Going Deep on Nature with Dr. Francis Collins

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Show

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 52 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.

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders.
0:06.8	I'm Kelly Corrigan and today I'm wondering about our nature and how it affects our well-being.
0:13.0	My conversation partner is the hyper-intelligent, utterly delightful Dr. Francis Collins.
0:20.5	You know him, he was the director of the National Institutes of Health spanning 12 years and three presidents.
0:26.5	He also led the team of scientists who mapped the human genome, a project which I would like to say came in two years and
0:34.7	four hundred million dollars under budget. I thought he would be the perfect person
0:38.9	to talk about our DNA and how it affects the way we think and feel on a daily basis.
0:44.8	So join us for the third conversation in a 10-part series on well-being,
0:50.0	how to get it and how to keep it.
0:52.2	We'll be right back with Kelly Corrigan Wonders. I'm Kelly Corrigan and today I'm
1:08.2	talking with Dr. Francis Collins. He's a physician and a geneticist in addition to running the NIH for 12 years and leading the team that mapped the human genome.
1:19.0	I sat down with Francis in Washington, D.C. for my PBS show Tell Me More to talk about how
1:24.4	everything that's written in our DNA does and does not affect our well-being over the
1:29.6	course of our lives. Here's my conversation with Dr. Francis Collins.
1:34.3	So you led the phenomenally complex project of mapping the human genome?
1:44.0	I did.
1:45.0	When they first offered you the job, were you gung-ho or terrified?
1:48.0	I was terrified.
1:50.0	Yeah.
1:51.0	I was running a research lab at the University of Michigan.
1:53.3	I was pretty happy teaching medical students,
1:56.0	taking care of patients, and having a lab that was pursuing
	...

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