Dr. William Brody has had at least four careers: foundational researcher in CT and MRI, co-founder of three medical device companies, 13-year president of Johns Hopkins University, and leader of the Salk Institute. Now he's codified a lifetime of lessons in his new book, Uncommon Sense, released April 28, 2026.

In this conversation with Shannon Lantzy, Dr. Brody shares the decision-making framework that shaped his career: from a course at MIT that changed how he approached hard problems, to the three snake rules of management he still lives by. He discusses the economics of quality in healthcare, why curiosity and focus are both essential to discovery, and what AI-native companies consistently get wrong about breaking into medicine. He also reflects on kindness, risk, survivorship bias, and what it really means to succeed.

Uncommon Sense is available through Johns Hopkins Press.

Timestamps: 

[00:00:00] Introduction and Dr. Brody's four careers

[00:01:36] Welcome back and the book overview

[00:02:56] Goals of Uncommon Sense and learning to think

[00:05:08] What students give back and a note from a former student

[00:06:00] Uncertainty, suffering, and the Buddhist parallel

[00:07:24] Amar Bose and learning to tackle hard problems

[00:08:44] Rob Wallace: from ballet to Stanford's CIO

[00:10:36] Career planning is an oxymoron

[00:13:56] Bloomberg, kindness, and the mayor who shouldn't have run

[00:15:44] The economics of quality at Johns Hopkins and the Toyota system

[00:19:44] Treating patients, research, or inventing devices

[00:21:32] Turtle on a post: spotting uncommon signals

[00:23:24] Curiosity vs. confirmatory research

[00:25:16] The MRI contrarian and what it cost him

[00:29:36] Kindness as strategy: does it correlate with success?

[00:31:04] What is enough?

[00:33:08] The book's philosophical tone

[00:35:04] Does this advice apply to the common person?

[00:38:28] AI in healthcare and what founders get wrong

[00:40:30] How Epic actually started

[00:41:44] Where the most exciting healthcare innovation is happening

[00:43:00] Risk management, uncertainty, and the over-lawyered world

[00:47:48] The three snake rules of management

[00:50:04] Norman Shumway and "the bleeding always stops"

[00:52:28] Rapid fire questions

Follow Shannon and William:

Connect with Shannon: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonlantzy/

Website: https://www.shannonlantzy.com/

Connect with William: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-brody-138920106/