How David Fajgenbaum saved his own life — and thousands of others

I've got this vision for the future. I've got the people I love by my side. And then I'm gonna take it one breath at a time. Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant. Welcome back to Rethinking. My podcast on the science of what makes us tick with the TED Audio Collective. I'm an organizational psychologist.

and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people. to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking. My guest today is David Fegenbach. I've never met a more inspiring person. David's a physician scientist at Penn who saved his own life by repurposing a drug and testing it on himself.

Now his nonprofit, every cure. is use that method to save thousands of others. I think that most physicians and researchers they hear about a drug and they will say that is a diabetes drug. Well, no, it's not a diabetes drug. It is a drug that modulates this pathway and it has an effect in diabetes, and it also could have an effect in all these other things. AI is central to David's work. And it's hard to think of a more exciting use case for this technology. Just knowing he exists gives me hope, and I think he'll have the same effect on you. David, welcome to Rethinking. Thanks so much for having me.

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