#347 – Peter’s takeaways on mastering sleep, dealing with chronic pain, developing breakthrough cancer drugs, transforming healthcare with AI, advancing radiation therapy, and healing trauma | Quarterly Podcast Summary #5

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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In this quarterly podcast summary (QPS) episode, Peter summarizes his biggest takeaways from the last three months of guest interviews on the podcast. Peter shares key insights from his discussions with Jeff English on the journey to healing from trauma; Ashley Mason on improving sleep and CBT-I; Sanjay Mehta on misconceptions around radiation and its use in cancer therapy and treating inflammatory conditions (such as arthritis and tendonitis); Sean Mackey on understanding and treating acute and chronic pain; and Susan Desmond-Hellmann on insights from her extraordinary career that pertain to the use of AI in medicine, understanding cancer, and the development of cancer therapeutics. Additionally, Peter shares any behavioral changes he’s made for himself or his patients as a result of these fascinating discussions.

If you’re not a subscriber and are listening on a podcast player, you’ll only be able to hear a preview of the AMA. If you’re a subscriber, you can now listen to this full episode on your private RSS feed or our website at the episode #347 show notes page. If you are not a subscriber, you can learn more about the subscriber benefits here.

We discuss:

Summary of episode topics [1:45];
Jeff English episode: how trauma shapes behavior and identity, and the value of understanding personal adaptations and working through unresolved emotional wounds [3:45];
Practical behavioral changes and emotional tools Peter has applied since the Jeff English episode [13:00];
Ashley Mason episode: treating insomnia using CBT-I and practical behavioral techniques for improving sleep quality [19:15];
When to seek professional care for sleep issues [30:30];
Sanjay Mehta episode: radiation therapy’s evolution, its underused potential in treating inflammatory conditions, and the cultural misconceptions surrounding radiation exposure [33:45];
Peter’s predictions and insights for the upcoming Formula 1 season [43:15];
Sean Mackey episode: the neuroscience, classifications, and treatment strategies for chronic pain, and the importance of personalized care [57:45];
Susan Desmond-Hellmann episode: how AI is revolutionizing medicine through advancements in drug development, biomarker discovery, and the potential of training models on private clinical data [1:05:45];
More from Susan Desmond-Hellmann: why cancer is so difficult to treat with drugs, the promise of immunotherapy, and the long-term hope for systemic treatments [1:14:00]; and
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone. Welcome to a sneak peek, Ask Me Anything, or AMA episode of the Drive podcast. I'm your host, Peter Attia.
0:17.3	At the end of this short episode, I'll explain how you can access the AMA episodes in full,
0:22.2	along with a ton of other membership benefits we've created.
0:24.9	Or you can learn more now by going to peteratia md.com forward slash subscribe.
0:30.5	So without further delay, here's today's sneak peek of the Ask Me Anything episode.
0:38.7	Welcome to another quarterly podcast summary episode of The Drive.
0:43.5	In today's quarterly podcast summary, I'll discuss what I learned from some of the recent
0:47.8	episodes of The Drive, focusing on what I think were the most important insights, as well
0:52.7	as any changes in my behaviors as a result.
0:55.6	This shouldn't be seen as a replacement for listening to or watching any of the original episodes,
1:00.8	but this may be a great way to reinforce things that you already saw, or at least point you back
1:04.9	to an episode you missed. In today's episode, we cover interviews that I did with Jeff English,
1:09.7	Ashley Mason, Sanjay,
1:11.4	Mette, Sean Mackie, and Sue Desmond Hellman. We revisit topics around trauma, therapy,
1:17.9	mental and emotional health, insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and improving
1:23.3	sleep, radiology, radiophobia, common misconceptions around it, how radiation is used in not just
1:31.9	cancer therapy, but also for treating inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and tendinitis,
1:38.0	pain, chronic pain, and how to treat them, and finally discussions around oncology, cancer drug development, and how AI is impacting
1:46.8	medicine now and possibly in the future. If you're a subscriber, anyone watch the full video of this
1:52.3	podcast, you can find it on our show notes page. If you're not a subscriber, you can watch the
1:57.3	sneak peek of the video on our YouTube page. So without further delay, I hope you enjoy this special quarterly podcast summary AMA of the Drive.
2:10.1	Peter, welcome to another quarterly podcast summary, Ask Me Anything episode with Peter Atia. How are you doing? Very well. You're excited to be here?
	...

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