Conceivable with Noor

Today we speak with Dr. Holly Pederson, Staff Physician and Director of Medical Breast Program at the Cleveland Clinic and associate professor at Cleveland Clinic, Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Pederson explains the genetics of breast cancer, the differences amongst available testing, and who should seek out testing. We also talk about how results from genetic testing can help inform your family planning, and Dr. Pederson shares how critical it is for patients to advocate for themselves when seeking out testing. 

Today we are joined by Julia and Kevin Hartz, Co-Founders of Eventbrite. Julia is now Eventbrite’s CEO and Kevin is a Co-Founder and General Partner of A*. Julia and Kevin join us today to talk about how they built Eventbrite, how they built their family at the same time with the birth of their two daughters, and how they are planning to expand their family more than a decade later with the help of Orchid’s embryo screening. We also talk about their parenting philosophy, how that may change for their future children, and the advice they have for people who are thinking about having children.

Our guest today is Dr. Jerry Lanchbury, PhD. He's the previous chief scientific officer at Myriad Genetics. He led teams that were responsible for major molecular diagnostic innovations across oncology, urology, rheumatology, and neuroscience. He has had an incomparable track record in driving molecular genetic discovery from ideation all the way to translation into some high value clinical diagnostics. Dr. Lanchbury shares the historical context and evidence supporting polygenic risk scores (PRS), helping us understand how PRS made its way into clinical practice to fight against various cancers. He also shares why he is excited about polygenic screening of embryos and gives advice for patients seeking genetic testing.

Economic writer Noah Smith and investor Stephanie Sher discuss modern dating challenges, gendered timelines for starting a family, and ways to improve the dating scene. They touch on work-life balance, evolving family dynamics, and the impact of societal beliefs on relationships.

Today our guest is Barry Behr, Ph.D., H.C.L.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility), Emeritus. Barry takes us behind the curtain, walking us through the process of IVF, including how eggs are retrieved from ovaries, how they’re fertilized with sperm, and how genetic testing is performed with the resulting blastocyst. He shares insights into the big advancements in IVF that have made the process so reliable, and what excites him about the future of IVF. Orchid is proud to support the critical fertility care that Dr. Behr and hundreds of others provide every single day.

Today we welcome Tim Urban on the show! Tim is the author of the wildly popular blog Wait But Why, author of the book What’s Our Problem, and is in the process of writing a new book. Tim shares insights about his Life Calendar, becoming a parent, procrastination, and some details about the book he is currently writing. We even talk a bit about why AI is such a challenge for our primitive hunter-gatherer brains, and his predictions about AI spouses.

Today our guest is Eugenia Kuyda, Founder and CEO of Replika. Replika is an AI chatbot that was made “with the idea to create a personal AI that would help you express and witness yourself by offering a helpful conversation.” Millions of users have interacted with Replika, and it’s known for building strong emotional relationships with users, especially helping those experiencing loneliness and social isolation. Eugenia tells us the story of how Replika came to be, what makes it unique among AI chatbots, and the difference between AI companions and AI assistants. We also talk about some of the real impacts Replika has had on users, learnings about the nature of friendship, and what our future with AI may look like.

Today our guest is Robin Hanson. He is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, an author, and writes his personal blog called Overcoming Bias. Robin joins us today to discuss how dramatically worldwide fertility rates are falling, the leading cultural causes affecting fertility rates, and what impact declining fertility rates will have on the world and economy of the future. In addition, he shares results of a X poll he ran, revealing what cultural factors the poll respondents are most willing to change in order to reverse falling fertility rates. You can read more from Robin on his blog, Overcoming Bias. https://www.overcomingbias.com 

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with George Church, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. George is a pioneer in the field of genetics and personal genomics, and has co-founded nearly 50 companies and advised dozens more in the last four decades. In 2017, George was listed in the Time 100, Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Noor asks George about what makes biotech companies successful in their transition from the lab to the market, what excites him about whole genome sequencing of embryos, what the world would look like if embryo screening and IVF was the default way of having children, and other work he is excited to see come to life in the coming years.

Our guest today is Rohan Seth. In 2018, Rohan and his wife Jen welcomed their daughter Lydia into the world. Shortly after birth, she began to have seizures, and within a few weeks it was discovered that she has a rare genetic mutation affecting her brain function. Rohan shares his family’s story, their perseverance in seeking answers as well as others with the same condition as Lydia’s, the lengths they went to in order to improve the prognosis for their daughter, and their journey with Orchid. Rohan Seth and Jen Fernquist Seth have set up Lydian Accelerator, a non-profit whose focus is to accelerate building a platform to help drive the development of technologies that are extremely effective at silencing these mutations at the source. Learn more at their website below. As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, donations are tax deductible. https://www.lydianaccelerator.org/