The DNA of Things with Dr. Jeremy Koenig

Dr. Jeremy Koenig
  • 5.0 (3)
  • HEALTH & FITNESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The DNA of Things," hosted by Dr. Jeremy Koenig, is an auditory journey into the evolving world of health science, performance, and longevity. This podcast brings together the sharpest minds in the field, including elite health strategists, pioneering scientists, and wellness mavericks, to share cutting-edge practices and revolutionary insights. Each episode is meticulously curated to enrich your understanding of well-being and to extend your vitality, propelling you toward a future filled with possibilities. Join Dr. Koenig as he unveils the secrets of human potential through the lens of genomics, and discover how to transform your health and life trajectory.

  1. Episode 98: The Trillion-Dollar Bet on Preventative Health with Dr. Travis McDonough

    3D AGO

    Episode 98: The Trillion-Dollar Bet on Preventative Health with Dr. Travis McDonough

    In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Travis McDonough — serial entrepreneur and CEO of Wellnify AI — for one of the most honest conversations about the future of preventative health you'll hear. Travis spent decades inside professional sports, helping build Conduct Technologies into a human performance platform that supported 650+ pro sports organizations and 25 world championships before its 2020 acquisition. Then came the bigger question: what if everyone had access to those same tools? That became Wellnify AI — a platform fusing behavioral science and gamification to build healthy habits at the community level, not just the elite level. They get into the childhood roots of it all — dyslexia as a competitive advantage, a father's belief as rocket fuel, and sport as the only thing that ever cleared the noise. Travis is refreshingly honest about the entrepreneurial toll: from laying off 25 people after Intel scrapped a chip overnight, to throwing his house keys on the boardroom table to keep his team employed. And then the pivot — bringing tools once reserved for LeBron and Brady to municipalities, school boards, and everyday people across North America, including a landmark partnership with the Healthier Texas Foundation reaching 3,200 organizations. Takeaways: 🧠 Dyslexia, ADHD, and slow processing forced Travis to think differently — and that became his edge. Pattern recognition, creative problem-solving, and deep listening aren't soft skills, they're the whole game. 💡 The Pygmalion Effect is real — you rise or fall based on the expectations of the people around you. His father's belief in who he could become shaped everything. 🏥 We're living in a healthcare paradox — the most advanced medical technology in history, and we're still witnessing what Travis calls a "self-inflicted serial killing" of our own wellbeing through sedentary behavior, screen addiction, and outdated wellness education. 🏔️ Build fences at the top of the cliff, not more ambulances at the bottom — the trillion-dollar shift in healthcare is moving toward upstream prevention, and Wellnify AI is built entirely around that bet. 🎮 Gamification isn't just for entertainment — Wellnify AI redirects the same mechanics that keep people scrolling toward movement, mindfulness, learning, and community acts of kindness. 🤝 The most-used feature on the platform is the community section — rewarding users for volunteering, donating blood, picking up litter, and supporting local. People want to do good. They just need a structure that makes it stick. 📊 The Community Wellness Score could change how governments measure what actually matters — aggregating individual data into a community-level metric that reveals blind spots and drives smarter public health investment. 📱 Your attention is your life — Travis closes with a direct message to the 19–21 age group: the algorithm doesn't love you back. It's designed to capture, not to care. Knowing that is the first step. LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    52 min
  2. Episode 97: Beyond Insulin - Stem Cells, Islet Engineering, and the Future of Diabetes Care with Dr. Quinn Peterson

    FEB 14

    Episode 97: Beyond Insulin - Stem Cells, Islet Engineering, and the Future of Diabetes Care with Dr. Quinn Peterson

    In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Quinn Peterson, a Mayo Clinic stem cell biologist, to explore how regenerative medicine could move type 1 diabetes from lifelong management to true biological restoration.​ ✨ Key takeaways: 🔥 From lab curiosity to purpose-driven science: how a cancer drug developer pivoted his entire career after his three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and later two more of his children.​ 🧬 Building transplantable islets, not just beta cells: inside the Mayo Clinic program engineering full pancreatic islets from stem cells to restore a person’s own insulin production.​ 🧠 Regeneration as the next medical era: why the future is not just fixing defective proteins but replacing missing cells and rejuvenating tissues before disease takes hold.​ 🤝 Science with patients at the table: how funders like Breakthrough T1D are forcing a shift toward patient and public involvement in shaping research questions and trial design.​ 📊 Data, digital twins, and AI: a candid look at breaking down clinical data silos, using wearables and records “in the wild,” and what that could mean for trials and personalization.​ Episode overview Dr. Koenig introduces Dr. Quinn Peterson as a stem cell biologist and biomedical engineer at Mayo Clinic leading an islet regeneration program aimed at creating functional, transplantable pancreatic islets from pluripotent stem cells. Rather than simply managing glucose with exogenous insulin, Peterson’s work aims to restore lost biological function by engineering living systems that behave like native human tissue.​ Quinn shares his origin story: a lifelong fascination with how things work, formal training in biochemistry, and early research careers in water contaminants and then chemotherapeutic drug development. The turning point came when his oldest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age three, eventually followed by two of his other children, prompting a deliberate pivot into diabetes research and postdoctoral training with Doug Melton at Harvard. LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    39 min
  3. Episode 96: Rewriting Medicine - Upstream Health, Multi‑Omics & AI with Dr. Helen Messier

