1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:05,040
Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Sophia Bush here. Welcome to Work in Progress,

2
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:08,240
Speaker 1: where I talked to people who inspire me about how

3
00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,160
Speaker 1: they got to where they are and where they think

4
00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:24,680
Speaker 1: they're still going today. On Work in Progress, I am

5
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:27,680
Speaker 1: so excited to share my conversation with a woman who

6
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:33,320
Speaker 1: is beyond inspiring. She's tenacious, resilient, and relentlessly dedicated to

7
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,839
Speaker 1: the well being of women at large. Miss Cindy Eckert.

8
00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,520
Speaker 1: Cindy is a serial entrepreneur and highly vocal advocate for women,

9
00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:44,720
Speaker 1: specifically in the areas of business and health. Over her

10
00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:48,360
Speaker 1: impressive twenty four year career in healthcare, Cindy created and

11
00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 1: sold to innovative pharmaceutical companies Slate Pharmaceuticals and Sprout Pharmaceuticals.

12
00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:57,840
Speaker 1: At Sprout, she forged a new path in women's healthcare

13
00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:02,000
Speaker 1: by creating Abbie, the first ever f d A approved

14
00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,759
Speaker 1: drug for low sexual desire in women. After selling it

15
00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:09,760
Speaker 1: for a billion dollars, only to see it shelved by

16
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:12,640
Speaker 1: the company that bought it, she bought tooth and nail

17
00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:14,600
Speaker 1: to get it back and make sure it was made

18
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,440
Speaker 1: available for women against all the odds. She now mentors

19
00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,800
Speaker 1: and invests in entrepreneurs with groundbreaking ideas through her investment fund,

20
00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:27,240
Speaker 1: The Pink Ceiling. This pincubator helps women do what Sydney

21
00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:31,120
Speaker 1: has already done herself. A chief, big success, take command

22
00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:35,640
Speaker 1: in male dominated industries, and truly change the world. On

23
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,080
Speaker 1: today's episode of Work in Progress, Cindy and I discuss

24
00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:39,800
Speaker 1: what it's like to move around a lot as a kid,

25
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,280
Speaker 1: the importance of individuality in the workplace, and how the

26
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,200
Speaker 1: best way to change a problematic industry is to change

27
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,680
Speaker 1: it from within. We also explore the social conditioning of

28
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,920
Speaker 1: women around the subject of sexual pleasure and why female

29
00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:57,920
Speaker 1: sexual health is largely overlooked. This episode is all about

30
00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,520
Speaker 1: advocating for ourselves as women and demanding better. You want

31
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:08,720
Speaker 1: to share this one with every woman you know. I'm

32
00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,560
Speaker 1: so pumped that we're doing this today. Thank you for

33
00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:19,480
Speaker 1: joining me. Absolutely, I'm so happy. Um. Before we get

34
00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,799
Speaker 1: into your work, what you're doing in healthcare, what you're

35
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,960
Speaker 1: doing with the Pink Ceiling, I always like to go

36
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,640
Speaker 1: backwards with people of it, because so often when I

37
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,720
Speaker 1: sit across from someone and interview them, it's it's about

38
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,200
Speaker 1: what they're doing in the world now. But I'm always

39
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:41,680
Speaker 1: curious where people started. So you, I've I've read that

40
00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:43,840
Speaker 1: you said that you had a bit of a nomadic

41
00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,400
Speaker 1: childhood because your dad was with the State Department and

42
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,320
Speaker 1: you moved around a lot. So where where do you

43
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 1: consider yourself being from? And then how often were you moving?

44
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,080
Speaker 1: That is such a good question. Where am I from? Um?

45
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,480
Speaker 1: My joke to every days I live on an airplane,

46
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:05,280
Speaker 1: which is probably because I don't really identify with any

47
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,000
Speaker 1: one spot. I'm actually my business is based in North

48
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:11,200
Speaker 1: Carolina and I've been here as long as I've been

49
00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:14,400
Speaker 1: anywhere in my life, which is remarkable to me. But

50
00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:18,400
Speaker 1: my original childhood and I think foundationally my roots are

51
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,560
Speaker 1: very blue collar. I'm from of state, New York, Rochester

52
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,160
Speaker 1: and um, you know what lived in a town where

53
00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 1: you were? I was sure you were Italian? Your parents

54
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,560
Speaker 1: probably worked at the factory. And I had this incredibly

55
00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,600
Speaker 1: adventurous spirit of a father who came home one day

56
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 1: and said, do you know where the Fiji Islands are?

57
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 1: And you know, I did what every like suburban kid

58
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,440
Speaker 1: in the US did. I ran into like my room

59
00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 1: and like spun the globe and I was like, where

60
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:51,320
Speaker 1: is Fiji were? Oh, it's the other side of the world,

61
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,440
Speaker 1: And my dad's a great We're moving there, which of

62
00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:58,080
Speaker 1: course is such a natural transition from Rochester, York, right

63
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,720
Speaker 1: to the Fiji Islands. But there started my um insane

64
00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,880
Speaker 1: sort of childhood of having to pick up and move

65
00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,160
Speaker 1: and move, which, for sure, like as a kid, I

66
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:14,960
Speaker 1: was kicking and screaming, and in hindsight was the most

67
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,400
Speaker 1: incredible experience and a real set up. I think for

68
00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 1: what I have done career wise, how often were you moving?

69
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,520
Speaker 1: I moved every moved to a different school every year

70
00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,120
Speaker 1: from the fourth grade through my senior year of high school.

71
00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,360
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's when one hell of the new

72
00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:38,240
Speaker 1: kid syndrome. I can tell you, whoa so Upstate New York.

73
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:40,919
Speaker 1: Then to Fiji. What are some of the other places

74
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,200
Speaker 1: that you went? Um So, I came back home to Rochester,

75
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,320
Speaker 1: we moved to Italy, we were in d c um So.

76
00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:50,760
Speaker 1: We bounced back and forth a little bit overseas and

77
00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,560
Speaker 1: then back and forth and then in my career similarly,

78
00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,239
Speaker 1: I've you know, lived on the East Coast, the West Coast,

79
00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:00,600
Speaker 1: San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, you name it. It's fun at

80
00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:02,920
Speaker 1: the cocktail party. I can usually find common ground because

81
00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,760
Speaker 1: I've lived in the place the person I'm talking to

82
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,760
Speaker 1: is from, which is pretty cool. That's so interesting. How

83
00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:12,400
Speaker 1: do you how do you think to your point about hindsight?

84
00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:14,960
Speaker 1: You know, because as a kid, of course, you're kicking in, screaming,

85
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:16,400
Speaker 1: you want to stay home, you want to be with

86
00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:21,320
Speaker 1: your friends. But in hindsight, how do you think moving

87
00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:26,120
Speaker 1: so much shaped you as a little girl and and

88
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:30,279
Speaker 1: through your teenage years because every year through your senior

89
00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,479
Speaker 1: year in high school, that's that's a formative time. Yeah,

90
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,599
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's a couple of things. One,

91
00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:40,920
Speaker 1: it got me very comfortable with being uncomfortable, because you

92
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,920
Speaker 1: can imagine day one, you walk into the room, you're

93
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,200
Speaker 1: like the odd man out. You're standing on the side

94
00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,440
Speaker 1: of the room. Um, you have to observe the dynamic.

95
00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,440
Speaker 1: And so I think one it's sort of comfort. You're

96
00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:56,520
Speaker 1: going to be put in uncomfortable situations. How are you

97
00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:58,880
Speaker 1: going to handle it? Um. I think it's made me

98
00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,800
Speaker 1: good at observing and getting sort of perspective. And I

99
00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:07,200
Speaker 1: think it allowed me to not be with any label.

100
00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:09,919
Speaker 1: And if you think about that, in our you know,

101
00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,520
Speaker 1: formative years, you're the jock, you're the geek, you're the something.

102
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,159
Speaker 1: And because I never was part of any click. I

103
00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,359
Speaker 1: think I've gotten to be a little bit of everything

104
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,160
Speaker 1: and appreciate a lot of different points of view. Was

105
00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 1: there a skill you felt like you developed, uh for

106
00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,240
Speaker 1: those first days? Was Was there a way that you

107
00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 1: learned to move into those new rooms humor? I think

108
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:40,040
Speaker 1: that that was the skill? Is how do you you know,

109
00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:44,600
Speaker 1: how do you diffuse what can all be uncomfortable situations

110
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:50,120
Speaker 1: with a levity and with an ability to be self deprecating.

111
00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:52,480
Speaker 1: And I think that is the way that you can

112
00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,200
Speaker 1: start to, you know, win friends. And you mentioned that

113
00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: you did all of this moving because your dad was

114
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:02,360
Speaker 1: working for the state Department. What what were your parents like?

115
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,880
Speaker 1: What did what did? What kinds of people were they?

116
00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:08,880
Speaker 1: And what are some lessons you think they installed in

117
00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,560
Speaker 1: you from a young age? So there, Um they've made

118
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,960
Speaker 1: They've have such a huge impression on me, as do

119
00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,840
Speaker 1: my two big brothers. I'll tell you a little bit.

120
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:20,760
Speaker 1: They met um in college. My mother is from the

121
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:25,320
Speaker 1: Deep South. She's from Mississippi, and um, you know, very

122
00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,760
Speaker 1: sort of picture of the real feminine Southern woman. My

123
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: dad is a New Yorker. Um, she was definitely a

124
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 1: rebel to marry the New Yorker. I teas that when

125
00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:38,440
Speaker 1: we have family gatherings to this day, we need translators

126
00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: because they don't know what you know, both sides are saying.

127
00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 1: And I think they had a real independent spirit. And

128
00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,920
Speaker 1: I say that because and my brothers and I complain

129
00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:53,640
Speaker 1: about this too, the like we we have a we

130
00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 1: we figured out later in life that we all said

131
00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,720
Speaker 1: the same thing, which is, wasn't it so frustrating when

132
00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,120
Speaker 1: we were little and we would go to mom and

133
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,600
Speaker 1: dad for help, like help with homework, you know whatever

134
00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,120
Speaker 1: it was, give us a leg up, And it was

135
00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,600
Speaker 1: infuriating because they would always give us the exact same answer,

136
00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:14,760
Speaker 1: which was we could say, what's you know the what

137
00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:17,120
Speaker 1: does this mean in this chapter about blah blah blah?

138
00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:22,080
Speaker 1: They would say, what do you think? And again at

139
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,000
Speaker 1: the time, you're like, just help me, like I want

140
00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:26,160
Speaker 1: I want to ace the science project. I don't want

141
00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:28,680
Speaker 1: to do anything else. And I think what they were doing,

142
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:33,600
Speaker 1: in a very like intentional way was cultivating independence of

143
00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,680
Speaker 1: thought and saying, one, you're going to have to go

144
00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:38,960
Speaker 1: figure out to be resourceful in life. You're gonna have

145
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:41,400
Speaker 1: to go figure it out for yourself. Um, and you

146
00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,760
Speaker 1: should probably go ask a bunch of different people and

147
00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,120
Speaker 1: appreciate all of their different perspectives in order to form

148
00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,839
Speaker 1: your own. Um. So that's really I think the way

149
00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:54,520
Speaker 1: they answered our homework questions says a lot just about

150
00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:57,640
Speaker 1: who they are, and you know what they wanted to see,

151
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,839
Speaker 1: not only me, but in my brothers too. Yeah. Yeah,

152
00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:05,600
Speaker 1: I mean it strikes me that that's such an excellent

153
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:10,600
Speaker 1: question to pose back to a kid, because really you're

154
00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:16,960
Speaker 1: cultivating critical thinking skills, curiosity. Yeah, you know, it's less

155
00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,440
Speaker 1: about getting the answer right and more about what do

156
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:22,880
Speaker 1: you think, what do you believe? How does this make

157
00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:28,920
Speaker 1: you feel? What's your experience with this book or this place? Yeah,

158
00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:33,080
Speaker 1: that's very great. And my mom has been, you know,

159
00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,280
Speaker 1: such a good force from a the standpoint of always

160
00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,560
Speaker 1: having been in male dominated industries, you know, femininity to

161
00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,800
Speaker 1: her was a real strength. Um. And I think that

162
00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,960
Speaker 1: when I went into you know, kind of classic corporate

163
00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:51,160
Speaker 1: and the rules of engagement were, you know, suit up,

164
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,960
Speaker 1: pull your hair back, don't wear makeup. Um, my mom

165
00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:59,240
Speaker 1: was always in my head saying nonsense. You know, you

166
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:02,840
Speaker 1: are who you are and that's part of your power.

