Critically Speaking

In this episode, Therese Markow and Catherine Lebel discuss her study of the risks of maternal prenatal stress for the developing infant brain, how maternal mental health can program the brain of a developing fetus, children’s brain structure and subsequent mental health outcomes.  

Key Takeaways:  

• There is a correlation between maternal depression during pregnancy and the thickness of her child's cerebral cortex.   
• Manage stress during pregnancy, especially early, with a strong support system including partner, family and friends.

"We know that kids born to mothers who had higher symptoms of depression are more likely themselves to go on to develop depression later." —  Catherine Lebel 

Connect with Catherine Lebel:    

Twitter:   @catherinealabel 

Website:   www.developmentalneuroimaginglab.ca/ 

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Francis Shen discuss the interaction between neuroscience and the law. While we do need to be cautious about bringing biology and neurobiology into the law space, there are instances where brain function does interact with the law. There have been questions about the insanity defense, how memory plays a role in criminal justice, how jurors’ perception might influence their decisions, and more. The questions are becoming more common as well when you begin asking questions regarding the aging brain and privacy protections. Neuroscience and law do not happen in a vacuum - current issues, such as the current racial injustice issues in the US and around the world, are also important to this topic and how they are relevant to different communities and groups of people. 

 Key Takeaways:

• We don’t know what a lie is - it is not currently possible to reliably distinguish between false statements and true statements with polygraphs. 
• There has been some reform around memory in the courtroom over the last decade informed by psychological and neuroscience. 
• Decision-making capacity and competency are not quite the same things. Courts determine competency. Decision-making capacity is routinely made by clinicians.

"Memory is foundational to the administration of Criminal Justice and the limitations evolve, and understandable and appropriate limitations of memory, pose real problems for the criminal justice system." —  Dr. Francis Shen

Connect with Dr. Francis Shen:

Website: fxshen.com

Reference: The Punisher’s Brain by Morris B. Hoffman

Connect with Therese:

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

Referral: The Jordan Harbinger Show

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

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 revolves around the development and use of facial recognition systems.  How do they work?  Who uses them?  Kade Crockford of the Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union’s Technology for Liberty Program discusses a wide range of commercial and law enforcement uses of the technology and the potential for violation of First and Fourth Amendment rights.  Because the technology and its uses are unregulated, and because the National Institute of Standards and Technology have found serious biases in the way they function, the public needs to be aware of these systems and how they are used.

 Key Takeaways:

• There are numerous companies creating and selling facial recognition systems to both commercial and law enforcement entities
• All of the systems have biases and unfortunately, the misidentification is greatest for people of color.
• There is no federal, state, or municipal regulation of these systems and their use.
• Several cities have recently made it illegal for them to be used in law enforcement.

"The effect is to deny people, en masse, their due process rights.  Not only that individual defendants don't get their fair day in court and may be wrongfully convicted, but also that the society at large can't benefit from the really important constitutional litigation that would result if defendants were notified properly of the use of this technology in their criminal cases." —  Kade Crockford

Connect with Kade Crockford:

ACLUM.org Bio: Kade Crockford  

Twitter: @onekade

Blog: PrivacySOS.org

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.  

The obesity epidemic has very complex and interacting drivers. But thinking about obesity at the pandemic is even more important.   Obesity is a major preexisting risk for COvID19.  With people cooped up inside, eating in their homes, it’s critical that consumers be extra aware of the products they buy and managing their weight.   The way in which products are marketed and the way society views the concept of "normal" are important but less obvious contributors to the obesity epidemic.  Dr. Brent McFerran, holder of the W.J. VanDusen Professorship of Marketing, at Simon Fraser University discusses his studies about consumer psychology and marketing as they relate to the obesity epidemic. 

 Key Takeaways:

• Obesity adds extra risks for the outcomes for COVID19 victims.  

• There is an important difference between statistical “normal” and clinical “normal” as they relate to body size.
• The way in which products are marketed influences consumer choices with respect to food.
• Acceptance of larger bodies can influence people’s consumption as well as their motivations with respect to health behaviors.

