Strength in Focus: A Conversation on Progress, Power, and Possibility

On June 12, 2025, Esquire editor in chief Michael Sebastian sat down with actor, songwriter, and performer Nick Jonas to talk about type 1 diabetes—an autoimmune disease that both men live with—at the inaugural Men's Health Lab at the Hearst Tower in New York City.

"When I was diagnosed at 13, I didn't know anyone with type 1 diabetes," Jonas said, noting that this is why, since then, he has been talking and advocating about it. Over those 20 years, his journey with the condition has changed a lot. For one thing, he said, the technology to help manage the disease has developed to make it less invasive—in other words, not so many needle pricks. "I am lucky to have access to an insulin pump and a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor," he said.

Ten years ago, understanding that not everyone has access to these technologies, Jonas founded Beyond Type 1. The organization focuses on the type 1 community from patients to caregivers, to help provide under-served communities with tools and medications to manage the disease and give them information about living with it—for instance, educating people of drinking age about whether they should imbibe, and if they do, how best to go about it. "This organization has helped me live with the disease with joy," he said, adding that it is also involved in raising money for a cure—a sort of moonshot for type 1 diabetes.

Recently, his wife, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, has joined the board of Beyond Type 1 to help it grow globally. "We're expanding to a broader worldview and focusing on places where there's not the access to these life-preserving medicines and tools," he said. "My wife has really helped us build a plan for India and some other global-outreach programs that we have, which I'm very excited about."

Watch their conversation above.