unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

Measuring informal interactions can improve the chances of a major project's success. Ben Waber, CEO and co-founder of Humanyze, stresses the importance of these hidden social levers and networks within your teams to facilitate better communication. He points out that organizations can improve workplace performance with the right employee analytics tools.  In this episode, he shares stories from his book, People Analytics. Learn how managers and human resources teams can use network metrics to look at the big picture, identify communication gaps, and improve teamwork. Episode Quotes:What is a big, fundamental change happening in the workplace that helps companies understand their teams better?The bulk of how work happens is, that these more informal networks, these collaboration patterns, and these changes. And that not just in the digital world, but also the physical world with more sensors, with other things that can help us understand face-to-face interaction. We can just understand at an unprecedented level of detail what's going on. What that means is not just that we have a better idea about what's happening, but that we can also start to test the decisions we make. And we can, of course, ideally make better decisions. But we’re still, I'd say, very much in the early phases of that, where there's still just this only growing awareness that this is possible.How can companies use people analytics to bring real value to organizations and management science?So, imagine a factory floor because people bring that up: ‘Hey, that’s a quantified environment. It should matter how you spend time’. And it does. But now imagine that you’re a factory floor worker and that I want you to produce ten widgets an hour. Now, maybe you figured out a better way to produce those widgets so that you can do 11 widgets an hour. Now, if you spent an hour of your day helping your coworkers learn that new method, your individual performance will go down, right? So, you would go to nine. And so, a dumb algorithm, which lots of companies are doing this exact thing, would say, ‘Hey, your productivity is down, you’re fired.’ Versus what they care about. What do they care about? Well, actually spending that hour dramatically improves the performance of everybody at the company. So, you want that. And this is why I really think that this individual focus of a lot of these technologies are fundamentally misguided. Because really, the value of organizations, again, its people coming together to do things they couldn’t do themselves.Why is it important to consider duration of data gathering and qualitative, and subjective analysis when reviewing team performance?It’s that these numbers alone certainly help focus your attention on things, but you’re invariably not going to get the whole picture even understanding this real, massive depth of insight into how work is happening. What you can do now, is say, ‘hey, here’s some team that is super overworked.’ Or, then again, we talk about the remote work environment today. These are the teams that appear to be most impacted in terms of how they collaborate. But it doesn’t tell you why those are happening. And so, that’s where the subjective, qualitative side comes in and says, okay well, it turns out that we’ve got some huge supply chain issues. So, this team is doing something super differently than they were before. It totally makes sense. This team, it actually is concerning because they should be doing the same thing. No algorithm is ever going to figure that out.Time Code Guide:00:01:25 The big fundamental change happening in the workplace that helps companies understand their teams better00:05:25 How did data capture in social science changed and how did this flow back to management science?00:10:46 Using sports team that use analytics to extract the best performance from a team00:13:03 How the pandemic help advanced the data-driven model in improving work00:15:22 How science networks helped us to rethink how people work00:20:12 The importance of cohesion in the context of network00:24:34 Understanding how density of interaction affects the depth of the network connection00:29:36 Will aggregating enough data on software and development enable large companies to spot the network patterns predictive of bugs or defect downstream?00:32:42 How do walls and cubicles affect how we work00:34:47 Virtual happy hours and new creative ways to promote nonwork interactions00:36:45 The challenges of remote work00:41:47 Infectious disease models as model of transmission of ideas and information00:49:07 Measuring the impact of specialists and generalists in terms of breaking silos00:54:20 How can the HR team rethink its role in terms of facilitating optimal information flow in the organization00:59:12 The configuration of physical space and how it’s shaping information flowShow Links:Guest Profile:Profile at Stern SpeakersProfile at M.I.T.Ben Waber on LinkedInBen Waber on TwitterHis Work:Humanyze Official WebsiteArticles on Work Design MagazinePeople Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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As modern leaders, we are challenged by the pace and complexity of change, the need for collaboration, and the push to align teams. Developing mindful leadership capabilities is a vital skill for leaders today to overcome stress, burnout, anxiety, and overwhelm.  