Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels recently joined the "Diabetics Doing Things" podcast to discuss his personal experiences with Type 1 diabetes, how those experiences shape how he leads, and the vital role research and innovation play in providing both therapeutic options and hope for those living with this chronic condition.
Daniels appeared as a guest on the podcast along with Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who also has adult-onset Type 1 diabetes. The two share a friendship dating to Kornbluth's tenure as provost at Duke University, having connected and bonded over their shared experiences as higher education leaders who are also managing an autoimmune disease that affects approximately 2.1 million people across the U.S.
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"I think both of us feel incredibly privileged to be able to lead great research-intensive universities," Daniels said. "And the magic of the research that's being done at a basic and an applied level, and the extent to which these activities ultimately result not just in advancement of knowledge, but real changes in technologies and drugs and therapies that fundamentally change the way we live and the quality of our life."
Their conversation directly connects progress in diabetes treatment and management to the university research engine, both in the past—beginning with the transformational discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto more than 100 years ago—and in the future.
"You can't think about all of those developments and the ease with which we manage our condition without thinking about universities and university research," Daniels said.
"I feel like we are often walking testimonials to the power of the enterprise that we get to lead because we wouldn't be leading these lives were it not for universities."
Founded in 2015, "Diabetics Doing Things" aims to empower, inform, and inspire people living with diabetes through storytelling, events, and community. Its 345 podcast episodes produced over the past eight years have been downloaded more than 2 million times by listeners in more than 80 countries.