167
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,280
Speaker 1: And so she that that Southern touch actually has been

168
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,760
Speaker 1: a really important one for me. I love that and

169
00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,920
Speaker 1: and you're right, you know, so many of us as

170
00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:18,800
Speaker 1: women have been cultured to think that our femininity is

171
00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 1: a problem in quote professional settings, you know, And I

172
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 1: think there really is something no matter how you feel

173
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:33,280
Speaker 1: beautiful or you feel feminine, I think there's something really

174
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:37,640
Speaker 1: empowering about owning it, whatever your virsion is. And if

175
00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:42,359
Speaker 1: your version is you know, a blowout and a winged eyeliner,

176
00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,880
Speaker 1: or your version is uh, you know, an androgenous like

177
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:51,200
Speaker 1: pant suit, whatever, but whatever it is, own yourself, like,

178
00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,440
Speaker 1: don't don't try to shrink yourself to fit in, you know,

179
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,560
Speaker 1: with the boys in the room agreed, I totally agree.

180
00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:01,920
Speaker 1: Only it is such a big piece of it to me,

181
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,280
Speaker 1: and you know, for me, it's very um, sort of

182
00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:10,040
Speaker 1: quintessential stereotypical. I do love pink. I have always loved pink.

183
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,839
Speaker 1: If you look back in childhood pictures, I'm usually in pink.

184
00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:17,480
Speaker 1: And the pink I recognized very early was perceived as

185
00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:21,800
Speaker 1: a weakness, which mystified me because I saw it as

186
00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:25,640
Speaker 1: a strength. And I think pink for me was some

187
00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:30,720
Speaker 1: you know, flipping of a switch from underestimated to unapologetic

188
00:11:31,559 --> 00:11:34,200
Speaker 1: to your point and who I am and what I

189
00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:38,240
Speaker 1: like and in not being willing to compromise that and

190
00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:40,400
Speaker 1: like that could show up in any way. It could

191
00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:44,200
Speaker 1: be that I love, you know, combat boots, that I

192
00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:47,600
Speaker 1: love flannel, that I love orange, that whatever it is

193
00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:52,120
Speaker 1: that we have, we assigned these stereotypes too. You know,

194
00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:54,720
Speaker 1: I think that instead of leaning away from them, we

195
00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,400
Speaker 1: should go right towards those, because that's what we actually

196
00:11:57,400 --> 00:11:59,920
Speaker 1: should be addressing. I love the way that you owe

197
00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:06,560
Speaker 1: who you are, and you really both in conversation and

198
00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:12,559
Speaker 1: by example, really lead and inspire women to take up space.

199
00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,240
Speaker 1: Where did that come from? Is that something that you

200
00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:22,240
Speaker 1: cultivated over time or or did you learn to speak

201
00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:25,040
Speaker 1: up for yourself early on? You know, I would go

202
00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:30,120
Speaker 1: back a little bit to the conditioning, and maybe I

203
00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,760
Speaker 1: wasn't even conscious of this conditioning, but of my parents

204
00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:37,800
Speaker 1: saying that what do you think? And that giving me

205
00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:42,280
Speaker 1: permission to say what I think and recognizing that that

206
00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:46,160
Speaker 1: had value what I thought, and that in fact I

207
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,960
Speaker 1: was being encouraged to do that. I really think it

208
00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:54,320
Speaker 1: was probably a conditioning and a practice from a very

209
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,679
Speaker 1: young age that you know, flex that muscle over time. Um,

210
00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,880
Speaker 1: that got me to a place where it I would

211
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:06,120
Speaker 1: never consider why wouldn't that be valuable to share? And yeah,

212
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:10,720
Speaker 1: when you empower a kid, that has a ripple effect

213
00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:15,240
Speaker 1: through the rest of their life. Mm hmm. What when

214
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:18,360
Speaker 1: you think back on those teenage years, what was what

215
00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,200
Speaker 1: was your first job? You know, where where did you

216
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:26,920
Speaker 1: begin to be a career woman? I definitely had the

217
00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,760
Speaker 1: retail jobs and um, you know, hanging up all the

218
00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,960
Speaker 1: clothes left in the dressing room, and that was probably

219
00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,440
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't particularly like a good babysitter. I

220
00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:39,280
Speaker 1: will say, I will say that was not my strength.

221
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,720
Speaker 1: I'm the youngest of three. Maybe I just didn't I

222
00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:45,640
Speaker 1: didn't quite grasp the concept in the same way. But

223
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:50,000
Speaker 1: you know, always enterprising if I'm being honest. My very

224
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:56,160
Speaker 1: first job was that I had c ks Kitchen. Um

225
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,800
Speaker 1: my middle name in my middle initials Karen so Cynthia Karen,

226
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,000
Speaker 1: and I opened c K's kitchen and would make my

227
00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:06,280
Speaker 1: brothers pay me to go and get them food from

228
00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:11,120
Speaker 1: the refrigerator and deliver it to the couch, which I'm

229
00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,560
Speaker 1: pretty sure it was just a the only way I

230
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:15,360
Speaker 1: could get my big brothers to play with me. But

231
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:17,880
Speaker 1: be also a side hustle where I can make a

232
00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,920
Speaker 1: little bit of money. Um, And so always like thinking

233
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,960
Speaker 1: of ways. I look back and I laugh. My brothers

234
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,640
Speaker 1: think that every game, you know, imaginary sort of game

235
00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:32,120
Speaker 1: that we came up with, inevitably like I would design

236
00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:33,880
Speaker 1: it so that I could be the CEO of it,

237
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,720
Speaker 1: But the real work and a paycheck from you know,

238
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,720
Speaker 1: somebody else came, you know, very early on, Like the

239
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:44,360
Speaker 1: minute I could get my mom to like drive me

240
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,000
Speaker 1: to the mall and drop me off to have a job.

241
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:51,280
Speaker 1: I had a job. I really wanted that financial independence.

242
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,320
Speaker 1: So you were always entrepreneurial. When when did your interest

243
00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:58,960
Speaker 1: in science kick in? Um? You know that was really

244
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:05,760
Speaker 1: a little it of dumblock. And I would have told you,

245
00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:10,160
Speaker 1: you know, probably throughout school that I was, you know,

246
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,280
Speaker 1: sort of English and social studies kind of girl and

247
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 1: not the math and science. And when I was in college,

248
00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:19,480
Speaker 1: I went to It's funny I ended up in d

249
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,120
Speaker 1: c UM for my senior year of high school. I

250
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,880
Speaker 1: was right outside of d c And my criteria for

251
00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,120
Speaker 1: college was I will not move. So I went to

252
00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,520
Speaker 1: school because I had moved so many years. I went

253
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:33,720
Speaker 1: to school, a small school in d C. And I

254
00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:36,920
Speaker 1: had this wonderful business professor, so I knew I wanted

255
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,240
Speaker 1: to study business. I loved businesses, UM always had my

256
00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:45,600
Speaker 1: whole life. What made them exceptional? UM? And she recognized

257
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,239
Speaker 1: that in me, and she would give me side projects

258
00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:50,640
Speaker 1: and she would tell me come back and tell me, like,

259
00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,240
Speaker 1: what makes this business special? What makes that business special?

260
00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,200
Speaker 1: And on that journey UM reading all of these magazines,

261
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,320
Speaker 1: I decided, well, I'm going to go work for the best.

262
00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:04,040
Speaker 1: So I'm going to go work for Fortune's most admired business.

263
00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,320
Speaker 1: That was it. I just decided that's what I'm gonna

264
00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:11,240
Speaker 1: work for. Honestly, Sophia. It could have been like, it

265
00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 1: could have been you know, aerospace, It could have been oil,

266
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:17,320
Speaker 1: it could have been anything. At that moment in time,

267
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:19,600
Speaker 1: at the time it happened to be a pharmaceutical company

268
00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:23,240
Speaker 1: was Work, and Work was Fortune's most admired because of

269
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:25,440
Speaker 1: all of the innovation and everything else. And I went

270
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,160
Speaker 1: there completely on a business path. And when I got there,

271
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 1: what was so fascinating is I didn't love necessarily having

272
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 1: they got the business done, but I was captivated by

273
00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,120
Speaker 1: what they did, the science and the difference it made

274
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:45,920
Speaker 1: in people's lives and that really started my path from Okay,

275
00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:47,880
Speaker 1: I'm in an industry. I love what they can do,

276
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 1: I don't love how they get it done. How do

277
00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:53,720
Speaker 1: I chase innovation that makes a difference in people's lives?

278
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,880
Speaker 1: And while I'm at it, reinvent the way in which

279
00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:01,400
Speaker 1: the business is run. And that was smaller company, smaller company,

280
00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:05,280
Speaker 1: bigger mark, bigger mark, until I ultimately started one for myself.

281
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:10,240
Speaker 1: What was it that you were identifying that wasn't working?

282
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,919
Speaker 1: When you say, you know, you loved the innovation. You

283
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,080
Speaker 1: loved that a pharmaceutical company, I imagine, could create a

284
00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,480
Speaker 1: medication that could save lives, you know that's huge. But

285
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,680
Speaker 1: what were you identifying as the problems? You know? Where

286
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,480
Speaker 1: where were the holes in the in the boat? Yeah?

287
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:29,600
Speaker 1: Well look, one was I'll be very selfish. They weren't

288
00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,200
Speaker 1: listening to me. And of course, you know, I'm I'm

289
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:37,159
Speaker 1: employee numbers. Who knows at that time ten thousand, you know,

290
00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:39,639
Speaker 1: I was a low man on the totem pole. So

291
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,400
Speaker 1: one was just environment and understanding that I was never

292
00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:44,600
Speaker 1: going to thrive in a big environment in which I

293
00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:46,719
Speaker 1: was a number, that I needed to be in an

294
00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,280
Speaker 1: environment in which I was heard and could really feel

295
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,400
Speaker 1: like I was making a contribution. And what struck me

296
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:56,439
Speaker 1: and strikes me even to this day about businesses is

297
00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,159
Speaker 1: that you know, you get to a certain size and

298
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,639
Speaker 1: you think that the answer is to homogenize. That you

299
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,560
Speaker 1: basically say to everybody, this is our way, this is

300
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,520
Speaker 1: how we do it. And what you're doing is you're

301
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 1: beating the individuality out of everybody, which is really your magic.

302
00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 1: And once you make everyone conform to this one way.

303
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:25,359
Speaker 1: Of course, businesses have to have policies and procedures, but

304
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,680
Speaker 1: you don't have to all be the same in terms

305
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:31,720
Speaker 1: of how you tackle the problems. And that's what really

306
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,679
Speaker 1: struck me is how do I find environments in which

307
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,120
Speaker 1: you're really given permission to show up truly as you

308
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,760
Speaker 1: and that all ideas are hurt and considered and then

309
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:46,359
Speaker 1: the best idea sort of moves forward. And that was

310
00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,080
Speaker 1: that was like the difference between big and small, And

311
00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,760
Speaker 1: that was the entire design for me when I first

312
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,480
Speaker 1: started my first business, that culture would come first, and

313
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,680
Speaker 1: that would be the culture. So then how does your

314
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,359
Speaker 1: first business come about? What was the pathway? You know,

315
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,200
Speaker 1: I think I had served a little bit of time

316
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,800
Speaker 1: I actually had been in corporate for long enough that

317
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,840
Speaker 1: I felt like, you know, I had a track record

318
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 1: that somebody would bet on me. I was very unlikely. Um,

319
00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:18,560
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, like I don't. I don't look

320
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,320
Speaker 1: the part to be in this industry. I don't think

321
00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:24,639
Speaker 1: the way of most of my peers in this industry.

322
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,919
Speaker 1: And yet I thought, I'm in these environments in which

323
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,240
Speaker 1: even still, even as I went smaller from MERK, you know,

324
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,680
Speaker 1: I'm in environments where I could make a bigger contribution.

