After Hours with Dr Vincent and Stephen

Climate change can feel like one of those enormous issues happening somewhere far away, but in this episode of After Hours, Stephen and I bring it much closer to home. We talk about what a changing climate can mean for our health, from how we exercise and stay hydrated to the food we eat, the seafood we choose and even where wine can now be produced. The bigger question for me is not simply whether the world is changing, but whether we are paying enough attention to how our own bodies and habits may need to change with it.

What I keep coming back to is that none of us can solve a global problem on our own, but that does not make us powerless. Being more conscious about water, food, single-use plastics and the choices we make inside our own homes can still matter. This episode is really a conversation about adaptation, awareness and doing what is within our control. We may not be able to change the whole world from our kitchen table, but we can make better decisions for our health, our families and the little corner of the world we actually live in.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

We spend so much time talking about food, exercise, sleep and stress when we talk about living a healthier life, but we rarely talk about friendship. In this episode of After Hours, Stephen and I explore what science can tell us about why friendship matters, from research linking stronger social relationships with better survival outcomes to the surprising amount of time it can take to turn an acquaintance into a genuinely close friend. We also get into the very human side of it: why making friends as an adult can feel harder, the difference between being alone and being lonely, the “liking gap” when meeting new people, and why friendship deserves to be treated as a serious relationship rather than something that simply happens in the background of our lives.

What struck me most is that friendship is not simply emotional. Supportive relationships can help buffer our response to stress, give us a sense of safety and connection, and help us recover through difficult periods. But good friendship also requires something less scientific and much more practical: time, vulnerability, effort and the willingness to keep showing up. Some friends are with us for a season, some survive years and kilometres apart, and some become the people we know we can call when life gets difficult. The point isn’t to collect as many friends as possible. It is to recognise that the relationships we choose to nurture may be doing far more for our health, happiness and resilience than we realise.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

I came into this episode physically exhausted but incredibly happy. After months of work, a whirlwind trip to the US and a meeting with Walmart that once felt almost impossible, Stephen and I started talking about the danger of constantly chasing the next milestone without stopping to appreciate the one you have just reached. For me, the most meaningful moments are often the smallest ones: a customer telling me we have helped them, a little bit of trust built with someone I work with, or simply remembering why I started doing this in the first place. Big dreams are ultimately made from thousands of tiny moments, and I never want to become so focused on the next destination that I forget to celebrate them.

That idea gave us a rather perfect transition into something else very small: microplastics. We unpack what they are, how larger plastics break down into tiny particles, where we encounter them in everyday life and why completely avoiding plastic is far more complicated than simply telling people to make better choices. Plastic has brought enormous convenience and genuine benefits, but our reliance on it has also created a problem that is now extraordinarily difficult to undo. My takeaway isn’t that we should panic or somehow eliminate every piece of plastic from our lives. It is much simpler: now that we know more, we should try to do better. Reduce unnecessary plastic where we can, reuse what makes sense, ask better questions about the things we buy and, most importantly, stop adding to a problem simply because its consequences feel far away.

Thanks to Hello Fresh for supporting Dr Vincent with healthy and easy meals and for giving our listeners up to $80 off their first box! Because who doesn’t love delicious, easy meals at home for less.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately, not the Instagram version of happiness, where everything looks perfect, but the kind you actually feel when you sit quietly with your own life. I can be tired, nervous about what is coming next, dealing with problems at work and still genuinely say that I am happy. For me, happiness is not the absence of difficulty; it is the feeling that I am where I am supposed to be, doing something that matters, and living in a way that leaves as little room for regret as possible. Money, health, achievement and comfort absolutely contribute to our wellbeing, and I don’t believe we should pretend otherwise. But they are not happiness by themselves. One idea from this conversation stayed with me: success is having what you want, while happiness is wanting what you have. Perhaps the real pursuit of happiness begins when we stop treating happiness as the prize waiting for us after the next achievement and start seeing it as something we can choose and cultivate along the way.

So what actually helps? Stephen and I came back to five remarkably simple things: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. Connection is not about collecting followers; it is about feeling known and valued, and sometimes it can be as simple as messaging someone you haven’t spoken to in years. Being active doesn’t mean becoming an athlete—it can mean moving your body or keeping your mind curious. Taking notice means slowing down long enough to actually smell the coffee, look at the night sky or appreciate the tiny moments we normally rush past. Keep learning, because curiosity keeps life expanding. And finally, give—not necessarily money, but your time, experience, support or even a few thoughtful words. I think we spend so much of life waiting for the big moment that will finally make us happy that we risk missing hundreds of small happiness moments happening right in front of us. Maybe happiness is not something we eventually find. Maybe it is something we practise.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

Protein is essential. Our bodies need it to repair and rebuild tissue, and our individual needs change depending on our size, diet and level of physical activity. But somewhere along the way, “high protein” also became shorthand for “healthy”.

In this episode of After Hours, Stephen and I look past that health halo and ask whether adding protein to everything from cereal and cheese to chocolate and snacks actually makes those foods better for us. We explore where protein comes from, the role of plant and animal sources, why active people may need more, how whey protein became such a huge industry, and why simply eating more protein will not magically build muscle without giving your body a reason to use it.

The conversation also takes us into the much bigger world of dieting: detox products, diuretics, crash diets, protein-maxing, carnivore, keto and the constant search for a shortcut to a healthier body. My view throughout the episode is that nutrition should never be reduced to declaring one nutrient “good” and another “bad”. Protein has an important place in our diet, but so do carbohydrates, fats, fibre and the many nutrients we get from a varied diet. The best approach is ultimately the one that supports your health and can realistically become part of your life. As one of my university lecturers once told me, if the way you achieve your “dream body” is something you could never sustain, then it probably isn't a dream at all.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

Quite honestly, not too sure what to write here because I certainly do not want to come across as a prepper, but I still think it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Stephen and I dove into multiple topics on how to survive a big disasterous event. Certainly the episode you don’t want to miss!

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

I spend a lot of time talking about making healthier choices, but there is a problem we don’t talk about enough: the supermarket is designed to make those choices feel much simpler than they really are. A strawberry on the front of a packet, the words “no added sugar,” “fat free,” “plant-based” or a beautifully photographed serving suggestion can create what we call a health halo—the perception that a product is healthier than it necessarily is. This is why one of the simplest things I tell people is to turn the packet around. Look at the first few ingredients. Look at the sugar. Look at what is actually in the food rather than relying entirely on what the marketing department decided to put on the front. I don’t think eating well should require a science degree, and consumers shouldn’t have to decode clever language just to understand what they’re putting into their bodies.

I’m also not anti-processing—in fact, as a food scientist, I think food processing is one of the great achievements of modern food technology. It can make food safer, extend shelf life, reduce waste and make nutrition more accessible. The problem begins when we confuse processed with engineered to look healthier than it is, or when better nutrition becomes something reserved for people with more money, more time or more knowledge. At the very core of what I believe as a scientist is that health should be accessible to everyone. Better labels, clearer information and greater transparency don’t make the decision for us—they give us the ability to make that decision for ourselves. And sometimes, being a smarter shopper really does begin with one very simple action: turn the packet around.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pmLet’s be mates!

Every time I walk through the supermarket, I’m reminded that most of us make buying decisions in just a few seconds. We trust what is printed on the front of the pack—whether it’s “Australian made,” “gluten free,” “organic,” or a high Health Star Rating—to guide those decisions. But after watching the recent Four Corners investigation into food labelling, I was reminded how important it is to look beyond the marketing. Food labels should exist to help consumers make informed choices, not leave them confused. When allergen statements are unclear, country-of-origin claims are misleading, or health ratings oversimplify nutrition, it isn’t just a marketing issue—it becomes an issue of trust and, in some cases, safety.

As both a food scientist and a consumer, I believe honesty should always come before marketing. I don’t expect food to be perfect, but I do expect labels to accurately reflect what’s inside the package. Consumers deserve transparency so they can make decisions that suit their health, values and budget. Rather than chasing buzzwords or relying on a single rating, I encourage people to read ingredient lists, understand what they’re buying and remember that no front-of-pack claim can replace informed decision-making. The best food label is one that tells the truth—clearly, consistently and without compromise.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!This podcast is part of the Ask Dr Vincent on Substack.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com 📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pm

Let’s be mates!

There is a growing health crisis that doesn’t show up on a blood test, an MRI or even during a routine check-up. It’s loneliness. We often think of loneliness as something that only affects older people, but the reality is that it can affect anyone, especially men. As life changes through careers, fatherhood and increasing responsibilities, many men slowly lose the friendships and routines that once kept them connected. What makes this particularly challenging is that loneliness is often hidden behind success, busyness or the belief that everyone else is coping just fine. Yet research shows loneliness is linked to poorer physical and mental health, reminding us that meaningful relationships are just as important to our wellbeing as exercise and good nutrition.

I don’t believe the solution is simply telling people to “make more friends.” Real connection takes intention. For me, some of the best places to build friendships are through shared experiences, whether that’s joining a gym, a walking group, a community class or even attending a local workshop. The goal isn’t to leave with a best friend after one visit. It’s simply to keep showing up. A simple conversation, a familiar face or asking someone how they’re really doing can make a remarkable difference. Being alone isn’t the same as being lonely, and investing in our relationships with others, and with ourselves, may be one of the most powerful things we can do for our long-term health and happiness.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!This podcast is part of the Ask Dr Vincent on Substack.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com 📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pm

Let’s be mates!

One of the things I love most about hosting the After Hours podcast is that it constantly challenges my own thinking. Every week, Stephen and I explore questions that seem simple on the surface but quickly become much more complex. In this episode, we revisit one of the biggest debates in health: is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? Along the way, we also talk about wearable technology, sleep tracking, the balance between data and intuition, and why living a healthy life is about much more than chasing perfect numbers. The more I learn, the more I realise that health is rarely black and white. It is about finding what works for your body while staying curious enough to keep asking better questions.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I took away from this conversation is that longevity should never come at the expense of actually enjoying life. I want to live a long life, but more importantly, I want to live a healthy, happy and meaningful one. Whether it’s deciding if breakfast suits your lifestyle, learning something new every day, or resisting the temptation to obsess over every health metric on your smartwatch, I believe balance will always beat perfection. I hope this episode encourages you to think critically, stay curious and remember that sometimes the best health advice isn’t choosing one extreme over another, but finding the best of both worlds.

After Hours is where science gets personal. Hosted by Dr Vincent, your friendly neighbourhood scientist and Stephen!This podcast is part of the Ask Dr Vincent on Substack.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode📩 Weekly newsletter every Sunday at AskDrVincent.com 📺 Full video episodes every Thursday after 5pm

Let’s be mates!