In a wide-ranging conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel, the policymaking physician and medical gadfly, we discuss the massive effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. We also talk about the state of cancer care, mysteries in the gut microbiome, flaws in the U.S. healthcare system — and what a second Trump term means for healthcare policy.

SOURCES:
- Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost for Global Initiatives, co-director of the Health Transformation Institute, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

RESOURCES:
- "Obesity Drugs Would Be Covered by Medicare and Medicaid Under Biden Proposal," by Margot Sanger-Katz (The New York Times, 2024).
- "International Coverage of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: A Review and Ethical Analysis of Discordant Approaches," by Johan L. Dellgren, and Govind Persad, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel (The Lancet, 2024).
- The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma, by Mustafa Suleyman (2023).
- "The Significance of Blockbusters in the Pharmaceutical Industry," by Alexander Schuhmacher, Markus Hinder, Nikolaj Boger, Dominik Hartl, and Oliver Gassmann (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2022).
- Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (2014).
- "Why I Hope to Die at 75," by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (The Atlantic, 2014).
- "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals," by Ziad F. Gellad and Kenneth W. Lyles (The American Journal of Medicine, 2014).
- Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (2013).
- "Bounds in Competing Risks Models and the War on Cancer," by Bo E. Honoré and Adriana Lleras-Muney (Econometrica, 2006).

EXTRAS:
- "How to Fix Medical Research," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
- "The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
- "Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
- "Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2023).
- "Who Gets the Ventilator?" by Freakonomics Radio (2020).

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Washington Week with The Atlantic full episode, 11/28/25

PBS Washington Week with The Atlantic - Full Show

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