Podcasts about ucsf

Happy Pride Month GeriPal listeners! Transgender issues are in the news. Just today (June 17th) as we record this podcast: Ezra Klein released a wonderful interview with Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of congress A judge ruled that cuts to NIH grants focused on minority groups, including transgender people, were illegal and ordered the government to restore funding.  It's Pride month, and our guests remind us of the leadership of two trans women in the Stonewall riots, which started the modern fight for LGBTQI+ rights and liberation. Today's guests are Noelle Marie Javier, a geriatrician and palliative care doc who tells her story of transitioning as a faculty member at Mt. Sinai in New York, and Jace Flatt, who started their journey as a gerontology researcher at UCSF and is now faculty at UNLV. Jace was in the news recently for having multiple federal grants cancelled because they included transgender participants. We cover many topics, including: Terminology: gender identity, sexual orientation, gender expression, transgender, nonbinary, intersex, what's in LGBTQI+ Gender affirming care Major health and medical issues associated with aging as a transgender person Allostatic load Accelerated aging What can clinicians do - pointers, pearls, and attitudes Dementia risk  Caregiver issues Hormone replacement therapy at the end of life Sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data, what is it, how to collect it respectfully and safely Mentioned: Harvey Chochinov's Dignity Therapy question, and our prior podcast on LGBT Care for older adults and serious illness with Carey Candrian and Angela Primbas So pleased to sing True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, with Kai on guitar for those of you listening to the podcast. -Alex Smith Many links! -Rainbows of Aging: Jace Flatt's research site. -LGBTQcaregivers -Callen-Lorde gender affirming trans health services -GLMA: organization for health professional advancing LGBTQ+ equality -Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at UCSF -World Professional Association for Transgender Health -Sage advocacy services for LGBTQ+ Elders: focus on impact of Medicaid cuts -Trans bodies, Trans selves: resource guide 

On today's episode of Death Clock, host Brent Franson speaks with Dr. Aric Prather, a professor at UCSF, clinical psychologist, and author of The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest. Dr. Prather unpacks the critical relationship between sleep and stress, explaining how poor sleep increases stress sensitivity and creates a vicious cycle that can degrade long-term health. They also discuss the latest in sleep research, including wearables like the Oura Ring and Eight Sleep, and how these tools can help—or hinder—our understanding of rest. They also explore the role of diet, nighttime routines, and the often-overlooked psychological aspect of sleep perception. Whether you struggle with insomnia, want to optimize your rest, or are simply curious about the science of sleep and longevity, this episode provides helpful insights from one of the leading experts in the field. Hope you enjoy.

