Finding Genius Podcast

"The first thing to do is to break down those basic myths of… 'At some point I will be happy to die'…It's not in line with an organism's survival to think that way, so we project it off into the future, and that's how we create this illusion of strength and being satisfied with that…what I would rather be satisfied with is…people testing technologies and deciding to take a risk today to make the world a better place tomorrow," says Elizabeth Parrish, and testing technologies and taking risks today for the possibility of a better tomorrow is exactly what Parrish does in her role as CEO of BioViva Science. At BioViva, the mission is to utilize gene therapy as a new tool in regenerative medicine, with the ultimate goal of genetically modifying humans to live healthier, stronger, and longer lives. She explains the process and hallmarks of ageing, how gene therapy functions as a valuable new tool in regenerative medicine by upregulating a human gene that makes cells function and look like young cells, the type of bioinformatic work they're doing on a daily basis to make these things a reality, the use of telomerase inducers and myostatin inhibitors, and the difficulties and technicalities of developing these biotechnologies. Learn more at https://bioviva-science.com/.

NVIDIA Clara is a platform that's changing diagnostic imaging for the better by capturing higher-quality images and automatically identifying critical pieces of information, such as by identifying evidence of hemorrhage, measuring the anatomical parts relating to a patient's clinical signs, or calculating the amount of blood being pumped by a patient's heart. This is made possible by graphics processing unit (GPU) circuits and AI, which together are becoming extremely useful tools for radiologists, and ultimately allowing for more accurate, faster, and preventative patient care. For example, when an AI-powered instrument is able to automatically identify which images from thousands indicate a bleed in the brain, it can automatically prioritize that study in the radiologist's work list so that the radiologist knows which images need immediate attention. In this way, the technology being offered by the Clara platform is potentially life-saving. Head of healthcare at NVIDIA, Abdul Hamid Halabi, joins the podcast to discuss all the details of this technology, its implementation in clinical medicine, the potential it holds, and what's on the horizon. Tune in for all the details, and visit https://developer.nvidia.com/clara to learn more.

"Not everyone with the disease of addiction is able to access treatment…being a physician, that was very hard for me to digest, and the result is that we see so many preventable overdose deaths…I would like that to change, and I think reducing the stigma associated with the disease of addiction and moving more treatment to an outpatient setting will greatly increase access to care," says Dr. Indra Cidambi. With this vision, she founded the Center for Network Therapy, New Jersey's first state-licensed outpatient detoxification facility. Dr. Cidambi explains that in contrast to the traditional model of inpatient care, which many insurance policies will not cover, an outpatient detoxification program will allow more patients to obtain care without the consequences of inpatient care, such as the required isolation from friends and family members, and having to take time away from work. In addition, outpatient care allows patients to recover from addiction in their normal environment, encouraging them to integrate what they learn into their daily lives. Approximately 65% of Dr. Cidambi's patients remain sober after 90 days, and the same can only be said for about 40% of patients who undergo inpatient treatment. Tune in for an interesting discussion about how exactly outpatient detoxification works, the four key components of Dr. Cidambi's program, and so much more. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9

Ever since he was a medical school student, Dr. Barry Fields knew where his interests rested: in improving and extending people's quality of life and caring for them on a long-term basis. He quickly realized that sleep medicine would allow him to do just that, and just as quickly realized that the patient to provider ratio was high, with many patients being geographically limited in their ability to seek help from sleep center-based specialists. This is what led him to become a leader in sleep telemedicine working for the Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University. Dr. Fields is a wealth of knowledge in the field of sleep medicine, discussing how sleep telemedicine works and what type of patient is best served by it, environmental and genetic causes of sleep apnea, the short and long-term consequences of untreated sleep apnea, the differences between obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea, and novel treatments for sleep apnea, including a hypoglossal nerve stimulator, a phrenic nerve stimulator, drug-based therapies, and the potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate the identification of patients with sleep apnea and deliver treatment modalities that best suit their data profiles. Tune in for all the details and to learn how to contact a sleep telemedicine specialist for yourself.

