Finding Genius Podcast

"Existing solutions like supervised machine learning are very reactive to what the attacker is currently doing, so there's always a cat and mouse game; the unsupervised machine learning that we are building….doesn't have existing assumptions of what the fraud looks like, and that itself is actually more robust in terms of detection," says Fang Yu, CTO and co-founder of DataVisor, a company whose mission is to protect large social and financial institutions from the increasing number of sophisticated cyber-attacks. When the nature of cyber-attacks can literally change on an hourly basis, the technology which relies upon the characteristics of past fraudulent behavior is insufficient. DataVisor's technology mitigates this problem by reviewing billions of accounts and identifying patterns of fraudulent behavior. Yu offers a detailed and informative conversation about DataVisor's services, which are currently protecting over four billion user accounts globally. She also discusses the advanced techniques used by fraudsters, the importance of early fraud detection, and an upcoming enterprise version of their technology which will allow clients to adjust the models themselves and have more leverage over the algorithms. Tune in, learn more by visiting datavisor.com, and email your questions to info@datavisors.com.

Ron Spence, MBA, noted research scientist, and Barbara Turner, celebrated holistic health coach and author, discuss the amazing quantum energy mobile app that is impacting lives and creating a swirl of excitement due to its incredible potential. Turner discusses her broad background in nutrition and health, including her early writing of e-books that dealt with health issues that her personal family members or friends had experienced. Upon discovering a particular email that gave an overview of an energy biofeedback app, she became intrigued to dig deeper into the nexus of health, and app technology. She outlines the Limbic Arc, touted as one of "the world's first quantum-energy wellness products managed with the click of an app." Turner gives an overview of how users subscribe and access the Limbic Arc that gives them access to 150 unique, quantum-energy wellness products, including valuable training from leaders within the Limbic Arc system. The 15-year-old parent company that is the source of origin of Limbic Arc works with literally thousands of physicians and healthcare professionals around the world and seeks to take this groundbreaking new technology to the public for the first time ever. Spence, who is a master affiliate at Limbic Arc, elaborates on how their technology offering is centered on quantum theory. He recounts some previous remarks by Tesla that speak about a non-physical phenomenon, and underscore the value of Limbic Arc. Spence explains the origination of Limbic Arc by Dr. Vaughn Cook and his early experiences with the platform. He talks about the ear-ringing (tinnitus) problem that he has had for many years, and how the Limbic Arc platform helped him to access energy that eliminated the problem almost immediately. Spence details the biochemical exchange and how information energy exists at the subatomic level. He gives an analysis of his theory about cellular receptors as they relate to disease and illness, and explains the many problems with blockages within the body, sometimes brought on by toxins and other agents that block micronutrients. The Limbic Arc has two major parts: a library of valuable information fields that exist in the internet cloud—logarithmic expressions assigned a link with items in the physical world as done by a specialized, proprietary system; and the other part is the app in which users can access and then manage their unique library of Limbic Arc products, called InfoBoosts. The energy expert, Spence, details how the quantum field works, and the specifics of the limbic system. He states that many of our problems are related to a deficiency in something. He details the importance of breaking blockages and how the app can immediately connect users to energy that can sometimes provide dramatic changes in their lives. Ultimately, Spence states, there are many things that live in our subconscious mind that can be very beneficial to our lives and well-being if we learn how to harvest them.

