The Sport of Life: Chats w/ Comedians, Filmmakers, Sports Figures, Musicians, & Intellectuals

Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Health Policy and Politics at Lehigh University Eduardo J. Gómez chats with Trey Elling about JUNK FOOD POLITICS: HOW BEVERAGE AND FAST FOOD INDUSTRIES ARE RESHAPING EMERGING ECONOMIES. Topics include: The book's inspiration (0:52) Why he focused on Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa (4:10) What he means by 'junk food industry' (5:15) How junk food politics is a two-way street (6:21) How the junk food industry is operating on its own fear (7:22) NAFTA's influence on the rise of junk food consumption in Mexico (10:33) Why these countries' presidents allow junk food to sway public health policy (12:19) Whether Mexico's soda & junk food tax has helped (16:09) Coca Cola exploiting feminism in India (18:18) Why junk food consumption exploded in Brazil in the mid-1990s (19:49) Junk food's influence on Brazil's Zero Fome public health campaign (23:11) The role of India's agricultural sector and food production in its junk food problems (25:59) India's history of malnourishment harming parents' perception of what makes for a healthy kid (27:33) India's attempts to limit junk food around schools (29:55) Coca Cola's roller coaster historical relationship with China (33:11) Snacking as a reflection of China's unique history (35:20) Big Junk Food's blatant marketing to kids in China (36:36) Coca Cola embedding itself into China's academic community (38:40) Nelson Mandela's initial hostility toward Coca Cola in the early 1990s (39:49) Indonesia unique relationship with junk foods& beverages (44:06) The Indonesian government's revolving door problem (46:29) A country that does a good job combatting junk food politics for the good of public health (47:22) Whether Eduardo is optimistic or pessimistic about the future (52:12)

Bob Odenkirk & Mireille Enos chat with Trey Elling on the red carpet at SXSW 2023, ahead of the premiere of their new AMC series, LUCKY HANK. Plus, a surprise interview with Mireille's husband, actor Alan Ruck! Mireille Enos (1:54) Alan Ruck (5:09) Bob Odenkirk (7:55)

Dan Lyons, NY Times-bestselling author, discusses his book STFU: THE POWER OF KEEPING YOUR MOUTH SHUT IN AN ENDLESSLY NOISY WORLD. Topics include talkaholism, impact on anxiety, shutting off technology, social media, health, work, parenting, love, emailing, leading by STFU, and the difficulty of listening.

Renowned security technologist and New York Times bestselling author Bruce Schneier chats with Trey Elling about A HACKER'S MIND: HOW THE POWERFUL BEND SOCIETY'S RULES, AND HOW TO BEND THEM BACK. Topics include: A definition of hacking (1:03) The “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich” tax hack (2:30) Defending against ‘bad’ hacks (3:34) Why kids are such natural hackers (9:06) Hacking the airlines (12:05) Hacking sports (18:09) Hacking heaven in the 1500s (24:51) A simple computer financial exchange hack (26:47) Luxury real estate as a money-laundering hack for the super-rich (28:05) ‘Too big to fail’ as a hack (29:29) Venture Capital funding as a hack (34:36) How Uber hacks the system (37:09) How elected officials hack lawmaking (39:20) Why US elections are so expensive (42:39) Antitrust laws as a solutions to social media companies hacking cognitive systems (49:20) Solving the political bot problems (52:22) How AI will take hacking to a completely different level (54:55)

Oncology and hematology expert Chadi Nabhan, MD, chats with Trey Elling about TOXIC EXPOSURE: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE MONSANTO TRIALS AND THE SEARCH FOR JUSTICE. Dr. Nabhan served as the expert witness on Non Hodgkin Lymphoma for plaintiffs in the first three cases against Monsanto and glyphosate, the primary ingredient in their Roundup herbicide. Topics include: How Chadi’s medical training took focus on oncology and hematology (1:12) Explaining Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (4:23) What made him want testify as an expert witness against Monsanto (5:59) The shadiness behind glyphosate’s initial approval in 1974 (9:58) The EPA’s role in glyphosate not being labeled a carcinogen (13:47) Chad’s first deposition (17:55) Initially meeting the first plaintiff, Lee Johnson (20:14) Swedish research linking glyphosate and cancer (21:45) The Who’s 2015 report that shed light on glyphosate (24:48) Taking the stand in Lee John’s case against Monsanto (28:29) Learning of the guilty verdicts against Monsanto (33:54) Chad’s thoughts on the second and third trials (35:58) Why glyphosate is still allowed commercially, even though it’s no longer sold residentially in the US (37:38) Chad’s podcast, “Healthcare Unfiltered” (41:53) Ideas to help the broken US healthcare system (43:59)

