, I unpack the biggest insights from SXSW 2026 and explore a more human approach to health - one that embraces inconsistency, prioritizes meaningful behavior change, and rethinks what success in health tech should look like.
In this episode you will learn:
- Why South by Southwest (SXSW) is a hub for health, tech, and human behavior ideas.
- The role of city energy and culture in driving wellness innovation.
- How building real-life connections transforms business and health goals.
- Key takeaways on AI, digital health, and the future of behavior change.
- The latest thinking on women's health and GLP-1 medications.
- How simple, enjoyable routines make lasting changes in health and life.
Resources
- Connect with Andrew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandrewmcconnell
- Follow Alively on Instagram for regular updates and insights: https://www.instagram.com/alively_official
- Learn more about healthspan from Andrew’s blog: https://www.mandrewmcconnell.com/blog
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com
Recommended
Transcript
Opening Tribute and Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Tim spoke with me and Josh for quite a while. Other than my parents, there is not a single human on this earth who has had such a profoundly positive impact on my life as he has.
00:00:13
Speaker
His books, his podcasts, his way of thinking, they shape how I approach health, business, my relationships, everything.
00:00:24
Speaker
This is the Home of Healthspan podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
South by Southwest Highlights
00:00:38
Speaker
Welcome to a special solo episode of the Homo Healthspan podcast. This is a recap of our time at South by Southwest.
00:00:49
Speaker
So the thing that I did not realize going in, and the sessions are absolutely great. It's it's amazing, but they're almost secondary. What makes South by Southwest so special, at least for me, and what made this past week one of the most meaningful in my life is the people.
00:01:06
Speaker
And as someone building a company at the intersection of health, technology, and behavior change, the people I met this week are going to shape the future of what we're building at Alively for years to come.
Personal Connection to Austin
00:01:19
Speaker
So today gonna walk you through my first South by Southwest, the people, the ideas, the sessions, and the moments that are gonna stick with me. So I have to start with the city of Austin itself, because it's a city that means a lot to me. i first came Austin back in the summer of 2001 I had the privilege of training with Eddie Reese and the University of Texas swim team.
00:01:44
Speaker
And that summer we won a national championship. I have to admit, I had no contribution to why we won that. There were a bunch of amazing Olympians on that team and I got right on their coattails, but it was something really, really special.
00:01:59
Speaker
And then after 2020, something seemed to
Conference Sessions and Alively's Mission
00:02:02
Speaker
shift. So as someone who studied stoicism, when Ryan Holiday went to Bastrop and opened the Painted Porch Bookshop, and then Tim Ferriss relocated, and later Peter Tia relocated, and then obviously Elon with the Gigafactory, just all of a sudden started to feel like the gravitational center of my personal tech health and wellness universe was being centered in Austin. And I assumed I would someday live there sooner rather than later.
00:02:31
Speaker
So when my lively co-founder, Josh, who lives in Austin said, Hey man, you should really come out to South by Southwest. It took longer than it should have, but I finally said, yeah, let's let's do this.
00:02:42
Speaker
And it was... Incredible in so many ways. I mean, one it was our first time, mine and Josh is meeting in person, even though we'd been working together for nearly a year via Zoom. And boy, is he taller in person than in Zoom.
00:02:56
Speaker
But for context, this South by Southwest, even though it was my first, was the 40th anniversary of the conference. There were more than 250 sessions. AI was obviously the dominant topic across the board.
00:03:09
Speaker
But what really stood out to me was how much programming was dedicated to health, longevity, women's wellness in particular, and the intersection of technology and human behavior.
00:03:23
Speaker
That's our world at Alively. And it felt like the entire conference was speaking our language. And this wasn't just about sitting in conference rooms and listening to people talk. Every morning, Josh and I would go to Lyft ATX's gym there in Austin. It was a big open-air gym. loved it. Real community, real energy, great personality.
00:03:43
Speaker
If you're in Austin, I highly suggest you check it out and you can get day passes.
Education Technology and Networking
00:03:47
Speaker
It's fantastic gym. And from there, each day would throw us in it. So the the first day was Thursday for the conference. The night before, met with big a big, lively partner. More to come on that soon. But the sessions Thursday started, for me, really focused on ed tech. As a father, as someone who serves on several education boards, this was something i'm very interested in, girls in STEM, but also the future of AI in education. And so i had the pleasure of visiting
00:04:17
Speaker
the Alpha School, the the original, they have a downtown campus and was able to learn that they're coming and doing an event April 1st in Atlanta. And so for Tallulah's sake, I'm excited to go learn more about that.