"We find that when larger bodies are coupled with these acceptance cues, we see a decreased motivation to engage in healthy behaviors, a decreased desire to reduce one’s own calorie consumption, and an increased consumption in actual unhealthy food." —  Dr. Brent McFerran

Connect with Dr. Brent McFerran: 

Profile: Brent McFerran  

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 and Dr. Raid Amin discuss what cancer clusters or cancer hot spots are and how they get their official designation. In today’s society where there are many types of cancers and hot spots appear to be associated with particular geographic areas across the UNited states.   Cancer clusters can only be identified, officially, by the CDC regardless of the cancer data in an area. For the general public, the only cancer information you can easily access is that at your local county level. Dr. Amin discusses some of the research that he and his graduate students have done into cancer clusters and the relationship to Superfund sites, the economics behind some of those locations, and the ongoing research.

 Key Takeaways:

• The CDC, the Department for Environmental Protection, and the Department of Health all worth together if the situation appears serious enough with a cancer cluster or hot spot as identified by the CDC.
• When a county has zero Superfund sites, it has a significantly lower cancer rate than the rest of the USA where they have some Superfund sites. The more Superfund sites in a county, the higher the number of cancers.
• The research on cancer clusters, superfund sites, and their associations is still ongoing. While not well-publicized in the media, a number of scholarly investigations, such as those of Dr. Amin, are continuing.

"Most locals have no clue what's happening. Simply, we have to trust the system. It seems that's the way it is. And that's why I decided to study [superfund sites] and its association to cancers." —  Dr. Raid Amin

Connect with Dr. Raid Amin:

UWF Bio: Dr. Raid Amin  

Superfund Information: EPA.gov/Superfund  

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.  

Glenn Morrison is a professor in Environmental Science and Engineering with a primary interest in chemical and transport phenomena in building environments. These phenomena help us understand, but also control, human exposure to chemicals and particles that are released or transformed indoors. Dr. Morrison has directed research projects and field studies of dermal uptake of indoor pollutants, ozone surface chemistry, building forensics, sensor development, pollutant movement in buildings, aerosol transport of SVOCs, exposure implications of smog reactions with human surfaces and hair and related projects. 

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Glenn Morrison discuss the change in how society has viewed and handled indoor air pollutants and how that view continues to change as technologies change. They go into more detail about what we know about air pollutants, their sources, and their abilities to damage human health. In addition, Therese and Dr. Morrison continue on to talk about steps, both easy and difficult, that you can do to avoid pollutants in your home and ways to make your life safer and healthier from air pollutants. 

 Key Takeaways:  

• There are thousands of pollutants present in buildings, most are specific chemicals from building materials. 
• Buildings breathe – even if your house seems “closed up” there is still minor airflow from tiny cracks and window edges. You are always breathing outdoor air, even if it has been inside for several hours. 
• Keeping buildings dry is really important for good air quality. 

"Never burn anything in your home. Anything that produces these fine particles from combustion is potentially a problem and you’re just adding to the amount of pollution you’re breathing in." —  Dr. Glenn Morrison 

Connect with Dr. Glenn Morrison:    

UNC Profile: Glenn Morrison, PhD    

Video Presentation: Indoor Chemistry Applications and Solutions, Dr. G. Morrison 

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.  

Bats, bats everywhere...except in the arctic and antarctic. Bats are about ⅕ of the total species of mammals in the world, and yet, we don’t know a lot about them and we cannot pinpoint how many species of bats there are in the world. Bats have been in the media more and more in recent years in regards to diseases and virus transfer between species. This has been especially common in the news and media in regards to the novel COVID-19 Virus currently causing a worldwide pandemic. In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Vikram Misra discuss Dr. Misra’s research in bats and bat borne viruses. They talk about the life span (and health for that life span) of the bats, what we have observed in regards to the bat health, how they avoid getting ill, and how they shed the virus. The evolution of viruses also plays a roll in the transmission between species of these viruses and potential epidemics. In order to solve these epidemic questions, this is a problem for One Health - everyone, in all fields, must work together to solve the problems and questions of world wide health. 

