Mind & Matter

Nick talks to biochemist Jospeh Baur, PhD, whose lab at the University of Pennsylvania studies the molecular mechanisms of aging and metabolism. These discuss: aging as a passive vs. regulated process; mechanisms of aging (DNA mutations, oxidative stress, etc.); NAD and its role in normal physiology; the biology of sirtuins; rapamycin as an immunosuppressant & modulator of aging; the effects of di...

Nick talks to Dr. John Cryan, a Professor of Anatomy & Neuroscience at University College-Cork in Ireland whose lab studies the microbiota-gut-brain axis in health & disease. They touch on a range of topics related to how our gut microbiome affects the brain and body, including: how the microbiome affects aging and immunity; how it affects social behavior, including potential links to autism; how...

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 prosocial behavior in animals...

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 Declaration, a document c...

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 difficult; Bernardo's philosophy of analyti...

Nick 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 and discuss mainly a recent...

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 Psilocybe cubensis (magic...

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 to Alexandra about how...

[ Download .wav audio version ] [ Watch video version ] 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...

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 and feeding beha...

* Download .WAV audio version * Watch video version * Show notes & episode transcripts 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. Ni...

[ Download .wav audio version ] [ Watch video version ] 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...

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 various classes of pain...

[ Download audio-only .wav version ] [ Watch video version ] 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 interes...

[ Download audio-only .wav version ] [ Watch video version ] 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 kin...

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 conducted a number of longitudinal studies using cohorts of identical and fraternal twins, which allow him to tease apart the rol...

* Download .wav audio version * Watch video version * Show notes & episode transcripts 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 cereb...

Nick Jikomes talks to Dr. Nathan Price, who has a PhD is 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, which he is Chief Science Officer of. Nathan and Nick discussed various topics in the realm of personalized medicine, dig...

Short Summary: The science of psychedelics and neuroplasticity with Dr. David Olson. About the guest: David Olson, PhD is a chemist and associate professor at UC Davis. His lab pioneers research on advancing non-hallucinogenic psychedelic analogs for therapeutic use. Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and everyone on YouTube . Partial versions are av...

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 the original SARS-1 epidemic in China, wi...

Nick 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, peculiarities of the SARS2 genome,...

Nick 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 Homo naledi, an ancient...

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 sensory experiences...

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 off to reveal how...

Nick to talks to psychologist Rob Henderson about social status, social signaling, luxury beliefs, and related topics in social psychology and human behavior. Connect with Rob Henderson: https://twitter.com/robkhenderson SUPPORT Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon & get early access to episodes [ https://www.patreon.com/nick...