What is social contagion and why it matters

Today we discuss the experience of returning home after timeway—culture shock, social media, and seeing your home with fresh eyes. Then a difficult set of topics: anorexia, physician assisted suicide, “terminal” diagnoses, social contagions, and what people have a right to do with their own lives. Finally: AI has been used to predict potentially useful drug combinations to fight cancer. What does this mean for the future of medicine, and AI?

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org

Free and confidential helpline for individuals and families facing mental disorders: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline

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Mentioned in this episode:

Denver Post op-ed on Jane Allen: https://www.denverpost.com/2025/10/02/assisted-suicide-was-offered-to-my-friend-jane-allen-she-had-an-eating-disorder-opinion/

Gaudiani et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa: three cases and proposed clinical characteristics. Journal of Eating Disorders, 10(1): 23: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3.pdf

Guarda et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa is a dangerous term: it cannot, and should not, be defined. Journal of eating disorders, 10(1): 79: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00599-6.pd

Mia Hughes’ tweet thread on social contagions: https://x.com/_CryMiaRiver/status/1491065839495544837

Laura Delano on DarkHorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18XtCdasn2Q&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEuZwhHfjXu3KH8MomS2N3zq&index=13

Laura Delano’s book, Unshrunk, excerpted at Natural Selections: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/informed-consent-in-the-land-of-psychiatric

How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway: https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemma-ai-cancer-therapy-discovery

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