Finding Genius Podcast

Science journalist Scott Anderson discusses the revolutionary concept of psychobiotics and their impact on behavior and mood. Topics include the connection between gut bacteria and behavior, the role of the vagus nerve in the gut-brain connection, and the physical and functional changes in the brain caused by certain foods. Anderson also explores the production and function of serotonin, the potential of psychobiotics in improving mental health, and the role of gut bacteria in controlling cravings. Find out more in his book 'The Psychobiotic Revolution' and on the website 'psychobioticrevolution.com'.

Gavin Douglas and colleagues published a paper assessing microbiome research and assertions that the human microbiome explains missing heritability in nature. He discusses this issue and explains What are classic ways of understanding genetic variation in humans and how recently microbiome research has entered this understanding, What the holobiont model is and how it involves claims regarding the microbiome and missing heritability in nature, and How their paper views the microbiome as more of potential element in genetic variation in humans and necessitates more consideration regarding how to integrate it outside of the strict, holobiont model. Gavin Douglas is a PhD Candidate in the Langille Lab in the Deptartment of Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University. His background is in human genetics and he has just published an intriguing paper called “Re-evaluating the relationship between missing heritability and the microbiome” in the journal Microbiome. He helps listeners understand the basics regarding the issue by explaining heritability as the proportion of variation in a phenotype in a given population explained by genetic variance. He offers more background to this standard and then explains the “case of the missing heritability,” which basically indicates the variation that isn’t explained.  Several hypotheses have emerged to explain this missing heritability, several of which are tied to the human microbiome. He describes how, for example, a holobiont model of a human organism puts forward a hologenome—a combined genome that includes the microbiome and might capture the missing heritability. The article discusses this theory and points out ways it doesn’t quite fit. For example, the holobiont doesn’t present a combined evolutionary unit that transmits over generations. But he does think the microbiome plays a role in this mystery. He explains how and why and different ways scientists use these ideas.  For more, follow him on twitter as @gavin_m_douglas and read the open-access paper here: Re-evaluating the relationship between missing heritability and the microbiome. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Trent Northen studies the chemistry of microbiomes. More specifically, he studies how exogenous metabolites structure a microbial community, and, in turn, how those microbes change the metabolite pool and grow the microbial population. Because his work is primarily funded by the Department of Energy, he's focused on the microbial community in soil and on plant roots. He describes The basic cycle of plant life, metabolites, and the microbial population and how this complex system affects each of its parts; The methods of his lab's research, including studies on hydroponic plant systems that are paired with the work of colleagues in the field; and The applications for these studies, like carbon restoration in poor, less fertile soils. Trent Northen is the Interim Deputy of the EGSB Division and a Chemist Senior Scientist at the Berkeley Lab of Biosciences. He begins the podcast describing the rich and complex cycles of plant, metabolites, and microbes, noting  how plants feed microbes that live in and around their roots and how those microbial populations in turn help the plants with nitrogen-fixing, excluding pathogens, and transporting phosphorous, among other processes. His work mostly focuses on bacteria that live in close proximity to the roots, but he describes how fungi can interact with plant roots over very large distances. For example, biological soil crusts use fungal hyphae in extraordinary ways. He explains this process and ecology in more detail and then he describes his research into the microbial community attached to the roots of the plants—the rhizosphere. He also explains the mechanism of soil depletion in big agriculture, how the compost and organic carbon cycle of decaying plant materials is absent from larger farming systems. Furthermore, he elaborates on ways the work of his lab can and might address such problems as well as studying which plants might grow in low nutrient environments and heal the soil as well as practices for soil carbon restoration and other advances. For more information, see his lab's website, northenlab.org, and eco-fab.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Filipe Cabrerio researches how a host’s microbiome and physiology interact in the context of different conditions such as aging and metabolic syndrome while taking various medications. He shares some his lab’s research with listeners, explaining What they found when studying colorectal cancer drugs and microbial metabolism, How metformin interacts with microbial physiologies to alter metabolic syndrome, and What future studies he hopes to instigate involving the vast genetic diversity in some of these microbes, even within the same species, and medical impactions for treatment. Filipe Cabreiro holds a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship in the London Institute of Medical Sciences at the Imperial College of London. His lab works to understand how the microbiome interacts with a host’s physiology—how the microbes that one produces interact with others, especially when both are challenged by daily medications taken to deal with disease and in the conditions of aging. The lab recently made an important discovery in the context of cancer drugs: they found that classic drugs for colorectal cancer were modified by microbial metabolism that reduced or amplified the action of the drugs. Further, they found that certain components of food could change that response.  He also discusses a study on metformin, a drug taken for type 2 diabetes, and its interaction with the microbiome. They found that nutrients, the host’s microbiome, and the drug interact in an important way. Metformin makes selective pressures on certain gut microbes, which translates into longer lasting change associated with positive effects. They think metformin pushes for certain conditions that allow some healthful microbes to survive and also pushes strong metabolic change. The consequences of that change is the production of molecules such as fatty acids and others that can actively regulate the host’s physiology and metabolism. He explains the nature of this interaction and the significance in more detail along with challenges to these kinds of studies, further hypotheses, and future research he hopes to take on. For more, see his lab’s web page: cabreirolab.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

