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Conserved neuropeptide Y GPCRs orchestrate both feeding and mating behaviors in mosquitoes, with direct translational parallels to human gut-brain signaling.Quick SummaryLearn how receptor internalization and neuropeptide GPCR signaling underlie the regulation of mosquito host-seeking and reproduction. Dr. Laura Duvall details the use of CRISPR-based assay development and fluorescence-driven phenotyping to connect molecular manipulation to whole-animal behavior. Her approach provides actionable insights for gpcr drug discovery and tools to dissect homologous pathways across model systems, with implications for pharmacology research targeting vector-borne disease transmission.Key TakeawaysNeuropeptide Y GPCRs modulate both host attraction and mating in Aedes aegypti.CRISPR and fluorescence assays enable precise behavioral phenotyping in vivo.GPCR-targeted compounds designed for humans can modulate mosquito receptors.NPY receptor expression in mosquito gut mirrors mammalian gut-brain signaling axes.Automated behavioral assays combined with machine learning sharpen data resolution and reduce human bias.Dr. GPCR Links & ResourcesExplore essential resources:Dr. GPCR EcosystemMembership & PricingWeekly NewsAdvance your research—discover the power of Dr. GPCR Premium.About the GuestDr. Laura Duvall earned her B.A. in Biochemistry and Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, where she explored neuropeptide regulation of circadian behavior in Drosophila. Transitioning from fruit flies to mosquitoes, she pursued postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University with Leslie Vosshall, focusing on the molecular regulation of feeding and mating behaviors in Aedes aegypti. In 2019, she established her independent laboratory at Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences and the Zuckerman Institute. Dr. Duvall's work is recognized by awards including the Beckman Young Investigator Award, Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in Neuroscience, and the Pew Scholars Program, reflecting her drive to unravel the complex signaling mechanisms that govern mosquito and broader animal behavior.Guest on The WebLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-duvall-28a03485/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vk3KGSoAAAAJ&hl=enLab: https://www.duvalllab.com/
Download my free Ultimate Guide to Creatine for Women here: https://academy.angelafosterperformance.com/creatine-guide What if creatine isn't just for bodybuilders—but a potent, research-backed tool for women's health, performance, and longevity? Angela sits down with Darren Candow, a leading expert on creatine and Professor and Director of the Aging Muscle and Bone Health Laboratory at the University of Regina, Canada. Together, they unpack the groundbreaking science behind one of the most misunderstood supplements. From brain energetics and mood stability to bone density, fat loss, and anti-aging, this is your comprehensive guide to creatine beyond the gym. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Creatine for Cognitive Health: It crosses the blood-brain barrier slowly but significantly, especially under stress or sleep deprivation. Dosage Evolution: 10g/day may be optimal for full muscle, brain, and bone saturation. Bone Health & Aging: Combined with resistance training, creatine may help preserve bone density, especially post-menopause. Body Composition Benefits: Contrary to myth, creatine reduces body fat over time and improves lean mass, even in women. TIMESTAMPS AND KEY TOPICS: 3:33 – Creatine's impact on fat loss, strength, and performance in women 7:31 – Recovery, overtraining & HRV: how creatine supports your nervous system 13:31 – Creatine for mood, mental health, and inflammation 22:03 – Muscle breakdown: why women respond differently than men 31:25 – Supercharge brain performance 47:43 – Creatine and sleep: timing, dosage, and recovery benefits 55:13 – Final verdict: What dose actually works—and is it safe? VALUABLE RESOURCES Click here for discounts on all the products I personally use and recommend A BIG thank you to our sponsors who make the show possible: Get 20% off the Creatine I love at trycreate.co/ANGELA20, and use code ANGELA20 to save 20% on your firsts order. LVLUP HEALTH: Slow aging, repair gut health boost collagen and recovery and more with LVLUP Health's amazing products. Save 15% with code ANGELA at https://lvluphealth.com/angela For 10% off at Timeline visit www.timelinenutrition.com and use code ANGELA10 ABOUT THE GUEST Darren G. Candow, Ph.D., CSEP-CEP, FISSN is a Professor and Director of the Aging Muscle and Bone Health Laboratory, Director of Research for the Athlete Health and Performance Initiative and past Associate Dean-Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina, Canada. Dr. Candow has published > 150 peer-refereed journal manuscripts (h-index: 49, i10-index: 107), received > $2 million in research support, and supervised over 20 MSc and PhD students. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?hl=en&user=iUYFaeoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.darrencandow/?hl=en CONTACT DETAILS Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Affiliate Disclaimer: Note this description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is under no obligation to use these links. Thank you for supporting the show! Disclaimer: The High Performance Health Podcast is for general information purposes only and do not constitute the practice of professional or coaching advice and no client relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast, or materials linked from this podcast is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for medical or other professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should seek the assistance of their medical doctor or other health care professional for before taking any steps to implement any of the items discussed in this podcast. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/
In his first visit since to CASBS since his 1996-97 fellowship, UC Berkeley economist David Card lifts the veil behind the innovative empirical work on the labor market effects of immigration, minimum wages, and education that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2021. In conversation with 2024-25 CASBS fellow Dylan Connor, Card also explores issues and questions involving the relationships among geography, social and labor mobility, and wealth inequalities. DAVID CARD: UC Berkeley page | Berkeley economics page | Wikipedia page | Nobel Prize page | Google Scholar page | Berkeley Nobel Prize article | DYLAN CONNOR: ASU page | Google Scholar page | Work emerging from David Card's CASBS year "Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics (2001)"Would Financial Incentives for Leaving Welfare Lead Some People to Stay on Welfare Longer?" NBER Working Paper (1997)"Adapting to Circumstances: The Evolution of Work, School, and Living Arrangements among North American Youth," in Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000)"School Finance Reform, the Distribution of School Spending, and the Distribution of Student Test Scores," Journal of Public Economics (2002)"The More Things Change: Immigrants and the Children of Immigrants in the 1940s, the 1970s, and the 1990s," in Issues in the Economics of Immigration (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000) Other CASBS fellows mentioned in this episode Orley Ashenfelter (1989-90) Alan B. Krueger (1999-2000) Roberto M. Fernandez (1996-97) Robert D. Putnam (1974-75, 1988-89) Min Zhou (2005-06) Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreachHuman CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Behaving rationally involves facing up to conditions of uncertainty; we never navigate the world with perfect confidence. Sometimes we are uncertain about the way the world is, but we can also be uncertain about our place within the world. This kind of situation arises in cosmology (where the relevant world can extend very far in space or time), and also in quantum mechanics (where new worlds might be created at any measurement), but also when we are simply unsure about the future history of humanity or whether we live in a computer simulation. I talk with philosopher Adam Elga about how to deal with these unique kinds of uncertainties. Upgrade your denim game with Rag & Bone! Get 20% off sitewide with code MINDSCAPE at www.rag-bone.com #ragandbonepod #sponsored Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/02/23/345-adam-elga-on-being-rational-in-a-very-large-universe/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Adam Elga received his Ph.D. in philosophy from MIT. He is currently a professor of philosophy at Princeton University. His research involves decision and game theory, epistemology, philosophy of probability, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. Web site Princeton web page Google Scholar publications PhilPeople profile
Send a textIn this episode of Behind the Stigma, I sit down with Jerome Wakefield, NYU Professor and originator of the influential “harmful dysfunction” theory of mental disorder. We explore what makes something truly pathological, the fuzzy boundary between normal suffering and disorder, and the philosophical foundations shaping modern psychiatry.We also discuss the DSM and it's removal of the bereavement exclusion in depression, evolutionary perspectives on neurodiversity movements and his work on harmful dysfunction. This conversation asked a central question: when does human distress become a mental disorder, and does that distinction matter?About Jerome WakefiedDr. Wakefield is an NYU University Professor and Professor at NYU Silver, known internationally for his groundbreaking work at the intersection of philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology. He has authored over 300 publications on the conceptual foundations of mental health theory.He is best known for developing the influential “harmful dysfunction” analysis of mental disorder, the most cited framework for distinguishing true disorder from normal distress. His work has shaped debates on DSM diagnoses, grief, depression, anxiety, and the boundary between pathology and everyday suffering. He is also the coauthor of the award-winning books The Loss of Sadness (2007) and All We Have to Fear (2012), and has contributed major analyses in psychoanalysis, social work theory, and evolutionary perspectives on mental health. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NkiWM10AAAAJ&hl=enPaper on Harmful Dysfunction analysis: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2174594/Paper on the Theory of generativity: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-07139-005Books: https://www.amazon.com/Loss-Sadness-Psychiatry-Transformed-Depressive-ebook/dp/B001CHRHHOhttps://www.amazon.com/All-Have-Fear-Psychiatrys-Transformation/dp/0199793751Subscribe to the Behind the Stigma podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcast or Spotify. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestigmapodcast/
