The Story presents: Planet Hope - Restoring movement after paralysis
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is Planet Hope, a podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times in paid partnership with Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative. Each episode is hosted by The Story released as a bonus weekly series on Saturdays.
In Lausanne, Switzerland, neuroscientist and Rolex Awards Laureate Grégoire Courtine and neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch have pioneered a “digital bridge” that translates brain signals into spinal stimulation, giving people with paralysis new ways to regain movement. They tell Tom Whipple about the science behind the technology, the patients leading the way and their hopes for the future of movement recovery after paralysis.
Planet Hope is brought to you in paid partnership with Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative.
Guest:
- Grégoire Courtine, Neuroscientist and co-founder of NeuroRestore.
- Jocelyne Bloch, Neurosurgeon and co-founder of NeuroRestore.
- Suzanne Edwards, Patient at NeuroRestore.
Host: Tom Whipple, Science Writer, The Times.
Series Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Sound Designer: David Crackles
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Manveen, and today on the story we're exploring a pioneering technology that could |
| 0:05.9 | reshape the future of medicine. We're featuring an episode from our Planet Hope podcast, where |
| 0:12.6 | science writer Tom Whipple meets the team behind an incredible new bit of tech that's already |
| 0:18.4 | helping people with paralysis regain movement. It's a fascinating |
| 0:23.6 | breakthrough that shows just how powerfully science can transform lives. Here's Planet Hope. |
| 0:34.9 | Planet Hope is brought to you in paid partnership with Rolex and its perpetual Planet Initiative. |
| 0:46.2 | The initiative supports scientists, conservationists, explorers and entrepreneurs around the world. |
| 0:52.5 | People who are turning bold ideas into real change, |
| 0:55.0 | from the deepest oceans to the highest peaks. |
| 1:02.0 | Rolex has helped elevate these voices and projects, including the one you'll hear in today's episode, |
| 1:10.0 | by providing support, visibility, and you'll hear in today's episode, by providing support, |
| 1:11.6 | visibility and a shared belief in protecting the future of the planet. |
| 1:17.6 | I'm Tom Whipple, science writer at the Times, and this is Planet Hope. |
| 1:36.8 | Every year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer a spinal cord injury. |
| 1:41.4 | For most, it means a lifetime in a wheelchair because once that connection between |
| 1:45.4 | the brain and spine is broken, there's no way back. Or at least that's what we used to think. |
| 1:53.7 | Today we're in Switzerland at the NeuroRestore Labs in Lausanne to meet neuroscientist |
| 1:58.8 | Gregor Grettiin and neurosurgeon Jocelyn Block. |
| 2:03.0 | They've built something extraordinary, a digital bridge that can reconnect the brain and spinal cord |
| 2:09.3 | wirelessly, letting people with complete paralysis move again. |
| 2:14.0 | It's not a miracle, but it's effective. This is a first therapy that will help people to regain |
| 2:18.2 | movement. One of those people is Suzanne. She's been paralyzed for more than a decade after a |
... |
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