Another "slow news week" 😂
Originally streamed Live on YouTube!
The blue tsunami: why the election results were a surprise, and why incumbents tend to lose
The political pendulum: voters keep choosing “shake it up” candidates who can’t deliver
Obamacare as a Heritage Foundation blueprint that expanded access but never tackled cost
Tariffs, the war with Iran and whether Hegseth should be impeached or resign
Impeachment fatigue and why divided government may let Trump make deals
RFK Jr., food system reform and special interests
Populism on both sides: Abdul El-Sayed and Talarico
Doctors who go into politics, including Amy Acton, Nirav Shah and Richard Pan
Why healthcare is unsolvable inside its current paradigm
Peptides, drug approval and the FDA approving things that don’t work
Whether AI and drug discovery could be the paradigm shift
Pluto, new dwarf planets and Neil deGrasse Tyson
Better doctors or better technology? Why outcomes improved since 1950
Medicare for all: could it separate what works from what doesn’t?
Hospitals giving flu and COVID shots before discharge
Preemptive Alzheimer’s treatment and the shifting definition of the disease
Observational data confounding: vaccines and dementia, “Eat Your Ice Cream,” and Tylenol and autism
Why the AI-made thumbnail took 17 prompts
Bringing back old-school conservatives, a new Democratic identity and the cost of living squeeze
Why the FDA can’t weigh cost and why Medicare must pay
Aladdin, Will Smith, Fresh Prince and Bryan Johnson
Med school culture and the Affordable Care Act’s EMR meaningful use mandate
Alex Jones’ theory that Trump is a Democratic sleeper agent
The Learjet crash: icing, narrow flight tolerances, private jet safety and the young co-pilot
What aviation safety culture (including the Korean Air lesson) can teach healthcare
Iran, incomplete information and what the public never sees
Ending the clock change, and the Titanic submersible and the fear of death
Daylight saving time vs standard time, circadian rhythms, school start times and being “fun employed”
Why you shouldn’t second guess a clinical trial, and betting markets on trial outcomes
The ER baby declared dead and found alive, and pool dangers for small children
Quasi-experimental designs, and the Hep B trial in Guinea-Bissau
Richard Pan, vaccine absolutism and pharma money
All-cause mortality and number needed to treat
Flu shot mandates, how flu vaccines get tested and why test-negative studies fall short
The med school research arms race and the case for putting phones away
Book recommendations: Elena Ferrante, Jonathan Franzen, Stephen King and Haruki Murakami
Kundalini, awakening and meditation retreats
Cold showers and sick days: the Dutch randomized trial
Perimenopause, why Gen X is making it trendy, and more Murakami
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Related Shows Based on Content Similarities
Discover shows related to The VPZD Show, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
Elizabeth Holmes Doc, Pope Leo Cancer, Bryan Johnson Genome
Episode 46
Tuesday, October 20, 2026 • Duration 59:54
The all-new Nissan Nystagmus: Deviate your Driving! 😁
It's VPZD Ep. 46, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube.
Chronological topic list
Housekeeping: clarifying brain death versus severe brain damage, and why a competent examiner matters
Zubin’s first travel speaking engagement in three years, a pain medicine panel in Dallas, and the Rodeo Goat burger
Vinay’s panel at a biotech conference and the longevity target question
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and how John Ioannidis spotted the lack of peer reviewed papers
Why you can’t run 100 tests off a single drop of blood
Zubin’s Theranos lipid panel at TEDMED and whether the numbers were real
Finger sticks versus venipuncture, and why lancets hurt
The Nathan Fielder documentary and the 35 days before federal prison
Holmes’s personality, her belief that the machine works, and “Theranos 2.0”
Puppeteer or puppet: Billy Evans, Sunny Balwani, and the men in her life
Amanda Seyfried’s reenactments and the second half of the film
Did she commit fraud, did it harm patients, and was she scapegoated for flying too high
Why Holmes picked a claim that could be tested in minutes, and the harder to falsify claims in biotech
Health influencers, creatine, and observational studies as placebo
Stanford versus Berkeley, and the CAC score as a better measured number than Theranos
A glioblastoma device and the ambiguity of its trial
Whether Holmes really didn’t understand the “Who’s on First” joke
Spiritual people, pop culture, and why VPZD isn’t cognitive dissonance
Pope Leo’s lung cancer: luck or Providence, lead time bias, or an indolent tumor
Why Pope Leo’s case gets spun as proof that screening works, and the case against scanning non-smokers
Whether adenocarcinoma, secondhand smoke, and a Peruvian mission shaped the diagnosis
