Prognosis: Misconception

More than a million Americans suffer from Type 1 diabetes. The disease occurs when the pancreas mysteriously stops producing insulin, the hormone that converts food into energy. Modern medicine has been able to recreate insulin, but not the finely calibrated delivery mechanism of the pancreas. Now a group of like-minded do-it-yourselfers have gotten together on the internet and—working outside the purview of organized medicine—have...

If you had told people from the 1970s that few decades later the globe would be connected with powerful computers held in the palm of your hand, they could be forgiven for thinking you were seriously deluded. Now, a growing number of scientists are convinced we're on a similar threshold with genetic engineering. Today we'll take you on a tour of a biohacker's DNA experiment to change how frogs—and possibly people—grow muscles. It's...

In episode three of Prognosis, Kristen V. Brown and Sarah McBride take a trip to Burning Man. They're there to follow Rick Doblin, who has become something of a folk hero for those who believe MDMA—Ecstasy—could be a viable clinical treatment for things like PTSD. But to help push an illegal drug into the mainstream, it takes lots of cash. And to find money for an unconventional treatment, what better place than Burning Man?

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Eighteen years ago, scientists decoded the human genome. But what was supposed to create an era of new cures didn't work out that way, at least not at first. In episode four of Prognosis, some of the most famous names in genetics explain why it took so long to go from mapping life's code to actually helping people, laying the foundations for technologies on the scientific and ethical cutting edge, like modifying people's genes.  

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Researchers and pharmaceutical companies have poured time and money into developing an effective drug to combat obesity. But time and again, the drugs have failed to deliver. In episode five of Prognosis, Bloomberg's James Paton talks to scientists on the cutting edge of weight-loss research, and the companies that may finally be close to finding a medical solution to the obesity crisis.

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When you pick up your prescription at the pharmacy, do you ever wonder how that pill made it your way? Who discovered it? Who believed in it when no one else did? Who invested the money to bring it to market? This week on Prognosis, Bloomberg's Rebecca Spalding tells the surprising journey of one life-saving drug, from discovery to market. It's a story about a Nobel Prize winner, cutting edge genetic research, billions of pharmaceu...

Should a patient dying of a disease with no proven cure have the right to try whatever experimental drug they want? A controversial new law signed by President Trump this year says that they should, bypassing the FDA. In episode seven, Bloomberg's Michelle Fay Cortez explores what the new Right To Try law means for desperate patients who want access to experimental treatments. It isn't as simple as it sounds.

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Some patients can't wait for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs. They're pushing the drug industry to make the cures they and their loved ones need. But what's good for patients is also good for pharma's profits, creating a web of murky incentives that makes the issue of high drug costs all the more difficult to parse. In episode 8, Bloomberg's Rebecca Spalding talks to these professional patients about their relationships t...

On the latest edition of Prognosis, we'll tell you how a simple DNA genealogy test upended the life of a Washington state sheep farmer. Instead of finding out more about the Swedish and Jewish roots she'd heard about, she found that she had an entire family she didn't know about, and a connection to a man with a mysterious and controversial past. These types of genetic surprises are getting more common, and redefining who we call f...

The Pay Check is back for a second season! For the next six weeks, we’re going to dig into the number one reason women still make less money than men: Motherhood. Women start their careers earning just about the same as men do, but once they have their first kid, that pay gap grows to a chasm. This season, we’ll show you how this “motherhood penalty” plays out for real women, in real life and how it affects the global economy.

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On this episode of Prognosis, we'll meet the Bloody Health collective – a group of feminist coders in Berlin who are looking for a safer way to track their periods. Targeted advertising, third-party data sharing and tracking make most menstruation apps just as problematic as they are popular, privacy activists argue. For the women of Bloody Health, the sure way to keep control is to build their own open-source app.

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On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Mike Regan and Sarah Ponczek speak with expert guests each week about the main themes influencing global markets. They explore everything from stocks to bonds to currencies and commodities, and how each asset class affects trading in the others. Whether you’re a financial professional or just a curious retirement saver, What Goes Up keeps you apprised of the latest buzz on Wall Street and what...

On this episode of Prognosis, reporter Michelle Fay Cortez probes one of the more disturbing unintended consequences of the genetic testing revolution. DNA tests have become so prevalent that more and more people are discovering they have rare and potentially dangerous or even lethal genetic mutations. But how accurate are those findings? And what should people and their doctors do about them? Michelle tells the story of one family...

By now most of us understand the privacy consequences of all the data we handed over to social media and Internet companies. But what happens to the huge amount of health information we generate from health apps, DNA kits, doctors' visits, blood tests and fitness trackers? Some of it's carefully protected by law. Other data -- including intimate details about our lives -- can be sold to brokers who trade it like a commodity. How wo...