Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson

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Chapters:0:00 Natural kinds15:30 Generative AI22:15 Our sponsors29:00 TiktokHost Theral Timpson and guest Sean Tanamara explore their friendship in a conversation about philosophy and current trends.

Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid…

Chapters: 0:00 Hangover biology8:12 Concern over GMOs: what is “natural?”26:36 The age of synthetic biology33:20 Who’s making the decision:  me or my microbes?Many of us enjoy a glass of wine over dinner. Sometimes two. Sometimes more. And we all have our own hangover cures. Lots of water. Some folks say salt helps if you have a headache.

Zack Abbott is a scientist entrepreneur and CEO of ZBiotics, a company making a genetically engineered remedy for the common hangover.  Most of the toxic acetaldehyde that comes from alcohol is processed by the liver.  But some of it goes to the gut, and Zack says this is what gives us the morning-after symptoms from drinking.  ZBiotics is a probiotic that is genetically engineered to help the gut process this toxic byproduct, thereby relieving symptoms.Many in America and around the world are concerned about consuming genetically modified (GMO) products.  Zack says this concern is rooted in a good place, and he goes on to address the fears around GMO products.  For Zack, addressing this question is a great passion in life.  Part of the reason for founding ZBiotics was to engage with consumers on the GMO discussion, giving them a product that is helpful and optional. (Zack says we have been forced to accept many GMO products.)Zack and his company are part of a growing movement in synthetic biology focused on new consumer products that will enable better health and sustainable living.

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Chapters:0:00 On DNA . . .10:45 The human mosaic: We’re all cousins20:25 Days of COVID - A scientist looks inward30:05 Lab leak?  The issue of biosecurity43:52 Why do we humans resist knowledge?52:15 Ancestry and racism1:02:45 Root is bringing genetic insights for free1:08:55 Umfeld: Animals and consciousness

Today I’m pleased to welcome a friend to the show, someone who has been a podcast guest of mine many times.  For five years we did a monthly show together.  Nathan Pearson is the CEO of a genetic testing company, Root.  He’s also a brilliant scientist who I admire and respect.Nathan has been a leading genomicist at the time when next generation sequencers and high powered big data were bringing powerful new and cheap ways of looking at the human genome.What impact has genomics had on our understanding of who we are as humans?  We talk about the pandemic-was it was caused by a lab leak? Nathan is a specialist on ancestry. We talk about race and racism. We end with a disagreement about the minds of animals.Mostly, it is a fun conversation with one of my favorite people on the planet.

Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fivewiththeral.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fivewiththeral.com

0:00 Origin of life: Assembly theory provides the mechanism for selection before genes come along.

14:25 Criticism of assembly theory?

26:50 Cancer and death

40:49 Why would aliens have different mathematics?

This interview with Glasgow-based professor of chemistry, Lee Cronin, was originally recorded on our sister biology podcast last summer. The show cov…

Chapters:0:00 Why not more Native American restaurants?4:48 True wild rice, elk, bison, and Owamni’s menu9:27 "Control the food, control the people”—Henry Kissinger13:00 Not just food, but knowledge of food16:40 Engaging with modern capitalism to preserve ancient wisdom25:22 Is there support in the Native American community?27:35 "Be aware of the land."Why aren’t there more Native American restaurants around the country?  When you visit a big city, even a small city, you are treated to a wide variety of cuisines in America:  Italian, Chinese, French, German, Thai.  When was the last time you had Native American cuisine?

Sean Sherman, called the Sioux Chef, is the owner of the Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis.  On their menu, you will find food made only from ingredients available in America before Columbus. Instead of chicken, pork, and dairy, we see wild rice, rabbit, and bison. Starters (Wathotho) include Wild Mushroom Chowder and Sweet Potato Soup. For a main (Waksika Thanka), how about Seaweed Seabass or a Ribeye of Smoked Bison?  The Sioux Chef calls it “decolonialized food.” In 2022, Owamni won the James Beard Award for best new restaurant in the U.S., and recently Sean won the Julia Child Award for 2023.Sean joins us today to share the history of Native American cuisine, his path to creating Owamni, and his vision for an expanded Native food culture. We all know the sad story of why there aren’t more Native American restaurants.  But in asking this question anew, Sean is not only querying history but making a statement.  He is reimagining a future where Americans can connect and perhaps heal with our history while developing a new understanding of the land around us and its gifts all through the great joy of food. 

Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fivewiththeral.com/subscribe

Chapters:0:00 Why Southern Utah?5:00 How is genomics changing medicine?11:03 New genomics center at Utah Tech17:37 When should one get pharmacogenetics testing?25:10 Impact on cancer care33:32 Early cancer detection36:42 What about diabetes and cardiology?42:17 The future of genomics

