GLP‑1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are reshaping how Americans think about appetite, health, and the food around us. As more people use these drugs, the food industry is already responding — from new “GLP‑1‑friendly” products to shifting marketing strategies.
But the rise of GLP‑1s also raises deeper questions. What happens when medication becomes one of the most effective ways to navigate a food system built around overconsumption? How might these drugs change what we eat, how companies design and sell food, and the broader incentives that shape our choices?
Join Cambridge Forum for a conversation that looks beyond individual willpower to the systems that influence our eating habits. We’ll be joined by Marion Nestle, leading scholar of food politics; Trey Malone, agricultural economist; and Alexandra Brewis, global health anthropologist. Together, they will help us explore what a healthier, more ethical food future might require.
The conversation will be moderated by Robert Weisman, former reporter at The Boston Globe.
Marion Nestle.
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and
Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, and a Visiting Professor of
Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. A molecular biologist by training with an MPH in public health nutrition from UC Berkeley, she has spent her career
examining how science, policy, and industry shape what we eat.
She is the author of sixteen influential books, including Food Politics, What to Eat, Soda Politics, Unsavory Truth, and her memoir Slow Cooked. Her work has received major honors from the James Beard Foundation, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, UC Berkeley, and the City University of New York, among many others. She writes the long‑running blog Food Politics and is widely recognized as one of the most influential voices in food policy and public health.
Trey Malone.
Trey Malone is an agricultural economist and the Boehlje Endowed Chair for Managerial Economics in Agribusiness at Purdue University. His work examines how agrifood businesses respond to shifting consumer behavior, market incentives, and technological change, with nearly 100 peer‑reviewed publications in journals such as Food Policy and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. His research has been funded by public and nonprofit agencies including the National Science Foundation, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, NOAA, and the World Wildlife Fund. His insights on food‑system trends have been featured in major outlets including The New York Times, TIME, CNBC, and USA Today.
Alexandra Brewis.
Alexandra Brewis, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and Regent’s Professor at Arizona State University whose work focuses on how social, cultural, and environmental forces shape human health. A former Director of ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change and founder of its Center for Global Health, she is internationally recognized for her research on obesity, weight stigma, global health ethics, and household water insecurity, with fieldwork spanning Ethiopia, Haiti, Zambia, and the U.S. Southwest. Brewis has authored eight books and more than 250 articles, including the award‑winning Lazy, Crazy, and Disgusting: Stigma and the Undoing of Global Health, and her contributions have been honored with major distinctions such as election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and top awards from the American Anthropological Association and the Human Biology Association.
Robert Weisman.
Robert Weisman is a writer and editor who worked at the Boston Globe for 25 years, focusing on health care and life sciences. Before joining the Globe, he was business editor for the Seattle Times, and a business editor and writer for the Hartford Courant and New Haven Register. Weisman led the Seattle Times business staff that won two Best in Business Awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. His work at the Boston Globe won multiple honors including a first-place award from the Association of Health Care Journalists for “The New Price of Hope” about a high-priced rare disease drug. He serves on the board of directors of the Newton Beacon, a nonprofit community news startup outside Boston.
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