00:04:30
Speaker
And so did number of sessions that day. But that night, what was really interesting was some friends of ours at ATX Mentor Partners hosted an event with a bunch of founders and investors and interesting people building all sorts of amazing things. But the the most excited was when I met Emma.
00:04:47
Speaker
And when I told her what we were doing at Alively, she's English and said, I was doing this at King's College 25 years ago and I sold that company. And I'm really excited what you're building because it's you know several generations on from what I was doing a quarter century ago.
00:05:02
Speaker
And she's on a board in Atlanta. And needless to say, we have already scheduled some time to to grab coffee next time she's here. So I'm looking forward to that. Friday, other than our Lyft ATX, the the big highlight for me was going to Nir Eyal's session.
00:05:18
Speaker
So he has a a new book out, which I recommend everybody get. I, of course, got a signed copy. But you may know Nir from his book, Hooked. It's one of the best product books of all time and has been instrumental in how we think about and design a livelihood. This is literally where the minimum enjoyable action came from. They say, good artists borrow, great artists steal.
00:05:42
Speaker
We stole that line. ah the minimum enjoyable action directly from Near. And so hearing him speak was a real pleasure. Being able to meet him after in his graciousness and generosity and, hey, here's my personal email. I love what you're doing. Let's stay in touch.
00:05:58
Speaker
I was blown away. And I can say that all Alively customers, clients, users are going to be the beneficiary of getting Near's
Designing Health Products
00:06:06
Speaker
involvement today. with the product because it's going to be so much better as a result. But it doesn't stop there because one of Nir's good friends, former colleagues from Stanford, was sitting in the audience, so started talking to her. Stefa Beef is ah amazing product person in her own right, was of product at Tandem before, now the head of ai health coaching at Google and a behavioral scientist. And I did not realize it at the time when I was talking to her and just amazed by everything she was doing.
00:06:36
Speaker
but hers was the session i was most a lively oriented, looking forward to the entire conference. and It was on digital health engagement designed for intermittent use.
00:06:49
Speaker
And I want to spend a minute on this because I think it's an important idea for a health tech right now. So the conventional wisdom with digital health is it's just like other apps that you build. You build an app, you optimize for daily active users and time on app. You measure success by how often someone opens it and uses it. And so engagement equals retention equals impact.
00:07:12
Speaker
But Steph's argument, and I think she's absolutely right because she's far smarter than me, is that the model is broken for health. Humans are inconsistent. That's not a bug. That's a feature of being a human being.
00:07:26
Speaker
And if you design a health product that only works if someone uses it perfectly every day, you've designed a product that's going to fail most people. Instead, she argues you need to design for intermittent use, design for the reality that people will drift in and out, build products that meet people where they are, not where you wish they were.
00:07:46
Speaker
The idea is core to what we believe at Alively. And speaking with Steph afterwards, I think there's some incredible work we can and will
AI's Role in Health and Human Presence
00:07:55
Speaker
do together. And I can't wait to show all of you what comes with it.
00:08:00
Speaker
I want to zoom out for a second here because there is a tension that came up frequently during the conference between this data collection and actual behavior change. And it was a thread running through the conference.
00:08:13
Speaker
South by Southwest had a whole healthcare innovation stage this year with sessions on AI and clinical trials, wearable data, interoperability, personalized preventative care.
00:08:24
Speaker
the The technology to track everything about your health is here. The question everyone's now asking is, does tracking actually change behavior? And the answer increasingly is only if you design for real humans and help them know what that behavior change needs to be and support them in doing it. That is the work. And that's the work, especially of a lively.
00:08:47
Speaker
So Saturday, i'm just going to say it was my Super Bowl of the week. I got invited to an event with Tim Ferriss. Thanks to my good friend, Renee Fitton from Prolon.
00:09:00
Speaker
um Tim was having a conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos, a If you don't know her, you should. She teaches the most popular course in Yale's 300-year history on the science of happiness.
00:09:14
Speaker
And she hosts the Happiness Lab podcast. and She is the world's expert on happiness. If you have not taken her class on happiness, you should. It's free. I did it in 2020 with a number of friends, and my life is better for it.
00:09:29
Speaker
The conversation was one, like so many others, about AI, but it wasn't the typical AI is coming for your job or here's how to be more productive with AI, which you might expect from Tim, right? Very much on productivity.
