Critically Speaking

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. David Beversdorf discuss what exactly autism is, the theories of the causes of autism, and what we do know from research of autism. Numerous non-evidence based cures for autism are becoming more common and understanding the facts of autism is becoming more critical. In this discussion with Dr. Beversdorf, we will understand more about what is autism, what are the symptoms, who first discovered it, what really causes it (and what doesn’t), and what effective treatments may be out there. 

 Key Takeaways:  

• Vaccines do not cause autism. We do know there is a genetic component and several environmental factors that appear to be important. 
• There is a variability aspect of autism. It may be extremely important to be able to track patients to see what they respond to in treatment research to see why and how they are responding. 
• Without more research, we will not be able to create personalized treatment plans for the bio markers. There are a number of organizations around the world that working to achieve this research, which is where the answers will be coming from. 

"Two, almost opposite biological aspects, could even be coming to this final common pathway of repetitive behaviors. If you blindly target the repetitive behaviors with a drug, without being aware of this biology, you will get nowhere, because one will get better and one will get worse." —  Dr. David Beversdorf 

Connect with Dr. David Beversdorf: 

Professional Bio: Dr. David Beversdorf 

Twitter: @MU_CogNeuroLab 

Facebook: MU Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory 

Connect with Therese:  

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net 

Twitter: @CritiSpeak  

Email: [email protected] 

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

We've all either heard about, or know, someone whose home is filled with things they have no use for, but won't, or can't, discard. When taken to the extreme, this is a part of hoarding disorder. While hoarding is a word that is thrown around in our common vernacular (such as people hoarding toilet paper early in this pandemic), there is more to hoarding than what most people know. In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Mary Dozier discuss what hoarding is, how it can manifest itself, and what we currently know about hoarding disorder. 

 Key Takeaways:

• Unlike many psychiatric disorders, hoarding disorder actually tends to worsen as we get older. 
• People tend to hoard the same things that most people hold on to, just in greater quantities. 
• One of the primary reasons that people seek out treatment is often that people want to be able to have other people to their homes. 

"Having attachments to objects, by itself, isn't necessarily problematic. The problem begins when the attachment is so great, and the number of objects is so many, that the individual is unable to go about their daily lives." —  Dr. Mary Dozier

Connect with Dr. Mary Dozier:

Professional Bio: psychology.msstate.edu/people/mary-dozier

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

In this culture where dreams and nightmares are such a part of our everyday language, the question becomes, what is dreaming? We all dream, so what does it mean, and how does it impact other areas of our lives, such as our mental health? In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Michael Nadorff discuss these questions, as well as diving deeper into the different cycles of sleep, the changes in our dreams and sleep as we age, different types of nightmare therapies, and the relationship between nightmares and suicide.  

 Key Takeaways:

• All dreams, good and bad, occur during the REM cycles of our sleep. The amount of REM sleep increases as the night goes on and, consequently, dreams get longer too.  
• Sleep loves the cold. If you fall asleep in too warm of an environment, during REM sleep when your temperature drops, you are more likely to wake up feeling overheated. 
• Having nightmares significantly increased the likelihood of future suicide attempts in those who had previously attempted suicide. 

"REM is so important to us that, if you are sleep deprived, your body actually prioritizes REM, and it makes it even that much more intensive." —  Dr. Michael Nadorff

Connect with Dr. Michael Nadorff:

Professional Bio: psychology.msstate.edu/people/michael-r-nadorff/  

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

We all believe in something, from Santa Claus, to the global shape of the earth, to babies needing to be taken care of for survival. While some of our beliefs are intuitive or have evidence, many are not. Sometimes the evidence that we believe to be true is faulty. In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. James Alcock discuss how these beliefs are built, how we interpret situations to create beliefs, and why we, as a society, have so many common beliefs. As humans, we like to believe we are rational beings, but so many of our beliefs are happening automatically, without our conscious thought or from common teachings that we are all exposed to from those in authority. Therese and Dr. Alcock also discuss further complications regarding belief, such as conspiracy mentalities, imagination inflation, and memory contamination and the role that these elements of complication can play in trying to suss out what to believe in this world full of many shades of gray. 