In this episode, best-selling author and executive coach, Marc Lesser, shares his proven seven-step method to mindful leadership. He talks about his experiences running his kitchen at a Zen Monastery and best practices from tech giants like Google and Facebook. Discover how the concept of compassionate accountability, nervous apes, and self-compassion can help align your intentions and actions. Episode Quotes:How did you manage to practice Zen as a chef, where stress levels are already so high?In the summer, where it was hot, a hundred degrees, we were expected to produce these gourmet-quality vegetarian meals for 80 overnight guests, three meals a day. When the bell rings, the food's supposed to be ready. I think the fact that we were so immersed in the context of mindfulness practice and service — we were aspiring to enter a state of selflessness and timelessness and playing with effort and effortlessness. To me, all of those things are so relevant, whether you're a surgeon, or a teacher, or a software engineer, or whatever you're doing. We all aspire to bring out the best of ourselves in our work and produce this kind of combination of high-quality products or services.Business as a Form of Service to OthersWhen you are working in the kitchen, you are there to practice, and you are there to serve the guests, and you are there to create great, great food. People often forget that businesses are primarily about caring for people, whether we're helping people with their finances or creating products. I think we should aspire to create goodness or create some sense of wealth in a way. But, the primary aim is around, 'How can we take care of others?' Thoughts About Compassionate AccountabilityAn expression that I find I'm using a lot these days in the work world is compassionate accountability. This kind of interesting dichotomy of bringing humanity in, but at the same time: results matter. You know, workplaces are not families. I describe them more like sports teams. You know, I was completely blissing out watching the warriors last night, and there's such a great sense of humanity and joy and love. And, when players are not performing well they get traded. And, that's just kind of the way it is. It's the same in the business world. If we find another team that is making us a better offer, sometimes we leave the team that we're on, and that's the world of work. But there is this sense of developing both great compassion and caring and humanity, and at the same time to develop a great sense of holding — holding oneself, and holding each other accountable for results.Time Code Guide:00:07:05 Secrets to his Business Success and Practices Ignored by Business Schools00:09:04 Difference from what you're learning and what the traditional way of leadership and running a business00:10:40 Finding the right work-life balance: is work supposed to be separate from the rest of your life?00:16:29 Are companies' stress management programs just window dressing to mask themselves as concerned about employees' welfare?00:25:14 Mindfulness and its similarities to existentialism and other philosophical traditions00:27:29 What can we learn from consciously seeking discomfort, addressing it, and focusing on how we react to things which would normally make us nervous00:31:05 Listening and responding to feedback00:32:51 Self-compassion, imposter syndrome and acceptance00:34:59 How do you cultivate a mindset of continual curiosity?00:38:28 Awareness on choices we make, and moving from small mindset to big mindset00:40:00 Does businesses become more demanding when they demand high standards in treating their employees and customers?00:42:47 What does it mean for leaders to hold space?00:44:36 How do we balance making conscious choices and accepting accountability?Show Links:Guest ProfileMarc Lesser’s ProfileMarc Lesser on Spirit RockMarc Lesser on San Francisco Zen CenterMarc Lesser on LinkedInMarc Lesser on InstagramMarc Lesser on FacebookMarc Lesser on TwitterHis WorkMarc Lesser’s Official WebsiteMarc Lesser’s Audi Dharma RecordingArticles on MindfulSeven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery KitchenKnow Yourself, Forget Yourself: Five Truths to Transform Your Work, Relationships, and Everyday LifeLess: Accomplishing More by Doing LessZ.B.A.: Zen of Business Administration Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Award-winning Harvard Business School professor Felix Obelholzer-Gee says that data about the rate of change in companies is no faster today than in previous years. Hence, long-term strategies make more sense for businesses today, despite our rapidly changing world. His book Better, Simpler Strategy discusses the three modes of value creation-- value for customers, suppliers, and employees. This strategy promotes working on fewer initiatives with more significant impact, substituting the traditional complex frameworks.Listen to Greg and Felix as rundown strategies that leaves exceptional impact, allowing companies to capture customers who are willing to pay, attracting the right employees, and choosing the best suppliers for their business.Episode Quotes:Does the role of strategy in business change consider the disruptive and highly technological environment we have today?If you look at the competitive advantage of firms. And we all know that competitive advantage tends to decline over time, but that decline is actually no faster today than it was in previous times. And there's much more sophisticated research than just looking at the rate of decline where essentially you can't really see hyper-competition; you can't really say that today it doesn't make sense to plan for the long-term because who knows what the long term will bring? And we see it even in the most lively spaces. Microsoft has been among the 10 most valuable companies for the past 20 years. Through ups and downs, and they missed mobile, and then they did a bunch of things right, and yet, you see that they remained very competitive and very successful. So I start with this notion saying that planning for the long term makes as much sense as it did in the early 20th century or 1780.How do strategies create value for customers, employees, and suppliers contribute to a company's profitability?I think it comes from this place where if you truly know that you're creating value for someone in a way that is differentiated from the competition today, it's really added value to the economy, then there's almost no way you're not going to be financially successful. I like this shift, think value first and then profitability will follow.If you increase the customer's willingness to pay for the