Speaker 1: You have two sisters. I have two sisters, so I
Speaker 1: live with my middle sister. Are you the youngest or
Speaker 1: the oldest and the youngest? Ha? I see, I was
Speaker 1: the youngest too, then became the middle of three, So
Speaker 1: I get it. I get that dynamic. We very much
Speaker 1: have the birth order dynamics in our family. We all
Speaker 1: tease each other about that aspect. It's a real thing, no,
Speaker 1: I joke. I was like in the company. One of
Speaker 1: my superpowers is learning how to ignore people, and I
Speaker 1: learned that from my siblings. So I I never mind
Speaker 1: getting criticism. I never mind taking feedback because I'm really
Speaker 1: good at ignoring it. You're gonna say whatever you want.
Speaker 1: I'm going to, you know, make my own decisions. Son. Hello,
Speaker 1: I'm Mini driver. Welcome to Many Questions Season two. I've
Speaker 1: always loved Prut's question at It was originally a nineteenth
Speaker 1: century harligame where players would ask each other thirty five
Speaker 1: questions aimed at revealing the other players true nature. It's
Speaker 1: just the scientific method. Really. In asking different people the
Speaker 1: same set of questions, you can make observations about which
Speaker 1: truths appeared to be universal. I love this discipline and
Speaker 1: it made me wonder what if these questions were just
Speaker 1: the jumping off point, what greater depths would be revealed
Speaker 1: if I asked these questions as conversation starters with thought
Speaker 1: leaders and trailblazers across all these different disciplines. So I
Speaker 1: adapted prus questionnaire and I wrote my own seven questions
Speaker 1: that I personally think a pertinent to a person's story.
Speaker 1: They are when and where were you happiest? What is
Speaker 1: the quality you like least about yourself? What relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized, defines love for you? What question would you
Speaker 1: most like answered, What person, place, or experience has shaped
Speaker 1: you the most? What would be your last meal? And
Speaker 1: can you tell me something in your life that's grown
Speaker 1: out of a personal disaster? And I've gathered a group
Speaker 1: of really remarkable people, ones that I am honored and
Speaker 1: humble to have had the chance to engage with. You
Speaker 1: may not hear their answers to all seven of these questions.
Speaker 1: We've whittled it down to which questions felt closest to
Speaker 1: their experience or the most surprising, or created the most
Speaker 1: fertile ground to connect my guest today are many questions.
Speaker 1: Is the founder and CEO of the biotech phenomenon twenty
Speaker 1: three and Me and which is key And founded the
Speaker 1: company with the central idea of creating a consumer product
Speaker 1: that sought to rework the healthcare model by empowering individuals
Speaker 1: to take control of their own health. I know when
Speaker 1: I did the DNA test, I was interested in my ancestry.
Speaker 1: You'll perhaps be unsurprised to hear that I'm virtually a
Speaker 1: Northern European, specifically Anglo Saxon. The other focus though, of
Speaker 1: twenty three and Me are these health reports the company
Speaker 1: also offer that give you a deeper, more complex view
Speaker 1: of your health using your DNA. It's pretty extraordinary to
Speaker 1: be able to find out if you're an increased risk
Speaker 1: of developing certain diseases ahead of actually developing them. It
Speaker 1: gives you a chance to take preventative measures, to really
Speaker 1: see your own health from the place of knowledge being power.
Speaker 1: And is an incredibly inspiring person to talk to. She
Speaker 1: was the kind of child who lay in bed at
Speaker 1: night wondering about molecular biology and the expanding universe. But
Speaker 1: she also seems to be the kind of person who
Speaker 1: wouldn't judge someone like me who used to lie in
Speaker 1: bed at night dreaming about being on night Rider. Where
Speaker 1: and when were you happiest? There's two things. So one
Speaker 1: I mean, which I think every mom would say, it's
Speaker 1: like the birth of my children was just there's nothing
Speaker 1: better than the day your children are born. There's just
Speaker 1: there's no comparison. Yes, But when I think about besides
Speaker 1: that moment which I have to miss, honor. I took
Speaker 1: off a year when I was traveling after the stock
Speaker 1: market went crazy in two thousand and I finally said, like,
Speaker 1: I need a break, and I decided that the only
Speaker 1: place I could go to get peace and quiet with Siberia.
Speaker 1: Oh you like the cold, Okay, Well it was in
Speaker 1: the summer. Well, no, I take it back. It was
Speaker 1: it was September. I made the mistake. It got cold.
Speaker 1: Maybe I left in August. But I decided I was
Speaker 1: going to take the train across Siberia. It was going
Speaker 1: to be meditative, the Trans Siberian. Correct. I've heard that trine.