    FEB 9

    Episode 96: Rewriting Medicine - Upstream Health, Multi‑Omics & AI with Dr. Helen Messier

    In this episode, Dr. Jeremy sits down with physician-scientist Dr. Helen Messier to unpack how multi-omics, AI, and “upstream medicine” are rewriting the future of healthcare—from managing chronic disease to truly preventing and reversing it. ​ 🧠 Key takeaways: ✨ You have more agency over your biology than you’ve been led to believe—your genes load the gun, but your environment, daily choices, and mindset pull (or don’t pull) the trigger. ​ 🧬 “Upstream medicine” uses genomics, microbiome, metabolomics, proteomics, and more to find root causes instead of just chasing symptoms, especially in complex chronic conditions like chronic fatigue, IBS, and dysautonomia. ​ 📉 The 15–20 year translational gap between research and the clinic is real, but platforms like BioScope.ai are closing it by turning massive, multi-layered data into usable clinical insight for front-line physicians. ​ ⚙️ Your body isn’t broken; it’s adapting—traits that once protected us from famine and trauma can become maladaptive in a world of ultra-processed food, chronic stress, social media, and environmental toxins. ​ 🏃‍♀️ The same systems thinking used to tune elite athletes’ training—acute vs. chronic load, HRV, recovery—can guide how families manage stress, sleep, and lifestyle across generations. ​ 🧩 Mind and body are one system: psycho‑neuro‑immunology, childhood trauma, and epigenetics all shape how disease shows up decades later, and practices like meditation and nervous-system regulation can change gene expression and health trajectories. 👨‍👩‍👧 True precision health is n-of-one: different people with similar genomes can need very different interventions depending on their environment, stressors, exposures, and life goals (performance vs. healthspan vs. longevity). ​ ​ LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    1h 3m
  4. Episode 95: When Ethics Meets Power: Stem Cells, AI, and the Future of Being Human with Dr. Insoo Hyun

    FEB 1

    Episode 95: When Ethics Meets Power: Stem Cells, AI, and the Future of Being Human with Dr. Insoo Hyun

    In this episode, we sit down with leading bioethicist Dr. Insoo Hyun to unpack how ethics, politics, AI, stem cells, and the future of human identity are colliding in real time—from embryo models and gene editing to digital twins and data ownership. ✨ Key takeaways 🧬 How stem cell ethics, cloning, and embryo models really work behind the headlines—and why “the best argument” often loses to political feasibility. ⚖️ Why paying women for egg donation became a global flashpoint, and how one controversial Nature paper helped unlock pivotal advances in genome editing and mitochondrial disease research. 🤖 What “digital twins” mean for medicine, AI, and your health data—and why consent, ownership, and compensation will define the next era of scientific wellness. 🧠 How analytic philosophy (precision, logic, argument) can make sense of messy questions about consciousness, personhood, and transhumanism. 🌱 Why the future belongs to interdisciplinary thinkers who can bridge biology, ethics, AI, law, and policy—and how students like Kristin Lee can prepare for careers we can’t fully imagine yet. Episode overview Dr. Jeremy opens by asking whether the real risks in modern science are not rogue technologies, but the quiet assumptions we never question—about stem cells, AI, and biomedical breakthroughs shaped by politics, fear, and convenience. He introduces Dr. Insoo Hyun as a globally respected bioethicist whose work spans stem cell research, human–animal chimeras, brain organoids, embryo models, and the ethics of emerging biotechnologies. Hyun traces his unlikely path from pre‑med biology at Stanford, to switching into philosophy, to training in analytic ethics at Brown under Dan Brock—just as Dolly the sheep and human embryonic stem cells were transforming the life sciences. That timing pulled him into President Clinton’s bioethics commission, where he first saw how “political feasibility” can override the most rigorous ethical arguments. LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    1h 25m
  5. Episode 94: WellPro AI, Beyond 60-Page Reports - Building an Outcome-Native Health Operating System with David Lefkovits

    JAN 25

    Episode 94: WellPro AI, Beyond 60-Page Reports - Building an Outcome-Native Health Operating System with David Lefkovits