University of Texas at Austin faculty member Sam Woolley, whose expertise focuses on the use of propaganda in new media and emerging technologies, chats with Trey Elling about MANUFACTURING CONSENSUS: UNDERSTANDING PROPAGANDA IN THE AGE OF AUTOMATION AND ANONYMITY. Topics include: The book’s goal (1:12) How propaganda initially came to be (2:20) Jacques Ellul’s influence on Sam’s belief’s (6:05) Defining computational propaganda (8:55) Social media bots (12:43) ChatGPT (16:06) Governments loving Facebook & Reddit for computational propaganda (17:53) Propaganda-bred apathy (20:55) Democratizing propaganda being bad for democracy (22:39) Why social media is bad for civil discourse (24:41) What he’s taken from recent #TwitterFiles & congressional testimony revelations (28:04) Treating social media companies as public utilities (31:07) If its possible to quantify the number of social media bots (34:02) Encrypted messaging like WhatsApp as a propaganda tool (38:23) The danger of automated political influencers (41:56) How journalists have been crucial in Sam’s understanding of political bots (45:28) Journalists leaning on social media posts for articles (48:33) Journalists using bots for good (49:29) Bots writing news stories (51:24) ChatGPT usage at the college level (52:52) China using social media to spread propaganda abroad (57:29) Why Sam is still optimistic about the future (59:00)

In the second of a two-part conversation, investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeff Guinn chats with Trey Elling about WACO: DAVID KORESH, THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, AND A LEGACY OF RAGE. You can find part 1 of this interview HERE. This time around, the focus is on the 51-day seige, and fatal mistakes made by ATF- and FBI leadership. Topics include: How the ATF ended up on the Branch Davidians’ trail (1:22) How ATF agents were misinformed on two crucial elements before the initial raid (6:10) The ATF’s plan of action (9:30) Why the Treasure Department reversed their decision to nix the ATF’s planned raid (13:34) How the ATF’s raid lost its element of surprise (16:55) Whether choppers fired on the Branch Davidian compound during that initial raid (21:14) What the ATF agents who took part in the raid still resent the most (27:01) The no-win situation for the ATF agents on the ground that day (30:50) Two conflicting internal factors at play when the FBI took over (32:09) The likelihood of the FBI ever apologizing for mistakes they made in Waco (41:16) Whether Koresh close to surrendering before that final, fateful day (41:36)

Award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeff Guinn chats with Trey Elling about WACO: DAVID KORESH, THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, AND A LEGACY OF RAGE. In the first- or a two-part conversation, Jeff and Trey discuss the evolution of the Branch Davidians and David Koresh's rise within the religious organization. Topics include: The book's genesis (1:26) 20 ATF agents going on-record about Waco for the first time (2:51) How the group originally settled in Waco, TX in the early 1930s (5:44) Legally becoming the “Branch Davidians” (8:24) Koresh’s early days with the Branch Davidians (12:00) Koresh’s first taste of a gun fight (18:41) How the Branch Davidians got into illegal firearms in the early 1990s (21:00) Koresh’s sexual proclamations and the cost of losing Marc Breault as a follower (25:44) Why some defend Koresh’s pedophilia (29:12)

Yale School of Medicine physician and researcher F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, chats with Trey Elling about HOW MEDICINE WORKS AND WHEN IT DOESN’T: LEARNING WHO TO TRUST TO GET AND STAY HEALTHY. Topics include: Goal with the book (0:00) Pharma’s role with patient mistrust (1:57) Pharma’s influence on doctors (6:49) Generic drugs not such an easy fix (10:22) How medical errors commonly lead to death (12:34) Surrogate outcomes (15:50) Getting patients to change their minds for GOOD reasons (17:44) Combatting motivated reasoning (20:44) The “biggest secret in medicine” (26:22) Factoring in side effects when considering a drug (29:32) Doctors’ responsibility to help patients with despair (31:28) Randomized controlled trials, aka RCTs (37:48) How RCTs go wrong (44:19) The difficulty with replication (47:29) Why “open data” isn’t already the standard with RCTs (50:35) The problem with the “middle man” in patient care (53:39) An alternative to the current US healthcare system (57:06) How patients can move closer to doctors by embracing uncertainty (1:00:15)

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin chats with Trey Elling about PUNK PARADOX: A MEMOIR. Topics include: Goal with the book (0:00) His first taste of live music (2:40) Trauma in rural Kansas in 1976 (4:18) The initial appeal of punk (7:57) A love for The Jackson 5 (10:25) The ugly reality of punk in 1984 (12:11) How lizards are like lead singers (13:41) A change in Bad Religion’s crowd in the late ‘80s (16:22) Bad Religion’s Christmas Songs album (17:21) The concept of “selling out” (18:35) Putting his academic career on hold for the band (21:31) Recovering from a string of traumas in the mid-1990s (23:04) Fostering his children’s love for music (25:35) Brett Gurewitz’s break from the band in the late 1990s (27:29) The one Bible verse he quoted in PUNK PARADOX (29:28) An interesting factoid about ants (33:11) The Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA championship in 2021 (34:28) Rooting for an outspoken Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (36:30) Whether Greg is still ‘punk’ (40:26)