product or the service, or in the case of employees and suppliers, if you decrease the willingness to sell, of employees and suppliers. And so there's real value creation in a monetary sense. The pie that is available for everyone has been increased. And then you can be relaxed about monetization opportunities. Once you have made that first step successfully.How can businesses differentiate themselves if the customers care more about the price points?Your experience is that customers think about price a lot, that it's their number one criteria. And that's the pressure on the business. But the pressure is created by strategic choices of the business, namely that you have a value proposition that is largely undifferentiated relative to everyone else.Would it be wise to treat suppliers and employees more like customers if it works for most companies to create value for parties that businesses transact with?I shy away from calling everyone a customer because I think it sometimes gets businesses into trouble because they confuse customers and value creation opportunities with the entity that pays them. Time Code Guide:00:00:56 The values of strategy for hyper-competitive companies00:07:20 The Value Stick00:13:27 Think value first and profitability will follow00:15:57 Will somebody miss the business if it disappeared00:18:02 How can a business differentiate itself from competitors00:20:56 Increasing the customer’s willingness to pay00:23:26 How to spot opportunities for value creation00:26:47 Think of the final user as the customer00:28:03 Value creation as the key metric for success00:29:59 The Near Customers00:33:51 Joint value creation with conflicting interests00:35:43 Business substitutes and compliments00:44:05 Value Maps00:47:34 About After Hours podcastShow Links:Guest ProfileFelix Oberholzer-Gee at Harvard Business SchoolFelix Oberholzer-Gee on LinkedInHis WorksGoogle ScholarAfter Hours PodcastArticles from NBERBetter Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The first half of the episode discusses distinguished professor Gregory Clark's book, A Farewell To Alms. During the eighteenth century, England underwent a period of rapid industrialization and economic growth. Clark explains why industrialization made the whole world rich but not equally rich.The episode ends with Prof. Clark and Greg exchanging views on how much our fate is affected by our family status. Clark provides an insider's view into his latest book, The Son Also Rises, demonstrating how little has changed since the 1300s in terms of social mobility.  Listen to Gregory Clark as he shares how history, ancestry, and marriage patterns shape current economics outcomes.Episode Quotes:How England's static society eventually lead to fantastic economic opportunitiesAnother feature of English history is that between even 1300 and 1800, it was a static society in terms of living standards, life expectancy. A lot of the institutions are not changing that much. But there was significant change occurring economically. And the most dramatic of these changes, is that the prevailing interest rate on the most safe loans in medieval England was 10%— real return that you could get. Now, hedge funds would go wild if they could guarantee without risk a 10% real return. That was available to every person in medieval England. And you could buy land in half acre lots, and you know, a half acre would only cost something like two weeks wages for someone. And so, everyone in medieval England had access to transforming their economic condition in the course of their lifetime. It's a land of fantastic economic opportunities.Difference in time spent doing work between pre- and post-industrial worldAnd then, another feature of the pre-industrial world is that over the long run, people seem to actually start working much more. We can actually observe very good records of England right about 1800. One of them actually comes from the criminal courts where witnesses describe what they were doing at the time they saw the crime, or they heard the window break or whatever. And from these type of diaries, you can actually observe how much time people are spending at work. And people are working about 10 hours a day, six days a week in this world. That's a very high rate of labor input compared to our hunter-gatherer societies. So, again, it's a puzzle about why do people work so much, right? One of the amazing mysteries of the modern world, is that people are still— once you count things like commuting time or home food preparation, other things like that— they still spend— compared to most creatures in the animal kingdom, a surprisingly high amount of time at work.Human Nature and its Relationship to CapitalismI think the more interesting, aspect is that we have adapted to capitalism, and we've actually adapted biologically to capitalism. That is going to be part of any story about the delay in the industrial revolution and also the location of the industrial revolution. And that, in the centuries, that preceded the thousands of years of settled agrarian society, there was some kind of interplay going on between human nature and capitalism.Time Code Guide:00:01:53 How did you come up with the explanation on the divergence between highly industrialized and less industrialized countries00:04:54 Examples of differences in wages in India and Argentina00:07:46 What are the economist's thoughts on industrial revolution00:10:21 How literacy rates affect the community's economic development and social mobility00:12:35 The rewards of industrial revolution00:21:03 Protestantism and the industrial revolution00:25:23 Is there something unique about the way you assemble resources in these market economy?00:29:15 Mortality rate and wealth00:32:24 What drew you to this idea of tracking social mobility and using the data sets that you used?00:42:23 Why social mobility was greater during the Medieval England than modern England?Show Links:Guest ProfileAcademic ProfileGregory Clark on LinkedInHis WorkGregory Clark on Google ScholarsWhy Isn’t