Can the internet make you sick? The 297th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying

Today we discuss the experience of returning home after timeway—culture shock, social media, and seeing your home with fresh eyes. Then a difficult set of topics: anorexia, physician assisted suicide, “terminal” diagnoses, social contagions, and what people have a right to do with their own lives. Finally: AI has been used to predict potentially useful drug combinations to fight cancer. What does this mean for the future of medicine, and AI?

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org

Free and confidential helpline for individuals and families facing mental disorders: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline

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Mentioned in this episode:

Denver Post op-ed on Jane Allen: https://www.denverpost.com/2025/10/02/assisted-suicide-was-offered-to-my-friend-jane-allen-she-had-an-eating-disorder-opinion/

Gaudiani et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa: three cases and proposed clinical characteristics. Journal of Eating Disorders, 10(1): 23: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3.pdf

Guarda et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa is a dangerous term: it cannot, and should not, be defined. Journal of eating disorders, 10(1): 79: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00599-6.pd

Mia Hughes’ tweet thread on social contagions: https://x.com/_CryMiaRiver/status/1491065839495544837

Laura Delano on DarkHorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18XtCdasn2Q&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEuZwhHfjXu3KH8MomS2N3zq&index=13

Laura Delano’s book, Unshrunk, excerpted at Natural Selections: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/informed-consent-in-the-land-of-psychiatric

How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway: https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemma-ai-cancer-therapy-discovery

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