Finding Genius Podcast

Giving up the foods you've grown up with can be hard enough, you shouldn't have to give up the activities you love too. But how do you cope when those foods and activities coincide? As a woman who loves to travel but who also is gluten intolerant, Elikqitie knows this story all too well. She joins us today to share a bit about her podcast, Travel Gluten Free Podcast and gives tips about how to go out and enjoy life while adhering to eating habits that keep you feeling your best. She also explains the difference between gluten intolerance and celiac disease, and why it is imperative to follow your diet if you do have celiac disease. Be sure to check out her podcast, which you can find at https://www.travelglutenfreepodcast.com

If you've ever driven through thick fog in the evening, you are likely familiar with the feeling of futile attempts at improving visibility through the use of headlights. Light that should be guiding you instead diffuses across the space in front of you, thereby worsening the situation. What if you could control the way light traveled through material in a way that allowed you to see right through it? Enter Dr. Hasan Yilmaz, postdoctoral research associate at Yale University in the Department of Applied Physics. Dr. Yilmaz and his fellow researchers are developing methods to control light scattering and have recently discovered a way to transmit light in a straight path, thereby allowing us to see through materials that we otherwise could not. Listen in to learn more about potential applications of such methods.

"Bypass surgery became a metaphor for an incomplete approach; we're literally bypassing the problem without also treating the cause, and I wondered what would happen if we treated the cause, which to a large degree is the lifestyle choices we make each day," says Dr. Dean Ornish, as he reflects on his experience during medical school. Dr. Ornish has since become a well-known and well-respected physician who emphasizes the impact of diet and lifestyle on overall health. On today's episode, he discusses a growing amount of research which shows that a whole foods plant-based diet, moderate exercise, stress management, and love can reverse countless chronic diseases, including early prostate cancer, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and that it can even reverse ageing at the cellular level. He also discusses numerous specific benefits associated with a whole foods plant-based diet, some of the main topics in his latest book Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases, how loneliness and depression affects physical health, his perspective on the ketogenic diet, and how to begin changing your life in ways that will improve and lengthen it.

Margaret Mc-Fall Ngai, Ph.D., is director of the Pacific Biosciences Research Center and professor in the Kewalo Marine Lab at the University of Hawaii. Her research is focused on animal-bacteria symbioses, and she's using the symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and an illuminous bacterium as a model for this research. Burying itself in the sand during the day, the squid comes out at night and waits for its prey, camouflaging itself within the moon and starlight by utilizing the bacterially-produced light. In this way, the squid avoids casting a shadow which could be identified by its predators. Dr. Mc-Fall Ngai dives into the details of the research she's carrying out, offering a wealth of information which includes how and why the Hawaiian bobtail squid is an ideal model for her research, how the bacteria induce gene expression changes in the squid and the nature of how these gene expression changes manifest, how hosts identify symbiotic partners in general, findings of related research, and where her research is headed. Tune in for all the details and visit http://glowingsquid.org/index.php for more.

In this informative podcast, Robert K. Logan, the noted author of The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, the Human Mind, and Culture, talks about human intelligence, language, and communication. Logan holds a BS and Ph.D. from MIT. He completed two post-doctoral appointments as a Research Associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and at the University of Toronto. As a physics professor with an inquisitive mind, Logan has spent a lifetime studying the important elements of the human mind, and how we use our language, and intelligence. Logan talks about his idea of 'the sixth language,' which was the foundation for his book, The Sixth Language: Learning a Living in the Internet Age. The professor and author explain that the six languages are comprised of the following: speech, writing, math, science, computing, and the internet. He talks about how each developed and emerged, as well as their relative impacts on society and culture. Logan discusses a possible seventh language, which as he states could be 'social media,' 'artificial intelligence,' or maybe the smartphones we use daily that have irrevocably changed how we interact with each other as human beings. As Logan states, human intelligence is not merely the possession of information, but it's about our curiosity, our interest in knowing and understanding.

