Dhruv Khullar

Well, Aristotle never had a Dorito.

He didn't have Krispy Kreme or McDonald's.

He couldn't flip open TikTok and Instagram.

There weren't algorithms that were fracking his attention.

And ancient Greece was not beset by fentanyl and oxycodone.

We have a society today in which the fundamental problem for many people has shifted from scarcity and boredom to excess and distraction.

Our technology often seems purpose-built to tap into our most basic vulnerabilities.

And the question now is how to bring our minds and our bodies and our environments into a more natural balance.

GLP-1s

They suggest that Aristotle's moderation is not just a virtue, it is a physiological state.

It isn't just about character.

It is about biology.

And none of this is to suggest that we should somehow give up on the struggle to bring about a more healthful society, that we shouldn't do the hard cultural and political work to bring about a better world.

in which we can address the drivers of addiction and other social problems, things like loneliness and trauma, pain, poverty, exploitation.

But it does suggest that we should welcome a promising new tool into our toolkit.

Now, over the years, I have cared for many patients in the moments when an addiction has taken almost everything.

the young woman whose post-surgery opioid use turned into a heroin addiction, and then into the heart infection that took her life.

The father, whose liver failed after decades of alcohol use, who was slowly dying on a transplant list.

Every morning, I entered his room and was greeted by his children, age six and eight.

And they would ask me when their dad could go home.