How does game theory work when everyone is a computer program who can read everyone else's source code? This is the problem of 'program equilibria'. In this episode, I talk with Caspar Oesterheld on work he's done on equilibria of programs that simulate each other, and how robust these equilibria are. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/axrpodcast Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/axrpodcast Transcript: https://axrp.net/episode/2026/02/18/episode-49-caspar-oesterheld-program-equilibrium.html Note from Caspar on 2:00:06: At least given my current interpretation of what you say here, my answer is wrong. What actually happens is that we're just back in the uncorrelated case. Basically my simulations will be a simulated repeated game in which everything is correlated _because I feed you my random sequence_ and your simulations will be a repeated game where everything is correlated. Halting works the same as usual. But of course what we end up actually playing will be uncorrelated. We discuss something like this later in the episode. Topics we discuss, and timestamps: 0:00:44 Program equilibrium basics 0:14:20 Desiderata for program equilibria 0:24:35 Why program equilibrium matters 0:33:35 Prior work: reachable equilibria and proof-based approaches 0:53:26 The basic idea of Robust Program Equilibrium 1:07:47 Are ϵGroundedπBots inefficient? 1:15:06 Compatibility of proof-based and simulation-based program equilibria 1:18:32 Cooperating against CooperateBot, and how to avoid it 1:44:43 Making better simulation-based bots 2:01:22 Characterizing simulation-based program equilibria 2:21:24 Follow-up work 2:29:49 Following Caspar's research Links for Caspar: Academic website: https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/coesterh/ Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xeEcRjkAAAAJ&hl=en Blog: https://casparoesterheld.com/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/c_oesterheld Research we discuss: Robust program equilibrium: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11238-018-9679-3 Characterising Simulation-Based Program Equilibria: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14570 Manifold open-source prisoner's dilemma tournament: https://manifold.markets/IsaacKing/which-240-character-program-wins-th Results of Alex Mennen's open source prisoner's dilemma tournament: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QP7Ne4KXKytj4Krkx/prisoner-s-dilemma-tournament-results-0 A General Counterexample to Any Decision Theory and Some Responses: https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.00280 Cooperative and uncooperative institution designs: Surprises and problems in open-source game theory: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07006 Parametric Bounded Löb's Theorem and Robust Cooperation of Bounded Agents: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.04184 A Note on the Compatibility of Different Robust Program Equilibria of the Prisoner's Dilemma: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.05057 Episode art by Hamish Doodles: hamishdoodles.com
While Silicon Valley obsesses over AGI, Timothée Lacroix and the team at Mistral AI are quietly building the industrial and sovereign infrastructure of the future. In his first-ever appearance on a US podcast, the Mistral AI Co-Founder & CTO reveals how the company has evolved from an open-source research lab into a full-stack sovereign AI power—backed by ASML, running on their own massive supercomputing clusters, and deployed in nation-state defense clouds to break the dependency on US hyperscalers.Timothée offers a refreshing, engineer-first perspective on why the current AI hype cycle is misleading. He explains why "Sovereign AI" is not just a geopolitical buzzword but a necessity for any enterprise that wants to own its intelligence rather than rent it. He also provides a contrarian reality check on the industry's obsession with autonomous agents, arguing that "trust" matters more than autonomy and explaining why he prefers building robust "workflows" over unpredictable agents.We also dive deep into the technical reality of competing with the US giants. Timothée breaks down the architecture of the newly released Mistral 3, the "dense vs. MoE" debate, and the launch of Mistral Compute—their own infrastructure designed to handle the physics of modern AI scaling. This is a conversation about the plumbing, the 18,000-GPU clusters, and the hard engineering required to turn AI from a magic trick into a global industrial asset.Timothée LacroixLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothee-lacroix-59517977/Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com.do/citations?user=tZGS6dIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoMistral AIWebsite - https://mistral.aiX/Twitter - https://x.com/MistralAIMatt Turck (Managing Director)Blog - https://mattturck.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturckFirstMarkWebsite - https://firstmark.comX/Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap(00:00) — Cold Open(01:27) — Mistral vs. The World: From Research Lab to Sovereign Power(03:48) — Inside Mistral Compute: Building an 18,000 GPU Cluster(08:42) — The Trillion-Dollar Question: Competing Without a Big Tech Parent(10:37) — The Reality of Enterprise AI: Escaping "POC Purgatory"(15:06) — Why Mistral Hires Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs)(16:57) — The Contrarian Take: Why "Agents" are just "Workflows"(19:35) — Trust > Autonomy: The Truth About Agent Reliability(21:26) — The Missing Stack: Governance and Versioning for AI(26:24) — When Will AI Actually Work? (The 2026 Timeline)(30:33) — Beyond Chat: The "Banger" Sovereign Use Cases(35:46) — Mistral 3 Architecture: Mixture of Experts vs. Dense(43:12) — Synthetic Data & The Post-Training Bottleneck(45:12) — Reasoning Models: Why "Thinking" is Just Tool Use(46:22) — Launching DevStral 2 and the Vibe CLI(50:49) — Engineering Lessons: How to Build Frontier AI Efficiently(56:08) — Timothée's View on AGI & The Future of Intelligence
What if your heartbeat could help determine your dementia risk? The CAIDE dementia risk score has long helped clinicians estimate midlife risk for dementia using cardiovascular health factors, but its accuracy hasn't been equal across populations. New research suggests that integrating resting heart rate meaningfully improves predictive performance across most racial groups. In this interview, Dr. Newman Sze and Shakiru Alaka join us to dig into how and why resting heart rate enhances CAIDE's accuracy, what the data shows across different racial groups, and what this could mean for earlier, more equitable identification of dementia risk in both research and clinical settings. Guests: Newman Sze, PhD, professor of health sciences, Brock University, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, and Shakiru Alaka, MS, senior analyst, Canadian Institute for Health Information, data scientist, Western University Show Notes Read Shakiru and Dr. Sze's study, “Enhancing the validity of CAIDE dementia risk scores with resting heart rate and machine learning: An analysis from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center across all races/ethnicities,” published in Alzheimer's & Dementia online. Learn more about Shakiru and Dr. Sze's research from this article on the Brock University website. Learn more about Dr. Sze and his research from his bio on the Brock University website. Look into more of Shakiru's research from his Google Scholar page. Connect with us Find transcripts and more at our website. Email Dementia Matters: dementiamatters@medicine.wisc.edu Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's e-newsletter. Enjoy Dementia Matters? Consider making a gift to the Dementia Matters fund through the UW Initiative to End Alzheimer's. All donations go toward outreach and production. Learn about and pre-order Dr. Chin's book, When Memory Fades: What to Expect at Every Stage, from Early Signs to Full Support for Alzheimer's and Dementia, out June 2, 2026.
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
For all that human beings spend a lot of their time thinking, it's far from obvious what that process actually entails. Part of it amounts to classical logical reasoning. But an even bigger part involves reasoning with probability and uncertainty. And some of it is governed by unavoidable limitations on time and accuracy. Psychologist and computer scientist Tom Griffiths suggests that we have thought about it enough to feel that we have come to understand some general principles, which he explains in his new book The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of Mind. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code MINDSCAPE at this link and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/mindscape #sponsore Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/02/09/343-tom-griffiths-on-the-laws-of-thought/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Tom Griffiths received his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. He is currently Professor of Psychology and Computer Science at Princeton University, Director of the Computational Cognitive Science Lab, and Director of the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence. He is the co-author of Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions, as well as the upcoming The Rational Use of Cognitive Resources. Web site Princeton web page Google Scholar publications Wikipedia
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email.