Speaker 1: So I started in Moscow and I ended in Beijing,
Speaker 1: and I stopped along the way and I wanted to
Speaker 1: go to a place called La Book, which is in
Speaker 1: you know, near Mongolia, and there's an island in it
Speaker 1: called Okon Island and I just wanted to go to
Speaker 1: this island and camp. And I remember once I got
Speaker 1: there and I had this guide and I remember asking,
Speaker 1: I was like, what do we do? He's like, you
Speaker 1: will watch the fire, like that's all we did. And
Speaker 1: it was the first time. I remember. It was like
Speaker 1: there was kind of before that moment where I was
Speaker 1: so attached to my BlackBerry, so kind of running, and
Speaker 1: then there was after that where I was like, you
Speaker 1: just enjoy like every moment was so vivid and it's amazing,
Speaker 1: like to be really free in the world. Like I
Speaker 1: had one pair of pants, one pair of sweat on sweater,
Speaker 1: two shirts, I didn't have a phone, and I just
Speaker 1: traveled like every day was a little bit different, and
Speaker 1: again I had no responsibility. There's something about being truly
Speaker 1: free and having no responsibility and exploring the world. And
Speaker 1: I remember getting to Beijing and walking in and it
Speaker 1: was like I had my bags, I couldn't speak the language,
Speaker 1: like it smells totally different, and I remember just like
Speaker 1: I love everything about this, like it's just so different
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to explore. And I kept traveling.
Speaker 1: I just loved it, and as you know, like as
Speaker 1: as a parent, like once you have children, you're never
Speaker 1: mentally free, like you will always you'll always worry about them.
Speaker 1: And so there's a brief moment when you're an adult
Speaker 1: till you have kids where you actually are truly free, absolutely,
Speaker 1: because that's really what it is. It's like that nomadic
Speaker 1: impetus just to go to go and put yourself in
Speaker 1: a different landscape, a different environment, to not worry, to
Speaker 1: be able to put down a phone. That is a
Speaker 1: pre kids experience. Because you're right, you can try. I've
Speaker 1: tried to go off by myself. It's hard. I mean
Speaker 1: I can, but I'm your brain is will forever be
Speaker 1: with them. You're always gonna want to check in, Your
Speaker 1: always going to worry. And I think there was something about,
Speaker 1: you know, even in this time, it's hard to ever
Speaker 1: fully disconnect. I have no doubt if I went back
Speaker 1: to that island, I would have cell access. And you know,
Speaker 1: there was something about like really forcing a break and
Speaker 1: just enjoying that experience. And I think I love that
Speaker 1: sense of adventure. So I used to bike to work
Speaker 1: every day and I would never take the same path,
Speaker 1: and in part because like I just I love getting lost,
Speaker 1: Like I love getting lost and figuring it out. I
Speaker 1: love exploring, like seeing new things, like seeing a new restaurant,
Speaker 1: like seeing a new house, like somebody changed their garden.
Speaker 1: Like I just there's something about like that tiny, minuscule
Speaker 1: sense of adventure that you get when you're you know,
Speaker 1: working and with kids that really kept my brain alive.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. I'm not the biggest
Speaker 1: fan of routine, and routine is what children obviously thrive on,
Speaker 1: but finding the variants. I think freedom and variety would
Speaker 1: be corner sense of happiness for me as well. My
Speaker 1: favorite thing I used to do with my dad when
Speaker 1: I was little, as I would get in the car,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have a destination, and I would get to
Speaker 1: pick left or right. Yeah that's funny. I used to
Speaker 1: do that as well. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's some
Speaker 1: people who love that kind of adventure and some people
Speaker 1: who just don't. But I love that sense of wild adventure,
Speaker 1: like no idea where I'm going to be, Like I've
Speaker 1: spring break next week and I do not know where
Speaker 1: I'm going. That's super fun. I like that. I think
Speaker 1: it's really good being that kind of a parent as well.
Speaker 1: I think they get to see that modeled, just that
Speaker 1: idea of get lost and you can always figure it out.
Speaker 1: There's always somewhere to stay, always somewhere to eat. You
Speaker 1: can always sleep in your car. It's a good exercise exactly.
Speaker 1: And also you can always figure out where the north
Speaker 1: star is. We just learned that on a camping trip
Speaker 1: in the desert recently. It was so brilliant. There's all
Speaker 1: sorts of tricks you can always find. Yeah, what relationship,
Speaker 1: real or fictionalized, defines love for you? I had a
Speaker 1: truly extraordinary childhood. I've had the same best friends since
Speaker 1: I had Again, I met one of my best friends
Speaker 1: in kindergarten, another a couple of years later. And there's
Speaker 1: thing about true love that when you can go through
Speaker 1: all those iterations again, I go through my childhood, I
Speaker 1: go through adulthood. You know, it's up and down, and
Speaker 1: it's incredibly supportive. Real connection that endures and also evolves
Speaker 1: and evolves, and it's it's it's it's the type of
Speaker 1: thing where again I think about it from like a
Speaker 1: rubber band perspective, is you have that ability to stay connected,
Speaker 1: but you're not it's not restrictive. Again, I think back
Speaker 1: on on the relationship and also how different we all
Speaker 1: are now, but yet how supportive of like the true
Speaker 1: person and like evolving and becoming your your real person.
