4.6 • 68.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
David Fajgenbaum (Chasing My Cure, Every Cure) is an immunology researcher, professor, and author. David joins the Armchair Expert to discuss being recruited to play football at an assortment of Ivy League schools before ending up at Georgetown, the promise he made to his mother to pursue medicine before she passed away, and starting a foundation in his mom’s honor to help college students with grief. David and Dax talk about the sudden onset of symptoms that meant his liver and kidneys were shutting down, gaining 100 pounds of fluid almost overnight, and nearly dying multiple times amid a diagnosis of Castleman disease. David explains the decision to approach his illness with off-label drugs, putting himself into full remission with a drug used to prevent transplant rejections, and the current mission with non-profit Every Cure to treat other inflammatory diseases with existing medicine.
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| 0:00.0 | Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now. |
| 0:06.5 | Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:10.0 | Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:13.8 | Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Experts on Experts. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm Dan Shepard. |
| 0:19.0 | I'm Lily Padman. |
| 0:20.3 | Hi. |
| 0:21.0 | Today we have David Faganbaum, who is a physician, scientist, and best-selling author. |
| 0:26.4 | His books are chasing my cure, and we get it. |
| 0:30.9 | This is an incredible story of a guy who cured his own disease, that he was dying of, actively dying of. |
| 0:38.3 | And working hard on curing others. |
| 0:40.4 | It's, this is wild and so cool. |
| 0:43.5 | Very cool. |
| 0:44.2 | And he was a football stud. |
| 0:46.0 | Not what? |
| 0:46.6 | Talk about mixed messages. |
| 0:48.2 | And he was, went to college with the perfect 10, Charlie as you'll hear. |
| 0:52.0 | Yes. |
| 0:52.7 | Also, if you're moved by this episode, which I think you will be and you want to donate to |
| 0:57.2 | EveryCure, please go to www.org. |
| 1:01.6 | Please enjoy David Faganbaum. |
| 1:03.9 | Armchair expert is proud to have Alexa Plus as our presenting sponsor. |
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