JOHANN HARI: Is Ozempic a miracle drug or something darker?

Johann Hari (bestselling author Stolen Focus and Lost Connections) has written another system-rattling book, this time about the new weight loss drugs that everyone is both talking about AND not talking about. I’ve been wanting a wild mind to come chat about the phenomenon for over a year. Johann happened to reach out and tell me he’d been experimenting with Ozempic, had travelled the world interviewing 100-plus experts on the matter and was up for a chat.

In this conversation, we talk through what he lays out in his book Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs. We cover how the drugs work on our biology; the emerging risks; how the rich are the guinea pigs in this particular science experiment; the implications of a world with no appetite (“What will become of the dinner party?”); and the fact these drugs mask the real problem – how Big Food manipulates our hormones with their Franken-foods. And, so, here we are again, told to fix a systemic problem with the same mindset that caused it in the first place (ie: manipulating nature with additives for profit). The Ozempic debate is a lot. This chat goes there!

SHOW NOTES Johann's book Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs is available now Connect with Johann on Instagram and buy his books here Listen to my Wild chat about Ultra-Processed Food with Dr Chris van Tulleken Read my Substack post on the Ozempic “divide” here

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