James Hamblin on Medicine, Myth and the Nocebo Effect — ep 19

James Hamblin, MD, is a writer and senior editor at The Atlantic magazine. His writing and videos have been featured in The New York Times, Politico, NPR, BBC, The Guardian, Elle, Mother Jones, and New York, among others. Time named him among the 140 people to follow on Twitter, Greatist named him among the most influential people in health media, and BuzzFeed called him "the most delightful MD ever." I reached out to him because I'd read his book, If Our Bodies Could Talk, and enjoyed it a ton, much more than I thought I was going to! I was drawn in by his writing, and that he's not only an intelligent guy, but has a good sense of humility and insight both ... a potent mix. We talk gluten, statins, multivitamins and eggs. Also research and implicit biases, promises and expectations and their relation to health outcomes, knowing what we don't know, and the bodymind as one integrated whole. Here's our conversation. SHOW NOTES James' book, If Our Bodies Could Talk (I've read it, and loved it) The Atlantic's page of James' writings James Hamblin .com The Louis CK skit I mentioned early in the interview, about the 1st-world horrors of waiting on a runway