Today on the podcast, an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, originally held yesterday off the air

as part of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation seminar to help WNYC do better health reporting. But he also

gave us permission to air the interview, so here it is. It's Brian Lehrer, and this is my daily

politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Tuesday, June 23rd.

So Anthony Fauci was born on Christmas Eve, 1940, in Brooklyn, not in Bethlehem,

but he got educated in the city's Catholic school system, including the Jesuit-run Regis High School in Manhattan.

He says he took a bus and three subway lines to get to high school every day.

He went to a Jesuit college to Holy Cross, which I think is in Worcester Mass.

In one interview I read, he gave a lot of credit to Jesuit training in precision of thought

and economy of expression

for being able to communicate science to allay audience as clearly as he does.

For those of you from the neighborhood with very long memories,

his parents owned the Fauci Pharmacy in Dyker Heights.

Oh, those Fauci's.

He is, of course, director of the National Institute

of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he was appointed to during President Ronald Reagan's

first term. He was awarded our nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom,

by President George W. Bush, in 2008. Coincidentally or not, Dr. Ben Carson was

given the same honor by President Bush in the same ceremony. So Dr. Fauci, we are so honored that

you would join us today for this to help us do a better job at reporting on health. Welcome to WNYC.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

...