325
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:39,200
Speaker 1: But I'm just not inspired. And how do I find

326
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:43,960
Speaker 1: people like me who are you know, driven against their

327
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,320
Speaker 1: own sort of personal bar for success. But put them together,

328
00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,199
Speaker 1: give them complete permission, tackle a challenge and see what

329
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,880
Speaker 1: we can do. And it's why I called my first

330
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,760
Speaker 1: company slate. I mean, it was really clean slate. I'm

331
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:01,240
Speaker 1: doing it on my own, damn terms. I'm going to

332
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,359
Speaker 1: be true to these you know, eight things I wrote

333
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:05,960
Speaker 1: on a paper towel and um, and then I'm going

334
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 1: to invite these other sort of misfits in and see

335
00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:14,480
Speaker 1: what we can accomplish together. And that was the most

336
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:17,679
Speaker 1: rewarding thing. By no means, was that business just you know,

337
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,679
Speaker 1: a straight line to success. It was painful, and you know,

338
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 1: I screwed up over and over again, and I was

339
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,080
Speaker 1: learning how to run it from scratch myself. UM. But

340
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 1: the people that were around me and the environment and

341
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: culture we had created meant that we were going to

342
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:36,600
Speaker 1: really sort of take on the world and win. I

343
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 1: love that. And so you start sleep and what comes

344
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,639
Speaker 1: next slate? So slate was of a four year rocket

345
00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,919
Speaker 1: ship ride UM. The first couple very bumpy, and we

346
00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:02,399
Speaker 1: built what was the second most prescribed UM product and

347
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:05,800
Speaker 1: sexual health among neurologists. And while I'm in this space

348
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:07,919
Speaker 1: and I'm watching, you know, I'm running a company that

349
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,919
Speaker 1: solves a problem for men, a problem that we've solved

350
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: for them twenty six times actually by the number of

351
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 1: medications available through the FDA. Can you walk the listeners

352
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:19,359
Speaker 1: through this in a little more detail, because when you

353
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 1: say the the when you talk about eurology in the

354
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:26,680
Speaker 1: field of men's sexual health, what are we really talking

355
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:28,840
Speaker 1: about here? And what what did you what did you create?

356
00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:31,679
Speaker 1: In my case, it was a testosterone So it was

357
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:35,000
Speaker 1: at the time the only FDA proved long acting testosterone.

358
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:37,520
Speaker 1: If you think about the ways that we address men's health,

359
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 1: we talk about the VIAGRAA like drugs, c Alice, La Vitra,

360
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:45,439
Speaker 1: all of these different testosterons and regel test of pel etcetera, etcetera. UM,

361
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,199
Speaker 1: and we have other products as well for Payroni's disease.

362
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:53,240
Speaker 1: So I was in a field that I'm fascinated by.

363
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,080
Speaker 1: So here I am in sexual medicine, which is actually

364
00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:59,919
Speaker 1: a really relatively young field, Like we might know the

365
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 1: work of Masters and Johnson, but it's really a sort

366
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:07,400
Speaker 1: of a modern era. And I'm fascinated by it because

367
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 1: it is something that affects almost all of our life experiences,

368
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,880
Speaker 1: and yet it's very shameful and taboo and we don't

369
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 1: really talk about it openly. And so here's here's an

370
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,639
Speaker 1: area of health that is sort of fundamental to our

371
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:27,200
Speaker 1: human experience that is often overlooked. So I'm in this field.

372
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 1: It's still relatively young, um, even on the male side.

373
00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 1: And I'm, you know, part of what is this renaissance,

374
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:39,680
Speaker 1: I think in addressing this aspect of um, you know, humanity,

375
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,840
Speaker 1: and yet there's nothing for women. And I'm building this

376
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 1: business very successful, and I'm watching the science emerge that

377
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:52,679
Speaker 1: really tells us about the biological basis of sexuality for

378
00:22:52,760 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: women and every like company, deep resource, big company is

379
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 1: running away. What what do you mean by the science

380
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: when we talk about sexual health for both men and women.

381
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 1: I imagine that there are scientific factors that are measurable.

382
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,439
Speaker 1: So when you're talking about what you're seeing for women,

383
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,440
Speaker 1: and to your point, there's twenty six drugs for men,

384
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 1: there's none for women, you're seeing the science behind women's

385
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,439
Speaker 1: sexual health. So what is that? What? What are you

386
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: able to observe? What are they able to measure? What

387
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,880
Speaker 1: are these companies running away from? So this is what

388
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 1: was spectacular is we had brain scan imaging that basically

389
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 1: shows how a woman's brain lights up or doesn't to

390
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:50,640
Speaker 1: e rod accuse. So if you think in medicine today,

391
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,400
Speaker 1: probably in the last two decades, one of the biggest

392
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 1: innovations has been brain scan imaging PET scans functional mr

393
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 1: eies to help us understand conditions. If you will have

394
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 1: the mind of the brain and so put a woman

395
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: in a m R I who totally happy, She's a

396
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 1: normal eban flow of desire. None of us are on

397
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,360
Speaker 1: all the time, she's too completely content with it. Put

398
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 1: a woman next to her who was once happy, feels

399
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: that something has changed and it's causing her really profound distress.

400
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:27,719
Speaker 1: Exposed them both to erotic hues. Their brains light up

401
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:35,439
Speaker 1: totally differently, remarkably differently. So that means that a woman

402
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 1: who has what would be classified as low sexual desire

403
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 1: or a low libido is actually experiencing a difference in

404
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 1: her brain herchical effect. Wow, which was so cool. First

405
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: of all, like the discovery, like it's you know, this

406
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: desire discovery was fascinating. But then to now see scientifically

407
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 1: this credible insight and have everybody be like yeah, but

408
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 1: and the yeah but that became so evident to me

409
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 1: is Look, sexuality is complex. We but it's complex for

410
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 1: men and women alike. Right, we walk into the bedroom

411
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: with probably how we were raised. Religion potentially walks in

412
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,120
Speaker 1: with us the psychology of how we feel about ourselves

413
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 1: and how we feel in our relationship. But by God,

414
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: we walk in with biology, men and women alike. And

415
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 1: it's very easy for us societally for something to go

416
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 1: wrong for men and us go oh, biology, we can

417
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 1: fix that, as witnessed by the fact that we had

418
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: twenty six different options to fix that. But if something

419
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,880
Speaker 1: goes wrong for women we go, oh, psychology, We pat

420
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 1: her on the shoulder, we tell her to take a

421
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: bubble bath or just relax, or that pervasively and pervasively

422
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: in health in general, that can be if she presents

423
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,120
Speaker 1: with a cardiovascular issue, that can be in a variety

424
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,639
Speaker 1: of ways. But my god, she better magnify that a

425
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: thousand times when it's sexuality, because we are so sure

426
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,120
Speaker 1: that we think of men is just biological with one

427
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: switch that turns on and off, and women as psychological

428
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,160
Speaker 1: that requires all of this dial in, and yet we're

429
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: looking at science that is revealing a biological basis and

430
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: we're walking away. And really, what boiled up in me

431
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 1: was outrage. I mean, of course, and it strikes me

432
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 1: as as I hear you explain that that that people

433
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 1: are walking away from a true biological observation and ability

434
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 1: to diagnose. And I wonder if it's because there's also

435
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,919
Speaker 1: so much just societal complexity around women's sexuality, you know, this,

436
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 1: this sort of Madonna horror complex, this how dare women

437
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 1: be sexual? They should? They shouldn't. Um there there's so

438
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: much culturing around sexual shame for us, around a woman

439
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 1: who likes sex must be a whore. A woman who

440
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:12,640
Speaker 1: is empowered in the bedroom with our partner is dangerous.

441
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 1: It's risky and scary. You know, we we don't have

442
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: a cultural conversation around women's sexual health, around sexual pleasure,

443
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 1: around sexual desire. We we treat these things as though

444
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 1: they're taboo and as though they're bad. But if we

445
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: make women feel like their sexuality is bad and they

446
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: don't feel empowered to make sexual decisions for themselves, I

447
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: worry that not only are we disempowering women, but we're

448
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: actually adding into the mess of sexual violence against women

449
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: because rather than sexuality being this even playing field, it's

450
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,199
Speaker 1: it's been taught to women that they should hide it

451
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:58,159
Speaker 1: and men that they should do anything to get it.

452
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know, this is addressing heteronormative situations, and

453
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: I know there are far more, but you know, sure

454
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: for the sake of the conversation we're having, I really

455
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: I I realized that as a thirty seven year old woman,

456
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:18,400
Speaker 1: I am I feel a little shaky talking about this.

457
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like, oh God, we're gonna we're gonna

458
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:27,360
Speaker 1: talk about sexual desire on the podcast. What is that about? Why?

459
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:31,439
Speaker 1: Why have we been cultured to be like this and

460
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:39,479
Speaker 1: how does our culturing affect us medically majorly? There's so

461
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 1: much great data on this, and I appreciate you saying

462
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: that because you're in the camp. I think people will

463
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: get me say how do you speak about this so freely?

464
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: And I think my strength is in the science. For me,

465
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: it's a very black and white issue. We have learned

466
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 1: something that is a spectacular discovery that is really a

467
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: catalyst for conversation and creating permission to have a vocabulary

468
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: around our pleasure. Like, think about it this way. If

469
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 1: we were born after the birth control pill came to market,

470
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 1: whether we like the pill, ever took the pill, however

471
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: we feel about it, we actually had a vocabulary to

472
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: talk about it. And if I'm being really aspirational around Addie,

473
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 1: it broke the door down around desire and pleasure that

474
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 1: now we get to talk about it right down the middle,

475
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 1: you know, not at the extremes to your point, the

476
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 1: Madonna and horror and all of these extremes at which

477
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 1: we look at sexuality, but rather as a part of

478
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: our life experience and something that if it's not going

479
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: right for us, deserves to be addressed. It's um the

480
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: societal narrative here is so so strong you think about it.

481
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 1: You know, women will get their period, probably in middle school,

482
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: and there will be incredible shame around it, and everything

483
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: shuts down and we are completely looked at as reproductive beings.

484
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 1: You know. My radical thought is like, how do you

485
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: go through sexual revolution and stop at reproduction? And part

486
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: of the reason in my mind that we continue a

487
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: power struggle in this control around women's reproduction is because

488
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,000
Speaker 1: we and by we I do mean all of us

489
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: women haven't owned the conversation all the way through pleasure.

490
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 1: Once you own it all the way through pleasure, all

491
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: of that leaves the room. And to your point, which

492
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: is such a good one, there's really data around the

493
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: fact that if women can't you know, talk about their

494
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: body with the correct anatomical terms, if they're told to

495
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: call it acute name, you know, of the j J

496
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: and all of that, the actual repercussion is they don't

497
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: report violence, They don't discuss these things because they actually

498
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: don't have any of the words and they have been

499
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: conditioned to think that it would be inappropriate to bring

500
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:09,719
Speaker 1: it up. Wow, that's huge, because this cultural sort of

501
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: denial of women's bodies and of our right to talk

502
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: about our bodies and our right to enjoy our bodies again,

503
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: ripple ripples into so many other arenas. I mean, I

504
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 1: learned years ago, um that so many women don't ask

505
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: their doctor's questions. When women go to see the guidecologists,

506
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: they don't ask questions, they don't accurately report their sexual experiences.

507
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: They're embarrassed. And and I think that was just such

508
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: an AHA moment for me, looking to your point at

509
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 1: some of the data. Data is what makes everything makes

510
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 1: sense to me. And when I looked at the data,

511
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: I had to really acknowledge the ways in which I

512
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: carry shame that doesn't make sense around my own body,

513
00:31:58,040 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: the ways in which I'm nervous to have some of

514
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,440
Speaker 1: these conversations, and then to know that the only way

515
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: to begin creating a shift was to first start a

516
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: shift with myself. And and you said something you've you've

517
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: said the You said that this was a big desire discovery.

518
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: And then later you you mentioned one of my favorite words, deserve.

519
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: Women deserve to live embodied. We deserve to take up

520
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: space out in the world. We deserve to take up

521
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: space in our bedrooms. We deserve to be in healthy

522
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 1: sexual relationships with our partners, and not to feel again

523
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 1: going to the data, not not to feel like we're

524
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 1: supposed to look like women in this pervasive pornography, not

525
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: not to feel like we're supposed to be performative. But

526
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: if we don't know how to talk about it, how

527
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 1: do we get there? So I love that you were

528
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 1: able to look at the data and the science and

529
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 1: then to see the absolute lack of conversation being had

530
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: in the medical field. Yeah, what did you do next?

531
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 1: Because you said all these companies ran away from it.

532
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: You knew that we needed to get a drug that

533
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 1: could help women's sexual health, that could address this, this

534
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: neurological issue, this change in brain chemistry. You know, we

535
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: were talked an awful lot about antidepressants and mood stimulators

536
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: and whatever. We're not talking about it in this arena.

