Finding Genius Podcast

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  • Alcohol and Inflammation: Vincent J. Maffei Studies Alcohol and Gut Dysbiosis in HIV Patients

    Alcohol and Inflammation: Vincent J. Maffei Studies Alcohol and Gut Dysbiosis in HIV Patients

    The connection between alcohol and gut health is established in scientific literature: alcohol is an inflammatory agent. But as researchers like Vincent Maffei work to improve the quality of life for HIV patients, every bit of information of how that inflammation develops makes a difference, especially in how alcohol and bowel problems connect.

    Listeners will learn

    • The difference between chronological and biological health and how HIV patients experience increased biological aging,
    • The connection between alcohol and G.I. issues, particularly less diverse microbiota, and
    • The significance of their findings, specifically the abundance of Prevotella spp., a bacteria that may be a mediator between alcohol and cell senescence.

    Vincent J. Maffei is with the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology at LSU. As a graduate student, he became involved in LSU’s Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center (CARC) and studied how dysbiosis accompanies biological aging. He combined this with studying how alcohol affects the intestines, and now studies this specifically with HIV patients. More specifically, he works to find associations between alcohol use and advancing aging in HIV patients and their guts.

    He explains to listeners about several players in this complex mix of cause and effect: alcohol and gut health as well as alcohol and HIV patients. He establishes that any amount of alcohol can be harmful to someone suffering from HIV. Combine that with an already-established connection with alcohol and dysbiosis in the gut, and researchers are faced with a very real problem to solve for these patients.

    He does a careful job explaining the background to listeners, bringing in other studies more general to alcohol use and explaining its effect on T-cell senescence, which basically means they lack the ability to copy themselves—limiting their ability to fight infection.

    Senescence is also a characteristic of biological aging. He explains that the administration of alcohol breaks down the gut barrier, allowing microbes to migrate from the lumen of gut into tissue, which causes inflammation.

    He also explains their worthy end goal: to identify some sort of microbiota intervention to relieve this component of inflammation in HIV patients, improving their life span and quality of life. Hopefully their findings will lead to more precise mechanisms that can be leveraged in therapeutic modality.

    For more, see the CARC website: medschool.lsuhsc.edu/alcoholresearch.

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    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Trust Your Gut: Dr. Kathy McCoy Shares Exciting Microbiome Research Discovery

    Trust Your Gut: Dr. Kathy McCoy Shares Exciting Microbiome Research Discovery

    Tiny microbes make a huge difference in our health. These internal ecological systems utilize communication or signaling to maintain this health, effecting immune system function. This podcast shares an important discovery in this communication that influences receptivity to cancer treatment. Listen and learn.

    • How scientists knew the human microbiome influences cancer immunotherapy, but couldn’t identify a key player in this mucosal immunology impact factor,
    • What study Dr. McCoy put into play to identify this player in the immune system of the human body, and
    • What steps they might now be able to take to harness the power of the microbiome and translate it to therapies.

    Dr. Kathy McCoy is a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Calgary and the director of the International Microbiome Centre. Her research is focused on interactions between the microbiome and immune system and she shares an exciting just-published study that presents a key finding in cancer treatment.

    Specifically, her research asked how gut microbes play a rule in influencing or regulating the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy or cancer immunotherapy. She says that scientists have known for a few years that our microbiome is associated with immunotherapy success or lack thereof, but needed more information to make a difference in treatment.

    Here’s the big idea behind her findings: while researchers have known there’s a microbial immune conversation, they now know that it’s a three-way conversation rather than a two-way conversation.

    In addition to the microbes and immune system players, metabolites sent out by microbes have a say; furthermore, this conversation gets enhanced by cancer immunotherapy.

    More specifically, they found that one of these metabolites, inosine, binds to a receptor present on T-cells and causes a signal transduction cascade that makes that T-cell turn on an anti-tumor response—it makes the cytokines necessary to attack cancer cells.

    If a patient doesn’t have this metabolite, the immunotherapy may not work as well. The hope is researchers can figure out how to encourage this metabolite in patients. Listen in for more details about this study and about its life-changing implications.

    For more, see her lab website: kathymccoylab.ca.

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Pathway to Plaque: Gut Bacteria and Health with Veronika Kivenson

    Pathway to Plaque: Gut Bacteria and Health with Veronika Kivenson

    A metabolic pathway study on an ocean floor compound led marine scientist Veronika Kivenson straight to our gut. When she found evidence that a genetic code expansion utilized for metabolism in an ocean sediment compound also appears in the human gut, she knew she needed to understand this pathway better.

    Listen and learn

    • How both the human gut and ocean sediment have an amino acid that converts trimethylamine (TMA),
    • What trimethylamine presence has to do with plant-based versus animal-based diets and the importance of gut health, and
    • How these findings might lead to understanding the impact and function of gut bacteria like Bilophila have on preventing arterial plaque buildup.

    Veronika Kivenson recently received her Ph.D. in Marine Science from UC Santa Barbara and is now working on a post doc at Oregon State University.

    She studies microorganism and how they react with their surroundings, especially their metabolism, and what they consume and produce. While studying marine sediment, she came across an interesting connection with gut metabolism. An amino acid that converts from a stop codon in order to metabolize trimethylamine appears in both places. Furthermore, trimethylamine is listed in the negative column in animal-based diet pros and cons.

    Animal-based foods are a major source of trimethylamine. In our liver, it becomes trimethylamine-N-oxide, or TMAO, which causes plaque, an element of cardiovascular disease symptoms. But if a pathway in the gut can prevent that formation of TMAO, that’s significant. Veronika Kivenson is looking at the potential beneficial role in the genetic code expansion pathway that consumes and prevents TMA from becoming TMAO, or part of plaque formation.

    What’s really interesting is that this consuming bacteria is also associated with meat consumption. The Bilophila genus bacteria, through genetic code expansion, prevents the formation of the harmful TMAO. Studies on these pathways could lead to probiotic therapies to address cardiovascular disease.

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Forensic Linguistic Analysis: Exploring Where Language Meets Criminal Justice

    Forensic Linguistic Analysis: Exploring Where Language Meets Criminal Justice

    Bootsie Martinez joins the podcast today to discuss her work in criminal justice, linguistics, education, and more. She is a consultant, expert witness, college instructor, and writer with a passion for language analysis. How does her skillset fit into the legal world? She joins us to explain…

    Bootsie is certified in Forensic Linguistic Analysis, has a Masters in Criminal Justice, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Her areas of specialties include retail security, loss prevention, and fraudulent nursing schools. She is also the author of The Retail Manager’s Guide to Crime and Loss Prevention and Sticks and Stones – and contributes to various crime-related magazine publications.

    In this conversation, we dive into:

    • What forensic linguistics are, and how they can contribute to a criminal case.
    • Methods used to identify the author of written statements.
    • What the “Reid Technique” is, and how it is used in interrogation.
    • Communication techniques that can be used against someone in a legal interview.

    You can learn more about Bootsie and her work by clicking here!

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

    Important Note From Bootsie Martinez :

    1. At the end of the interview, I referenced the Centre for Forensic Linguistics in the UK. It is now called the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics and can be found at https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/forensic-linguistics 
    2. I spoke about the new topic of examination through forensic linguistics, which is online dating. I wanted to reference the Burned Haystack Dating Method https://www.burnedhaystackdating.com, whose founder, Jennie Young, is a linguist engaged in critical discourse analysis regarding online dating, but I failed to do so. The blog, FB group and Medium articles are excellent places to see evidence of forensic linguistics in action.
    3. I provide training to law enforcement and attorneys on the topics of forensic linguistic analysis of written and spoken texts, including victim/witness/suspect statements, POMICs, suicide notes, ransom notes, 911 calls and more, as well as on report writing for convictions. Anyone interested in having me provide training can contact me via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizcmartinez/

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  • Decluttering Decoded: Unlocking Time and Tranquility with Andrew Mellen’s Expert Insights

    Decluttering Decoded: Unlocking Time and Tranquility with Andrew Mellen’s Expert Insights

    Feeling overwhelmed by all the “stuff” in your life, business, or living space? Struggling to focus, stay on task, or simply find things when you need them?

    Today we speak with an organization expert who has the solutions: Andrew Mellen. As Founder and CEO of Andrew Mellen, Inc. and author of Calling Bullsh*t on Busy: A Practical Guide to Ditching the Time Management Myth and Quickly Achieving Your Goals and Unstuff Your Life!, he’s helped hundreds of thousands of people and businesses reclaim time and peace of mind through various programs designed to eliminate the messiness of modern life.

    Press play to learn:

    • The emotional challenges of decluttering your life and how to overcome them
    • The three rules of the “organizational triangle”
    • The average adult tells 200 lies a day: how is this true, and how does it affect people’s lives?
    • The difference between being a minimalist and decluttering/organizing
    • The eight deadly time thieves in the B2B world

    Mellen explains the process people tend to go through as they change their organizational habits and retrain their minds and behaviors to sustain them. His approach is centered around how people think, feel, and interact with their “stuff.” He details how he coaches people and the type of people he’s helped – including those with hoarding tendencies and a desire to be extreme minimalists.

    As his business continues to grow, Mellen aims to reach more people more quickly… do you want to be one of them?

    If you’re ready to start feeling more organized and efficient in all areas of life, visit Andrew Mellen Professional Organizer NYC | Speaker | Productivity + Decluttering Expert.

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Plastics In The Environment: Discussing The Pollution Crisis From A Sustainable Perspective

    Plastics In The Environment: Discussing The Pollution Crisis From A Sustainable Perspective

    Tom Cosgrove, Aidan Charron, and Michael Karapetian join the podcast today to discuss their work with Earthday.org – an organization that takes action on various environmental issues. As an annual event, Earth Day is a historical movement where citizens of the world rise up in a united call for creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery…

    Tom is the Chief Creative and Content Officer for EarthDay.org. He offers more than 25 years of experience in the media/entertainment, digital/technology, and marketing fields. His skills include content programming, branding, strategic planning, P&L oversight, and board management.

    Aidan is the Director of End Plastic Initiatives and has always been passionate about a clean environment and engaging in outdoor activities. He holds a degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

    Michael is the Great Global Cleanup Coordinator. As an experienced sustainability expert and speaker in the environmental non-profit industry, he offers insight into the urgency of acting now to build a better world for future generations.

    In this conversation, we highlight:

    • How plastic pollution impacts the environment.
    • What research is showing us about the health crisis related to plastic pollution.
    • How cleanups can unite the global environmental movement.

    How can we proactively address the climate crisis and seize the opportunity for a brighter future? Click play now to find out!

    You can learn more about Earth Day by visiting EarthDay.org!

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Navigating Retinal Realms Through Dr. Jay Chhablani’s Visionary Journey

    Navigating Retinal Realms Through Dr. Jay Chhablani’s Visionary Journey

    Today, we are joined by the esteemed Dr. Jay Chhablani, a distinguished professor of ophthalmology and vitreoretinal surgeon at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh. As the Director of Clinical Research at the UPMC Vision Institute, Dr. Chhablani stands at the forefront of cutting-edge advancements in eye care.

    Embark on a fascinating exploration as Dr. Chhablani, a retina specialist and surgeon, shares his wealth of knowledge on retinal diseases, ranging from bothersome floaters to age-related macular degeneration. Delve into the intricacies of ophthalmic surgeries, including the delicate art of retinal detachment repair.

    Press play to discover:

    • The origins and prevention of eye floaters, along with effective treatment approaches.
    • Conditions warranting surgical intervention for floaters.
    • Navigating through complications associated with common ophthalmic surgeries and procedures.
    • Distinguishing between the two primary forms of macular degeneration.
    • The mechanics of novel drug therapies in slowing the progression of retinal diseases.

    Eager to learn more? Tune in and explore more at Jay Chhablani, MD | Department of Ophthalmology | University of Pittsburgh.

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • ​​Improve Your Gut Health | The Vital Role That Probiotics Play In Your Body

    ​​Improve Your Gut Health | The Vital Role That Probiotics Play In Your Body

    Zack Abbott returns to the podcast to discuss the importance of probiotics – and how bacteria can be used for various health and wellness applications. As the CEO and Co-founder of ZBiotics and the inventor of ZBiotics’ proprietary technology, Zack has used his unique background to achieve something fascinating: the production of the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic.  

    Zack has a Ph.D. in microbiology & immunology from the University of Michigan, where he studied bacterial gene regulation in Legionella pneumophila. Now, he is on a mission to leverage bacteria for good, rather than combat them for bad…

    What gives probiotics the unique ability to improve our daily lives? Join us now to find out!

    In this episode, we discuss:

    • Why the vast majority of bacteria are actually beneficial to humans.
    • The valuable functions that bacteria perform in and on our bodies.
    • How systemic inflammation impacts the immune system and cell health.
    • How alcohol consumption can affect how the gut operates.

    You can learn more about Zack’s work with ZBiotics here!

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Cosmic Chronicles: Navigating the Vast Universe with Dr. Heidi B. Hammel and AURA’s Telescopic Wonders

    Cosmic Chronicles: Navigating the Vast Universe with Dr. Heidi B. Hammel and AURA’s Telescopic Wonders

    Dr. Heidi B. Hammel is Vice President of Science at AURA, Inc., the organization overseeing iconic telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

    Join us as we delve into:

    • The evolving understanding of solar systems and the intriguing concept of planetary migration over recent decades.
    • Exciting revelations about Jupiter and unexpected insights into Uranus, Neptune, and beyond.
    • Unraveling the interplay between telescope sensitivity and resolution, unlocking the ability to observe the faintest galaxies.
    • Behind-the-scenes insights into the design and functionality of the groundbreaking JWST.

    Dr. Hammel shares her visionary work on the upcoming telescope, the Habitable Worlds Observatory Telescope, and its potential role in discovering evidence of extraterrestrial life. Explore the distinctions between JWST and the next-generation telescope, uncovering its unique capabilities.

    Gain insights into the current status of the 30-year-old Hubble Space Telescope – how it perseveres today and its anticipated future.

    Are we on the brink of being the first generation to unearth evidence of life beyond Earth? Discover the pioneering efforts of Dr. Hammel and the AURA team that could lead the way.

    Press play to embark on this captivating celestial odyssey, and for more astronomical wonders, visit Home – AURA Astronomy.

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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  • Diving Into Genomic Technology: Cutting-Edge Methods Used To Measure Health & Wellness

    Diving Into Genomic Technology: Cutting-Edge Methods Used To Measure Health & Wellness

    This fascinating episode on health and wellness features Michael Snyder, a Professor in Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics. Michael is widely considered a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics – and is a major participant of the ENCODE project.

    Trained as a microbiologist, Michael is dedicated to gaining a global perspective on health care. Because many aspects of our medical system are broken, he is focused on refining the fields of genomics and proteomics with cutting-edge research. How is technology changing the way we monitor our bodies? Michael sits down to explain…

    Join the conversation now to find out:

    • Measurements used to indicate when and if someone is getting sick.
    • How your resting heart rate is connected to your immune system.
    • The benefits of using a smartwatch as a health monitor.
    • How monitoring presymptomatic individuals can be used to identify upcoming diseases.

    You can learn more about Michael and his work by visiting his laboratory website!

    Take advantage of a 5% discount on Ekster accessories by using the code FINDINGGENIUS. Enhance your style and functionality with premium accessories. Visit bit.ly/3uiVX9R to explore latest collection.

    Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

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