Speaker 1: So I'm grateful to the whole community that I grew
Speaker 1: up in because it's a community, like we do events
Speaker 1: all the time for like the community that we grew
Speaker 1: up with, and it's all these people who I've known
Speaker 1: since kindergarten and my parents friends. It's this like true
Speaker 1: appreciation for differences and that you're a unique person. And
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of one thing that I love
Speaker 1: is like that in some ways, like the more you
Speaker 1: are truly you, it's like everyone shines. There's no force
Speaker 1: of conformity other than that you should be the true you.
Speaker 1: So I feel really lucky whenever people talk about me
Speaker 1: and my sisters, and I almost feel I have to
Speaker 1: correct them because it does take a village in that capacity.
Speaker 1: And I think back again, my friendly met in kindergarten,
Speaker 1: those parents, like I call them emanol, but like mom
Speaker 1: and Dad and their siblings, like they were part of
Speaker 1: the whole community that raised all of us, and that
Speaker 1: are still taught me about true relationships and true connection.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting, this huge business that you're doing, when
Speaker 1: actually the fundament of it is because it feels to
Speaker 1: me that microcosm of a connected community that you come from,
Speaker 1: beloved and appreciated and supportive. You just take that to
Speaker 1: the macro and you put that on a global Like
Speaker 1: imagine if one could have that feeling of connectivity and
Speaker 1: community on a global scale, Like, how different the world
Speaker 1: will be. Like, I completely understand why you why twenty
Speaker 1: three of Me is your life's work, Like that makes
Speaker 1: that's super cool though. I really like that it's connected
Speaker 1: to your emotional evolution, to how you yourself evolved. I
Speaker 1: think in some ways the best companies are almost just
Speaker 1: an extension of the person. Do you think that that
Speaker 1: is exactly what it is? That really the ones that
Speaker 1: work are they are connected on a deep level. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like, to me, twenty three is not a it's
Speaker 1: not like it's just a company. When I talk to
Speaker 1: a lot of the founders in the area where they've
Speaker 1: done really well and it's and they've stayed connected, it's
Speaker 1: because it's such an extension of them. And in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, like I'm perpetually fueled by the intellectual
Speaker 1: curiosity and also the sense of community. I think that
Speaker 1: we foster and we foster a real community. I think
Speaker 1: there's nothing more lonely than the experience of health and
Speaker 1: being sick and trying to find the right people that
Speaker 1: you can connect to. So I think doing more in
Speaker 1: that area and then connecting the world as a family
Speaker 1: and helping people see that, you know, celebrate that the connectedness,
Speaker 1: but also each person's intovie duality. What question would you
Speaker 1: most like answered? What? As a child used to keep
Speaker 1: me up at night? What again? This is? I like?
Speaker 1: I remember learning about things like the electron transport chain,
Speaker 1: like like how your cells work and your d n
Speaker 1: A and wondering like your body is this incredible? Like
Speaker 1: each cell is like New York City and it functions
Speaker 1: and I don't do anything. I go to bed and
Speaker 1: all this work is happening. And I remember as a kid,
Speaker 1: I was like, doesn't it keep you up? Like how
Speaker 1: is it all happening? And so again, the things that
Speaker 1: perplexed me the most are the molecular biology and how
Speaker 1: the body works, and that's what again, it gets down
Speaker 1: to the genome, like that's the code, Like how is
Speaker 1: it that you have such spectacular diversity on this planet,
Speaker 1: and where does this all come from? Is that what
Speaker 1: made you so interested in observable DNA reports? Like, is
Speaker 1: that where it began? There's two things that like we're
Speaker 1: big triggers for me. So one, as a child, I
Speaker 1: loved twin studies, Like I remember when National Geographic pulled
Speaker 1: out a whole, you know, edition about twins and the
Speaker 1: twin studies, and I remember just pouring through it and
Speaker 1: just fascinating, like identical twins separated at birth? What's similar?
Speaker 1: What's what's genetic? And what's environment? And the first time
Speaker 1: I had ever heard about d n A was from
Speaker 1: my mom and she was yelling about something she was
Speaker 1: I was about five and she was yelling at my
Speaker 1: sister for something about her jeans and I remember thinking
Speaker 1: she was wearing shorts and that my mom was confused,
Speaker 1: and so I kept asking. I was like, what are genes?