In both the United States and France, each side of the legal battle over same-sex marriage and parenthood relied heavily on experts. Despite the similarity of issues, however, lawmakers in each country turned to different sets of authorities: from economists and psychoanalysts to priests and ordinary people. They even prized different types of expertise—empirical research in the United States versus abstract theory in France.Exploring the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and France, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer sheds new light on the power of experts to influence high-stakes democratic debates. Drawing on extensive interviews and ethnographic observation, Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer traces the divergences between the two countries, showing why some experts are ubiquitous in one but absent in the other. He argues that lawmakers, judges, lawyers, journalists, and activists covet something only experts can provide: the credibility and aura of authority, or “expert capital,” which they deploy to advance their agendas. Expert capital is not derived from scientific or technical merit alone but is produced through cultural norms, material resources, and social relationships, which vary greatly across national contexts.Through the story of the fight over gay rights, By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates (Columbia UP, 2025) reveals how and why certain experts—but not others—obtain the authority to shape public opinion and policy. At a time of soaring public distrust in experts, this book offers new ways to understand the contested political role of expertise and its consequences. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include the study of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, temporal urban environments in rural historical towns, student experiences of hanging out and being at home while at college and university, and a more recent study on the making of rodeo. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day
Är psykedelika nyckeln till etablissemangens stålburar? Pehr Granqvist är Eneroth Professor i psykologi vid Stockholms universitet. Vi pratar om namnet Aljosja och Dostojevskijs romaner, kreativitet och flow, hans väg till en tillräckligt bred professur, akademins besvärliga men nödvändiga stålbur, dansen mellan kaos och ordning, anknytning och religion, risker och möjligheter med den psykedeliska renässansen, om psykedeliska upplevelser ”bara” sker i huvudet och mycket mer. Sök på Pehr Granqvist i Google Scholar för att hitta hans forskning om anknytning, religion och psykedelika, och hitta hans bok Tryggare kan ingen vara? där böcker säljs. Yoshi's Podcast hittas på Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube och andra poddplattformar. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aljosja.substack.com
Peacewarts: Orientation – The Peacewarts Foundations Festival Today, we step onto the quad for the Peacewarts Foundations Festival. This is our "soft entry" into the curriculum—a day for breathing, gathering, and setting the cultural tone of the school. We move away from the high-speed "scrolling world" to embrace the "Deep Look," establishing the scholarly tools and ethical frameworks (like the CRAAP test) required for the work ahead. We also meet our first faculty members, who remind us that we are the ancestors of a world currently being planted. Learning Topics: The Deep Look: Transitioning from digital consumption to scholarly evidence. The CRAAP Test: A five-part protocol for evaluating information (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose). Research Infrastructure: Utilizing academic libraries, university presses, and databases like JSTOR and Google Scholar. Social Stability vs. "Being Nice": Understanding how conviction and dignity create durable societal compounds. Ethical Defense:Reclaiming the heart as a shield and refusing to adopt the tactics of the adversary. Protopian Planting: Shifting our perspective toward the year 2126. Resources & Links: Research Tools Mentioned:JSTOR, Google Scholar, CORE, Science.gov. Join the Curriculum: Follow the podcast as we prepare to climb the stairs to our first official class. Get the Books: AvisKalfsbeek.com Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW
Philosophers Michael Brownstein (CASBS fellow 2019-20) and Dan Kelly (2018-19), two of the coauthors of "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Create Social Change," discuss their book's framing and key concepts with Damon Centola (2014-15), an expert in social network dynamics. The book offers a pragmatic guide for connecting individuals to their role as change agents, illuminating the social feedback processes through which structures, individuals, and social movements interact, unlocking the potential for systemic change.The book is Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change (MIT Press, 2025)Explore the book's website, containing related research, media, more about the authors, and an appendix that provides "A Deeper Dive into Individuals, Structures, and Other Key Concepts"Michael Brownstein: CUNY Graduate Center webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |Dan Kelly: Purdue Univ. webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |Damon Centola: Penn webpage | Network Dynamics Group webpage | Wikipedia page | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |Other works referenced in this episode:Alex Madva, Daniel Kelly, Michael Brownstein, "Change the People or Change the Policy? On the Moral Education of Antiracists," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2023)Michael Brownstein, Daniel Kelly, Alex Madva, "Individualism, Structuralism, and Climate Change," Environmental Communication (2021)C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956) (Wikipedia)James S. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966), known as The Coleman Report (Wikipedia)Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979 [1984]) (Wikipedia)Other 2018-19 CASBS fellows who Dan Kelly mentions in this episode: Christopher Bryan, Jennifer Freyd, Ying-hi Hong, Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Ruth Milkman Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreachHuman CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |
This is episode 1/3 with Alex Merose about his thoughts on weather foundation models. He is a member of the technical staff at Open Athena. In this episode, Alex steps through the background on doing weather prediction, from early efforts around a century ago to numerical and physics based models. This prepares us for later episodes on machine learning or AI based approaches. Links to items discussed:Pangeo, a community for open, reproducible, scalable geoscience.Alex's Google Scholar profile.Episode with Sergei Nozdrenkov on a coral reef foundation model.Global Climate Data Collaboration: The Intentional Dream by George Dyson.Hurricane Melissa.Arham Ansari on GeoRiskAI.What can a technologist do about climate change.
Dorothy Carter leads groundbreaking research that's helping NASA prepare for humanity's Mission to Mars. At the core of her research is the concept of multi-team systems, such as astronaut crews and Earth-based mission control teams. She and her collaborators look at how success depends not just on one team's performance, but on how multiple teams coordinate and communicate to achieve complex goals. Her work is helping NASA, and all of us, better understand how people can work together to achieve extraordinary goals. Download the "Mission To Mars" Episode Transcript Follow Dorothy and her research on LinkedIn and Google Scholar. For more episodes of Broad Matters, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Aishwarya Naresh Reganti and Kiriti Badam have helped build and launch more than 50 enterprise AI products across companies like OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Databricks. Based on these experiences, they've developed a small set of best practices for building and scaling successful AI products. The goal of this conversation is to save you and your team a lot of pain and suffering.We discuss:1. Two key ways AI products differ from traditional software, and why that fundamentally changes how they should be built2. Common patterns and anti-patterns in companies that build strong AI products versus those that struggle3. A framework they developed from real-world experience to iteratively build AI products that create a flywheel of improvement4. Why obsessing about customer trust and reliability is an underrated driver of successful AI products5. Why evals aren't a cure-all, and the most common misconceptions people have about them6. The skills that matter most for builders in the AI era—Brought to you by:Merge—The fastest way to ship 220+ integrations: https://merge.dev/lennyStrella—The AI-powered customer research platform: https://strella.io/lennyBrex—The banking solution for startups: https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-openai-and-google-engineers-learned—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/183007822/referenced—Get 15% off Aishwarya and Kiriti's Maven course, Building Agentic AI Applications with a Problem-First Approach, using this link: https://bit.ly/3V5XJFp—Where to find Aishwarya Naresh Reganti:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/areganti• GitHub: https://github.com/aishwaryanr/awesome-generative-ai-guide• X: https://x.com/aish_reganti—Where to find Kiriti Badam:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sai-kiriti-badam• X: https://x.com/kiritibadam—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Aishwarya and Kiriti(05:03) Challenges in AI product development(07:36) Key differences between AI and traditional software(13:19) Building AI products: start small and scale(15:23) The importance of human control in AI systems(22:38) Avoiding prompt injection and jailbreaking(25:18) Patterns for successful AI product development(33:20) The debate on evals and production monitoring(41:27) Codex team's approach to evals and customer feedback(45:41) Continuous calibration, continuous development (CC/CD) framework(58:07) Emerging patterns and calibration(01:01:24) Overhyped and under-hyped AI concepts(01:05:17) The future of AI(01:08:41) Skills and best practices for building AI products(01:14:04) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• LevelUp Labs: https://levelup-labs.ai/• Why your AI product needs a different development lifecycle: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-your-ai-product-needs-a-different• Booking.com: https://www.booking.com• Research paper on agents in production (by Matei Zaharia's lab): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.04123• Matei Zaharia's research on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I1EvjZsAAAAJ&hl=en• The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-coming-ai-security-crisis• Gajen Kandiah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gajenkandiah• Rackspace: https://www.rackspace.com• The AI-native startup: 5 products, 7-figure revenue, 100% AI-written code | Dan Shipper (co-founder/CEO of Every): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-every-dan-shipper• Semantic Diffusion: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/SemanticDiffusion.html• LMArena: https://lmarena.ai• Artificial Analysis: https://artificialanalysis.ai/leaderboards/providers• Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-humans-are-ais-biggest-bottleneck• Airline held liable for its chatbot giving passenger bad advice—what this means for travellers: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know• Demis Hassabis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demishassabis• We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/we-replaced-our-sales-team-with-20-ai-agents• Socrates's quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living• Noah Smith's newsletter: https://www.noahpinion.blog• Silicon Valley on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/shows/silicon-valley/b4583939-e39f-4b5c-822d-5b6cc186172d• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/• Wisprflow: https://wisprflow.ai• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com• Steve Jobs's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/463176-you-can-t-connect-the-dots-looking-forward-you-can-only—Recommended books:• When Breath Becomes Air: https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X• The Three-Body Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032• A Fire Upon the Deep: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Upon-Deep-Zones-Thought/dp/0812515285—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
Every building comes with a set of expectations. Students are quiet in a library, but loud on a playground. Adults are focused in their deckchairs yet chatty on bar stools. Witnessing the limitations of conventional building design, Jan Golembiewski began to leverage design psychology to improve the lives of different groups, from inmates to the elderly. As one of the world's leading researchers in architectural design psychology, Dr. Golembiewski works to create spaces that prioritize health and overall flourishing.In this revisited episode, Dart and Jan discuss how salutogenic design works, how the spaces around us shape the way we think and feel, and what it means to create workplaces and buildings where people can truly thrive.Dr. Jan Golembiewski is an architect and researcher focused on the psychology of the built environment. He studies how design can support health, dignity, and human flourishing.In this episode, Dart and Jan discuss:- A unique design approach called salutogenesis- Designing a workplace where employees can thrive- Salutogenic architecture- Balancing affordances and choices in design- The narrative context embedded in architecture- How money-driven architecture affects livability- The key traits of salutogenic architects- And other topics…Dr. Jan Golembiewski is an architect and researcher who specializes in the psychology of the built environment. He is the director and nominated architect of Psychological Design and the co-founder and CEO of Earthbuilt Technology. His work explores how architectural settings affect health, behavior, and well-being, with a particular focus on salutogenic design. Golembiewski received his Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Sydney and has served as an adjunct professor and a judge for international design and health awards.Resources mentioned:Claus Raasted and Paul Bulencea on Work for Humans: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-transformation-experience-design/id1612743401?i=1000623034271 The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth, by Christopher Alexander: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Life-Beauty-Earth-World-Systems/dp/0199898073Magic, by Jan Golembiewski: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Jan-Golembiewski-ebook/dp/B07J5RNFWVConnect with Jan:Website: www.psychological.designLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-golembiewski-a4802a15/ Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vwuUGOkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoWork with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.
