Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine

As part of the Stanford Food Speaker Series, Dr. David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, will join us for a timely conversation exploring how our brains, bodies, and food environments shape our eating behaviors. 

Drawing on insights from his latest New York Times Bestselling book, "Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight," Dr. Kessler will discuss emerging science around the brain-body feedback loop, the challenges of our modern food landscape, and new possibilities for improving public health.

About the Speaker: David A. Kessler, MD served as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He was the chief science officer of the White House COVID-19 Response Team and co-led Operation Warp Speed under President Joe Biden. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight, The End of Overeating, and Capture, as well as Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs and A Question of Intent. Dr. Kessler, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, is a pediatrician and also teaches epidemiology and biostatistics. He has been the dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Kessler is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Chicago Law School, and Harvard Medical School.

About the series: The Stanford Food Speaker Series aims to engage, inform, and connect the Stanford community with innovations, policies, agendas, and insights from leading experts in food and agriculture. Current sponsoring partners include: Bio-X, the Center on Food Security and the Environment, the Center for Ocean Solutions, the Center for Human and Planetary Health and the Sustainability Accelerator.