Extra: A Rockstar Chemist Wins the Nobel Prize

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi’s imaginative ideas for treating disease have led to ten start-ups. She talks with Steve about the next generation of immune therapy she’s created, and why she might rather be a musician.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is Steve Levitt, and I was so excited to hear the announcement earlier this week
0:07.0	that Carolyn Bertosi would share the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
0:12.2	And given that honor, it seems like the perfect time to re-publish my conversation with
0:15.8	Carolyn from March, and I have to say, Nobel Prize or no Nobel Prize, that episode is
0:22.4	one of my personal all-time favorites.
0:27.6	My guest today, Carolyn Bertosi, is an absolute superstar chemist.
0:32.6	She created a new field of chemistry called bio-orthogonal chemistry, and she's also
0:37.7	had a transformational impact in the area of glyobiology.
0:41.9	She's been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and won all sorts of awards, including
0:46.0	a MacArthur Genius grant.
0:47.9	And her ideas have been the basis for launching almost a dozen startups.
0:52.7	And if it is just the challenge, can we actually make a medicine that is like a lawnmower?
0:57.8	Can we actually make a tuberculosis diagnostic test from these fluorescent sugars?
1:04.9	Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.
1:10.6	Of all the guests I've had on this show, I would say Carolyn is the one whose work I understand
1:15.6	the least going into the conversation.
1:17.9	I tried reading a few of her academic papers, but I couldn't make any sense of them.
1:22.9	I'm really looking forward to the challenge of trying to keep up with her and learn something
1:27.2	new.
1:28.2	And if that fails, well, I guess we'll be reduced to talking about our favorite metal
1:32.3	bands, because believe it or not, in addition to her academic exploits in college, Carolyn
1:37.7	played in a band with legendary rage against the machine guitarist Tom Morello.
	...

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