Azizi A. Seixas, Ph.D., assistant professor at NYU School of Medicine, in the Department of Population Health and the Center for Healthful Behavior Change, provides an interesting overview of the power of sleep, and the problems we could face when sleep is low quality or we simply don't get enough. Dr. Seixas has devoted his career to understanding and addressing the sociocultural and environmental determinants of chronic diseases. Dr. Seixas received an MA from Fordham University and was an advanced doctoral candidate in clinical psychology there. Additionally he received an MS in clinical psychology from The University of Dallas, and a BA​ ​in philosophy and premed studies from College of the Holy Cross. Dr. Seixas discusses the four behaviors that he considers the pillars of health: physical activity, diet, stress management, and sleep. He states that of the four, sleep has been shown to be implicated in cardiovascular disease, metabolic health conditions, brain health, daily function, and overall quality of life. Dr. Seixas' research focuses on three areas: multilevel determinants of sleep and cardiovascular disease disparities; the long-term health results of cardiovascular disease (CVD) disparities; and developing adaptive, group-tailored, specific and personalized behavior modification interventions, incorporating machine learning analytical tools, to improve overall health and general well being. Dr. Seixas addresses the important sociocultural and environmental determinants of various chronic diseases and behaviors, that often prevent access to basic care in certain disadvantaged communities that are burdened by adverse cardiovascular outcomes in a disproportionate manner. Dr. Seixas' work looks at the barriers that hinder diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders within racial/ethnic minorities and seeks to evaluate the efficacy of behavioral models targeted at improving a commitment to sleep and CVD recommended types of therapies. Dr. Seixas talks about the ways they reach out to the community, by literally going to retail community shops, such as barbershops and hair salons, to talk to people and work with them. He discusses the sleep education and social support that they offer to at-risk individuals. By introducing a home-based sleep study, and allowing people to avoid going to a clinic for the study they have found a way to offer more significant help to communities, targeting at-risk individuals, testing them, and helping put them on a path toward better health. Dr. Seixas was awarded a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) career award to research as to whether inadequate sleep and/or obesity could possibly explain a notable proportion of CVD risk disparity between blacks and whites, through secondary data analysis of the Sleep Heart Health Study. Dr. Seixas details how simply getting more quality sleep can affect so many areas in our lives, from sex drive to mood, functioning to mental clarity, and so many other serious health issues. In addition to his work that focuses on population health insights, he is also working on developing precise and personalized behavioral medicine solutions that use artificial intelligence to optimize behavior change and adherence to pro-health behaviors.

Shivam Bhalla, CEO, and Amedeo Lattari, COO, of Troolr (troolr.com), provide an overview of their new platform that is helping users and service providers connect to get jobs done. The Troolr founders discuss their vision for making every task efficient and easy, no matter where you are or what you need to get done. Troolr delivers convenience and efficiency. With Troolr, users can easily find reliable local professionals and compare them based on reviews and overall experience. And Troolr makes it simple to communicate directly with the professional you need, without a laundry list of-of questions. You find, connect, and then meet up with the professional of your choosing and get your job completed. The CEO and COO talk about their platform and the services that many of their providers deliver. Troolr is open to most types of services, in a peer-to-peer based platform, from blue collar to white collar services. Essentially, if there is a demand, Troolr seeks to provide for that by bringing many quality service providers into their extensive network. They talk about the ways in which prospective users can review potential candidates for the job—from reviewing their work history, educational background, social media, reviews, etc., and of course, there's a photo of the service provider so you know who you're dealing with. And with thousands upon thousands of businesses already inhabiting their great new platform, information is valuable to help users select the perfect person or team for the job. Bhalla and Lattari explain the volume of data that they gather that helps users to understand which service providers are being chosen. They state that the local services industry is part of a $400 billion dollar market, and yet it is completely fragmented. And while the market already does have several viable gig-oriented platforms, such as the well known, Angie's List, Bhalla and Lattari have found through their extensive prelaunch research that there is still plenty of room for newer platforms like Troolr to thrive in the market. The founders detail the two major types of users that come to their platform seeking service providers. First, there is the browser, a user who likes to browse the providers online, find who they are seeking, and connect directly. The other type of user prefers to create a call to action, to post their job and have service providers reach out to them. They talk about the detailed profiles that service providers can post on Troolr, and how that offers more value to the user in a qualitative manner. And as they gather more data, eventually they will be making recommendations on their platform about industry standard rates, which will help to ensure that service providers are paid a respectable industry standard rate for their skill and experience. Bhalla and Lattari discuss their growth plans for the future. They expect to soon release an on-demand system. For example, if you need someone immediately, for plumbing or other need, the platform will provide information on those who are available right now, not tomorrow. Because when you need it now, you need it now.

Alberto Savoia, innovation expert, disrupter, and author of, The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail, and How to Make Yours Succeed, delivers a lively analysis of the many ways businesses fail, and succeed. Savoia is a seasoned tech expert and business consultant who is in high demand at conferences and events. He is a lecturer and innovation consultant at Stanford University and was a key player at Google in the highly sought-after position of innovation agitator. During Savoia's early career as an engineer and eventually as an engineering executive and CTO he worked for innovation giants such as Sun Microsystems, SunLabs, and Google. Joining Sun Microsystems and Google as well back when they were just start-ups, Savoia's knowledge and leadership was instrumental in both companies' steady climb to success. Perhaps it can be said that Savoia's biggest asset is his ability to help businesses stimulate and foster groundbreaking innovation that yields high-impact product development. Savoia talks about his background, starting with early success in the video game space that led to his tenure at Sun Microsystems and eventually Google. He discusses his start-ups and some of his successes and failures. And it was his first failure that inspired him to eventually write his popular business book, The Right It. After suffering a failed start-up Savoia returned to Google, but was still motivated to dig deeper, to help others understand their businesses and succeed in the market. Savoia details how he studied failure, talking to anyone and everyone who would discuss their business failures. From hard data to personal interviews, he amassed a wealth of information that led him to some clear observations about business success and failure. One primary point Savoia nailed down was that most business failures are not because of problems with personnel or execution, but because the company has launched the wrong product. It's simply the wrong idea. Savoia states that you want to be sure you are building the right it, before you build it right. Savoia gives a detailed analysis of how company owners and entrepreneurs can find their way in a crowded marketplace, and get an understanding of how their product might fair in the market—in the future—before they get there in terms of development and manufacturing. Savoia cites multiple examples of companies' successes and failures. He outlines the concept of pretotyping, which is ultra-rapid prototyping, essentially a way of envisioning your product before it is developed and built. The technology expert provides examples of the many ways that companies can collect data. He delivers an interesting overview of his theories through an example of McDonalds, if they were to introduce a new product, such as spaghetti. He explains that a good way for McDonalds to pretotype is to simply put it on the menu, before it exists. When customers order it, they get a free lunch—no spaghetti, but everyone wins. McDonalds collects valuable data up front before investing in their spaghetti product, and the customer gets a free lunch. Savoia states, if there's a market, there is a way. Thus it is important to find out what the market wants. Savoia cites examples of companies that spent fortunes up front but then failed. Savoia stresses that you must have the right idea, of course, but the timing of delivery of a product is also critical. It's important to remember that you can fall in love with your idea and be blinded by that, ignoring the negative data, and heading full speed toward potential failure at launch. And finally, Savoia explains that he practices what he preaches for he actually pretotyped his book before writing the full version. And seeing his shortened version of the book takes off, he then knew that he needed to launch it fully. Savoia is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing him as a true pioneer in the area of business innovation, such as: Wall Street Journal Technical Innovator Award (2005), InfoWorld Top 25 CTOs Award (2005), Software Development Magazine Jolt Award (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008), InfoWorld's Technology of the Year Award (2005, 2006), JavaOne Duke Award for Technical Excellence (2005), and many more.