The Pope’s reported equanimity, and the politics of the papal job
A New York Times Daily episode on Texas Trump voters, and why a cherry-picked anecdote isn’t a poll
Why polling is a flawed science, plus spam calls and the “right to be left alone”
Indian call center scammers and YouTube videos of people hacking them
AI car dealership calls, and medical car names like the Ford Infarct and the Toyota Tetralogy
Bryan Johnson’s post that his genome was of no use, and Anne Wojcicki’s response
Francis Collins’s promise that genomes would guide blood pressure pills
Zubin’s factor V Leiden and prothrombin findings, and what a genome did and didn’t tell him
Why reading DNA like letters in a book is the wrong metaphor, and the Lego exhibit analogy
Craig Venter’s genome talk and his “we can tell you when you will die” pitch
Bryan Johnson’s changing positions, and what he eats
Cheese fries, GERD, and a Dallas talk that felt like the whole room was talking
Pain providers, opioids, the Sacklers, and the overcorrection that followed
The parallel with SSRIs and the dilemma of taking people off a drug they shouldn’t have started
A reported 40% rate of pancreatic cysts on MRI, IPMN, and the scan industrial complex
Jalen Hurts’s blood clots: cleats to the calf, a long flight, and Virchow’s triad
Lupus anticoagulant, factor V Leiden, and oral contraceptives
Zubin’s daughter’s factor V Leiden and whether she can take the pill
Goldfinger, a Scooby-Doo clip, and how standards have changed
Next week’s topics and a plug to watch the Holmes documentary
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Nobel Prize Snubs, AI Medicine, Brain Death, SSRIs
Episode 45
Friday, October 9, 2026 • Duration 01:10:42
AI gave Zubin hair in our thumbnail...we truly are at End Times 😁
It's VPZD Ep. 45, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube.
Chronological topic list
Shout out to Dentalica, the Metallica cover band of dentists
Follow up on the failed execution and whether healthcare professionals should take part in executions
Firing squad and livestreamed executions as a case for the state owning its violence
Childhood abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, and whether crime is a medical problem or a moral one
A bilingual doctor barred from speaking Spanish to her patient after failing a hospital proficiency test
Nobel Prize snubs in optogenetics, including Ed Boyden, Feng Zhang, and the Wayne State researcher
Rosalind Franklin, narrative, and why credit in science is so messy
Why science is full of forced moves while art is not, and what that means for AI
Clinical breakthroughs like Gleevec that never win Nobels
Political Nobels, Obama, and Bob Dylan skipping the ceremony
Academic AI studies that are outdated by publication, plus a Lancet “phase one” chatbot trial with no control arm
AI models guessing Trump’s IQ and the case that the voting booth is the health check for politicians
Why Zubin doesn’t vote, and the billionaire tax
The seven levels of wealth and the arc from Rolex to no watch
NYU’s three-year medical school and the cherry-picked comparison groups
Zubin’s fourth year of medical school and finishing Berkeley in three years
Reforming medical training from college through the extra fellowship year
Teaching critical thinking over memorization as the line between charlatan and expert blurs
Zeke Emanuel’s Eat Your Ice Cream, reverse causality, and confounding in observational studies
The descriptive versus prescriptive fallacy in medicine and spiritual awakening
Counseling cancer patients about alcohol
SSRIs, RFK Jr., withdrawal, and why long-term data can’t separate benefit from dependence
Brain zaps and SSRIs in awakening circles
Vinay’s accidental decaf month and the nicotine gum trend
Brain death, advance directives, and who you’d trust to pull the plug
Moral anguish, organ and cadaveric nerve consent, and an ICU nurse’s perspective
Airplane rules, annual PPD testing, and the absurdity of medical bureaucracy
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Lethal Injection Ethics, Meditation Dangers, GRAIL Cancer Screening
Episode 44
Sunday, October 4, 2026 • Duration 01:34:50
Should we be medicalizing state-sanctioned executions? Is meditation actually safe? Do liquid biopsies save lives? EASY QUESTIONS ONE AND ALL 😂 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#44)
In this episode, we talked liquid biopsies for multi-cancer screening, the evidence behind recent blood test trials, and the risks of false positives and overdiagnosis. We dove into meditation’s possible benefits and harms, including anxiety, dissociation, and psychosis, as well as concerns about using it as a productivity tool. Finally, we hit physician involvement in state executions and the ethics of lethal injection, along with honest conversations about cancer prognosis and goals of care.
