The Armen Show

Ricardo Lopes, The Dissenter When it comes to interviewers, few are as currently prolific as Ricardo Lopes, host of “The Dissenter”. He is known for his social commentary, provoking thought, having strong opinions, and still being open-minded to new concepts. He hails from Portugal, and has been doing interviews for a few years now. On his show, Ricardo has spoken with some of the same scientists and researchers I have spoken with, along with many others, including Steven Pinker, Robert Sapolsky, and Noam Chomsky. A big focus of his is social science, and he has spoken with people based on their insights and research, sometimes solely from their research papers. Show notes: how Ricardo starting doing interviews, and where he comes fromwhat The Dissenter podcast is about, and how it is important to keep open-minded about new information coming inwhy Ricardo prefers social science and related fieldsand more I was glad to have Ricardo on the show. You can check out The Dissenter on YouTube.

Welcome to another edition of The Armen Show. On #276, it is a stream of consciousness, as I take you through thoughts. Show notes: how feeling is to be let throughwhy feeling is a representation of truth that thoughts are not able to be, in the same wayhow a post about leaked e-mails made me think about truthwhat leaked e-mails can showcase beyond the straightforward wheeling and dealinghow truth is found in edge cases and battleswhy it is important to keep pushing your mindnovelty in its relation to mind growth Glad to have you all along on this journey.

What does a little risk taken or effort made today do for you a week from now? How about 10 years from now? We look at life in an extended framework if we want to see it more clearly. Episode 275 is about this concept, how something can build only once it is started, and when the valuable representation of what you did will show up. Show notes: how a spark has to be in place for the item to light up years laterwhy compound gains start off disturbingly slow and pick up speedlooking at past musical artists or content creators, and how their early efforts on the internet set the stage for thousands of people who followed them Hope you enjoyed this one~.

What is the damage we’re not attending to, with regards to the pandemic? How does biological and social contagion spread based on population and contact networks? How do scaling laws inform us about efficiency and person/city/network growth and change over time? Last month, researcher and professor Dr. Geoffrey West, author of Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, co-wrote an article on the topic of scale in relation to the pandemic with fellow Santa Fe Institute President and researcher Dr. David Krakauer. Dr. West is a theoretical physicist, who is distinguished and former President of the Santa Fe Institute, a scientific think-tank in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is able to combine multiple fields of research in ways that were not previously looked at. He is a leading researcher on a scientific model for cities, and is known for the metabolic theory of ecology. His B.A. in Physics is from Cambridge University, and his Ph.D. is from Stanford University. I originally came across Dr. West’s work through his book Scale, which I summarized chapters of in some of the earliest episodes of this show, specifically 2, 9, and 11. It was informative to me to get a sense of how a population or network develops from early large paths to the smaller nodes at the end, and where there is efficiency in growth that is connected to non-linear scaling ratios. We spoke about the book, as well as a variety of topics. Show notes: how Dr. West progressed from his background in the UK to where he is at the current momenthis experience as a researcher and past President at the Santa Fe Instituteprogressive from theoretical physics and particles to looking at cities, companies, networks, and global sustainabilityfostering collaborations between scientists of different fields, and non-linear thinking as connected with risk-takingscaling rate as it relates with food requirement for different sizes of organismshow all organisms are network systems that follow scaling lawsthe way that one’s blood vessels share these laws with roads and freeways, trees and branches, and neuron paths in the brainwhether the scaling laws relate with determinism as related to biology, and how biology differs with physics in that regardour similarities as viewed from a long-distance perspectivethe way that one city is similar to other cities, at their respective stages of development, taking into account the specific environmental and cultural variables of the regionDr. West’s relationship with Dr. Krakauer, and the article they co-wrotelooking at the pandemic as something to focus on, while not forgetting that it is one element of a bigger picture situation humanity is part ofhow one item on the planet affects something else on the planet, especially in a heavily interconnected planetexponential gains, and the lack of understanding that has been associated with the conceptcounter-intuitive responses to problems, which require looking at problems with more depth than only repairing directly what is broken at first glancethe reception of science in the public domain, and how that is affecting responses to problems or new scenarioshow higher-level education has been very prolific in its ability to serve as a backbone for society to work fromthe way that feel of age can alter based on our current momenta message for people It was wonderful to have Dr. West on the show. You can check out Scale on Amazon, his recent co-written article, his Santa Fe Institute page, or his Wikipedia.

