Claim OwnershipMind & Matter
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© 2024 Nick Jikomes
Description
Whether food, drugs or ideas, what you consume influences who you become. Learn directly from the best scientists & thinkers alive today about how your mind-body reacts to what you feed it.
The weekly M&M podcast features conversations with the most interesting scientists, thinkers, and technology entrepreneurs alive today.
Not medical advice.
At M&M, we are interested in trying to figure out how things work, not affirming our existing beliefs. We prefer consulting primary rather than secondary sources and independent rather than institutional voices. If we encounter uncomfortable truths or the evidence suggests unfashionable ideas may be valid, so be it.
As the host, my aim is to help you better understand how the body & mind work by curating & synthesizing information in a way that yields science-based insights that you can choose to use or disregard in your own life. Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
I am motivated to connect the dots and distill general principles from what I learn, preferring to ask questions and play devil’s advocate to debating or incessantly pushing my own viewpoint.
My beliefs:
- Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
- All knowledge is provisional and we must work hard to prevent ourselves from becoming attached to our favorite ideas & preferred conclusions.
- Wisdom comes from an iterative, trial-and-error process of learning and unlearning. Letting go of pre-conceived notions can be painful, but pain is information.
Sometimes modern discoveries teach us we must unlearn received wisdom. Other times, modern information overload & historical chauvinism cause us to forget ancient wisdom which stills applies. The framework for learning that I embody is inspired by three Ancient Greek maxims inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi:
- “Γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (Know thyself)
- “Μηδὲν ἄγαν” (Nothing in excess)
- “Ἐγγύα πάρα δ Ἄτα” (Certainty brings insanity)
204 Episodes
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Send us a textPodcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.About the guest: Alex Wiltschko, PhD is the founder and CEO of Osmo, a startup using AI, neuroscience, and chemistry to digitize the sense of smell.Episode summary: Nick talks to Dr. Wiltschko about: the sense of smell & olfactory perception; aroma and why certain molecules are smelled but not others; how the brain encodes odors; using AI ...
1Send us a textPodcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.About the guest: Tim Yeatman, MD is a Professor at the University of South Florida and ACD for Translational Research and Innovation at the Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute. Ganesh Halade, PhD is an Associate Professor at the USF Health Heart Institute.Episode summary: Nick talks to Dr. Yeatman & Dr. Halade about: cancer & wound...
Send us a textPodcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.About the guest: Ben Potter, PhD is an archaeologist & Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. James Chatter, PhD is a retired archaeologist and paleontologist. They recently published a paper on the diet of the Clovis people of North America at the end of the last Ice Age.Episode summary: Nick talks to Dr. Potter ...
Send us a textPodcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and full video versions are free on YouTube. This episode will not be posted on YouTube due to the controversial nature of the content.About the guest: Jessica Rose, PhD is a computational biologist who has been studying and analyzing data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Responding System (VAERS) related to COVID. Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Rose discuss: Vaccine Adverse Event Responding Syste...
Send us a textFull episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and free on YouTube. This is a free, partial version.About the guest: Andrew Cutler, PhD is a machine learning engineer who has studied natural language processing, psychometrics & personality using quantitative methods. He writes about the origins of consciousness on his Substack, "Vectors of Mind"Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Cutler discuss: language & recursion; human evolution & the origins o...
Send us a textFull episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and free on YouTube. This is a free, partial version.About the guest: Rosemary Bagot, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at McGill University and the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neurogenomics. Her lab studies the neurobiology of stress at the molecular, circuit, and behavioral levels.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Bagot discuss the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) Axis,...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Jibran Khokhar, PhD is Associate Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology at Western University in Ontario. His lab studies the neurobiology of the co-occurrence of psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia with substance use disorders.Episode summary: Nick and Kevin discuss high comorbidity among mental illness, the dopamine reward system, antipsychotics & other psychiatric drugs; the relationship between THC (marijuana) and psychosis; sex differences in the ...