Leah Segedie, author of Green Enough: Eat Better, Live Cleaner, Be Happier (All Without Driving Your Family Crazy!), delivers a wealth of important information that we can all use to make smarter choices and lead healthier lives. Leah Segedie is a passionate food activist and social media consultant. She is the founder of the Mamavation® community as well as the ShiftCon Social Media Conference. Segedie talks about her background and how she has always had an interest in being an activist. She talks about her father's death from cancer and how that impacted her. Segedie talks in-depth about foods and products, with a special focus on 'indirect additives. Indirect additives actually become part of some foods, in miniscule amounts, throughout the processing and packaging of a particular food item. She discusses how these potentially harmful elements are ubiquitous in many food products on our grocer's shelves. Segedie talks about the potential for harm, and poses the question: how many of these hormone-disrupting chemicals can we build up in our bodies before they start to have a seriously detrimental effect, and begin to disrupt our entire system? Segedie talks about marketing and how women think. She explains why some advertising works for women and why much of it doesn't. As she states, women want to be heard, respected, and valued, and if product makers listen to women's input, then their brand will be championed by women. The food activist gives her thoughts on how society can move forward, and make better choices for food, products, etc. As she states, big companies are now acquiring many smaller companies, as people have begun to be more aware of health issues. As more and more people begin to make smarter choices regarding healthy products, naturally big companies will take note when they see a decrease in their market share. And this is the best way to make change happen, and ultimately get big corporations to manufacture better, healthier, less harmful products. Segedie is extremely passionate, and she works tirelessly to help shape products and policy, striving to create a toxin-free world for us all.

In Greek mythology, the Pierian Spring was a sacred source of knowledge believed to inspire those who drank from it. Driven to create a similar collective source of information in the quickly evolving field of precision medicine, Dr. Rakesh Nagarajan and his team at PierianDx have integrated technology, content, and human medical expertise to help provide insights for the treatment and management of complex medical conditions. Click play to learn more about PierianDx's unique software and hear examples of how sequencing is already being used to help some conditions. PierianDx works with some of the most advanced cancer centers, medical centers, laboratories, and health systems; visit PierianDx.com to learn more.

Quinn Burlingame, Ph.D., is an organic photovoltaic researcher and postdoctoral fellow in chemical sciences with the Loo Group at Princeton University. He joins us today to discuss recent advances in technology for organic semiconductors and solar cells. While the use of carbon and hydrocarbon-based materials for organic solar electricity is still a research-based technology, Burlingame reports that they are seeing rapid improvements in its efficiency and anticipates that it will soon be comparable with the more traditional silicon-based solar cells. Furthermore, the ability to make organic solar cells lightweight, flexible, and even transparent will open access to niches that aren't possible for silicon, such as use in windows. Click play to hear more. Visit Burlingame's Twitter page @QuinnBurlingame and be sure to check out Andluca Technologies at https://andluca.com.

David Edelman, Ph.D., is a visiting scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College and former lecturer at the Department of Psychology University of California, San Diego. In this episode, Edelman gives us a peek into his research on the consciousness of non-human animals. Edelman's primary interest is visual perception and cognition in octopuses. Listen in to learn about some of the octopus' sophisticated behavioral adaptations and find out why Edelman considers it a profoundly wonderful model organism for his research. For more information, Edelman encourages you to keep up with his work and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth: https://pbs.dartmouth.edu.

In this episode, we hear from John Harte, Ph.D. and professor at University of California, Berkeley. Harte has studied the effects of climate change on our lives and our ecosystems in various habitats around the world. The science states quite clearly and unambiguously that the planet is warming at an unprecedented rate, and that these changes are due to human activity. Additionally, Harte describes a feedback effect in which the ecosystem responds to these changes in a way that actually exacerbates the problem. Climate change threatens all of life on earth, yet denialists and political pressures are impeding our transition to more sustainable ways of living. Click play to hear Harte discuss global warming, the biggest culprits, and specific ways we can help reduce our impact. To learn more, go to https://hartelab.weebly.com.