the Whole World Developed: Lessons from the Cotton MillsThe Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social MobilityA Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For a while now, machines have been inseparably tied to our lives. The algorithms on Google, Netflix, Amazon, Xbox, and Tinder have run your life unwittingly. Machines are digesting data that you willingly share with them. Artificial intelligence has also impacted healthcare, from the development of vaccines to the search for a cure for cancer. Machine learning is transforming every aspect of our lives, but what is AI's ultimate foundation?Author and AI expert Pedro Domingos discusses machine learning's five tribes in his book Master Algorithm. During this episode, Pedro shares how the ultimate algorithm can derive knowledge about the past, the present, and the future from data. Listen as he and Greg tackle why such an algorithm should exist and compelling arguments from neuroscience, evolution, physics, statistics, and other branches of computer science.Episode Quotes:Are computer scientists the new age philosophers?I don't think scientists could have supplanted the psychologists and philosophers, and so on. I do think, however, that computer science and machine learning, in particular, changes the way we do everything in a very profound way. If you look at science, more than anything else, its progress is determined by the tools that are available. Galileo was Galileo because he had the telescope. No telescope, no Galileo, and the examples go on. And the thing is that computers are the most extraordinary tool for science, among other things. But for science in particular that we have ever created, they magnify our ability to do things in a way that was —I think — hard to imagine, even 50 years ago.Is machine learning just a bunch of different tools, all trying different approaches to solve the same problems?At the end of the day, the best algorithm is almost never any existing one. What a machine learning algorithm does, it's not magic. It's incorporating knowledge, and knowledge will be different in different domains. There are broad classes of domains where the same knowledge is relevant, and indeed different paradigms tend to do well in different problems. So, deep learning does very well at perceptual problems because, again, you know, these things were inspired by the neurology of the visual system, and et cetera, et cetera.Is the evolutionary model applicable and aligned with what's happening in AI and will there be obstacles in pursuing this line of thinking?There's more to be discovered about how evolution learns. And by the way, there's more to be discovered for the purposes of AI and also for the purposes of understanding evolution. I actually think that if someone really had a supercomputer, that could simulate evolution over a billion years. With the model of evolution that we have today, it would fail. It wouldn't get there. There are some mechanisms that also evolved. But again, this is this interesting series of stages, right? Even within evolution, there are levels of how evolution works. And I think there's a lot of that, that we still don't understand. But we will at some point, and I think that will be beneficial both for biology and for AI.Time Code Guide:00:03:06 How A.I. is revolutionizing the way we think00:04:31 Tycho Brahe stage00:06:44 Is the unified field theory of machine learning the same as the general approach to learning?00:09:11 Computers represent the fourth stage of learning and transmission of knowledge, do you think it's a discontinuity from the first three stages, which all seems to be natural phenomenon?00:10:21 The emergence of AI, life, evolution of the nervous system, and cultures00:12:01 The speed at which computers communicate and facilitate the transfer of Knowledge00:13:10 Possibilities and ways you can play with the computer's processing capacity00:14:29 How did we leap from the AI winter to the AI boom that we have today?00:17:25 Learning machines and self-driving cars00:18:48 AI and Linguistics00:19:33 Do each AI ‘tribe’ have a singular view of pursuing a particular approach in AI without acknowledging that it can have limitations later on?00:24:54 One paradigm in AI and Master Algorithm00:27:13 The Rise of the Connectionist00:28:00 What’s next for AI?00:33:37 Is it possible to automate the trial and error process and have an algorithm where we learn how to learn?00:37:49 Is the evolutionary model doing anything for AI, and what are the obstacles in this line of thinking?00:41:53 How do we know whether a school of ideas is dead or simply dormant?00:43:01 How do you advance interdisciplinary learning within the different school of thoughts in AI?00:44:24 Thoughts on Geoff Hinton's work and back propagation00:46:22 Is there a guidebook to creating a unified theory?00:48:11 AGI, AI and humans00:51:01 Automating the Scientific Process00:52:26 Thoughts on the Future of AIShow Links:Guest ProfileAcademic ProfileProfile at the International Telecommunications UnionPedro Domingos on TwitterHis WorkPedro Domingos on Google ScholarThe Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our WorldMarkov Logic: An Interface Layer for Artificial Intelligence (Synthesis Lectures on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Traditionally, biologists and ecologists study microbes and hosts separately. And, it’s only recently that 'Hologenomics' emerged as a discipline with a holistic perspective. Rob Dunn's work in this field influenced his three best-selling books, Delicious, The Wildlife Of Our Bodies, and Never Home Alone.In this episode, Rob takes us on a scientific taste adventure. In his use of “hologenomics” perspectives, he explains why humans crave flavors that cannot be explained by their nutritional needs, and how they may have been influenced by evolutionary development. Tune in to hear Greg and Rob talk about anthropology, history, and evolutionary biology, including the extinction of megafauna and the influence of plants and