    In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with David Lefkovits, visionary CEO and co-founder of WellPro AI, to unpack why personalized, preventative healthcare hasn't scaled yet—and what it's going to take to finally get there. They dig into the broken economics of traditional medicine, why "normal" lab values don't always mean healthy, and how AI-powered systems can turn overwhelming data into actionable care plans that actually stick. 🧬 Health isn't a static number—it's a dynamic conversation between hormones, nutrients, and lived experience that most practitioners aren't trained to read 💰 Traditional healthcare thrives on worse outcomes—more encounters, more beds filled, more prescriptions written—while this emerging wellness economy ties revenue directly to results 🔧 The biggest bottleneck isn't the science or the technology—it's the lack of an operating system that can turn insights into digestible, executable care plans 📊 Most practices juggle 5-6 disconnected tools (EHR, scheduling, messaging, membership management) that don't talk to each other, creating operational chaos 🎯 Patient goals and clinical goals aren't the same thing—someone wants more energy and time with their grandkids, not "take testosterone" 🔄 Personalization is an oxymoron to protocols because everyone reacts differently to the same intervention—closed-loop tracking is non-negotiable ⏳ The shift to outcome-based care is mathematically inevitable—costs keep rising, quality keeps dropping, and consumers will eventually migrate to where they get actual results 🚀 WellPro isn't replacing clinicians—it's building a copilot that synthesizes chaotic patient data so practitioners can do what only they can do: see the patterns everyone else misses LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    1h 1m
  6. Episode 93: From ICU to 100,000 Patients: Building the Future of Personalized Medicine

    JAN 18

    Episode 93: From ICU to 100,000 Patients: Building the Future of Personalized Medicine

    In this episode, Chris Spears, founder of OrderlyMeds, shares his transformative journey from a catastrophic ICU experience to building a human-centered medication management platform that's revolutionizing personalized healthcare. Chris opens up about his frustrating odyssey through the broken healthcare system, the worst telemedicine experience of his life, and how those challenges sparked the creation of a company that's now serving over 90,000 patients monthly. This conversation explores the intersection of GLP-1 medications, DNA insights, AI-powered health data, and the future of precision medicine—revealing how one person's struggle became a mission to help millions thrive in the second half of life. Key Takeaways 🏥 The healthcare system's blindness to patient experience created an opportunity for innovation—Chris transformed his worst customer service experience into a solution that now helps 90,000+ people manage their medication journey 💉 GLP-1 medication shortages persist across America despite high demand—even two years later, many pharmacies still run out within days of receiving shipments 🚀 Rapid scaling is possible with the right mission—OrderlyMeds grew from 17 customers in January 2024 to 60,000 monthly active patients by late 2025, adding 6,000-10,000 new patients each month 🧬 DNA markers can predict GLP-1 response—genetic testing helps determine whether these life-changing medications will actually work for you before making the investment 🔬 The future of healthcare is data integration—combining DNA, blood work, gut biome, wearable tech, and clinical data will enable truly personalized medicine at scale 🤖 AI augments rather than replaces healthcare providers—technology can handle 80% of routine analysis, freeing humans to apply clinical judgment and compassion where it matters most 💰 Financial investment drives adherence—cash-pay patients show higher medication compliance than insurance-covered patients, suggesting skin in the game matters for health outcomes 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Building with friends and family creates accountability—surrounding yourself with trusted people who believe in your mission strengthens both culture and execution 📱 Nine disconnected health apps create a new data problem—the next challenge is integrating fragmented health information into a single source of truth for consumers 🎯 Personalized medicine requires personalized compounding—the future means your medication formulation will differ from others based on your unique biology ⚡ Testosterone therapy remains stigmatized despite its benefits—only one in eight men who could benefit from testosterone replacement actually pursue it due to ego and shame 🌟 Thriving in the second half of life is the real goal—weight loss and medication management are tools to help people keep up with grandkids, travel with partners, and enjoy life fully LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    54 min
  7. Episode 92: From Monsanto to AI: Accelerating the Race Against Cancer with Dr. Chadi Nabhan

    JAN 11

    Episode 92: From Monsanto to AI: Accelerating the Race Against Cancer with Dr. Chadi Nabhan

    In this episode, Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Chadi Nabhan, a physician-scientist, oncologist, and healthcare innovator who stands at the intersection of cancer care, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Nabhan shares his remarkable journey from serving as a key expert witness in the landmark Monsanto Roundup trials to his current role as Chief Medical Officer at Right, where he's revolutionizing clinical trial design through AI. The conversation explores the critical importance of communication in healthcare, the challenges of translating complex science for patients and families, and how innovative technology is shortening the timeline for life-saving treatments to reach those who need them most. Key Takeaways 🔬 From Courtroom to Page: Dr. Nabhan's book "Toxic Exposure" chronicles his experience as an expert witness in the Monsanto Roundup trials, revealing the science behind glyphosate's link to lymphoma and the drama of corporate litigation 📚 Making Cancer Accessible: "The Cancer Journey" transforms complex oncology into relatable stories, guiding patients and caregivers through every step from diagnosis to treatment while honoring the often-overlooked role of caregivers ⚡ Time is Lives: Clinical trials can take 10-15 years to complete, but even shortening this timeline by 2-3 years could save countless lives by bringing breakthrough therapies to market faster 🎯 The 80% Problem: 80% of clinical trial sites run behind schedule, and 50% enroll zero or one patient—a massive inefficiency that Right is solving through AI-powered site selection 🤖 Digital Twins Revolution: Right creates digital twins of every clinical trial site worldwide, matching protocols to the best-performing locations based on capabilities, patient demographics, investigator experience, and regulatory history 💬 Language as Technology: Effective communication in healthcare means meeting people where they are—if a patient doesn't understand, it's the clinician's responsibility to communicate better, not the patient's failure to comprehend 🎓 The Readiness Score: Just like Olympic athletes need specific fitness for their sport, clinical trial sites have unique readiness profiles for different studies—no single site is best for everything 📖 Fiction Meets Truth: Dr. Nabhan's fourth book ventures into fiction, creating characters inspired by real experiences in academic medicine, demonstrating how storytelling can illuminate deeper truths 🏥 AI and Cancer Care: His upcoming third book explores how artificial intelligence is transforming every aspect of the cancer journey, aiming to demystify AI and help people embrace rather than fear these innovations 👥 Patient Voices Matter: The most powerful perspectives in healthcare innovation come from patient advocates who can bridge the gap between scientific advancement and lived experience LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    1h 2m
  8. Episode 91: From Last Pick to Olympian - Why You're One of One with Eli Bremer

    JAN 4

    Episode 91: From Last Pick to Olympian - Why You're One of One with Eli Bremer

    In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Eli Bremer, Olympic modern pentathlete turned systems thinker and international sport leader, for a profound conversation about human performance, individualization, and the courage to reject one-size-fits-all approaches. From being picked last in childhood to competing at the Beijing Olympics, Eli shares his journey of discovering that success comes not from fixing weaknesses, but from exploiting strengths. They explore how DNA testing, AI, and personalized data are transforming athletic development, healthcare, and entrepreneurship—revealing that the future of performance isn't about optimization, but understanding. This conversation challenges conventional wisdom about talent, training systems, and what it truly means to be "one of one." Key Takeaways 🏊 From Last Pick to Olympian - Eli's transformation from the kid picked last in kickball to Olympic athlete proves that persistence and self-belief can overcome initial limitations 🧬 DNA Unlocks Decades of Discovery - Taking a genetic test revealed what Eli learned through 30 years of trial and error: his body responded best to higher volume training, validating his intuitive approach 🎯 Systems vs. Individuals - The US Olympic system optimizes programs and recruits talent to fit them, while successful international programs optimize around each unique athlete 🧠 The Intellectual Athlete - Athletes who think critically about their training, question systems, and actively participate in their development often become successful entrepreneurs and disruptors 📊 Subjective Beats Objective - Despite advances in wearables and tracking technology, how an athlete feels often provides more valuable performance data than objective metrics alone 💪 Exploit Strengths, Outsource Weaknesses - The best performers don't focus on fixing what they're bad at—they double down on what makes them exceptional and delegate the rest 🔬 Soft Systems Over Hard Systems - Viewing athletes as complexities to understand rather than problems to engineer creates more sustainable, personalized pathways to excellence 👨‍👩‍👧 Performance Beyond the Podium - Human performance extends from Olympic gold to making a child, raising a family, and building businesses—each requiring the same principles of understanding your unique design 😔 Post-Olympic Depression is Real - Most Olympic athletes experience deep depression after competition ends, making identity beyond sport a critical but often overlooked aspect of athlete development 🌟 You're One of One - Everyone has unique genetic advantages, life experiences, and strengths—success comes from discovering and embracing what makes you exceptional rather than trying to fit someone else's mold LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    58 min
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About

The DNA of Things," hosted by Dr. Jeremy Koenig, is an auditory journey into the evolving world of health science, performance, and longevity. This podcast brings together the sharpest minds in the field, including elite health strategists, pioneering scientists, and wellness mavericks, to share cutting-edge practices and revolutionary insights. Each episode is meticulously curated to enrich your understanding of well-being and to extend your vitality, propelling you toward a future filled with possibilities. Join Dr. Koenig as he unveils the secrets of human potential through the lens of genomics, and discover how to transform your health and life trajectory.

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