Trump's chilling effect on medical research
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
The National Institutes of Health is a sprawling and complex institution that supports the work of hundreds of thousands of scientists at universities and labs across the country.
Since Trump’s inauguration that work has been stymied by confusion and uncertainty – potentially delaying or even preventing important medical research.
The Post’s science reporter Carolyn Johnson has been reporting on the turmoil at NIH and talks to Martine about how it could impact a generation of scientists.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff and Elana Gordon. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair. Elana Gordon contributed reporting.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's Martin. So before we start today's show, I want to share some news with you |
| 0:08.2 | about a couple things that are going on with me, a short-term assignment coming up, and then a |
| 0:14.8 | arguably much longer-term assignment. So first, I'm going to be spending the next few months reporting on the |
| 0:23.1 | White House team here at the Post, covering the new Trump administration, holding President |
| 0:28.8 | Donald Trump and his administration accountable. And that is what I'm going to be doing this |
| 0:34.1 | spring, which I'm very excited about. And then at the beginning of the summer, I'm |
| 0:38.3 | becoming a parent, and I'm going to be going on parental leave for the months after that. |
| 0:44.0 | So all of this together means that I won't be hosting the show for the next few months, |
| 0:50.3 | basically through near the end of the year. But luckily, folks who listen to Post reports |
| 0:55.9 | are going to be in wonderful hands because my fabulous friend, Colby Idkowitz, will be filling in as |
| 1:02.7 | host for the first part of me stepping away. Colby is wonderful. She's a democracy reporter here at the |
| 1:09.4 | Post, in addition to having covered so many other things during her time here. And she has so many ideas and interesting questions. And you will love hearing more from her. Folks who have been listening will have heard her on the podcast this week as a guest and have heard her insights in the past, but she is going to be doing a great job |
| 1:28.3 | co-hosting this show along with Alahe Azadi. So that's my news. We're going to be dropping a |
| 1:34.5 | quick bonus episode on Saturday so you can hear a little bit more from Colby, get to know her better. |
| 1:39.9 | But in the meantime, thanks for listening, and here is today's show. |
| 1:45.1 | How are you doing? |
| 1:47.2 | How am I doing? I'm depressed and angry, but besides that. |
| 1:51.7 | Mark Pfeiffer has taught biology at UNC Chapel Hill since the early 90s. |
| 1:57.3 | He also runs a lab at UNC, looking at what goes wrong inside people's cells when they get |
| 2:04.7 | sick with cancer. Mark loves his job. I'm in it for understanding how things work, but it really does |
| 2:11.7 | pay off. Thanks to research that labs like his have been doing for years, the prognosis for a lot of cancers has gotten a |
| 2:19.7 | lot better. Changing something that was a death sentence into a chronic disorder, unbelievable. |
... |
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