Dr. Thaddeus Gala, Founder, and CEO of Complete Care delivers a riveting overview of his work in integrative medicine. Dr. Gala is a skilled chiropractor who has given many of his career years to the goal of improving health and wellness for all. He is a sought-after lecturer on multiple topics related to wellness, including general nutrition, weight loss, management of diabetes, and more. Dr. Gala's research has been published nationally and he is the successful author of notable publications such as the popular, "The Secret to Defy Disease and Decay," cookbooks, and other works. Dr. Gala talks about the events that motivated him to become passionate about wellness and natural medicine. As Dr. Gala recounts, his mother faced a serious illness that doctors had trouble explaining, but one that put her into a wheelchair. Frustrated by the fact that doctor after a doctor offered little to no help to improve his mother's condition, Dr. Gala devoted his life to find better solutions for people suffering from chronic diseases, to help them naturally reverse their diseases without the use of drugs or surgery. Dr. Gala talks about his integrative medical clinics and his desire to be actively involved in his patients' care. The natural medicine expert delves into the topic of inflammation and he explains how it happens. He explains how inflammation is the body's natural response to something it considers to be an injurious type stimulus. He details multiple examples and outlines the body's processes. He talks about the many nutritional problems people suffer from and goes into detail about the choices we make that impact our overall health. Dr. Gala is a strong supporter of lifestyle changes as a means to reverse disease. His philosophy is based in the whole person approach, one that proposes we should be investigating the deeper underlying causes of body disturbances to root them out and make lifestyle adjustments that will help push the body back to a healthy state and normalize body function.

Early on in Terry Cralle's career as a registered nurse, she found herself working in clinical research on insomnia, but it wasn't until one of the sleep doctors she was working with invited her to his sleep lab to gain a deeper understanding of what it's like to test people for a variety of sleep disorders that she made a realization which prompted an abrupt change of direction into a career in sleep medicine. "I've been in sleep medicine for 22 years now, and we used to say that sleep was one of the three pillars of health and wellness, along with diet and exercise, and now we don't say that because we've learned that sleep is actually the foundation of health and wellness, and exercise and nutrition and diet are completely contingent on sleep," says Cralle, who in addition to an RN is a Certified Clinical Sleep Educator. She joins the podcast today to discuss what it's like to play an integral part in patients' experiences in sleep labs, the most common misconceptions and complaints people have about sleep trials, the impact of sleep on physical and mental health, the parallel epidemics of sleep deprivation and obesity, how social perceptions and pressures have linked the need for sleep with characteristics such as weakness, laziness, and a lack of work ethic, and the range of sleep disorders they test for, which includes narcolepsy, periodic limb movement disorder, REM behavior disorder, and restless leg syndrome. Learn more about Terry Cralle's work by visiting http://www.terrycralle.com/.

Kevin Puylaert is general manager of North American operations and VP of business development at SOPHiA GENETICS, a company that's offering software as a service platform for the democratization of data-driven medicine. They have already connected nearly 1,000 institutions that are sharing genomic profiles across the platform, which means any given institution that's analyzing a genetic profile can easily determine how it compares to another institution's analysis of that profile somewhere else in the world. To date, they've looked at over 300,000 profiles, and they see about 15,000 more profiles analyzed through the platform on a monthly basis. Puylaert joins the podcast to discuss how their platform sifts through the noise often found in genetic data and standardizes the way data is generated in order to allow researchers from a variety of places to make comparisons. He explains the type of research they're helping to advance, which includes determining whether certain genes are associated with cancer, procuring prognostic information based on a variety of DNA and RNA samples, and recommending certain treatments for patients. He also discusses the other types of work they're doing to get closer to a system of data-driven medicine. Tune in to hear the full conversation and visit https://www.sophiagenetics.com/en_US/home.html to learn more.

The rate of technological advancement seems ever-increasing; not long ago, we didn't even have cell phones, but now everyone has the equivalent of a tiny computer in their pocket with artificial intelligence-powered apps and the ability to complete transactions in a completely digital and automated fashion—transactions that used to require the work of a human. We're entering an age where driverless cars, robotic surgery, and automation in a number of fields no longer belong in the category of science fiction, but science reality. These advancements are met with excitement by many and uncertainty by many others, especially in terms of the future of jobs in the United States. Will all of our jobs be replaced by computers? What effect will automation have on our societies and livelihoods? As a senior policy analyst for the National Governors Association (NGA), Mike Bartlett is focusing on post-secondary education and workforce development amidst this changing landscape, and preparing for the future of work is at the top of his list. He joins the podcast not to incite fear of imminent mass job loss—in fact he will put your mind at ease by explaining why that's not necessarily going to happen—but to explain the reasonable changes likely to occur and the steps necessary in order to prepare and help people adapt to an imminently changing work environment. Tune in to learn how the NGA is helping all 55 governors of the states and territories in every policy area, what Bartlett sees as the three biggest trends in automation, examples of how other countries have dealt with similar changes in the workplace, how to address the challenges of rural communities and ensure that residents have what they need, the Good Jobs for All Americans initiative, and so much more. Visit www.nga.org and https://www.nga.org/goodjobs/ to learn more.

Jessica Lovering, Director of Energy at The Breakthrough Institute, delivers an interesting overview of the current state of energy production, considering the advantages of nuclear power. As Director of Breakthrough's Energy program, Lovering has contributed to significant research considering new innovative avenues in nuclear energy that could reduce costs and increase efficiency, while helping to alleviate climate change. For over a year, the groundbreaking, peer-reviewed paper entitled, Historical Construction Costs Of Global Nuclear Power Reactors, which Lovering was the lead on, was hailed as the top paper in the field of energy policy. Additionally, Lovering authored and co-authored an assortment of other significant policy papers such as Atoms for Africa: Is There a Future for Civil Nuclear Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa? as well as many others on energy innovation and clean energy. Lovering has been featured in many outstanding news outlets and papers, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, Forbes, Wired, and others. Lovering talks about her background and explains how it was a concern about climate change that motivated her to focus on nuclear energy. Coming out of a master's program in environmental policy, Lovering knew that energy was the principal driver behind greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear offered a way to provide a significant amount of power with less plant construction than other forms of power. Lovering discusses the energy generation output of nuclear plants versus coal plants, natural gas, solar, and wind. Lovering recounts how she was impressed that nuclear accounted for approximately 20% of US power production and its carbon footprint was low as well. The nuclear expert talks about safety and transparency in nuclear power management today. She explains that there are many safety features that make the future of nuclear even more appealing. She discusses small, modular reactors that are cheaper, and faster to build. She explains that these smaller reactors can rely on natural convective cooling if an accident were to occur, which provides additional safety in a worst-case scenario. Lovering explains various reactor designs and how they work in regard to energy production. And she explains how each rate in regard to sustainability and safety. She delves into the benefits of efficiently utilizing the fuel. And she discusses how some of the newer reactor designs will be coming to the market in the near future. Lovering is a sought-after guest speaker in energy circles and for conferences and events globally. Lovering's expertise in the nuclear energy field has created a demand and she is happy to share all that she has learned in an effort to educate the public and improve nuclear energy.

If you're an entrepreneur in today's world looking to raise capital for a blockchain-based startup, your options are going to be limited by the traditional capital formation process. This traditional system is structured in such a way as to capitalize on technology that's being leveraged on legacy systems—systems that existed prior to the rise of blockchain and distributed ledger technology. "With where technology is today and with the market demands that are needed, we need to be more creative and innovative about the capital formation process," says Syed Hussain, CEO of Liquidity Digital, a startup that aims to introduce new ways of making funds available for the creation of assets within previously underserved markets, including blockchain technology. By automating every aspect of the regulatory process (e.g. know your customer (KYC), due diligence, anti-money laundering (AML), accredited investor checks), structuring deals and issuance securities, creating smart contracts pre and post-issuance, and dealing with tax compliance issues, dividend distributions, on-boarding, transfers, and more, Liquidity Digital is an integral part of the entire life cycle of a startup, connecting the right issuers with the right quality investors on a global scale, and they're doing it in a much more economically efficient way than traditional methods. Hussain joins the podcast to discuss a bit about his personal background, the creation, and development of Liquidity Digital, the details of how it all works, and their future plans. Tune in and learn more by visiting https://liquidity.digital/.