537
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: So what what happened? Well? I think that I'll tell

538
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: you what happened. I spent a year listening to women,

539
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: That's what happened. I was watching all of its science emerge,

540
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: I was watching companies run away from it, and I

541
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 1: ran in and I on, I'm going to just sit

542
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,480
Speaker 1: down with women who are dealing with this and hear

543
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: it in their own words. And when I did that,

544
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 1: I thought, my god, if I'm listening, so too is

545
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: everyone else going to listen? Because here is what I

546
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 1: have learned in science. Science gave us the answer a

547
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 1: long time ago. It's black and white. It's you know,

548
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,399
Speaker 1: we know that these these are repeated studies. We see

549
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: it over and over and over again. Then we do

550
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,320
Speaker 1: you know, double blinded placebo controlled trials. We meet outcomes

551
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 1: with statistical significance, like the evidence is there. And yet

552
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 1: it's remarkable to me that we can sort of turn

553
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 1: the blind eye to evidence if we just put our

554
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: hands over our ears. Um. And so the most I

555
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 1: think satisfying part of selling off my profitable business. And

556
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: then I would say that because there was a moment

557
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: when you know, my board looked at me and said,

558
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: you're gonna do what? No way? And I said, oh,

559
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,320
Speaker 1: like I'm doing it, um if we don't know when's

560
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: going to and and so we took it on and

561
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: and the most delightful thing is that women got their

562
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 1: day to come and tell their stories. And data is

563
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: informed very differently through the lens of empathy. And once

564
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: I have heard from a woman and I haven't made

565
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:18,320
Speaker 1: a value judgment on whether or not this really matters

566
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: if she has more desire for sex or a healthier

567
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: you know, relationship with her partner. Um, once I hear

568
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 1: it out of her own mouth, I have a very

569
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: different perspective on taking that seriously. So that was really

570
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 1: you know, what came about was I took this on Um.

571
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: I did all the work in the very like I said, geeky,

572
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,720
Speaker 1: you know, double line to save a control, the rules

573
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,360
Speaker 1: of engagement for what you have to do, the hurdles

574
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,479
Speaker 1: to prove basically, you know, safety and efficacy. I did

575
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:53,839
Speaker 1: that and the FDA turned me down. And when they

576
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:58,760
Speaker 1: turned me down, what they said as well, the effect

577
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: is modest and so and I thought modest. Wait a minute.

578
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 1: Women go from not having sex to having satisfying sex.

579
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 1: They go from having mercy sex to having you know,

580
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,839
Speaker 1: sex that they're really excited with that their partners four

581
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: to six times a month, whatever the outcomes, they have

582
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: more desire, they have less distress. We meet all these outcomes,

583
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: and when they turned me down, I was mystified. So

584
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 1: an increase in a woman's sexual experience with her partner

585
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,719
Speaker 1: of four to six times more per month, which could

586
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:35,080
Speaker 1: go from zero to six, which is a lot. They

587
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: were saying was moderate. Mhmm, what was interested? So here's

588
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: what I thought, modest felt like minimal, right, exactly as

589
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: you just interpreted it. My version is modest is meaningful.

590
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: This is not like you you take something and all

591
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know you're going home with the

592
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 1: next waiter that you think is handsome, like this is ridiculous,

593
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: like the The purpose of this is not nymphomania. In fact,

594
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 1: you look at that, the idea is a restoration to

595
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 1: a level that you were once happy with because you've

596
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:13,400
Speaker 1: got these you know, neurochemicals back into balance. It's allowing

597
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:17,319
Speaker 1: you to respond to sexual cues. And so to me,

598
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 1: there was that was so underpinned with a value judgment

599
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: on sexuality. And I would just say, you said this

600
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 1: beautifully earlier about you know, you making a decision that

601
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 1: you're going to have to get comfortable enough to bring

602
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: it up. I would say to anybody listening, just consider this.

603
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 1: For twenty years, twenty a little longer, you haven't turned

604
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:46,480
Speaker 1: on the radio or television and not been told that

605
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: men's sexuality matters. You've been told for twenty years even

606
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 1: if it has been very like, you know, not at

607
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 1: the top of your consciousness. But this message has been

608
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:01,319
Speaker 1: reinforced all of these medications, everything that me here. But

609
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 1: never once have we said that about women, And so

610
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: why would we why would we bring it up? We're

611
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:09,440
Speaker 1: not ever even told that it matters. Wow. And what's

612
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 1: really striking me in this moment is that I realized,

613
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: I don't you know, I've I mean, maybe I do know.

614
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: I was about to say, I don't think I know

615
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 1: any men who take any of those drugs, but maybe

616
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: I do and they just don't talk about it. But

617
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: I've seen that Sea Alice commercial with the with the

618
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 1: older couple in the side by side bathtubs holding hands

619
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 1: for so long, I know, the whole commercial. They're like

620
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: up in NAPA or something, that they're on our hillside.

621
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 1: It's beautiful, they're holding hands. It's very cute, and and

622
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 1: it strikes me that there's always a woman in the

623
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: commercial for the men's sexual health drug. That's right, but

624
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,440
Speaker 1: it's always about the man's sexual health. It's about his

625
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: getting his desire back. It's about the couple getting their

626
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 1: groove back because the guy can get an erection again.

627
00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 1: We're literally we're always featured, but we're never centered. Yes,

628
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:07,400
Speaker 1: that's right. We we are pleasure floating right now. I

629
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 1: would tell you pleasure is not the messaging to us

630
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: as pleasure is not ours to own. Pleasure is ours

631
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: to deliver. And we set that up and that has

632
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:23,879
Speaker 1: an incredible impact on how we feel in bringing it up,

633
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 1: um and and it's just incredible. I mean, it's it's profound,

634
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 1: the impact once you start digging under the surface here

635
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 1: and I'm and I'm struck by you saying that that

636
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:38,319
Speaker 1: there's this really insidious almost like uh, subconscious messaging that

637
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 1: we're meant to deliver it because you said something a

638
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 1: moment ago that you were able during your clinical trials

639
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 1: to track a difference between women who had a low

640
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 1: libido having what you what you called mercy sex. And

641
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,440
Speaker 1: we've all heard the joke and we've all seen the

642
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: comedians and everybody talks about how you know, the woman's like,

643
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 1: I gotta do this thing and she's looking at her

644
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: watch and she's like, baby, like I got shipped to do.

645
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: To go from that, again, culturally reinforced dynamic that we

646
00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 1: don't really want to do it, but we do it

647
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: for them to say, a woman can take a medication

648
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 1: that boosts her neurochemical activity in this way and then

649
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 1: be enjoying her sexuality and having you know, four to

650
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 1: six really pleasurable sexual encounters with her partner every month,

651
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 1: and an increase as you said in your data, and

652
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:38,840
Speaker 1: for a bunch of men at the f d A

653
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 1: to say, what do we care? Yeah, why are we

654
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: supposed to care about this? So again, our experience has

655
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: never been centered to them. It strikes me that they

656
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: are likely making decisions based on the thought of, well,

657
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,560
Speaker 1: you're supposed to deliver it. Why are we caring about

658
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 1: your sperience? Well, we can have sex whether or not

659
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:09,160
Speaker 1: we wanted. Men can't, which is right. We think of

660
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 1: that around. You know, erection equals performance. If they can't

661
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 1: get an erection, it's a national emergency. I mean, and

662
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 1: I say that not even completely joking. Literally, If you

663
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 1: look at the history of viagra when it got approved,

664
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:26,839
Speaker 1: it was rushed through the FDA for approval. Did say

665
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 1: prove it six months? Six months? Six months. It took

666
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 1: the first drug for women's most common sexual dysfunction six years.

667
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: It took me six years. And by the way, I

668
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 1: had three times as many patients worth of data. Wow,

669
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: which is not insignificant. And it's really about, you know,

670
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 1: this valuing of men's sexuality, um, their pleasure, and you know,

671
00:41:55,080 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 1: this disregard for ours. That's that's deeply And I don't

672
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 1: mean to say they're not bad. You know, there's not

673
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:08,239
Speaker 1: bad people. They're wonderful, brilliant scientists, um, you know at

674
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:13,400
Speaker 1: the FDA. But they're human, and the human bias and

675
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 1: sexuality is this construct. I mean, I my parents all

676
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,719
Speaker 1: the time say this, and you've probably heard me tell

677
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:22,920
Speaker 1: this joke. My parents say all the time, could you

678
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: have not done something in diabetes, Cindy. And what they're

679
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,480
Speaker 1: saying is, you know what, if you're not diabetic, you

680
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:32,240
Speaker 1: actually don't have a point of view. But by god,

681
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,920
Speaker 1: when it comes to sex, pretty much everyone has a

682
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:40,439
Speaker 1: point of view. Mm hmm. And what a crazy thing

683
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 1: that the points of view are so skewed depending on gender,

684
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: depending on the gendered experience. Because to your point, for

685
00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: the FDA to approve viagrams six months, didn't it get

686
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: an emergency classification. It was fast tracked. So you have

687
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 1: to apply for asstrack approval, which is reserved for medications

688
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 1: that meets such an important unmet medical need that they

689
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,759
Speaker 1: would qualify to be rushed through. So we deemed that

690
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 1: e D was such an important unmet medical need for

691
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 1: men that we rushed it to approval. Yet sexual dysfunction

692
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,360
Speaker 1: in women with three times as many patients, three times

693
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:27,400
Speaker 1: the data and identical populations of prevalence. By the way,

694
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: so e D is men's most common sexual dysfunction. HSDD

695
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:35,120
Speaker 1: is the term for women's most common sexual dysfunction. That's

696
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:39,280
Speaker 1: the frustrating low libido. We're talking about same prevalent size

697
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:42,120
Speaker 1: in the you know, in the world. But look at

698
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,799
Speaker 1: how the past retreated differently. And it wasn't just that

699
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: they turned me down once I had three public meetings.

700
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 1: I mean what happened is when they when they turned

701
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: me down despite the fact that we had met these outcomes,

702
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: and when they said the benefit was only modest, I

703
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 1: fought them, Um, how do you say, how do you yeah,

704
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 1: taking on the government for pleasure is the road less traveled.

705
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: So there wasn't exactly a manual, um, but I will

706
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:15,279
Speaker 1: say there's a mechanism by which actually the f d A,

707
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 1: we all pay right taxpayer dollars and there's a program

708
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,440
Speaker 1: inside it called Patient Focus Drug Development. Was that mean?

709
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,640
Speaker 1: It means if there's something that you haven't solved, who

710
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 1: should be at the center of the conversation the patients,

711
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:33,239
Speaker 1: which is absolutely right. And so when I fought them,

712
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: what that precipitated was that they had to open their

713
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 1: doors and listen to women. And so we had these

714
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 1: massive public meetings like you wouldn't have believed to be

715
00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: in these rooms. I mean, it was the most like

716
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:49,319
Speaker 1: incredible thing for me to you know, be front row

717
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:52,240
Speaker 1: seat at this kind of advocacy. And you know, women

718
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 1: arranged for childcare, took off of work, flew across the country,

719
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,799
Speaker 1: showed up in a federal agency to talk about their

720
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: private you know, UM struggles behind the closed doors of

721
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:07,239
Speaker 1: their bedroom in order to change it for all of us.

722
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 1: And to the FDS credit, they listened, They did open

723
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: their doors. They had all of these public meetings, and

724
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 1: they assembled a scientific body of twenty six people to

725
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,719
Speaker 1: come in and vote um ultimately on the data. And

726
00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: when we had what I call a fair day in court,

727
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,000
Speaker 1: when we were really just talking about the science, they

728
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:34,240
Speaker 1: voted overwhelming me to approve the drug. So what happens next,

729
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm struck. Obviously we're talking about uh, psychosocial

730
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 1: storytelling and and sort of subconscious bias and all of

731
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 1: these things. What's the actual technical process of beginning to

732
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 1: create a drug? And then when you get voted in

733
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 1: by the f d A, when the scientists say this

734
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,440
Speaker 1: absolutely meets the need, then how do you make it? Like, like,

735
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: what's the technical side of Oh, it's making medication. Yeah,

736
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 1: Oh it's crazy. So this has been in development for

737
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,400
Speaker 1: so many years. The science was first innovated in Germany.

738
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 1: We're talking, you know, we're eighteen years in or something

739
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: at this point. Um, when I took it on, we

740
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: already had a supply chain build and all of that

741
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 1: for this unique it's it's a one of a kind,

742
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: so it's the only medication of its kind. Um, it

743
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,000
Speaker 1: actually was early days. You mentioned this earlier because it

744
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: works on you know, brain chemicals. Drug discovery is interesting.

745
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: I mean, we we're living it in a COVID era

746
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,680
Speaker 1: right now, where we're looking at medications that had other

747
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:41,799
Speaker 1: purposes and we're seeing if they could be repurposed. So

748
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,319
Speaker 1: often the path that you start down may not be

749
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:47,120
Speaker 1: where you end up with a drug. UM in the lab,

750
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 1: so this was actually being looked at as a mood drug. UM.

751
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 1: And when you give women or any anyone antidepressants, the

752
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,080
Speaker 1: number one side effect is it it kills your sex drive.