Most of us have family and friends who have died from cancer. We also know many who survive it. Whenever there is a cancer diagnosis, we are left asking why.  Is it lifestyle, is it family inheritance, or is it random mutations in the genes? In fact, the study of our DNA is revolutionizing cancer treatment. Since sequencing the human genome in 2003, four areas where biologists have traced connections between our genotype and our phenotype have become meaningful in mainstream medicine:  cancer, reproductive health, rare disease diagnosis and treatment, and pharmacogenetics, or matching the right drug to our genetic makeup.My producer, Ayanna, and I have talked much about genomics on our other podcast, Mendelspod.  That is its primary focus with an expert audience.    Over there we call it the “genomics revolution” or the “Century of Biology.”  Today we wanted to bring one of the superstars in the field of genomic medicine to Five O’Clock to discuss genomics and its impact on medicine and the average person.  Howard McLeod has been named as the top-ranked pharmacogeneticist in the U.S. and No. 2 globally.  He is a Professor of Biology and Medicine at the new Center for Precision Medicine and Functional Genomics at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah.  Early in the program, Howard says, “Genomics is a bit of a crystal ball for an individual person, in terms of forecasting what is coming.  It’s not perfect.  There are all sorts of things that can happen that have nothing to do with your genome.  But it does allow you to find some things much earlier than they would declare themselves naturally.  Genomics now ranges from “I have cancer.  What is this cancer, and how should we treat it? All the way back to, “I’m a young person.   What things might I have in my future as I age?” According to Howard, these are early days in genomic medicine.    If this was a baseball game, Howard says, we’re in the third or fourth inning. “We’re still pretty early on.  We have the technology to know a lot more.  I expect that ten or fifteen years from now, we won’t spend a lot of time talking about genomics. And the reason why is it will just be normal.”

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fivewiththeral.com/subscribe

Chapters:

0:00 Marx is not our contemporary, but from a past world that no longer exists

10:52 Two personal losses that shape the young Marx

17:35 The early journalist who writes against communism

21:45 In Paris, the communist is born

24:30 Finding "the proletariat"

31:00 Have Marx’s ideas had staying power?

34:15 Pushing back on historicism

37:13 Marx in today’s politics

43:50 What to read?

Is Marx relevant today?  Our guest on today’s show says Marx was a product of the 19th century and not much more.  

But tune into the current presidential race in the U.S., and you’ll hear his name bandied about right and left—primarily by Republican candidates using Marx as a bogeyman.  Democrats can seem a bit nervous when Marx’s name comes up.   How much is their platform influenced by the New Marxists of the 60s and the application of Marx's core ideas to race, gender, and sexuality?  Indeed, how much do we still use Marxian economic categories to see history through the lens of class struggle?

We talk with Jonathan Sperber, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri and author of Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life.  Jonathan’s aim in the book is to rethink the way we look at this famous thinker, activist, philosopher, journalist, economist, and author.

“For a long time--and this reflects the impact of the Cold War and the massive political and military confrontations of the 20th century--people saw Marx as a contemporary.   He was either this brilliant thinker who understood perfectly the nature of today’s world and its future development, or he was this evil genius behind the most horrible mass murders and dictatorships of the 20th century.  If you liked Marx, he was Nelson Mandela.  If you didn’t like him, he was Sadam Hussein.  I think about him differently, someone more like Martin Luther,” says Jonathan at the outset of today’s program.

Jonathan wants us to see Marx in context, as a person shaped by his time whose ideas were created for specific moments in the 19th century.   What events shaped the young Marx and turned him into one of Europe’s greatest agitators and activists and at one time, leader of the communist party?  What has been the staying power of Marx’s ideas, and how does he figure in today’s politics and political thought?

5 O'Clock with Theral Timpson is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fivewiththeral.com/subscribe

Chapters:

0:00 The story behind Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto: fearing his homosexuality

10:30 Do we let artists off the hook?

17:55 Are there Tchaikovskys around today?

27:45 Classical music was written by people like us - it’s for everyone

33:30 How does great music stop us in our tracks?

Welcome to our first episode of the Five O’Clock Podcast.  I’m your host, Theral Timpson, and I'm delighted to share this journey with you.   Music has the ability to stop us in our tracks, whatever we might be doing.  A while ago, I was driving down the freeway in my car, and a song came over the radio that so moved me, I had to pull over.  It was Tchaikovsy’s violin concerto.  The piece filled me with such joy that I was overcome and found myself contemplating my entire life.  How does music do this?  Was Tchaikovsky just an expert composer sitting at his piano every morning moving notes around as he sipped his morning tea?  Well, it turns out, no.  There was a story behind the piece that was at the heart of Tchaikovsky’s personal life.  

When it comes to back stories on classical music, there is no one better to tell them than Robert Greenberg.  He’s a composer himself, a pianist, a professor, and a musicologist.  He can talk about music and musicians like no one I’ve ever heard.  I discovered Robert over twenty years ago in the audiobook section of the Los Angeles Public Library where I found one of his Great Courses series on Beethoven piano sonatas.  When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I had the chance to hear him live on numerous occasions giving the introduction to concerts such as complete Schubert string quartet cycles.  I am thrilled to have him on our first program.

Back to Tchaikovsky.  What led to such an outpouring of joy and love in the violin concerto?  It was written after he fled his marriage of three weeks.  I give the popular story.  Robert has a seedier version.  

Tchaikovsky was always living on the edge—this gave him material.  But music also gave him an escape.  Are there Tchaikovskys around today?  Do we give artists a pass for all their drama because they create such beauty?  And, finally, how does music move us so profoundly?  

Robert says we are hard-wired for it.  It can change our heartbeat and intensify the biological patterns at our core.  Yes, all this, but after learning of Tchaikovsky’s personal story, is there more?

A link to Robert’s fantastic blog

5 O'Clock with Theral Timpson is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fivewiththeral.com/subscribe