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Short Summary: A deep dive into the enigmatic world of sleep, exploring its biological functions, evolutionary origins, and diverse manifestations across different species.

About the Guest: Nicola Segata, PhD is a professor at the University of Trento in Italy.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

Episode Summary: Dr. Segata explains metagenomics, the study of genetic material from multiple species, and how it has revolutionized microbiome research; microbiome transmission from mother to child; stability and plasticity of the microbiome throughout life stages; obesity and cancer; influence of diet, lifestyle, and medications like antibiotics on microbiome composition.

Key Takeaways:

• Microbiome Variability: The human microbiome varies significantly between individuals and is influenced by genetics, environment, diet, and lifestyle. Thus, personalized approaches to microbiome health may be necessary.
• Transmission and Acquisition: Microbes are transmitted vertically from mother to child at birth and horizontally through personal interactions. This transmission can influence health outcomes over one's lifetime.
• Impact of Diet and Drugs: Diet, particularly coffee consumption, can significantly shape the microbiome, with some bacteria growing in response to specific dietary components. Medications like antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors can also markedly alter microbial communities.
• Health Implications: The microbiome is linked to various health conditions, from metabolic diseases to cancer, with some treatments like fecal microbiota transplantation showing promise in altering microbiome composition for health benefits.
• Ancient vs. Modern Microbiomes: Studies on ancient microbiomes, like the Iceman's, suggest that modern urban microbiomes differ from those of our ancestors, potentially impacting modern health issues.

Related episodes:

• M&M #178: Microbiome & Gut-Immune Interactions in Obesity & Metabolic Health | June R

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

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• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

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Subscriber-only episode

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Short Summary: A deep dive into the enigmatic world of sleep, exploring its biological functions, evolutionary origins, and diverse manifestations across different species.

About the Guest: Nicola Segata, PhD is a professor at the University of Trento in Italy.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

Episode Summary: Dr. Segata explains metagenomics, the study of genetic material from multiple species, and how it has revolutionized microbiome research; microbiome transmission from mother to child; stability and plasticity of the microbiome throughout life stages; obesity and cancer; influence of diet, lifestyle, and medications like antibiotics on microbiome composition.

Key Takeaways:

• Microbiome Variability: The human microbiome varies significantly between individuals and is influenced by genetics, environment, diet, and lifestyle. Thus, personalized approaches to microbiome health may be necessary.
• Transmission and Acquisition: Microbes are transmitted vertically from mother to child at birth and horizontally through personal interactions. This transmission can influence health outcomes over one's lifetime.
• Impact of Diet and Drugs: Diet, particularly coffee consumption, can significantly shape the microbiome, with some bacteria growing in response to specific dietary components. Medications like antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors can also markedly alter microbial communities.
• Health Implications: The microbiome is linked to various health conditions, from metabolic diseases to cancer, with some treatments like fecal microbiota transplantation showing promise in altering microbiome composition for health benefits.
• Ancient vs. Modern Microbiomes: Studies on ancient microbiomes, like the Iceman's, suggest that modern urban microbiomes differ from those of our ancestors, potentially impacting modern health issues.

Related episodes:

• M&M #178: Microbiome & Gut-Immune Interactions in Obesity & Metabolic Health | June Round

*Not med

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Subscriber-only episode

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Short Summary: A deep dive into the enigmatic world of sleep, exploring its biological functions, evolutionary origins, and the diverse manifestations across different species.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the Guest: Vlad Vyazovskiy, PhD is a Professor of Sleep Physiology at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at Oxford University.

Key Takeaways:

• Sleep as a Mystery: Despite extensive research, the fundamental reason why animals sleep remains elusive, with no comprehensive theory yet agreed upon.
• Local Sleep Phenomenon: Sleep might not be a whole-brain event; even within a sleeping brain, different areas can be in different states of activity or rest.
• Sleep in Animals: Sleep varies widely among species, from micro-sleeps in penguins to unihemispheric sleep in dolphins, suggesting sleep could serve multiple, context-dependent functions.
• Synaptic Homeostasis: The hypothesis suggests that sleep could be crucial for renormalizing synaptic connections formed during wakefulness, although this idea is still under scrutiny.
• Hibernation & Torpor: These states relate to sleep but involve significant metabolic changes, possibly acting as survival mechanisms by conserving energy and reducing detectability by predators.
• Psychedelics & Sleep: Research shows psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT can induce states where animals show signs of sleep in their brain activity while physically active, hinting at complex interactions between brain states and consciousness.

Related episodes:

• M&M #43: Sleep, Dreaming, Deep Neural Networks, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Overfitted Brain Hypothesis, Evolution of Fiction & Art | Erik Hoel
• M&M #16: Sleep, Dreams, Memory & the Brain | Bob Stickgold

*Not medical advice.

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Send us a text

Short Summary: A deep dive into the enigmatic world of sleep, exploring its biological functions, evolutionary origins, and the diverse manifestations across different species.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the Guest: Vlad Vyazovskiy, PhD is a Professor of Sleep Physiology at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at Oxford University.

Key Takeaways:

• Sleep as a Mystery: Despite extensive research, the fundamental reason why animals sleep remains elusive, with no comprehensive theory yet agreed upon.
• Local Sleep Phenomenon: Sleep might not be a whole-brain event; even within a sleeping brain, different areas can be in different states of activity or rest.
• Sleep in Animals: Sleep varies widely among species, from micro-sleeps in penguins to unihemispheric sleep in dolphins, suggesting sleep could serve multiple, context-dependent functions.
• Synaptic Homeostasis: The hypothesis suggests that sleep could be crucial for renormalizing synaptic connections formed during wakefulness, although this idea is still under scrutiny.
• Hibernation & Torpor: These states relate to sleep but involve significant metabolic changes, possibly acting as survival mechanisms by conserving energy and reducing detectability by predators.
• Psychedelics & Sleep: Research shows psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT can induce states where animals show signs of sleep in their brain activity while physically active, hinting at complex interactions between brain states and consciousness.

Related episodes:

• M&M #43: Sleep, Dreaming, Deep Neural Networks, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Overfitted Brain Hypothesis, Evolution of Fiction & Art | Erik Hoel
• M&M #16: Sleep, Dreams, Memory & the Brain | Bob Stickgold

*Not medical advice.

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Subscriber-only episode

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Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the Guest: Alex Wiltschko holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard, focusing on olfaction. He transitioned from academic research to AI at Google before founding Osmo, where he applies his expertise in digitizing scents. He aims to innovate in areas like fragrance design and health applications.

Episode Summary: Dr. Wiltschko explores the science of smell, discussing the divide between aroma and olfaction studies and how biological metabolism influences scent. He explains how only a tiny fraction of molecules emitted by strawberries are responsible for their smell, illustrating the precision of olfactory perception. The conversation also covers how Osmo is working to digitize scent, creating technology for safer, custom fragrances and potential future applications like non-invasive disease detection through scent.

Key Takeaways:

• Aroma vs. Olfaction: There's a significant distinction in how the chemistry of scent creation (aroma) and brain processing of scents (olfaction) are studied, with little crossover between these fields.
• Biological Metabolism and Scent: Scent molecules are often byproducts of biological processes, with a complex relationship to nutrition and survival cues.
• Digitizing Scent: Osmo is pioneering the use of AI to digitize and manipulate scents, potentially revolutionizing fragrance design and detection technologies.
• Fragrance Innovation: The company focuses on creating unique, safe, and affordable fragrances for smaller brands, leveraging AI for quick design and production.
• Health Applications: There's potential for scent technology in health, like detecting diseases early through the volatile chemicals humans emit.

Related episodes:

• M&M #114: Marijuana, Plant Chemistry, Terpenes, Volatile Sulfur Compounds, Cannabis Industry, What Pungent Weed Smells Like & Why | Iain Oswald
• M&M #22: Machine Learning, Art

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Send us a text

Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the Guest: Alex Wiltschko holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard, focusing on olfaction. He transitioned from academic research to AI at Google before founding Osmo, where he applies his expertise in digitizing scents. He aims to innovate in areas like fragrance design and health applications.

Episode Summary: Dr. Wiltschko explores the science of smell, discussing the divide between aroma and olfaction studies and how biological metabolism influences scent. He explains how only a tiny fraction of molecules emitted by strawberries are responsible for their smell, illustrating the precision of olfactory perception. The conversation also covers how Osmo is working to digitize scent, creating technology for safer, custom fragrances and potential future applications like non-invasive disease detection through scent.

Key Takeaways:

• Aroma vs. Olfaction: There's a significant distinction in how the chemistry of scent creation (aroma) and brain processing of scents (olfaction) are studied, with little crossover between these fields.
• Biological Metabolism and Scent: Scent molecules are often byproducts of biological processes, with a complex relationship to nutrition and survival cues.
• Digitizing Scent: Osmo is pioneering the use of AI to digitize and manipulate scents, potentially revolutionizing fragrance design and detection technologies.
• Fragrance Innovation: The company focuses on creating unique, safe, and affordable fragrances for smaller brands, leveraging AI for quick design and production.

Related episodes:

• M&M #114: Marijuana, Plant Chemistry, Terpenes, Volatile Sulfur Compounds, Cannabis Industry, What Pungent Weed Smells Like & Why | Iain Oswald
• M&M #22: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Animal Behavior & Giving Computers a Sense of Smell | Alex Wiltschko

*Not medical advice.

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Send us a text

This episode educates on the complex science of dietary lipids (fats) and inflammation and provides actionable advice for managing your health through dietary choices.

Note: Full episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and are free on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the guest: Tim Yeatman, MD is a surgical oncologist and professor of surgery at the University of South Florida, also serving as an Associate Center Director for Translational Research and Clinical Innovation at the Tampa General Cancer Institute. Ganesh Halade, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, focusing on cardiovascular diseases with research centered on inflammation and resolution signaling.

Episode summary: Explores the link between dietary lipids, particularly omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils, chronic inflammation, and cancer. It starts with a historical perspective on cancer as an inflammatory disease, referencing the work of Rudolf Virchow, and delves into how modern diets have shifted to include an imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, leading to chronic inflammation. Includes insights from a recent study by Yeatman and Halade on lipid dysregulation in colon cancer, explaining how this imbalance can contribute to the development of cancer and other diseases. The conversation also touches on lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and sleep, and how they interact with lipid metabolism to affect health outcomes.

Related episodes:

• M&M #134: Omega-6-9 Fats, Vegetable & Seed Oils, Sugar, Processed Food, Metabolic Health & Dietary Origins of Chronic Inflammatory Disease | Artemis Simopoulos
• M&M #136: Seed Oils, Omega-6 PUFAs, Inflammation, Obesity, Diabetes, Chronic Disease & Metabolic Dysfunction | Chris Knobbe 

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

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Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere.

About the guest: Ben Potter, PhD is an archaeologist & Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. James Chatter, PhD is a retired archaeologist and paleontologist. They recently published a paper on the diet of the Clovis people of North America at the end of the last Ice Age.

Episode summary: Nick talks to Dr. Potter & Dr. Chatters about: the Clovis culture and initial human colonization of the Americas; human diet since the last Ice Age; ancient human diets; hunting of Mammoths and other large herbivores; Clovis technology & culture, including projectile weapons; and more.

Related episodes:

• M&M #160: Diet, Hunting, Culture and Evolution of Paleolithic Humans & Hunter Gatherers | Eugene Morin
• M&M #154: Evolution & Genetics of Human Diet, Metabolism, Disease Risk, Skin Color and Origins of Modern Europeans | Eske Willerslev

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

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Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and full video versions are free on YouTube. This episode will not be posted on YouTube due to the controversial nature of the content.

About the guest: Jessica Rose, PhD is a computational biologist who has been studying and analyzing data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Responding System (VAERS) related to COVID. 

Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Rose discuss: Vaccine Adverse Event Responding System (VAERS); analysis of VAERS data for COVID; mRNA technology; spike protein persistence & lipid nanoparticles; common adverse events reported for the Pfizer & Moderna shots; myocarditis & menstrual irregularities; IgG4 antibodies, molecular mimicry & autoimmunity; and more.

Related episodes:

• M&M #196: Vaccine Contamination & Fiat Science | Kevin McKernan
• M&M #100: Infectious Disease, Epidemiology, Pandemics, Health Policy, COVID, Politicization of Science | Jay Bhattacharya

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

Send us a text

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and free on YouTube. This is a free, partial version.

About the guest: Andrew Cutler, PhD is a machine learning engineer who has studied natural language processing, psychometrics & personality using quantitative methods. He writes about the origins of consciousness on his Substack, "Vectors of Mind"

Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Cutler discuss: language & recursion; human evolution & the origins of "higher" consciousness; symbolic cognition, social intelligence & metacognition; creation myths & ritual cults throughout history; snake cults in human history; the intentional ingestion of snake venom in the present-day; the "Stone Ape Theory" of consciousness; the origins of civilization; and more.

Related episodes:

• M&M #141: Evolution, Language, Domestication, Symbolic Cognition, AI & Large Language Models | Terrence Deacon
• M&M #1: Psychedelics, Civilization, Religion, Death & Plant Medicine | Brian Muraresku

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice

Support the show

All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack

Affiliates:

• MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off.
• Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off.
• Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.
• KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + potassium, calcium & magnesium, formulated with kidney health in mind. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription.

Learn all the ways you can support my efforts