 Key Takeaways:

• We cannot learn everything in one lifetime so, as a society, we come to rely on authorities and shared, inherited beliefs. 
• There is no evidence that people can bury trauma. The problem with trauma is people can’t forget. 
• Due to mental desire to belief and idiosyncratic movements, humans often see things that are “magic” or “unexplainable” due to our own actions.

"The problem is, if we don’t have the capacity and we don’t have the motivation to critically examine the evidence, then we won’t distinguish between evidence that really is factual and evidence which is wrong." —  Dr. James Alcock

Connect with Dr. James Alcock:

Wikipedia Page: James Alcock  

Book: Belief: What it Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions are so Compelling 

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

That gender inequality still exists is no secret. Women continue to be underrepresented in corporate and academic settings. The factors underlying the situation are complex, meaning that it’s not just gender.  Women don’t all look alike, some are deemed more attractive than others. Being attractive can be a serious disadvantage for women, but not for men. A new study shows that attractive women are thought by some people to be untrustworthy or deceitful, which can influence job interview outcomes and even promotion and retention. Today, Therese talks with Dr. Leah Sheppard of the Washington State University Carson School of Business about the “Femme Fatale Effect.” 

 Key Takeaways:

• Attractive women can be at a disadvantage in the workplace.
• Men and women observers rated attractive women as less trustworthy and even deceitful, compared to unattractive women.
• This disadvantage is known as the Femme Fatale Effect.
• While men may find an attractive woman more desirable as a mate, at the same time they may feel, consciously or subconsciously, that because other men also will find her attractive, she might have more opportunities to be unfaithful.

"It's good to have an awareness of the ways you might come across, but I think everyone has to be true to who they are. You can't live your life just making modifications based on what you think other people are going to be thinking about you. The truth is, everyone has some advantages and some disadvantages in terms of how other people are going to view them." —  Dr. Leah Sheppard

Connect with Dr. Leah Sheppard:

Website: DrLeahSheppard.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leah-d-sheppard-phd-19a20336

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

In this episode, Therese Markow responds to questions from two listeners.  One listener asked why some vaccines are good for life while others have to be administered annually.   Another listener asked if some people have a natural inborn immunity to COVID.  In addition to addressing these questions, she also emphasizes the importance of basic scientific research and why it is imperative that scientists from around the world freely share their information with one another. 

 Key Takeaways:

• The types of viruses and their mutations affect the type of vaccine that we get and how often we need to get it. 
• Because the COVID-19 virus is so new, we do not have enough information to fully understand the whys and hows of virus action.
• In all cases a virus must enter the cell in order to replicate and cause illness.. Mutations in the viral genome can enhance or prevent the virus from entering. 

"We have to do our part to minimize the risks." —  Dr. Therese Markow

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

In a world full of media, which may contain misinformation or fake news, there are conspiracy theories abounding. However, conspiracy theories, and the spreading of those theories, is not a new practice, it has been around and transmitting in any way that people communicate. In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Joseph Uscinski talk about the origin of conspiracy theories and how these formal theories differ (and are similar) to the fake news and misinformation that fills our media screens today. They discuss some of the earliest US conspiracy theories, as well as some of the more modern ones, and how they are different now, with our current political climate, from what they may have done in the past. They also discuss why people believe these conspiracy theories, as well as why people believe in them, even in the face of refuting evidence. 

 Key Takeaways:

• The internet did not introduce the spread of conspiracy theories. They will always be spread in any way that people communicate.
• Our worldviews impact the media that we access, which then can filter which conspiracy theories we are likely to believe.
• The two most consistent predictors of those who believe in conspiracy theories are education and level of income.

