If there’s one person you’d want to talk to about immunology, the immune system and Covid, holes in our knowledge base about the complex immune system, and where the field is headed, it would be Professor Iwasaki. And add to that the topic of Women in Science. Here’s our wide-ranging conversation. A snippet of the video, Full length Ground Truths videos are posted here and you can subscribe. Ground Truths is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider...

“Where do I think the next amazing revolution is going to come? … There’s no question that digital biology is going to be it. For the very first time in our history, in human history, biology has the opportunity to be engineering, not science.” —Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO Aviv Regev is one of the leading life scientists of our time. In this conversation, we cover the ongoing revolution in digital biology that has been enabled by new deep knowledge on cells, proteins and genes, and the use of...

Professor Doudna was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier for their pioneering work in CRISPR genome editing. The first genome editing therapy (Casgevy) was just FDA approved, only a decade after the CRISPR-Cas9 editing system discovery. But It’s just the beginning of a much bigger impact story for medicine and life science. Ground Truths podcasts are now on Apple and Spotify. And if you prefer videos, they are posted on YouTube Transcript with...

Note: This podcast is a companion to the Ground Truths newsletter “A Big Week for GLP-1 Drugs” Eric Topol (00:06): It is Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and with me today is Dr. Daniel Drucker from the University of Toronto, who is one of the leading endocrinologists in the world, and he along with Joel Habener and Jens Juul Holst from the University of Copenhagen and Denmark, have been credited with numerous prizes of their discovery work of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) as we get to know...

Siddhartha Mukherjee is a Professor at Columbia University, oncologist, and extraordinary author of Emperor of All Maladies (which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize), The Gene, and The Song of the Cell, along with outstanding pieces in the New Yorker. He is one of the top thought leaders in medicine of our era. “I have begun to imagine, think about what it would be to be a digital human..”—Sid Mukherjee Eric Topol (00:06): Well, hello, this is Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and I am delighted...

There was so much to talk about—this is the longest Ground Truths podcast yet. Hope you’ll find it as thought-provoking as I did! Transcript, with audio and external links, edited by Jessica Nguyen, Producer for Ground Truths Video and audio tech support by Sinjun Balabanoff, Scripps Research Eric Topol (00:00:05): This is Eric Topol from Ground Truths, and I am delighted to have with me Holden Thorp, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the Science journals. We're going to talk about Science, not...

Transcript Eric Topol (00:06): Well, hello, this is Eric Topol with Ground Truths and I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Daphne Koller, the founder and CEO of insitro, and a person who I've been wanting to meet for some time. Finally, we converged so welcome, Daphne. Daphne Koller (00:21): Thank you Eric. And it's a pleasure to finally meet you as well. Eric Topol (00:24): Yeah, I mean you have been rocking everybody over the years with elected to the National Academy of Engineering and...

“A few years ago, I might have chuckled at the naiveté of this question, but now it's not so crazy to think that we will be able to take some sort of medicine to extend our healthy lifespans in the foreseeable future.”—Coleen Murphy Transcript with external links Eric Topol (00:06): Hello, this is Eric Topol from Ground Truths, and I'm just so delighted to have with me Professor Coleen Murphy, who has written this exceptional book, How We Age: The Science of Longevity. It is a phenomenal...

Transcript with audio and relevant external links, recorded on 6 Feb 2024 Eric Topol (00:05): Hello, this is Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and I have a remarkable guest with me today, Professor Michelle Monje, who is from Stanford, a physician-scientist there and is really a leader in neuro-oncology, the big field of cancer neuroscience, neuroinflammation, and she has just been rocking it recently with major papers on these fields, no less her work that's been on a particular cancer, brain...

Jim Collins is one of the leading biomedical engineers in the world. He’s been elected to all 3 National Academies (Engineering, Science, and Medicine) and is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology. In this conversation, we reviewed the seminal discoveries that he and his colleagues are making at the Antibiotics-AI Project at MIT. Recorded 5 February 2024, transcript below with audio links and external links to recent publications Eric Topol (00:05): Hello, it's Eric Topol with...

“The history of science, it turns out, is filled with stories of very smart people laughing at good ideas.”—Katalin Karikó Ground Truths podcasts are now available on Apple and Spotify! The list of obstacles that Kati Karikó faced to become a scientist, to make any meaningful discovery, to prevail over certain scientists and administrators who oppressed her, unable to obtain grants, her seminal paper rejected by all of the top-tier journals, demoted and dismissed, but...

Jonathan Howard is a neurologist and psychiatrist who practices at NYU-Bellevue and posts frequently on Science Based Medicine. Transcript, unedited, with links to audio Eric Topol (00:05): Well, hello, Eric Topol with Ground Truths and I'm really pleased to have the chance to talk with Jonathan Howard today, who is a neurologist and psychiatrist at NYU at Bellevue and has written quite an amazing book published a few months months ago called We Want Them Infected, so welcome...

is an award-wining entrepreneur and innovator in technology, especially A.I., a member of the editorial board of Harvard Business Review, and an outstanding communicator which makes him a frequent media guest and often featured in The Economist, WSJ, and Financial Times. is chock full of interesting analyses and podcasts on tech and A.I. Here’s his summary of our extended and fun discussion I hope you find our conversation interesting and informative. Get full access to Ground Truths at...

