The Ozempic Story
And new drugs that are reshaping society. How a Gila monster's venom became a cultural phenomenon — and what GLP-1 drugs mean for the future of medicine.
All Episodes
8 episodes
The Hunt for GLP-1
The elusive gut hormone. How scientists across decades tracked down a signal hiding in the intestine — and why finding it changed everything we thought we knew about hunger and metabolism.
Medicines from Plant Poisons
How plant poisons shaped modern medicine. The surprising story of how some of the world's deadliest botanical compounds became the foundation of life-saving drugs.
Sensing Sugar Spikes
And the man who made the invisible visible. The remarkable story behind painless glucose monitoring — and the breakthrough that gave millions of people with diabetes a window into their own bodies.
The Secret in Your Blood
A transformative discovery from Iran. The story of the hemoglobin A1c test — and the scientist whose outsider perspective led to one of the most widely used diagnostic tools in medicine.
Insulin as a Weapon
Blockbuster drugs from animal venoms. How the deadly chemistry of snakes, cone snails, and other venomous creatures became the blueprint for a new generation of diabetes treatments.
Medicines from Genes
The race to clone human genes. How fierce competition in the 1970s unleashed the biotech revolution — and produced the first genetically engineered medicine.
Historical Origins
From early clues to life-saving medicines. The history of diabetes — from ancient physicians to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery that brought the dying back to life.
In the News
1 featureSanford
Burnham
Prebys
Burnham
Prebys
February 9, 2026
How Scientists Turned Plant Poisons into Medicines
Ani Deshpande and Pamela Itkin-Ansari detail how caustic compounds meant to deter plant-eaters were harnessed to treat diabetes — including Metformin, discovered in a toxic medieval herb and approved by the FDA over 30 years ago.
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Sanford
Burnham
Prebys
Burnham
Prebys
May 27, 2025
Scientists and Podcasters
Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists Ani Deshpande, PhD and Pamela Itkin-Ansari, PhD bring dramatic stories of scientific achievement to life — their podcast has already been hailed as a "masterpiece" by one of the scientists they interviewed.
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Sanford
Burnham
Prebys
Burnham
Prebys
September 24, 2025
How a Holocaust Survivor Transformed Blood Sugar Testing
Ani Deshpande and Pamela Itkin-Ansari discuss how 92-year-old Adam Heller, PhD — a Holocaust survivor turned prolific inventor — revolutionized diabetes care and laid the groundwork for modern continuous glucose monitoring.
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Sanford
Burnham
Prebys
Burnham
Prebys
August 19, 2025
Seeing How Sugar Reshapes Our Blood
The story of how an Iranian scientist made a serendipitous discovery in Tehran that changed diabetes diagnosis forever — laying the foundation for the hemoglobin A1c test conducted tens of millions of times each year.
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Active
Motif
Podcast
Motif
Podcast
May 22, 2025
Epigenetic Regulation and Small Molecule Innovation in AML
Ani Deshpande joins the Active Motif Epigenetics Podcast to discuss his research on epigenetic regulation and small molecule drug discovery for acute myeloid leukemia — and his motivation to bridge the gap between science and the public through The Discovery Dialogues.
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About the Show
The Discovery Dialogues is a narrative science podcast that puts you in the room with the researchers behind landmark discoveries. Each episode follows a scientific thread from its earliest clues to the moment it changed medicine, biology, or our understanding of the world.
Your Hosts
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Ani Deshpande
Host & Executive Producer
PI
Pam Itkin-Ansari
Host & Executive Producer