ReThink History: Wonder Drug? The GLP-1 Story
A gut hormone that, on its own, does almost nothing became the most talked-about medicine of the decade. Wonder Drug? follows the GLP-1 drugs — Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, and the next generation — from a 1980s discovery and a lizard's venom to a class now taken by roughly one in eight American adults. Six evenhanded, hype-skeptical episodes ask a stubborn question: are these actually a magic bullet for a long list of seemingly unrelated conditions, or is adoption outrunning the evidence? Carefully sourced; narrated by AI from human-reviewed research.
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Episodes
1. The Accidental Blockbuster
How a gut hormone that does almost nothing on its own became medicine's "everything drug" — from an anglerfish and a Gila monster's venom to the chemistry that made Ozempic.
2. The Family of Molecules
GLP-1 vs GLP-2 vs "GLP-3." The real drug family drawn from a single gene — semaglutide, tirzepatide, and the next generation — and why GLP-2 is real while GLP-3 simply does not exist..
3. Beyond the Waistline
Why a weight-loss drug protects the heart, kidney, and liver — often whether or not you lose weight (SELECT, FLOW, ESSENCE, SURMOUNT-OSA) — and inflammation as the possible unifying thread.
4. The Mind on GLP-1
A striking real-world dementia signal meets a wall of failed Alzheimer's and Parkinson's trials.
5. The Great American Experiment
One in eight adults, the off-label frontier, the telehealth-and-compounding gray market, the price war (TrumpRx, Medicare, generics), and a pipeline testing one molecule against nearly everything..
6. Magic Bullet?
The verdict.