Chris Garvin is a neuroscientist working at Neuronic, where he helps bridge the gap between emerging neurotechnology and real-world impact. With a background in neuroscience and experience in neurotech diagnostics, Chris is passionate about advancing brain health and recovery. Having grown up playing contact sports and experiencing concussions himself, he brings both personal and professional insight into the discussion of innovative recovery tools.Description/Summary: In this episode of the Concussion Coach Podcast, host Bethany Lewis chats with Chris Garvin about Neuronic, a photobiomodulation device that uses specific wavelengths of light to support brain healing. Chris explains the science behind how light therapy can reduce inflammation, boost cellular energy, and improve symptoms like brain fog, sleep issues, and emotional regulation following a concussion. He shares his own experience with concussion recovery, the development of the Neuronic helmet, and the promising results he's seen in both clinical and at-home settings. Whether you're exploring new recovery modalities or curious about the future of neurotech, this conversation sheds light on a non-invasive, accessible option for brain health and concussion rehabilitation.Resources Mentioned by Chris:Neuronic Website: Learn more about the photobiomodulation device and its applications: https://www.neuronic.online/about-neuronic/aboutClinical Locator Map: Neuronic has a network of clinics across North America where the device is available. Discount code: THECONCUSSIONCOACH https://checkout.neuronic.online/THECONCUSSIONCOACHResearch Databases: For those interested in the science, Chris suggests searching "photobiomodulation" on PubMed or Google Scholar to explore the growing body of research.Link to webpage with research articles Chris mentioned: https://neuronic.teamaligned.com/room/692f56ac329350b5b8b91129/overview?avk=ee3c909fPaper Chris mentioned on photobiomodulation showing how 1070 light can switch microglia from an inflammatory M1 to an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202304025Guest Contact Information:Email: chris.garvin@neuronic.onlineLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgrvinneuro/Bethany Lewis & The Concussion Coach:Free Guide: "5 Best Ways to Support Your Loved One Dealing with a Concussion" - Download at www.theconcussioncoach.comConcussion Coaching Program: For personalized mentorship in recovery. Sign up for a free consultation HERE Website: www.theconcussioncoach.com
Welcome to a very special episode of Lost Without Japan, where we sit down with John Rucynski, Japan-based editor of A Passion for Japan, an associate professor at Okayama University, a Google Scholar, and a Hanshin Tiger fan, to discuss teaching English in Japan and so much more. TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=palzyd_PUEA New textbook publisher page: https://cengagejapan.com/elt/newtitles/page/?no=1760059375fdyz9 Promotional video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD-n9Ftct4g&t=30s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrucynski?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== Amazon Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Japan-Collection-Personal-Narratives/dp/4991150736 Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Rucynski PechaKucha: https://www.pechakucha.com/users/johnrucynski Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7ZZIk9AAAAAJ&hl=en Okayama University: https://okayama.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/john-rucynski Please Consider Kindly Supporting Our Crowd-Funded Show By Supporting Us Through Our Show's Patreon: https://patreon.com/lostwithoutjapanpodcast?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator Our Shows Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostwithoutjapan/
Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to environmental activists in Pittsburgh, people are coming together to fight for control of their water. In Global Solidarities against water grabbing: Without water, we have nothing, Caitlin Schroerer examines how movements are communicating and organizing against water privatization and other forms of water grabbing, and explores how movements engage with and learn from each other. Water is at the heart of this book, but Global solidarities against water grabbing is as much about collective struggle and popular organization as it is about water. Based on extensive fieldwork with two movements fighting against water privatization, the book uses anticolonial and feminist research methods to show how global communications and organizing are occurring around water and how Global North movements are engaging with and learning from the Global South and vice versa. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to environmental activists in Pittsburgh, people are coming together to fight for control of their water. In Global Solidarities against water grabbing: Without water, we have nothing, Caitlin Schroerer examines how movements are communicating and organizing against water privatization and other forms of water grabbing, and explores how movements engage with and learn from each other. Water is at the heart of this book, but Global solidarities against water grabbing is as much about collective struggle and popular organization as it is about water. Based on extensive fieldwork with two movements fighting against water privatization, the book uses anticolonial and feminist research methods to show how global communications and organizing are occurring around water and how Global North movements are engaging with and learning from the Global South and vice versa. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs
Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to environmental activists in Pittsburgh, people are coming together to fight for control of their water. In Global Solidarities against water grabbing: Without water, we have nothing, Caitlin Schroerer examines how movements are communicating and organizing against water privatization and other forms of water grabbing, and explores how movements engage with and learn from each other. Water is at the heart of this book, but Global solidarities against water grabbing is as much about collective struggle and popular organization as it is about water. Based on extensive fieldwork with two movements fighting against water privatization, the book uses anticolonial and feminist research methods to show how global communications and organizing are occurring around water and how Global North movements are engaging with and learning from the Global South and vice versa. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies
Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to environmental activists in Pittsburgh, people are coming together to fight for control of their water. In Global Solidarities against water grabbing: Without water, we have nothing, Caitlin Schroerer examines how movements are communicating and organizing against water privatization and other forms of water grabbing, and explores how movements engage with and learn from each other. Water is at the heart of this book, but Global solidarities against water grabbing is as much about collective struggle and popular organization as it is about water. Based on extensive fieldwork with two movements fighting against water privatization, the book uses anticolonial and feminist research methods to show how global communications and organizing are occurring around water and how Global North movements are engaging with and learning from the Global South and vice versa. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology
Conflicts over water are human-caused events with socio-political and economic causes. From Brazil's Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) to environmental activists in Pittsburgh, people are coming together to fight for control of their water. In Global Solidarities against water grabbing: Without water, we have nothing, Caitlin Schroerer examines how movements are communicating and organizing against water privatization and other forms of water grabbing, and explores how movements engage with and learn from each other. Water is at the heart of this book, but Global solidarities against water grabbing is as much about collective struggle and popular organization as it is about water. Based on extensive fieldwork with two movements fighting against water privatization, the book uses anticolonial and feminist research methods to show how global communications and organizing are occurring around water and how Global North movements are engaging with and learning from the Global South and vice versa. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics
AI pioneer YOSHUA BENGIO, Godfather of AI, reveals the DANGERS of Agentic AI, killer robots, and cyber crime, and how we MUST build AI that won't harm people…before it's too late. Professor Yoshua Bengio is a Computer Science Professor at the Université de Montréal and one of the 3 original Godfathers of AI. He is the most-cited scientist in the world on Google Scholar, a Turing Award winner, and the founder of LawZero, a non-profit organisation focused on building safe and human-aligned AI systems. He explains: ◼️Why agentic AI could develop goals we can't control ◼️How killer robots and autonomous weapons become inevitable ◼️The hidden cyber crime and deepfake threat already unfolding ◼️Why AI regulation is weaker than food safety laws ◼️How losing control of AI could threaten human survival [00:00] Why Have You Decided to Step Into the Public Eye? [02:53] Did You Bring Dangerous Technology Into the World? [05:23] Probabilities of Risk [08:18] Are We Underestimating the Potential of AI? [10:29] How Can the Average Person Understand What You're Talking About? [13:40] Will These Systems Get Safer as They Become More Advanced? [20:33] Why Are Tech CEOs Building Dangerous AI? [22:47] AI Companies Are Getting Out of Control [24:06] Attempts to Pause Advancements in AI [27:17] Power Now Sits With AI CEOs [35:10] Jobs Are Already Being Replaced at an Alarming Rate [37:27] National Security Risks of AI [43:04] Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) [44:44] Ads [48:34] The Risk You're Most Concerned About [49:40] Would You Stop AI Advancements if You Could? [54:46] Are You Hopeful? [55:45] How Do We Bridge the Gap to the Everyday Person? [56:55] Love for My Children Is Why I'm Raising the Alarm [01:00:43] AI Therapy [01:02:43] What Would You Say to the Top AI CEOs? [01:07:31] What Do You Think About Sam Altman? [01:09:37] Can Insurance Companies Save Us From AI? [01:12:38] Ads [01:16:19] What Can the Everyday Person Do About This? [01:18:24] What Citizens Should Do to Prevent an AI Disaster [01:20:56] Closing Statement [01:22:51] I Have No Incentives [01:24:32] Do You Have Any Regrets? [01:27:32] Have You Received Pushback for Speaking Out Against AI? [01:28:02] What Should People Do in the Future for Work? Follow Yoshua: LawZero - https://bit.ly/44n1sDG Mila - https://bit.ly/4q6SJ0R Website - https://bit.ly/4q4RqiL You can purchase Yoshua's book, ‘Deep Learning (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series)', here: https://amzn.to/48QTrZ8 The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only - https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition) - https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Wispr - Get 14 days of Wispr Flow for free at https://wisprflow.ai/DOAC Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO Rubrik - To learn more, head to https://rubrik.com
The final episode of The Food Professor Podcast for 2025 delivers a timely, wide-ranging examination of Canada's food system, blending macroeconomic analysis with a compelling, real-world industry case study. Co-hosts Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois open the episode by reviewing their Top 10 Food Stories of 2025, a list that reflects a year defined less by short-term volatility and more by deep, structural challenges.Among the key themes is the growing consensus that food inflation in Canada is structural rather than cyclical, driven by long-standing issues such as interprovincial trade barriers, fragmented labour policy, logistics inefficiencies, regulatory complexity, and limited scale in food processing. The hosts revisit major developments including tariffs and counter-tariffs, the Grocery Code of Conduct, meat counter economics, the Ozempic and GLP-1 drug effect on food consumption, and the controversy surrounding cloned meat approvals. Together, these stories underscore why Canada's food system struggles to absorb shocks compared to larger, more flexible global peers.The second half of the episode features an in-depth interview with Ryan Koeslag, Executive Vice President & CEO of Mushrooms Canada, joined by Janet Krayden, Workforce Specialist at Mushrooms Canada. Together, they provide a rare inside look at one of Canada's most technologically advanced yet frequently misunderstood agricultural sectors. Listeners learn that Canadian mushrooms are grown 365 days a year, supply nearly 100% of domestic grocery demand, and export approximately 40% of production to the United States—all while operating with largely organic practices and world-class automation.A central focus of the discussion is labour. Koeslag and Krayden explain that mushroom farming is non-seasonal, capital-intensive, and highly technical, yet still dependent on skilled human labour for harvesting. Recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, combined with the cancellation of the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot, have created significant unintended consequences for growers, threatening productivity, workforce stability, and long-term investment.The conversation also explores sustainability and innovation, highlighting Canada's leadership in mushroom automation, organic growing methods, and environmental stewardship. Krayden emphasizes that farmers are strong advocates for worker well-being and housing—an aspect often overlooked in public debate.The episode closes with forward-looking commentary on 2026, including front-of-package labelling, AI-driven pricing ethics, and the ongoing challenge of scaling Canada's “unscalable middle” in food processing—making this episode both a reflective year-end review and a practical roadmap for the year ahead.Mushrooms Canada Jobs webpage https://mushrooms.ca/mushroom-jobs/Mushrooms CanadaRecipes https://mushrooms.ca/recipes/Nutrition Page: https://mushrooms.ca/nutritional-benefits/Quality farm worker housing Highline campus in Leamington: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CNj4H8dGz/MORE high quality mushroom farm worker housing offered in Ontario for our farm workers https://youtu.be/ocrXL9DX7ys?si=Okdfpk2kx9lVHOoo The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph's Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre's Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
In the very first episode of Scaling Theory, I mentioned a few scientists who have shaped my understanding of the world. At the very top of that list is today's guest: W. Brian Arthur.Brian was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and went on to become one of the most important figures of complexity science. Today, he is widely known as the father of complexity economics, a field that has transformed how we think about the evolution of modern economies.His influence is remarkable. Brian's work has been cited more than 58,000 times according to Google Scholar. He received numerous awards and recognition, such as being the inaugural laureate of the Lagrange Prize in Complexity Science, an award that many have described as complexity's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Brian has been, at age 37, the youngest endowed chair holder at Stanford University. He went on to work for my institutions, including the Santa Fe Institute, as we will talk about. On a personal note, I consider Brian a friend.Now, what makes me especially happy to have Brian on the podcast is the unique perspective he brings on how economies form and evolve. His understanding of technology, how it emerges and scales, offers a lens that none others have developed. It is a way of seeing economic life as something alive. Be ready to be blown away.You can follow me on X (@ProfSchrepel) and BlueSky (@ProfSchrepel).**References:W. Brian Arthur, Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events (1989) https://www.rochelleterman.com/ir/sites/default/files/arthur 1989.pdfW. Brian Arthur, Foundations of Complexity Economics (2021) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7844781/pdf/42254_2020_Article_273.pdfW. Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves (2009)W. Brian Arthur, Economics in Nouns and Verbs (2023) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268122003936Thibault Schrepel, The Evolution of Economies, Technologies, and Other Institutions: Exploring W. Brian Arthur's Insights (2024) https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8809341E2E94D76B8CCAB4A4DDACBC4C/S1744137424000067a.pdf/evolution_of_economies_technologies_and_other_institutions_exploring_w_brian_arthurs_insights.pdf
This episode of The Food Professor Podcast opens with Michael and Sylvain analyzing the most pressing developments shaping Canada's food and retail landscape. Sylvain reflects on the extraordinary national and global reach of Canada's Food Price Report, which this year generated unprecedented media attention and continues to influence retailers, manufacturers, governments, and consumers planning for 2026. They dig into the structural issues behind Canada's complex food-tax regime, discuss why the GST holiday changed how Canadians think about food pricing, and explore the broader economic forces influencing consumer behaviour.The hosts then turn to one of the most surprising developments of the season: mounting instability in the chicken sector. With nine consecutive missed production cycles, increased reliance on imports, and confusion around border testing, the system designed to provide stability is under strain. Sylvain breaks down why this matters for households, grocers, foodservice operators, and the broader supply chain—especially as chicken remains Canada's most-purchased protein. The conversation then expands southward to U.S. agricultural subsidies, tariff battles, Costco's legal challenge over tariff refunds, and the potential fallout of proposed U.S. tariffs on Canadian fertilizer.The second half of the episode shifts to a live interview recorded at the Coffee Association of Canada conference, where Michael and Sylvain sit down with Carman Allison, Vice President, NIQ Canada, one of the country's most respected consumer data voices. Carman previews his conference keynote, “Navigating Disruption,” and explains why coffee inflation is reshaping buying behaviour even among loyal consumers who consider coffee essential. He outlines NIQ's segmentation showing that 29% of Canadian households are now financially vulnerable—and how this is affecting deal-seeking, product substitution, and consumption patterns.Drawing on NIQ's expanded Omni Shopper Panel, Carman describes how rapid multicultural population growth is shifting beverage preferences, why Generation X now holds the greatest spending power, and how value-seeking is reshaping entire store categories. He also reveals early evidence of the GLP-1 effect, where households using weight-loss or diabetes medications show measurable declines in food consumption.Carman closes by highlighting growth opportunities in instant coffee, protein-and-coffee hybrids, Maple-forward flavour innovation, and the continued rise of home-meal-replacement programs. His insights give retailers and suppliers a grounded, data-rich roadmap for growth in a highly price-sensitive marketplace. The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph's Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre's Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