"Most of the arguments about evidence, really aren’t about evidence - they’re just about subjective judgments about evidence, which gets us away from evidence and gets us back into how people interpret information and what the world views are they bring into interpreting that information." —  Dr. Joseph Uscinski

Connect with Dr. Joseph Uscinski:

Twitter: @JoeUscinski 

Website: JoeUscinski.com 

Books: American Conspiracy Theories & Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

Today’s episode is devoted to answering some questions from listeners.  One question has to do with the relationship between environmental factors and risk for multiple sclerosis.  On top of this, because of the role of environmental factors in disease risk, we go on to discuss the relationship between environment and breast cancer.  Another listener, a recovered COVID19 patient, asked about his risks for getting COVID19 again.  So we discuss the growing evidence for re-infection.

 Key Takeaways:

• Two environmental factors are associated with increased odds of developing MS: environment and previous infection by Epstein-Barr virus.  This association is statistical and not predictive, nor are the mechanisms by which risk is increased understood.
• Cases of re-infection with COVID19 are beginning to surface.  The implications for the long term effectiveness of antibodies and vaccines are discussed.

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

We usually know wisdom when we see it.  But how do we define it?  What exactly is it?

Today’s guest, Dr. Dilip Jeste, University of California San Diego College of Medicine, a renowned neuropsychiatrist who studies aging, discusses the concept of wisdom and how it relates to aging and age discrimination.  His research group has developed an instrument to measure wisdom and he discusses with Therese the regions of the brain where wisdom resides. They also discuss the “Grandmother Hypothesis” and the very solid evidence for the benefits for children and teenagers of having an older adult in the home.

 Key Takeaways:

• Older adults should be valued in the workplace for the stability and judgment they bring and the fact that younger workers learn a lot from participating in a transgenerational workplace.
• Wisdom is complex and comprised of compassion, empathy, tolerance of diverse views, and the ability to be introspective.
• Wisdom components reside primarily in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala of the brain.
• Wisdom can be improved when people learn from their experiences and develop compassion.
• Dr. Jeste’s new book “Wiser”, which defines wisdom and provides insights as to how we develop wisdom,  can be purchased in book stores and various sites such as Amazon.

"For wisdom, one of the most important components of wisdom is empathy and compassion. It is not only useful for oneself, is not only useful for improving your own wellbeing, it is also useful for the society." —  Dr. Dilip Jeste

Connect with Dr. Dilip Jeste:

UCSD Bio: profiles.ucsd.edu/dilip.jeste  

Book: amazon.com/Wiser-Scientific-Roots-Wisdom-Compassion/dp/1683644638

Website: wiserthebook.com

TedMed: tedmed.com/speakers/show?id=526374

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.  

In this episode, Therese and Dr. Michael Metzger talk about various forms of cancer that are contagious, in other words, it can be passed from one individual to another.  More of these are being discovered across a range of animal species.  Some of the cases involve vertebrate animals and others, invertebrates such as clams and mussels.  They discuss how the fates of infected individuals vary from resistance to death and the implications for resistance to human cancer therapies. 

 Key Takeaways:  

• Dogs pass cancer by mating, resulting in tumors in the reproductive tract. 
• Tasmanian Devils pass cancer by biting during fights. 
• In marine mollusks, the cancer is thought to be spread in the water. 
• None of these cancers have been found to pass to humans. 
• The fact that some individuals are resistant, suggests that mechanisms exist which can be exploited in treating human cancers, once resistance is understood. 

“We think that, by understanding these really extreme cases of cancer transmission in the wild, we can understand things that we wouldn’t be able to learn from just studying human cancers." —  Dr. Michael Metzger 

Connect with Dr. Michael Metzger: 

PNRI Profile: Metzger Lab    

Twitter: @themetzgerm 

NIH Bibliography: Michael Metzger’s Bibliography    

Connect with Therese:  

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net 

Twitter: @CritiSpeak  

Email: [email protected] 

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.