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The VPZD Show: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Drs. Vinay Prasad & Zubin Damania
Two doctors, one podcast, Alt-Middle as heck. Featuring Dr. Vinay Prasad (host of Plenary Session) and Dr. Zubin Damania (host of The ZDoggMD Show).
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- 1 weeks ago59 min
Elizabeth Holmes Doc, Pope Leo Cancer, Bryan Johnson Genome
The all-new Nissan Nystagmus: Deviate your Driving! 😁 It's VPZD Ep. 46, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube. Chronological topic list Housekeeping: clarifying brain death versus severe brain damage, and why a competent examiner matters Zubin’s first travel speaking engagement in three years, a pain medicine panel in Dallas, and the Rodeo Goat burger Vinay’s panel at a biotech conference and the longevity target question Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and how John Ioannidis spotted the lack of peer reviewed papers Why you can’t run 100 tests off a single drop of blood Zubin’s Theranos lipid panel at TEDMED and whether the numbers were real Finger sticks versus venipuncture, and why lancets hurt The Nathan Fielder documentary and the 35 days before federal prison Holmes’s personality, her belief that the machine works, and “Theranos 2.0” Puppeteer or puppet: Billy Evans, Sunny Balwani, and the men in her life Amanda Seyfried’s reenactments and the second half of the film Did she commit fraud, did it harm patients, and was she scapegoated for flying too high Why Holmes picked a claim that could be tested in minutes, and the harder to falsify claims in biotech Health influencers, creatine, and observational studies as placebo Stanford versus Berkeley, and the CAC score as a better measured number than Theranos A glioblastoma device and the ambiguity of its trial Whether Holmes really didn’t understand the “Who’s on First” joke Spiritual people, pop culture, and why VPZD isn’t cognitive dissonance Pope Leo’s lung cancer: luck or Providence, lead time bias, or an indolent tumor Why Pope Leo’s case gets spun as proof that screening works, and the case against scanning non-smokers Whether adenocarcinoma, secondhand smoke, and a Peruvian mission shaped the diagnosis The Pope’s reported equanimity, and the politics of the papal job A New York Times Daily episode on Texas Trump voters, and why a cherry-picked anecdote isn’t a poll Why polling is a flawed science, plus spam calls and the “right to be left alone” Indian call center scammers and YouTube videos of people hacking them AI car dealership calls, and medical car names like the Ford Infarct and the Toyota Tetralogy Bryan Johnson’s post that his genome was of no use, and Anne Wojcicki’s response Francis Collins’s promise that genomes would guide blood pressure pills Zubin’s factor V Leiden and prothrombin findings, and what a genome did and didn’t tell him Why reading DNA like letters in a book is the wrong metaphor, and the Lego exhibit analogy Craig Venter’s genome talk and his “we can tell you when you will die” pitch Bryan Johnson’s changing positions, and what he eats Cheese fries, GERD, and a Dallas talk that felt like the whole room was talking Pain providers, opioids, the Sacklers, and the overcorrection that followed The parallel with SSRIs and the dilemma of taking people off a drug they shouldn’t have started A reported 40% rate of pancreatic cysts on MRI, IPMN, and the scan industrial complex Jalen Hurts’s blood clots: cleats to the calf, a long flight, and Virchow’s triad Lupus anticoagulant, factor V Leiden, and oral contraceptives Zubin’s daughter’s factor V Leiden and whether she can take the pill Goldfinger, a Scooby-Doo clip, and how standards have changed Next week’s topics and a plug to watch the Holmes documentary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 10m
Nobel Prize Snubs, AI Medicine, Brain Death, 3 Year Med School
AI gave Zubin hair in our thumbnail...we truly are at End Times 😁 It's VPZD Ep. 45, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube. Chronological topic list Shout out to Dentalica, the Metallica cover band of dentists Follow up on the failed execution and whether healthcare professionals should take part in executions Firing squad and livestreamed executions as a case for the state owning its violence Childhood abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, and whether crime is a medical problem or a moral one A bilingual doctor barred from speaking Spanish to her patient after failing a hospital proficiency test Nobel Prize snubs in optogenetics, including Ed Boyden, Feng Zhang, and the Wayne State researcher Rosalind Franklin, narrative, and why credit in science is so messy Why science is full of forced moves while art is not, and what that means for AI Clinical breakthroughs like Gleevec that never win Nobels Political Nobels, Obama, and Bob Dylan skipping the ceremony Academic AI studies that are outdated by publication, plus a Lancet “phase one” chatbot trial with no control arm AI models guessing Trump’s IQ and the case that the voting booth is the health check for politicians Why Zubin doesn’t vote, and the billionaire tax The seven levels of wealth and the arc from Rolex to no watch NYU’s three-year medical school and the cherry-picked comparison groups Zubin’s fourth year of medical school and finishing Berkeley in three years Reforming medical training from college through the extra fellowship year Teaching critical thinking over memorization as the line between charlatan and expert blurs Zeke Emanuel’s Eat Your Ice Cream, reverse causality, and confounding in observational studies The descriptive versus prescriptive fallacy in medicine and spiritual awakening Counseling cancer patients about alcohol SSRIs, RFK Jr., withdrawal, and why long-term data can’t separate benefit from dependence Brain zaps and SSRIs in awakening circles Vinay’s accidental decaf month and the nicotine gum trend Brain death, advance directives, and who you’d trust to pull the plug Moral anguish, organ and cadaveric nerve consent, and an ICU nurse’s perspective Airplane rules, annual PPD testing, and the absurdity of medical bureaucracy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 34m