753
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 1: It's actually because of what it's doing on the serotonin receptors,

754
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 1: it's killing your sex drive. It's causing a lot of

755
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:09,520
Speaker 1: inhibition and so so much so that in drug trials

756
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:12,759
Speaker 1: you required to administer a scale to see how much

757
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 1: you're killing your sex drive. So with Addie that scale

758
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 1: was administered early day clinical trials and all the scores

759
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 1: went the other way. So it had this pro sexual effect,

760
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 1: and at that moment in time they change the course

761
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,479
Speaker 1: of study and looked at it in this condition. Because

762
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: it's not like we haven't known about this condition. It's

763
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:36,799
Speaker 1: been in the medical literature since ninety seven, this can

764
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:40,319
Speaker 1: hsd D. We have known about it hsd D. It

765
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,839
Speaker 1: has been in the manuals, there have been a diagnostic

766
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: code for it. We just didn't ever have any solutions

767
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:49,319
Speaker 1: for it. UM. So you know, just the history of

768
00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,200
Speaker 1: it is really quite fascinating. UM that we've known about

769
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,279
Speaker 1: it for so long but turned a blind eye. What

770
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:59,400
Speaker 1: does hsd D stand for? Hypo so hypo low active

771
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,560
Speaker 1: sex will desire disorder. It's like the same type of

772
00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: classication A is erectile dysfunctions for men or or you

773
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: know the other kind of terms. Got it. So you

774
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 1: identify this this drug, this is coming out of Germany.

775
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:18,760
Speaker 1: You you you make addie which is what the medication

776
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 1: is called it is, and you have your day in

777
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:25,920
Speaker 1: court in with the f d A, which was years

778
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:28,560
Speaker 1: in the making. I found it sounds like it came overnight.

779
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,760
Speaker 1: I mean from the point of you know, the moment,

780
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 1: it's a long time you did them like that. I

781
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,880
Speaker 1: was we were a tiny little company. We were, you know,

782
00:48:38,239 --> 00:48:41,959
Speaker 1: a band of sort of scientists who were held bound

783
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:45,320
Speaker 1: and determined to change the conversation about women's sexuality forever.

784
00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:49,400
Speaker 1: And when we got the turned down, I don't have

785
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:51,840
Speaker 1: much recourse as a company. And can you imagine, like

786
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 1: I'd already gone out to raise money to do something

787
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:58,919
Speaker 1: that no big company would do, and now I've got

788
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 1: to turn down and I've got a turned back around

789
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 1: and hold my hand out and ask people to bet

790
00:49:03,239 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 1: on me to see it through. That was really rocky

791
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 1: roads um to get there. But when we finally got

792
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 1: our our day in court. Um and the world knew

793
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:15,359
Speaker 1: that the f DAY would approve us. When they get

794
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 1: this recommendation from a scientific committee, they take it under advisement,

795
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:21,520
Speaker 1: So it doesn't mean that they go, okay, you're approved.

796
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:23,799
Speaker 1: They take a few more months, make you sweat it

797
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:26,840
Speaker 1: for a little bit. But this world had been signaled

798
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:29,600
Speaker 1: they were going to approve it. And then big companies

799
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 1: came knocking. They came to my doorstep and said, you're

800
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:35,839
Speaker 1: going to actually get done what none of us got done,

801
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 1: and we want to march it across the globe and

802
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,319
Speaker 1: make it affordable and give it to everybody. And so

803
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 1: two days after the drug was approved, I actually sold it.

804
00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:47,919
Speaker 1: And who did you sell it to? Valiant was their name.

805
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:51,480
Speaker 1: That's a big pharmaceutical company, big company. Yeah, And then

806
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:56,240
Speaker 1: I sold it for a billion dollars up front. Um

807
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 1: was there were thirty five of us there. We were

808
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:00,960
Speaker 1: so excit I did it. And let me tell you

809
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 1: why I chose them because there were other suitors, because

810
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:06,919
Speaker 1: they were going to keep the team. And I knew

811
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: that's what mattered the most, is that they were so

812
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: deeply committed to why we were doing this. Nobody set

813
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 1: out to create a blockbuster drug. We set out to

814
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:19,280
Speaker 1: basically open the floodgates and actually have many more drugs

815
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:22,960
Speaker 1: come forward for women because patients are best served with options.

816
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,480
Speaker 1: I mean, if men get twenty six, we should Um.

817
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 1: So when I when they were going to keep the team,

818
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:34,279
Speaker 1: and I guess, as these sad stories go with startups. Um,

819
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 1: they got rid of me and about I was maybe

820
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 1: two months after the deal closed, and they got rid

821
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,959
Speaker 1: of my entire team in three and they shelved the drug.

822
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:46,480
Speaker 1: So they told you they were going to keep your

823
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:52,239
Speaker 1: team and get this drug to women across the world. Yes,

824
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 1: they let your whole team go, and they put the

825
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 1: drug on a shelf, which is in like in my industry,

826
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: what happens sometimes is you'll see um like a bidding

827
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 1: war or something for a property to make, you know,

828
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 1: movies or TV. But what will happen is it will

829
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:15,640
Speaker 1: get bought by a big studio who thinks it's actually

830
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,320
Speaker 1: going to compete with something they already have in development,

831
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: so they'll buy it just so they can sit on

832
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 1: it and essentially kill the story so that it doesn't

833
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 1: compete with their other story. There wasn't even another drug

834
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 1: that was competing with this that that Valiant owned. They

835
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:34,320
Speaker 1: just bought your medication and put it on the shelf

836
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: because they you know, they were they went through their

837
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,839
Speaker 1: own business turmoil. They fired the CEO who was there

838
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 1: at the time of the acquisition. Um, and I think

839
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:50,840
Speaker 1: what they had done is they had taken away what

840
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 1: is the most important thing in any business, and that's

841
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:56,919
Speaker 1: the people who care about the mission. And so here

842
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:00,520
Speaker 1: was a drug in a brand new space that we acquires,

843
00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:03,480
Speaker 1: you know, a level of conviction and courage, um to

844
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 1: go out into a marketplace with they had no champions.

845
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 1: And so it just and I had to sit on

846
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:14,879
Speaker 1: the sidelines and cry it out. I mean truly cry

847
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 1: it out at the beginning. And I thought, there is

848
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 1: no way we fought this hard for women to finally

849
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,200
Speaker 1: have the choice. You know my positions take it or

850
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,839
Speaker 1: don't take it. I don't care, but by God, you

851
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:30,480
Speaker 1: deserve the choice to take it if you want it

852
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: at any point in your life. And um, and so

853
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 1: I had to like, you know, sort of pick myself up,

854
00:52:37,480 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: um by my bootstraps and say, come on, like you're

855
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:43,040
Speaker 1: better than this, Cindy, go get it. And I got

856
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 1: their new CEO to sit down with me. Um. He

857
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:48,000
Speaker 1: was two weeks into the job and I said give

858
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: it back and he was like what he thought, you know,

859
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 1: who's this crazy woman? And think, Um, that's asking me

860
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 1: for this drug back. We paid a lot of money

861
00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: for this and you know we'll figure it out at

862
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:01,960
Speaker 1: some point. And I was is relentless in going back

863
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:05,520
Speaker 1: and thankfully had written a contract where they had agreed

864
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:10,600
Speaker 1: to not incredible you know, conditions, but really reasonable conditions

865
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:14,799
Speaker 1: of how much money they'd spend on education, UM, you

866
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:18,399
Speaker 1: know education with the O b g Yan community, the

867
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 1: basic sort of one oh ones if you will, of

868
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 1: bringing a first in class, first in category UM drug demarket.

869
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,919
Speaker 1: And because they weren't meeting any of those and when

870
00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:31,120
Speaker 1: they wouldn't listen to they give it back. I sued

871
00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 1: them UM for breach of contract, and in exchange for

872
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:38,680
Speaker 1: dropping that lawsuit, they gave me the product back. And

873
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:44,040
Speaker 1: now we've watched it. Incredible, incredible and it it does.

874
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: It requires a relentless dedication, and you were relentless. The

875
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: dedication is like I'm in my lifetime, I'm going to

876
00:53:55,719 --> 00:53:59,280
Speaker 1: see this conversation change. I'm going to see the shame

877
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:03,919
Speaker 1: and the stigma a lift, and I'm going to hopefully,

878
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: you know, have played some part, in small part, in

879
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 1: just letting women know they deserve to advocate for themselves

880
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 1: on something that is so fundamental to how we move

881
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,759
Speaker 1: through this world currently. You know, to your point, your

882
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:25,280
Speaker 1: eighteen years into this, it took six years to get

883
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: Addie approved by the FDA, not without a fight, which

884
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,760
Speaker 1: strikes me because I just keep doing the math. Six

885
00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:35,600
Speaker 1: months for viagrass, six years for Addie. I'm like, wow,

886
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 1: twelve times as long to get one drug for women. Interesting, Okay,

887
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:42,160
Speaker 1: so there's twenty six at market for men. Is Addie

888
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 1: still the only drug? One more has come? One more

889
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 1: has come, which is great. It's open. People call me

890
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,200
Speaker 1: the day, they're like, are you okay? I'm like, I'm thrilled,

891
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:55,080
Speaker 1: like love doing jumping Jack's because this is how it

892
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,280
Speaker 1: starts to change, Like there was no when we broke

893
00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: the door down, we hoped many others would come. And

894
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:05,400
Speaker 1: what I was sad about, honestly is if I look back,

895
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 1: the R and D is pitiful. And the reason that

896
00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 1: the R and D is pitiful, this is the this

897
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,120
Speaker 1: is the dirty little secret, and by R and D

898
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:18,040
Speaker 1: just for the listeners. You mean, so the money that

899
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:21,359
Speaker 1: goes into research and development around women's sexual health, you're

900
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:25,439
Speaker 1: saying it's terrible. Let me be more broad around women's health.

901
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,560
Speaker 1: So let me scare you with the stat four percent,

902
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,800
Speaker 1: four percent of research dollars go to women's health. I'm sorry,

903
00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:40,240
Speaker 1: what for two percent of dollars go to prostate cancer alone?

904
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:43,640
Speaker 1: And I'm not taking away from pressing here, but just

905
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:47,880
Speaker 1: consider that fact for a second. Here is the dirty

906
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:53,080
Speaker 1: little secret. It's not that companies don't see opportunity, but

907
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 1: here's what they know. The path will be longer and

908
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:59,640
Speaker 1: the hurdles will be higher when it comes to women's

909
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:06,160
Speaker 1: health because of this, again, real ability to be dismissive

910
00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:10,280
Speaker 1: of those conditions that uniquely affect women and to solve

911
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:12,480
Speaker 1: them with the pad on the shoulder and to have

912
00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:15,920
Speaker 1: a glass of wine. And it really happens more than

913
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:20,319
Speaker 1: any of us should tolerate. Wow, So what do we do?

914
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,160
Speaker 1: Because I imagine that everyone listening feels the way I

915
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:27,560
Speaker 1: feel right now, which is nauseous and angry, how do

916
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:34,760
Speaker 1: those of us who don't run enormous pharmaceutical companies. Okay,

917
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, you made a billion dollars. I'm gonna

918
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:40,719
Speaker 1: to me you are enormous, but you know, yes, you're

919
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:44,560
Speaker 1: right in comparison, you're you're small and sharp and and

920
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:47,200
Speaker 1: all of those things that makes you so adept at

921
00:56:47,719 --> 00:56:51,719
Speaker 1: making change. But what can most of us do to

922
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:57,439
Speaker 1: advocate for better spending on research and development for women's health,

923
00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:02,880
Speaker 1: on on better represent intation of our health? You know,

924
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 1: whether it's at drug companies or in government? What do you?

925
00:57:05,920 --> 00:57:08,279
Speaker 1: What do you? What do you identify as a path

926
00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:12,359
Speaker 1: for advocacy. So there's a few things. Um One is,

927
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:16,760
Speaker 1: don't allow healthcare to be a great mystery. It's really

928
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:21,640
Speaker 1: not so mysterious. It's about um, you showing up and

929
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:25,720
Speaker 1: demanding better for yourself and be asking questions to your point,

930
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:28,240
Speaker 1: Like at the very simplest, what can I do? I

931
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:31,440
Speaker 1: would say to everybody, walk into the room, and you know,

932
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: if you're not getting your answer, go somewhere else. That's

933
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 1: one in a very basic way. Two is share these

934
00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 1: stories because I think, because we see healthcare, it's sort

935
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: of complicated, and I don't get all of these you know, nuances,

936
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:50,520
Speaker 1: we tend to not listen. And I think, with Addie

937
00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:54,840
Speaker 1: in particular, here's my hope. Um. You know it's about sex,

938
00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:57,480
Speaker 1: and therefore people will often listen. But I think the

939
00:57:57,560 --> 00:58:00,040
Speaker 1: takeaway in the eye opening at the end of it

940
00:58:00,120 --> 00:58:03,760
Speaker 1: is we've got a real problem in women's health in general,

941
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:08,600
Speaker 1: and we should be concerned about that collectively. UM. And again,

942
00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:12,600
Speaker 1: demand better in terms of watching these things more closely

943
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:14,800
Speaker 1: as they go through the process, so that we are

944
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 1: sure that there's an even playing field. Right from a

945
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 1: regulatory perspective, it's science. There should be an even playing

946
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:27,800
Speaker 1: field in a similar process, whether I'm addressing something for

947
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:30,280
Speaker 1: men or for women. And we got to be loud

948
00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:33,400
Speaker 1: about that. Um. And then I think, yeah, I mean,

949
00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 1: I mean those are two two of the things. How

950
00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:40,080
Speaker 1: do you think that we get more women into positions

951
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 1: where they are making these decisions? Does this require more

952
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:49,400
Speaker 1: women to pursue science? Government? What is it? You know?