00:09:42
Speaker
The framing was essentially in an age where AI can do more and more of the things we used to do. What becomes most valuable? What do we actually want AI to do? And the answer for both of them was, think about what it means to be human, about presence, about slowing down, about asking better questions, reclaiming the parts of being a human being that technology can't replace.
00:10:09
Speaker
I thought that was really powerful, especially at a conference geared around technology. The the broader AI conversation at South by Southwest this year was refreshingly human-centered.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, there were sessions on AI-powered bionics and squeezing more productivity from AI, AI triage and drug approvals and clinical research. But the through line was AI is a tool for humans and not meant to replace our humanity, but it also requires us deliberately using these tools and and knowing when they are helpful and when they are detrimental and being thoughtful about that.
00:10:46
Speaker
So after getting to hear Tim have this conversation, Tim spoke with me and Josh for quite a while. And I was able to share with him something I've wanted to say for years. And I've told many people that Other than my parents, there is not a single human on this earth who has had such a profoundly positive impact on my life as he has.
00:11:09
Speaker
His books, his podcasts, his way of thinking, they shape how I approach health, business, my relationships, everything. Meeting him was a true dream come true.
00:11:21
Speaker
And he did not disappoint. He was incredibly present, gracious. It was incredible. But the hits didn't stop there. ah So Sunday's mega event was Adam Grant and Brene Brown announcing a new podcast together, The Curiosity Shop. And if you were designing something that would appeal to my sensibilities, you couldn't do it better than this show but and the name, The Curiosity Shop. What could be better than that?
00:11:51
Speaker
The whole thesis is about slowing down, asking better questions, embracing complexity over easy answers. It's very similar to what Tim and Laurie had discussed the day before.
Panel Discussions on Health Solutions
00:12:02
Speaker
um But here's the thing as a live event,
00:12:06
Speaker
they were so deep and moved so fast because they're, they're both so brilliant that I had a hard time keeping up. So I, you know, am used to hearing a lot on podcasts.
00:12:17
Speaker
And so I told Adam after, I'm really glad this was recorded and I'm really happy afterwards. This is going to be a podcast because these are the kinds of conversations I want to be able to pause. I want to be able to rewind and sit with and and go over and over. And as cool as it is to see them and meet them and hang out in person, ah being able to sit with their ideas longer like you can with their books is something I'm really looking forward to. So if you do not subscribe to the Curiosity Shop yet, it just launched and you should. You should download the episode one, maybe two is out now and and subscribe. It's incredible.
00:12:54
Speaker
The Most substantively impactful sessions I'm going to now cover. So the probably not surprisingly with Eli Lilly or quote Lilly being the big sponsor for the health track, GLP-1 medications were a major trend and subject to conversation at the conference.
00:13:17
Speaker
And the single best panel I saw all week on this was one focused on GLP-1s and women's health that featured McCall McPherson, Dr. Shannon Ritchie, Dr. Natalie Crawford, and Dr. Jessica Shepard.
00:13:32
Speaker
And these four women went deep on the promise and the danger of GLP-1s across a range of contexts, fertility, menopause, metabolic health. And there were a few things that really stuck with me. One, GLP-1s are not a one-size-fits-all.
00:13:48
Speaker
The impact on women's health specifically, hormonal balance, fertility, bone density, it's nuanced and it's still being understood. And this is not just a take the shot and start losing weight situation.
00:14:01
Speaker
The second, and this is a big one, the importance of building and maintaining lean muscle mass while on GLP-1s cannot be overstated. The risk of losing muscle along with fat is real and it has long-term consequences for metabolic health, bone density, and longevity.
00:14:18
Speaker
As Dr. Shepard put it, I'm going to quote her directly because it was a line the entire conference that everybody really stuck with was, quote, everyone should lift heavy shit.
00:14:32
Speaker
I mean, yeah, that's it. That's the message. Lift heavy shit. um Wednesday, the final day of the conference, brought another incredible panel and meeting another mentor from a bar and hero, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, who is with Dr. Poonam Desai and Caleb Barnes-Lentz and all moderated by Lauren Cuttshaw.
00:14:53
Speaker
They covered GLP-1s, weight training, HRT, so many other topics relevant to what we cover in HealthSpan specifically with women's health. And what struck me about both of these panels is they represent a broader movement that South by Southwest highlighted this year, it's sometimes called Her Health, the the recognition that nutrition, fitness, wellness solutions, and more need to be designed for women across life stages, not just retrofitted from a male-centered relationship. research perspective that's overdue. And I'm glad that conferences like South by Southwest are giving it the platform it deserves.