Speaker 1: What are genes? And then my mom explained, you know,
Speaker 1: genes and environment, and I was just fascinated, like what
Speaker 1: do you mean? Like there's like a code inside you
Speaker 1: and then it interacts with your environment and you have
Speaker 1: this ability to understand the code, and then you know
Speaker 1: change how you live and then you could remember asking
Speaker 1: her was like, then you could live forever, like you could,
Speaker 1: you'd be healthy. And so from early on, I was
Speaker 1: always fascinated with health, and I had spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time thinking about going to medical school. And I
Speaker 1: love people like I loved I worked as a patient advocate,
Speaker 1: and I love just like sitting with people as they're,
Speaker 1: you know, waiting for surgery. And I remember talking to
Speaker 1: this woman who was the first black family in Napa,
Speaker 1: and remember hearing everything about like the journey that they
Speaker 1: had across and you know what it was like living
Speaker 1: there and just sitting there while she was waiting for surgery,
Speaker 1: like every human is fascinating and so kind of it
Speaker 1: was that combination of like I love genetics, I love
Speaker 1: looking at jeans and environment, and I love the store,
Speaker 1: like I love connecting with people. It's the stories. Like
Speaker 1: the story that's all I have to tell you, just
Speaker 1: really quickly is an adject because my mother, when she
Speaker 1: was dying, we were telling stories with her and she went,
Speaker 1: do you remember when you made me do the twenty
Speaker 1: three and me and I was like yeah, because I
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that we were related, she said,
Speaker 1: And I said, to you they're only going to find
Speaker 1: out that I'm fifty red lipstick. We did it together
Speaker 1: because we were interested. We were interested in those story
Speaker 1: and then the stories of our ancestors. So where that begins.
Speaker 1: Your health story is connected to that. But I loved
Speaker 1: finding out I am quite literally as Anglo Saxon as
Speaker 1: it gets. I'm like nine point seven percent British and Irish,
Speaker 1: which is astonishing, which means that, like, my people literally
Speaker 1: never left that sodden, freezing, cold, lump lumpish island that
Speaker 1: is England. Well you prove them you moved to California.
Speaker 1: Good job, you're the breakout. And of course now my
Speaker 1: skin is not supposed to be in the Californian sun,
Speaker 1: but I'm fully aware of that because I know what
Speaker 1: my history is. Yeah, well, I think that's what's fun.
Speaker 1: Is like you can look a certain way and people
Speaker 1: think they know their ancestry, but there's always interesting surprises.
Speaker 1: Everyone also finds relatives, like whether you know your ancestry
Speaker 1: actually matches what you thought it was, your genetic ancestry
Speaker 1: matches what you thought. But then there's like the whole
Speaker 1: world of like you're connected to people that you never
Speaker 1: knew you were connected to. And we even found that
Speaker 1: we have a first cousin that we didn't know about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's I always tell people like, if you don't
Speaker 1: have a family a DNA relative story, you know, just
Speaker 1: sit back and wait and I'm sure one will come
Speaker 1: your way. Like the reality is that life is complicated,
Speaker 1: life is long, and people like sex, and so you know,
Speaker 1: you end up having a lot of relatives that you
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily know about. I think I have to find
Speaker 1: out that Adam Driver is my cousin. Oh you know.
Speaker 1: That was one of the first studies we ever did,
Speaker 1: is Warren Buffett and Jimmy Buffett. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: want to find out they came to us determined like that,
Speaker 1: you have to find out how we're related. We had
Speaker 1: a very brief conversation once I had family drive. A
Speaker 1: family moved from Ireland to Canada and they then moved
Speaker 1: down to the neighboring state that Adam Driver's family is from,
Speaker 1: and it felt like there was proximity enough that there
Speaker 1: was a likelihood if it was a neighboring state. But
Speaker 1: I'd love to know. That would be a fun following
Speaker 1: on to the story. He might not want to know,
Speaker 1: be like God, no, because if I am, then that's
Speaker 1: going to follow me around like a yoke. People can
Speaker 1: ask me forever, but can I Action and storytelling like
Speaker 1: that is the nexcess of science and art like right there.
Speaker 1: So what's one of the things that's interesting is most
Speaker 1: of science today is not made accessible. I agree. So
Speaker 1: that was like one of the other things. Like my
Speaker 1: father is a particle physicist. And when there was a
Speaker 1: Nobel Prize given for the expanding universe, and I remember
Speaker 1: asking my dad. I was like, what's the difference between
Speaker 1: expanding universe versus an inflating universe? And he looks at me.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, one is expanding and one's inflating. And
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, thanks dad, that's great. I
Speaker 1: didn't catch that. And I realized, like there has to
Speaker 1: be a way to make science accessible and relatable. I
Speaker 1: see because again I have my little kids, like fourth
Speaker 1: grade humor, when people are like looking at like, oh
Speaker 1: I can do this with my like I'm double jointed.
Speaker 1: Can you do this? Can you do that? Like that's
Speaker 1: like we're all different, and how do you get people
Speaker 1: excited about human you know, human variety, human variation, and
Speaker 1: like the magical experience of science. I mean, I wonder
Speaker 1: if it would make us more tolerant as well, Like
Speaker 1: the more that we see being able to twist your
Speaker 1: tongue is a genetic coding. But that idea that I
Speaker 1: wonder if you see someone who looks differently to you,
Speaker 1: but they can do the same thing that you can
Speaker 1: do with your body, So there is this connection, There
Speaker 1: are these pathways and bridges, Like I wonder if that also,
Speaker 1: like the more that we know, the more that we
Speaker 1: know that we're connected, will we start living in a
Speaker 1: more connected way? Will there be a sort of systemic
Speaker 1: societal change based on really bellying up to our connectivity
Speaker 1: rather than the hideous separation that everyone seems to keep
Speaker 1: fighting for. Well, we had some and there was a
Speaker 1: story that was written about this of somebody who was
Speaker 1: descendant of white supremacists who had a child that they
Speaker 1: had last tracker or didn't know about, and it is
Speaker 1: that child had multiracial children and they reconnected on twenty
Speaker 1: three and me wow, And he said he's like, I
Speaker 1: had to really reassess my past, like how I was raised,
Speaker 1: because these are my grandchildren and I'm going to love them.