A microbiologist by training, Sam Minot now works as a computational biologist helping other scientists understand the data between of human microbiome and health connections. In this podcast, he explains Why the complexity of bacteria and viruses is important in how scientists might approach infectious viruses and infectious diseases, Why is it difficult to culture "all" bacteria and what that means for microbiome study approaches, and How approaches that prioritize gene-level impact on human health can lead to microbiome-based therapeutics for diseases like cancer. Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order. Samuel Minot is a Staff Scientist with the Microbiome Research Initiative in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division of the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center. He begins this conversation with a foundational question in microbiology: how do the microbes on us impact our health?  He then discusses the complexity of the interaction of bacteria and the viruses that infect them, also called phages. He offers examples of new discoveries constantly upending our picture of what viruses and bacteria can do and ways infectious viruses impact some bacteria and cause disease. As an example, he discusses cholera, which is harmful because of a satellite virus that infects a bacterium: the two together make the disease. He then lays the ground for why it is important to prioritize a gene-level study of our microbiome by describing the impossibility of culturing every bacterium. He describes what functional annotation is and how that concept allows him to identify genes that affect human health and work to understand data at this level.  He talks about the big impacts in his field, namely newer findings on how the microbiome influences the treatment of cancer. Studies show that the kinds of microbes in our gut relate to our immune response's handling of different treatments to fight the cancer. In other words, the immune system is poised to respond to cancer treatment based on the microbiome. This is leading to hopeful microbiome-based therapeutic treatments for cancer. For more, see https://www.fredhutch.org/en/research/divisions/vaccine-infectious-disease-division.html and Sam Minot's blog at minot.bio. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

While scientists know antibiotic resistance is linked to the widespread use of antibiotics, understanding the physiology and microbiome of guts that have never been exposed to synthetic antibiotics might offer information to help address this resistance. Researcher Sharmily Khanam designed a study to tackle this gap in knowledge. She explains How our understanding of resistance mostly comes from clinicallybrelevant bacteria that's pathogenic and our understanding is therefore incomplete; Where she found a population without any exposure to synthetic antibiotics and what her research process is; and What pattern and discovery this research has offered, namely the ubiquitous nature of the antibiotic resistant gene and additional questions this raises. Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order. Dr. Sharmily S. Khanam is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology at the University of Oklahoma. She explains her initial question in her research, namely what the microbial population in our ancestors was like and how resistant they were to the current antibiotics. She and her colleagues are therefore studying a population in a remote village in the Amazon Forest in Peru.  Currently they are studying the scope and extent of antibiotic resistance in the gut microbiome population of this ancestral-like population, comparing them with the gut microbial population, physiology, and antibiotic resistant population in the microbiome of people exposed to modern antibiotics. They are trying to see if our ancestral microbiome was well positioned to tolerate the modern day antibiotics. She explains that researchers need to fill the gap of knowledge in understanding the molecular mechanism involved in resistance to a diverse group of antibiotics. She adds that at the same time, this will provide a foundation to investigate and characterize the molecular mechanism in the bacterial population and how that is related to host metabolism—the combination of host and microbial population is creating the outcome that scientists need to understand in order to interrupt this process and prevent resistance. She adds an explanation of their findings thus far and explains how this may help the medical community. To learn more about this study, see her LinkedIn profile and Google scholar account.  Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