Maria Artunduaga is the founder & CEO of Samay, the winner of the 2024 MedTech Innovator accelerator, as well as a groundbreaking physician, scientist, and inventor. Maria discusses her inspiring journey from a small town in Columbia to leading a top MedTech company in the US. After pivoting away from plastic surgery training, she channeled her efforts into creating Sylvee, an AI wearable sensor for COPD patients. Maria shares her relentless determination, innovative problem-solving strategies, and the creation of a company culture that emphasizes learning and diversity.    Guest links: https://www.samayhealth.com/home | https://www.linkedin.com/in/drartunduaga/  Charity supported: ASPCA Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 057 - Maria Artunduaga [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am delighted to welcome as my guest today, Maria Artunduaga. Maria is a physician, scientist, and inventor with 60 plus prizes, including becoming the first woman to lead a US LATAM company to win MedTech Innovator, the world's most competitive accelerator for medical technology surpassing over 1300 global companies. A top 1% student in Columbia, her country of birth, she relocated to the US to pursue plastic surgery training, but abandoned it to dedicate herself to solve the problem that killed her grandmother-- a lack of home technologies that can detect COPD exasperations early. Maria has raised 5.2 million, almost 60% in non-dilutive capital from NSF and NIH to build Sylvee, an AI wearable sensor that can provide COPD patients with continuous data on pulmonary functions similar to what continuous glucose monitoring sensors do for diabetic patients. Her invention has been featured by a hundred plus media outlets, including Forbes, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Fierce Healthcare, and more. Before Samay, Maria completed postdoctoral studies in human genetics at Harvard Medical School, started a plastic surgery residency at the University of Chicago, and completed two master's degrees, one in global public health at the University of Washington, and another in translational medicine at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco. She lives in Mountain View, California with her husband, 2-year-old daughter, and four pets. In her free time, she enjoys flamenco dancing, bolero singing, traveling the world, and fostering diversity in and outside the workplace by mentoring underrepresented scientists and entrepreneurs. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Maria. I'm so excited to finally get a chance to speak with you. I'd love if you would share a little bit about your background and your career trajectory. What led you to MedTech? [00:02:40] Maria Artunduaga: Sure. So it's gonna be a little long and I'm gonna tell you everything about my life because the personal history is very important to me and for my company too. So, as you have noticed, I have an accent. So, I grew up in Columbia in a very small town in the southern part of the country. My parents were both doctors and I'm the oldest of four kids and two of us followed their lead. So my life in my city was pretty chill. Everyone knew everyone. I spent most of my days at a Catholic school studying very hard on weekends where I usually spent tagging along my parents to doctor events. One of the things that I really like to tell, it's how my parents work as entrepreneurs really shaped my life. They were real pioneers. They built in my hometown the first big clinic back in the eighties and the nineties. And my mom was the only woman in that group, and she actually was the CEO for a while, which was a big deal. She was the only woman in a partnership of 10 people. And watching them build that clinic, that hospital really taught me a lot about dealing with uncertainty and finding solutions. Every day we'll have supper or lunch and I'll just hear all of these challenges and stories, their struggles and how they solve things. Something that was, that is definitely super helpful in what I do now, right? So, and then I was 16 and after high school I moved to Bogota, the capital, which is up in the mountains, it's very cold. I got a scholarship 'cause I was always a very good student. You know, career I spent my last year, I spent nine months in the US. Honestly, coming to the US blew my mind. The technology that I got to see, the speed, effects on science, it was nothing like I've ever seen before, and that was true inspiration for me. So I knew that I had to come to the US. I needed to come back to learn from the best, of course. And it's interesting because my parents didn't want me to relocate to the US. I was the oldest. I was supposed to follow into their footsteps and obviously, like inherited that clinic, right? That hospital, we call it clinic, it's actually a hospital. And I was a very contrarian. I didn't listen to them. I told them, you know, I really wanna be where the best people are. And what I did was that I, it took me three years to save the money to come to the US, to get Harvard to actually sponsor me my visa because they wouldn't pay me for the first year. So I remember I had to save $30,000, which in pesos is significant. So back in 2007, so many years ago, I made it to Boston, and the original idea was that I wanted to become a pediatric plastic surgeon and bring that level of care back to Columbia. I spent four years of researching a genetic ear condition that's called microtia. And with that work, I was able to land a plastic surgery residency spot or position at the University of Chicago. And I shared this with a lot of people. I actually had a really negative experience. Things didn't go as planned. I actually faced discrimination. I eventually, you know, had to leave and I made the top choice to never ever go back into clinical practice. And I changed paths. I was 32 years old and yeah I decided to switch gears. I retrained into public health and tech. And then in 2016, I moved to the Bay Area where I am right now. And I got another scholarship to finish master's in translational medicine at UC Berkeley and UCSF. And during the courses that I took, some of them with business class etc., etc., I decided to found Samay in 2018. I really wanted to build something that would really make a difference in respiratory medicine. And this is where my grandmother comes. So my, the grandmother, my abuela, her name was Sylvia and she had Chronic Obstruct Pulmonary Disease or COPD and she's the reason behind my company. So, she often couldn't tell when her symptoms were getting worse. That's a huge problem. Catching the respiratory attacks, exacerbations is definitely key to keeping people outside of the hospitals, and obviously feeling their best to have a better quality of life. So, that's what we are trying to solve with a company, right? If we are able to catch those exacerbations even with a day or two notice in advance, right, that we can all make a difference. And so by missing these exacerbations, we are having really high expenses in hospitalizations and ER visits and the problem we trying to solve is that today technologies that are adequate enough to be used outside of the hospital because the ones that are considered to be the gold standard, they are very expensive. They are confined to their hospitals and they are very difficult to complete for the patient, especially when they're exacerbating. They need to blow out forcefully for about 10 seconds, 21 times. So what we are doing is, we are developing a sensor that makes it super simple for people to use it at home to track their lung function without doing those forceful maneuvers and ideally in the future to warm them, right? Like to let them know when things are starting to go south or obviously, you know, not going very well, and that's what it's all about. I mean, that's what we do with Sylvee right here. And it's wearable sensor and we have done significantly well over the past couple of years. We actually just won MedTech Innovator. [00:08:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Significantly well over the last few years. Yes. So congratulations on that, and I want to dive into all of those exciting milestones in just a second. But I am, first of all, so inspired by your story. Thank you for just sharing that your resilience and your grit and your determination are really admirable. So thank you for sticking with something that was not easy, not an easy path. [00:08:29] Maria Artunduaga: I know. I know. [00:08:31] Lindsey Dinneen: It continues not to be, ironically, as we've kind of touched on before, but just going backward a little bit in your story. So I, it sounds to me like getting the opportunity to watch your parents have this incredible impact on their community and the healthcare and the opportunity is just so valuable for you. And even just learning about how your mom was the CEO and those kinds of things, did that help shape the idea for you that not only is entrepreneurship possible, is innovation and healthcare possible, but you can also be this in incredible leader as a woman in whatever capacity? I would just love to dive into that. [00:09:13] Maria Artunduaga: Yeah, it's super interesting, right? My mom really taught me a lot about leadership. She's a surgeon, so you can imagine how good of a leader she is in the operating room at home, everywhere, right? I mean, she's definitely the general, that's how I call her. And I honestly, I try to replicate, so my leadership and styles pretty much shaped by her. So I always call her my best role model whenever somebody asks me about the question, right? So I'm just like her. I lead from the front. I like setting the pace by working the hardest. So I really like to lead by example and I also, just like she did, and obviously because of her surgical training, I hold myself to a really high standard, and I expect everyone on my team to do the same. So people in my company know that I'm very strict, I'm very disciplined, and they know that from the beginning. It's so funny because when I interview all of them, at the final interviews with me, and I actually do the anti sale to join Samay. It's like, this is, these are all the reasons why you shouldn't join. I start describing myself as a very intense, obsessed CEO with insomnia, which I still have, because I really wanna make this work, right? So, yeah, I, ask them, and most of them say yes. I really like, I attract people that like challenges, especially intellectual challenges. So, yeah, to this point, most of them say yes. Some of them have obviously, you know, because probably too much. But at the same time, I tell them, "Look, this is going to be very hard in terms of the deliverables, the things that we're expecting from you." But at the same time, my goal is to not only help people with respiratory problems, I try to sell the company as a company where everyone that gets hired can be themselves and thrive. So, so for example, I tell them," Look, I'm trying to be the boss that I never had." And this goes obviously very tied to the very negative experience that I had during my surgical residency and even before, right? So, I never had a boss that really supported me, who recognize my true self and those characteristics as good things, right? So they always try to tone me down. I'm very energetic, as you can notice, and I'm also super ambitious. I'm really ambitious. I wanna do all of these great things. And they always thought that I was aiming for too much, especially for a woman. It's like, " You need to lean in, Maria. You need to behave." So I remember my residency, they were criticizing like, "Why are you behaving like this, Maria? Why are you asking so many questions? You're asking too many questions. You look more as an internal medicine doctor. Why are you always smiling, Maria? Why are you so happy?" So now, with everyone that I hire, what I try to do is that I focus on understanding their dreams and I try to figure out how this job is gonna help them get there. So if they wanna become a top engineer, maybe they wanna learn managerial skills, or they wanna run operations, or they eventually wanna become a founder themselves. So I try to create a partnership with them where they obviously help me succeed with the company, build Samay, but at the same time they get to do this personal growth. So it's extremely important that they get to place where they wanna be. [00:12:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's wonderful. And such a gift to your employees. And I also honestly, that sort of anti interview or whatever technique is brilliant because you do want it to be a fit for everyone, and it's so much better to have aligned expectations from the start. So, oh my goodness, that's so interesting. So, okay, so then. Speaking into that, how do you develop a company culture for yourself? You've learned from some pretty negative experiences, so obviously that's what not to do, but you know, as you're crafting your own company culture now, what kinds of things are sort of your core values, other than of course, your hard work and your excellence and holding yourself and others to high standards, but what kinds of things do have you developed that make it special to be where you are? [00:13:19] Maria Artunduaga: Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question. I'm very true to myself, and one of the things that I wanna do with Samay, it's I wanna create legacy. If you go to my WhatsApp, that's exactly the little logo or the slogan that's below my name: I'm creating or building my life's legacy. That's how I pitch myself. So I really wanna be remembered as someone that made healthcare more accessible, especially for the people that get left behind. So growing up in Columbia, I saw firsthand how unfair things will be and I wanted to change that. So that's how the values of Samay go, people first. I think legacy, it's extremely important, right? It's about getting those life changing tools and opportunities into the hands of people who really need them. And again, it's not necessarily, the group that we're building. It's the own experience of building a company with me, learning from the company, from the people that are working with. I really wanna make it accessible for people. And I wanna also be obviously a source of inspiration. You don't necessarily need to be this perfect person to be a CEO. You know, life is a struggle and that's totally fine. Just be very passionate about building legacy, right, your work and how you're impacting other people. And especially for me, I do a lot of work with women and minorities. I really wanna empower them to chase their dreams in science and technology. I really care about people. I don't know, I'm selfless about me. It's all about the others and creating legacy and being remembered. So, yeah, that's how I, that's how I roll. [00:14:59] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. I love that. So speaking of you embracing the CEO role, when you first started your company, did you feel ready to step into this kind of position? Or was it something where you just were like, "You know what? I see the need. I know I can make a difference in this field. I'm gonna do it and I'll learn along the way." [00:15:19] Maria Artunduaga: No, not at all. And let, so there's a very good anecdote that I'm sharing. Again, back to all of these life changing experiences. I got into medtech because of, I don't know, somehow the planets got aligned, right? So I was doing a master's in public health because I thought that was going to be my real call, working for Gates in Seattle, because that's where I actually lived for about two years. Then I came to realize that it was very bureaucratic. It's very, was very slow. I have a type A personality. I really like to fix things very quick. I like to implement stuff. So I decided to do a second master's degree, and as I mentioned, here in Berkeley, I decided to join one of Atma METs minority programs for students, right? It's called SMDP. And I remember that was back in 2016, and they sent me to Minneapolis for the big conference. And that's where I got my first real taste of MedTech. And I remember watching the MedTech Innovator finals with Paul Grand. He was introducing the program, the finalist. I remember clearly seeing all of his pitches and how Green Sun Medical CEO won, and it was a game changer to me because when I saw them pitch, it was very exciting. You know, all these technologies, the many millions of people they could definitely impact, I saw that, and it clicked. I could turn the scientific ideas into something that helps millions in a way, the way how I would practice medicine, but in a more impactful way. So interesting story though. So the other thing that was very inspiring or at least that motivated me, I was the only person in the room who looked like me and spoke with an accent from South America, from Latin America. So it was like two reasons behind it. For me, it was I wanna be a medtech entrepreneur, but at the same time I wanna be able to break the glass ceiling, right? The first Latina physician CEO building a company that has hardware, software, and AI, this is what we actually do. And yeah, so it, it's mainly that. I really like challenges and I'm very motivated to show people that I can do things that might seem impossible or too difficult. So I really like showing people that anything is possible with a lot of hard work and determination. So yeah, that's mainly it. [00:17:47] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Embracing those challenges, running full steam at them and having that, I don't know, that gumption is fantastic too. And the desire, like... [00:17:57] Maria Artunduaga: Thank you. [00:17:57] Lindsey Dinneen: ...you said, to break through those ceilings and to represent and say, "No, it is possible." It is, and I love that. So, excellent. Okay, so can you share a little bit about the journey that the company has gone under recently and some of the really exciting milestones? I know there have been bumps and whatnot, but maybe some of the exciting things that have been developing and what you're looking forward to as you continue down the road. [00:18:24] Maria Artunduaga: Sure. I mean, whew. There are so many things that have been happening for the last couple of months. So it's been a long journey. It's been six years so far. Initially, you know, I wanted to build a company with an idea that was inspired, obviously, by the fact that I lost my grandmother to exacerbation and also because, at the time, I didn't know what I wanted to build. When I was doing an interview with a pulmonologist, what I realized was that I could actually build a technology that could be inspired by consumer devices, so hearing aids for example. And funny story is that my husband who is also Columbian, and went to MIT, he's been working at Google for over a decade and he's an auto engineer. He does a lot of things. He's very smart and he's one of the main architects. What I decided to do back then was, let's repurpose hearing aid technology by sending signals through the chest, and let's use the physical principle of acoustic resonance to understand what's going on inside of the lungs. And that's exactly what we are doing. We have 10 granted patents so far. We have 20 more pending on pulmonary so far. So we've done a lot of things. So we've tested that device on 450 people almost. All of our numbers of accuracy are over 90. Sensitivities and specificities are also between 82 to 98. Right now we are starting to see changes a few days before an exacerbation is actually diagnosed by a physician, which is extremely exciting. We have data from two people. Obviously it's a small sample size. We are following eight of them, and we're aiming to finish at 60 to hundred people in the next year or so. So that's our main goal. We've raised 5.2 million, 60% of that money is coming from grants, federal grants, and we just submitted a breakthrough designation to the FDA about a week ago, so fingers crossed, though, we get it right? There are a lot of things in the pipeline, things that are very exciting. Right now I'm super excited 'cause those six years were very hard. I was running a science project with my nails, getting money from grants, help from people who have known me forever. It was very hard for me to recruit a full-time CTO. So my husband has been helping me with some hours here and there. And we have right now 12 people in Columbia. So for developers, designers, clinical researchers, we are running most of our operations in Latin America because it's extremely, well, obviously cost efficient, and more importantly, we have access to people that are patients especially that are, that exacerbate more often. So we are to leverage all the different angles that we can get. [00:21:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Wow. So lots of exciting things in the works and in the future, and oh my goodness, I'm so excited, can't wait to continue to celebrate all those wonderful accomplishments. So I'm curious, as you've taken this journey and even before with your other health experiences and finding this path, are there any moments all along the journey that really stand out to you as affirming, "Yes, I am in the right place at the right time, in the right industry." [00:21:31] Maria Artunduaga: Yeah, beyond the MedTech Innovator, the experience eight years ago, I mean, every day I find that this is the perfect fit for me. I always tell people, "Look, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It really needs to be a fit of personality." So when I talked to my parents, because at the beginning they weren't very agreeable with the idea of me becoming an entrepreneur 'cause physicians don't do this, right? I was sort of like a black sheep of a family, 'cause my sister, she's successful and she's a pediatric radiologist as she's working for an academic center in, in Dallas. So, my personality, I'm Type A. I'm very anxious. I really like doing things super fast. I really like to get things done, right? So, I dunno if I picked the wrong career, probably could have done a better job as an engineer, as a scientist myself. So at heart, I'm a true scientist. That's what I really enjoy. I like practicing medicine, sort of miss it a little bit, but I'm more in the quest of solving questions and discovering, right? That's what really excites me. And then, every day is a new day when you're building a company. And the challenges that I have every day, all of the problems I have to solve, I really enjoy the process of solving them. And this is a little crazy. Who gets excited with problems, right? So, I don't know, that's probably me. So I guess every day, the moment I go home or that I go to sleep, I say, "This is perfect. I don't think I'll be as happy as I am right now if I had stayed medicine. I don't think so." [00:23:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. And that says a lot. And that just affirms to you on a daily basis, "Yeah. I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing. That's wonderful. [00:23:17] Maria Artunduaga: Exactly. Right. It's like, yeah, I'm good at this thing. You know? I like solving problems. I got, I really enjoy the fires. I really like them. I's like, I don't know. I'm, yeah. I'm addicted to them. [00:23:30] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Well, and that is unusual, and I'm curious, do you? But it's a great thing. No, it's a wonderful thing. Yeah, no, absolutely. I love that. So, so when you're at finding yourself up against a problem, do you start with any particular kind of established framework? Do you like to just brainstorm solutions? How do you approach problem solving? [00:23:53] Maria Artunduaga: Gosh, this is a really good question. It's like, you know, if I had to teach something, right? So I'm very good at solving problems, at connecting different disciplines, right, to solve those issues. So for example, the way how I go about them, first of all, I don't get frustrated or too anxious about it. I always try to think first, right? And then, yeah, I start brainstorming. I'm very quick at thinking, my mind goes super quick. I have a whiteboard right behind me. I do a lot brainstorming on my own. I ask a lot of questions too. So I rely on a lot of people, and I get a lot of feedback on the way, how I think a problem needs to be solved. And obviously with time and experience, the older that you get, the better you become, right? So yeah, honestly, every problem is different. I just like seeing it from different angles, right? I'm very good with social stuff. I'm very good with arts too. I really like doing science, learning a about engineering. I really like different ways of solving problems. For example, I remember that I we had this NIH grant and we were working collaboration with a big, famous academic center right here. And things weren't working very well. That was through during a pandemic and I was getting charged things that we actually didn't approve. So things were getting a little awkward. I decided to finalize that agreement. But then I got through this situation that I had no access to patients here in the States, and at the time, I didn't have my clinical site in Columbia opened up. So what I did was the craziest thing, which is what I did, was that I bought an $80,000 machine and I came into an agreement with a friend from medical school who has a pulmonary practice in South Florida, one of the largest pulmonary practices. He's a partner with nine other guys, and they see probably a hundred patients every day. Can you imagine that? So respiratory patients, and I told him, "Look, I don't have any money to pay your rent, but I'm gonna give you equity for that rent, and you're gonna use this machine from Monday through Thursday, and I'm going to test your patients from Friday to Saturday. And I'm going to bring people, I'm going to become my own CRO, right? So I'm gonna bring people, doctors, from Columbia on a J1 visa as a research scholar visa. I'm gonna train them and I'm gonna get them to do the recruitment, review everything, test the patients. We are going to become our own CROs, and we are going to do as many people as we can every single week." So we were able to do 430 people in a span of a probably a year and a half. Something that usually would cost us thousands of dollars. I dunno how much money I spend, probably just 300,000 to do everything. Can you imagine? I mean, that's significantly cheap compared to any other quote that I've been getting from an academic center. So, I sometimes go for the crazy idea, right? Like, what's the craziest thing that I could think of? I literally, I write it down, right? And then I just try to double check with my lawyer. "Am I doing something illegal here?" And I, yeah, I cross reference with other founders. " I'm thinking of doing this, how that's that sound?" And they're like, "This is pretty non-traditional, Maria, but I mean, if you can get it done..." I'm like, "Yeah, of course I can get it done." And I just get it done. I just don't take a no for an answer. I'm very good at also finding, convincing people to jump on board with the vision, the mission. This excitement, this energy, people really get very engaged with Samay and with me as a founder, and they love it. Most of these people either have invested in the company, they are helping me many more hours, pro bono, literally free, and we are building together. [00:27:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow, that is so cool. And what a fantastic story. Thank you for sharing that one as well. Oh my word. [00:27:50] Maria Artunduaga: I have way too many stories to share. This is the one I really like to, to tell people. [00:27:55] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that, and I love the willingness to come up with those crazy ideas. And it might be just so crazy that it works. So, hey, you never know until you try, and that's fantastic. Oh my gosh, I love that approach. Alright, so pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun. Imagine you are to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass... I know! ...to teach a masterclass on anything you want. What would you choose to teach? [00:28:22] Maria Artunduaga: Yeah. So, good question. So, gosh, I, I tackle problem. So my, my brain again is very good at figuring stuff out. That plus the fact that I'm very stubborn. So if I'm into something, I don't give up easily. And now I'm gonna tell the story about our winning MedTech Innovator. We beat 65 companies globally, right? And I still like, sort of, I cannot process that we won. So the story goes like this, but a year ago, I tried to raise five millions, my very first institutional round, and I totally flopped. [00:28:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. [00:28:56] Maria Artunduaga: I only got $200,000 because multiple funds that I was talking to, they wanted me to feel half of the round before weighing any money or signing anything. So you can imagine. So do I got, you know, chicken or the egg problem? I failed. And instead of crying or mopping, I thought, "Okay, wait. I got into Medtech Innovator. You know what? I'm just gonna win that competition, still $350,000." And why not? So obviously people, my advisors, my best friend, "Like, you're crazy. It's the most competitive thing ever. You're not established in the field. People know who you are, but it's not like you have exited a company or anything, right? You're not even an engineer, Maria." So what I did was, again I went back to my whiteboard. Again, I probably should have become an engineer before, I dunno. I'm really good at solving problems. So I was like, "You know, this is a problem. These are the different ways how I can tackle this." And more importantly, I'm very good at the studying stuff. I really like, again, knowing, wisdom, information. I just love that. I really love that. So what I did was, I treat it like a big project, and I talked to the past winners, anyone who had done or won any sort of like prize with MedTech Innovator, and I figure out their secret sauce. So I either talk to them, I studied every single video, every single pitch. I spend many hours studying everyone who had one or had done significantly well throughout the accelerator. So what I discovered was the accelerator was kind of a school, like a school. So the harder you work, the better you do. And one of the things that I realized was that mentors and reviewers were key players. So I focused on building those connections. I met with many of them. I probably spent about, I don't know, probably four to five hours meeting with mentors, anyone who I thought could help me somehow, obviously, for free, because a lot of the help that they give used for free. And I also spent a lot of time doing homework, the webinars, et cetera, et cetera. I ask a lot of people for advice. I really got people excited about Samay. I recruited my mentors and they got on board from day one. Because of that, I started building those relationships and it was authentic. I mean, don't get me wrong, this wasn't like, you know, I'm trying to play anybody. I really care about what they had to say, and I incorporate all that feedback into my company to this day. So the other thing is, I make sure to go to everywhere, every webinar, every event, everything. My camera was always on, because most people, when they do their webinars, they don't even turn on their cameras, right? So I was very engaged. I was asking questions, I was getting involved with everything. Same thing with the Slack channel that we have for MedTech Innovator. I was helping people, I was sharing stuff. I was even offering to make introductions. I really made sure that people knew who I was. And I obviously also asked the MedTech Innovator people, the staff, for help, feedback, right? Am I doing this right? What do you think I should do? Anything that you can share with me that you think. I was very clear with them. I wanna go to the, I wanna get to the finals. I told them, and I remember they telling me, "Oh, Maria, about getting to the finals, it's so hard. It depends on the strategics and the sponsors." And I was like, " I'm gonna get there. What do you think I should do?" So I literally ask a lot of people how I needed to get there. And with the finals, the way how they pick the finalist, it's actually the mentors who go in front of the strategics, and they sort of champion your company. And they really went to bat for us. They told them how committed I was, the many people that from my team were actually going for participating to the winner because I brought people from my team... [00:32:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:32:46] Maria Artunduaga: You know, very few founders did that. I brought people from Colombia, obviously online, people who barely could understand English. But, I made them prepare questions. "You need to do this and that we need to be super engaged. We need to help other people." And they saw it was hard work. And at the end, we got into the finals and what I realized was, okay, so after the finals, I understood that the game was, obviously it changed. The way how the winner is chosen is that the audience votes, right, during The MedTech Conference. So what I did was, I went all in on social media. We made an awesome video for the best video competition. I remember that that was the first thing that I did back in June. I scheduled two weeks. I flew to Columbia. I hired right people. I made sure that I was perfect, so I was part of the creative team. I designed everything. Again, I really like arts, right? That's why, one of the reasons why I didn't, I was in pleasantry and that's why I really like dancing too, right? So I'm obsessive with everything that we do. I really am into the details and I supervise everything. And we also got into the finals for the best video competition. So I was going to this problem from every single angle. I didn't let anything up to chance. I, yeah, I'm a freak. I'm a control freak. That's what I did. I remember that even for the pitch, the four and a half minute pitch, I practiced, I don't know how many hours, but every single thing that I say that was obviously memorized, needed to be perfect. The way how I, let's go back to dancing since you're a dancer yourself, the way how I moved my hands, right? The way, how I walked on that stage, everything was rehearsed. So, yeah, I mean, I just I worked my ass off. I mean, everything was the way it needed to be and that's how we won. [00:34:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Wow. That's great. What a fantastic story. Yeah. Amazing. Yes. I love how it's so choreographed. Yeah, that's [00:34:48] Maria Artunduaga: great. It was choreographed, [00:34:50] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Excellent. Well, I know you have touched on the importance of legacy and how much that means to you, but how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:35:03] Maria Artunduaga: Oh gosh. Yeah. I mean, so I have a little daughter, I want to some somehow replicate the same experience that I had with my mom. Maybe she doesn't even realize how much of the inspiration and the impact that she had on me. And again, leading by example, I don't spend a lot of hours with my daughter, right? I have a nanny for 12 hours. So my salary goes to her payment, right? Yeah, I wanna be remembered as somebody who tried very hard, who literally, instead of saying things, I walked the talk. The things that I said I was going to say. For example, I'm very opinionated with anything diversity and inclusion because, as I've said, I've experienced discrimination myself. So I walk the talk, I build a product, I build the change. I worked really hard. I impacted a lot of people. And more importantly, the world has changed somehow because I existed. So that's that. It's as simple as that. I wanna help other people get to fulfillment of their lives and their dreams. And yeah, and I obviously wanna be happy while I do all of these things. And more importantly, I wanna feel that I learned a lot. I really like learning. The process of learning every single day, learning a new thing makes me super happy. So if I don't learn something new, I consider day as, you know, as like a flop or something. So yeah, it's very simple. I'm actually a very simple person, I'm not that complicated. [00:36:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:36:39] Maria Artunduaga: Oh, cute. I mean, obviously my daughter. So I'm a mom. I'm 44, well, almost 45, and I had her at 42. So just thinking about her makes me smile every single time. She's a miracle baby. She's, you know, after four years of IVF, eight retrievals, it finally happened. I finally had her, and having her in my life has turned my world upside down in the best way. She's determined, and she's only three. She's diving into doing all sorts of things. She's doing gymnastics, she's building Legos, she's doing engineering stuff. I really like that "I can do anything attitude" and obviously I'm sort of like reinforcing her to do anything she wants to try. So seeing her try all these new things, all this confidence that I, that she has. It's like, I don't know. I mean, that inspires me. That motivates me to be a better mom, a better CEO, and to do exactly the same thing with the people that I work with. So everyone in my company, I I tell them I'm a mom, right? So, remember that, and I try to do the same with them. It's like I tell them, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna learn this month? What do you need? Right? My work as a CEO is getting the resources and put out the fires. Just tell me, and this is your playground, so I'm trying to do exactly the same with my daughter too. But yeah, I'm very happy with her. [00:38:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Aw, that's wonderful. I'm so glad. Well, oh my goodness, this conversation has been amazing. I kind of wish it didn't have to end, but I also wanna respect your time 'cause obviously you have so much going on. But thank you so much for sharing about your story, your advice. You're so inspiring, and I know this is gonna inspire so many people to go for it, and not to have the fear, to have that problem solving mentality, and growth mindset and learning and, hey, look where curiosity got you. [00:38:37] Maria Artunduaga: Yeah, exactly. That's a perfect slogan. It's all about that curiosity and it gets you places. Look at me. [00:38:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And this is just the start. [00:38:47] Maria Artunduaga: Yes, of course. [00:38:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. So I just wanna say thank you again for your time today, and we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:38:58] Maria Artunduaga: Thank you so much and thank you again for invitation. I really enjoyed it. [00:39:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Me too. And we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is dedicated to preventing animal cruelty in the United States. We really appreciate you choosing that organization to support and thank you just again, so very much for your time here today. Yeah, and holy cannoli, thank you so much to our listeners for tuning in, and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we'll catch you next time. [00:39:44] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Superpowers for Good should not be considered investment advice. Seek counsel before making investment decisions. When you purchase an item, launch a campaign or create an investment account after clicking a link here, we may earn a fee. Engage to support our work.Watch the show on television by downloading the e360tv channel app to your Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV. You can also see it on YouTube.Devin: What is your superpower?Nicole: Willingness to take bold leaps and embrace the unknown.Imagine a world where cancer is as treatable as the flu. That's the vision Nicole Paulk, the founder and CEO of Siren Biotechnology, is working tirelessly to bring to life. Driven by groundbreaking science, Nicole's company is on the brink of launching clinical trials for a revolutionary cancer treatment.Nicole's work leverages engineered viruses—those that don't make you sick—to deliver genetic medicines directly to cancer cells. These “good viruses” act as a delivery system for anti-tumor drugs, targeting difficult-to-treat cancers like recurrent high-grade gliomas, a fatal brain cancer. “We started to see data that looked really promising in this space,” Nicole explained, adding, “We felt a moral obligation to go after this cancer where there's just this huge unmet need.”Siren Biotechnology's approach is designed to have broad applications. Unlike treatments that target specific genetic mutations, their method has the potential to work on various tumor types. Nicole describes it as using viruses like a “little FedEx delivery truck” that can be engineered to deliver medicine precisely where it's needed in the body.This innovation didn't happen overnight. Nicole, a former professor of virology at UCSF, took the bold step of leaving academia to launch Siren Biotechnology. “I decided to resign from my faculty position and go be the founder and CEO just because I was so excited about the data and what we had so far,” she shared.In addition to traditional venture capital funding, Siren Biotechnology is inviting the public to invest through a regulated investment crowdfunding campaign. This unique opportunity allows patients, families, and supporters touched by cancer to be part of their journey. “We wanted to bring patients and their families onto our cap table,” Nicole said. “It's a way to involve them in the conversation much earlier.”Siren Biotechnology's work could redefine cancer care and inspire a new model for patient-centered innovation. With clinical trials just months away, the future looks brighter for those battling cancer—and for all of us who dream of a world where cancer is no longer a death sentence.tl;dr:Nicole Paulk's Siren Biotechnology transforms viruses into targeted cancer therapies with universal potential.The company focuses on recurrent high-grade gliomas, a fatal brain cancer with no standard treatment.Nicole left academia to lead Siren, leveraging her groundbreaking virology research to launch the company.Siren's unique crowdfunding campaign lets patients and families invest in the fight against cancer.Nicole's superpower, fearless innovation, drives her bold mission to revolutionize cancer care.How to Develop Fearless Innovation As a SuperpowerNicole's superpower is her willingness to take bold leaps and embrace the unknown. After spending nearly two decades building her academic career, Nicole left her position as a virology professor at UCSF to start Siren Biotechnology. She explained, “I feel like my superpower is just kind of being willing to jump off the cliff without a parachute and be like, we're going to figure it out. We're going to make it work.”Nicole exemplified fearless innovation when her research led to a groundbreaking discovery about the biology of a virus, one that required rewriting existing textbooks. Initially met with skepticism, her work was later validated and became a foundation for Siren Biotechnology's cancer treatment. This pivotal moment highlights Nicole's courage to challenge conventional knowledge and pursue transformative ideas.Tips for Developing This Superpower:Be willing to question conventional wisdom and explore new paths.Take calculated risks, even if it means stepping away from a well-defined career path.Embrace discomfort and uncertainty as a necessary part of innovation.Engage others by communicating your vision in relatable and accessible ways.By following Nicole's example and advice, you can make fearless innovation a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileNicole Paulk (she/her):CEO, Founder, President, Siren BiotechnologyAbout Siren Biotechnology: We are combining two transformative therapeutic technologies – AAV gene therapy and cytokine immunotherapy – into a single, reimagined modality that overcomes key challenges and redefines how we destroy tumor cells and elicit anti-tumor immunity.This is the first AAV gene therapy drug product that can be made once and used in numerous indications – a huge leap forward for the field. This drastically reduces clinical development times, manufacturing timelines, and capital needs for each clinical trial. Most importantly, ‘universal' means countless solid tumor cancer patients – regardless of tumor type or mutations – may benefit from this breakthrough approach.Website: sirenbiotechnology.comX/Twitter Handle: @SirenBioCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/SirenBiotechnologyOther URL: wefunder.com/siren.biotechnologyBiographical Information: Dr. Nicole Paulk is the CEO, Founder, and President of Siren Biotechnology and has dedicated her career to advancing the field of gene therapy. With nearly two decades of expertise, Nicole has been at the forefront of developing cutting-edge advances to propel the field of gene therapy forward for a wide range of diseases.Before founding Siren, Nicole held various leadership positions in academia and industry and most notably was an Assistant Adj Professor of AAV Gene Therapy in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics before leaving to found Siren. Nicole has a B.S. in Medical Microbiology, a Ph.D. in Viral Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine from OHSU, and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship and Instructorship in Human Gene Therapy at Stanford University prior to starting her lab at UCSF. Nicole is a pioneer in the development of next-generation AAV platforms for gene repair, gene transfer and gene editing, directed evolution for novel engineered capsid evolution, and comparative multi-omic approaches to interrogate translational AAV biology.Nicole is a renowned expert in gene therapy and has consulted extensively for big pharma, written draft CMC guidance for the FDA, and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards for Sarepta, Astellas, Metagenomi, Dyno Therapeutics, CEVEC, GRO Biosciences, Excision BioTherapeutics, WhiteLab Genomics, Johns Hopkins Gene Therapy Initiative, the Gene Therapy for Rare Disorders Searchlight Program, and several stealth startups. She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Boston Globe, Endpoints, STAT, Phacilitate, GEN, BioPharma Dive, Evaluate Vantage, SF Business Times, WIRED, Drug Discovery World, MIT Tech Review, C&EN, and more. She sits on the Scientific Editorial Boards of the journals Gene Therapy, Human Gene Therapy, and Biopharma International Gene Therapy. She is the Chair of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Translational Science Committee, and a member of the ASGCT Cancer Cell and Gene Therapy Committee and the Biocom California Cell and Gene Therapy Committee. She has invented numerous AAV gene therapy technologies that have been shared or licensed to dozens of gene therapy companies and nonprofit groups working in rare diseases.Outside of work, you can find Nicole adventure traveling (think whitewater rafting meets backcountry trekking), snowboarding, planning elaborate Halloween parties complete with animatronics and ghoulish menus, tending her vegetable garden, and obsessing over the latest wearable gadgets. If you're trying to track her down at a conference and can't find her, it's because she snuck off to an oyster bar.X/Twitter Handle: @Nicole_PaulkLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/nicolepaulkInstagram Handle: @sirenbioSupport Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include FundingHope, Kingscrowd and Crowdfunding Made Simple. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact MembersThe following Max-Impact Members provide valuable financial support:Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Ralf Mandt, Next Pitch | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Matthew Mead, Hempitecture | Michael Pratt, Qnetic | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on June 17, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.SuperCrowdHour, June 18, 2025, at 12:00 PM Eastern. Jason Fishman, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Niche Agency (DNA), will lead a session on "How to Spin $1 of Advertising into $10!" He'll reveal proven strategies and marketing insights drawn from years of experience helping successful crowdfunding campaigns. Whether you're a founder planning a raise or a supporter of innovative startups, you'll gain actionable tips to boost visibility, drive engagement, and hit your funding goals. Don't miss it!Join us on June 25, 2025, at 8:00 PM Eastern for the Superpowers for Good Live Pitch—streaming on e360tv, where purpose-driven founders take the virtual stage to present their active Regulation Crowdfunding campaigns to a national audience of investors and changemakers. Selected startups are chosen for their commitment to community, alignment with NC3's Community Capital Principles, and their drive to create real-world impact. Thanks to sponsors DNA and DealMaker, this event is free to watch and amplifies the voices of underrepresented and mission-aligned entrepreneurs. Don't miss this inspiring evening where capital meets purpose—tune in to discover and support the next wave of impact-driven innovation.SuperCrowd25, August 21st and 22nd: This two-day virtual event is an annual tradition but with big upgrades for 2025! We'll be streaming live across the web and on TV via e360tv. Soon, we'll open a process for nominating speakers. Check back!Community Event CalendarSuccessful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events.Devin Thorpe is featured in a free virtual masterclass series hosted by Irina Portnova titled Break Free, Elevate Your Money Mindset & Call In Overflow, focused on transforming your relationship with money through personal stories and practical insights. June 8-21, 2025.Join Dorian Dickinson, founder & CEO of FundingHope, for Startup.com's monthly crowdfunding workshop, where he'll dive into strategies for successfully raising capital through investment crowdfunding. June 24 at noon Eastern. Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit 2025, Crowdfunding Professional Association, Washington DC, October 21-22, 2025.Call for community action:Please show your support for a tax credit for investments made via Regulation Crowdfunding, benefiting both the investors and the small businesses that receive the investments. Learn more here.If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 9,000+ changemakers, investors and entrepreneurs who are members of the SuperCrowd, click here.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Dash Miller may not be a CEO, but like many of the people we feature on this show, he is a true leader, he has a vision, and he's executing on his plan.Sometimes life forces you to grow up quickly, and that's exactly what happened to Dash. He lost his 16-year-old brother Callum after a five year battle with cancer. And out of that tragedy, dash started a unique corporate outreach campaign on LinkedIn making inspiring and grateful videos about companies that touched his family's life while Callum was in treatment.Dash joins us to discuss the inspirations behind the campaign and the incredible responses he's received from both individuals and companies.Highlights:Callum's Story (2:16)Dash' work at UCSF (2:58)Dash' work with LLS (4:08)Why LinkedIn? (5:23)Biggest Challenges (7:33)Nestlé (9:55)Hasbro (10:50)What's next? (12:19)Links:Dash Miller LinkedInFundraiser WebsiteICR LinkedInICR TwitterICR Website Feedback:If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, joe@lowerstreet.co

