Unpacking the Pills

Medications, explained in plain language.

A Stanford Biology capstone podcast. Episodes on the medicines people ask about most, plus a visual guide to how any drug goes from idea to pharmacy shelf.

Explore the episodes How drugs get approved

Pick an episode

Each episode opens up one kind of medicine: what it is, how it works, and what to ask your doctor or pharmacist. Choose one to see the overview, meet the guest, and find every source.

Meet the guests

Episodes 2 through 4 each pair a medicine with someone who works on it, and Episode 1 is just your host. Tap a guest to jump to their episode.

Medicine fact sheets

A quick-reference card for the main medicine in each episode.

Fact sheets are summaries for learning. The learn-more links go to MedlinePlus, a plain-language drug guide from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NIH). Check the current label on DailyMed before relying on any detail.

Drug discovery in plain language

Every medicine starts as a question: what part of the body is going wrong, and what could fix it? Here is the short version of how scientists find an answer.

Approval journeyHistoryRead a labelMyths and quizQuestions for your pharmacistGlossary

Pick a target

A target is usually a protein involved in a disease. If a protein is stuck “on” and causing trouble, a drug might be able to switch it off.

Find a hit

Researchers test thousands, sometimes millions, of compounds against the target. The few that do something useful are called hits.

Shape a lead

Chemists tweak a promising hit so it sticks to the target better, reaches the right tissue, and is safe enough to test in animals.

Three kinds of medicine

What a drug is made of decides how it can be taken. Size is the big clue, measured in daltons.

Small molecules

Made by chemists. Usually under about 900 daltons, and aspirin is only 180. Many survive the gut and slip into cells, so they can be pills.

Peptides

Short chains of amino acids. Insulin is about 5,800 daltons and semaglutide about 4,100. The gut breaks most peptides down, so many are injected.

Biologics

Large proteins such as antibodies, about 150,000 daltons, grown inside living cells. They are almost always injected or given by infusion.

Shapes are illustrative, not drawn to scale. Hear more about peptides and small molecules in episodes 3 and 4.

The journey from molecule to medicine

Scroll down to follow one drug candidate. Watch the pill fill up as it clears each stage. Most candidates never make it to the end.

Why so many drugs fall out along the way

Out of thousands of starting compounds, about one becomes an approved medicine. The whole trip commonly takes 10 to 15 years.

Compounds screened5,000 to 10,000
Reach preclinical testingabout 250
Enter human trialsabout 5
Approved by the FDA1

These numbers are widely cited approximations, and estimates vary a lot by study and by era. The 5,000 to 10,000 to 250 to 5 to 1 figures come from an industry chart reproduced in a Congressional Research Service report from 2001. Bar lengths are illustrative. Sources: Congressional Research Service, Pharmaceutical Research and Development and FDA, The Drug Development Process.

A short history of medicines

Many of today’s safety rules were written after something went wrong. Scroll sideways through the milestones that shaped the drugs in this podcast.

Dates are U.S. approvals or first uses. Each card links to its sources.

How to read a medicine label

The leaflet in the box looks like a wall of text, but it follows the same order every time. Tap a section on this fictional label to see what it means.

Sample medicine (fictional)

Prescribing information

Real labels for U.S. medicines are free to read on DailyMed.

Myths about medicine

Tap a claim to see how well it holds up.

Test what you learned

Questions to ask about any new medicine

Your pharmacist can answer most of these in a couple of minutes, and you do not need an appointment. Check them off as you go.

Words you will hear on the show

Tap any card to flip it and see the plain-language definition.

No card for that yet. Try a shorter word, or use the dictionary link above.

Propose episode 5

Is there a medicine you keep hearing about, or one you wish someone would explain? Propose it here, and it could become the next episode.

Episode 5

Title coming soon. Your idea could shape what comes next.

Ask the show a question

Curious about a medicine we did not cover, or something a guest said? Send it in. Your host answers here and may take it to a future episode.

Behind the capstone

Again and again, people I love have sat down with a stack of medication papers: pages of tiny print, unfamiliar words, and warnings that were hard to put in context. Again and again, they turned to me. So I started reading the studies, looking up the medicine, and translating it into plain language, and each time I saw how much it mattered when it finally made sense.

That is when I realized that not everyone has someone in their corner to do this for them, and no one should have to face a prescription alone. As someone working toward becoming a physician, I believe that understanding your own treatment is a form of care. Unpacking the Pills is my way of being that person for anyone who needs one: a place where the science is honest, the language is clear, and every listener leaves with context instead of confusion.

  1. Choose the topicsStart with the medicines people hear about constantly, then find the questions behind them.
  2. Research the scienceRead the studies and the official label for each medicine before scripting anything.
  3. Invite an expertFind a guest who works on the medicine and can explain it from experience.
  4. Record the conversationTalk it through in plain language, one episode at a time.
  5. Edit and checkCut for clarity and fact-check every claim against its source.
  6. Build this websitePut the episodes, guests, sources, and learning tools in one place.
Draft steps. Edit them to match what you actually did.

What I learned

Explaining science is not always easy. The most important step is understanding every group of people who will receive the information, putting yourself in their shoes, and checking that the way you explain it matches what you want them to understand.

Sources and methods

Every episode page lists its references. Medicine details come from published studies and official FDA labels.

Thank you

Thank you to my guests, Dr. Joyce Teng, Dr. Annelise Barron, and Nicholas Neoman, and to my mentors, Dr. Alexander Armenta and Dr. Michael Gisondi, for their advice and support.

About the podcast

Medication information is everywhere, but it is rarely written for the person holding the bottle. Unpacking the Pills opens up the leaflet inside the box and explains what is in it: how a drug works, who it is for, and what the risks are, without the jargon.

The show is the capstone project for a Biology degree at Stanford University. Episode 1 is a solo deep dive, and episodes 2 through 4 each pair a medicine with an expert who works on it, so listeners hear the science from the people who live it.

Educational only. This podcast and website explain science. They are not medical advice. Talk with your doctor or pharmacist about your own medicines.

Jacob Shafik

Host and producer · Biology (Microbial Sciences track), Stanford University

Jacob Shafik is a senior at Stanford studying Biology on the microbial sciences track. A proud East Bay native, he is working to become the first physician in his family. His path to this podcast started at home, where he became the person loved ones turned to when medication paperwork stopped making sense, and it showed him how much a clear explanation can change someone’s confidence in their own care. When he is not reading drug labels, he is adding to his fragrance collection, so you will never catch him stinking.

Keep learning

Trusted places to look up a medicine, a clinical trial, or the rules behind drug approval.

The FDA drug development processThe agency’s own step-by-step guide, from discovery through post-market safety. ClinicalTrials.govSearch studies that are recruiting now, or read the results of past trials. DailyMedThe official, current labels (package inserts) for medicines sold in the U.S. Drugs@FDAApproval dates, letters, and reviews for FDA-approved drugs. MedlinePlus drug informationPlain-language guides to medicines from the National Library of Medicine. FDA MedWatchReport a side effect or a problem with a medicine, and read safety alerts.