Brains Byte Back

A quick peek at our show Brains Byte Back with new episodes out every Monday!

Creating a startup sounds like a dream for many of us. You take a good idea, bring it to life and hopefully make lots of money in the process. However, the fact that so many startups fail, 90% of them in fact, can be enough to put anyone off. But there is more to this statistic than looming failure. The majority of founders don't take the right steps to bring their startup to life and validate their ideas first.

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In this episode of the podcast, we will be joined by Bryan Janeczko, a veteran entrepreneur and the founder of Gro Academy, a self-paced, on-demand startup academy that helps individuals turn their ideas into big businesses, from concept to launch, using a customized startup action plan. We will discuss what makes a good business idea, how anyone can turn an idea into a business, and what are the greatest hurdles budding entrepreneurs will face when they start out.

And for our Weird Wide Web piece, we have a story about a US man who refused to decrypt his hard drives is free after four years in jail.

From burritos on a food delivery app to a new apartment, we can now customize everything to meet our desires. Well, what about a wife, husband or sexual partner? In this episode, we will look at how AI and humanized robots will impact our sex lives and our love lives.

To get a better understanding of how this new tech could impact our psychology and our society, I am joined by Dr. Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist researching human sexual behavior, addiction, and the physiology of sexual response. She is also the founder of Liberos LLC, an independent research institute.

And for our Weird Wide Web piece, we have a story of students suffering from separation anxiety when their phones are taken from them.

For many, going under the knife and receiving surgery is not a desirable experience. Over time, our medical knowledge and the tools available have made surgery a quicker and safer experience. As we enter a new age of modern technology, AI stands to dramatically change the surgical experience.

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In this episode, you will learn how AI is improving surgeries, what role it plays, and what are the main concerns of AI playing a more prevalent role in surgeries.

To discuss this topic I am joined by Andrew Berkeley, Co-Founder of Perimeter Medical, a Canadian company that develops, patents, and commercializes advanced surgical imaging tools that allow surgeons, radiologists, and pathologists to better assess microscopic tissue structures during a surgical procedure.

And for our Good News feature, we have a story on Trump and NASA.

Learning a new skill can be hard, especially if it is not something we are naturally good at. However, there is research that can help us understand what parts of the brain need to be activated in order to learn, and what we need to do to activate them.

On this podcast, you will learn the difference between soft skills and hard skills, why they are important, and how you can sharpen your skills. Joining us on the show is Todd Maddox, an expert in the area of neuroscience, with more than 200 peer-reviewed research reports, and more than 12,000 citations under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of Cognitive Design & Statistical Consulting and has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

And for our Neuron to something piece, we have results of a new survey which advocates that the public wouldn’t trust companies to scan social media posts for signs of depression.

If you listened to last week's podcast, then you already know that AI can tell a lot about you just from your voice. In this episode, we speak with experienced entrepreneur Michael Puscar to discuss his new startup Ziotag, technology which can identify and catalog online video content.

In addition to Ziotag, you will also learn why Medellin, Colombia is the place to be right now, what we can expect from AI in the future, and how Michael survived a terrifying plane crash in Rome. Puscar also shares his thoughts on our Weird Wide Web story from MIT’s Technology Review on news that Microsoft has created a tool to find pedophiles in online chats.

Suicide impacts us all. Whether it is from someone we know personally, to a well-loved celebrity, losing someone to suicide is never easy. According to Save.org, Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US for all ages, with one death occurring every 12 minutes.

In our society, we want to do all we can to help those suffering from suicidal thoughts to get the help they need, however, identifying symptoms before an attempt is made can be difficult. In this episode, we will look at how predictive AI us being used to stop suicide before it happens.

To discuss this topic I am joined by two guests. My first guest is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Medicine, and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr.Colin Walsh. In addition to Dr.Walsh, I am also joined by the CEO of Behavioral Signals, a pioneer in emotion AI for speech recognition technology, Rana Gujral.

And for our Neuron to something piece, we will look at a recent study that analyzing emotions triggered by events such as losing a phone or someone else holding it.

How focused are you right now? Are you aware of the feeling of your feet touching the ground? The air flowing in and out of your lungs? Or are your thoughts, racing around your head, your main focus of attention? If you are like the majority of people, it can be hard to harness your full attention and focus.

Listen to this podcast below and on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, and Radio Public.

In this battle to stay focused, we might have an unlikely ally, our smartphones. In recent years, numerous apps have popped up to help us meditate, stay calm and remain focused in our daily lives. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Drew Brazier, an experienced psychologist and the co-founder of the Mindcurrent app—a mindfulness app that uses expert tips and exercises to help users reduce stress. You will learn what benefits meditation can provide, how apps can help with daily guidance and how perceptions are changing in our society.

And for our Weird Wide Web piece, we have a story on Airbnb, regarding a new patent on software that scans user’s online presence to predict whether or not they are trustworthy.

Finding the motivation to get work done can be hard, especially after a long Christmas break. But our guest today has demonstrated that even in the toughest of circumstances we can achieve great things with the right mentality.

Born in a remote village of 6000 people in the middle of The Great Thar Desert in northwest India, Rakesh Soni has gone from no running water to running a multi-million dollar startup as the CEO and co-founder of LoginRadius, an industry leader in the Digital Identity space.

In this episode, you will learn what motivated him to leave his home, how he worked to build LoginRadius to the company it is today, and what advice he has for other entrepreneurs with limited resources.

And for our Neuron to Something piece, we have fresh research analyzing what female pick up lines work best on men.

Soni's Tech Vancouver presentation:

Rakesh Soni of LoginRadius presents From a Dusty Village in India to the Forrester Wave

Many of us think that our brains are hardwired for numbers or words; for natural science or social science. This episode challenges this assumption. It looks at the intersection of these two disciplines and the ways in which people from either background can work together to further human progress across sectors.

So, why exactly do data scientists need social scientists and where do they need to work together? Social scientists have the power to give a human context to data-driven decisions being made in areas like policy and business. In trying to create ethical AI, social scientists allow data scientists to understand the real-world impact of their algorithms and any biases they may have.

However, encouraging these teams to work together to achieve maximum impact is easier said than done. Our guests on this episode are Ganes Kesari, Head of Analytics at Gramener, and Briana Brownell, Founder and CEO at Pure Strategy Inc. They discuss all of these challenges, as well as what the future of this intersection looks like and how to encourage teams to embrace it going forward.

And for our special piece, we have Computer say LOL, with a comedy clip from Camila Cleese out of The Laugh Factory, discussing what Siri would be like if she was called Simon instead.