Beth Zupec-Kania, RDN, CD, noted ketogenic diet and nutrition expert, lecturer, and top consultant for The Charlie Foundation, provides extensive information on good nutrition and how the ketogenic diet helps fight certain diseases. Nutrition expert, Beth Zupec-Kania, is a registered and certified dietitian and nutritionist. She has amassed over 25 years of experience as a consultant and coach for medical professionals, patients, and individuals, on the power of nutritional ketosis for combatting select neurological disorders, and certain types of cancers and metabolic-based health problems. Zupec-Kania has been associated with The Charlie Foundation for many years where she continues to spread the word on the power of nutrition and keto for everyone. Her impressive resume, global reputation, and research in the field are but three of the many reasons why over 250 medical centers have attended her seminars and workshops for medical professionals at The Charlie Foundation. Zupec-Kania's primary work is promoting ketogenic diet therapy as a means to help children with inherited metabolic disorders. Additionally, she seeks to offer solutions and nutritional assistance for anyone who is required to exist on a blenderized diet, which is a diet of foods and liquids that are thinned in a blender for those with special conditions. Zupec-Kania works with her patients to make a personalized plan that is tailored to their specific nutritional and medical needs. The nutrition guru recounts her motivation for devoting her life to nutrition and health. Zupec-Kania's father was a cancer patient and she witnessed the harsh chemo and radiation sessions that her father endured that seemingly offered little or no help at all in regard to his condition. Motivated to help others and find a better way, at college prep school she declared her area of study as nutrition and her journey began. Zupec-Kania discusses the ketogenic diet's rise at the Mayo Clinic, first introduced as a method for treating epilepsy patients. Zupec-Kania states that keto was also being studied at about the same time in Germany, as a treatment for cancer. And after many years, the medical community is now beginning to accept keto as a means of treating select types of cancer. Zupec-Kania outlines the various beneficial mechanisms of a ketogenic diet. She discusses cancer and states that it is an inflammatory process. As the ketogenic diet has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect it is a good option for people with certain types of cancers. She explains how glucose feeds tumor cells and how a ketogenic diet can help to cut off cancer cells' energy supply. Zupec-Kania remembers patients with whom she has worked and recounts stories of those who saw improvement after beginning, and sticking with, their ketogenic diet. She states that while the power of keto is obvious, unfortunately, many doctors and healthcare professionals are still not aware of the benefits it may provide to their patients. Zupec-Kania outlines her process, as she works with patients to devise a tailored strategy for their degree of ketosis, which takes into account all their medical factors, goals, and general issues. She provides detailed information about exogenous ketones and benefits they may provide to some individuals. And Zupec-Kania explains medium-chain fats that are ketotic producing, such as coconut oil and MCT oil, etc. Zupec-Kania discusses cancer patients who have experienced dramatic improvements, sometimes even putting their cancer into remission. Results are varied, of course, but most patients express, at minimum, feeling better overall when on a ketogenic diet. Zupec-Kania stresses the importance of starting early, however, and not waiting, for an early start to a ketogenic diet can sometimes have a profound impact on certain diseases and conditions.

Dr. Xi (Charlie) Ren, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, delivers a detailed overview of his lab's mission to provide regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs. Xi Ren focused on developmental biology during his graduate study, specifically, vascular and hematopoietic systems. He later joined the Laboratory for Organ Engineering and Regeneration at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Xi Ren was named Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 2016. During his tenure, he developed systematic strategies for engineering functional vasculature based on decellularized organ scaffolds. Xi Ren became a member of the faculty at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017. Xi Ren earned a BS in biological science, as well as a Ph.D. in cell biology from the prestigious and highly ranked, Peking University in China. Xi Ren discusses his work at the Ren Lab, specifically the interface of biomaterial and stem cell engineering with a primary objective to successfully provide regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs. The Ren Lab's other prime areas of interest in exploration and research are vascular engineering, extracellular matrix engineering, cardiopulmonary engineering, and whole organ decellularization and regeneration. The Ren Lab is working to develop biologically selective and chemoselective approaches enabling extracellular matrix modulation and functionalization to stimulate injury repair in vivo and whole-organ bioengineering in vitro. Xi Ren talks about the shortage of lungs and livers and how his lab is working on ways to bioengineer lungs and livers with very similar structure and composition to their native counterparts, for transplantation. He discusses the details of organ structure and the difficulty of developing biomedically-engineered models of native organs. The biomedical engineering expert talks about the limitations in his area of research and the importance of gathering excellent cells for lung reconstruction. And while stem cell biology is progressing, limitations still exist. He details the ways cells are used in regard to regeneration, discussing scaffolding, functionality, phenotypes, etc., and other issues. Xi Ren discusses bringing different cell types together to do a single job, to make a good functional organ, and the importance of organization in the process of organ regeneration. He details the methods utilized to work with purified cells and maintain them, and how it is possible to work with multiple cells within a specific organ. Xi Ren talks about vasculature regarding transplantations, and how many organs' key function is in their interaction with blood. He discusses the various vasculatures of multiple organs and their distinct characteristics that play a role in functioning. Further, Xi Ren expounds upon some areas of research he expects to see expand in the future. The vascular network permeates literally every tissue and organ, and displays unique structures and properties to meet organ-specific functions as well as physiology. The Ren Lab's research seeks to understand the molecule profiles behind organ-specific vascular phenotypes with the ultimate goal of engineering organ-specific vasculature.

Just around the corner is the publication of Exosomes in Health and Disease, an enormous compilation of data on exosomes and their role in almost every disease you can imagine. What's an exosome, you might ask? At just a fraction of the size of even the smallest bacteria, exosomes are tiny vesicles communicating with and carrying information to cells anywhere in the body. We've known about them for decades, but a recent discovery holds huge implications for our understanding of epigenetics, epigenetic inheritance, and the causes of diseases. Denis Noble, physiologist, researcher, and former Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford joins the podcast today to offer a fascinating conversation about the presence of epigenetic data within exosomes, their ability to control the genome of other cells by simply communicating with them, and the profile components that could indicate cancer or a particular disease state. He also discusses the techniques used to extract such small vesicles from blood plasma and the challenges that this process has brought about, the transmission of epigenetic information by exosomes through the germline, symbiogenesis, and more. Tune in for all the details.

"It all stems back to my Fit2Fat2Fit journey, where I learned just how wrong I was with my approach to trying to transform people; I could give someone the best meal plans, I could give them the best workouts, I could give them the best hacks to optimize their brain and their body from a physical perspective, but none of that matters unless a person knows to how to overcome their own mental and emotional challenges…so that's what I hope to bring to the fitness industry," says Drew Manning, who simply couldn't understand why it was so difficult for his clients to stick to a meal and exercise plan in order to lose weight and get fit. What did he do? He decided to truly "walk the walk": he quit working out and indulged an unrestricted typical American diet filled with processed foods for six months, gained 75 pounds, and saw his health rapidly decline before working his way back to being fit and healthy. What he learned along the way is that the aspects of mental and emotional health are largely overlooked in the health and fitness industry, but absolutely essential to becoming healthy and fit. Drew Manning will be speaking on this topic at the 2019 Metabolic Health Summit slated for January 31-February 3, and his latest book, Complete Keto, will be released on February 12th. It's a compilation of the latest and greatest keto research and contains a 30-day program that relies heavily on lessons from his Fit2Fat2Fit journey. It's available now for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Tune in for the full conversation and check out fit2fat2fit.com for more.

As a board-certified family nurse practitioner working in a sleep medicine clinic, Ellen Wermter has seen a wide variety of sleep disorders, including severe cases of sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome. She joins the podcast to discuss what she sees from this unique perspective—one that isn't often portrayed at all or portrayed correctly in the media. For example, she explains that narcolepsy is not only underrecognized but also misunderstood by many people; contrary to popular belief, the main presentation of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness—not unexpected episodes of falling to the ground and entering a deep sleep. Wermter discusses how "excessive daytime sleepiness" is defined and identified clinically, the causes of narcolepsy—which are likely both genetic and environmental in nature—and one of the newest types of treatment for narcolepsy, which is not yet FDA-approved, but can be used in the US through a program called PEACE since it's been shown to be successful in Europe. She also discusses sleep paralysis and cataplexy, which happen when the REM stage of sleep intrudes on the waking hours, one of the lesser common symptoms of sleep apnea, and how sleep studies work—despite the challenges. Tune in for the full conversation, and find resources by visiting the Narcolepsy Network, Project Sleep, the National Sleep Foundation, and local support groups.