animals on the human palate.Episode Quotes:How Hologenomics combines different fields of sciences in its applicationsHistorically people who studied microbes, so things that are invisible without a microscope and people who studied animals, were in different departments. And even if they were studying the same interaction, they would study it from totally different perspectives. And so, if I studied skin microbes, I'd focus on them. And if you studied skin, you would focus on the human. And so, Hologenomics is an approach where you study all of that at the same time. And so, a human and its microbes, a goat and its microbes, a Gobi fish and its microbes. And this is made possible partly because the tools are now the same tools. I can study your genes and your microbes' genes at the same time. And so, it's a field that recognizes the value of whole-ism, but at the same time, reflects changes in how we study things.Thoughts on co-evolutionary process of plants and animalsSo, some species— well, some parts of species like fruits, they have evolved to have chemicals that appeal to the taste and the smell of the specific animals they want to eat them. And then, by the flip side of that is that, many sorts of the leaves of plants, very often, produce chemicals that relate to bad tastes in the animals they don't want to eat them. And so, there's this kind of culinary dance between plants and animals and between lots of organisms. That’s super fascinating and hinges on that bite, you know, that we all do that, animals do.Why do you think science hasn't really paid a lot of attention to things like taste?Because we're just still so early in science, but I think the second thing is that often we don't have the right tool yet. I think taste receptors are like that. That, for a long time, it was really hard. Even if you knew what the gene might be for a taste receptor, to then compare that from one species to another, it was expensive. Maybe if you'd looked at sweet taste receptors in humans, you could also look at them in rats, and then your Ph.D. was over. Now, that's cheap and easy. Easy is too strong. It's cheap and feasible. And so that's the other part, is that the technology that you need is sometimes lagging. And I think with tastes, that's been one of the pieces. Now we have genetic technologies that allow us not only this study tastes in humans, But also to compare it.Time Code Guide:00:00:57 What is hologenomics?00:02:13 Hologenomics and ecology as fields that help us understand the world better00:03:47 Rob Dunn’s early work as an intern00:07:12 What's so different about the book Delicious and did you take unique approaches to animal behavioral science?00:11:45 Why bacteria in cadavers secrete weird odors00:13:00 How our taste palette’s affected by our evolution00:15:00 Stoichiometry, taste palettes and signaling what the body needs00:21:24 Bias on technology and detecting existing conditions only00:23:09 Gap between studying known conditions vs. studying different aspects of biology to add context on these known diseases00:24:25 Will exposing doctors to evolutionary theories or studies create a different framework for looking at the human body?00:26:33 Understanding Covid-19 and why looking at any bacteria, as bad bacteria may not be the best perspective00:31:31 Wildlife of our bodies and fecal transplants00:34:00 Fermented foods and garden of microbes00:35:39 Evolution of fruit trees and the animals that consume them00:37:53 Flavor of plants and animals and how they serve as chemical defense00:39:34 Spices, microbial components, human, and plant evolution00:40:19 Why do humans have to learn how to like certain tastes?00:47:44 How do you fix what's wrong with science and thoughts on rigorous testing00:53:51 Rob Dunn’s next bookShow Links:Guest ProfileRob Dunn’s Adacemic Profile at NC State UniversityRob Dunn on LinkedInRob Dunn on TwitterHis WorkRob Dunn LabRob Dunn on Google ScholarRob Dunn’s Articles on TEDRob Dunn Podcast Episodes on Science FridayA Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human SpeciesDelicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us HumanNever Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We LiveThe Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and MysteryThe Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are TodayEvery Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Developed nations like the United Kingdom and the United States are experiencing growing radical oppositions and deep divisions between rural communities and bustling urban centers. A severe lack of opportunities plagues poorer communities. Young people have little to look forward to except a bleak job market, while older workers are marginalized as their skills lose value. One of the world's most influential development economists, Paul Collier, tackles these issues in his recent book, The Future Of Capitalism.In this episode, Paul and Greg talk nationalism vs. patriotism, how personal and national identities have evolved and delve into Paul’s diagnosis of capitalism's failures and ideas for how we can reform it.Episode Quotes:What motivated you to shift the focus of your work to the problems of developed countries like Britain and U.S.?Both the geographic divide of living in this hyper prosperous place of Oxford, and seeing this catastrophe in my town, but also being on this rising ladder of fancy education and then off you go, versus all my relatives who invested in manual skills, the skills of steelworkers. And all their skills evaporated. The pride that they took in their work disappeared. Work disappeared. One of my relatives ended up earning a living cleaning toilets. And so, this astonishing divergence in my life—brought me around to realizing that something needed to be done about that. And it wasn't that it was just happening to a few people/. In both Britain and America, those divergences, the spatial divergence between booming metropolises and broken provincial towns and cities. And that divergence between a hyper educators' success