Our time is our own to get things done, for our own form. On episode 273, it is about building your own thing, and not letting your important time slip, though the time not connected to your main projects is not as important. Show notes: your self-oriented timenoting the value of moments versus the value of other momentsrecognizing that there are some periods of time you can’t afford to let go to any type of wastehaving, being, and doingthe concept of flow We continue on our way~.

Writing in a journal can be the way to some forms of understanding or expression. My recent writings in one contribute to the thoughts in this episode, which is #272 of the show. Show notes: How to propel work forwardThe way that collaboration can bring out elements that were dormantUsing the “why” behind what you do versus the “how” or “what”Having a variety of mediums to post onMoving things around and building kindling for your fireImagining how you want your story to goLittle things each day turning into a larger entity We keep it simple on this fast-paced episode, with insights coming forward in stream of consciousness form. Credit to Toby Emerson for the intro and outro music, and for supporting usage of his music from many years ago for such creative purposes.

Welcome moral and political psychologist Dr. Cory J. Clark to episode 271 of the show~. She has done research in the categories of moral judgment, punishment, free will, political bias, and motivated cognition. Looking at how bias applies in daily discourse or decision-making helps to clear out poor decisions that would have to be corrected at some future instance. Dr. Clark got her Ph. D. from the University of California, Irvine, in Social and Personality Pyschology and Quantitative Methods, following a B.A. in psychology and philosophy. Some research papers she has contributed to include material on tribalism in different moments of societal condition, political differences in free will belief, and how bias pervades both sides of political landscapes. Show notes: how Dr. Clark got into the category of social and personality psychology and quantitative methods at UCIthe way that serendipity and the flow of life can lead us to the next stepconnection between punishment and belief of free will, and how that connection affects how people are viewedhow to study individuals seeking out information that supports their beliefsthe better-than-average effect of self-thought in the category of self-serving biasespeople bringing out certain sides of personality on social networks, and the mob effect that can applythe short-term internet response to long-term careersfree will as it applies to the fixed nature of a specific moment in time and the moment that follows ithumans evolving to a point of looking back upon their own thinking in hefty detailpunishment and the moral judgment associated with it as related to a recent death penalty actionthe collective nature of people’s actions, as with the interneta message about perspective to take into account when seeing two-sided issues, which are very common in public discourse I was glad to have Dr. Clark on the show. Feel free to check out her website, which has all her material well organized, including her research that is easily readable, and her content across other shows.

Welcome guest Dr. Darya Pino Rose to episode 270 of the show~. She has a neuroscience Ph. D. from UC San Francisco, wrote the book Foodist: Using Real Food and Real Science to Lose Weight Without Dieting, and has posted much content in relation to food and health on her website Summer Tomato. In 2019, Dr. Rose gave a TEDx Talk in Salem, Oregon about the concept of becoming healthy without focusing on the dieting aspect. Changing the focus of how you respond to something is a more nuanced detail than the steps along the way, and I would always agree to look more at the root of an item than the after-effects. Dr. Rose has seen the issue with the mindset involved with short-term dieting, and the focus on countering the negative, versus reaching towards the great benefits of local produce of greens and vibrant colors. We spoke about this topic, habits, aging, broad perspective, her children, and more. Show notes: bringing a logical viewpoint to any decision-making in life, whether for health maintenance or weight losshow the content we put out there can be messages to our past selfsome of the simpler things people can do in relation to eating food and keeping health in good orderthe way that food can taste delicious and still work in your favorthe farm-to-table movement that had picked up in the Bay Area, and exposition to a different way of taking food inhow habits are very different based on whether they are internally or externally motivatedthe connection between habits, willpower, and motivationhow what is presented to us early on in life has such a large impact, and is internalized until we later look back at the time with questioninganti-aging research on par with Dr. David Sinclair’s workvarying one’s focus, from macronutrients to micronutrients, and thinking bigger picture instead of seeking out one specific nutrientlooking at the origination of your foods, such that they are not heavily adulterated or removed of nutrient densityDarya’s two toddlers (cute~), the early times, and how personality and traits develop or show themselves early onsome thoughts on potential future content, and a message for all people about finding and going towards your own values It was great to have Dr. Rose on the show. She and her husband Kevin Rose are raising their two young children in Oregon. You can check out her website Summer Tomato, pick up her book Foodist on Amazon, or watch her TEDx Talk on becoming healthy without dieting. Long live intellectual discussion~.

