Building Humana, Caregiving, and Leadership Lessons with David Jones
The Mike Litton Experience
Mike Litton
5.0 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 122 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this powerful and deeply human episode of The Mike Litton Experience, Mike Litton sits down with David Jones—venture capitalist, civic leader, healthcare innovator, and son of David A. Jones Sr., the co-founder of Humana.
David shares an extraordinary journey that spans building one of America’s largest healthcare companies, navigating the complex realities of caregiving at the end of life, and learning timeless leadership lessons shaped by service, entrepreneurship, and family legacy.
Viewers will gain rare insight into:
The founding and growth of Humana, from nursing homes to hospitals to insurance
Leadership under pressure and the importance of decisive action
The broken complexity of the U.S. healthcare system—through the lens of a caregiver
The critical role of palliative care and care coordination
Loneliness, resilience, and hope for caregivers
David’s venture capital work and commitment to meaningful innovation
The story behind his father’s memoir, Always Moving Forward
Civic leadership, philanthropy, and building a legacy that lasts generations
This episode is raw, thoughtful, and deeply relevant for anyone interested in leadership, healthcare, entrepreneurship, caregiving, or making a meaningful impact.
Subscribe to The Mike Litton Experience for more conversations that challenge, inspire, and elevate the human experience.
Like, comment, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So I guess my overwhelming sentiment is just there's more work to do. |
| 0:08.1 | And plus, this stuff is wildly expensive compared to, and let me get a little bit to the punchline because eventually with my dad, he was not able to stay at home. That was what he wanted. We tried. But the |
| 0:26.6 | complexity was overwhelming. These experiences caring for our loved ones when they're coming to the end of life. |
| 0:36.8 | You know, I was my dad's caregiver when he got an unexpected cancer diagnosis. |
| 0:43.2 | And, you know, what I learned as that, and, you know, he had great medical care, great nursing care. |
| 0:50.7 | I was the coordinator, but I was trying to manage and to help them stay in, my parents stay at |
| 0:57.2 | home together. And, you know, my focus now is really on finding innovators, the innovators of today |
| 1:08.0 | in making it possible for people to get what they want. |
| 1:12.7 | So the first part of the book is the early years. Can you talk about that part for a second? |
| 1:20.6 | Well, you know, I think the summary is, you know, my dad was born in 1931. So right as the depression was really, really, really |
| 1:33.9 | underway. You know, his dad, both his parents were first generation in the city, in from the |
| 1:41.8 | countryside, not very far from the city. But, you know, his dad was a laborer, |
| 1:52.1 | you know, just a, you know, he could fix anything, he could do anything with his hands, but he was a |
| 1:58.3 | general laborer. And he didn't work in the Depression steadily at all |
| 2:04.2 | until World War II. Did you know there's a technology that's actually an app on your phone |
| 2:09.2 | that uses sound waves to tell your brain what you want your brain to do? We had a young man |
| 2:14.7 | that was a guest on our podcast, the Mike Litton experience, who had a traumatic |
| 2:18.5 | brain injury. He was sleeping three hours a night. He's using Newcom now and he's sleeping more. |
| 2:23.6 | Go to Newcom.com, Mike 15 promo code. Newcom promo code Mike 15 for an extra 15% off. Go today. |
| 2:32.3 | Welcome to the Mike Litton Experience podcast. Everyone has a story and our |
| 2:38.4 | passion is to help them tell it. Mike is passionate about being a father, a teacher, a realtor, |
| 2:45.0 | an investor, and a leader. And now introducing the host of the Mike Litton experience, Mike Litton. |
... |
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