Drug Story

For decades, obesity was treated as a matter of self-control and free will: If you were fat, it was your own fault.

You could try a diet - but the diet companies were also in on the fix: For years, Weight Watchers was owned by Heinz food … and Jenny Craig was owned by Nestle. 

But it was still up to you. You made your choices, and you had to live with them. And so the obesity rate in the US soared from around 15% of the population in...

There’s no blood test for depression, no MRI or CT scan that can detect it. Because depression, like a lot of things involved with mental health, is invisible. 

Still, depression is the most common mental health issue in the US and worldwide. Nearly 30% of Americans will be diagnosed with depression in their lifetimes.

Many people wind up taking an antidepressant. You’ve probably heard of these drugs by their brand names: Prozac Lex...

Once you turn 40, it seems like half the people you know are taking a statin drug. You know, because their cholesterol is high, and to prevent heart disease down the line. It makes sense: better safe than sorry.

This is a huge triumph for preventive medicine. Statin drugs have saved (or improved) the lives of millions of people because they acted early. This is how medicine (and public health) is supposed to work.

But the devil is in...

Epipen is an exquisitely engineered, expertly marketed, totally modern drug. And it’s an amazing success story, especially if you count success through dollars - Epipen sales rose from $200 million in 2007 to $1 billion a year in 2015 to more than $2 billion in 2023. Epipen is what they call in the pharma business, a blockbuster.

The story of Epipen is also a story of unintended consequences and unexpected discoveries, one that goe...

Diabetes and anxiety and insomnia and depression and food allergies. For every modern malady, there are drugs promising to fix it. SO MANY DRUGS.

But they never really fix the problem, do they? Yes, drugs can help people manage their disease. They treat the symptoms. But they rarely remedy what caused the disease in the first place. And therein lies a story. Launching Jan. 6, 2026.