The Harvard Plan: Jay & Alan

The Harvard Plan: Jay & Alan

From Embedded by NPR

November 24, 2025 · 51 min · Season 25 · Episode 2

About this episode

The episode explores the adversarial relationship between Harvard president Alan Garber and NIH head Jay Bhattacharya amidst a national debate on academia's future.

Harvard president Alan Garber and National Institutes of Health head Jay Bhattacharya are two main characters at the heart of the national fight over the future of academia. Alan Garber has been cast as the defender of academic freedom and democracy; Jay Bhattacharya is Donald Trump’s pick to lead the NIH, the agency withholding billions of dollars in research grants from Harvard. Oddly enough, the two men go way back: Garber was Bhattacharya’s undergraduate thesis advisor and mentor in the late 1980s. This episode tells the story of how the two men found themselves adversaries — and what it means for the future of science. Find more On the Media every week, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715 See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

People in this episode

Guests: Alan Garber, Jay Bhattacharya

Topics covered

  • academic freedom
  • science
  • NIH
  • Harvard
  • adversarial relationships
  • future of academia

Keywords

  • Harvard
  • NIH
  • academic freedom
  • Jay Bhattacharya
  • Alan Garber
  • science funding
  • adversaries

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard, National Institutes of Health

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