It's really important for people to understand this is not a fad. This is not a new diet drug

craze. I've heard it described that way. This is a profound medical breakthrough that will

have remarkable effects and whether it'll be better or worse.

It's a really important question and disturbingly, the answer is I don't know,

despite all the research I did.

I'm Mary Long and that's Johann Hari, author of the new book, Magic Pill, the

extraordinary benefits and disturbing risks of the new weight loss drugs.

My colleague Ricky Mulvey caught up with Hari for a conversation about how these drugs work,

the problems they solve, and the problems they create. They create. All right, the book is Magic Pill, the extraordinary benefits and disturbing risks of the

new weight loss drugs.

I'll wreck it at the top to all of our listeners it's part memoir part

explainer part investigative journalism I found it beautifully written and it

dramatically affected the way I view obesity increased my empathy toward it, and then also gave me a greater understanding of these drugs.

So Johann, thanks for coming on the show and thanks for the book.

Oh, I'm really moved by what you just said Ricky, thanks. So you've described these

weight loss drugs as an artificial solution to an artificial problem. Can you

break down the artificial problem for people who are less familiar with it?

Maybe have healthy eating habits.

Yeah, I would just say to anyone listening to the podcast, stop for a moment, pause the

podcast and Google something for me. I was born in 1979. Just Google

photographs of beaches in the United States in the year I was born, 1979. Just go away and do that and

then come back. So if you've come back, you will have noticed something a bit

...