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Affirmative Action, AI Medical Recording, AI Doomers
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 • Duration 01:13:30
Easy topics for easy times 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#42)
Using Beethoven's Archduke Trio as a lens for why AI-generated art still falls short of true creative risk-taking
Whether AI companies calling for regulation are protecting the public or protecting their own competitive lead
The "Chernobyl of AI" idea, and skepticism toward vague doomsday percentage predictions
Burnout across the AI industry, and a personal parallel to burning out in medicine before starting ZDoggMD
Why doctors, unlike coders, are resistant to AI encroaching on their work
A court ruling on whether the raw audio of an AI-assisted medical visit is discoverable in a malpractice suit, and a comparison to body cam data
The DOJ's civil rights division investigation into UCSF and other med schools over affirmative action compliance post-SFFA v. Harvard
Whether standardized test scores, grit, or adversity best predict who becomes a good doctor, and the weak evidence behind racial concordance studies
A broader reflection on how identity and tribalism shape reactions to contested topics, using the Israel-Palestine debate and the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran episode as examples
Institutional neutrality, the NIH funding fight involving Russ Vought, and why one-sided political stances put universities at risk
Addressing a live comment about their COVID-era track record and clarifying actual positions
Closing thoughts and sign-off
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Macklemore, Confidence Intervals, LG Spying
Episode 42
Saturday, September 19, 2026 • Duration 01:10:34
Exploring the issues of the day, (Mackle)more or less 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#42)
Topics covered: the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran controversy over political statements at concerts; land acknowledgments and performative activism; T-Rex body temperature research using tooth enamel isotopes; amateur archaeology and human evolution theories; the fluoride-in-water debate, weighing dental benefits against IQ concerns; a University awards ceremony disrupted by political chanting; Jonathan Haidt's three great untruths and campus culture; why Middle East politics resist typical activist framing; Wall Street Journal's editorial inconsistency on FDA drug decisions; statistics deep dive on p-values, split alpha, and confidence interval interpretation; new ACGME resident work-hour rules and their unintended consequences; administrative burden as the real driver of resident burnout; Angela Duckworth's concept of grit, examined through the lens of descriptive versus prescriptive reasoning; ambition, cortisol, and the psychology of never feeling successful; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as a surprisingly good stage production; a JAMA study on pilots, flight attendants, and radiation-induced cancer; skepticism toward routine dental X-rays; hot tub-associated lung disease and questionable AI-generated medical advice; cold plunge trends and the lack of supporting data; why subtle political art works better than explicit statements; the controversy over AI assistance in solving a famous unsolved math problem; concerns about LG smart TVs recording audio and network data; and closing thoughts on 90s hip-hop versus the explicitness of modern rap.
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Pancreatic Cancer Drug, USPSTF, Tylenol-Autism
Episode 41
Friday, September 11, 2026 • Duration 01:42:11
We're trying to become better listeners, SO PREPARE FOR SOME SHOUTING 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#41)
We cover the new pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib and its rash side effect, survival benefit, and cost; what makes pancreatic cancer especially deadly; Vinay’s clinical background across hematology and oncology; how mechanistically cancer actually kills; the challenge of finding good podcast guests and why authenticity matters more than plugging a product; vaccine mandates and the difference between individual versus population-level benefit; the USPSTF’s recent upheaval and the challenge of evidence-based guidelines on contested topics like depression screening, mammograms, and prostate cancer screening; observational versus randomized evidence, with examples spanning flu vaccines, shingles vaccines and dementia, and Tylenol in pregnancy and autism; the OpenAI Navier-Stokes controversy and AI’s role in mathematics; AI in medicine and a JAMA perspective piece on AI replacing physicians; statins, coronary calcium scores, and personal decision-making around cardiovascular risk; weight stigma in medical training and the complexity of obesity; alternative medicine, longevity influencers, and Vinay’s evolving views on certainty; the ethics and mechanics of prediction markets and biotech stock betting; and reflections on active listening and communication style on the show.
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Fauci's Diary, Vinay's FDA Experience, Jason Arday (Recorded LIVE)
Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 02:08:10
Yeah it's been over a year but you can't keep a couple of handsome brown guys apart forever 😎 A BRAND NEW VPZD EPISODE, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#40)
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Ivy Leagues, Vaccine Science, Politics & Stuff
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 • Duration 01:00:17
We're back, just cuz we had dinner and felt like a live nightcap. Enjoy!
Watch the originally live YouTube video here.
Subscribe to "The VPZD Show" on your favorite podcast app.
Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast.
Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast.
More on Vinay.
More on Zubin.
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Trump Transition, Reproductive Rights, Vaccine Truth
Season 1 · Episode 38
Thursday, November 14, 2024 • Duration 01:24:57
Another live episode, we touch on a BUNCH of stuff, including Trump's transition, possible FDA appointments, RFK Jr., letters we've gotten about reproductive rights, was Harris or her team afraid to have her go on Rogan, a deep dive into COVID infection fatality rate and what to do about vaccines, and MUCH more. Watch the video version here.
Subscribe to The VPZD Show on your favorite podcast app. Check out VP's Substack Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts as well as Sensible Medicine. Here's all our previous episodes together.
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