00:15:31
Speaker
But like I said, it's not just about the sessions and panels, it's also the the people. And I'd be doing this week a disservice if I only talked about the sessions, because some of the most meaningful moments happened outside the convention center.
00:15:46
Speaker
Friday and Sunday nights, Josh and I were at Eric Hinman's house. If you know Eric, you know he is the quintessential connector in health and wellness. Around his pool and in and out of his sauna, I met Matt Vincent and Bonnie Schroeder.
00:16:01
Speaker
Matt is someone I could and kind of did talk to for days. We kept running into each other, always near a sauna, naturally, and every conversation went deeper than the last.
00:16:12
Speaker
Saturday morning, Josh and I had skipped the gym and did a six mile run along Lady Bird Lake. To have that kind of trail along the water right at the footstep of downtown is something special. Austin is just an incredible city.
00:16:29
Speaker
And I also, that Saturday afternoon, got to do a long walk and talk with my friend Scott Hickel, who is the founder of Throne. They have built what they call the first wearable for your toilet. it attracts hydration, digestion, and gut health.
00:16:42
Speaker
And this is something i've wanted for years. My mom at my age had stage three colon cancer. And so I'm personally grateful for Scott building this with his team.
00:16:55
Speaker
And if you haven't checked them out, they've recently
Personal Experiences Outside the Conference
00:16:57
Speaker
launched. You really should. it is the future of personalized health and wearables, I believe. Monday night inevitably was more sauna time, this time hosted at Bathe in Austin thanks to Laura Vonius and the team of Audison.
00:17:13
Speaker
There were so many of my friends there, obviously. Renee from Prolon, Matt and Bonnie came, Steph, and she brought her friend Chrissy, who's now building an app for educating people.
00:17:24
Speaker
girls about the whole menstrual cycle and preparing them for that. And then one of my very, very best friends, the current chief communications officer for Lily, Sarah Mahoney came into town. And so she met us there and it was just a great night.
00:17:40
Speaker
I, I would be remiss about another connection. I had nothing to do with South by Southwest, but one of my other very, very good friends from college, Pat Noonan, who just took the job as CFO of X Games, lives in Austin. And as wonderful it was to see him and to have our always existential spiritual conversations, I think he would not be surprised to know that the highlight for me was meeting his six-month-old massive pup, Mabel.
00:18:07
Speaker
She is precious.
Alively's Development and Future Plans
00:18:10
Speaker
And so what does all this mean for Alively? So i I want to bring this together because it wasn't just a fun week, though it was.
00:18:18
Speaker
This week changed how I think about what we're building and doing between Eyal's behavioral frameworks, Dr. Stephan Beef's work on designing for intermittent use, the GLP One panels reinforcing the importance of lean mass and personalized approaches, and the broader AI conversation about technology serving humanity rather than replacing it, I feel like Alively is exactly where we should be. We're building at the intersection of all these ideas. A product that uses behavioral science to help people make small, enjoyable changes that compound over time.
00:18:54
Speaker
A product that doesn't punish you for being inconsistent because That's what being human looks like. A product that will soon integrate with a wider range of devices to give our corporate clients even more personalized insights.
00:19:07
Speaker
And there'll be more to come on that soon. um Thanks to a number of very productive meetings and conversations this past week. I also found a new partner this week who will enable us to add a wide range of devices to our corporate offering.
00:19:23
Speaker
Again, all for free to our corporate clients. And the conversation with Dr. Habif about collaboration, I think that's going to be something really special. So please stay tuned.
00:19:35
Speaker
The conference ended with a lunch with Josh and Renee at The Well, recommended of course by Eric Hinman. um If you ever go to Austin, eat here. We all raved about it afterwards, not just the food and how delicious it was, but also how great we felt after, which honestly is the perfect metaphor for the whole week.
00:19:53
Speaker
I'm heading home with new friends, new partners, new ideas, and more questions than I had when I arrived. And that's the definition of good life, asking better questions. My first South by Southwest, definitely not my last. I'll be back in 51 weeks, but I'll probably be back to Austin sooner.
00:20:11
Speaker
thank you for watching if this is resonated please share it with someone who needs to hear it and if you're not subscribed to the home of health stra yet you know what to do Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast.
00:20:23
Speaker
And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on Alively.com. Enjoy a lively day.