How one doctor’s near-death became a lifeline for thousands, rewriting the rules of medicine and modeling transformative leadership
How do you make the journey from being given last rites in a hospital bed to founding an organization that has saved thousands of lives through medical innovation? Dr. David Fajgenbaum is a physician-scientist, Castleman disease survivor, and the co-founder and executive director of Every Cure. From medical student to patient to leader, David shares how his personal journey — movingly recounted in his bestselling memoir, Chasing My Cure — informs his transformative approach to medicine, leadership, and collaborations with patients. In this episode, David decodes the power of AI in accelerating medical discoveries, the biggest challenges facing rare-disease research, and the resilience and purpose that drive courageous leadership. Tune in to explore what leadership looks like in adversity and what future breakthroughs he’s hopeful to see on his mission to cure the incurable and save lives.
About the Guest
David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is Co-Founder & President of Every Cure as well as a groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, speaker, and national bestselling author of Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action.
Best known as the ‘doctor who cured himself’ (Doctor Cure Thyself, NY Times), Fajgenbaum went from being a beast-like college Quarterback to receiving his last rites while in medical school and nearly dying four more times battling Castleman disease. To try to save his own life, he spearheaded an innovative approach to research through the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) and discovered a treatment that is saving his life and others.
Now, he is spreading this approach to other diseases (His method could save millions, CNN) and co-founded Every Cure in 2022 to unlock the full potential of every drug to treat every disease possible. He has advanced 14 repurposed treatments for diseases they weren’t initially intended for. Fajgenbaum also continues to share lessons he learned about life, hope, and resilience from nearly dying through his national bestseller, Chasing My Cure, which has been profiled by Good Morning America, CNN, NPR’s Fresh Air, and BBC News, among others, translated into over five languages, and named one of the “Best Non-Fiction Books.”
Links in this Episode
Donate to Every Cure at everycure.org
Watch David’d TedTalk here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb34MfJjurc
Learn more and connect with David at davidfajgenbaum.com