House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs Legislative Hearing on H.R. 411, H.R. 2916, H.R. 3620 & H.R. 3670 Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | 10:00 AM On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills: H.R. 411 (Rep. Bergman), “Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Land Claim Settlement Act of 2025” H.R. 2916 (Rep. Stefanik), To authorize, ratify, and confirm the Agreement of Settlement and Compromise to Resolve the Akwesasne Mohawk Land Claim in the State of New York, and for other purposes H.R. 3620 (Rep. Begich), “Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025” H.R. 3670 (Rep. Stansbury), “IHS Provider Expansion Act” More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/06/10/house-subcommittee-on-indian-and-insular-affairs-schedules-hearing-on-four-bills/

Listen to our latest podcast as Dr Brian Feeley and Dr Drew Lansdown break down how to excel as a rotating medical student.

In our broadcast on June 9, 2025, co-hosts Wendy Rose Williams and Gregg Kirk interview author and researcher, Mark Gober. Mark is the author of the “Upside Down” series of seven books — spanning the topics of consciousness, politics, economics, UFOs, medicine, cosmology, and more. His first book, “An End to Upside Down Thinking” published in 2018, won the IPPY award for best science book of the year and was endorsed by researchers with affiliations at Harvard, Princeton, UVA, and UCSF (among others).During the interview, Mark discusses the thinking that drove him to study the nature of consciousness and that how we as individuals (especially in Western cultures) have accepted a limited view of ourselves and our place in the universe. He has written six other books —  “An End to Upside Down Living” (2020), “An End to Upside Down Liberty” (2021), “An End to Upside Down Contact” (2022), “An End to the Upside Down Reset” (2023), “An End to Upside Down Medicine” (2023); and “An End to the Upside Down Cosmos” (2024). Mark is also the host of the 8-episode podcast series “Where Is My Mind?”To view the 55-minute broadcast in its entirety, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QapQg9INydwCONTACT WAKING UP SPIRITUALLY HERE...Our website: https://wakingupspiritually.com/Wendy Rose Williams' website: https://www.wendyrosewilliams.com/Gregg Kirk's website: https://greggkirk.comWaking Up Spiritually YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wakingupspiritually6114/videosWaking Up Spiritually Facebook page (ask to be invited): https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupspirituallyEmail us: wakingupspiritually@gmail.com

Headlines for June 06, 2025; Musk vs. Trump? Quinn Slobodian on the Risks of Billionaire Rule; Trump Budget Bill Would Lead to 51,000 More Deaths Each Year, as Health Experts Urge Medicare for All; “Completely Unwarranted”: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Sues Trump Officials over His Arrest at ICE Jail; High Seas Update from Aid Ship Sailing to Gaza: Activists Vow to “Win Through Solidarity”; Fired over Gaza? Dr. Rupa Marya Sues UCSF, Says She Was Targeted for Speaking Up for Palestine

In today's episode I sit down with Dr. Thomas Boyce, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UCSF, about his 40 years of research on temperamental differences in children, specifically focusing on his concept of 'orchid' and 'dandelion' children. Dr. Boyce explains how while most children are resilient like dandelions, a significant minority are sensitive 'orchids' who react more strongly to their environments. We discuss Boyce's research, the biological underpinnings of these temperamental differences, and how different environments impact these children.I WROTE MY FIRST BOOK! Order your copy of The Five Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans Here: https://bit.ly/3rMLMsLSubscribe to my free newsletter for parenting tips delivered straight to your inbox: draliza.substack.com Follow me on Instagram for more:@raisinggoodhumanspodcast Sponsors:Ground News: Go to https://groundnews.com/HUMANS to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan–the same plan that I use to stay informedIris & Romeo: Visit IrisandRomeo.com and use code HUMANS at checkout for 20% off your first purchaseActive Skin Repair: Visit https://www.ActiveSkinRepair.com to learn more about Active Skin Repair and to get 20% off your order, use code:HUMANSWater Wipes: Visit WaterWipes.com to learn more about how Water Wipes effectively cleans with minimal ingredients that leave nothing behindKiwico: Get $15 off on your Summer Adventure Series at kiwico.com/RGHQuince: Go to Quince.com/humans for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five-day returnsPlease note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Headlines for June 06, 2025; Musk vs. Trump? Quinn Slobodian on the Risks of Billionaire Rule; Trump Budget Bill Would Lead to 51,000 More Deaths Each Year, as Health Experts Urge Medicare for All; “Completely Unwarranted”: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Sues Trump Officials over His Arrest at ICE Jail; High Seas Update from Aid Ship Sailing to Gaza: Activists Vow to “Win Through Solidarity”; Fired over Gaza? Dr. Rupa Marya Sues UCSF, Says She Was Targeted for Speaking Up for Palestine

