#189 – COVID-19: Current state of affairs, Omicron, and a search for the end game

In this episode, Peter sits down with Drs. Marty Makary and Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD), both previous guests on The Drive. Marty is a Johns Hopkins professor and public health researcher and ZDoggMD is a UCSF/Stanford trained internist and the founder of Turntable Health. This episode, recorded on December 27, 2021, was in part inspired by … Read more

#187 – Sam Apple: The Warburg Effect—Otto Warburg’s cancer metabolism theory

Sam Apple is the author of the book Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection, published in May 2021. In this episode, Sam describes the fascinating life story of Otto Warburg, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who, despite being both Jewish and gay, survived Nazi Germany because of his valuable research … Read more

#186 – Patrick Radden Keefe: The opioid crisis—origin, guilty parties, and the difficult path forward

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling author of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. In this episode, Patrick tells the story of the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma – makers of the pain management drug OxyContin, providing the backdrop for the ensuing … Read more

#185 – Allan Sniderman, M.D.: Cardiovascular disease and why we should change the way we assess risk

Allan Sniderman is a highly acclaimed Professor of Cardiology and Medicine at McGill University and a foremost expert in cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this episode, Allan explains the many risk factors used to predict atherosclerosis, including triglycerides, cholesterol, and lipoproteins, and he makes the case for apoB as a superior metric that is currently being … Read more

#183 – James Clear: Building & changing habits

James Clear is the author of the New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits. His extensive research into human behavior has helped him identify key components of habit formation and develop the “Four Laws of Behavioral Change.” In this episode, James provides insights into how both good and bad habits are formed, including the influence of genetics, environment, … Read more

#182 – David Nutt: Psychedelics & Recreational Drugs

David Nutt is a psychiatrist and a neuroscientist at Downing College, Cambridge.  His research focuses on illicit drugs—their harm, classification, and potential for therapeutic use in psychiatry. In this episode, David discusses his framework for assessing the potential harm caused by common recreational drugs and explains how they are regulated, which is oftentimes misaligned with actual … Read more