Speaker 1: And it's this whole. It's a really wonderful story about
Speaker 1: sort of that reconciliation of like and the father of
Speaker 1: these shoulder was like, was I excited to have a
Speaker 1: white supremacist grandfather? Like no, but like it's family, so
Speaker 1: we're going we're going to work through it. And they
Speaker 1: spend time together. So I do think it's been an
Speaker 1: eye open up for a number of customers to realize
Speaker 1: that they have this assumption of like, oh, I'm French
Speaker 1: or I'm I'm something, but the reality is you are
Speaker 1: quite connected to everyone. And one day there's going to
Speaker 1: be the ability to put together a human map where
Speaker 1: every single person is connected and so we are all connected.
Speaker 1: I mean, the the amazing thing to the reason why
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated with DNA is like it's so simple. You
Speaker 1: have four letters, A, C, G, and T, and it
Speaker 1: represents all of life. So my kids like again talk
Speaker 1: about all the time you are connected to a banana,
Speaker 1: like you have d N A in common, And I
Speaker 1: was like, and you are more connected to a snail,
Speaker 1: Like we are interconnected to everything that's alive on this planet.
Speaker 1: And it's a remarkable story of like how like again,
Speaker 1: such a simple foundation and can lead to such spectacular
Speaker 1: diversity everywhere, and the diversity is the story of our success.
Speaker 1: You know, you have dark skin for a reason and
Speaker 1: you have pale skin for a reason, and part of
Speaker 1: it is because there's survival advantages around that. So you know,
Speaker 1: some mutations are just random, and some mutations like make
Speaker 1: it that you are more likely to survive. So that's
Speaker 1: why we should absolutely celebrate and embrace, Like diversity is
Speaker 1: why we know that the human species is going to survive.
Speaker 1: Like one thing I'm fascinating with is again this world
Speaker 1: of global global warming. I had one day my head
Speaker 1: of marketing, Um, it was a hundred thirty degrees in Arizona,
Speaker 1: and my head of marketing is, like, I have to
Speaker 1: go down to Arizona. I just I love it when
Speaker 1: it's over a twenty And I remember staring at her.
Speaker 1: I was like, you are made for global warming, Like
Speaker 1: you're going to survive. I don't like heat. There's even
Speaker 1: like that kind of variety, Like some people just love
Speaker 1: super super hot weather. So we have again, we should
Speaker 1: absolutely be embracing this kind of diversity and like celebrating
Speaker 1: and minding it and understanding it that we're all very
Speaker 1: different I agree twenty three and me is part of
Speaker 1: like the interest in that as well, that thinking about
Speaker 1: molecular biology of mapping, what we can know of mapping
Speaker 1: as much as we can know, while leaving space for
Speaker 1: that which we will never know. Is that part of
Speaker 1: the impetus of going, well, let's create maps where we
Speaker 1: can well. Part of the twenty three was like we
Speaker 1: should understand what the human genome does, like how we
Speaker 1: should understand how it works. It's a code, right, It's
Speaker 1: a code in my mind. It almost gets down to
Speaker 1: again going back to the physics element, which is like
Speaker 1: functions off some there's major rules like equals mc square,
Speaker 1: Like there's major rules Like biology doesn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of that other than we have you know, the A, C, G,
Speaker 1: and T. But I'm trying like there's some amazing work
Speaker 1: now that's about how does that actually translate into a protein?
Speaker 1: And then can you predict the function? Is that where
Speaker 1: the health reports would come from. That kind of idea
Speaker 1: that you can predict the kinds of things that would
Speaker 1: happen around certain sets of DNA. So the whole idea
Speaker 1: here is like everyone is born with a certain set
Speaker 1: of risks, so the same way like, you have this
Speaker 1: incredible variation in your genome, and so you can have
Speaker 1: blue eyes, you have brown eyes, but you can also
Speaker 1: have you know, being higher risk for diabetes, lower risk
Speaker 1: for diabetes. Very little of your genetics is deterministic, meaning
Speaker 1: like you know, you can have a genetic predisposition for
Speaker 1: something correct, but it doesn't mean you're definitely going to
Speaker 1: have it right. Right to me, then it was all about, well,
Speaker 1: you interact with the environment all day long, So how
Speaker 1: am I eating? You know, how am I exercising? Like
Speaker 1: I'm standing right now? You know, there's all the kinds
Speaker 1: of data about how you stand, Like I sleep. I
Speaker 1: absolutely prioritize sleeping because there's all kinds of data now
Speaker 1: actually pointing to mental health and your physical health and
Speaker 1: how much you're actually sleeping and then what time you
Speaker 1: go to bed. So I've always been interested in the interaction.