Recently I was asked to review a forthcoming book for American Scientist magazine. The book was entitled, Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes us Sick. I did the review, and now that the book has been published, I'm delighted that its author, Murray Carpenter, has agreed to join us. Mr. Carpenter is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and has been featured in places like NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Interview Summary So, let's start with your career overall. Your journalism has covered a wide range of topics. But a major focus has been on what people consume. First, with your book Caffeinated and now with Sweet and Deadly. What brought you to this interest? My interest in caffeine is longstanding. Like many of us, I consume caffeine daily in the form of coffee. And I just felt like with caffeine, many of us don't really discuss the fact that it is a drug, and it is at least a mildly addictive drug. And so, I became fascinated with that enough to write a book. And that really led me directly in an organic fashion to this project. Because when I would discuss caffeine with people, mostly they just kind of wanted the cliff notes. Is my habit healthy? You know, how much caffeine should I take? And, and in short, I would tell them, you know, if you don't suffer from anxiety or insomnia and you're consuming your caffeine in a healthy beverage, well, that's fine. But, what I realized, of course, is that by volume, the caffeinated beverage people consume most of is sodas. And so that led me to thinking more about sodas because I got a lot of questions about the caffeine in sodas. And that led me to realize just the degree to which they are unhealthful. We've all known sodas not to be a health food, but I think that the degree to which they are not healthy surprised me. And that's what led me to this book. Yes, there's some very interesting themes aren't there with addiction and manipulation of ingredients in order to get people hooked on things. So let's talk about Coca-Cola a bit. Your book focuses on Coca-Cola. It's right there in the title. And certainly, they're giants in the beverage field. But are there other reasons that led you to focus on them? Other than that, the fact that they're the biggest? They're the biggest and really almost synonymous with sodas worldwide. I mean, many people don't say ‘I want a pop, I want a soda.' They say, ‘I want a Coke.' I quote a source as saying that. You know, what that means is you want a sugar sweetened beverage. And it's not just that they're the most successful at this game, and the biggest. But as I started doing this research, I realized that they have also been the most aggressive and the most successful at this sort of disinformation that's the focus of the book. At generating these health campaigns, these science disinformation campaigns, we should say. This is not to say Pepsi and Dr. Pepper have not been at this game as well, and often through the American Beverage Association. But it is to say that I think Coca-Cola has been the most sophisticated. The most invested in these campaigns. And I would argue the most successful. And so, I really think it's a league apart and that's why I wanted to focus on Coca-Cola. That makes good sense. So, in reading your book, I was struck by the sheer number of ways Coca-Cola protected their business interest at the expense of public health and also the degree to which it was coordinated and calculated. Let's take several examples of such activities and discuss exactly what the company has done. And I'd love your opinion on this. One thing you noted that Coke acted partly through other organizations, one of which you just mentioned, the American Beverage Association. There were others where there was sort of a false sense of scientific credibility. Can you explain more about what Coke did in this area? Yes, and one of the organizations that I think is perhaps the exemplar of this behavior is the International Life Sciences Institute. It's a very successful, very well-funded group that purports to you know, improve the health of people, worldwide. It was founded by a Coca-Cola staffer and has, you know, essentially carried water for Coke for years through a variety of direct and indirect ways. But so front groups, the successful use of front groups: and this is to say groups that don't immediately appear to be associated, say with Coca-Cola. If you hear the International Life Sciences Institute, no one immediately thinks Coca-Cola, except for people who study this a lot. The International Food Information Council, another very closely related front group. This is one of the ways that Coke has done its work is through the use of front groups. And some of them are sort of these more temporary front groups that they'll establish for specific campaigns. For example, to fight soda taxes in specific areas. And they often have very anodyne names, and names again that don't directly link them to Coca-Cola or a beverage, the beverage industry. And the reason that this is so important and the reason this is so effective is journalists know if they were saying, Coca-Cola says soda isn't bad for you, of course that raises red flags. If they say, the International Life Sciences Institute says it's not bad for you, if they say the International Food Information Council says it's not bad for you. The use of front groups has been one of the very effective and persistent, strategies. It almost sounds like the word deception could be written the charter of these organizations, couldn't it? Because it was really meant to disguise Coca-Cola's role in these things from the very get go. That's right. Yes. And the deception runs very deep. One of the things that I happened onto in the course of reporting this book, Sweet and Deadly, is Coca-Cola two different times, organized three-day seminars on obesity in Colorado. These two attendees appeared to be sponsored by a press organization and the University of Colorado. They were funded and structured entirely at the behest of Coca-Cola. And it wasn't until after people had attended these seminars and reported stories based on the findings that they'd learned there. Much, much later did people find out that yes, actually these were Coca-Cola initiatives. So yes, deception, runs deep and it's a huge part of their public relations strategy. It's like reputation laundering, almost. Well, it is, and, you know, I make frequent analogies to the tobacco industry in the book. And I think one of the things that's important to remember when we're looking at tobacco and when we're looking at Coca-Cola, at the soda industry writ large, is that these are industries that are producing products that science now shows unequivocally are unhelpful. Even at moderate levels of consumption. So, in order for the industry to continue selling this product, to continue leading, they really have to fight back. It's imperative. It's a risk to their business model if they don't do something to fight the emerging health science. And so, yes, it's very important to them. You know, it's easy, I guess, to ascribe this kind of behavior to ill meaning people within these organizations. But it's almost written into the DNA of these organizations. I mean, you said they have to do this. So, it's pretty much be expected, isn't. It is. I think young people when they hear something like this, they often shrug and say capitalism. And, yes, there's something to that. But capitalism thrives also in a regulated environment. I think that's maybe a little bit too simplistic. But the aspect of it that does apply here is that Coca-Cola is in the business of selling sugar water. That's what they're there to do. Granted, they've diversified into other products, but they are in the business of selling sugar water. Anything that threatens that business model is a threat to their bottom line. And so, they are going to fight it tooth and nail. So how did Coca-Cola influence big health organizations like the World Health Organization and any equivalent bodies in the US? Well, so a few different ways. One of the ways that Coca-Cola has really extended its influence is again, through the use of the front groups to carry messages such as, you know, a calorie is a calorie. Calories and calories out. That's, that's one of the strategies. Another is by having allies in high places politically. And sometimes these are political appointees that happen to be associated with Coca-Cola. Other times these are politicians who are getting funding from Coca-Cola. But, yes, they have worked hard. I mean, the WHO is an interesting one because the WHO really has been out a little bit ahead of the more national bodies in terms of wanting soda taxes, et cetera. But there's a subtler way too, I think, that it influences any of these political entities and these science groups, is that Coca-Cola it's such an all-American beverage. I don't think we can overstate this. It's almost more American than apple pie. And I think we still have not sort of made that shift to then seeing it as something that's unhealthful. And I do think that that has, sort of, put the brakes slightly on regulatory actions here in the US. Let's talk about the Global Energy Balance Network, because this was an especially pernicious part of the overall Coca-Cola strategy. Would you tell us about that and how particular scientists, people of note in our field, by the way, were being paid large sums of money and then delivering things that supported industries positions. Yes. This was a Coca-Cola initiative. And we have to be clear on this. This was designed and created at the behest of Coca-Cola staffers. This was an initiative that was really an effort to shift the balance to the calories outside of the equation. So energy balance is one of these, sort of, themes that Coca-Cola and other people have, sort of, made great hay with. And this idea would be just calories and calories out. That's all that matters. If you're just balanced there, everything else is to be okay. We can talk about that later. I think most of your listeners probably understand that, you know, a calorie of Coca-Cola is not nutritionally equivalent to a calorie of kale. But that's what the Global Energy Balance Network was really trying to focus on. And yes, luminaries in the field of obesity science, you know, Stephen Blair at the University of South Carolina, Jim Hill, then at the University of Colorado's Anschutz Center, the Global Energy Balance Network funded their labs with more than a million dollars to specifically focus on this issue of energy balance. Now, what was deceptive here, and I think it's really worth noting, is that Coca-Cola developed this project. But once it developed the project and gave the funding, it did not want to be associated with it. It wasn't the Global Energy Balance Network 'brought to you by Coca-Cola.' It appeared to be a freestanding nonprofit. And it looked like it was going to be a very effective strategy for Coca-Cola, but it didn't turn out that way. So, we'll talk about that in a minute. How much impact did this have? Did it matter that Coke gave money to these several scientists you mentioned? Well, I think yes. I think in the broader scheme of things that every increment of scientific funding towards this side matters. You know, people talk about the science of industrial distraction or industrial selection. And, you know, partly this is this idea that even if you're funding legitimate science, right, but it's focused on this ‘calories outside of the equation,' it's sucking up some of the oxygen in the room. Some of the public conversation is going to be shifted from the harmful effects of a product, say Coca-Cola, to the benefits of exercise. And so, yes, I think all of this kind of funding can make a difference. And it influences public opinion. So how close were the relationships between the Coca-Cola executives and the scientist? I mean, did they just write them a check and say, go do your science and we will let you come up with whatever you will, or were they colluding more than that? And they were colluding much more than that. And I've got a shout out here to the Industry Documents Library at the University of California at San Francisco, which is meticulously archived. A lot of the emails that show all of the interrelationships here. Yes, they were not just chatting cordially - scientists to Coca-Cola Corporation. They were mutually developing strategies. They were often ready at a moment's notice to appear at a press conference on Coca-Cola's behalf. So, yes, it was a very direct, very close relationship that certainly now that we see the conversations, it's unseemly at best. How did this all come to light? Because you said these documents are in this archive at UCSF. How did they come to light in the first place and how did shining light on this, you know, sort of pseudo-organization take place? Well, here we have to credit, New York Times reporter, now at the Washington Post, Anahad O'Connor, who did yeoman's work to investigate the Global Energy Balance Network. And it was his original FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests that got a lot of these emails that are now in the industry document library. He requested these documents and then he built his story in large part off of these documents. And it was a front-page New York Times expose and, Coke had a lot of egg on its face. It's then CEO, even apologized, you know, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. And you know, the sort of a secondary aspect of this is after this funding was exposed, Coca-Cola was pressured to reveal other health funding that it had been spending money on. And that was, I think over a few years like $133 million. They spread their money around to a lot of different organizations and in some cases the organizations, it was just good will. In other cases, you had organizations that changed their position on key policy initiatives after receiving the funding. But it was a lot of money. So, the Global Energy Balance Network, it is sort of opened a chink in their armor and gave people a view inside the machine. And there's something else that I'd love to mention that I think is really important about the Global Energy Balance Network and about that initiative. As Coca-Cola seems, and this became clear in the reporting of the book over and over again, they seem always to be three moves ahead on the chess board. They're not just putting out a brush fires. They're looking way down the road. How do we head off the challenge that we're facing in public opinion? How do we head off the challenge we're facing in terms of soda science? And in many cases, they've been very, very effective at this. Were Coca-Cola's efforts mainly to influence policies and things in the US or did they have their eyes outside the US as well? I focused the book, the reporting of the book, really on Coca-Cola in the US. And also, and I just want to mention this tangentially, it's also focused not on non-nutritive sweetened beverages, but the sugary beverages. It's pretty tightly focused. But yes, Coca-Cola, through other organizations, particularly the International Life Sciences Institute, has very much tried to influence policy say in China, for example, which is a huge market. So yes, they've exported this very successful PR strategy globally. So, the corporate activities, like the ones you describe in your book, can be pretty clearly damaging to the public's health. What in the heck can be done? I mean, who will the change agents be? And do you think there's any hope of curtailing this kind of dreadful activity? Well, this is something I thought about a lot. One of the themes of the book is that the balance of public opinion has never tipped against Coca-Cola. And we talked about this earlier, that it's still seen as this all American product. And we see with other industries and other products. So, you know, Philip Morris, smoking, Marlboro. Eventually the balance of public opinion tips against them and people accept that they're unhealthful and that they've been misleading the public. The same thing happened for Exxon and climate change, Purdue pharma and Oxycontin. It's a pattern we see over and over again. With Coca-Cola, it hasn't tipped yet. And I think once it does, it will be easier for public health advocates to make their case. In terms of who the change agents might be, here we have a really interesting conversation, right? Because the foremost change agent right now looks like it's RFK Jr. (Robert F. Kennedy), which is pretty remarkable and generates an awful lot of shall we say, cognitive dissonance, right? Because both the spending of SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds for sodas, he's opposed to that. He has just as recently as the week before last called sugar poison. He said sugar is poison. These are the kinds of very direct, very forceful, high level, initiatives that we really haven't seen at a federal level yet. So, it's possible that he will be nudging the balance. And it puts, of course, everybody who's involved, every public health advocate, I think, who is involved with this issue in a slightly uncomfortable or very uncomfortable position. Yes. You know, as I think about the kind of settings where I've worked and this conflict-of-interest problem with scientists taking money and doing things in favor of industry. And I wonder who the change agents are going to be. It's a pretty interesting picture comes with that. Because if you ask scientists whether money taints research, they'll say yes. But if you ask, would it taint your research, they'll say no. Because of course I am so unbiased and I'm so pure that it really wouldn't affect what I do. So, that's how scientists justify it. Some scientists don't take money from industry and there are no problems with conflicts of interest. But the ones who do can pretty easily justify it along with saying things like, well, I can help change the industry from within if I'm in the door, and things like that. The universities can't really police it because universities are getting corporate funding. Maybe not from that particular company, but overall. Their solution to this is the same as the scientific journals, that you just have to disclose. The kind of problem with disclosure as I see it, is that it - sort of editorializing here and you're the guest, so I apologize for intruding on that - but the problem with disclosure is that why do you need to disclose something in the first place because there's something potentially wrong? Well, the solution then isn't disclose it, it's not to do it. And disclosing is like if I come up and kick you in the leg, it's okay if I disclose it? I mean, it's just, there's something sort of perverse about that whole system. Journals there, you know, they want disclosure. The big scientific association, many of them are getting money from industry as well. So, industry has so permeated the system that it's hard to think about who can have any impact. And I think the press, I think it's journalists like you who can make a difference. You know, it wasn't the scientific organizations or anything else that got in the way of the Global Energy Balance Network. It was Anahad O'Connor writing in the New York Times, and all the people who were involved in exposing that. And you with your book. So that's sort of long-winded way of saying thank you. What you've done is really important and there are precious few change agents out there. And so, we have to rely on talented and passionate people like you to get that work done. So, thank you so much for sharing it with us. Let me just end with one final question. Do you see any reason to be optimistic about where this is all going? I do. And I've got to say maybe you're giving scientists a little bit of short shrift here. Because, as the science develops, as it becomes more compelling and a theme of the book is that soda science really, over the past 15, 20 years has become more compelling. More unequivocal. We know the harms and, you know, you can quantify them and identify them more specifically than say, 15 years ago. So, I think that's one thing that can change. And I think slowly you're seeing, greater public awareness. I think the real challenge, in terms of getting the message out about the health risks, is that you really see like a bifurcated consumption of Coca-Cola. There are many people who are not consuming any Coca-Cola. And then you have a lot of people who are consuming, you know, say 20 ounces regularly. So, there is a big question of how you reach this other group of people who are still high consumers of Coca-Cola. And we know and you know this well from your work, that soda labeling is one thing that works and that soda taxes are another. I think those are things to look out for coming down the pike. I mean, obviously other countries are ahead of us in terms of both of these initiatives. One of the things occurred to me as you were speaking earlier, you mentioned that your book was focused on the sugared beverages. Do you think there's a similar story to be told about deception and deceit with respect to the artificial sweeteners? I suspect so, you know. I haven't done the work, but I don't know why there wouldn't be. And I think artificial sweeteners are in the position that sugary beverages were 10 to 15 years ago. There's a lag time in terms of the research. There is increasing research showing the health risks of these beverages. I think people who are public health advocates have been loath to highlight these because they're also a very effective bridge from sugar sweetened beverages to no sugar sweetened beverages. And I think, a lot of people see them as a good strategy. I do think there probably is a story to tell about the risks of non-nutritive sweeteners. So, yes. I can remind our listeners that we've done a series of podcasts, a cluster of them really, on the impact of the artificial sweeteners. And it's pretty scary when you talk to people who really understand how they're metabolized and what effects they have on the brain, the microbiome, and the rest of the body. Bio Murray Carpenter is a journalist and author whose stories have appeared in the New York Times, Wired, National Geographic, NPR, and PRI's The World. He has also written for the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and other media outlets. He holds a degree in psychology from the University of Colorado and a Master of Science in environmental studies from the University of Montana, and has worked as a medical lab assistant in Ohio, a cowboy in Colombia, a farmhand in Virginia, and an oil-exploring “juggie” in Wyoming. He lives in Belfast, Maine. He is the author of Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us and Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spread

Our esteemed panel of doctors/scientists will explain common questions about cholesterol. What is cholesterol, and what is its role in the body? Why is it important? What are the various types of cholesterol? How do you interpret your test results? How have recommended levels changed over the years, and why? How do cholesterol-lowering medications work? Are they safe long-term? How does food affect cholesterol levels? These questions and more will be explained in this important program. About the Speakers Dr. Joshua Knowles is a physician-scientist at Stanford. He earned his M.D.–Ph.D. at UNC with Nobuyo Maeda and Nobel Laureate Oliver Smithies, and his internal medicine residency and fellowship at Stanford University primarily. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L., is emeritus professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with expertise in obesity, diabetes, metabolism, and nutrition.  Dr. Ethan Weiss is a cardiologist whose special interests include preventive cardiology, the genetics of coronary disease, risk assessment for heart conditions and heart disease in the young. A Nutrition, Food & Wellness Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. OrganizerPatty James  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode of Integrative Cancer Solutions Dr. Karlfeldt interviews Dr. Chris Apfel about his integrative approaches to cancer treatment. Dr. Apfel shares his journey from traditional medicine to integrative oncology, sparked by his father's lung cancer diagnosis. This personal experience led him to question conventional cancer treatments after learning about their low success rates, particularly for stage four lung cancer. Dr. Apfel discusses his development of the Onca test, which can identify effective cancer therapies within a week by culturing tumor fragments. This test evaluates a wide range of treatments including chemotherapies, targeted therapies, and repurposed drugs. He emphasizes the importance of avoiding ineffective treatments that can harm the immune system and diminish quality of life, while highlighting the potential of repurposed drugs like statins, Metformin, and Itraconazole. The conversation addresses tumor heterogeneity and the need for representative biopsy samples, particularly from metastatic sites. Dr. Apfel explains that the Onca test is commercially available, with discounts offered to patients willing to share their data for research purposes. He discusses various methods for obtaining tumor samples and the importance of timing in the collection process.Dr. Apfel emphasizes patient advocacy and the need for patients to be informed about their treatment options. He notes that the Onca test can double the odds of a positive tumor response and significantly increase median survival rates. The podcast concludes with Dr. Apfel expressing interest in collaborating with Dr. Folt's center to help more cancer patients through this innovative approach to personalized cancer treatment.About Dr Chris Apfel:Chris Apfel, MD, PhD, MBA is a physician and clinical researcher with over 100 published papers, including a six-factor clinical prediction model published in NEJM that led to the development of The Apfel Score, a clinical calculator used universally to predict the risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and Dr Apfel's ultimate recruitment to the US and the University of California, San Francisco.Dr. Apfel was driven to revolutionize the field of cancer patient treatment after losing his mother to a long battle with ovarian cancer and his father to lung cancer. Witnessing their suffering inspired him leave the clinical department at UCSF to develop more efficient ways to identify the best treatment plans for cancer patients.Dr Apfel received his MD and PhD from the University of Giessen in Germany and his MBA from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the founder and CEO of SageMedic.Dr. Apfel developed the Onca test, which can identify effective cancer therapies within a week by culturing tumor fragments, potentially doubling the odds of positive tumor response.Personal experience with his father's lung cancer led Dr. Apfel to question conventional treatments after discovering their low success rates for advanced cancers.The Onca test evaluates chemotherapies, targeted therapies, and repurposed drugs like statins and Metformin, which have shown promising results in cancer treatment.Tumor heterogeneity makes it crucial to obtain representative biopsy samples, particularly from metastatic sites, to avoid ineffective treatments.Patient advocacy is essential in cancer treatment, as patients need to make informed decisions about tissue handling before surgery and find oncologists willing to consider alternative treatments based on test results.----Grab my book A Better Way to Treat Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Preventing and Most Effectively Treating Our Biggest Health Threat - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM1KKD9X?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 Unleashing 10X Power: A Revolutionary Approach to Conquering Cancerhttps://store.thekarlfeldtcenter.com/products/unleashing-10x-power-Price: $24.99-100% Off Discount Code: CANCERPODCAST1Healing Within: Unraveling the Emotional Roots of Cancerhttps://store.thekarlfeldtcenter.com/products/healing-within-Price: $24.99-100% Off Discount Code: CANCERPODCAST2----Integrative Cancer Solutions was created to instill hope and empowerment. Other people have been where you are right now and have already done the research for you. Listen to their stories and journeys and apply what they learned to achieve similar outcomes as they have, cancer remission and an even more fullness of life than before the diagnosis. Guests will discuss what therapies, supplements, and practitioners they relied on to beat cancer. Once diagnosed, time is of the essence. This podcast will dramatically reduce your learning curve as you search for your own solution to cancer. To learn more about the cutting-edge integrative cancer therapies Dr. Karlfeldt offer at his center, please visit www.TheKarlfeldtCenter.com

It's estimated that 4.3 million older adults across the United States live alone with cognitive impairment. How do these individuals navigate the challenges and concerns that arise due to these memory and thinking changes, and what recommendations are there to support them as they continue living independently? Dr. Elena Portacolone joins Dementia Matters to discuss her research focused on identifying these challenges and developing equitable policies and programs for older adults living alone with cognitive impairment in the United States and worldwide. Guest: Elena Portacolone, PhD, MBA, MPH, principal investigator, Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment Project, professor of sociology, Institute for Health & Aging, Pepper Center Scholar, Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Show Notes Read more about Dr. Portacolone and her work at her profile on UCSF's website. Learn more about UCSF's Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment project, led by Dr. Portacolone, on their website. Learn about the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, mentioned by Dr. Portacolone at 22:51, on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website. 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.

