TechNation Radio Podcast

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Dan Levitt, Award-winning documentary producer and Author, “What’s Gotten Into You … The Story of Your Body’s Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night’s Dinner.” Then, in Biotech, we look at progress in Gliobastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Dr. Fahar Merchant, the President & CEO of Medicenna Therapeutics, joins me to talk about their unprecedented approach to clinical trials.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Gene Kinney, the President and CEO of Prothena Biosciences, about a 1-2-3 punch for Alzheimer’s - fighting amyloids, fighting tau, and their work on a vaccine that just might prevent Alzheimer’s altogether. Then Daniel Pink talks about Regret. Research shows you can begin to ease the pain by writing 15 minutes a day for 3 days. His book is “The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward”.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Bloomberg and BusinessWeek journalist Mark Bergen about the challenge of keeping up with the 100’s of hours of video uploaded every minute. His book is “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination”. Then an excerpt from Wired Science Editor Kara Platoni’s original interview about her 2015 book: “We Have the Technology: How Biohackers, Foodies, and Physicians are Transforming Human Perception.” It’s even more relevant today.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Cody Cassidy, Wired contributor, “How to Survive History … How to Outrun a Tyrannosaurus, Escape Pompeii, Get Off the Titanic, and Survive the Rest of History’s Deadliest Catastrophes”. Then, Wharton Professor, Dr. Jonah Berger, follow his earlier books, “Contagious” and “Invisible Influence”. His latest is “The Catalyst – How to Change Anyone’s Mind”.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Melissa Sevigny (Sev-inn-nee), Science Journalist and Author, “Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon”. Then, Emory University Professor Dr. Cassandra Quave is in search of plants for medical botany. Her book is, “The Plant Hunter: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines”

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Bloomberg BusinessWeek investigative journalist Kit Chellel (“Shell-lel”) talks about “Dead in the Water … A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy.” It makes the movie “Captain Philips” look pretty tame. Then if you thought that all the new vaccines would be mRNA vaccines – you’d be wrong. Dr. Robert Coleman, the Co-Founder and CEO of Codagenix, shows us how to precisely engineer viruses to be effective vaccines. Even better, these can be delivered nasally – there’s no need for a needle.

On this week’s Tech Nation, conjure up images of test tubes, and replace it with tiny wells on index-card-size trays, and robots moving them to and fro. Dr. Chris Gibson, the CEO of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, tells us about their effort to analyze all of human biology, and the drugs in their very own pipeline. Then, who knew Sociology and Criminology were linked? University of Denver professor Jared Del Rosso talks about his book “Denial … How We Hide, Ignore, and Explain Away Problems””, and answers the question – will the election deniers *always* believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen?

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Ed Humes. His latest is “The Forever Witness … How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder.” We get an object lesson in the Three Ages of DNA, and while it reads like a fast-paced Cold Case on steroids – it provides details no fiction writer would dare to make up, like the unexpected involvement of the famous true crimes writer, Ann Rule, and a person whose DNA skills are familiar to fans of the PBS documentary series, “Finding your roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.”

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Jamie Susskind about his book, “The Digital Republic … On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century”. Then, in Biotech, a potential successor to stem cells - fibroblasts? Yes, fibroblasts. Dr. Hamid Khoja, Chief Scientific Officer of FibroBiologics in Houston, describes their fibroblast programs in such diverse conditions as Degenerative Disk Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with Journalists Dade Hayes & Dawn Chmielewski about “Binge Times: Inside Hollywood’s Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix”. From the stock plunge of Netflix to the rise of Bridgerton, it’s a streaming war for our attention. Then in Biotech, could “sticky proteins” lead to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS and more? Dr. Maria Maccecchini, Founder, President and CEO of Annovis Bio, tells us about their approach.