Speaker 1: So you have yourselves all communicating, but then you also
Speaker 1: get all these inputs. That's why it's so spectacularly complicated. Great,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad that you're unwrapping all of this and
Speaker 1: not me. I will continue to spit into my thing
Speaker 1: and you'll then tell me what's up and This is
Speaker 1: where I get. I feel like we're surrounded by amazing
Speaker 1: people who just the amount of data now that we
Speaker 1: can have, we can like start to find these things
Speaker 1: and like really help people understand risks. I think that's
Speaker 1: the key, being able to help people assess the risk
Speaker 1: and sort of get out ahead of things potentially right.
Speaker 1: And also, no, I mean most of the world doesn't
Speaker 1: focus on prevention. I mean it's a really sad part
Speaker 1: of healthcare is that healthcare doesn't make money if you
Speaker 1: never get sick. Like I read about there's this ranger
Speaker 1: who just retired at a hundred. She's amazing she and
Speaker 1: she was a park ranger. She retired at a hundred.
Speaker 1: Obamba gave her a tribute. But she is kind of
Speaker 1: the examples, like she is healthy at a hundred, you're
Speaker 1: not generating a lot of money for the health system.
Speaker 1: So when you're sick, you generate money. But if you're healthy,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's so awful. That's so well and
Speaker 1: it's such a hideous idea. Yeah, so that's part of
Speaker 1: the reason why we're self pay and part of the
Speaker 1: reason you know, twenty three is focused on that world
Speaker 1: of prevention. But it's in your hands. Then, so what
Speaker 1: do you do if you're afraid of finding out that
Speaker 1: you're predisposed potentially to something, even though you know it's
Speaker 1: not deterministic, Like how can people kind of ballly up
Speaker 1: to the idea that I'm going to look at this
Speaker 1: health report and I'm going to see that there is
Speaker 1: a certain percentage chance that I may be predisposed to this.
Speaker 1: I mean, the reality is everyone's at risk for something, right,
Speaker 1: and if you look at your family history, you probably
Speaker 1: know you know various risks that you may or may
Speaker 1: not have. So the data that we have so far
Speaker 1: as that you know, it's it's people find out something
Speaker 1: like they're higher risk for Alzheimer's, and it will cause
Speaker 1: people to really think about it, and they can be
Speaker 1: anxious initially, but it returns to baseline, so it changes
Speaker 1: their life in terms of like very practical things like
Speaker 1: in the case of Alzheimer's, people were going and buying
Speaker 1: long term care insurance, so being proactive. So one of
Speaker 1: the big things we think about is, you know, can
Speaker 1: you actually help people know how to live their life?
Speaker 1: So we're never gonna be able to tell you the
Speaker 1: day you're going to die, Like people always ask that.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, no no, that product will cost a
Speaker 1: lot more money. We don't have that, but we can
Speaker 1: help you understand risks. So if you know that, for instance,
Speaker 1: you're higher risk for type two diabetes, you can really modify.
Speaker 1: You can change your eating habits or things like you know,
Speaker 1: I look at more severe conditions even like chronic kidney disease.
Speaker 1: You can test proactively. You know. The reality is like
Speaker 1: you have to be a partner with your physician as
Speaker 1: well to know what are your risks? What are the
Speaker 1: things that you have to look for because you're not
Speaker 1: going to get screened for everything all the time, So
Speaker 1: what are the things that you want to think about?
Speaker 1: And then also how are you making intentional and decisions
Speaker 1: with how you're living your life in terms of what
Speaker 1: you eat or how you exercise or how you sleep.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be absolute, like you don't
Speaker 1: if you're higher risk or something like, you can still
Speaker 1: have the cookie. It's just a question of like moderation
Speaker 1: and being aware awheness, that's the key. You know, there's
Speaker 1: certain people also where it's just not the right product
Speaker 1: for them, But for people who want to you know,
Speaker 1: who like knowing and want to be more proactive. Then
Speaker 1: it's absolutely you know the right thing for them. What
Speaker 1: is the quality you like least about yourself? Interesting? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm generally relatively supportive about myself. Um so I have.
Speaker 1: I mean there's things that are I'm often criticized for,
Speaker 1: which is I'm not terribly punctual. I love the fact
Speaker 1: that you'd say, like, what it quality you like least
Speaker 1: about yourself? It's like, no, I'm good with me. Here's
Speaker 1: what other people are not good with me about, like
Speaker 1: not always punctual. Okay, I mean I I look, I
Speaker 1: think the realities you have to appreciate yourself and accept yourself.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. Yeah. So I think
Speaker 1: there's things you know, you just at some point you
Speaker 1: reach a point you're like, I just am the way
Speaker 1: I am. So anyways, I could absolutely be more punctual.
