Deep Dive with Dr. Francis S. Collins on Nature

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Show

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How much can we blame DNA for our depression and anxiety? Is something about our mental health pre-written into our genetic code? How much trauma carries over from one generation to the next? How should we think about epi-genetics? These were 4 of the 20 questions I brought to Dr. Francis Collins, the guy who let the team that mapped the human genome. There’s two things I want to say about this episode: I learned so much just studying for the interview and every minute I spent with Francis Collins was a total joy. He is a very special person — direct, deeply informed (maybe moreso on this topic than anyone else on Earth) and delightful. I am so excited to put his guy in your ear — a happy, loving man filled with purpose and eager to share what he knows (and doesn’t) for the greater good. And he laughs easily and a lot. So, I was getting hits of my dad the whole time. A heavenly experience that comes through in every minute of the conversation. Enjoy. (Previously aired) Thanks to PBS stations across the country for supporting Tell Me More. You can watch an edited video version of this conversation anytime at PBS.org/kelly. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders. I'm Kelly Corrigan, and today I'm wondering about our nature and how it affects our well-being.
0:12.9	My conversation partner is the hyper-intelligent, utterly delightful Dr. Francis Collins.
0:20.4	You know him. He was the director of the National
0:23.2	Institutes of Health spanning 12 years and three presidents. He also led the team of scientists
0:29.2	who mapped the human genome, a project which I would like to say came in two years and
0:34.8	$400 million under budget. I sat down with Francis in Washington, D.C.
0:39.4	for my PBS show, Tell Me More, to talk about how everything that's written in our DNA does
0:44.9	and does not affect our well-being over the course of our lives. Here's my conversation with Dr. Francis
0:51.4	Collins. So you led the phenomenally complex project of mapping the human genome?
0:59.2	I did.
1:00.2	When they first offered you the job, were you gung-ho or terrified?
1:03.6	I was terrified.
1:05.3	Yeah.
1:05.6	I was running a research lab at the University of Michigan.
1:08.7	I was pretty happy teaching medical students, taking care of patients,
1:12.6	and having a lab that was pursuing all kinds of interesting projects on genetic disease.
1:17.6	And the idea of walking away from all that to take on a, oh my God, government job,
1:23.6	which is what was going to be necessary to come to the National Institutes of Health and stand at the
1:30.0	helm of a project that about half the scientific community was opposed to.
1:34.4	Really?
1:34.9	Oh, yeah.
1:35.5	People have forgotten that.
	...

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