When you think of a corporation, you think of its products and services, but in the case of Samsung, its history is connected to families, dynasties, and its tie to the economic prosperity of South Korea. In Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, author Geoffrey Cain discusses the people involved and the path taken by the large entity known as Samsung. Geoffrey Cain serves as a skilled foreign correspondent, author, commentator, anthropologist and scholar of East and Central Asia. He was a former correspondent at The Economist, and is a regular commentator in The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The New Republic, and a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Bloomberg. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Show notes: how Samsung is connected to the country of South Korea in more ways than being a corporationthe interest behind writing this book and getting into the company structurewhat it was like interviewing a variety of people inside the companysome ways that Samsung had to compete with Apple, and continues to do so, while also cooperating in some capacitythe way that Samsung is different from a large company in the USsome of the features or releases that impacted the growth of Samsungand more You can check out Geoffrey on his website, Twitter, or see Samsung Rising on Amazon.

There are a select few individuals who have gone through such a recent moment of intensity and pressure as Dr. Maryam Baqir, M.B.B.S., of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. As Covid-19 cases quickly ramped up in the epicenter of the virus, doctors like her began to respond to an onslaught of cases that turned hospitals into treatment zones far more packed and adaptive than would be the case in calmer times. Dr. Baqir specializes in Internal Medicine, and received her medical/surgical degrees from Aga Khan University in Pakistan. She grew up in Karachi, though she was born in Tehran, Iran (similar to myself). We met in Manhattan, along with her companion Shan of episode 258. Our discussion in this episode involved much about her recent experience, life messages we both understand and take note of, and a deeper view of what an active response to life challenges looks like. Much was shared and expressed. Show notes: how she got into this career path, and what it means to her at this timewhat it is like to live in the area of Brooklyn, and how Dr. Baqir got therethe difference in culture between Pakistan and the USwhat the response to coronavirus entailed on its initial run-throughhow the hospital had to adjust in order to be able to treat all the new patients of one specific conditionprocessing what occurred, and what the main issues were in relation to the virus, as far as equipment/resourcesthe feel of the patients, and what it is/was like for them getting treatment from individuals behind masks and shieldsempathy shared with patients and their families in a time of anguishseeing trucks show up because of the out-flux of those who passed awayhealthcare workers deciding whether or not to self-quarantine at their homesome of the impacts of in-hospital aerosolization of the virusfighting for patients for an extensive period of time, and decisions a doctor has to make along the wayhow procedure priorities were changed at the hospital, and how doctors were switched from their specialty to tackling the current epidemicthe influx of volunteers from around the country to Dr. Baqir’s hospital, among others, in order to meet the response requirementsconnection/unity between healthcare workers on a shared missionresilience and strength shown in various stories of the momenthow some of the responses to the pandemic were come up with on the spot, or served as an impromptu trainingsome of the improvements that have been arrived at through these few months of trials and understanding in relation to the viruscomparing symptoms of individuals in similar proximity, and noting differencesuse or non-use of shame as a response to public hygiene/safety habits, such as the use of a masksome of the growth felt by Dr. Baqir during these monthsthe value of human compassion, and the difference that makes in carea range of emotions that you feel during an intense experience, and not holding back on showing/expressing themthe concept of not living while being alive, and accepting mortalitypreparing for end-of-life care before it gets to an emergency situationthe passing of Maimonides Medical Center Chief of Medicine Dr. Stephan Kamholz due to Covid-19, and his career and impacta closing message for all people It was wonderful to have Dr. Baqir on the show. We were able to cover her experience and related life messages in a free-flowing and spontaneous discussion full of detail. You can follow her on Twitter at @MaryamBaqir.