Economist Paul Milgrom is celebrated for his Nobel Prize-winning work on auction theory and design. But he has published a wide range of other innovative, influential research throughout his career – including a book and articles emerging from his 1991-92 CASBS fellowship. Gani Aldashev (CASBS fellow, 2024-25) engages Milgrom on highlights of this often-collaborative or cross-disciplinary work on organizational behavior, the institutional roots of trust and cooperation, social choice for environmental policy, and more.PAUL MILGROM: Stanford faculty page | Personal website | Nobel Prize page | Nobel bio | Wikipedia page| CASBS page |Gani Aldashev: Georgetown faculty page | CASBS page | Google Scholar page |PAUL MILGROM WORKS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE:Economics, Organization, and Management (Prentice Hall, 1992), coauthored with John Roberts (CASBS fellow, 1991-92)"Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (1991), coauthored with Bengt Holmstrom"Complementarities and Fit Strategy, Structure, and Organizational Change in Manufacturing," Journal of Accounting and Economics (1995), coauthored with John Roberts"Complementarities, Momentum, and the Evolution of Modern Manufacturing," The American Economic Review (1991), coauthored with Yingyi Qian, John Roberts"Complementarities and Systems: Understanding Japanese Economic Organization," Estudios Economicos (1994), coauthored with John Roberts"The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs," Economics & Politics (1990), coauthored with Douglass North (CASBS fellow, 1987-88) and Barry Weingast (CASBS fellow, 1993-94)Learn about the Champagne Fairs on Wikipedia"Coordination, Commitment and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild," Journal of Political Economy (1994), coauthored with Avner Greif (CASBS fellow, 1993-94), Barry Weingast"Is Sympathy an Economic Value? Philosophy, Economics, and the Contingent Valuation Method," in Contingent Valuation: A Critical Assessment, J.A. Hausman, ed. (Elsevier, 1993)"Kenneth Arrow's Last Theorem," Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design (2024)Other works referenced in this episode:Oliver Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting (Mcmillan, 1985). Much of this book was written at CASBS during Williamson's 1977-78 CASBS fellowship.Works emerging from Milgrom's CASBS fellowshipsMilgrom's collaborations with, intellectual interactions with, or responses to other Nobel Prize winners in this episode:Oliver Williamson (CASBS fellow 1977-78, Nobel Prize 2009)Bengt Holmstrom (Nobel Prize 2016)Robert Wilson (CASBS fellow 1977-78, Nobel Prize 2020)Ronald Coase (CASBS fellow 1958-59, Nobel Prize 1991)Douglass North (CASBS fellow 1987-88, Nobel Prize 1993)Kenneth Arrow (CASBS fellow 1956-57, Nobel Prize 1972) Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreachHuman CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |
In this action and insight-packed episode of The Food Professor Podcast, Michael LeBlanc and Sylvain Charlebois sit down with Hugo Magnan, President of Groupe MAG, the Quebec-based culinary innovator behind some of Canada's most delicious mayonnaise, salad dressings, dips, and sauces. Hugo shares the company's origin story — founded in 1989 by his father Jacques — and explains how Groupe MAG carved out a loyal following through premium ingredients, bold flavours, and a commitment to craft. Michael even reveals his own culinary experiments using MAG mayonnaise in a Texan-style potato salad, highlighting the brand's versatility and taste advantage over mainstream competitors. The conversation explores the future of condiments, how regional producers scale nationally, and why MAG's formula resonates with consumers craving authenticity and umami-rich flavours.The second half of the episode pivots to the newly released Canada's Food Price Report, featuring a detailed breakdown of projected food inflation for 2026. Using AI-driven forecasting, Sylvain's research team anticipates grocery price increases of 4–6% next year — adding nearly $1,000 annually for a family of four. Meat, centre-aisle pantry goods, and restaurant meals are expected to drive most inflation, while coffee prices are entering what Michael calls “eye-watering levels” due to global supply constraints. Sylvain warns that restructuring by major food manufacturers may lead to fewer product choices, reducing competition and elevating prices, particularly in packaged foods.Yet, amid affordability challenges, the report identifies positive shifts. Canadian consumers are entering 2026 more informed, intentional, and empowered than during the pandemic inflation wave. Shopping trips per household have risen from five to more than seven per month, as families comparison-shop, loyalty surf, and embrace food rescue apps, private label alternatives, and price-matching codes. Structural forces — from discount grocer expansion in Quebec to declining alcohol consumption in restaurants — are also reshaping the retail landscape. Restaurants, facing lower bar revenues, will need to reinvent profitability while consumers lean more into at-home dining.Whether you're a food lover curious about better mayonnaise, a retailer navigating shifting economics, or a policy-watcher tracking food affordability, this episode blends culinary storytelling with hard-hitting data, offering both delicious inspiration and serious insight into the year ahead. The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph's Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre's Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
He's been working in AI since the late 1970s, and started a pioneering machine learning hedge fund in the 1990s. Now he's a professor, a podcaster, a Substacker, a yoda -- and has just written a cracking book on the subject. Vasant Dhar joins Amit Varma in episode 432 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the life and times of AI through the life and times of Vasant Dhar. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vasant Dhar on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and NYU Stern. 2. Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI -- Vasant Dhar. 3. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast. 4. Vasant Dhar's Brave New World on Substack. 5. Brave New World — Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 6. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley. 7. Death of a Salesman -- Arthur Miller. 8. Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace. 9. Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness – Episode 94 of Brave New World. 10. How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker. 11. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work — Episode 35 of Brave New World. 12. The Naked Sun -- Isaac Asimov. 13. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare — Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 14. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement — Episode 21 of Brave New World. 15. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 16. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting — Episode 31 of Brave New World. 17. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 18. "When you control the mail..." -- Clip from Seinfeld. 19. The Future of Liberal Education — Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 20. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 21. When Should We Trust Machines? -- Vasant Dhar's TEDx talk from 2018. 22. From Strength to Strength -- Arthur Brooks. 23. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton Christensen. 24. Raghu Sundaram on Building a Great University -- Episode 88 of Brave New World. 25. Power and Prediction -- Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb. 26. The Paperclip Maximiser. 27. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 28. The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Adam Smith. 29. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 30. Aswath Damodaran on Investing — Episode 33 of Brave New World. 31. The Damodaran Bot. 32. Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell — Episode 62 of Brave New World. 33. Alex Wiltschko on the Sense of Smell — Episode 81 of Brave New World. 34. Sandeep Robert Datta on Smell and the Brain -- Episode 90 of Brave New World. 35. Alex Wiltschko on Digitizing Scent -- Episode 97 of Brave New World. 36. A Billion Wicked Thoughts -- Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. 37. Being You: A New Science of Consciousness -- Anil Seth. 38. Noise -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 39. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay Shah also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Mage' by Simahina.
Delving into hours-of-service regulation in the trucking industry, The Broad Matters podcast talks with Martin Holzhacker about a paper he coauthored with the Department of Supply Chain Management at the Broad College. Their research uncovers both the benefits and also the unintended consequences of regulation on independent workers. Follow Martin and his research on LinkedIn and Google Scholar. For more episodes of Broad Matters, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
In this deep and thought-provoking episode, Dr. Niraj Poudyal, a respected academic researcher and philosopher, discusses Atheism, Secularism, and the relationship between Science and Religion. The conversation begins with his personal interest in atheism, followed by an exploration of what atheism truly means—beyond misconceptions that it's simply “not believing in God.” Dr. Poudyal explains how religion and culture overlap, the belief in karma and reincarnation, and how changing religion isn't the same as becoming an atheist. He offers insights on the origin of religion, the historical situation of atheism, and how ideas of superpower and energy relate to spiritual and scientific thinking. In the second part, Dr. Poudyal breaks down secularism, explaining its importance in maintaining balance between faith and freedom. He also addresses morality for atheists, challenging the notion that ethics require religion. The discussion closes with reflections on science, reason, and human values. Whether you're religious, spiritual, or skeptical, this conversation helps you understand the spectrum of belief, atheism, and secular thought in a broader human and Nepali context. GET CONNECTED WITH Dr. Niraj Poudyal: LinkedIn - https://np.linkedin.com/in/niraj-poudyal-phd-12b85b159 Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8GHVJywAAAAJ&hl=en
What does it take to push yourself to the absolute limit and keep going for a cause bigger than yourself?Imagine you're cycling 3,000 miles in 12 days on no more than 2 hours sleep a day. You feel exhausted, with nothing left to give, but important decisions need to be made to achieve your goal.This was the reality for my guest in this episode, Kurt Matzler, one of the world's most cited strategy professors and an elite ultra-endurance cyclist who has completed the Race Across America, often described as the toughest race in the world.We dive into how Kurt blends his expertise in strategy with the demands of ultra-cycling: from meticulous planning and team building to the mental resilience needed to ride for 22 hours a day across deserts and mountain ranges.It's a conversation that will inspire you to think bigger, plan smarter, and persist longer. And perhaps, to take on a challenge you once thought impossible.