 Key Takeaways:

• What we know about one species of bats may not apply to others due to the number of species of bats. 
• Evolution is a pretty powerful tool. If you have thousands and thousands of viruses and one mutation, one mutant that just has this small selective advantage, and very soon you start selection for it.
• We do not currently have a lot of data on the COVID-19 virus. Without more data, it is dangerous to speculate on this viruhout more good data to back it up.

"[Bat’s have] a lot to teach us. Longevity itself is not important. If you live to be 150 years old, and you have to spend the last 60 years in bed because you were bedridden, that isn't any good, right? It would be very nice if you were healthy for your entire lifespan. They can, hopefully, teach us how to do that. And also, if we can figure out how they deal with viral infections without getting really ill, then that might help us as well." —  Dr. Vikram Misra

Connect with Dr. Vikram Misra:

Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan: Vikram Misra  

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.  

Evidence is emerging that inflammation during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk for disorders such as autism and schizophrenia in the developing fetus, disorders that sometimes appear much later in the individual's life. Dr. Hanna Stevens, Child Psychiatrist, Division Director of Child Psychiatry and Head of the Psychiatry and Early Neurobiological Development Lab (PENDL) at the Carver College of Medicine University of Iowa, discusses the relationship between material inflammation and later psychiatric outcomes.  

• There’s evidence that preeclampsia increases the risk of autism in offspring by about 50% more than it would be otherwise. 
• Microglial cells found in the fetal brain act as immune cells, but when chemical signals of inflammation are present, the cells behave differently and may impact brain development.  
• It is essential to receive prenatal care, and if you are experiencing problems linked to maternal inflammation, such as contagious diseases or preeclampsia, seek medical attention. 

"The reason for looking at this research and studying these processes is not to suggest individual women are supposed to figure out how to solve the problem.  It is at a much higher level of figuring out how, as a society, we protect healthy brain development.." —  Hanna Stevens 

Connect with Dr. Hanna Stevens:    

Website:  medicine.uiowa.edu/psychiatry/hanna-stevens 

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 and Dr. Ed Vargo discuss all things termite - what termites are, the different types of termites, and how and why they are destroying homes. Termites are wood-eating insects and, in their natural environments, they are key aspects of the ecosystem. However, when they get into homes, they cannot determine that the beams used to build our homes are any different than the logs they eat in their ecosystems. Termites are colony insects like bees and ants, however, they are different in their social structure and organizational aspects. Because of this, there can be differences in how they are treated and eradicated. The biggest problem with this, is new species are being introduced all the time due to the infestation of these termites in imported cargo, particularly from parts of Asia. They wrap up their conversation discussing what we have learned from research done at universities and by scientists and how that has affected the way in which we now treat these termite infestations. 

 Key Takeaways:

• Termites play a valuable role in their natural ecosystem, but they cannot determine the difference between the wood in a forest and the beams of your house. 
• In one year, one termite won’t do a significant amount of damage, but a colony of 100,000 can do much more damage. If you have a contract with someone to check yearly, damage can usually be caught before it is too bad. 
• New species could be introduced at any time. Due to the millions of cargo containers that come into the United States every day, there is no way to inspect every single cargo hold. 

"The subterranean termites that I mentioned are the most widespread termites, all the way from Florida on the East Coast up into southern New England - Massachusetts, all across the country to the west coast, up and down the west coast from California to Washington. So just the very northern parts in the Midwest and very northern parts in the east, don't have these termites. The further you go south and the more of these termites you find and so the more likely you are to have an infestation. The dry wood termites occur along the Gulf Coast states and also coastal California." —  Dr. Ed Vargo

Connect with Dr. Ed Vargo:

Texas A&M University: Urban and Structural Entomology Program at Texas A&M University

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.