Send us a textFull episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and free on YouTube. This is a free, partial version.About the guest: Kevin McKernan is the founder and Chief Science Officer of Medicinal Genomics. He has worked in biotechnology since the early 1990s, when he was involved in the Human Genome Project.Episode summary: Nick and Kevin discuss: components of the COVID vaccines, including modified mRNA & lipid nanoparticles; DNA contamination in COVID vaccin...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Andrzej Slominski, MD, PhD is a dermapathologist and skin biologist who has spent decades studying skin biology, especially regarding endocrinology (hormones), stress response, photobiology, and more.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Slominski discuss: hormone production in the skin; vitamin D photobiology; risks and benefits of UVB light; skin cancer & sunscreen; protective effects of melatonin production in the skin; and more.Related episodes:M&M #104: Ben...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Joshua Siegel, MD, PhD is a psychiatrist & systems neuroscience at New York University. He uses functional imaging to study the effects of psychedelics and other drugs on the human brain.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Siegel discuss: fMRI and how it works; relationship between neural activity and blood flow; functional connectivity & the default mode network of the human brain; the functional effects of psilocybin on the brain; the role that subjective &a...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Richard Cytowic is a neurologist, poplar science writer and professor at the George Washington University. Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Cytowic discuss: the effects of smart phones and social media on the developing and adult brain; artificial blue light vs. broad spectrum natural light; attention & addiction to technology; sensory overstimulation & “virtual autism”; synesthesia and multimodal sensory perception; and more.Related episodes:M&M 7...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Thomas Weimbs, PhD is a biologist at UC-Santa Barbara whose lab studies kidney function in health and disease.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Weimbs discuss: basic kidney biology; kidney stones and their causes, including dietary oxalates and fructose; the kidney damaging effects of common pharmaceuticals like Ibuprofen; the beneficial effects of BHB and ketosis for kidney health; the myth that high protein intake is bad for the kidney; kidney diseases and their c...
Send us a textFull version available on Substack and YouTube.About the guest: Nick Norwitz, PhD received his PhD in Physiology at Oxford University and is finishing his MD degree at Harvard Medical School. He is also an independent content creator focused on making metabolic health mainstream.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Norwitz discuss: blood lipids & cholesterol; high cholesterol levels and what they can mean for different people; the “lean mass hyper-responder” phenotype to carb restr...
Send us a textFull version available on Substack and YouTube.About the guest: Nicole Avena, PhD is a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai. She studies the effects of sugar and diet on animal behavior and the brain. She is also the author of, “Sugarless.”Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Avena discuss: drug addiction vs. food addiction; glucose, fructose & artificial sweeteners; the extent to which sugar consumption can drive dependency & withdrawal; fructose metabolism & live health; sweetne...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Angel Nadal, PhD is a biologist in Spain whose lab studies endocrine disruptors (e.g. microplastics), hormones (estrogen, insulin), and the endocrine functions of the pancreas in health & disease.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Nadal discuss: endocrine biology of the pancreas; insulin and estrogen signaling in the pancreas; BPA, microplastics, and other xenoestrogens; pregnancy & fetal development; effects of hormone disruptors in males vs. females; and mo...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Gary Churchill, PhD is a statistician & geneticist at the Jackson Research laboratory in Maine. His lab uses a systems approach to investigate the genetics of complex biological traits in health & disease.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Churchill discuss: his recent papers looking at the effects of caloric restriction & intermittent fasting on nearly 1,000 genetically diverse mice; how dietary restrictions affect longevity, metabolic health, immunity, ...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Ev Fedorenko is a neuroscientist at MIT. He lab studies the neural basis of language, speech, and thought in the human brain.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Fedorenko discuss: the relationship between language and thought; the extent to which language is for thinking vs. communication; Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory; Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; language acquisition & language learning; language networks in the brain; neuroanatomy & brain lateralizatio...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Nir Lipsman, MD, PhD is a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at the University of Toronto.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Lipsman discuss: neurosurgery; the blood-brain barrier and how it works; using focused ultrasound technology to non-invasively treat patients; regulatory impediments to clinical research; costs, constraints, and future applications of ultrasound tech for treating psychiatric conditions; and more.Related episodes:M&M #168: Sleep: Neural Circuit...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Marcelo Dietrich, MD, PhD is an associate professor in Comparative Medicine & Neuroscience at Yale University, where his lab studies the neural basis of behavior in mammals.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Dietrich discuss: maternal care behavior, mother-infant bonding, and feeding in infant mammals; neural circuits regulating hunger & satiety; brain development & early social learning; behavioral variability among individuals; and more.Related episodes...
Send us a textAbout the guest: Maxime Aubert, PhD is a geochemist & archeologist at Griffiths University in Australia. He specializes in the application of advanced analytical techniques to date the age of ancient rock art and hominin fossils.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Aubert discuss: the oldest known cave art and what it depicts; human evolution & interbreeding with different human sub-species; the origins of anatomically modern humans & advanced cognition; and more.Related ep...
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