For decades, Dr. Francis Collins has been at the forefront of the world's most advanced

biomedical research. He led the Human Genome Project and then went on to become the longest-serving

director of the National Institutes of Health, where he oversaw the country's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic. Collins has since retired, but is now drawing on his groundbreaking

career to focus on what he sees as the core pillars of wisdom during a time of deep

polarization. We sat down recently to discuss his new book, The Road to Wisdom on

truth, science, faith, and trust.

Dr. Francis Collins, welcome back to the news hour.

It's great to be here in your beautiful space.

Oh, thank you.

You said your goal in writing this book

was to turn the focus away from hyper-partisan politics and

back to what you see as the most important sources of wisdom. Truth, science, faith,

and trust. How did you settle on those four as the most important sources of wisdom?

Well Jeff I spent a lot of time in the public eye as an IH director and before that

the leader of the Human Genome Project and I have this vision of how science and truth can bring us into a place of less suffering and more flourishing.

But I couldn't help but notice in the last few years that we seem to have kind of lost our way

in some of these aspects.

We don't seem to agree about what objective truth is all about or even whether there is such

a thing.

Distrust of science has grown, even as there is such a thing. Distrust of science has grown,

even as science has been delivering some amazing things

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