If you track the news at all, you’ve probably heard of a revolutionary new weight-loss drug called . The very idea of a novel miracle weight-loss drug might provoke eye rolls because this is the kind of thing we’ve seen before. Often, it’s a drug like which was all the rage in the ’90s and 2000s.

Ephedra did help people lose weight, but it was eventually pulled from the shelves because of its . Ozempic, however, appears to be different, not just pharmacologically but also in terms of its broader potential impact. I’m not a physician, obviously, and I’m not an expert on weight-loss drugs, but I wanted to learn more about what’s happening here and what makes Ozempic unique.

So I invited journalist Johann Hari on to talk about his new book, . It’s an eye-opening read, to say the least, in part because Hari both experimented with Ozempic himself and spent an enormous amount of time talking to the researchers developing and studying these drugs. Hari and I discuss what we know (and don’t know) about Ozempic and all the ways this drug could change our world.

As always, there’s more in the full podcast, so listen to and follow on , , , or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sean Illing We’ve seen “miracle” weight-loss drugs before. What makes Ozempic different? Johann Hari Lots of things. So the first is that it works on a completely new mechanism.

If you eat something now, yo.