Lethal Injection Ethics, Meditation Dangers, GRAIL Cancer Screening
Should we be medicalizing state-sanctioned executions? Is meditation actually safe? Do liquid biopsies save lives? EASY QUESTIONS ONE AND ALL 😂 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#44) In this episode, we talked liquid biopsies for multi-cancer screening, the evidence behind recent blood test trials, and the risks of false positives and overdiagnosis. We dove into meditation’s possible benefits and harms, including anxiety, dissociation, and psychosis, as well as concerns about using it as a productivity tool. Finally, we hit physician involvement in state executions and the ethics of lethal injection, along with honest conversations about cancer prognosis and goals of care. Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 26, 20261h 13m
Affirmative Action, AI Medical Recording, AI Doomers
Easy topics for easy times 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#42) Using Beethoven's Archduke Trio as a lens for why AI-generated art still falls short of true creative risk-taking Whether AI companies calling for regulation are protecting the public or protecting their own competitive lead The "Chernobyl of AI" idea, and skepticism toward vague doomsday percentage predictions Burnout across the AI industry, and a personal parallel to burning out in medicine before starting ZDoggMD Why doctors, unlike coders, are resistant to AI encroaching on their work A court ruling on whether the raw audio of an AI-assisted medical visit is discoverable in a malpractice suit, and a comparison to body cam data The DOJ's civil rights division investigation into UCSF and other med schools over affirmative action compliance post-SFFA v. Harvard Whether standardized test scores, grit, or adversity best predict who becomes a good doctor, and the weak evidence behind racial concordance studies A broader reflection on how identity and tribalism shape reactions to contested topics, using the Israel-Palestine debate and the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran episode as examples Institutional neutrality, the NIH funding fight involving Russ Vought, and why one-sided political stances put universities at risk Addressing a live comment about their COVID-era track record and clarifying actual positions Closing thoughts and sign-off Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 18, 20261h 10m
Macklemore, Land Acknowledgements, LG Spying
Exploring the issues of the day, (Mackle)more or less 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#42) Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 11, 20261h 42m
Pancreatic Cancer Drug, USPSTF, Tylenol-Autism
We're trying to become better listeners, SO PREPARE FOR SOME SHOUTING 🤭 Originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#41) We cover the new pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib and its rash side effect, survival benefit, and cost; what makes pancreatic cancer especially deadly; Vinay’s clinical background across hematology and oncology; how mechanistically cancer actually kills; the challenge of finding good podcast guests and why authenticity matters more than plugging a product; vaccine mandates and the difference between individual versus population-level benefit; the USPSTF’s recent upheaval and the challenge of evidence-based guidelines on contested topics like depression screening, mammograms, and prostate cancer screening; observational versus randomized evidence, with examples spanning flu vaccines, shingles vaccines and dementia, and Tylenol in pregnancy and autism; the OpenAI Navier-Stokes controversy and AI’s role in mathematics; AI in medicine and a JAMA perspective piece on AI replacing physicians; statins, coronary calcium scores, and personal decision-making around cardiovascular risk; weight stigma in medical training and the complexity of obesity; alternative medicine, longevity influencers, and Vinay’s evolving views on certainty; the ethics and mechanics of prediction markets and biotech stock betting; and reflections on active listening and communication style on the show. Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 5, 20262h 8m
Fauci's Diary, Vinay's FDA Experience, Jason Arday (Recorded LIVE)
Yeah it's been over a year but you can't keep a couple of handsome brown guys apart forever 😎 A BRAND NEW VPZD EPISODE, originally streamed LIVE on YouTube! (#40) Subscribe to "The VPZD Show" on your favorite podcast app. Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Apr 23, 20251h 0m
Ivy Leagues, Vaccine Science, Politics & Stuff
We're back, just cuz we had dinner and felt like a live nightcap. Enjoy! Watch the originally live YouTube video here. Subscribe to "The VPZD Show" on your favorite podcast app. Dr. Prasad's "Plenary Session" podcast. Dr. Damania's "ZDoggMD Show" podcast. More on Vinay. More on Zubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About The VPZD Show
Two doctors, one podcast, Alt-Middle as heck. Featuring Dr. Vinay Prasad (host of Plenary Session) and Dr. Zubin Damania (host of The ZDoggMD Show).
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