with fancy skills on top, versus manual skills that became worthless. That divide became true of our entire societies in America and Britain. And not just America and Britain, but especially America and Britain.How can we have more inclusive economic policies and avoid faulty economic models?We can have mutual respect. It can be a threshold level. Here is the behavior, that is, as long as you're over that threshold of behavior, everybody in the group can respect everybody else. Here is what we're trying to achieve, some common purpose. In order to achieve that common purpose, here's the action we need to do. And those of us who do that action, went over the threshold. We've earned the respect of the community. And being able to do that at grand scale, is at its best what a patriotic society does.What do people in poor areas really need?What people in poor places want is not just consumption. They want the dignity of the opportunities to be productive. And for that, we need to transfer not just money, but the opportunities for productivity. And that is good jobs and skills. That is the agenda that actually levels the country spatially.Time Code Guide:00:01:00 What motivated you to shift the focus of your work to the problems of developed countries like Britain and U.S.?00:05:26 Thoughts on the gap between the urban elite and rural residents00:07:24 Is the breakdown of national identity driving the underinvestment in public goods that we see in our countries?00:09:47 How the Danes saved the country from being hit dramatically by Covid-1900:12:05 Do you think people's attitudes towards Covid-19 were really more about signaling self-expression than concerned for the public good?00:15:01 Why and how is it that economists are often blamed for leading us into this impasse where we need to argue for more inclusive economics?00:20:00 How come the Marxist model that aims to be positive have had negative effect on the people?00:28:11 ICI, how their mission shifted from being about chemicals to shareholder gains00:30:05 How the monitored incentive structure changed the way we work00:32:23 Why can't ethnicity be a foundation for building a community with mutual obligations and sense of belongingness?00:36:33 John Rawls and his views on human rights and individual rights00:40:33 The common purpose that most Britons agree on: drastically narrowing down the differences of opportunities in the society00:43:04 How can the system create more opportunities and better access in the rural areas?00:46:23 How can you utilize the insights that you've learned from the failures of development policy to design a workable policy for these poor areas within our developed economy?00:52:10 Lessons learned from PittsburghShow Links:Guest ProfilePaul Collier on LinkedInAcademic Profile on University of Oxford, Blavatnik School of GovernmentHis WorkPaul Collier’s Ted Talk Paul Collier’s Write-ups on the International Growth CenterPaul Collier Articles on The GuardianGreed Is DeadThe Future of Capitalism: Facing the New AnxietiesExodus: How Migration is Changing Our WorldThe Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global ProsperityWars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous PlacesThe Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About ItLiving Down the Past: How Europe Can Help Africa Grow (Studies in Trade and Development)Labor and Poverty in Rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and Rural Development in the United Republic of Tanzania Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Did you know that all humans go through a period, during late infancy or early childhood, when their sense of smell judgement is almost completely blank? That's the reason babies put anything and everything in their mouths. It turns out disgust and displeasure for particular tastes and odors are learned. Renowned food and cooking scientist and James Beard award-winning author Harold McGee takes us on a sensory journey in this episode. We learn about the importance of smells, what McGee calls a ‘smell renaissance’, and more on the particles we breathe in —the molecules that trigger our perceptions of certain scents, such as flowers, food, and even tin cans. Listen in as Greg and Harold give us an insider's view of McGee's latest book, Nose Dive: A Field Guide To The World's Smells.Episode Quotes:How does knowledge of food science affect our dining experience?It just seems to me that it adds a dimension. It adds a layer of appreciation. When I eat something, even knowing the compounds, it's not the compounds that I first encounter. It's my experience. It's the taste and the smell and so on. And if it's interesting enough, I've always wanted them to understand more about it. Why does this thing have this wonderful flavor? Why did the grouse have that effect on me? And so learning about what underlies that experience, it seems to me, if you're drawn to the experience in the first place, it just adds a dimension of appreciation that you wouldn't have otherwise.How are different disciplines such as history and humanities intersecting with food science?So, it started in the late 1970s, around that same time that I had discovered food science as an academic discipline. But, I still have trouble understanding why it is that something so fundamental to human existence wasn't a respectable academic subject. I know many people who proposed thesis projects on food, history, sociology, and philosophy and were told by their advisors, 'No, you can't do that.’ Now, it's very different. Now, there are food studies programs all over the place and all kinds of exciting work being done. I think there just had to be this kind of shift in attitude in the academy that then helped make the study of food not only fun and fascinating, but respectable.Why do humans camouflage smells that are reminiscent of their animal nature? We're living in more crowded conditions than we did way, way back. And so, we're in contact with each other more intimately, more often. And we're— generally speaking —shut up indoors. You know, we don't spend that much of our lives outdoors where the air is fresh. So, we have to create this illusion of freshness indoors, which has led to the dominance of citrusy, piney kinds of smells, becoming the sort of smell clichés for “nice” indoors. And we are reluctant to impose our personal smells on other people. Or to have other people's personal smells imposed on us because there's no escaping them if they're there. So, I think that's a big part of it.circumstances in which we live have changed over the centuries. And that has led to this kind of deodorization of our daily lives.Why do humans have such sensitive noses?I think the general point would be that smell is a chemical sense. It tells us what molecules are in our neighborhood. And, that's been important to life from the very beginnings of life. The first single cells needed to know what direction they needed to float in, or propel themselves in, to get food or to avoid toxins. So, it's just absolutely fundamental to life. And, in mammals, we now have a sense that has been developed, for us, in particular, with our noses up off the ground. A sense that has developed to answer the needs of our particular biological and ecological situation.Time Code Guide:00:01:09 The Author’s Background00:04:36 How the discipline of Food Science evolved in the last 30 years00:20:38 Can our smell map be enhanced through cultivation and exposure?00:23:16 Can people in business be trained in using their smell, the same way that body builders are trained?00:24:07 How smell training help people who lost their sense of smell because of Covid00:28:12 How our body decides what kind of smells we will like or repulse00:30:19 Understanding rotten cheese smell00:32:12 Why is there a trend for fermented and funky smelling food globally?00:33:30 Integrating smell in the fake meat manufacturing process00:34:25 How our diet affects the way we smell and our biological make-up00:37:23 Animal signals and smell00:42:48 Bio-alchemy and fermentation00:46:57 The Renaissance of smell in all aspects of lifeShow Links:Guest ProfileProfile from his official websiteHarold McGee on TwitterHis WorkArticles and JournalsNose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's SmellsKeys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and RecipesOn Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Why do we feel bad after losing a loved one? What causes people to people panic and worry?? How can people pursue happiness even after heartbreaks? Understanding our bad feelings gives us real power. In his new book, Good Reasons For Feeling Bad, Dr. Randolph Randy? Nesse, a pioneer in evolutionary medicine, transforms our understanding of mental disorders. As opposed to asking why some people suffer from mental illnesses, Dr. Randy asks why natural selection has left us with fragile minds. Listen as Dr. Randy and Greg explore the deeper evolutionary questions of why our minds can be so vulnerable to mental illness.Episode Quotes:When can panic attacks be seen as beneficial?One of them is that panic attacks are not just abnormal things that come out of a bad brain. They are a flight or fight response that can be life-saving if you're in the face of some predator or other life-threatening danger. And I had spent the last ten years in this anxiety clinic telling patients, no, it's not just your worries. It's a brain abnormality, and do what we say. With taking drugs and behavior therapy, you'll get better. They didn't believe me. They said, well, I know it's my heart, I know it's my brain. But once I started explaining to them, 'I said, listen, what you're experiencing is a useful response, but it's a false alarm.' That fast breathing, those tight muscles? Perfect for getting you out of danger. That wish to get out of whatever small room you're in? Perfect. That fear of open spaces? Open spaces were dangerous for us when we only had wooden spears. And all of a sudden, my patients' attitudes towards their disorders changed dramatically.Thoughts on the profound implication of evolutionary medicine for everyday medical practiceI think the most profound implication of evolutionary medicine for everyday medical practice is how to use medications to relieve suffering correctly. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s okay. It's not going to hurt somebody. For instance, if you have fever and malaise when you have a cold, can you take some Tylenol to make it better? Yes, you can. Is it going to make you get better? Probably not. There are so many other mechanisms apart from the fever itself fighting the virus or bacteria that are causing your problems. On the other hand, there are times when it is not very sensible. Are experts doing a good job of debating implied normativity of negative moods experienced in the aftermath of a negative experience?A bunch of excellent psychologists began studying positive emotions, but there is a strong tendency that we should feel positive emotions, and we should strive for positive emotions. There are easy ways that they suggest where you can feel better about your life, and simply writing every day some things you're grateful for, and connecting with people you care about can improve life. On the other hand, I also see people striving for happiness as a goal. And probably my deepest insight about low mood, the one that my residents tell me helps them more than anything else I've ever taught them, is it pursuing an unreachable goal? That's what sets off a normal, low mood. Because low mood is trying to make you stop doing stuff that's wasteful and hopeless. And if you keep on trying to accomplish something where you're not making any progress, then the ordinary low mood escalates up into a bad depression.Time Code Guide:00:00:51 What drove Dr. Nesse to this Discipline00:03:29 Why it’s equally important to know what’s causing the problem, and not just how to fix it00:05:15 How can biologists, psychiatrists, and evolutionary experts, and doctors work together to find out causes of