953
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 1: I'll tell you so I thank you for saying that,

954
00:58:52,040 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 1: because that was my third and I've lost my my

955
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:57,080
Speaker 1: train of thoughts. This is the most important one. Sophia

956
00:58:57,280 --> 00:59:00,320
Speaker 1: got me to it, and that is I'm told every

957
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 1: day and I know you will appreciate this. From friends,

958
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:08,600
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you're in pharma, because let's be honest, Like,

959
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:12,240
Speaker 1: if we look at the industry, we think of big pharma. Um,

960
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 1: it's certainly got reputational issues. And um, we all sort

961
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:19,480
Speaker 1: of hate pharma in the light of day, but we

962
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:21,280
Speaker 1: love them in the dark of night if our kids

963
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:24,200
Speaker 1: are sick. So we should from a perspective of the industry,

964
00:59:24,200 --> 00:59:26,440
Speaker 1: And what does the capacity do? It's huge in this

965
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:29,960
Speaker 1: moment in COVID. We're all looking to this industry for innovation.

966
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 1: So what I My answer to that and friends who

967
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: you know tease me about it and being in an

968
00:59:35,600 --> 00:59:38,840
Speaker 1: industry they don't particularly care for, is how do you

969
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:43,160
Speaker 1: solve it if not from within? And I want to

970
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:46,360
Speaker 1: encourage more people who say, oh, like I would never

971
00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 1: be part of that. I would never be in that industry. Actually,

972
00:59:50,320 --> 00:59:52,640
Speaker 1: we're going to be the crowd who changes it. So

973
00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:56,520
Speaker 1: you've got to run toward it, come in and disrupt it. Please.

974
00:59:57,200 --> 00:59:59,640
Speaker 1: That's I mean, that's so important. And I do feel

975
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:02,120
Speaker 1: like we shy away from it because we think that

976
01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:05,480
Speaker 1: it's um sort of unsavory, uh, And I think that

977
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:08,440
Speaker 1: we've got to actually run toward it. There's a great

978
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,840
Speaker 1: piece that an opinion piece that was written um in

979
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:15,760
Speaker 1: the Washington Times a few months ago, and it was

980
01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:22,960
Speaker 1: about how pseudo medicine has taken over for pseudo science

981
01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:27,160
Speaker 1: has taken over for science, particularly for women. And what

982
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:31,480
Speaker 1: was great is it was written by a physician who

983
01:00:31,560 --> 01:00:36,200
Speaker 1: said in the fault is ours because we have left

984
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 1: women out of the equation in medicine for so long.

985
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:43,840
Speaker 1: What did we think they were going to do other

986
01:00:43,880 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 1: than to go and find And I'm not talking about

987
01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:50,560
Speaker 1: like alternatives. There is wonderful you know, data, but if

988
01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:54,120
Speaker 1: something is not evidence based, we should demand better. We

989
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:58,160
Speaker 1: should be given evidence based solutions. They may be pharmaceutical,

990
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 1: they may be herbal, they maybe whatever, but their evidence based.

991
01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:05,320
Speaker 1: And that's really what we should demand that somebody cares

992
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:07,800
Speaker 1: enough to take the time to research it on our behalf.

993
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:12,520
Speaker 1: Where does the average consumer begin to find proof of

994
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:17,320
Speaker 1: evidence based Honestly, Google, I'm not even kidding, you know,

995
01:01:17,440 --> 01:01:20,840
Speaker 1: you should be really I'm going to say, if it says,

996
01:01:21,200 --> 01:01:23,040
Speaker 1: you know, these claims have not been evaluated by the

997
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:26,040
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Administration, that is like that is actually

998
01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:29,240
Speaker 1: a flag to you that there's probably a lot of

999
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:33,240
Speaker 1: puffery going on there and a lot of overstatement of benefit.

1000
01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:35,200
Speaker 1: You know, I look at some of these things that

1001
01:01:35,240 --> 01:01:37,840
Speaker 1: have come onto the market. We we laugh all the time.

1002
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:40,080
Speaker 1: There's a there's a product sold at Walmart called live

1003
01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:43,640
Speaker 1: in Libido Loca and my team laughs about all the time.

1004
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:46,320
Speaker 1: And it's you know, like tree bark that's going to

1005
01:01:46,440 --> 01:01:51,000
Speaker 1: solve it. You know, No, there's no like real clinical

1006
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:54,160
Speaker 1: studies that are plus EBO controlled And you can really

1007
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,520
Speaker 1: kind of find that online if you do some homework

1008
01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:01,760
Speaker 1: on studies, um that are really dem instrating like statistically

1009
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:05,960
Speaker 1: significant improvement on outcomes and don't buy the other m hm.

1010
01:02:06,960 --> 01:02:11,280
Speaker 1: So especially yeah, be very cautious and especially for women,

1011
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:14,280
Speaker 1: take a few moments to do a little bit of

1012
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:18,360
Speaker 1: research on what it is you're hearing versus what the

1013
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:21,800
Speaker 1: science says totally and and you know, do have a

1014
01:02:21,800 --> 01:02:26,440
Speaker 1: provocative relationship with whoever you're trusted, like healthcare provider is

1015
01:02:26,520 --> 01:02:28,960
Speaker 1: you know, do go in and ask all of these questions.

1016
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:32,360
Speaker 1: We have a we work behind the scenes obviously and

1017
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:38,000
Speaker 1: um with you know, the medical establishment and for them.

1018
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:41,120
Speaker 1: I look at a world in which if a woman

1019
01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:44,360
Speaker 1: is asked about sex, she's really asked three questions. She's asked,

1020
01:02:44,360 --> 01:02:47,720
Speaker 1: are you sexually active? Do you want birth control? And

1021
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 1: do you want to be tested for s t I,

1022
01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 1: s STDs. What if we would add one question and

1023
01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:59,040
Speaker 1: say and are you satisfied? Mm hmm. It's ever so simple,

1024
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 1: and yet we're working so hard to just include this

1025
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:06,960
Speaker 1: in the sort of health inventory, you know, women's wellness exam,

1026
01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:09,480
Speaker 1: because if we would ask for that, it's not just

1027
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:13,080
Speaker 1: that we would be addressing, you know, libido issues or other,

1028
01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:17,200
Speaker 1: it's that again, we would be giving that permission to discuss.

1029
01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 1: That would reveal so much more of what's going on

1030
01:03:20,920 --> 01:03:23,560
Speaker 1: for them, um again behind closed doors that they're not

1031
01:03:23,600 --> 01:03:26,600
Speaker 1: talking about. So we're I'm gonna take It's gonna take

1032
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:28,720
Speaker 1: me ten years to get that added. So in the

1033
01:03:28,760 --> 01:03:33,120
Speaker 1: next decade, I need everybody listening to ask themselves to say, like,

1034
01:03:33,160 --> 01:03:35,520
Speaker 1: why is nobody ever asked me that question? I'm going

1035
01:03:35,560 --> 01:03:37,440
Speaker 1: to walk in and talk about it, and I'm going

1036
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:39,800
Speaker 1: to bring it up, and I deserve to bring it up.

1037
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:43,600
Speaker 1: If I'm dissatisfied with anything that's going on, bring it

1038
01:03:43,680 --> 01:03:47,040
Speaker 1: up with your health care provider. If your doctor doesn't

1039
01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:53,360
Speaker 1: ask you the question, start the conversation yourself. Yeah. So

1040
01:03:53,720 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 1: it makes me curious because when I think about your

1041
01:03:57,120 --> 01:04:00,560
Speaker 1: career path and I think about I sort of envisioned

1042
01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 1: you like in this pink Safari suit, like macheteng through

1043
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:10,680
Speaker 1: you know, the thick jungle. Because you're your weight. You're

1044
01:04:10,760 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 1: really forging a new path. You're cutting a new path,

1045
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 1: and you do. You're doing that in healthcare, you're doing

1046
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:22,760
Speaker 1: that with this medication, with this conversation. But you're also

1047
01:04:22,880 --> 01:04:27,120
Speaker 1: doing it as an advisor, you're doing it as a businesswoman.

1048
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:32,520
Speaker 1: You started an organization called the Pink Ceiling, And I

1049
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:37,320
Speaker 1: would love for you to tell listeners. Uh, first of all,

1050
01:04:37,320 --> 01:04:39,560
Speaker 1: I supposed to explain the name and then and then

1051
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:42,920
Speaker 1: tell them what you do. Yeah. So, um, you know,

1052
01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:45,960
Speaker 1: there's absolutely a glass ceiling that was the ceiling that

1053
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:49,360
Speaker 1: we wanted to shatter in sexuality for women. Mine happens

1054
01:04:49,440 --> 01:04:52,480
Speaker 1: to be colored pink right in my world, and I

1055
01:04:52,520 --> 01:04:56,080
Speaker 1: think there are many pink ceilings that still exist. Um,

1056
01:04:56,680 --> 01:05:00,160
Speaker 1: there are you know, all of these rules unwritten as

1057
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,640
Speaker 1: in life, right, and I think there there's rules of

1058
01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:05,240
Speaker 1: law and order that we have to buy by, and

1059
01:05:05,240 --> 01:05:07,040
Speaker 1: then there's all these unwritten rules of which I think

1060
01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:09,360
Speaker 1: women are subject to many more, and we got to

1061
01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:11,479
Speaker 1: figure out how we sort of break them together because

1062
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:14,200
Speaker 1: they make no sense and so the pink ceiling was

1063
01:05:14,240 --> 01:05:16,800
Speaker 1: my money where my mouth was during that time when

1064
01:05:17,160 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 1: I told you, I was sort of curled up in

1065
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:22,240
Speaker 1: the corner, you know, crying it out because my company

1066
01:05:22,280 --> 01:05:24,680
Speaker 1: had been bought and then they weren't. None of what

1067
01:05:24,800 --> 01:05:28,080
Speaker 1: I had imagined for my baby was being realized. UM.

1068
01:05:28,120 --> 01:05:31,480
Speaker 1: I thought, your responsibility to just go out and help

1069
01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:34,480
Speaker 1: other people get there so this doesn't happen to them.

1070
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:37,160
Speaker 1: And I knew my best work would be reaching my

1071
01:05:37,200 --> 01:05:39,640
Speaker 1: hand back and getting other women there faster than I

1072
01:05:39,680 --> 01:05:42,200
Speaker 1: got there myself, because I had stepped on a ton

1073
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:45,600
Speaker 1: of the landlines. And so my own it's my own money,

1074
01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:49,000
Speaker 1: it's not a fund, it's my money, UM, And I

1075
01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 1: invest in true disruption. So I'm disrupting not only in healthcare,

1076
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 1: things that we want to see in this world, that

1077
01:05:57,720 --> 01:05:59,720
Speaker 1: women want to see in this world, but truly this

1078
01:06:00,080 --> 01:06:05,000
Speaker 1: rough rs in terms of these extraordinary founders who like

1079
01:06:05,200 --> 01:06:09,040
Speaker 1: me show up, you know, in Silicon Valley and get

1080
01:06:09,160 --> 01:06:12,800
Speaker 1: laughed out of the room for their idea. And so

1081
01:06:13,040 --> 01:06:17,600
Speaker 1: I'm I hope that we'll also disrupt everybody's um picture

1082
01:06:17,640 --> 01:06:21,040
Speaker 1: in their mind of who has the next billion dollar idea,

1083
01:06:21,720 --> 01:06:24,200
Speaker 1: because that's a real problem that you know. Part we

1084
01:06:24,240 --> 01:06:26,640
Speaker 1: don't get solutions because we don't we don't fund them,

1085
01:06:26,680 --> 01:06:30,360
Speaker 1: we don't take them seriously. Um, we cannot be at

1086
01:06:30,360 --> 01:06:33,200
Speaker 1: a place where we actually celebrate that we're at two

1087
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:36,440
Speaker 1: point nine percent of all venture funding goes to women.

