See the extended interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Josiah Zayner wants to teach you genetic engineering. For two reasons: 1. He thinks it’d be awesome. And 2: It would hurt Big Pharma. “Gene therapies can cure and treat diseases,” he explains. “We can engineer animals and plants to make fuels and food and crazy stuff. The applications are limitless. We just need people working on it. And the only reason people aren't is because there's that knowledge gap.” But the knowledge gap is something that can be fixed, right? All we have to do is educate people. And that’s the mission of Odin, Josiah’s company that helps you become a scientist without huge grants and a PhD. And if regular people learn how to make this stuff for themselves, we can stop relying on pharma companies. “The drug market is so messed up. These companies are only trying to make drugs that make money,” he laments. “We literally have a cure for a disease that is not being provided to people because drug companies think they can't get the price they deserve for it. How fucked up is that?” Josiah’s latest venture, which got him heavily censored on the internet, was engineering a Covid vaccine. “We found that those who had the vaccine were protected. And it was pretty crazy because I was like, wow, that's amazing data, right? Why isn't everybody jumping on this?” He and his team created a DNA (easier and cheaper than mRNA) vaccine and proved its effectiveness. This was in the summer of 2020. But it wasn’t the big drug companies’ vaccine. So they suppressed him. And only now, over a year later, are other countries finally starting to use it. About time, right? It’s one of our most interesting interviews with a curious experimenter who wants to teach us all to be scientists. It’s worth a listen. Plus, new Russiagate docs, Trump’s toad penis, and throwing shit at politicians. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ep. 256 | Talking to Kids about LGBTQ w/Elizabeth Urbanowicz