Body of Wonder

Body of Wonder is an interview show about health and the body, co-hosted by Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Victoria Maizes. Its guests are clinicians and researchers, and several come from the hosts' own orbit. There are University of Arizona faculty, such as a cardiologist at the Sarver Heart Center. There are graduates of the hosts' integrative medicine center, including a Florida rheumatologist focused on osteoporosis and a physiatrist who treats spine conditions without surgery. Others come from further afield, like Suzanne Devkota, who directs microbiome research at Cedars-Sinai. Most of the recent episodes begin the same way, with a quick 'Hi, Andy' and 'Hi, Victoria', a line on why the guest is worth hearing, and a formal bio before the guest joins. The hosts clearly know several of these guests, and the talk has a colleague's ease. Some questions come straight from the clinic. The osteoporosis conversation includes a case from practice: fit women, runners and hikers, whose bones are thinning anyway and who would rather avoid medication. The answer weighs hormones, diet, thyroid function and even environmental pollution. The cardiologist traces the overlap between POTS and long COVID, noting that POTS often starts young and for many people eases by their forties. The back pain conversation, 'Stronger Backs and Healthier Lives: Integrative Approaches to Back Pain', includes a stretch on central sensitization, where even a gentle touch on the shoulder can produce significant pain. Its guest also stresses meeting patients where they are before moving to a plan. Devkota separates prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics and describes feeding helpful gut microbes as cultivating a garden. At one point a host asks for metabolites to be explained, and the answer comes in plain terms. By the end, the field's complexity is framed as a puzzle worth solving. One episode swaps the usual roles. Victoria Maizes becomes the guest to discuss her new book, and a colleague who directs the center's fellowship co-hosts with Andrew Weil. That conversation turns practical quickly, moving from the body's own detox routes through the liver, bowels and sweat to glass containers in place of plastic. The first step, credited to Weil during the conversation, is to stop taking the toxin in. Then there are the dogs. Evan MacLean, who founded and directs the Arizona Canine Cognition Center, distinguishes basic emotions like joy and fear, which dogs certainly have, from moral emotions they may not share. He is candid that it is not yet known whether a dog grasps a person's fear or has learned to answer its cues, some possibly picked up by smell. A curious newcomer could start with the dogs; someone dealing with thinning bones or POTS symptoms has a more direct way in.