Speaker 1: I have moments where I'm unrealistic. I think what's interesting
Speaker 1: is the advocacy for self like that. To me, it's
Speaker 1: the kind of That's the headline from this is perhaps
Speaker 1: we would all be slightly more successful in humanity if
Speaker 1: we were just to embrace the stuff that we categorically
Speaker 1: now is difficult about ourselves would go, well, this is
Speaker 1: part of me, and there's all this other stuff that
Speaker 1: really balances out the annoying stuff. I like the idea
Speaker 1: that you're an advocate for yourself exactly. I think that
Speaker 1: everyone has to understand their strengths and their weaknesses, and
Speaker 1: so there's like I joke, it was like I like,
Speaker 1: I don't really get dressed. I'm not great at fashion.
Speaker 1: I'm and there's just certain areas we've just given up
Speaker 1: on and you just embrace it at some point and realize,
Speaker 1: like my strength and I think about this even how
Speaker 1: I run the company. I am good at thinking big,
Speaker 1: I'm good at challenging status quo, um, but I'm not
Speaker 1: always great with structure. So I can hire, like I
Speaker 1: have a really great team around me who's really good
Speaker 1: with structure, and there's ways that you can then manage that.
Speaker 1: But just recognizing like it's you know, it's it's just
Speaker 1: a little bit how I am. I have this really
Speaker 1: lovely yoga instructor who calls me the Princess of Possibilities,
Speaker 1: and I tend to always air on positive like even
Speaker 1: on people like I I strongly believe everyone's great at
Speaker 1: something I agree with you. I agree with that. So
Speaker 1: you just have to find out what it is, and
Speaker 1: you have to And that gets back to the previous
Speaker 1: thing about adventure, like you have to then explore enough
Speaker 1: to know, like what are you actually good at? I
Speaker 1: think that also takes confidence. I think a lot of people,
Speaker 1: if they get the impression that you're looking for is
Speaker 1: great about them, they will their lack of belief in
Speaker 1: themselves will stop you either being able to find it
Speaker 1: or stop their own inquiry into what that is. Because
Speaker 1: it's funny how a lot of people are they believe
Speaker 1: that they're not, that they don't have anything great about them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see that sometimes, and I see and I do.
Speaker 1: I absolutely credit my parents with this, and then particularly
Speaker 1: my mom, Like my mom is almost annoyingly so such
Speaker 1: a cheerleader, like that is so great, you look so good.
Speaker 1: That was amazing. And you know, my mom's a high
Speaker 1: school teacher and her spec shealty really was always taking
Speaker 1: kids in freshman year who often lacks self confidence and
Speaker 1: and giving them confidence and just and in some way
Speaker 1: showing like she My mom was always really critical. She's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll mark up your essay, like write an essay for
Speaker 1: me and I'm going to destroy it, but you're going
Speaker 1: to rewrite it and then you're gonna give it back
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm going to mark it up more
Speaker 1: and then you're going to rewrite it again. And you're
Speaker 1: going to do that until you get an a. And
Speaker 1: so my mom was like very much of that type
Speaker 1: and like and she she's she would hold on these
Speaker 1: I mean she would show up at kids houses and
Speaker 1: be like, I'm waiting, I'm waiting for that, like we
Speaker 1: got to rewrite it. Like she was really good at
Speaker 1: helping people realize that you're full of potential, you just
Speaker 1: got to get it, like work on that. And so
Speaker 1: I do think that sense of self confidence in giving
Speaker 1: kids that opportunity and anything. And I see this now
Speaker 1: with my three year old, like when she is so
Speaker 1: proud of herself when she can take off her dress
Speaker 1: and like like she said, she like does a little
Speaker 1: happy dance like she's is like like that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 1: So like throughout kids lives, you've got to reward them,
Speaker 1: like you got something done, Like that's great. What would
Speaker 1: your last meal be. I'm not a die hard food person.
Speaker 1: It can be experiential as well, you know, like the
Speaker 1: way you would be and what the vibe would be.
Speaker 1: Oh well, experiential would be everything I love again, a
Speaker 1: big event with a family style dinner. I'm not formal.
Speaker 1: There would be no organized cutlery. It would be like
Speaker 1: we have a dinner every Sunday night at my at
Speaker 1: my house. There's no organization. It's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a free for all. I love being with my friends
Speaker 1: I've been with for a long time. I'm all about
Speaker 1: quality of food and not specific type. I've had the
Speaker 1: most amazing like local organic salary, and my kids always
Speaker 1: make fun of me. They're like, what did you say?
Speaker 1: I was like, I just love fresh salary again. My
Speaker 1: whole thing is all about something that's pure, Like I
Speaker 1: always hate ven years, so they're like food that's masks,
Speaker 1: like those little tiny bunny carrots that are tiny and
Speaker 1: also have you seen how quickly they go off in
Speaker 1: your fridge, Like they don't survive. There's nothing better than
Speaker 1: like going into the garden and like I see my daughter,
Speaker 1: like she eats all the mint off the point it's
Speaker 1: so cute pulling vegetables off, and like going I used
Speaker 1: to love being sent out into the garden. Mom would
Speaker 1: be like, go and get me two heads of lettuce
Speaker 1: and some new potatoes, and then that's what we'd eat.