1088
01:06:37,440 --> 01:06:40,960
Speaker 1: What fifty percent population has like less than three percent

1089
01:06:40,960 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 1: of the good ideas ridiculous. Um. So that's what I do.

1090
01:06:44,120 --> 01:06:46,880
Speaker 1: I invest my own money and I ride side saddle

1091
01:06:46,920 --> 01:06:49,840
Speaker 1: with them, um to the finish line. So it's a

1092
01:06:49,960 --> 01:06:54,120
Speaker 1: lot more about rolling my sleeves up getting into the business.

1093
01:06:54,120 --> 01:06:57,600
Speaker 1: We're highly selective about who we take in because we're

1094
01:06:57,600 --> 01:06:59,840
Speaker 1: really going to go the distance with them. It's not

1095
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:02,800
Speaker 1: just like, oh, nice, great, I'm writing you a check.

1096
01:07:02,960 --> 01:07:07,000
Speaker 1: Good luck. Um. It's very active and you're building, you're

1097
01:07:07,000 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 1: really incubating these businesses. What do you look for thancubatingcubating, love, thancubating.

1098
01:07:12,920 --> 01:07:14,880
Speaker 1: We call it the pancubator. It's so you need to

1099
01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:17,919
Speaker 1: come visit. It's so great. I can't wait. Honestly, when

1100
01:07:18,040 --> 01:07:20,960
Speaker 1: when these when we're allowed to be in the same space,

1101
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:24,560
Speaker 1: I'll be the first person at your door. What are

1102
01:07:24,600 --> 01:07:26,960
Speaker 1: you looking for in the companies that you invest in?

1103
01:07:28,560 --> 01:07:32,840
Speaker 1: You know, I am UM. I'm looking for true first

1104
01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:37,680
Speaker 1: first in a category UM that you know, opens a

1105
01:07:37,720 --> 01:07:41,840
Speaker 1: category for others to come forward and honestly often UM

1106
01:07:42,120 --> 01:07:45,280
Speaker 1: catalyst and social conversations that I think we need to

1107
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:49,920
Speaker 1: be having. That's what makes lights my fire. Yeah, same

1108
01:07:50,000 --> 01:07:52,600
Speaker 1: good And and that's part of what I love about

1109
01:07:53,240 --> 01:07:56,919
Speaker 1: this is just being able to have this conversation. Yeah.

1110
01:07:57,080 --> 01:08:00,400
Speaker 1: I like thinking about listeners, you know, in their cars

1111
01:08:00,560 --> 01:08:03,800
Speaker 1: or on a walk with their you know, earbuds and

1112
01:08:04,040 --> 01:08:07,240
Speaker 1: listening to us have this conversation and then thinking about

1113
01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:10,880
Speaker 1: how they can have this conversation in their own space. Absolutely,

1114
01:08:12,000 --> 01:08:14,600
Speaker 1: I know. It's the it's the multiplier effect, right, you

1115
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:17,360
Speaker 1: hear it and share it. And that's the best part.

1116
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,599
Speaker 1: That's I mean, that's for the pink ceiling perspective even

1117
01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:23,439
Speaker 1: you know, the coolest thing I hope to come out

1118
01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:27,320
Speaker 1: of it is the multiplier effective ownership. I've gotten to

1119
01:08:27,360 --> 01:08:30,320
Speaker 1: an outcome that has allowed me this ability to help

1120
01:08:30,360 --> 01:08:32,439
Speaker 1: others get to an outcome, and I expect and they

1121
01:08:32,479 --> 01:08:34,320
Speaker 1: get there, they'll help the next get to the outcome,

1122
01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:36,680
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth, and you suddenly have

1123
01:08:36,800 --> 01:08:40,240
Speaker 1: a you know, this incredible army UM that has come

1124
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:44,120
Speaker 1: out of this and really built a new standard of

1125
01:08:44,160 --> 01:08:46,960
Speaker 1: who we bet on. And we do have to do

1126
01:08:47,040 --> 01:08:49,600
Speaker 1: it together, and we do have to do it by

1127
01:08:49,800 --> 01:08:56,000
Speaker 1: having these conversations, by taking up the space realizing that

1128
01:08:56,040 --> 01:08:59,120
Speaker 1: we deserve to realizing that we need to be in

1129
01:08:59,160 --> 01:09:02,800
Speaker 1: those rooms, whether it's as scientists at the f d

1130
01:09:02,960 --> 01:09:06,960
Speaker 1: A or as innovators in the medical industry or the

1131
01:09:06,960 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical industry. We we need to rest some of the

1132
01:09:10,400 --> 01:09:14,320
Speaker 1: control if we want to create a better and braver

1133
01:09:14,479 --> 01:09:18,120
Speaker 1: world for sure. For sure, what do you think has

1134
01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:21,840
Speaker 1: been the biggest lesson that you've learned on this path

1135
01:09:21,960 --> 01:09:26,960
Speaker 1: so far? You know, the best lesson is, I think,

1136
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:29,759
Speaker 1: as scary as it is to take the road less traveled,

1137
01:09:29,960 --> 01:09:33,040
Speaker 1: you are going to be delighted by who comes and

1138
01:09:33,040 --> 01:09:36,519
Speaker 1: walks beside you. And that's the coolest part to me.

1139
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:39,920
Speaker 1: Like you know, we were, I was this tiny nobody'd

1140
01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:44,000
Speaker 1: ever heard of my business or anything else. And when

1141
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:48,320
Speaker 1: this happened and I started asking critical questions, when I

1142
01:09:48,360 --> 01:09:51,479
Speaker 1: had the audacity and to be will to take on

1143
01:09:51,520 --> 01:09:55,759
Speaker 1: the f d A, all of a sudden, women's rights leaders,

1144
01:09:56,120 --> 01:10:01,479
Speaker 1: women's health leaders started coming to meeting. In fact, ten

1145
01:10:01,600 --> 01:10:05,519
Speaker 1: organizations got a bus and went demanded a meeting with

1146
01:10:05,600 --> 01:10:07,840
Speaker 1: the f d A. I would have killed been in

1147
01:10:07,880 --> 01:10:11,000
Speaker 1: that meeting. Of course I wasn't. I learned about it,

1148
01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:13,760
Speaker 1: you know, after the fact. But they said, help us

1149
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:17,360
Speaker 1: understand how we're looking at an equation in which there

1150
01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:21,040
Speaker 1: are twenty six times we looked at risks and benefits

1151
01:10:21,040 --> 01:10:25,160
Speaker 1: for men and then turned over the decision two men

1152
01:10:25,160 --> 01:10:27,920
Speaker 1: and their provider, but not once have we done that

1153
01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:31,120
Speaker 1: for women. And you know that's an important piece. No

1154
01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:35,200
Speaker 1: medication as a panacea. Medications have risks, they have benefits.

1155
01:10:35,240 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 1: It's responsibility to characterize those. But then, really, isn't it

1156
01:10:40,200 --> 01:10:42,680
Speaker 1: all of our response We to turn over the decision

1157
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:46,679
Speaker 1: to the individual who's affected and then get to decide.

1158
01:10:46,680 --> 01:10:50,519
Speaker 1: And we learned that lesson so well in the AIDS movement,

1159
01:10:51,040 --> 01:10:54,519
Speaker 1: where you know, at the very infancy of medications um

1160
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:57,800
Speaker 1: for AIDS, they were really risking and it took the

1161
01:10:57,840 --> 01:11:02,280
Speaker 1: patient saying, who weren't getting access to them? Hey, the

1162
01:11:02,360 --> 01:11:06,280
Speaker 1: hell with you, this is my decision. I will take

1163
01:11:06,360 --> 01:11:09,920
Speaker 1: that risk for the possibility of that benefit. And you

1164
01:11:09,960 --> 01:11:13,600
Speaker 1: know that's the truth of any great innovation is the

1165
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:16,400
Speaker 1: people affected should be at the heart of it. Yes,

1166
01:11:16,840 --> 01:11:20,360
Speaker 1: and we need to have seats at the table where

1167
01:11:20,360 --> 01:11:25,080
Speaker 1: the decisions are made so that the next creator doesn't

1168
01:11:25,160 --> 01:11:29,320
Speaker 1: run into some of the feedback that you did. One

1169
01:11:29,360 --> 01:11:31,280
Speaker 1: thing that's always stuck in my mind since you and

1170
01:11:31,320 --> 01:11:35,320
Speaker 1: I had our first conversation about this over a dinner table,

1171
01:11:35,960 --> 01:11:41,680
Speaker 1: was that there was a powerfully elected efficial, a powerful

1172
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:47,479
Speaker 1: elected official who when you presented, uh, what you guys

1173
01:11:47,479 --> 01:11:49,559
Speaker 1: had been up to, what you had created, said to

1174
01:11:49,640 --> 01:11:51,840
Speaker 1: you and I quote, what do we need a bunch

1175
01:11:51,840 --> 01:11:55,760
Speaker 1: of horny women running around for? Yes? The fact that

1176
01:11:55,760 --> 01:12:02,200
Speaker 1: that could be a question from someone who's elected to

1177
01:12:02,280 --> 01:12:08,200
Speaker 1: represent a constituency which is fifty female, is to me

1178
01:12:10,680 --> 01:12:13,559
Speaker 1: more evidence of why we need to be in positions

1179
01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:20,479
Speaker 1: of power. Those are not appropriate questions, diminishing, diminishing our experience, which,

1180
01:12:20,520 --> 01:12:21,960
Speaker 1: by the way, I look at a guy like that

1181
01:12:22,040 --> 01:12:24,320
Speaker 1: and I think, Wow, you must be you must be

1182
01:12:24,360 --> 01:12:27,920
Speaker 1: miserable for your wife to have sex with your God.

1183
01:12:28,240 --> 01:12:30,040
Speaker 1: I bet that poor woman has been faking at your

1184
01:12:30,040 --> 01:12:35,600
Speaker 1: whole marriage. But I I really just think of the

1185
01:12:37,280 --> 01:12:43,600
Speaker 1: just how cavalierly rude and dismissive that was, dismissive, dismissive

1186
01:12:43,640 --> 01:12:50,240
Speaker 1: of our right of dismissive of of our right to pleasure, dismissive,

1187
01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:57,559
Speaker 1: dismissive of the reality that we deserve better not only

1188
01:12:57,640 --> 01:13:01,200
Speaker 1: in pleasure, but in health care for sure. And so

1189
01:13:01,280 --> 01:13:05,240
Speaker 1: I just think about how to your point, if we

1190
01:13:05,280 --> 01:13:09,679
Speaker 1: build this army, if we really take up space, Yeah,

1191
01:13:09,880 --> 01:13:12,479
Speaker 1: those kinds of questions won't be getting asked anymore. There's

1192
01:13:12,520 --> 01:13:17,280
Speaker 1: no stopping us. It's really true. I you would have, um,

1193
01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:19,519
Speaker 1: you know, I would sit in meetings and my skin

1194
01:13:19,560 --> 01:13:22,680
Speaker 1: would crawl with the things that were said. And this

1195
01:13:22,760 --> 01:13:26,480
Speaker 1: includes public meetings. And I would sit in an audience

1196
01:13:26,520 --> 01:13:29,160
Speaker 1: and have women you know who took a public microphone

1197
01:13:29,720 --> 01:13:32,559
Speaker 1: and talked about how you know, they had lost their

1198
01:13:32,600 --> 01:13:35,360
Speaker 1: marriage over this, that they had lost their sense of

1199
01:13:35,439 --> 01:13:38,200
Speaker 1: self and then to hear the sort of what was

1200
01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:42,120
Speaker 1: said back to them, and that was not that long ago,

1201
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:46,240
Speaker 1: and it's so to your point, dismissive, And it was.

1202
01:13:47,200 --> 01:13:49,960
Speaker 1: I've always been an outlier sort of in my in

1203
01:13:50,040 --> 01:13:52,480
Speaker 1: my field, and there are on a lot of women unfortunately,

1204
01:13:52,520 --> 01:13:54,160
Speaker 1: to your point, we got to solve this problem. Three

1205
01:13:54,160 --> 01:13:57,120
Speaker 1: percent of healthcare companies are run by women. That's ridiculous.

1206
01:13:57,600 --> 01:14:00,240
Speaker 1: And um, and you know I had faced are the

1207
01:14:00,280 --> 01:14:03,000
Speaker 1: classical challenges of being the woman in a man's world

1208
01:14:03,520 --> 01:14:06,680
Speaker 1: to sit in that audience and watch that on a

1209
01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:11,280
Speaker 1: much bigger scale, just sort of all women. That that

1210
01:14:11,400 --> 01:14:14,240
Speaker 1: really is what informed the work of the Pink ceiling too.