The future of Public Health depends on protection against unrestrained corporate power. A sicker humanity means increased pain and suffering at large. In the past, we have identified numerous exposures that have made us sick, many of which are addictive, and created shield laws to protect the corporations that peddle them. We also know it's our most toxic addictions that are killing the planet and its people currently, whether due to climate crisis or ingesting harmful chemical substances. When Big Tobacco tried to convince the world that ingesting tar and nicotine made people healthier (“9 out of 10 doctors smoke Camels”), science revealed otherwise and insisted upon laws to regulate the industry more closely. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L suggests that we consider a similar strategy for sugar, particularly the fructose or refined fructose molecules commonly found to be overdosing society through packaged products. Per his biography, he wants to help “fix the food supply any way he can.” Lustig explaine that one of the essential patterns to recognize in battling addiction is the dichotomy between pleasure vs. happiness. Dr. Lustig is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology and a Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. He is a neuroendocrinologist with expertise in obesity, diabetes, metabolism, and nutrition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes a good surgeon? Listen to Dr Brian Feeley and Dr Nirav Pandya as they take a deep dive into the complexities of what allows surgeons to excel in the operating room.

Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, we explore insights into brain health and longevity with NYT bestselling author and neurologist Dr. Dale Bredesen.Dr. Bredesen explains why he believes cognitive decline is not an inevitable part of aging and outlines six biological processes he identifies as impacting brain aging. He also shares practical tools he recommends for assessing how well your mind is functioning. We discuss the alarming rise in early-onset dementia among people in their 30s and 40s and the potential causes behind this increase. Dr. Bredesen also talks about the links between COVID, sugar intake, and dementia risk. He offers science-based advice on diet, sleep, and lifestyle strategies that support an ageless brain.Additionally, Dr. Bredesen addresses how the for-profit healthcare system can hinder Alzheimer's management and shares his comprehensive ReCODE Protocol™, which he presents as a promising approach to preventing and potentially reversing cognitive decline, though it has sparked passionate discussions and differing opinions in the Alzheimer's and broader medical communities.About Dr. Dale Bredesen Dr. Bredesen is an internationally recognized expert in neurodegenerative diseases and the author of The Ageless Brain and The End of Alzheimer's Disease. He earned his M.D. from Duke University Medical Center, completed his neurology residency at UCSF, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner's laboratory. He has held faculty positions at UCSF, UCLA, and UC San Diego, and was founding President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Bredesen's pioneering research has led to innovative treatments and the development of the ReCODE Protocol™, offering new hope in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or X.On Youtube.Or TikTok.SUBSCRIBE to her monthly newsletter here.Support the show

