In the 1980s, Gregg Gonsalves had a key role in one of the first examples of patient empowerment movement worldwide. When the information around HIV/AIDS was scarce, Gregg joined Act Up, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, spawning a career of patient advocacy in public health research and achieving breakthroughs in funding of research that helped improve the care of millions of people with HIV. In this conversation, we go over his motivations to start looking for answers when others weren’t.