Master Minds

In this episode of the podcast, we’re taking a slight detour from our usual guest, and I couldn’t be more excited. Professor Rebecca Messbarger wears many hats, among them, Professor of Art History and Global Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Italian, and Co-founder and Director of Medical Humanities here at WashU. This episode is a fascinating dive into how literature and art, both an...

Dr. Ray Arvidson is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University. He directs the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Laboratory, where he studies terrestrial and extraterrestrial planetary surfaces, including Mars, Venus, and the Moon. Professor Arvidson has led and participated in many major NASA projects, most not...

We were so excited to have the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Michael Kinch: author, scientist, and Associate Vice Chancellor at WashU. Dr. Kinch has a scientific background in cancer and immunological and infectious diseases. He founded and currently directs the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Development here at WashU. In this episode, we’ll discuss Dr. Kinch’s contri...

We are so excited to have had the opportunity to sit down with Chancellor Emeritus of Washington University in St. Louis, Mark Wrighton. Over the course of twenty four years, he oversaw the establishment of the East End and several important endowed professorships, which brought renowned faculty members to Washington University. But what many don't know is that Wrighton made a name for himself...

Dr. Len Green is Professor of Psychology and Economics and the director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at WashU. His research laid the groundwork for the field of behavioral economics: the study of the psychological factors that impact economic theories. Dr. Green did this in a rather unusual way; he performed studies on rats and pigeons! What can th...

Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox is the co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute of Public Health here at WashU. By trade, she is both a Duke/Harvard-trained physician and health policy researcher. She now focuses on how to best improve healthcare administration—Where should hospitals funnel the most money into? What is the most equitable payment model? How do we make care...

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Dr. Nupur Ghoshal is a physician-scientist and associate professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the WashU School of Medicine. She primarily treats patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Her research focuses on the tau protein, a molecule that forms neurofibrillary tangles in the brain and has shown to be a promising biomarker for Alzheimer’s. Dr. G is also...

Dr. Green is a physician and scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at the WashU School of Medicine. Her practice and research focus on the etiology of genome instability in pediatric cancers and the resulting genome-protective responses, also called DNA damage responses, that are central to them. She spent her residency and fellowship at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and is double bo...

Today, I’m talking to Dr. Julia Lopez—public health researcher, licensed social worker, and instructor at the Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Lopez focuses her work on addressing gaps in research and clinical care in the areas of sexual and gender minority health, racial disparities, HIV care, and women’s health. Her goal is to provide a platform for these populations through practic...

Technology is heavily ingrained in the process of voting. From presidential polling to biased news sources and the media, the advent of digital communication has co-opted the process of informing ourselves and choosing the candidates we want to support. It seems that we are in need of a trusty third-party to hand us the facts. So today I’m talking with Terry Crandall—economics professor, realtor,...

Today I’m talking to Dr. Pankaj Vij, wellness physician, speaker, and author of the book Turbo Metabolism. Dr. Vij is passionate about preventing and reversing metabolic diseases by treating their root causes. He is a Director of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance and the Chief Architect of Crack the Wellness Code - a global community platform for health promotion. Personally, I’m interested i...