Truth is our own internal wisdom that defines who we are. Finding our own truth means figuring out the difference between what we've been told we should be, verses who we really are. Often time in the past our true feelings, passions, opinions, and experiences were ignored, rejected, or just not encouraged. When we can relearn to identify what our own truth is, we are able to put into action what our heart and soul desires. Dr. Daganzo is an Internal Medicine physician with over 15 years of experience. She holds an MA in Physics from UC Berkeley and an MD from UCSF, bringing a uniquely analytical and integrative approach to patient care. Her advanced training in psychiatry and functional medicine allows her to address health challenges at the intersection of mind and body.Based in Marin County, Dr. Daganzo's clinic specializes in treating complex chronic conditions, eating disorders, and hard-to-diagnose symptoms. She prioritizes identifying root causes over simply treating symptoms—rejecting the "pill for every ill" mindset in favor of promoting long-term vitality and health span.Committed to science-driven, innovative care, Dr. Daganzo utilizes cutting-edge diagnostics and personalized interventions to empower her patients in achieving optimal wellness. She is known for her deep intellect, logical rigor, and genuine curiosity, balanced by compassion and a relentless dedication to her patients. As a tireless advocate, she ensures each patient receives the specialized, comprehensive care they need to reach their health goals. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dr. Shalabh Gupta, founder and CEO of Unicycive Therapeutics, shares his inspiring journey from practicing medicine to leading groundbreaking innovations in kidney disease treatment. Dr. Gupta discusses his comprehensive framework for identifying and developing medical solutions, his vision for Unicycive's future, and the importance of focus and execution in medical startups. He reveals the challenges and triumphs of bringing life-changing products to market and offers profound advice for new entrepreneurs in the industry.   Guest links: https://unicycive.com/  Charity supported: Feeding America Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 056 - Dr. Shalabh Gupta [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I am so excited to introduce you to my guest, Dr. Shalabh Gupta. Dr. Gupta is the founder and CEO of Unicycive Therapeutics. He is a visionary in healthcare, leading groundbreaking efforts to design innovative therapies and reimagine how we approach unmet medical needs. His work goes beyond the lab as he's driving a healthcare revolution by developing innovative therapies addressing critical gaps in treatment. His perspective combines decades of experience and expertise in drug design with a deep commitment to equity in health care. Well, welcome to the show, Shalabh. I'm so excited that you're here with me today. [00:01:35] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: Thank you. Thank you for hosting me. [00:01:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. I'd love if you wouldn't mind just telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to MedTech. [00:01:45] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: By way of background, I'm a physician, trained, practiced, did my medical training in internal medicine, residency in physical medicine and rehab, research fellowship in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, board certified physician, practice in New York at NYU hospital, NYU Medical Center. This is where I did my medical training for roughly decade after finishing medical school. I also have a graduate degree in finance management from NYU. While I was doing my residency training, I realized that I wanted to find a way to have a broader impact on society as well as what we were working on in learning medicine. So, I started my career working initially with a biotechnology company at the time to help them get their drug with FDA through a regulatory approval process. The beginning of the process is called IND following a investigation new drug application, IND application. I actually visited FDA on their behalf, met with FDA back in the time when everything used to be in person. Built from there onward, joined Wall Street from working as a stock analyst. So I covered biotech companies as a stock analyst, and the weekend and holidays that were available, I worked to continue to practice the medicine at NYU as an attending physician, and then joined another bank and covered pharmaceutical stocks and worked covering six of the largest pharma companies that include Pfizer, Merck, Viacom, Selling Power, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb. From there, I moved to California. I worked for Genentech in corporate strategy. Genentech, at the time, and continues to be, one of the largest biotechnology companies. And from working at Genentech, I got my inspiration to start my own companies. So I founded two companies prior to finding starting Unicycive. All my companies are focused on aesthetic therapeutic area. Unicycive is focused on nephrology, treatment of kidney diseases, and we have two drugs in development. We have a lead drug that is pending approval from the US FDA in June of 2025 this year. And the second, I guess, finish phase 1 clinical trial in the UK. And we are in discussion with the agency to proceed with the next stage of clinical trial in the US. So that's a quick background. [00:04:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. That's incredible. Thank you for sharing your story. Yeah. So let's talk about your company now. You've become CEO of this company. You're developing these products that are going to change lives. What first made you realize that there was a gap that needed to be filled in the market for this? And then, what prompted you to go, "You know what? Hey, I think I can have the solution for this or I can have the answer to this." [00:04:38] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: The first question that you ask, understanding the unmet need in medicine, there are a lot of problems that you can address. So, to give you a framework, if I am thinking about a problem, I want to understand if a couple of things, and in order of priorities, these are: can I find a solution that with my resources-- resources is time, energy, and money-- can I create a product that will truly make it to the market? Number two is that I also feel that one can get very blindsided that "I have a solution," but not understand what other solutions exist in the market. So understanding the competitive landscape. If I create this drug, this device, this product, and it is going to take three to four years in the market to come to the market-- which, by the way, in medical word is a still very fast track because it takes much longer-- what will the competitive landscape look like for 5 years down the road? So that's the second part. And third is that what is the solution that I'm developing? Is it unique in terms of having a novel, either as a drug device or drug device combination, or as a patented drug, patented device, because in our industry, it's not really possible to scale up something until unless you have an IP or intellectual property protection. And then from there onward, the last thing is also, who's going to fund me, how I think about funding, not for next six months a year, but also a continuum of the product development. If I think about all these 4-5 problems, then you start to narrow it down. There are some problems that are very much worthy of exploration. For example, treatment of Alzheimer's, we all know it's a big unmet need, we all know there's a big market opportunity. But I realized that was something we couldn't do it with the products or the development candidates that I had seen. So, being able to define where is the end point and goal. Being able to understand, can I make an impact? And when I say I, I speak for myself, but each one of us, I always remind entrepreneurs, we each one of us have our own deck of cards. We have to play with our cards, we can't compare ourselves with somebody else, or we can compare some other cases study. So understanding more about what is so unique that I can bring to table that can I make a difference and then making a business around this where the thesis lies. Once you identify that, then there's a question about continuing to execute and keep changing your plan as you go along. [00:07:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love your framework for thinking through all of those things. And so of course you use that when you thought, "Hey, here's this issue. I could potentially have a solution," and you went through this process. And then can you tell us about your innovation now and how that is helping and how you expect it to help change all these wonderful lives? [00:07:33] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: So, so for treatment of kidney diseases, first of all, it has been one area of development that has not had that much of innovation. And, and I think that is where the initial part of the thesis was that focusing on nephrology of kidney diseases is not same as developing a drug for cancer treatment. Cancer treatment changes every six months a year. The standard of care continues to evolve. Is there an unmet need in cancer treatment? A hundred percent, but the part is that the pace of innovation is very rapid. Is it same in nephrology? It's getting there, but it's still the development of a new products in nephrology still is not at the same pace. So I thought there was something we could make a difference by a small company. The drug that I acquired from another company was a drug that had finished a clinical trial. So it had shown that the drug is safe. It had also shown some signal of it working in healthy volunteers. That's a phase one trial. And the innovation came from a car battery company that had figured out how to make a big, large size pill to make it smaller. And sometimes greatest innovation, greatest insight come from the fact that when I talk to the kidney doctors, the physicians who take care of these patients there with the treatment of kidney diseases, they said the problem for these patients are the patients have to take 12 to 15 pills per day. And this innovation allowed us to be able to make that number of pills go down from 13 to 12 or 15 to three pills per day, one pill with each meal. And then the regulatory pathway became a bit more clear that if I can show that our drug is similar to the drug that was in the market, maybe there was an opportunity to go through expedited pathway, which is what we did. And I acquired the drug in 2018, went to FDA right after acquiring the drug to expedite the pathway again, thinking about de risking the development pathway. And as I mentioned in 2025, we are expecting the approval. So that is the process about it. And that's the story behind the lead drug. [00:09:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Great. Excellent. So that is really exciting. And as you continue to go forward with this company and the innovations that you're creating, what is your ultimate goal or dream that you're really striving for? [00:10:06] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: So, the focus for Unicycive is building new novel treatment for kidney diseases. Our lead drug is expecting approval in June 2025. But we have a second drug in development, and we continue to think about what will be something that we as a small company can bring to market. There are other areas of unmet need in kidney treatment. But instead of doing too many things at the same time, we continue to think, "How do we grow our company? What will be the vision for the company three years down the road, five years down the road?" And what we want to continue doing is to develop the drug candidates, advance them. Right now, after the first drug we get through approval, it will be the second drug. There is a thought process behind it. One of the biggest challenges that I've seen for smaller companies and startups is that they end up in doing too many things at the same time, which is difficult to do, even for big companies. You know, big companies, they have a one product that is a marquee product, they launch that and then they develop other things. So, being able to stay focused is also key because you can have a lot of energy, you can have a lot of ideas, but you have to focus on which one you can do first. [00:11:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that is so true. It's such great advice, a good reminder. Yes, focus is so important. You know, honestly, that's probably one of the tricky things that startups in this particular field might struggle with is that focus. So I'm wondering what kind of advice do you have for say a brand new entrepreneur in the industry who has these great ideas, but you know, maybe has so many that they're a little too scattered. [00:11:52] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: Right. So, I think you may start with 10 ideas but the framework I gave you that: can this idea in this given timeframe with my resources and the funds that I can raise, can it make a difference? So you start to narrow it down. You start with a big funnel, narrow it down. And then maybe you have two or three ideas. Instead of thinking to yourself that "No, I'm not going to tell my idea to anyone because somebody else can take it away," find people who will be willing to pressure test those ideas. Then you will have identified something, maybe one Idea that is worth the pursuit. So then you focus on that. So that's one part of how to triage it because we all have ideas, but those ideas may not be worth developing once you go and talk to the marketplace. And marketplace is your investors, the physicians, and the patients. I keep saying about these three stakeholders, because if physicians cannot prescribe what you are developing, then it's of no use. If patients don't necessarily benefit, then it's of no use. And if you cannot get insurance companies a reimbursement for that means the product will never get here. So it's a process, but nobody can come up with an idea. And there is no great idea. There are ideas that you have to, and then once you find that one idea that resonates with all the stakeholders, physicians are excited about it. If you talk to patients, and you want to do that early on, you don't want to develop an idea and then go, you know, that is the greatest idea but nobody really perceives it that way that except you and a couple of your friends and people who work with you. I don't mean in a bad way. I mean, that you want to be able to test this idea very quickly. So once you get that idea, once you identify what is that the company should be focused on, then the question about is actually building an execution plan. And the only advice I can give is that at any given day for a company, startup, especially whether you're a founder or you're a founding team member, the list of priorities is 50, 5, 0, or maybe 100. It takes time to figure out of those 50, which are the top three that are most important and then being able to focus on those three. You know, the reason I say that no one can work on 50 priorities at the same time. But we all can take two or three priorities and say, "These are the three things that I'm going to work on today. That is this week. Those are the things I'm going to do this month." And therefore you start to develop identifying priorities. The right ones takes time. Sometimes it is a fundraising. Sometimes it's a building a team. Sometimes it's a product development. Sometimes it's all three of them, but being able to allocate your time and energy and focus is a key. People say it's the question of money. I don't think it's a question of money. Money is one of the resources, but the biggest resource we all have is a time and energy and focus. In a company of our size, we are a publicly listed company, and we now have grown from where we used to be, and it's still small. Even today, there are a lot of things we choose not to do. We choose not to go to conferences. We choose not to publish papers. If something is a priority to us, we say, "This is the only thing we're going to focus on. This is the next three months, this is our main goal." And every team meeting I have, I always remind people, three priorities. More than three, way too many. One may not be enough. But because if you can't remind people, what is the priority for the company, then you will not succeed. It is a very challenging environment to think about a startup company or companies in general. And when you have too many priorities, you tend to lose focus on. By building priorities, having priorities, executing them. You create momentum, you create confidence. They create success and you keep climbing the ladder. But truly the biggest challenge for us in the beginning of the career is that identifying which are those three priorities that matter. And once you have had some experience, then the challenge is to keep those priorities and change them as you go along, right? As you go along, you have to continue to grow. For example, in the beginning, it may be the five people you have and that may be enough. But as where we are in the company, it's a question about growth of the organization, right size, not too many people, not too little, hiring enough people so we can continue to execute on our vision and the promises that we made to ourself and to our investors. [00:16:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you for that advice. That was fantastic. And such a great way to narrow it down and help people understand how to narrow down so that they can actually focus and succeed before moving on. I love that. Thank you. So, you know, looking back over your life, and of course, you've had such an incredible career that has really taken you in a lot of different directions. Could 10 year old you have ever anticipated where you'd be today? [00:16:54] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: I don't think so. I think I think we all have a what I call a true north compass. What I did think at the 10 years of age, if I can go back, maybe 10 is too early but maybe 15 or 16 or 17, that hasn't changed. Let me tell you 2 things that I always felt most inspired and excited about. Number one was that I wanted to be in healthcare because, intellectually, I like biological sciences. I felt, "My gosh, what could I do with that if I could make a difference?" And number two was that I, from very early on, I wanted to be something which could help people directly. As you know, there are many ways you can help people, but being in medicine or healthcare, I felt there was a direct impact. Now, looking back after several decades, I feel that part of the influence was my dad. My dad is a physician, continues to see patients and do pro bono work. So that had a very lasting influence on me. That helped me to think about, okay, this is what I want to do. Then being trained as a physician, then going to work on Wall Street, then there was a question about understanding how the impact can be broadened, if you will. The way to think about what I do today versus what I did, say, as a physician, physicians see, say, 10 patients, maybe 12 patients if you're seeing an outpatient basis per day. And if you're in an ICU or ICU doctor, an ER doctor, you could see more number of patients, but then smaller time. And you multiply that impact that many patients, let's just say 10 patients per day, and you work at 300, 350 days, 360 days, 365 days, don't take any break, but that is that many patients a year. What we do today has a potential to impact hundreds and thousands and millions of patients and not just in the U S, globally. So from one vantage point is just magnifying the impact. And the other vantage point is doing what I would have done before. I still love sciences every day. My job is to not just talk about business, but also think about, "How do we fundamentally solve the problem?" And having had those experiences you know, it helps you to keep yourself grounded. One part, I know this wasn't your question, but one advice I can give people who are thinking about developing their careers as an entrepreneur, if you are a founder and CEO, especially think about your career or skill set as I spoke, a wheel, a circle. Every skill that you have, some of us start with more technical background, like me and MD. Then you have to develop their finance and business skills and the business development skills. So sometimes people say, "Well, you know, ABC went to grad school and they dropped out of grad school and they started a company." That's wonderful, but think about much longer beyond a two-year, three-year, five-year time horizon. And that's what helped me to think about my career. So I worked on the Wall Street, but that gave me a finance and understanding about how public companies are valued, not just by the company, but how stock analysts value the company, how investors value the company, what moves the stock, what did Genentech to understood. That gave me the chance to understand how a big biopharma company thinks about their product development. And at Genentech, in some interactions we have had, we were looking at the products from other smaller companies, either to collaborate with them or to acquire those products. So that's a different skill set. I went very early on, as I said, in my career, I went to FDA. So even though I'm not regulatory expert, but I understand how agencies think about the product approval so that helps you to make a more of a holistic viewpoint because the business has become more complex, and you cannot just have a only business degree and you say, "Well, I'm going to succeed." Some people have rounded that up by years and years of experiences. And then there is also innate desire to learn. I learned from not just doing the work I do every day, but my, my, you know, talked a lot about it. I read anytime I get I read books that are not related to medicine, that are not necessarily related to health care, because you have to understand how to grow a revolution. You have to understand leadership skills that are not necessarily taught in schools. So, you have to find a way to continue to refine yourself, because the only way you can create a great company is to become a better version of yourself. [00:21:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you so much for talking about that and for sharing your advice. And I love that image of the wheel. It's a good reminder that sometimes life takes you on very interesting tangents, but sometimes they all do merge at some point. You've got this little sliver of this knowledge that you're working on, and then this experience, and then they start building and I really love that, that, that way of thinking about it and also remembering that It's very useful. So, so like even earlier, I was struck, you talked about how there was inspiration from car batteries, right? And so how interesting is that to go from, what you might expect within your industry, here's how to solve a problem. But then you guys went outside and said, how do other people solve problems? Like maybe we can borrow from that. And I think that's really cool. [00:22:21] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: And I also think that if you stop focusing on only in your industry, learn from anywhere. Some of the best learnings that I have personally, that felt inspirational to me, did not come from biotech companies. They come from tech companies, truly. When you think about the worst, most successful tech companies like Amazon, Apple. I can go on and on, but there are things that you can learn from them. There are things you can learn from the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. He talks about building Amazon and he talks about doing many experiments at a smaller scale that fail at Amazon in order for them to succeed at a few that really work. And this is where I was saying that culling the ideas, you may start with 10 ideas, but no one can develop 10 ideas, no one. And it's not because of money. People say, "Well, that if I had money." There have been numerous examples where companies have been funded with lots of money and the companies fail. Part of the problem is that when you get too much money, I think you may not realize that you still have to deliver. Because focus and execution takes really knowing what the target is, and then hitting the target and not one time and time again. Targets may change, but the companies cannot focus in 20 different things. In the beginning, you have to start with a very key thesis. [00:23:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, so learning from other industries, and that actually kind of also brings up a thought. So as you've gone along in your career and you've had many different iterations of who you are and what you bring to the world, now, are there any moments that really stand out to you as affirming, "Yes, I am in the right place at the right time?" [00:24:04] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: Yeah, that's a very good question. And I have had a chance to think about it every now and then. So there are there, there are certain observations I'll make. You know, people always say, " What will be your dream job?" And I think the dream job for someone is the job that which you will do any given day, and you will feel a joy that you're doing it and you're not doing for remuneration. You're not doing because you're going to get paid. And we all have those different moments in time. People talk about "flow" where the time stops because you're doing something so deeply engaging that you lost track of time. You forgot where you are. You're not feeling tired. For me building of this company and the team that we have assembled at Unicycive is that flow. Any day that I'm not traveling, I am in my office. I don't work from home. I am every single day in my office. And sure we have a small team, but when we work with the team, these are motivated, driven people with decades of experiences. We feel that we are in a common mission, like we are solving the world's greatest problem. And I know that may be exaggeration, but that's how it feels. And being with them in a room and thinking about a complex problem-- and not just thinking of a problem like how big companies think about it-- but thinking of the problem in a scientific way, but delivering it a solution that only a small company can do that to me is a joy. Number two part is that as I've gone further on my career, I, I am a mentor to a number of startups from Stanford and UCSF, and many Stanford companies, many of them come with a very different problem than purely a biotech company. Since the pro bono work, I do this because I find by telling other people from their problem, I get to reflect on my own problem, and I do that on every quarter. There's one or two companies and I've been really privileged. I feel one of the greatest joys to meet with these great CEOs and Stanford has been a great collaborator. They have a program called Start X in which they have these companies that are participating in a accelerator program. And Stanford's accelerator is different and unique that they don't take any equity. They provide you the opportunity for mentorship. I was part of that program many years ago. So I meet with the CEOs and many of these CEOs will come very different problem. As an example, there is a company that's focused on artificial intelligence using interaction between a physician or healthcare provider and patient, and being able to use AI to streamline that interaction. That is a point that I saw of 10 years of clinical practice, how that communication is broken, literally is broken. Patients go to doctors, not because doctors are the world's greatest knowledge source, but patients at the end of day, they need someone to help them feel better, help them understand the problem that the physician can solve it. What ended up in being in today's healthcare system in the U. S. is that doctors have become mechanical and not because doctors are bad, because we are given these many things to document these many things to chart. If you talk to a physician, a primary care physician, many times the physician is sitting behind the computer screen. Those bedside manners are gone, like literally they are not there until you go into concierge medicine because the physician has to fill up this chart. I practice medicine. So understanding how this company and this CEO, this entrepreneur is trying to solve that problem, I lean back to the years of clinical practice. Then I lean back to the building the company. They're prioritizing it, having three priorities, having five priorities, and then being able to understand. And every company has some things which are similar, growth of your product development, continuing to advance the company, continuing to tell the story, attracting the right team members. It just gets magnified at a broader level. But the problems start similar, very similar. You know, think about when we talk about tech companies, Apple, the first thing they had to do, develop a product, then build a team, then sell the product, tell the, sell the vision, you know, and then continue to raise money. And that part is seems sometime very lonely. It also seems that I am uniquely burdened with these problems. And I always remind people, "You know, as much as you would like to think that you are unique. I assure you, it is not a problem that we are gifted with. We all have to face the same set of problems, sometimes more, sometimes less." So then you start to take them less personally. You start to say, "Okay, I'm not the first one to face this problem. These problems have happened to people like me before and they will overcome. How can I do it?" Then you'd become safe, a solution based thinking versus a place where you get overwhelmed with the problem because problems exist. And if anyone is listening to this podcast and if they've developed a started a company, I can assure you the problems come with a flood. They are not going to end ever. So it is disappointing. Sometime it feels that, "Oh my gosh, it is me versus the world," but it is not so. If you have good set of mentors, people who are not directly involved in day to day in your business, there are people who can help you think through it. And that is something that I find a great joy in talking to these CEOs, being able to help them understand the problem. And I say, you know, a couple of hours a month, but then when I go back to my own work, one that I realized this was the same problem I faced a few years ago. Two, it's a similar version of the problem I face at a slightly larger scale today. And three, being able to step out of from your own narrow zone, it gives you perspective. Then what I said to you about that problems are not, these are not personal problems. These are the problems we all face developing a product. It doesn't matter whether you healthcare. People tell me health care or product development is really hard. You talk to my colleagues, our CEOs who are running tech companies. Products in development and tech companies may seem easier, but to create a great product that truly solves customers problem, it's not easy. [00:30:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and well, I love that mentorship and sort of teaching and guiding, giving advice to the next generation is something is of a core value of yours and something you really care about. And it actually is a great segue into my next question, which is just pivoting the conversation for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, what you're doing right now, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach? [00:31:02] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: I think as much as we all feel that entrepreneurship is an external game, I think it's a lot of internal mindset, being able to understand yourself better. Being able to understand who you are, what are your true core values, what really drives you. It takes time and it requires a continuous interrogation, asking yourself, "Is this really what I enjoy?" Some of us feel it's a glamour that we feel like we want to be CEO. Some of us would be better off as a CTO, Chief Technology Officer. Some of us would not want to do startups. It's not for everybody. And it's okay because you can work in a bigger company and can be, you know, people talk about entrepreneurial pursued within a large organization. Maybe that's what for you. But being able to understand yourself, it's a very important part. And I think unfortunately, formal education does not help us no matter what degrees and which schools. And it really doesn't matter whether you a science degree, MD, PhD, or your business school degree like MBA, we're all very uniquely different, and we have different values. What one person sees inspired by, for somebody else, it may be a nightmare, you know. It's a thing that people think that startups are so much fun. I read a joke. It says, "People leave 9 to 5 job to work from 5 to 9, which is 5 a. m. to 9 p. m." So I think that's because this is some truth to it. And I've said to people again and again that if making money is your objective, please don't go as to run a startup. It is probably the worst way to think about pursuing the financial part. You do something because you have a faith and belief in something. And it doesn't have to be the faith about changing humanity. It's about something that you have a unique skill set or unique product idea that you believe you can bring to the marketplace. The biggest focus we all can have is making an impact. If I can serve a large number of patients, I can serve a large physician, I will have a product that will make money, therefore, that will make money for enterprise that will make money for investors. And therefore, as a company, we will make money. It's a very simple truth, but we like to make it complicated. I really mean it. The more I got to understand this part of the process better, which goes back to the basic thing that I said to you, if you said that you have a master class, the one thing I will say to you, it's spend time to understand yourself. And it's okay to realize that what I thought I like, I don't like it. The part that I talked to you about flow, it takes efforts. I've had many careers, but when I work in my company, the time can stop for four or five hours, literally we can be working on something. And I have a team and it's not just me alone. I have a team that when we think about a problem, these are people who have spent three decades in working in different companies, large, small, many size companies, we could work cohesively, collectively, think about a problem. And that to me, it's a joy. For me, that is a creation, right? You know, we're thinking about the problem, which may be a design of a clinical trial, because we have to think we have to use brains. And I always say, "God gave us a gift, which is a neuron. So use it, let's use them." And challenge yourself, right? And the challenge in a good way, not be a condescending ending jerk and say "No, how could you do it?" I try to say to people, "Look, I understand this is how it is done, but I want to do two things. Number one, please believe me that we can do better, faster, cheaper. And number two, I promise you that whatever I'm telling you, I'm not going to tell you and walk out of the conference room. I will work hand to hand." We call it a hand to hand combat is essentially that I'm not just telling you I'm going to work with you. I want to find the solution, but we can't do that thing that are you used to. Every trial, people tell me it's going to take 18 months, 12 months, it's going to cost as much. We shrink that thing timeline cost by not 10, 20%. We talking 50%. And these are people have done this before. So, so I need the courage to be honest and say, "No, we can't do it. We have to do it faster, better, cheaper, but how?" And then asking them. So, I say, "It's okay that we walk away and we don't have a clue. It's okay. Today's Thursday. Let's come back. Take three days to think about it." But the reason is that because when you ask yourself from a place that I can't do it, the mind is start to find solution versus when you say, no, I can't do it. Because in that case, it's a subconscious mind that keeps on giving you 15 reasons why you can't do it. People talk about growth mindset. I've always said to people, "We may not be able to do this thing today, but the understanding that with a little bit of help, a little bit of patience, a little bit of it, making ourself better, we can become that company, we can become that organization." And that really requires challenging ourself. And that's where I went back to. I want to go back to this question you asked earlier. People talk a lot about entrepreneurship as if it is some very specific skill set. I think because if you know yourself, you know what is your true zone is, then you want to surround yourself places that you are either not good at, or you don't enjoy doing it, right? In the beginning, it is just you and a vast amount of problems to face. Then you start to build your team. Then you start to see yourself, "You know, maybe Bob can do this work. I really, I'm not that good at it. I don't like doing it." Then you start to rely and surround yourself with not same skill set, but the people who are complementary skill set. And that's how you build a team. That's the foundation of team. Then you build trust and you say to Bob, "Whatever you do, it's not your fault. I'm here to protect you." You don't point fingers at each other. We always remind the example of Navy SEAL. You know, I've never worked in the US Army. I was not an Army veteran, but the ethos that Navy SEAL uses where the team wins, I always tell people we are a winning team. We are not looking for MVPs, you know, because the teams win. Teams create products, teams create value. Individual glories is not useful and this is something you have to keep reminding us that we keep drilling it down and say " No, it's not Bob. It's not John. It's not James. It's us. It's as a team." Again, as you grow through the company stages, your skill set has to continue to evolve and people always say, "Well, how do you lead a team?" The first thing that I always said, "Every single person in my team, you are a leader. Why? You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth. You're leading yourself." Really! Like, what do you do with your day? If you happen to be a parent or partner, a spouse or somebody, you have people you influence around yourself, right? So instead of worrying about, "Oh, you know, I want to lead a company." First, you have to lead yourself and you have to lead with courage. It's starting a company, building a company, right? Yeah. No matter what the media tells you, it is hard. It's hard to develop a product. It's hard because the challenges are not one or two. There are many. Being able to drill down, saying "These are the three things I'll focus on. These are the only things that matter." And then if something new comes up, you have to face that challenge and put the third in your list. It comes in a different page. You know, I use this basic exercise. I have a notebook, a physical notebook and not electronic one, and a piece of paper. What are the top three priorities? And then the other part is that I've asked people to do this exercise when startup companies, CEOs come and tell me all their problems, all the things they want to do. I said, "Humor me if you will. This is the end of the year. And let's say today is we are in 2025. What would you like to tell yourself a year from now? If everything happened the best you could imagine, how many customers, how many products, what will be the stage of product, who would have funded you? Who are the people behind you?" And I asked him to write in a whiteboard. And I say, imagine, no, this is the five thing. If they write 25 things, I say, "No, this is down to five things. What are those five things you would like?" And again, everything has just gone and you can't believe you're sitting there. What will it take? Is it this? And then you start to have a goalpost, right? It's a target. Then you work backward. [00:39:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great. That is such great advice. So thank you, first of all, for sharing, but I think in general, your masterclass would be so much-- you'd have to have a full day or more. That's great though. I love that. How would you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:39:57] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: That's a very good question. That's one that I ask myself every day. The most important thing for me is to be who I am to make a difference for people who are around me. For me, my family is very important. I have kids and I always think about it. What will my children remember? Then it comes down to people who work with me. We want to give an experience to people. I've had people who have worked for I keep saying it two or three decades. My true wish is that I always say for whatever time they work at Unicycive, I want them to be remembering this is the best time they work for a company and that is the best hope we can do it. Because as a entrepreneur, if I can make our company the best experience, best environment, then that creates the best products. And a company like us, we realize that we are going to face challenges and it's not a question of this, the question is how many challenges. The question is not going to be, "Will the challenge defeat us?" The question is, "How do we overcome the challenges?" So it's about growth mindset, having a very distinct, clear vision and empowering people. And last thing is that what we do in healthcare affects millions of people people. Our drug is not going to be just in the U. S. We have partnerships outside U. S. We think about patients in China, South Korea, Southeast Asia. We are talking to companies in Europe. It's an opportunity to make a difference globally. And that is what keeps us going. That's what, you know, when that's when I talk with flow, that is what makes you want to work, whether it's a weekend or whether it's a late evening. And I think that is something which we all need to do to find something that is meaningful. And meaning means different things to different people in different phases of life. So it doesn't have to be, you know, I tell even my own team member, " Unicycive does not have to be the purpose of your life, but let me help you to manifest your best version so you can work well, because you are working here, you are spending your time, might as well make it meaningful for you and for the company." So finding that balance is key and it's a constant challenge. I never take anything for granted. It's a constant to my own team members. How can we make it better? You know, people always say the company grows and we started with the company. We went to IPO with one person. That was just me as an employee, which is not a common thing. I frankly don't know any other company that I've ever seen that went to a straight IPO with one employee. But that wasn't about me. It was about building the company, building the team. Today, we have 25 or so more, but it's still a small team. And people always ask me, "How do we go from 25 to 50 and it still remain the same." I said "Exactly how we became 5 to 10 to 15, 15 to 20." Because if you keep the culture same, focus same, and you remind people that it's not about who we are individually, but it's what we could be collectively. And you have it going and you know, something you're passionate about, you will give all that you got and then some more or else there is not worth fighting for because life is hard and building a product developing a technology or running a company is hard. So, either you are a full believer or else you can't do it. I mean, if you can do it, it's going to be miserable on both front. You want to do a good job and you will find it very difficult. So. [00:43:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Indeed. Yeah. Excellent. Well, and then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:43:36] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: I think when you look back on the challenges that you once thought were unsurmountable, and then you say to yourself, "Huh, that was just a curve in the road, not a roadblock." Then you start to smile because of not because how smart you are, but how much together a team can accomplish. And you start to find, if you're working in a company setting, you start to feel that people start to feel empowered. My team says that you did it. I said, "No, we did it. I just showed you a judicious path, but you did it. I didn't do it. All I said to you is to change your framework." Because it's a framework. It's a mindset. And I keep saying about mindset because if you come with the idea that " No, I only, I need this much money, this much time, these many resources," you'll find you the subconscious mind keeps on validating those challenges. But if you say, "No, people like us have done it before I can do it, we can do it." And give them the time and space and say, "Look, you don't have to have an answer right now, but please go back and just think about it." Then they come back with the answer and they themselves surprised. But it truly requires a authenticity, a vulnerability, and being absolutely willing to fall on your face and get up and just fight again. And that's part people don't realize. People think about that every company is a smooth road up, but the companies go through the cycle. It's not when you're going up, it's what happens when you fall down. Can you pick yourself up? And it's not just with your team, but with your investors too. You know, we thought that we're going to file an NDA in 2020. You know, 2024, we had planned for everything and the whole thing was there, but we ended up in having to run an additional trial and then you have to communicate with integrity through transparency. This is what happened. This is what is there, but we can accomplish that. So then that all of all that helps you to look back a smile, laugh and say, "Okay, I accomplished that. We can do the next one." And that keeps the growth happening. And at the end of the day, we are not happy because we accomplished small things by doing small effort. Most of us as human beings want to be challenged in the right way and we feel joy in doing hard things that take a lot of efforts and once seemed just impossible to do it. And the question is, can you do it with your entire team, not just personally? And that's what inspires people. We want to be that company that people want to work for not because they need a job, not because we can take care of their 401k. I mean, those are a wonderful thing and I'm blessed that we can do all of that, because once upon a time, we didn't have any of that. So I don't take it for granted, it is something. But the fact is that what was the mission hasn't changed ever. And you know, that that is something which is worth pursuing it. And I think if people start to see that they can accomplish that, these challenges are not personal, that they are bound to come. And then they have a support group, you know, we all need somebody other than ourselves and people whom we are surrounded with somebody to hold our hand and say no, you fell down, but it's okay. You can get up. I think it's that support system, right? The more you can have it, the more different types of people you can relate to and call them friends, mentors, that helps. And I have tons and tons of them because my gosh, I mean, there are days seems like, how would I ever get out of this? As much as you may think that I have all the source of inspiration, but then if somebody else holds your hand, they say, no, you can do it. That is what gets you going to the next step. [00:47:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, goodness, this has been an amazing conversation, just packed full of incredible, helpful advice, and just very practical down to earth sharing. So thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate everything you're doing to, to make an impact. So thanks again for your time. [00:47:44] Dr. Shalabh Gupta: Thank you very much. Thank you for hosting me and thank you for your time and interest. Really appreciate it. [00:47:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger. And also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support, and we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time. [00:48:31] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Ο Θανάσης Δρίτσας συνομιλεί με τον Ομότιμο Καθηγητή της Ιατρικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών κ. Ηλία Δ. Κούβελα με αφορμή την έκδοση του βιβλίου του με τίτλο «Ιχνηλατώντας τα μονοπάτια του Εγκεφάλου και του Νου» που κυκλοφορεί από τις εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη. Μια συνομιλία που επί της ουσίας συνιστά ένα ταξίδι στα μονοπάτια της σύγχρονης νευροεπιστήμης που αφορούν μεταξύ άλλων τη σχέση της νευροεπιστήμης με τομείς όπως η ψυχολογία, η ψυχανάλυση, η ψυχιατρική και η τέχνη. Με βάση τις πληροφορίες που περιέχονται στο βιβλίο του καθ. Ηλία Κούβελα είναι εξαιρετικά δύσκολο να κατανοήσουμε την δομή και την λειτουργία του εγκεφάλου διότι, σε πλήρη αντίθεση με την τεχνητή νοημοσύνη, ο εγκέφαλος δεν δημιουργήθηκε προκειμένου να επιτευχθεί ένας συγκεκριμένος στόχος με βάση κάποιον αρχικό σχεδιασμό. Η μηχανή της εξέλιξης φαίνεται ότι είναι η μόνη υπεύθυνη για τη δημιουργία του εγκεφάλου.Ηλίας Δ. Κούβελας - βιογραφικόΟ Ηλίας Δ. Κούβελας είναι Ομότιμος Καθηγητής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, όπου διετέλεσε Καθηγητής Φυσιολογίας και Διευθυντής του Εργαστηρίου Φυσιολογίας. Μετεκπαιδεύτηκε στο University College (Λονδίνο), ως υπότροφος του Συμβουλίου της Ευρώπης, και στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Βόρειας Καρολίνας. Έχει εργαστεί ως Ερευνητής στα Πανεπιστήμια Harvard, UCSF, Οξφόρδης και ΝΥU. Είναι μέλος της Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives και διετέλεσε μέλος του Εθνικού Γνωμοδοτικού Συμβουλίου Έρευνας. Οι ερευνητικές του δραστηριότητες εστιάζονται στη μελέτη των εκφυλιστικών νόσων του εγκεφάλου, των νόσων Huntington και Parkinson και στις σχετιζόμενες διαταραχές του λόγου, καθώς και στις σχέσεις εγκεφάλου και συνείδησης.

