Improving Science & Restoring Trust in Public Health | Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 267 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Professor Emeritus of Health Policy at Stanford University. We discuss which scientific questions ought to be the priority for NIH, how to incentivize bold, innovative science especially from younger labs, how to solve the replication crisis and restore trust and transparency in science and public health, including acknowledging prior failures by the NIH. We discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and the data and sociological factors that motivated lockdowns, masking and vaccine mandates. Dr. Bhattacharya shares his views on how to resolve the vaccine–autism debate and how best to find the causes and cures for autism and chronic diseases. The topics we cover impact everyone: male, female, young and old and, given that NIH is the premier research and public health organization in the world, extend to Americans and non-Americans alike. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman David: https://davidprotein.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Levels: ⁠https://levels.link/huberman⁠ LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Jay Bhattacharya 00:06:56 National Institutes of Health (NIH), Mission 00:09:12 Funding, Basic vs. Applied Research 00:18:22 Sponsors: David & Eight Sleep 00:21:20 Indirect Costs (IDC), Policies & Distribution 00:30:43 Taxpayer Funding, Journal Access, Public Transparency 00:38:14 Taxpayer Funding, Patents; Drug Costs in the USA vs Other Countries 00:48:50 Reducing Medication Prices; R&D, Improving Health 01:00:01 Sponsors: AG1 & Levels 01:02:55 Lowering IDC?, Endowments, Monetary Distribution, Scientific Groupthink 01:12:29 Grant Review Process, Innovation 01:21:43 R01s, Tenure, Early Career Scientists & Novel Ideas 01:31:46 Sociology of Grant Evaluation, Careerism in Science, Failures 01:39:08 “Sick Care” System, Health Needs 01:44:01 Sponsor: LMNT 01:45:33 Incentives in Science, H-Index, Replication Crisis 01:58:54 Scientists, Data Fraud, Changing Careers 02:03:59 NIH & Changing Incentive Structure, Replication, Pro-Social Behavior 02:15:26 Scientific Discovery, Careers & Changing Times, Journals & Publications 02:19:56 NIH Grants & Appeals, Under-represented Populations, DEI 02:28:58 Inductive vs Deductive Science; DEI & Grants; Young Scientists & NIH Funding 02:39:38 Grant Funding, Identity & Race; Shift in NIH Priorities 02:51:23 Public Trust & Science, COVID Pandemic, Lockdowns, Masks 03:04:41 Pandemic Mandates & Economic Inequality; Fear; Public Health & Free Speech 03:13:39 Masks, Harms, Public Health Messaging, Uniformity, Groupthink, Vaccines 03:22:48 Academic Ostracism, Public Health Messaging & Opposition 03:30:26 Culture of American Science, Discourse & Disagreement 03:36:03 Vaccines, COVID Vaccines, Benefits & Harms 03:47:05 Vaccine Mandates, Money, Public Health Messaging, Civil Liberties 03:54:52 COVID Vaccines, Long-Term Effects; Long COVID, Vaccine Injury, Flu Shots 04:06:47 Do Vaccines Cause Autism?; What Explains Rise in Autism 04:18:33 Autism & NIH; MAHA & Restructuring NIH? 04:25:47 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Since 2012, there's been no increase in American life expectancy.
0:04.4	From 2012 to 2019, literally, it was almost entirely flat life expectancy, whereas the European
0:12.9	countries had advances in life expectancy during that period.
0:15.7	During the pandemic, life expectancy dropped very sharply in the United States, and only
0:20.2	just last year did it come back up to 2019 levels.
0:23.9	In Sweden, the life expectancy dropped in 2020 and then came right back up by 2021, 2022, to the previous trend of increasing life expectancy.
0:34.0	Whatever those investments we're making as a nation in the research are not actually translating into meeting the mission of the NIH, which is to advance health and longevity of American people.
0:46.8	They kept saying, we don't care. And so it's almost like big segments of the public feel like they caught us in something and as scientists and we
0:55.8	won't admit it and they're not just pissed off they're kind of like done that i hear it all the time
1:01.6	and again this isn't the health and wellness supplement taking you know uh you know anti woke crowd
1:08.1	this is a big segment of the population that's like, I don't want to hear about it.
1:12.3	I don't care if labs get funded.
1:14.4	I want to know why we were lied to or the scientific community can't admit fault.
1:21.8	I just want to land that message for them because in part I'm here for them and get your thoughts on what you think about.
1:29.8	Let's start with lockdowns, masks, and vaccines, just to keep it easy.
1:35.4	And what do you think the scientific community needs to say in light of those to restore trust?
1:43.1	So first, let me just say, I don't think I'm the NIH director
1:46.0	unless that were true.
1:48.0	Unless what you said is true, otherwise I'm not the NIH director.
1:51.0	So I was a very vocal advocate against the lockdowns,
1:55.0	against the mask mandates, against the vaccine mandates,
1:58.0	and against the sort of anti-scientific bent of public health throughout the pandemic.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scicomm Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scicomm Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.