Fmr. NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

CBS

News, Comedy, Comedy Interviews, News Commentary, Tv & Film

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, talks about the devastating consequences of President Trump’s attack on America’s scientists and why many are now taking their work overseas. Dr. Collins’s new book, “The Road to Wisdom,” is out now. Originally aired July 16th, 2025. 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	It's the Late Show Potshow with Stephen Colbert.
0:06.0	Welcome back everybody, ladies and gentlemen.
0:13.0	My next guest tonight is a brilliant physician, geneticist and presidential medal of freedom recipient
0:21.9	who served as the director of the National Institutes of Health for 12 years.
0:26.1	Please welcome back to the late show, Dr. Francis Collins.
0:33.6	Nice to see you again.
0:35.2	Great to be here with you, Stephen.
0:36.6	Always good to talk to you.
0:38.3	I love science.
0:39.3	I love scientists.
0:40.3	You know, my dad was in the NIH for many years.
0:43.3	Earlier this year, you retired from the National Institutes of Health.
0:46.3	You were no longer the director, but you were still over there doing research.
0:49.3	Running a research lab.
0:50.3	Okay, you served there as director for 12 years, as I said, under three presidents.
0:55.8	Why was now the time to leave?
1:06.3	Well, I hadn't really planned that until it became pretty untenable to stay.
1:08.1	And why? Why was it untenable?
1:15.6	Well, after January 20th, I'm running a research lab. We get instructions that we are not supposed to go to scientific meetings, not supposed to speak to the public in any sort of way. We're
1:21.6	not allowed to order any supplies to do the research. And basically, we're told, don't start any new projects. Don't do anything
1:29.7	innovative. Just, you know, keep doing the kinds of things that you were already doing, but nothing new.
1:34.7	So you go ahead and be a scientist, but don't do science. Don't do those things. Exactly.
	...

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