Josh Monday Christian and Conspiracy Podcast Ep. 257If you want to support the ministry: patreon.com/JoshMondayChristianandConspiracyPodcastJoin the Patreon here: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Joshmonday_podcastIf you want to donate to the Ministry or Buy the Mug Here is our CashAPP:https://cash.app/$JoshmondaymusicNew affiliate: https://wsteif.com/ Sign up for Gold and Silver 7Kmetals: https://www.cocsilver.com/Flat Earth Books by Sakal Publishing Affiliate Link: https://booksonline.club/booksonlinecYoutube: ⁠ @joshmondaymusicandpodcast ⁠ Tips for the show to Support our Ministry: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joshmondayCoffee Mug Is Available email me your mailing address Joshmonday⁠@rocketmail.com ⁠ Please subscribe to our Spotify and You Tube Channel Joshmondaymusic and Podcast and help us grow so we can keep on spreading the good news.To all of our current and future subscribers thank you for your time, we appreciate you. Please do us a favor subscribe to our You Tube Channel, hit that bell, share, like and comment below on our You tube. Please leave us a 5-Star review on Apple and Spotify.Check out my new show Sunday Service and Wednesday Brought to you by Cult of Conspiracy Podcast. On Cult of Conspiracy Spotify, Patreon and Apple Podcast Channel.Join the study as I go deep into the Bible. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17.Mark Gober is the author of the “Upside Down” series of seven books—spanning the topics of consciousness, politics, economics, UFOs, medicine, cosmology, and more. His first book, “An End to Upside Down Thinking” (2018), won the IPPY award for best science book of the year and was endorsed by researchers with affiliations at Harvard, Princeton, UVA, and UCSF (among others). He then wrote “An End to Upside Down Living” (2020), “An End to Upside Down Liberty” (2021), “An End to Upside Down Contact” (2022), “An End to the Upside Down Reset” (2023), “An End to Upside Down Medicine” (2023); and “An End to the Upside Down Cosmos” (2024). Mark is also the host of the 8-episode podcast series “Where Is My Mind?”, released in 2019, which explores the scientific evidence for telepathy, the afterlife, and more. Additionally, since 2019, he has served on the board of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Previously, Mark was a partner at Sherpa Technology Group in Silicon Valley and worked as an investment banking analyst with UBS in New York. He has been named one of IAM's Strategy 300: The World's Leading Intellectual Property Strategists. Mark graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he wrote an award-winning thesis on Daniel Kahneman's Nobel Prize–winning “Prospect Theory” and was elected a captain of Princeton's Division I tennis team.Mark Gobers Website: Mark Gober - Speaker, Author, Podcast HostBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/josh-monday-christian-and-conspiracy-podcast--6611118/support.

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Dr. Adiaha Spinks-Franklin provides a brief overview of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40608]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Dr. Adiaha Spinks-Franklin provides a brief overview of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40608]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Dr. Adiaha Spinks-Franklin provides a brief overview of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40608]

Distraction is making you anxious and sleepless. Here's how to fix it.   Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, and Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF. He co-authored the 2016 book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”.    In this episode we talk about: The impact of multitasking on our attention, relationships, emotions, anxiety, and memory The difference between top-down and bottom-up attention What it means to have cognitive control—and some practical tools for restoring your own cognitive control.  Controversial technologies that could eventually help us have a stronger brain The impact of music and rhythm on the mind And how to use technology for your brain's benefit   Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel  

Send us a textIn this episode of At The Bench, Drs. Misty Good and Betsy Crouch speak with Dr. Stephanie Gaw, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UCSF, about her path to becoming a physician-scientist and her translational research on placental infections. Dr. Gaw shares how early lab experiences, time in the Peace Corps, and a pivot from infectious disease to OB-GYN shaped her focus on maternal immunity and global health.The conversation covers Dr. Gaw's work on sepsis in pregnancy, COVID-19 and RSV vaccine responses, and congenital infections like syphilis. She also discusses her approach to building and managing a large placental biorepository, and the importance of thoughtful sample collection for reliable research outcomes. The episode includes practical insights on balancing clinical duties with research, the benefits of peer mentorship, and how clinical observations can drive lab-based investigation.This discussion offers a clear look into the realities and rewards of bridging bedside observations with bench research in maternal-fetal medicine. It's a valuable listen for early-career physician-scientists and anyone interested in the complexities of immunology, placental biology, and perinatal infection.As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!

Interested in hand injuries? What does a hand surgeon treat? Listen to our latest podcast as we sit down with Dr. Lauren Shapiro of the UCSF Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

What does it really mean to “listen to your body”? In this episode, I talk with Beatriz (Béa) Victoria Albina, a UCSF-trained Family Nurse Practitioner, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and Master Certified Somatic Life Coach. We explore the world of somatics - the study and practice of embodied awareness. Béa unpacks what somatics truly means, how our nervous systems hold onto old patterns, and why building a sense of safety in the body is essential for real change. We discuss practical tools for grounding, regulating emotions, and cultivating agency in the face of everyday stressors. Get more information and full show notes here: https://jackiedecrinis.com/somatics-bea-albina/

New research from UC San Francisco's Memory and Aging Center suggests that a decline in one region of the brain can cause other regions to “step in to help” – unlocking surprising capacities like deeper empathy or creativity. We talk to two UCSF doctors about why this has implications for any neurodegenerative disorder, including dementia. They join us to share their dementia-related discoveries. Their new book is “Mysteries of the Social Brain.” Guests: Dr. Bruce Miller, A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor in Neurology, UCSF; Director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center; founding director of the Global Brain Health Institute Dr. Virginia Sturm, professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Season Goodpasture, Founder and Executive Director, Acorns to Oak Trees, talks about improving access and equity in tribal communities. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40607]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Sneha Dave talks about future healthcare as young adults with chronic and rare medical conditions grow older. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40606]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Season Goodpasture, Founder and Executive Director, Acorns to Oak Trees, talks about improving access and equity in tribal communities. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40607]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Sneha Dave talks about future healthcare as young adults with chronic and rare medical conditions grow older. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40606]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Season Goodpasture, Founder and Executive Director, Acorns to Oak Trees, talks about improving access and equity in tribal communities. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40607]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Sneha Dave talks about future healthcare as young adults with chronic and rare medical conditions grow older. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40606]

While the global health community wrenches its clothes and gnashes its teeth in Switzerland at the 78th World Health Assembly, Dr Mike Reid, Associate Director of the Center for Global Health Diplomacy, UCSF joins Ben in an entertaining and wide ranging exploration of a positive, forward-looking agenda for global health. Topics include global health security, one health, mis- and disinformation in the doctor-patient relationship, health technology and specific future uses and pitfalls of AI to improve access to healthcare in developing countries.  Mike offers a promise of a future episode on channelling philanthropic dollars into sovereign wealth funds for global health investments. And finally they reflect on their upbringing in the UK with its “free at the point of delivery” National Health Service, and argue over which of the modern Cambridge University Colleges they went to most resembles a multi-story car park.  00:00 Introduction and Overview 00:09 World Health Assembly Insights 01:18 Guest Introduction: Dr. Mike Reed 03:40 Mike Reid's  Background and Career 05:58 Global Health Security and Solidarity 11:28 The One Health Agenda 14:12 Artificial Intelligence in Global Health 37:26 Navigating Healthcare Systems 43:48 Closing Remarks and Future Topics Mike's Substack:  https://reimaginingglobalhealth.substack.com/

If you’re worried about memory loss or have a family history of Alzheimer’s, this episode is a must-listen. Angela sits down with world-renowned neurologist and author Dr. Dale Bredesen to unpack the groundbreaking science behind Alzheimer’s prevention and reversal—even if you carry the APOE4 gene. With over 30 years of research, Dr. Bredesen shares how to optimise your brain health through metabolic flexibility, inflammation control, and personalised interventions. In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Angela also opens up about her own genetic risk and experience caring for her mum with Alzheimer’s. They explore why cognitive decline is not inevitable and how Dr. Bredesen’s new book, The Ageless Brain, is putting the power back into your hands. Whether you're 35 or 75, the steps to preserve your cognition start now—and the tools have never been more accessible. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Alzheimer’s Is Preventable and Reversible: Dr. Bredesen explains how addressing root causes like inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and toxicity can stop and even reverse cognitive decline. Perimenopause and Brain Fog: Oestrogen loss affects brain energy metabolism, making perimenopausal women more vulnerable to cognitive decline. Your Brain Runs on Supply & Demand: Cognitive health depends on supporting your brain’s high energy needs while reducing inflammatory load and toxic exposure. Check Your Cognitive Biomarkers Early: Blood markers like P-Tau217, GFAP, and A-beta42 can reveal risk decades before symptoms appear. Lifestyle = Medicine: Sleep quality, insulin sensitivity, resistance training, brain stimulation, and even stress reduction all play a critical role. GLP-1s and Alzheimer’s Risk: While popular for weight loss, these drugs may negatively impact cognition in some people—especially APOE4 homozygotes. TIMESTAMPS AND KEY TOPICS:0:00 – Introduction 6:48 – Pathogens, toxins, and the real cause of Alzheimer’s 13:32 – Menopause, oestrogen, and female brain vulnerability 24:05 – Judy’s story: reversing cognitive decline for 13+ years 32:18 – Most common risky behaviours for brain degeneration 42:21 – Best exercises for insulin sensitivity and cognition 51:10 – Supplements that protect brain structure & function 54:22 – How to use The Ageless Brain as a practical guide 58:45 – Final thoughts + where to learn more from Dr. Bredesen 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. Brain Boost: Try Neuro Regenerate at lvluphealth.com/angela and use code ANGELA15 to save 15% ABOUT THE GUEST Dale Bredesen, M.D. is an expert in the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. He is a graduate of Caltech, and received his MD from Duke University Medical Center. His career has included serving as Chief Resident in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and served as a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow. His faculty position included working at UCSF, UCLA, and the University of California, San Diego. He was the director of the Program on Aging at the Burnham Institute. He was the founding President and CEO of the Buck Institute. He has developed a new therapeutic approach to treating Alzheimer's disease. He is the author of The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline. Dr Dale Bredesen’s latest book: The Ageless Brain: How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime - https://amzn.eu/d/gdrjKQm https://www.apollohealthco.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drdalebredesen/ https://www.facebook.com/drdalebredesen/ ABOUT THE HOST Angela Foster is an award winning Nutritionist, Health & Performance Coach, Speaker and Host of the High Performance Health podcast. A former Corporate lawyer turned industry leader in biohacking and health optimisation for women, Angela has been featured in various media including Huff Post, Runners world, The Health Optimisation Summit, BrainTap, The Women’s Biohacking Conference, Livestrong & Natural Health Magazine. Angela is the creator of BioSyncing®️ a blueprint for ambitious entrepreneurial women to biohack their health so they can 10X how they show up in their business and their family without burning out. The High Performance Health Podcast is a top rated global podcast. Each week, Angela brings you a new insight, biohack or high performance habit to help you unlock optimal health, longevity and higher performance. Hit the follow button to make sure you get notified each time Angela releases a new episode. 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/

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Amy Westling and Melissa Drake discuss the plan for developmental services from CalHHS and DDS. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40605]

As part of the 2025 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Amy Westling and Melissa Drake discuss the plan for developmental services from CalHHS and DDS. Series: "Developmental Disabilities Update" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40605]

