Conceivable with Noor

Today our guest is Michelle Valentine. She is the Co-founder and CEO at Anrok. We cover lots of ground, discussing her experience founding Anrok and how it compares to her prior career as an investor (with a few investing tips discussed). She also shares her experience using Orchid and how it was a critical part of her eventual path to parenthood.

05-09

26:54

Today our guest is Dr. Amber Cooper. Dr. Cooper is Chief Medical Officer-Genomics and Laboratory Sciences, and Medical and IVF Practice Director at Kindbody in St. Louis. She is also one of Orchid's Medical Advisors. First she gives us a crash course on IVF and debunks a popular misconception about it. Then we talk about how egg quality changes over time, what egg freezing is, how many eggs someone should freeze based on how many babies they’d like, and what excites her about the future of IVF.

05-02

33:00

Today our guests are Brandon Schram & Aimee Gupta, who opted to use IVF and genetic screening to reduce their future child’s risk of hemophilia, a blood clotting condition that runs in Aimee’s family. They share their IVF journey, as well as how beneficial genetic testing became for them when they later discovered their daughter had a rare genetic mutation that was causing her to have seizures as an infant. We also talk about the stigma that IVF can have and how to overcome the common fee...

04-18

37:58

Today we speak with Dr. Holly Pederson, Staff Physician and Director of Medical Breast Program at the Cleveland Clinic and associate professor at Cleveland Clinic, Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Pederson explains the genetics of breast cancer, the differences amongst available testing, and who should seek out testing. We also talk about how results from genetic testing can help inform your family planning, and Dr. Pederson shares how critical it is for pati...

03-28

35:57

Today we are joined by Julia and Kevin Hartz, Co-Founders of Eventbrite. Julia is now Eventbrite’s CEO and Kevin is a Co-Founder and General Partner of A*. Julia and Kevin join us today to talk about how they built Eventbrite, how they built their family at the same time with the birth of their two daughters, and how they are planning to expand their family more than a decade later with the help of Orchid’s embryo screening. We also talk about their parenting philosophy, how that may change f...

03-14

40:20

Our guest today is Dr. Jerry Lanchbury, PhD. He's the previous chief scientific officer at Myriad Genetics. He led teams that were responsible for major molecular diagnostic innovations across oncology, urology, rheumatology, and neuroscience. He has had an incomparable track record in driving molecular genetic discovery from ideation all the way to translation into some high value clinical diagnostics. Dr. Lanchbury shares the historical context and evidence supporting polygenic risk scores ...

03-07

31:38

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with two incredible guests: Noah Smith, economic writer, and Stephanie Sher, Investor in AI and data infrastructure. Noor, Noah, and Steph tackle one of today's toughest issues, modern dating. They discuss why it is so difficult, the difference in women's and men's desired timeline to start a family (and the resulting complications of that misalignment), and things we can do to make modern dating and finding one's match easier. Tune in for a fun and insi...

02-29

32:34

Today our guest is Barry Behr, Ph.D., H.C.L.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility), Emeritus. Barry takes us behind the curtain, walking us through the process of IVF, including how eggs are retrieved from ovaries, how they’re fertilized with sperm, and how genetic testing is performed with the resulting blastocyst. He shares insights into the big advancements in IVF that have made the process so reliable, and what excites him about the future ...

02-26

34:59

Today we welcome Tim Urban on the show! Tim is the author of the wildly popular blog Wait But Why, author of the book What’s Our Problem, and is in the process of writing a new book. Tim shares insights about his Life Calendar, becoming a parent, procrastination, and some details about the book he is currently writing. We even talk a bit about why AI is such a challenge for our primitive hunter-gatherer brains, and his predictions about AI spouses.

02-14

33:40

Today our guest is Eugenia Kuyda, Founder and CEO of Replika. Replika is an AI chatbot that was made “with the idea to create a personal AI that would help you express and witness yourself by offering a helpful conversation.” Millions of users have interacted with Replika, and it’s known for building strong emotional relationships with users, especially helping those experiencing loneliness and social isolation. Eugenia tells us the story of how Replika came to be, what makes it unique among ...

02-01

44:20

Today our guest is Robin Hanson. He is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, an author, and writes his personal blog called Overcoming Bias. Robin joins us today to discuss how dramatically worldwide fertility rates are falling, the leading cultural causes affecting fertility rates, and what impact declining fertility rates will have on the world and economy of the future. In addition, he shares results of a X poll he ran, revealing what cultural factors the poll res...

01-24

49:26

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with George Church, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. George is a pioneer in the field of genetics and personal genomics, and has co-founded nearly 50 companies and advised dozens more in the last four decades. In 2017, George was listed in the Time 100, Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Noor asks George about what makes biotech companies successful in their transition from the lab to the market, ...

01-16

31:52

Our guest today is Rohan Seth. In 2018, Rohan and his wife Jen welcomed their daughter Lydia into the world. Shortly after birth, she began to have seizures, and within a few weeks it was discovered that she has a rare genetic mutation affecting her brain function. Rohan shares his family’s story, their perseverance in seeking answers as well as others with the same condition as Lydia’s, the lengths they went to in order to improve the prognosis for their daughter, and their journey with Orch...

01-11

30:51

Today our guest is Dr. Roohi Jeelani. She is board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist at Kindbody, and one of Orchid’s Medical Advisory Board members. Dr. Jeelani shares her path to becoming a fertility doctor, and how, due in part to her own PCOS diagnosis, she became the patient herself as she sought fertility treatments to have her first and third child. Dr. Jeelani also debunks myths surrounding birth control, miscarriages, and breastfeeding, and shares her ...

04-25

37:53