mental health problems00:06:26 Concepts from the book Why We Get Sick00:07:22 Why are fevers good for the body00:11:16 Work and research on anxiety00:12:21 Signal Detection Theory00:13:46 Thoughts on viewing disease as an adaptation00:16:26 Covid, anxiety, and depression00:17:13 How the body is sending false alarms on survival during stressful situations00:18:52 Why do pointing at proximate mechanism can be problematic when dealing with mental illness00:27:15 Mood and model foraging theory00:29:35 Mental health not being about positive emotions, but rather well-calibrated responses appropriate for the signals from the environment00:32:31 How social groups and environment affect our mental health00:34:48 Thoughts on how the mismatch between the environment we’re and the one we’ve adapted to00:41:24 Misconceptions on hard-wired behavior and environmental contingent00:45:06 Reframing question about human wellnessShow Links:Guest ProfileRandolph Nesse’ Official WebsiteRandolph Nesse Profile on University of MichiganRandolph Nesse on LinkedInRandy Neese on TwitterHis WorkRandolph Nesse on Google ScholarGood Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. 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Could plants and nature sounds make you happier at work? What kind of scent should you wear on your first date? Can a simple hug make grandma and grandpa healthier? Charles Spence, sensory science and experiential psychology expert, tells us how our senses alter how we feel and think, in his groundbreaking book, Sensehacking. He describes how hacking our senses and stimulating them in nature, at home, at work, and at play makes our lives richer. Greg and Charles talk about how the impact of our senses affect our minds and bodies, thoughts and feelings.Episode Quotes:In your opinion, do you think sensory therapy will be an occupation where we will be able to engineer a sensory environment that is optimized?[00:17:28] That is perceptual engineering to optimize stimulation. Perhaps matching it to the kinds of environments that we have evolved in. And that might involve bringing in greenery, water, the sounds of the birds and the animals. This was one of the amazing things that popped out of the book. Researchers have studied indoor temperatures— homes in North America, from Alaska to Texas. From the warmest to the coldest states, they find that everyone seems to set their central heating and air conditioning at 23 degrees centigrade. And, at a humidity level, that, if you compare that to the climate in every region on earth—it turns out it provides the closest match for the Ethiopian Highlands where we evolved.How older people in care homes are experiencing sensory underload because of Covid-19[00:25:12] On the one hand, now there's an increase in touch hunger because people can't touch anymore. Care home residents in the UK said they could occasionally see their relatives through the glass. And they can speak to them through the Intercom, but they're not allowed to touch in person for fear of transmitting the disease. And these are heartbreaking stories of these elderly individuals saying, 'All I want to do is just give my family a hug.' What clearer message could you have about the benefits of touching? The increasing hunger that we're faced with.Thoughts about hospitals in integrating and optimizing the sensory experience for patients[00:39:38] So, the health care provision was a realization that needs to go beyond just the machines or, what they can do, the doctors and surgeons. Actually think about, delivering, designing environments that are conducive to recovery, to the reduction of stress. That can be everything from the scent. I mean, just think about, when you go to the dentist, and you get the smell of eugenol or the cloves or the smell of filling. For most of us, that can make us pretty tense. That's not an intrinsic stressful smell. It's just when we associate that smell with what's going to happen, the pain and the drilling. I think it's probably the same thing for hospitals, that scent maybe makes them feel stressed.Time Code Guide:00:01:57: How and when Charles wrote the book00:04:50: How Charles convinced Oxford’s Psychology department to allow him to take on a generalist approach rather than to focus on a specialization00:07:08: Sensory congruence and how senses work together00:10:09: Is there a divergent point between sense hacking for good and sense hacking for profit00:13:07: Sensory overload, underload and its use in therapy00:15:30: Why older people are suffering sensory underload during COVID-1900:17:28: Engineering environment to optimize the sensory experience00:19:35: Biophilic designs and trend on British offices00:20:20: Evolutionary psychology00:22:32: Sensory congruence in biophilic design00:24:10: COVID-19’s effect on the variety of environments we’re exposed to and our relationships, and interactions00:26:50: How Charles used the book in designing his home00:30:26: Open office design, workplace setup and its effects on employee performance00:31:22: How offices and employees will be like after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted00:34:42: Do architects need to relearn integrating sensory experience in their designs00:43:00: Rise of online dating and the radical impact of visuals on other senses related to building relationships 00:45:00: The things we lost from the lack of sensory stimulation during COVID-19Show LinksGuest ProfileCharles Spence Profile at the University of Oxford’s Experimental Psychology DepartmentCharles Spence Academic ProfileCharles Spence on LinkedInHis WorkCharles Spence on Google ScholarSensehacking: How to Use the Power of Your Senses for Happier, Healthier LivingCrossmodal Attention Applied: Lessons for and from Driving (Elements in Perception)Gastrophysics: The New Science of EatingThe Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and DiningIn touch with the future: The sense of touch from cognitive neuroscience to virtual reality Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.