The following is a conversation with Francis Collins, director of the NIH, the National Institutes of Health,

appointed and reappointed to the role by three presidents, Obama, Trump, and Biden.

He oversees 27 separate institutes and centers, including NIAD, which makes him Anthony Fauci's boss.

At the NIH, Francis helped launch and led a huge number of projects that pushed the frontiers of science, health, and medicine,

including one of my favorites, the Brain Initiative, that seeks to map the human brain and understand how the function arises from the neural circuitry.

Before the NIH, Francis led the Human Genome Project, one of the largest and most ambitious efforts in the history of science.

Given all that, Francis is a humble, thoughtful, kind man, and because of this, to me, he's one of the best representatives of science in the world.

He is a man of God, and yet, also a friend of the late Christopher Hitchens, who called him, quote, one of the greatest living Americans.

And now, a quick few seconds summary of the sponsors. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast.

First is 10,000, clothes I like to wear for lifting cardio and grappling. Second is all form. My go-to furniture company.

Third is simply safe. The home security company I use. Fourth is N.I., a company that helps engineers solve the world's toughest problems.

And fifth is Magic Spoon, low carb, keto-friendly cereal. So the choice is fashion, furniture, security, engineering, or delicious low carb cereal. Choose wise in my friends.

And now, onto the full ad reads, as always, no ads in the middle. I do try to make these interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out the sponsors I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too.

This show is brought to you by 10,000, maker of high quality, well-fitting, comfortable training clothes. I wear their foundation shorts for lifting cardio and I wear their fight shorts for training Jiu-Jitsu and grappling.

It's much easier and I would say more fun to see grappling is just a mindless workout. It's nice to get a sweat in, to roll around all that kind of stuff.

But progress is made when you think, especially when you put yourself in bad positions, when you're working your weak points, and you use your mind to solve the puzzles of those weak points.

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It's easy to assemble, it looks beautiful, it feels amazing. I love it. I have a black leather love seat that is actually big enough for two people to sit not awkwardly on.

I shared with a bunch of guests as we kind of talk about life and all those kinds of things. One that stands out in my memory, I think, is Michael Mellus, where we hung out for a bunch of hours after our conversation.

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