60. Cassandra Quave Thinks the Way Antibiotics Are Developed Might Kill Us

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

By mid-century, 10 million people a year are projected to die from untreatable infections. Can Cassandra, an ethnobotanist at Emory University convince Steve that herbs and ancient healing are key to our medical future?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've known a lot of scientists and two things almost all of them have in common are an
0:10.6	absolute uncompromising belief in the power of modern scientific thinking and a complete
0:16.3	disdain for full wisdom.
0:18.7	So I couldn't help but be intrigued when I first heard about Cassandra Cueve.
0:23.4	She's a leading scientist working in antibiotic resistance who also believes in the power
0:28.7	and wisdom of traditional healers.
0:31.1	Is she deluded or might shame and play a critical role in safeguarding the health of humanity?
0:38.2	We have this idea that modern medicine is the best medicine there ever is or ever will
0:43.2	be, but what many people don't realize is that modern medicine is only possible because
0:50.2	it was built off of traditional medicine.
0:54.5	Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.
1:02.7	Professor Cassandra Cueve in ethno-botnist of Emory University tells her story in an amazing
1:08.2	new memoir entitled The Plant Hunter.
1:11.1	Her right leg was amputated when she was three years old and a subsequent staff infection
1:15.7	nearly killed her.
1:17.6	Antiratic saved her life as a child and now she's on the hunt for new antibiotics and
1:21.8	doing it in a way that's all her own.
1:29.2	I'd love to start with the issue of antibiotic resistance.
1:32.9	I've never really taken it very seriously until I started reading your book The Plant
1:37.4	Hunter.
1:38.4	Do you have the facts about how many people die each year because of drug resistant bugs
1:42.6	and what the projections are for say the year 2050?
	...

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