“Be willing to do everything that is needed to achieve your big goal” – Kurt MatzlerYou'll hear about:Race Across America: the world's longest bike raceThe role of purpose in endurance challengesBalancing training with work and familyBuilding mental toughness before the raceThe power of delegating decisions to a teamLessons from setbacks and resilienceCreating a high-performance support crewWhy strategy means saying noTurning big goals into smaller milestonesThe impact Kurt wants to have on the worldAbout Kurt Matzler:Kurt is professor of Strategic Management at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. According to Brightline Initiative he is one of the best strategic thinkers in the world. He is academic director of the Executive MBA program at MCI in Innsbruck and partner of IMP, an international consulting firm, the winner of the hidden champions in consulting in the field of disruption in Germany. Kurt is author of more than 300 academic papers and several books. He is co-author of the German edition of the Innovator's dilemma, one of the six most important management books overall (Economist). He is author of The High Performance Mindset (2023, among the 10 best business books of 2023, Forbes), co-author of "Open Strategy" (MIT Press, 2021, according to the Strategy+Business Magazine the best strategy book of 2021) and "Digital Disruption" (2016). With more than 35,000 citations in Google Scholar and an H-Index of 82, Kurt belongs to the top 20 strategy researchers in Europe and to the top 50 in the world. He is included in the John Ioannidis Stanford University's database of the world's top 2% of scientists in all disciplines. He is a passionate cyclist and a solo finisher of the Race Across America 2022 and 2025, Race Around Austria, Northcape4000 and Ultracycling World Champion 2024 (Master class). With his participation in RAAM, his Rotary team raised more than USD 4,500,000 to eradicate Polio.Resources:Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-matzler-99206b7/Book: https://shorturl.at/zPdnLMy resources:Try my High-stakes meetings toolkit (https://bit.ly/43cnhnQ) Take my Becoming a Strategic Leader course (https://bit.ly/3KJYDTj)Sign up to my Every Day is a Strategy Day newsletter (http://bit.ly/36WRpri) for modern mindsets and practices to help you get aheadSubscribe to my YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/3cFGk1k) where you can watch the conversationFor more details about me:● Services (https://rb.gy/ahlcuy) to CEOs, entrepreneurs and professionals.● About me (https://rb.gy/dvmg9n) - my background, experience and philosophy.● Examples of my writing https://rb.gy/jlbdds)● Follow me and engage with me on LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/2Z2PexP)● Follow me and engage with me on Twitter (https://bit.ly/36XavNI)
We're all familiar with the sentiment that “college is the best time of your life.” Along with a newfound sense of freedom, students have a unique opportunity to forge lifelong friendships at a point in life when friendship is particularly important. Why is it, then, that so many college students are falling victim to what the US Surgeon General termed an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation”? How do different aspects of college life help or hinder students' ability to form deep connections?In Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks (U Chicago Press, 2025), sociologist Janice M. McCabe shows that the way a college is structured—whether students live in dorms or commute, study abroad or stay close to campus, have plentiful common areas for clubs to meet or not—can either encourage or hinder the making of meaningful friendships. Based on interviews with 95 students on three distinct campuses—a small private college (Dartmouth College), a large public university (University of New Hampshire), and a non-residential community college (Manchester Community College)—McCabe captures a wide range of experiences and discovers how features of the campuses make it easier or harder for students to make and keep friends. She shows how and why, across all three institutions, some students thrive in deep and lasting friendships with their peers.As McCabe's research reveals, we need to look at the structures of students' networks, the institutions they attend, and the importance of their identities in these places if we are to truly uncover and address the loneliness epidemic facing today's young adults. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
We're all familiar with the sentiment that “college is the best time of your life.” Along with a newfound sense of freedom, students have a unique opportunity to forge lifelong friendships at a point in life when friendship is particularly important. Why is it, then, that so many college students are falling victim to what the US Surgeon General termed an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation”? How do different aspects of college life help or hinder students' ability to form deep connections?In Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks (U Chicago Press, 2025), sociologist Janice M. McCabe shows that the way a college is structured—whether students live in dorms or commute, study abroad or stay close to campus, have plentiful common areas for clubs to meet or not—can either encourage or hinder the making of meaningful friendships. Based on interviews with 95 students on three distinct campuses—a small private college (Dartmouth College), a large public university (University of New Hampshire), and a non-residential community college (Manchester Community College)—McCabe captures a wide range of experiences and discovers how features of the campuses make it easier or harder for students to make and keep friends. She shows how and why, across all three institutions, some students thrive in deep and lasting friendships with their peers.As McCabe's research reveals, we need to look at the structures of students' networks, the institutions they attend, and the importance of their identities in these places if we are to truly uncover and address the loneliness epidemic facing today's young adults. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at William Penn University, where he specializes in the cultural and interpretive study of space, behavior, and identity. His scholarship examines how designed environments shape social interaction, connectedness, and moral life across diverse settings. He is the author of The Social Construction of a Cultural Spectacle: Floatzilla (Lexington Books, 2023) and Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River (Lexington Books, 2022). His current research projects include ethnographic studies of escape rooms as emotion-structured environments, the use of urban aesthetics in rural downtown districts, and the lived experience of belongingness among college and university students. To learn more about his work, visit his personal website, Google Scholar profile, or connect with him on Bluesky (@professorjohnst.bsky.social) or Twitter/X (@ProfessorJohnst). He can also be reached directly by email. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology
Tired of conflicting fitness and health advice online and not sure what to trust? Amy Hudson and Dr. James Fisher dive deep into how to separate fact from fiction in health, exercise, and wellness. In today's episode, they unpack how to spot trustworthy research, avoid hype, and make smart decisions for your fitness journey. They break down the biggest myths, why social media isn't enough, and how a personal trainer can guide you to results that actually stick. Amy starts by explaining why most people feel overwhelmed by fitness advice online. Dr. Fisher explains that not all research is unbiased—big companies often fund studies to sell products. You have to ask, "Who benefits from this claim?" This is the first step to spotting marketing dressed as science. Amy covers why magic bullet fitness solutions are everywhere, but progress takes hard work. She explains why shortcuts rarely work and how to focus on what actually delivers results. For Dr. Fisher, experts don't know everything, and the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know much. He shares how to stay humble, curious, and avoid overconfidence in fitness claims. Amy and Dr. Fisher agree that one viral Instagram post doesn't make a method true. You need to question the hype, check the evidence, and avoid being swept up in trends. Amy walks you through how to do it without stress. Before trying a new routine you saw online, check in with a personal trainer. They can help you interpret research and apply it safely. Dr. Fisher reveals why lab-based studies often don't reflect real-world outcomes. Just because something works in a controlled setting doesn't mean it works for you. Amy and Dr. Fisher cover how AI tools like ChatGPT can help you find solid research quickly—but only if you ask the right questions. Look for references, meta-analyses, and reviews. Scrolling on Facebook isn't research. Facebook and social media are designed to sell, not educate. If your goals matter, scrolling alone won't get you the answers you need. Before adding a new exercise or routine, check the evidence. Ask yourself, "Does research support this?" and "What contradicts it?" These two questions save time and frustration. According to Dr. Fisher, people tend to seek confirmation rather than truth. If you only look for evidence that supports your beliefs, you miss the bigger picture. He explains how to uncover research that challenges you. Wonder why fitness fads come and go so quickly? Amy explains that many are just marketing campaigns in disguise. She shares how to spot trends that are hype versus those backed by science. Dr. Fisher explains that big research can be misleading when the funder has an agenda. Even credible-looking studies can push products. He teaches how to critically evaluate who benefits from the research. Dr. Fisher covers how hard work beats shortcuts every time. He explains why real fitness results require consistency and how to identify programs that actually deliver. Dr. Fisher reveals that using Google Scholar or PubMed isn't as complicated as it seems. He walks you through finding studies, reviews, and meta-analyses to make your own evidence-based decisions. For Amy, working with a personal trainer, coach, or medical expert is still the safest way to reach your goals. Social media can't replace personalized guidance. Amy explains how to combine online research with real-world support. Mentioned in This Episode: The Exercise Coach - Get 2 Free Sessions! Submit your questions at StrengthChangesEverything.com The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't by Nate Silver This podcast and blog are provided to you for entertainment and informational purposes only. By accessing either, you agree that neither constitute medical advice nor should they be substituted for professional medical advice or care. Use of this podcast or blog to treat any medical condition is strictly prohibited. Consult your physician for any medical condition you may be having. In no event will any podcast or blog hosts, guests, or contributors, Exercise Coach USA, LLC, Gymbot LLC, any subsidiaries or affiliates of same, or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, or agents, be responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to you or others due to any podcast or blog content.