Speaker 1: It was great. But again, also when we lived in France,
Speaker 1: we had our first garden and the neighbors across the
Speaker 1: street grew raspberries, so we were always like sneaking into
Speaker 1: their there to get them to steal the raspberries. Those
Speaker 1: are the best, but they really are. In fact, stolen
Speaker 1: fruit is stolen fruit is arguably better. Definitely in your life,
Speaker 1: can you tell me something that has grown out of
Speaker 1: a personal disaster. I mean there's so many disasters. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the most public one, you know, when twenty
Speaker 1: three got our warning letter, oh yeah, from the f
Speaker 1: d A. And I think one thing. I was talking
Speaker 1: to someone the other day and she was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't realize the full story. Like I had a one
Speaker 1: year old and a two and a half year old
Speaker 1: and I was getting divorced in a very public way
Speaker 1: and then I got the FDA come after me. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's a lot to be happening at one time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know. People always say, you know you have the
Speaker 1: pie chart of your life. You know, you have your work,
Speaker 1: you have your personal life, you have your kids, like
Speaker 1: you need something to be stable, And that was one
Speaker 1: of those moments where I remember coming home, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: I don't have anything that's stable, Like there's nothing, there's nothing,
Speaker 1: And you know, I remember people saying they're like, this
Speaker 1: is time when shops like companies close up, and and
Speaker 1: again it was. It was just unbelievably hard, like little
Speaker 1: kids and managing the publicity of the divorce, so all
Speaker 1: of that. But I look back and I'm like, but
Speaker 1: life is now so good, Like we got through the
Speaker 1: f d A, I hired amazing people, My children are fabulous,
Speaker 1: and you know, all things and all relationships like you
Speaker 1: you move on, it regenerates, like you regenerate, you regenerate.
Speaker 1: And I bring up that example mostly because it was
Speaker 1: the most public, but it was it was hard and
Speaker 1: it was hard, like I remember the first time having
Speaker 1: to go to a public event and it was like
Speaker 1: you know, when everyone's looking at you, Like there was
Speaker 1: an article called what was it? Twenty three and stupid
Speaker 1: and and I'm friends with the author, so was I
Speaker 1: kind of love like, but people are all talking about you,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. No, the public aspect, like when your
Speaker 1: life is fracturing, and you add in that it is
Speaker 1: made public that compounds the fracture, like without a shadow
Speaker 1: of it, Dan, it's quite hard to explain the idea
Speaker 1: of everybody knowing and judging your something painful that you're
Speaker 1: going through. It is difficult, it's hard, and I think
Speaker 1: it goes back to that question what I don't like
Speaker 1: about myself? Like I do really like myself, and so
Speaker 1: what kept me whole in that time frame is I
Speaker 1: was like, I am very confident of our path forward,
Speaker 1: confident that everyone's going at something, that there's a better
Speaker 1: again going back like Princess of Possibilities, Like it's all
Speaker 1: going to be okay, and so there's something for me
Speaker 1: about like when I think of my north Star and
Speaker 1: life is always like it's going to be okay. And
Speaker 1: in some ways, I think if you have that attitude,
Speaker 1: then you're just riding waves. It's like surfing. You're just
Speaker 1: like like sometimes you've got a bigger wave. But there's
Speaker 1: something good in everything, Like our FDA stuff was challenging,
Speaker 1: but like there's good in everything, so you just have
Speaker 1: to find that. And again, as a forward looking individual,
Speaker 1: like I'm always focused on you know, things will be okay.
Speaker 1: That is a lovely place to conclude things will be okay.
Speaker 1: I teamed up with twenty three and Me for today's
Speaker 1: episode with Ann you can hear more podcast hosts discuss
Speaker 1: their experience with twenty three and Me on the podcast Spit,
Speaker 1: hosted by the magnificent Barunday Thurston, and if you liked
Speaker 1: his episode of Many Questions, you will love his work
Speaker 1: on the Split podcast. Subscribe to Spit wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite podcasts so that you can be the
Speaker 1: first to listen when the new season comes out on
Speaker 1: May five. To learn more about twenty three and Me
Speaker 1: and ants work with a company, visit twenty three and
Speaker 1: me dot com. Mini Questions is hosted and written by
Speaker 1: Me Mini Driver, Supervising producer Aaron Kaufman, Producer Morgan Lavoy,
Speaker 1: Research assistant Marissa Brown. Original music Sorry Baby by Mini Driver,
Speaker 1: Additional music by Aaron Kaufman. Executive produced by Me Mini Driver.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Jim Nikolay, Will Pearson, Addison, No Day,
Speaker 1: Lisa Castella and Annicke Oppenheim at w kPr, de La Pescador,
Speaker 1: Kate Driver and Jason Weinberg, and for constantly solicited tech support.
Speaker 1: Henry Driver