Mind & Matter

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...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to physicist and neuroscientist Dr. Michael Crair. Michael runs a lab at Yale University studying mechanisms of brain development. He discussed research related to neural plasticity, learning & memory, sensory maps, and critical periods of plasticity. Dr. Crair also described recent findings from his lab show that parts of the developing brain can simulate future se...

Send us Fan Mail Applying evolutionary principles to navigate modern challenges like health, culture, and society. Not medical advice. TOPICS DISCUSSED: Human niche as niche-switching: Humans uniquely adapt by changing behaviors and environments, enabling survival across diverse conditions, unlike specialized animals. Culture vs. consciousness: Culture encodes efficient, habitual behaviors passed...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Stanford psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Karl Deisseroth. They discuss a range of topics about the brain, including autism, depression, bipolar disorder, dissociation, and more. They also talk about optogenetics, a technique Karl co-developed which uses light to control specific neurons in the brain, allowing neuroscientists to turn circuits in the brain on and o...

Send us Fan Mail Nick to talks to psychology student Rob Henderson about social status, social signaling, luxury beliefs, and related topics in social psychology and human behavior. *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting AquaTru : Water filtration devices that remove microplastics, metals, bacteria, and more from your drinking water....

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to medicinal chemist Dr. David Nichols, who has spent decades studying the chemistry and pharmacology of psychedelics. Dr. Nichols shared his knowledge of psychedelic tryptamines, including LSD and DMT, as well as phenethylamines, such as mescaline and MDMA. He also discussed his relationship with the late Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin and how his thoughts on...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks with evolutionary biologist Dr. Sarah Otto about the evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, the emergence of new variants, whether she thinks we will need shots every year (like with the flu), mRNA vaccines, and more. *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting AquaTru : Water filtration devices that remove micro...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Aaron Gruber about topics related to cognition and learning in the brain, including what we know about how the brain detects salience and assigns value, makes decisions, and constructs flexible models of the world, sometimes called ‘schemas.’ They also discuss how neuropsychiatric disorders like depression can influence the brain’s schemas, as well...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to applied physicist and neuroscientist, Dr. Alex Kwan. His lab studies how neuropsychiatric drugs, such as psilocybin and ketamine, affect neural circuits in the brain’s of mice. They discuss how his lab actually conducts this research, what they have discovered so far, and look at some real data, images and movies of neurons in the brain, which you can see for yoursel...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Monteggia about research on psychiatric disorders of the brain. Lisa described how psychiatric disorders like depression manifest in the brain, how traditional anti-depressant drugs like SSRIs work in the brain, and her research on how the drug ketamine can have rapid depressant effects in treatment-resistant patients. *Not medical advice. Sup...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to chemist Dr. Lee Cronin about life: how it originated on Earth, how we might detect signs of alien life in the universe, whether it can be created in the lab, and related topics. Lee talked about his work on "assembly theory," which provides a framework for thinking about these questions and providing an unbiased way to detect signatures of life in the unive...