There’s a new $6 billion-dollar industry. Its global market size is expected to increase to $100 billion within the decade. No, it’s not a fancy new app or a revolutionary gadget: it’s weight-loss drugs.
Just a few years ago no one had even heard the word Ozempic. Almost overnight, the drug previously used to treat type 2 diabetes became a household name. Healthcare providers wrote more than 9 million prescriptions for Ozempic and similar drugs in the last three months of 2022 alone. By the end of the decade, 30 million people are predicted to be on it. For comparison, that means that Ozempic is on track to do as well as birth control pills and Prozac—a blockbuster medication.
A little over a year ago we had a fiery debate on Honestly about these revolutionary weight-loss drugs and our cultural understanding of obesity. On one side of the debate, people saw Ozempic as the golden answer we’ve been searching for. After all, obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer. It causes diabetes, and it’s linked to dementia, heart disease, knee and hip problems, arthritis, and high blood pressure, which causes strokes. In short: when you crunch the numbers, drugs like Ozempic seem to be lifesaving.
On the other hand was another argument: Why are we putting millions of people on a powerful new drug when we don’t know the risks? Plus, isn’t this a solution that ignores why we gained so much weight in the first place? In other words: Ozempic is not a cure for obesity; it’s a Band-Aid.
A year later, all of those questions are still up for debate. Our guest today, journalist Johann Hari, has spent the last year trying to find answers, traveling the world investigating weight-loss drugs, and. . . taking them himself.
In his latest book, Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs, Johann investigates what we know and what we don’t know about how these drugs work, their risks and benefits, how our food system sets us up to fail, and how movements like “fat pride” and “healthy at any size” have completely altered the conversation.
So on today’s episode: How do these new drugs impact our brains, our guts, and our mood? What are the hidden risks? Are they really a permanent solution to the obesity crisis? Or are they merely a quick fix that do little to address the root causes of obesity? With over 70 percent of Americans today classified as overweight or obese and the average American adult weighing nearly 25 pounds more today than they did in 1960, how did we get here in the first place? And why aren’t we addressing that problem, too?
Julia Balbilla is an accomplished poet and close friend of the wife of one of Rome’s mightiest emperors. Hadrian loves to travel and takes Julia and an entourage of thousands on the ultimate elite tourist trip- a leisurely Nile cruise to the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Colossus of Memnon, a statue that will sing for anyone blessed by the gods. Julia inscribes her poems on the giant foot of the statue, praising the power of Hadrian and the beauty of his wife, Sabina.
It’s a charming scene, darkened only by the fact that Hadrian’s male lover, Antinous has only just drowned in the Nile. Was he murdered by jealous rivals, killed in a lover’s tiff or did he drunkenly slip from the deck? Hadrian is publicly bereft, founding a new city in the name of Antinous, but seems happy to continue his luxury cruise. Mary Beard hops aboard Ancient Rome's most intriguing cruise with historian T. Corey Brennan and archaeologist Elizabeth Fentress.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Expert Contributors: Corey Brennan, Rutgers University and Lisa Fentress
Beneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the highs and horrors of Europe’s greatest empire.
Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six citizens of the Roman Empire, from a poet to a squaddie. Her investigations reveal death and deceit on the Nile and the art of running a Roman pub, but it’s the thoughts and feelings of individual Romans she’s really interested in.
It's 61CE. The rebellion of Boudicca has finally been quashed, but London and other Roman cities lie in ruins. A new finance officer for the province, Gaius Julius Classicianus arrives, to face an enormous recovery job. Standing in his way is the Governor, busy exacting terrible reprisals from the local population. Classicianus does what brave subordinates have done ever since. He whistle-blows – writing to the emperor to remove the Governor from British shores. The stage is set for an imperial face-off. For the people of Britain, the stakes could not be higher.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Expert Contributors: Matthew Nicholls, University of Oxford and Michael Marshall, Museum of London Archaeology
We're talking about a tornado outbreak in the plains and the threat that's sticking around today.
Also, Israel began its controversial invasion of southern Gaza, and American universities are doing more to control crowds protesting the Gaza war.
Plus, Boeing is facing fresh scrutiny over missed inspections, new research could pave the way for new Alzheimer's treatment, and a country music legend has gotten his voice back thanks to AI.
Those stories and more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Hanson studied four historical examples of wartime extinction that he features in the book. Then he applies those lessons to contemporary society to examine our own vulnerabilities. The book is on sale today, and Hanson spoke with The Daily Signal to share his observations along with some advice about what’s at stake for the United States in the short term.
Ceasefire negotiations hit a major sticking point as Israel prepares an invasion of Rafah over Joe Biden's objections. Judge Merchan holds Donald Trump in contempt again and warns that jail time may be necessary to enforce the rules. Trump holds a retreat at Mar-a-Lago where he compares the Biden administration to Nazis and holds another public audition for running mate. Noted puppy-killer Kristi Noem gets a mention, and so does Sen. Mike Lee's hair. Then, Vote Save America's Shaniqua McClendon stops by to discuss the big launch of Organize or Else—the easiest and most effective way to get involved in this election.
Ready to take action? Volunteer with Vote Save America at https://votesaveamerica.com/2024
Grab your tickets for Lovett or Leave It's weekly live show in Los Angeles! Special guest hosts include: Andy Richter, Larry Wilmore, Matt Rogers, Ian Karmel, Langston Kerman and Guy Branum. Dates & Tickets: https://crooked.com/events/
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Poet Ocean Vuong's collection,Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told NPR's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost his mother: "when I look at my life since she died in 2019, I only see two days: Today when she's not here, and the big, big yesterday when I had her."
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Will talks to Anny Viloria Winnett, a UAW 4811 ASE Trustee, Graduate Student Worker at the UCLA School of Public Health, and an organizer involved with UCLA’s pro-Palestinian encampments. They discuss last week’s violent assaults on the UCLA encampments, first from a group of Zionist vigilantes and subsequently by the LAPD. They then discuss the university’s response, keeping the movement resilient and safe in the face of such opposition, and some answers for all the media who want to know “why are you here?”
