How David Fajgenbaum saved his own life — and thousands of others
ReThinking
TED
4.7 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
David Fajgenbaum had his last rites read to him at 25 years old after a brutal struggle with an inflammatory disease that attacks the vital organs. As a medical student with two weeks left to live, he repurposed a drug and tested it on himself—and saved his own life. Now, he’s repeating the same process for many others through his nonprofit, Every Cure, with the mission of unlocking the full potential of existing drugs to treat every disease possible. David and Adam discuss the building blocks of resilience, explore the disincentives that prevent hidden cures from coming to light, and explain how AI is aiding creative discovery to save lives.
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Guest: David Fajgenbaum (Instagram | LinkedIn)
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ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.
For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Michael Lewis here. My best-selling book The Big Short tells the story of the build-up and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie, and now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Short short story, what it means to bet against the market, |
| 0:23.1 | and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, |
| 0:26.2 | is as relevant today as it's ever been. |
| 0:28.8 | Get the big short now at pushkin.fm slash audiobooks, |
| 0:32.4 | or wherever audiobooks are sold. |
| 0:38.6 | I've got this vision for the future. |
| 0:40.3 | I've got the people I love by my side. |
| 0:43.0 | And then I'm going to take it one breath at a time. |
| 0:47.3 | Hey, everyone. |
| 0:48.3 | It's Adam Grant. |
| 0:49.4 | Welcome back to Rethinking, |
| 0:51.0 | my podcast on the Science of What Makes Us Tick |
| 0:53.2 | with the TED Audio Collective. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people |
| 0:59.5 | to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking. |
| 1:05.4 | My guest today is David Faganbaum. I've never met a more inspiring person. |
| 1:10.3 | David's a physician scientist at Penn, |
| 1:12.3 | who saved his own life by repurposing a drug and testing it on himself. Now his non-profit, |
| 1:17.7 | every cure, has used that method to save thousands of others. I think that most physicians and |
| 1:23.4 | researchers, they hear about a drug and they will say that is a diabetes drug. Well, no, it's not a diabetes drug. It is a drug that modulates this pathway and it has an effect in diabetes and it also could have an effect in all these other things. AI is central to David's work, and it's hard to think of a more exciting use case for this technology. Just knowing he exists gives me hope. And I think he'll have the same effect on you. |
| 1:46.4 | David, welcome to rethinking. |
| 1:47.9 | Thanks so much for having me. |
... |
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