As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity (MIT Press, 2021), Dr. Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multi-stakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support. Dr. Christopher Ali is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and is also the author of Media Localism: The Policies of Place. He is a Knight News Innovation Fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and former Fellow with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Sociology at William Penn University. His most recent research, “The Queen and Her Royal Court: A Content Analysis of Doing Gender at a Tulip Queen Pageant,” was published in Gender Issues Journal. He researches culture, social identity, placemaking, and media representations of social life at festivals and celebrations. He is currently working on a book titled Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest: Reconstructing the Mississippi River. You can learn more about Dr. Johnston on his website, Google Scholar, on Twitter @ProfessorJohnst, or by email at johnstonmo@wmpenn.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies
Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists. Read more about our partnership. Sign up for Brain Inspired email alerts to be notified every time a new Brain Inspired episode is released. To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org. My guest today is Dan Nicholson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at George Mason University, here to talk about his little book, What Is Life? Revisited. Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life is a famous book that people point to as having predicted DNA and influenced and inspired many well-known biologists ushering in the molecular biology revolution. But Schrödinger was a physicist, not a biologist, and he spent very little time and effort toward understanding biology. What was he up to, why did he write this "famous little book"? Schrödinger had an agenda, a physics agenda. He wanted to save the older deterministic version of quantum physics from the new indeterministic version. When Dan was on the podcast a few years ago, we talked about the machine view of biological systems, how everything has become a "mechanism", and how that view fails to capture what modern science is actually telling us, that organisms are unlike machines in important ways. That work of Dan's led him down this path to Schrödinger's What Is Life, which he argues was a major contributor to that machine metaphor so ubiquitous today in biology. One of the reasons I'm interested in this kind of work is because the cognitive sciences, including neuroscience and artificial intelligence, inherited this mechanistic perspective, and swallowed it so hard that if you don't include the word "mechanism" in your research paper, you're vastly decreasing your chances of getting your work published, when in fact the mechanistic perspective is one super useful perspective among many. Dan's website. Google Scholar. Social: @NicholsonHPBio; @djnicholson.bsky.social What Is Life? Revisited Previous episode: BI 150 Dan Nicholson: Machines, Organisms, Processes 0:00 - Intro 7:27 - Why Schrodinger wrote What is Life 15:13 - Aperiodic crystal and the meaning of code 21:39 - Order-from-order, order-from-disorder 28:32 - Appeal to authority 37:48 - Cell as machine 39:33 - Relation between DNA and organism (development) 44:44 - Negentropy 53:54 - Original contributions 58:54 - Mechanistic metaphor in neuroscience 1:16:05 - What's the lesson? 1:28:06 - Historical sleuthing 1:39:49 - Modern philosophy of biology
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Can automation, such as machine learning & AI, make financial reporting better?The Broad Matters podcast invites Musaib Ashraf to discuss his recent article investigating how public companies are weaving AI into their accounting systems. Along the way, he offers practical guidance for C-suite leaders eager to strengthen their own systems and stay ahead of the curve. Follow Musaib and his research on LinkedIn and Google Scholar. Download the "AI Automation in Accounting" Episode Transcript For more episodes of Broad Matters, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Pre-Order The Forever Strong PLAYBOOK and receive exclusive bonuses: https://drgabriellelyon.com/playbook/Want ad-free episodes, exclusives and access to community Q&As? Subscribe to Forever Strong Insider: https://foreverstrong.supercast.comIn this episode, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon sits down with Dr. Heidi van den Brink; one of the only scientists in the world studying the ovarian transition from fertility to menopause. Together, they unpack what textbooks and wellness influencers often miss: the biology behind how your ovaries, uterus, metabolism, and nutrition interact across every stage of a woman's life. Dr. Heidi reveals the never-before-seen dynamics of the ovarian cycle, how follicles develop in “waves,” and what really happens during the menopause transition. They discuss how undernutrition, obesity, and metabolic health shape reproductive hormones; why early menarche and delayed ovulation matter for long-term health; and the surprising connection between your gut microbiome, bile acids, and fertility. If you've ever been told to “balance your hormones” with seed cycling, apps, or supplements, this episode separates myths from mechanisms. It's a masterclass in understanding the science of your hormones and how to truly support reproductive health through every decade of life.Chapter Markers0:00 - Can You Get Pregnant While on Your Period? 1:21 - Intro to Dr. Heidi & Ovarian Cycle Research 3:39 - The Uterine Cycle vs. The Ovarian Cycle 6:19 - Follicle Waves: The Hidden Drama in Your Ovaries 10:38 - Novel Discovery: Follicle Waves in the Luteal Phase 12:00 - Why One Follicle is Selected for Ovulation 13:17 - Does Nutrition Affect Ovarian Function? 14:48 - The Variation in Menstrual Cycles (It's Not Always 28 Days) 17:23 - The Impact of Obesity on the Ovarian Cycle 18:11 - The Problem of Luteal Phase Defects & Fertility 24:52 - Ovarian Morphology as a Bio-Marker of Health 26:54 - How Undernutrition Affects Ovarian Health 31:56 - The Metabolic Tipping Point of PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) 33:26 - The Myth of the "String of Pearls" Ovary 35:25 - The Menopause Transition & Rogue Follicles 39:04 - Can We Predict Menopause by Scanning Ovaries? 45:59 - Early Menarche (First Period) and Long-Term Disease Risk 48:33 - The Surprising Link Between Puberty Timing and Environment 52:28 - The Role of Leptin in Reproductive Health 55:50 - Debunking the Myth: Can Nutrition Cure PCOS? 59:07 - PCOS Diet Myths (Fruit, Timing, and Supplements) 1:04:40 - Fish Oil for Menstrual Cramps (Dysmenorrhea) 1:08:37 - Breakthrough: Bile Acid, The Gut Microbiome, and Ovulation 1:11:50 - Closing RemarksWho is Heidi Vanden Brink:Dr. Vanden Brink is a reproductive physiologist with over a decade of research in nutrition, metabolism, and female reproductive health. Her work focuses on how diet and metabolic conditions like obesity influence reproductive development during adolescence, with the goal of preventing disorders such as PCOS.Find Heidi Vanden Brink at: Texas A&M University: https://nutrition.tamu.edu/people/vanden-brink-heidi/ Google Scholar:
Democratic backsliding, culture wars and partisan politics in the past two decades has seen the regression of human rights protections in the courts and across societies. However, having made incremental gains in constitutional courts, LGBTQ+ rights operate as somewhat of a paradox. In this pivotal work, Professor Rehan Abeyratne makes an argument that the progress made in LGBTQ+ rights protection obscures an increased shift towards authoritarian legality in the courts and beyond. Case studies of three apex courts - the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of India, and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal - provide insight into the erosion of democracy and the rule of law across these jurisdictions. Courts and LGBTQ+ Rights in an Age of Judicial Retrenchment (Oxford UP, 2025) is an important work and should serve as a warning sign to constitutional lawyers, human rights scholars and anybody interested in the values that underpin liberal democracy as to the the limited ability of constitutional courts to protect rights in the current climate. Professor Rehan Abeyratne is is Professor and Associate Dean (Higher Degree Research) at Western Sydney University School of Law, where he teaches Government and Public Law, Legal Research and Methodology, and Comparative Law: Legal Systems of the World. He also coordinates the School of Law's Honours Program. Professor Abeyratne holds a PhD from Monash University, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a BA (Hons.) in Political Science from Brown University. He researches comparative constitutional law and has published several books and articles in world leading journals. Most of Prof. Abeyratne's research can be freely accessed on SSRN, Academia, and Google Scholar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
The info storm continues! Part 1 covered the anatomy of a cyclonic storm, the bizarre histories behind the category system, and where hurricanes come from, but this week's conclusion with Matt Lanza and Dr. Kim Wood gets you covered on emergency preparation for any disaster occasion, climate change trends and despair, the latest on the government funding drama, if you should trust a waffle house more than a weather person, and literally what is on the horizon in the future. Also: Sharpiegate. Read Matt Lanza's tropical weather forecasts at The Eyewall and Houston-based forecasts at Space City WeatherFollow Matt Lanza on Instagram and BlueskyVisit Dr. Wood's website and follow them on Google Scholar and BlueskyDonations went to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's Kerr County Flood Relief Fund and The Trevor ProjectMore episode sources and linksOther episodes you may enjoy: Meteorology (WEATHER & CLIMATE), Oceanology (OCEANS), Nephology (CLOUDS), Disasterology (DISASTERS), Fulminology (LIGHTNING)400+ Ologies episodes sorted by topicSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesSponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow Ologies on Instagram and BlueskyFollow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTokEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake ChaffeeManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling Producer: Noel DilworthTranscripts by Aveline Malek Website by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn
Hurricanes. Typhoons. Cyclones. Tropical storms. Tropical depressions. What does it all MEAAAN? Let's dive in. Career meteorologists Dr. Kim Wood of the University of Arizona and Space City Weather's Matt Lanza join for a two-guest two-parter to address the “deadlier” female-named hurricanes, why hurricane season happens, the category system, where hurricanes come from, why they have eyes, and how we track cyclones' paths so we can stay out of them. Next week we'll be back with Kim and Matt to chat about climate change, emergency preparation – for any disaster occasion –, the latest on the government funding drama, if you should trust a waffle house more than a weather person, and literally what is on the horizon in the future. Also: cows. Read Matt Lanza's tropical weather forecasts at The Eyewall and Houston-based forecasts at Space City WeatherFollow Matt Lanza on Instagram and BlueskyVisit Dr. Wood's website and follow them on Google Scholar and BlueskyDonations went to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's Kerr County Flood Relief Fund and The Trevor ProjectMore episode sources and linksOther episodes you may enjoy: Meteorology (WEATHER & CLIMATE), Oceanology (OCEANS), Nephology (CLOUDS), Disasterology (DISASTERS), Fulminology (LIGHTNING)400+ Ologies episodes sorted by topicSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesSponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow Ologies on Instagram and BlueskyFollow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTokEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake ChaffeeManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling Producer: Noel DilworthTranscripts by Aveline Malek Website by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn