Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and The Gene: An Intimate History. He also is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. Before speaking at a Zócalo event about genes—“Will Genetic Engineering Endanger Humanity?”—he talked about chocolate for breakfast, Einstein’s hair, and Scrabble.
Q: What did you have for breakfast today?
A: Chocolate and coffee.
Q: What superpower would you most like to have?
A: The capacity to read other peoples minds.
Q: What dessert do you find impossible to resist?
A: Tiramisu or anything that has lemon in it.
Q: Who was your childhood hero?
A: I loved scientists like Einstein. Especially his hair.
Q: What’s your favorite restaurant?
A: Larsen’s, on Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a seafood shack where you sit on crates and eat oysters and lobsters.
Q: What’s the hardest thing about being a doctor?
A: Encountering the inner lives of patients and trying to help sort out what they feel is the best next step for them.
Q: What’s the last habit you tried to kick?
A: Biting my nails.
Q: What social media site do you spend the most time on?
A: I try to do no social media.
Q: What’s the last board game you played?
A: I play Scrabble like a maniac
Q: What does it take to get you on the dance floor?
A: Pushing and pulling.
Q: What famous person living or dead would you most like to meet?
A: George Orwell.
*Photo by Jake Fabricius