A snippet of our conversation below Transcript of our conversation 8 January 2023, edited for accuracy, with external links Eric Topol It’s a pleasure for me to have Liv Boeree as our Ground Truths podcast guest today. I met her at the TED meeting in October dedicated to AI. I think she's one of the most interesting people I’ve met in years and the first time I've ever interviewed a professional poker player who has won world championships and we're going to go through that whole story, so...

The science to advance our understanding of the aging process—and to potentially slow it down—has made important strides. One of the leading scientists responsible for this work is Professor Tony Wyss-Coray, whose work has particularly focused on brain aging but has implications for all organs. I believe his December 2023 Nature paper on blood proteins that can track aging for 11 of our organs is one of the most important aging reports yet. Here is the audio and transcript of our...

David Liu is an gifted molecular biologist and chemist who has pioneered major refinements in how we are and will be doing genome editing in the future, validating the methods in multiple experimental models, and establishing multiple companies to accelerate their progress. The interview that follows here highlights why those refinements beyond the CRISPR Cas9 nuclease (used for sickle cell disease) are vital, how we can achieve better delivery of editing packages into cells, ethical...

This is one of the most enthralling and fun interviews I’ve ever done (in 2 decades of doing them) and I hope that you’ll find it stimulating and provocative. If you did, please share with your network. And thanks for listening, reading, and subscribing to Ground Truths. Recorded 4 December 2023 Transcript below with external links to relevant material along with links to the audio ERIC TOPOL (00:00): This is for me a real delight to have the chance to have a conversation with Geoffrey...

“A.I. is not the problem; it’s the solution.”—Andrew Ng at TED, 17 October 2023 Recorded 21 November 2023 Transcript with relevant links and links to audio file Eric Topol (00:00): Hello, it's Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and I'm really delighted to have with me Andrew Ng, who is a giant in AI who I've gotten to know over the years and have the highest regard. So Andrew, welcome. Andrew Ng (00:14):  Hey, thanks Eric. It's always a pleasure to see you. Eric Topol (00:16): Yeah, we've had...

If you care about what you eat, you won’t want to miss this conversation! Chris Van Tulleken is an infectious disease physician-scientist in the UK’s National Health Service who has written a deeply researched masterpiece book on food—ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE. It’s not just about these synthetic and artificial UPF substances, that carry many health hazards, but also about our lifestyle and diet, challenging dogma about low carbs/glycemic index and the impact of exercise. Chris ate an 80% UPF...

In July, I reviewed Peter’s Outlive book here in Ground Truths and hoped I’d be able to interview him about my concerns. Here’s that conversation, recorded October 16th. I hope you’ll find it informative and stimulating! The AI generated transcript (unedited) below with links to the audio recording Eric Topol (00:01): Peter, it's really great to see you. I haven't been chance to visit since early 2020, and you introduced me to Topo Chico as a great way to get carbonated water. Are you still...

Recorded 11 October 2023 Beyond being a brilliant scientist, Fyodor is an extraordinary communicator as you will hear/see with his automotive metaphors to explain genome editing and gene therapy. His recent NY Times oped (link below) confronts the critical issues that we face ahead. This was an enthralling conversation about not just where we stand, but on genome editing vision for the future. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Transcript with key links Eric Topol (00:00): Well for me,...

Dr. Peter Hotez is a veritable force. He has been the tip of the spear among physicians and scientists for taking on anti-science and has put himself and his family at serious risk.Along with Dr. Maria Bottazzi, he developed the Corbevax Covid vaccine —without a patent— that has already been given to over 10 million people, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Here an uninhibited, casual and extended conversation about his career, tangling with the likes of RFK Jr, Joe Rogan, Tucker...

Few, if any, physician researchers have done more to understand the long-term impact of Covid than Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a professor, nephrologist, and epidemiologist along with his team at Washington University, St. Louis. Here is the transcript (with links to the audio) of our conversation that was recorded one 7 September 2023. Eric Topol (00:00): Welcome to Ground Truths, and this podcast is a special one for me. I get to meet professor Dr. Ziyad Ali for the first time, even though we've been...

Eric Topol (00:00): Hello, this is Eric Topol, and I'm thrilled to have a chance to have a conversation with Magdalena Skipper, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Nature. And a historic note. Back in 2018, she became the first woman editor of Nature in its 149 years, and only the eighth editor of all times. Having taken over for Philip Campbell, who had been previously the editor for 22 years, we're going to ask her if she's going to do 22 or more years, but we're going to have a fun conversation...