#487: Dr. Martine Rothblatt — A Masterclass on Asking Better Questions and Peering Into the Future

Dr. Martine Rothblatt ( @skybiome ) is Chairman and CEO of United Therapeutics , a biotechnology company she started to save the life of one of her daughters. The company offers FDA-approved medicines for pulmonary hypertension and neuroblastoma and is working on manufacturing an unlimited supply of transplantable organs. Dr. Rothblatt previously created and led Sirius XM as its Chairman and CEO and launched other satellite systems for navigation and international television broadcasting. In the field of aviation, her Sirius XM satellite system enhances safety with real-time digital weather information to pilots in flight nationwide. She also designed the world’s first electric helicopter and piloted it to a Guinness world record for speed, altitude, and flight duration. In the legal arena, Dr. Rothblatt led efforts of the transgender community to establish their own health law standards and of the International Bar Association to protect autonomy rights in genetic information via an international treaty. She also published dozens of scholarly articles and papers on the law of outer space, resulting in her election to the International Institute of Space Law, and represented the radio astronomy community’s scientific research interests before the Federal Communications Commission. She has bachelor’s (communications studies, summa cum laude), JD (Order of the Coif) and MBA degrees from UCLA, which in 2018 awarded her its highest recognition, the UCLA Medal, and she holds a PhD in medical ethics from the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Her patented inventions cover aspects of satellite communication, medicinal biochemistry, and cognitive software. Dr. Rothblatt’s recent books are on xenotransplantation ( Your Life or Mine ), gender identity ( Transgender to Transhuman ), and cyberethics ( Virtually Human ). She occasionally posts on Instagram at @transbinary and Twitter at @skybiome . Please enjoy! * This episode is brought to you by FreshBooks . I’ve been talking about FreshBooks —an all-in-one invoicing + payments + accounting solution —for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time. FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info, and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “How did you hear about us?” section! * This episode is also brought to you by Athletic Greens . 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