In this episode, we discuss depression's causes and cures with Sarah Zabel, a writer who concentrates her work on this universal mental illness. Sarah retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2018 as a Major General, and since then, she has embarked on a new career as a science writer. Inspired, intrigued, and frustrated by watching someone close to her struggle with depression, Sarah has made it her mission to educate people on this illness so that they can understand it better themselves… In 2021, Sarah wrote Fighting Chance: How Unexpected Observations and Unintended Outcomes Shape the Science and Treatment of Depression, a book that looks inside the twisting search for the causes and cures for depression – the leading cause of illness and disability worldwide. Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order.   Join in now to uncover: How Sarah’s friend motivated her to take a closer look at depression. What depression really is. How depression can coincide with age and genetic vulnerabilities. Different factors that contribute to depression. Want to learn more about Sarah and her work? Click here now! Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Jonathan Sadowsky, the Theodore J. Castele Professor of Medical History at Case Western Reserve University. In addition to his work as an academic, Dr. Sadowsky has written three books, the most recent being The Empire of Depression: A New History. He also has an upcoming publication from Routledge Press entitled Electroconvulsive Therapy in America: The Anatomy of a Medical Controversy.   Dr. Sadowsky engages with a variety of interesting topics, including his primary concentration: the history of psychiatry in Africa and the United States. Although he didn’t expect to dive so deep into this research area, his background in African history paved the way for his immense fascination with mental illnesses – specifically how they are quantified and treated across time and cultures… Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order.   Jump into the conversation now to learn more about: The shocking history of electroconvulsive therapy. The risks associated with electroconvulsive therapy. The interesting history of psychiatry. Where progress has been made in the field of psychiatry. How psychedelics may be used in the future of medicine. Want to find out more about Dr. Sadowsky and his work? Click here now! Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Marc Milstein, an internationally recognized speaker on optimizing brain health, lowering the risk of dementia, and boosting happiness and productivity. He joins us today to discuss the many facets of brain health, and how he’s made it his mission to educate people around the world… Starting out as a researcher at UCLA studying breast cancer, Dr. Milstein learned that the same protein involved in breast cancer is also involved in learning and memory. This sparked his interest in brain science – and how it can be used to transform and maximize productivity, energy, and longevity. Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order. Jump into the conversation now to learn more about: How understanding brain health can improve overall wellness. The role the circadian rhythm plays outside of sleep.  Brain protocols that Dr. Milstein recommends for optimizing health.  How certain conditions can contribute to health issues down the road. Want to find out more about Dr. Milstein and his work? Click here now! This episode is sponsored by Wild Food Co, a company that provides high-quality and healthy superfood ingredients direct from small producers. To get 10% off your next order, use the coupon code GENIUS! Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

In this episode, we sit down with Elizabeth Harris, the author of What’s Wrong with My Child and America Is Infected. She sits down with us today to discuss her work as a researcher and entrepreneur – specifically her distinct take on autoimmune conditions. With more than 20 years of experience in the field of wellness, Elizabeth is a science-minded business owner that is on a mission to educate medical professionals and other parents about her discoveries. Currently working on her Master’s in Molecular Medicine, Elizabeth has dedicated her time to uncovering the strange disease that took her firstborn son’s life. Identified as a mysterious bacteria, she believes this could be the primary cause of an array of other ailments in America… Offer: Magnesium is integral for 600+ biochemical processes in the human body. The common misconception is that consuming more magnesium will automatically improve health and well-being. The truth is that there are various forms of magnesium, each of which is essential for a variety of physiological processes. Most people are inadequate in all forms of magnesium, while even those considered "healthy" typically only ingest 1 or 2 kinds. Consuming all 7 of magnesium's primary forms is the key to accessing all its health benefits.That’s why we packed 7 forms of 450mg of elemental magnesium into each serving of  Wild Mag Complex. One dose a day is all you need. Learn more and grab a bottle today at WildFoods.co. Use code GENIUS for 10% off your order.   In this conversation, we cover: Elizabeth’s history with health and wellness. How antibiotics fight invasive organisms. The importance of working with a health coach. The discoveries that Elizabeth has made over the course of her career. What is Elizabeth doing to get to the root of her family’s medical issues? Tune in now to find out for yourself! To learn more about Elizabeth and her work, click here now! Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C