This week we interview Dr. Elizabeth Boham. Dr. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center is Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness.Her DVD, Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.We discuss: How does functional medicine deal with chronic disease and how does that differ from traditional western medicine? How did Elizabeth's battle with breast cancer lead her to specialize in functional medicine? How can you learn more about your genes and how they impact your health? What is a food intolerance and do you even know if you have them? Learn more about Dr. Boham at her website http://www.drboham.com/. If you purchase Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer, use the discount code Breast30wellness to get 30% off!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview Barbara Lipska. Barbara is a leading expert on the neuroscience of mental illness and she has an absolutely fascinating story to tell. It would be unfair to give anything away from the interview or the book, so download the episode and give it a listen!We discuss: What does a typical day look like for the director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health? What does a brain look like when you cut into it? What progress is being made around mental health research? Barbara Lipska, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized leader in human postmortem research and animal modeling of schizophrenia. She is currently director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she studies mental illness and human brain development. Her amazing, new book is, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the show we interview Adam Braun. Adam is the CEO & Co-Founder of MissionU, a debt-free college alternative for the 21st century that CNN called "perfect for young people who are eager to launch their career." Adam's goal is to overhaul the traditional higher education model by providing a solution that doesn't require upfront tuition and allows students to graduate debt-free.We discuss: How to balance family life with starting a company? What are Adam's favorite interview tactics? What's wrong with going to college? What does it take to turn your idea into a business? Adam has been featured as a speaker at The White House and named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Business Insider’s 40 Under 40, and Wired Magazine‘s 50 People Who Are Changing the World. He was previously founder & CEO of Pencils of Promise, the award-winning organization that has built nearly 400 schools around the world. Adam is the author of the bestselling book, The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like our bodies, our brains have very specific food requirements. In this episode we speak with Dr. Lisa Mosconi, who is both a neuroscientist and a certified integrative nutritionist, as she explains what should be on our menu.Dr. Lisa Mosconi, whose research spans an extraordinary range of specialties including brain science, the microbiome, and nutritional genomics, notes that the dietary needs of the brain are substantially different from those of the other organs, yet few of us have any idea what they might be. Her innovative approach to cognitive health incorporates concepts that most doctors have yet to learn. Busting through advice based on pseudoscience, Dr. Mosconi provides recommendations, while calling out noteworthy surprises, including the truth behind those delicious sweet potatoes, what's the verdict on cholesterol, good fat vs. bad fat, should you drink coconut oil, and much more.Lisa is also the author of the incredible brand new book, Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power.She is also the associate director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC)/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, in the Department of Nutrition at NYU Steinhardt School of Nutrition and Public Health, and in the Departments of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Florence (Italy). Formerly, Dr. Mosconi founded and was the director of the Nutrition & Brain Fitness Lab at New York University School of Medicine (NYU), and an assistant professor in the NYU Department of Psychiatry, where she served as the director of the Family History of Alzheimer's disease research program. Dr. Mosconi holds a dual PhD degree in Neuroscience and Nuclear Medicine from the University of Florence, Italy, and is a board certified integrative nutritionist and holistic healthcare practitioner. She is well known for her research on the early detection of Alzheimer's disease and is passionately interested in the mitigation and prevention of memory loss through lifestyle modifications including diet, nutrition, and physical and intellectual fitness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Don’t just chase the new – Innovate the old." - Soon YuModern business gurus all cry for the need to innovate, to disrupt, and to act like a startup. It’s hard to argue with that kind of thinking. It’s sexy and exciting. But it’s wrong.Too many businesses become enamored by shiny new objects and end up overlooking the value locked away in their existing products. Maybe your business is one of them. Or maybe you only have an idea, but can't even figure out how to turn it into a business, let alone an Iconic Brand.This week we talk with innovation expert Soon Yu on how to take a different approach that allows you to leverage what you already have or know to create a business that lasts. It generates disproportionate levels of profit and protects you against market fluctuations. Many of the world’s most successful brands have been using it for years.Now, you can benefit from reaching iconic status, whether you’re a Fortune 500, local pizza parlor, or an aspiring Unicorn startup.Soon Yu is an international speaker and author on innovation and design. He is the author of the brand new book, Iconic Advantage®: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old.He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation, parent organization to over thirty global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Nautica, and Wrangler.He has been a founder and CEO for numerous venture-backed startups and was recognized as a Northern California finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Prior to this he worked at Bain and Company, The Clorox Company, and Chiquita Brands, where he won company-wide awards for best advertising, best promotion, and best new product, and gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award and Dope Award.He frequently guest lectures at Stanford University, where he received his MBA, and is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they’re real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism?This week on the show, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help us understand this powerful new tool. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use―not to distance ourselves from reality, but to enrich our lives and influence us to treat others, the environment, and even ourselves better.There are dangers and many unknowns in using VR, but it also can help us hone our performance, recover from trauma, improve our learning and communication abilities, and enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities. Like any new technology, its most incredible uses might be waiting just around the corner.Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication, a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a Faculty Leader at Stanford’s Center for Longevity. He earned a B.A. cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. He spent four years at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor.Jeremy is the author of the incredible new book, Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do.—This episode is brought to you by:Audible, listen anytime, anywhere to an unmatched selection of audiobooks, original premium podcasts, and more. Start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free! Go to audible.com/smart or text SMART to 500-500.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not often I truly feel that a guest changes my paradigm on the spot - but this is an exception.This week we speak with Bryan Caplan about his newest book, The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. As Bryan explains, despite being immensely popular--and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Bryan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity—in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. In fact, decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, yet employers still reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use. Therefore, his recommendation is to cut education spending.Caplan draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values grades over knowledge, and why the more education your rivals have, the more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our society's top conformity signal, and why even the most useless degrees can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more vocational education, because practical skills are more socially valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers.Bryan Caplan is professor of economics at George Mason University and a blogger at EconLog. He is the author of Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun than You Think and The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies.http://www.bcaplan.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that working mothers are 50% LESS likely to be promoted than women without children? Or that only 1 in 5 senior executives is a woman?Have you ever realized that working moms are judged when they leave work early to tend to their children AND when they stay at work late (and "neglect" their families)? The truth is, we have a work environment that is not conducive to being a parent and women are the ones who tend to suffer the most.This week on the show we have a chance to talk with Mary Beth Ferrante about the struggles that working mothers face, and the ways they can get what they deserve.Mary Beth is a former Senior Vice President for a Fortune 100 Firm who has made the successful transition to a certified career coach with the International Coach Federation. She is trained in Organizational, Relationship & Systems Coaching (ORSC). In addition, she has chaired national women's organizations and been on the Board of Directors of the Junior League of Los Angeles. Today, she works with new moms (and dads!), managers and organizations to best support new parents, discover what inspires and drives new parents in their careers.Learn more about Mary Beth at LiveWorkLead.com—This episode is brought to you by:Audible, listen anytime, anywhere to an unmatched selection of audiobooks, original premium podcasts, and more. Start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free! Go to audible.com/smart or text SMART to 500-500. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We made it. You made it! Here's part 2 of our listener questions and 'year in review.'Quick recap. Before we closed out 2017, we sent an email to our newsletter subscribers asking what questions they would like answered. This is part 1 of Chris and I attempting to answer those questions. It was the first time in years that we recorded under the same roof. How crazy is that?!?!WARNING: there was "light" drinking while recording so expect complete openness and a dash of silly.We want to hear from you, the listener!If you're a fan of Smart People Podcast and would like to provide input to help shape the future of the show, please email us at smartpeoplepodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you and get in touch.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We made it to 2018! Welcome :)Before we closed out 2017, we sent an email to our newsletter subscribers asking what questions they would like answered. This is part 1 of Chris and I attempting to answer those questions. It was the first time in years that we recorded under the same roof. How crazy is that?!?!WARNING: there was "light" drinking while recording so expect complete openness and a dash of silly. We want to hear from you, the listener!If you're a fan of Smart People Podcast and would like to provide input to help shape the future of the show, please email us at smartpeoplepodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you and get in touch.Here's to 2018! 🙌 💪 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices