Mind & Matter

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Gül Dölen, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. Her lab studies the circuit and synaptic mechanisms of social cognition in health and disease. Nick and Dr. Dölen discussed her research on critical periods for social reward learning in rodents, the role of oxytocin in social behavior and learning, and how MDMA ("ecstasy") promotes pro...

Send us Fan Mail Martin Kulldorff, PhD is an epidemiologist & biostatistician who has been studying infectious diseases for over two decades. He was a professor at Harvard Medical School for many years, a member of the FDA’s Drug Safety & Risk Management Advisory Committee, and a former consultant for the Centers for Disease Control. In 2020, Dr. Kulldorff co-authored the Great Barrington...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup about various topics related to consciousness and the nature of reality. They discuss: psychological dissociation; the scientific study of 'neural correlates of consciousness'; the nature of perception and the influence of language on the mind; why the 'Hard Problem' of consciousness is so diffic...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to cancer biologist Dr. Marsha Rosner, who is a Professor of Cancer Research at the University of Chicago. Her lab focuses largely on understanding the biochemical signaling mechanisms that lead to the generation of tumor cells, as well as how and why cancer cells metastasize, which is when they travel from one part of the body to another. Nick and Dr. Rosner an...

Send us Fan Mail Kevin McKernan is a renowned leader in DNA sequencing technology. He led a research team part of the original Human Genome Project and is the founder and Chief Science Officer of Medicinal Genomics, a life sciences company that distributes genetics-based platforms for quality and safety testing of legal cannabis. Nick and Kevin discussed the Cannabis genome, the genome of Psilocyb...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of Sci-hub, a shadow library website that provides free access to millions of research papers and books, without regard to copyright, by bypassing publishers' paywalls in various ways. Sci-hub is used by millions of people around the world each month, granting them free and easy access to scientific research findings.  Nick spoke...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Suzanne Devkota, a microbiologist whose lab studies the gut microbiome in health and disease. They discuss a variety of topics related to the gut microbiome: how it is influenced by diet; how antibiotics and probiotics affect it; different disease states and metabolic disorders, such as IBS and obesity; how gut microbes can affect the brain and behavior; the micr...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Amy Reichelt, a neuroscientist and expert on the effects of diet and nutrition on the brain. They discussed how the brain is wired to help us learn about food, how what we eat influences the function of circuits within the brain, how certain diets can actually cause damage to the brain and negatively impact learning, obesity, and other topics related to nutrition...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Paul Barrett, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Paul has spent nearly 30 years as a paleontologist studying the evolution and biology of dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles. He has authored over 200 scientific papers, and his speciality is in non-avian dinosaurs. Nick talked to Paul about all things dinosaurs, including what a dinosau...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Reggie Gaudino, a molecular geneticist and expert in the phytochemistry, biochemistry, genomics, and breeding of commercial Cannabis . He is the former Chief Science Officer of Steep Hill, one of the first cannabis testing labs in the US, and is currently VP of Research & Development at Frontrange Biosciences. Nick & Reggie discuss various topics related...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Dr. David Roberson, a neuroscientist and co-founder of three ongoing biotech companies: Nocion Therapeutics, Blue Therapeutics, and Blackbox Bio. David is an expert in the neuroscience of pain and the conversation focuses mainly on pain: how does our brain sense and perceive pain? Why does pain sometimes become chronic, and last for a long-time? How do variou...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Alexandros Marinos, PhD, founder & CEO of the edge computing technology startup, Balena. They discuss the internal organization of complex human systems.  Alex talked about how he thinks about the organizational structure of his own company and how organizational structures impact group dynamics, growth, conflicts of interest, and innovation. One interesting area...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to materials scientist Dr. Chris Weikart, who  is currently chief scientist at SiO2, an advanced materials science company that combines chemistry and engineering to create containers and surfaces for use by biotechnology, genomics, diagnostics, and consumer products companies.  They discuss how SiO2 created a new kind of vaccine vial, which combines both glass...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Jonathan Schaefer about the link between adolescent cannabis (marijuana) use and psychosis.  Jonathan has a PhD in clinical psychology and he is currently a research psychologist at the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development. His research focuses largely on the relationship between people’s environments that influence their mental health. He has c...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Sam Wang, PhD professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. Dr. Wong’s lab investigates how brains learn from sensory experience, in adulthood and development, with relevance for autism. A lot of their work focuses on a part of the brain called the cerebellum.  They talk about the cerebellum and what we’re learning about its functions, as well as how it’...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Dr. Nathan Price, who has a Ph. D. in bioengineering and has been faculty at the University of Washington and the Institute of Systems Biology. He was also CEO of a health intelligence startup called Onegevity, which recently merged with Thorne HealthTech, where he is the Chief Science Officer.  Nathan and Nick discussed various topics in personalized medicin...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to medicinal chemist Dr. David Olson whose lab at the University of California-Davis studies a class of compounds called ‘psychoplastogens,’ which are small molecules capable of promoting neural plasticity. His lab is on the cutting edge when it comes to understanding the mechanisms by which psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs work in the brain. They touch...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to genetic engineer Dr. Alina Chan about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss Alina's new book, "Viral: The Search For the Origin of COVID-19," which she co-wrote with Matt Ridley. The book thoroughly documents the events & people relevant to COVID's origins. They discuss everything from...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks with Dr. Anil Seth, a neuroscientist and professor of cognitive & computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex. The conversation is all about the neuroscience of consciousness, which is the subject of his Dr. Seth's book, “Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.“ They touch on everything from what consciousness actually is, whether or not neuroscie...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuroscientist and writer Dr. Erik Hoel. Erik is a professor of biology at Tufts University. He received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under the sleep and consciousness researcher, Giulio Tononi. He did postdoctoral work at Columbia University, where he used information theory and other analytical tools to explore the biol...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Dr. Steven Laviolette, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Ontario. They discuss how different types of drugs impact emotion, cognition, brain development and the development of psychiatric conditions  (e.g. addition, schizophrenia); drug interactions (THC + CBD, THC + L-Theanine, CBD + Omega-3 Fatty Acids), how drugs can affect brain development wh...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Saoirse O'Sullivan, PhD, a physiologist specializing in the physiological effects of cannabinoids. Dr. O'Sullivan ran a lab at the University of Nottingham for many years before becoming a consultant and Vice President of Translational Research at Artello Biosciences. They discuss some of the physiological effects of cannabinoids in the body, includ...

Send us Fan Mail Christian Luscher, MD, PhD is a neuroscientist and neurologist who runs a research lab at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Dr. Lusher's lab studies the mechanisms that underlie drug reinforcement and addiction in the brain and he is an expert in the neuroscience of drug addiction.  Christian talks to Nick  about: what is addiction is and what some key parts of the bra...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to writer and science journalist Nicholas Wade about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 pandemic. Nicholas describes how this story has evolved since the start of the pandemic, and contrasts the the two main hypotheses for the origins of COVID: wildlife spillover vs. lab leak. He describes how viruses in the past (e.g. SARS1) emerged, peculiari...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger about human evolution. Dr. Berger is a professor of anthropology in South Africa, explorer-in-residence for National Geographic, and author of, "Becoming Human." Lee's team has mapped and explored caves all over South Africa, discovering a treasure trove of ancient human fossils. This includes the discovery of...