1211
01:14:14,400 --> 01:14:17,439
Speaker 1: That really did ignite me on on the next level

1212
01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:20,360
Speaker 1: to just keep showing up. Um, you know, and like

1213
01:14:20,400 --> 01:14:22,720
Speaker 1: you said, building the army so that you get to

1214
01:14:22,760 --> 01:14:27,280
Speaker 1: a place of power that's unstoppable. I love that. What

1215
01:14:27,400 --> 01:14:33,000
Speaker 1: advice would you offer to listeners, you know, to to

1216
01:14:33,080 --> 01:14:35,439
Speaker 1: the women who are listening in And I'm sure too,

1217
01:14:36,280 --> 01:14:38,760
Speaker 1: I always think of my male listeners. I'm like, I

1218
01:14:38,840 --> 01:14:41,880
Speaker 1: just classified them as cool allies officely because they're here.

1219
01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:45,599
Speaker 1: So it's really to anyone who's listening who might have

1220
01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:50,280
Speaker 1: their own idea, who might want to disrupt. But for

1221
01:14:50,280 --> 01:14:53,120
Speaker 1: folks who are stuck at an institution or a company,

1222
01:14:54,200 --> 01:14:56,439
Speaker 1: do you have advice for them on how to break

1223
01:14:56,439 --> 01:14:59,880
Speaker 1: out or try to create something on their own? Yeah?

1224
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:03,680
Speaker 1: Find me find this simp first of all, DM me,

1225
01:15:03,800 --> 01:15:07,000
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear. But beyond that, honestly, what I

1226
01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:12,720
Speaker 1: would say is, um, if you see possibility where other

1227
01:15:12,720 --> 01:15:17,560
Speaker 1: people see limitation, pursue it. No one can take away

1228
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:20,920
Speaker 1: where you have already come from. So I know, we

1229
01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:23,360
Speaker 1: get we get real practical about Oh, but I can't.

1230
01:15:23,400 --> 01:15:25,519
Speaker 1: I can't leave this job. I can't do any you

1231
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:28,920
Speaker 1: know what, you can always go back. And so what

1232
01:15:28,960 --> 01:15:32,120
Speaker 1: I would say is take the shot, make the move,

1233
01:15:32,560 --> 01:15:35,360
Speaker 1: build your confidence that you can do it by getting

1234
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:38,479
Speaker 1: into the room with um. You know other people who

1235
01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:41,479
Speaker 1: have done it. And I would tell you today that's

1236
01:15:41,479 --> 01:15:44,519
Speaker 1: as easy as this kind of social connection, right. They

1237
01:15:44,560 --> 01:15:47,200
Speaker 1: can you can listen into people on podcasts, you can

1238
01:15:47,280 --> 01:15:49,960
Speaker 1: d M them after you hear them. You can, once

1239
01:15:49,960 --> 01:15:52,280
Speaker 1: we're all out of quarantine, be able to go into

1240
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:58,559
Speaker 1: you know, UM coworking spaces in your area with entrepreneur nights,

1241
01:15:58,600 --> 01:16:02,240
Speaker 1: and if you'll just start getting in that room and

1242
01:16:02,280 --> 01:16:06,560
Speaker 1: talking about your idea Cannick Night, and you'll be surprised

1243
01:16:06,560 --> 01:16:09,439
Speaker 1: that if you just ask for help, how many people

1244
01:16:09,439 --> 01:16:12,240
Speaker 1: will help you get there. We're scared to ask for help,

1245
01:16:12,280 --> 01:16:15,720
Speaker 1: and yet actually, um, if you just ask again, I

1246
01:16:15,720 --> 01:16:17,600
Speaker 1: think so many people will say, well you with that,

1247
01:16:17,640 --> 01:16:20,720
Speaker 1: will introduce you this person and you're on your way.

1248
01:16:21,000 --> 01:16:24,360
Speaker 1: I knew I was like I had no ability to

1249
01:16:24,439 --> 01:16:27,320
Speaker 1: raise money and I started I wanted to start my

1250
01:16:27,360 --> 01:16:30,360
Speaker 1: own business, but I had nobody in my contact list,

1251
01:16:30,560 --> 01:16:32,680
Speaker 1: Like I didn't have a rich uncle, I didn't have

1252
01:16:32,760 --> 01:16:34,960
Speaker 1: that much in my own savings. I mean, I was

1253
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:37,160
Speaker 1: willing to, you know, rack up all my dead on

1254
01:16:37,240 --> 01:16:39,960
Speaker 1: my credit card ums and have the company's you know,

1255
01:16:40,080 --> 01:16:42,479
Speaker 1: calling me and me hide in the corner. But it

1256
01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:46,519
Speaker 1: really was about making a decision. Here's how I started.

1257
01:16:46,960 --> 01:16:48,880
Speaker 1: I decided that if I could get to this one

1258
01:16:48,960 --> 01:16:52,880
Speaker 1: guy who had been in healthcare banking, that he would

1259
01:16:52,960 --> 01:16:57,120
Speaker 1: open the universe to me. And I just relentlessly found

1260
01:16:57,160 --> 01:16:58,760
Speaker 1: my way to get in the room. And when I

1261
01:16:58,800 --> 01:17:01,040
Speaker 1: got in the room with him, I said, please introduce

1262
01:17:01,160 --> 01:17:02,840
Speaker 1: me to two of your friends. And when I got

1263
01:17:02,880 --> 01:17:04,040
Speaker 1: in the room with two of his friends, I said,

1264
01:17:04,040 --> 01:17:06,599
Speaker 1: please introduce me to four of your friends. And so

1265
01:17:06,760 --> 01:17:09,400
Speaker 1: it grew. And I think it's as simple as just

1266
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:12,200
Speaker 1: you've got to be so determined you just keep showing

1267
01:17:12,280 --> 01:17:14,880
Speaker 1: up and telling everybody what you want to do. My

1268
01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:20,520
Speaker 1: favorite question, Oh, okay, the show is called work in progress.

1269
01:17:21,040 --> 01:17:25,080
Speaker 1: And when you hear the phrase, I'm curious, what comes

1270
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:27,360
Speaker 1: to mind for you in your life, whether it's personal

1271
01:17:27,479 --> 01:17:33,080
Speaker 1: or professional or political anything. What what feels like the

1272
01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:36,240
Speaker 1: work in progress that you've got in your hands right now?

1273
01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:40,479
Speaker 1: I sort of my work in progress is always the

1274
01:17:40,520 --> 01:17:45,000
Speaker 1: personal piece. You know, how am I showing up and

1275
01:17:45,000 --> 01:17:49,080
Speaker 1: and being my best self? Um? Which I think is

1276
01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:51,240
Speaker 1: a challenge you know for all of us every single

1277
01:17:51,360 --> 01:17:54,280
Speaker 1: day to sort of evaluate like am I doing enough?

1278
01:17:54,560 --> 01:17:59,120
Speaker 1: Am I, you know, doing what I'm meant to be doing? Um?

1279
01:17:59,160 --> 01:18:02,160
Speaker 1: And that you know, my my professional and personal is

1280
01:18:02,200 --> 01:18:06,400
Speaker 1: so muddled because many years ago I accepted that I'd

1281
01:18:06,439 --> 01:18:08,439
Speaker 1: love what I do so much. It's like my work

1282
01:18:08,520 --> 01:18:10,800
Speaker 1: is my hobby. My hobby is my work, um. And

1283
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:14,080
Speaker 1: on the professional front, I think for me, the work

1284
01:18:14,080 --> 01:18:17,400
Speaker 1: in progress is how do we get to a place

1285
01:18:17,439 --> 01:18:21,000
Speaker 1: where we normalize this conversation? Like how do I get

1286
01:18:21,040 --> 01:18:24,120
Speaker 1: to that place and feel like I've not let anybody

1287
01:18:24,160 --> 01:18:28,400
Speaker 1: down through this whole When I started this, you know,

1288
01:18:28,439 --> 01:18:30,639
Speaker 1: I told you at the beginning, I just listened to women.

1289
01:18:31,320 --> 01:18:35,360
Speaker 1: I think what that saved me in that um, in

1290
01:18:35,479 --> 01:18:37,519
Speaker 1: all the darkest times when it would have been much

1291
01:18:37,560 --> 01:18:41,160
Speaker 1: easier to give up, is that I was acutely aware

1292
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:46,240
Speaker 1: that my giving up would be letting them down. And

1293
01:18:46,320 --> 01:18:49,320
Speaker 1: so that's my work in progress as always, like am

1294
01:18:49,360 --> 01:18:51,759
Speaker 1: I doing my best? And am I letting anybody down?

1295
01:18:52,040 --> 01:18:57,439
Speaker 1: That feels like a really excellent check in. I've been

1296
01:18:57,439 --> 01:19:00,160
Speaker 1: thinking a lot lately about how we can check in

1297
01:19:00,240 --> 01:19:05,160
Speaker 1: with ourselves, how we can run these checklists of how

1298
01:19:05,200 --> 01:19:08,040
Speaker 1: am I feeling? And how am I doing? And how

1299
01:19:08,080 --> 01:19:10,839
Speaker 1: am I advocating and how am I taking care of myself?

1300
01:19:10,880 --> 01:19:16,000
Speaker 1: And I love those questions as check ins to just

1301
01:19:16,200 --> 01:19:19,880
Speaker 1: make sure you're keeping yourself on the path, because when

1302
01:19:19,880 --> 01:19:23,240
Speaker 1: you're carving a new one, yeah, you gotta make sure

1303
01:19:23,280 --> 01:19:27,640
Speaker 1: you're staying on it. Yeah, for sure. I and my

1304
01:19:27,640 --> 01:19:30,559
Speaker 1: my sort of true north has been the women who

1305
01:19:30,640 --> 01:19:33,519
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate enough that they shared their stories with me,

1306
01:19:34,040 --> 01:19:38,599
Speaker 1: and they've saved me in the worst moments by reaching out,

1307
01:19:38,720 --> 01:19:42,240
Speaker 1: and they are what keeps what really keeps me going

1308
01:19:42,320 --> 01:19:45,920
Speaker 1: and has keep me focused on the fact of, you know,

1309
01:19:45,960 --> 01:19:48,200
Speaker 1: why I did it in the first place, what it

1310
01:19:48,240 --> 01:19:52,120
Speaker 1: was all about. I feel lucky. I mean, I'm so

1311
01:19:52,200 --> 01:19:54,760
Speaker 1: lucky for that to this day. You know, every day

1312
01:19:55,280 --> 01:19:58,639
Speaker 1: women write me and share their personal stories, and that's

1313
01:19:58,680 --> 01:20:04,439
Speaker 1: a that's like a hug, huge privilege. H I love that. Cindy,

1314
01:20:04,479 --> 01:20:11,040
Speaker 1: You're the freaking coolest, You're too sweet. Just thank you

1315
01:20:11,160 --> 01:20:14,439
Speaker 1: so much. I love your advocacy, I love your heart.

1316
01:20:14,720 --> 01:20:17,960
Speaker 1: I love that you asked these questions. I love the

1317
01:20:18,479 --> 01:20:21,800
Speaker 1: truth of we're all works in progress, and that what

1318
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:24,479
Speaker 1: a boring day. Actually, it would be if we woke

1319
01:20:24,560 --> 01:20:26,800
Speaker 1: up tomorrow and we thought, like we figured it all out,

1320
01:20:27,080 --> 01:20:31,000
Speaker 1: I'm done, right, Oh yeah, I got nothing. Nothing. I

1321
01:20:31,000 --> 01:20:33,960
Speaker 1: mean that is like, that's this whole you know experience.

1322
01:20:34,000 --> 01:20:36,559
Speaker 1: And I'm so grateful to you for the guests that

1323
01:20:36,600 --> 01:20:40,240
Speaker 1: you have on Who. I consume you know, voraciously because

1324
01:20:40,240 --> 01:20:43,360
Speaker 1: I love this. I love you know, hearing these stories

1325
01:20:43,960 --> 01:20:50,320
Speaker 1: motivates me. Thank you so much for that. This show

1326
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:53,839
Speaker 1: is executive produced by me, Sophia Bush, and sim Sarna.

1327
01:20:54,479 --> 01:20:58,719
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Caitlyn Lee. Our editor is Josh Wendish,

1328
01:20:59,120 --> 01:21:01,599
Speaker 1: and our music was written by Jack Garrett and produced

1329
01:21:01,600 --> 01:21:04,200
Speaker 1: by Mark Foster. This show is brought to you by

1330
01:21:04,280 --> 01:21:11,320
Speaker 1: Krillion Anatomy m hm hm