Eight years ago, I landed myself in the office of a nurse practitioner/functional medicine specialist who specialized in gut health. I had been inexplicably bloated and exhausted for months and didn't know why. Little did I know that woman would go on to not only remedy my body, but change the overall trajectory of my life and career.Flash forward to today, while she's still an expert when it comes to our bodies, our nervous systems, and how the two speak to one another, her work is primarily focused on helping folks rid themselves of codependent, people-pleasing tendencies. And candidly, all the physical issues I suffered from back in 2017 were really just a manifestation of mental and emotional turmoil. Namely, living a life that was more based on external approval than internal fulfillment.She brings a really fresh perspective to codependency, and what she refers to as "emotional outsourcing."Beatriz (Béa) Victoria Albina, NP, MPH, SEP (she/her) is a UCSF-trained Family Nurse Practitioner, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Master Certified Somatic Life Coach, author of the forthcoming "End Emotional Outsourcing: a Guide to Overcoming Codependent, Perfectionist and People Pleasing Habits" (expected Sept 30, Hachette Balance) and Breathwork Meditation Guide with a passion for helping humans socialized as women to reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems and rewire their minds, so they can break free from codependency, perfectionism and people pleasing and reclaim their joy.Work with me PrivatelyConnect on InstagramWebsitePodcast Production by James Jorge

Host Dr. Nate Pennell and his guest, Dr. Chloe Atreya, discuss the ASCO Educational Book article, “Integrative Oncology: Incorporating Evidence-Based Approaches to Patients With GI Cancers,” highlighting the use of mind-body approaches, exercise, nutrition, acupuncture/acupressure, and natural products. Transcript Dr. Nate Pennell: Welcome to ASCO Education: By the Book, our new monthly podcast series that will feature engaging discussions between editors and authors from the ASCO Educational Book. We'll be bringing you compelling insights on key topics featured in Education Sessions at ASCO meetings and some deep dives on the approaches shaping modern oncology.  I'm Dr. Nate Pennell, director of the Cleveland Clinic Lung Cancer Medical Oncology Program as well as vice chair of clinical research for the Taussig Cancer Institute. Today, I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Chloe Atreya, a professor of Medicine in the GI Oncology Group at the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, to discuss her article titled, “Integrative Oncology Incorporating Evidence-Based Approaches to Patients With GI Cancers”, which was recently published in the ASCO Educational Book. Our full disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode.  Dr. Atreya, it's great to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for joining me. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Thanks Dr. Pennell. It's a pleasure to be here. Dr. Nate Pennell: Dr. Atreya, you co-direct the UCSF Integrative Oncology Program with a goal to really help patients with cancer live as well as possible. And before we dive into the review article and guidelines, I'd love to just know a little bit about what inspired you to go into this field? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yeah, thank you for asking. I've had a long-standing interest in different approaches to medicine from global traditions and I have a degree in pharmacology, and I continue to work on new drug therapies for patients with colorectal cancer. And one thing that I found is that developing new drugs is a long-term process and often we're not able to get the drugs to the patients in front of us. And so early on as a new faculty member at UCSF, I was trying to figure out what I could do for the patient in front of me if those new drug therapies may not be available in their lifetime. And one thing I recognized was that in some conversations the patient and their family members, even if the patient had metastatic disease, they were able to stay very present and to live well without being sidelined by what might happen in the future. And then in other encounters, people were so afraid of what might be happening in the future, or they may have regrets maybe about not getting that colonoscopy and that was eroding their ability to live well in the present.  So, I started asking the patients and family members who were able to stay present, “What's your secret? How do you do this?” And people would tell me, “It's my meditation practice,” or “It's my yoga practice.” And so, I became interested in this. And an entry point for me, and an entry point to the Osher Center at UCSF was that I took the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program to try to understand experientially the evidence for this and became very interested in it. I never thought I would be facilitating meditation for patients, but it became a growing interest. And as people are living longer with cancer and are being diagnosed at younger ages, often with young families, how one lives with cancer is becoming increasingly important.   Dr. Nate Pennell: I've always been very aware that it seemed like the patients that I treated who had the best quality of life during their life with cancer, however that ended up going, were those who were able to sort of compartmentalize it, where, when it was time to focus on discussing treatment or their scans, they were, you know, of course, had anxiety and other things that went along with that. But when they weren't in that, they were able to go back to their lives and kind of not think about cancer all the time. Whereas other people sort of adopt that as their identity almost is that they are living with cancer and that kind of consumes all of their time in between visits and really impacts how they're able to enjoy the rest of their lives. And so, I was really interested when I was reading your paper about how mindfulness seemed to be sort of like a formal way to help patients achieve that split. I'm really happy that we're able to talk about that. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. So, each of our patients is more than their cancer diagnosis. And the other thing I would say is that sometimes patients can use the cancer diagnosis to get to, “What is it that I really care about in life?” And that can actually heighten an experience of appreciation for the small things in life, appreciation for the people that they love, and that can have an impact beyond their lifetime. Dr. Nate Pennell: Just in general, I feel like integrative medicine has come a long way, especially over the last decade or so. So, there's now mature data supporting the incorporation of elements of integrative oncology into comprehensive cancer care. We've got collaborations with ASCO. They've published clinical practice guidelines around diet, around exercise, and around the use of cannabinoids. ASCO has worked with the Society for Integrative Oncology to address management of pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue – lots of different evidence bases now to try to help guide people, because this is certainly something our patients are incredibly interested in learning about. Can you get our listeners up to speed a little bit on the updated guidelines and resources supporting integrative oncology? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Sure. I can give a summary of some of the key findings. And these are rigorous guidelines that came together by consensus from expert panels. I had the honor of serving on the anxiety and depression panel. So, these panels will rate the quality of the evidence available to come up with a strength of recommendation. I think that people are at least superficially aware of the importance of diet and physical activity and that cannabis and cannabinoids have evidence of benefit for nausea and vomiting. They may not be aware of some of the evidence supporting these other modalities. So, for anxiety and depression, mindfulness-based interventions, which include meditation and meditative movement, have the strongest level of evidence. And the clinical practice guidelines indicate that they should be offered to any adult patient during or after treatment who is experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression. Other modalities that can help with anxiety and depression include yoga and Tai Chi or Qigong. And with the fatigue guidelines, mindfulness-based interventions are also strongly recommended, along with exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy, Tai Chi and Qigong during treatment, yoga after treatment.  And some of these recommendations also will depend on where the evidence is. So, yoga is an example of an intervention that I think can be helpful during treatment, but most of our evidence is on patients who are post-treatment. So, most of our guidelines separate out during treatment and the post-treatment phase because the quality of evidence may be different for these different phases of treatment.  With the pain guidelines, the strongest recommendation is for acupuncture, specifically for people with breast cancer who may be experiencing joint pain related to aromatase inhibitors. However, acupuncture and other therapies, including massage, can be helpful with pain as well. So those are a few of the highlights. Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah, I was surprised at the really good level of evidence for the mindfulness-based practices because I don't think that's the first thing that jumps to mind when I think about integrative oncology. I tend to think more about physical interventions like acupuncture or supplements or whatnot. So, I think this is really fantastic that we're highlighting this.  And a lot of these interventions like the Qigong, Tai Chi, yoga, is it the physical practice of those that benefits them or is it that it gives them something to focus on, to be mindful of? Is that the most important intervention? It doesn't really matter what you're doing as long as you have something that kind of takes you out of your experience and allows you to focus on the moment. Dr. Chloe Atreya: I do think it is a mind, body and spirit integration, so that all aspects are important. We also say that the best practice is the one that you actually practice. So, part of the reason that it's important to have these different modalities is that not everybody is going to take up meditation. And there may be people for whom stationary meditation, sitting and meditating, works well, and other people for whom meditative movement practices may be what they gravitate to. And so, I think that it's important to have a variety of options. And one thing that's distinct from some of our pharmacologic therapies is that the safety of these is, you know, quite good. So, it becomes less important to say, “Overall, is Tai Chi better or is yoga better?” for instance. It really depends on what it is that someone is going to take up. Dr. Nate Pennell: And of course, something that's been really nice evidence-based for a long time, even back when I was in my training in the 2000s with Jennifer Temel at Massachusetts General Hospital, was the impact of physical activity and exercise on patients with cancer. It seems like that is pretty much a universally good recommendation for patients. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yes, that's absolutely right. Physical activity has been associated with improved survival after a cancer diagnosis. And that's both cancer specific survival and overall survival.  The other thing I'll say about physical activity, especially the mindful movement practices like Tai Chi and Qigong and yoga, is that they induce physiologic shifts in the body that can promote relaxation, so they can dampen that stress response in a physiologic way. And these movement practices are also the best way to reduce cancer-associated fatigue. Dr. Nate Pennell: One of the things that patients are always very curious about when they talk to me, and I never really feel like I'm as well qualified as I'd like to be to advise them around dietary changes in nutrition. And can you take me a little bit through some of the evidence base for what works and what doesn't work? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Sure. I do think that it needs to be tailored to the patient's needs. Overall, a diet that is plant-based and includes whole grains is really important. And I often tell patients to eat the rainbow because all of those different phytochemicals that cause the different colors in our fruits and vegetables are supporting different gut microbiota. So that is a basis for a healthy gut microbiome. That said, you know, if someone is experiencing symptoms related to cancer or cancer therapy, it is important to tailor dietary approaches. This is where some of the mindful eating practices can help. So, sometimes actually not just focusing on what we eat, but how we eat can help with symptoms that are associated with eating. So, some of our patients have loss of appetite, and shifting one's relationship to food can help with nutrition. Sometimes ‘slow it down' practices can help both with appetite and with digestion. Dr. Nate Pennell: One of the things that you said both in the paper and just now on our podcast, talking about how individualized and personalized this is. And I really liked the emphasis that you had on flexibility and self-compassion over rigid discipline and prescriptive recommendations here. And this is perhaps one of the real benefits of having an integrative oncology team that can work with patients as opposed to them just trying to find things online. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yes, particularly during treatment, I think that's really important. And that was borne out by our early studies we called “Being Present.” So, after I was observing the benefits anecdotally among my patients of the ability to be present, we designed these pilot studies to teach meditation and meditative practices to patients. And in these pilot studies, the original ones were pretty prescriptive in a way that mindfulness-based stress reduction is fairly prescriptive in terms of like, “This is what we're asking you to do. Just stick with the program.” And there can be benefits if you can stick with the program. It's really hard though if someone is going through treatment and with GI cancers, it may be that they're getting chemotherapy every two weeks and they have one week where they're feeling really crummy and another week where they're trying to get things done. And we realized that sometimes people were getting overwhelmed and feeling like the mindfulness practice was another thing on their to-do list and that they were failing if they didn't do this thing that was important for them. And so, we've really kind of changed our emphasis. And part of our emphasis now is on incorporating mindfulness practices into daily life. Any activity that doesn't require a lot of executive function can be done mindfully, meaning with full attention. And so, especially for some of our very busy patients, that can be a way of, again, shifting how I'm doing things rather than adding a new thing to do. Dr. Nate Pennell: And then another part I know that patients are always very curious about that I'm really happy to see that we're starting to build an evidence base for is the use of supplements and natural products. So, can you take us a little bit through where we stand in terms of evidence behind, say, cannabis and some of the other available products out there? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yeah, I would say that is an area that requires a lot more study. It's pretty complicated because unlike mindfulness practices where there are few interactions with other treatments, there is the potential for interactions, particularly with the supplements. And the quality of the supplements matters. And then there tends to be a lot of heterogeneity among the studies both in the patients and what other treatments they may be receiving, as well as the doses of the supplements that they're receiving.  One of my earliest mentors at Yale is someone named Dr. Tommy Chang, who has applied the same rigor that that we apply to testing of biomedical compounds to traditional Chinese medicine formulas. And so, ensuring that the formulation is stable and then formally testing these formulations along with chemotherapy. And we need more funding for that type of research in order to really elevate our knowledge of these natural products. We often will direct patients to the Memorial Sloan Kettering ‘About Herbs, Botanicals, and Other Products' database as one accessible source to learn more about the supplements. We also work with our pharmacists who can provide the data that exists, but we do need to take it with a grain of salt because of the heterogeneity in the data. And then it's really important if people are going to take supplements, for them to take supplements that are of high quality. And that's something in the article that we list all of the things that one should look for on the label of a supplement to ensure that it is what it's billed to be. Dr. Nate Pennell: So, most of what we've been talking about so far has really been applying to all patients with cancer, but you of course are a GI medical oncologist, and this is a publication in the Educational Book from the ASCO GI Symposium. GI cancers obviously have an incredibly high and rising incidence rate among people under 50, representing a quarter of all cancer incidence worldwide, a third of cancer related deaths worldwide. Is there something specific that GI oncologists and patients with GI cancers can take home from your paper or is this applicable to pretty much everyone? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yeah, so the evidence that we review is specifically for GI cancers. So, it shows both its strengths and also some of the limitations. So many of the studies have focused on other cancers, especially breast cancer. In the integrative oncology field, there are definitely gaps in studying GI cancers. At the same time, I would say that GI cancers are very much linked to lifestyle in ways that are complicated, and we don't fully understand. However, the best ways that we can protect against development of GI cancers, acknowledging that no one is to blame for developing a GI cancer and no one is fully protected, but the best things that we can do for overall health and to prevent GI cancers are a diet that is plant-based, has whole grains. There's some data about fish that especially the deep-water fish, may be protective and then engaging in physical activity.  One thing I would like for people to take away is that these things that we know that are preventative against developing cancer are also important after development of a GI cancer. Most of the data comes from studies of patients with colorectal cancer and that again, both cancer specific and overall mortality is improved with better diet and with physical activity. So, this is even after a cancer diagnosis. And I also think that, and this is hard to really prove, but we're in a pretty inflammatory environment right now. So, the things that we can do to decrease stress, improve sleep, decrease inflammation in the body, and we do know that inflammation is a risk factor for developing GI cancers. So, I think that all of the integrative modalities are important both for prevention and after diagnosis. Dr. Nate Pennell: And one of the things you just mentioned is that most of the studies looking at integrative oncology and GI cancers have focused on colorectal cancer, which of course, is the most common GI cancer. But you also have pointed out that there are gaps in research and what's going on and what needs to be done in order to broaden some of this experience to other GI cancers. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yeah, and I will say that there are gaps even for colorectal cancer. So right now, some of the authors on the article are collaborating on a textbook chapter for the Society for Integrative Oncology. And so, we're again examining the evidence specifically for colorectal cancer and are in agreement that the level of evidence specific to colorectal cancer is not as high as it is for all patients with adult cancers. And so even colorectal cancer we need to study more.  Just as there are different phases of cancer where treatments may need to be tailored, we also may need to tailor our treatments for different cancer types. And that includes what symptoms the patients are commonly experiencing and how intense the treatment is, and also the duration of treatment. Those are factors that can influence which modalities may be most important or most applicable to a given individual. Dr. Nate Pennell: So, a lot of this sounds fantastic. It sounds like things that a lot of patients would really appreciate working into their care. Your article focused a little bit on some of the logistics of providing this type of care, including group medical visits, multidisciplinary clinics staffed by multiple types of clinicians, including APPs and psychologists, and talked about the sustainability of this in terms of increasing the uptake of guideline-based integrative oncology. Talk a little bit more about both at your institution, I guess, and the overall health system and how this might be both sustainable and perhaps how we broaden this out to patients outside of places like UCSF. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yes, that's a major focus of our research effort. A lot of comprehensive cancer centers and other places where patients are receiving care, people may have access to dietitians, which is really important and nutritionists. In the article we also provide resources for working with exercise therapists and those are people who may be working remotely and can help people, for instance, who may be in, in rural areas. And then our focus with the mind-body practices in particular has been on group medical visits. And this grew out of, again, my ‘being present' pilot studies where we were showing some benefit. But then when the grant ends, there isn't a way to continue to deliver this care. And so, we were asking ourselves, you know, is there a way to make this sustainable? And group medical visits have been used in other settings, and they've been working really well at our institution and other institutions are now taking them up as well. And this is a way that in this case it's me and many of my colleagues who are delivering these, where I can see eight or ten patients at once. In my case, it's a series of four two-hour sessions delivered by telehealth. So, we're able to focus on the integrative practices in a way that's experiential. So, in the clinic I may be able to mention, you know, after we go over the CT scans, after we go over the labs and the molecular profiling, you know, may be able to say, “Hey, you know, meditation may be helpful for your anxiety,” but in the group medical visits we can actually practice meditation, we can practice chair yoga. And that's where people have that experience in their bodies of these different modalities. And the feedback that we're receiving is that that sticks much more to experience it then you have resources to continue it. And then the group is helpful both in terms of delivery, so timely and efficient care for patients. It's also building community and reducing the social isolation that many of our patients undergoing treatment for cancer experience. Dr. Nate Pennell: I think that makes perfect sense, and I'm glad you brought up telehealth as an option. I don't know how many trained integrative oncologists there are out there, but I'm going to guess this is not a huge number out there. And much like other specialties that really can improve patients' quality of life, like palliative medicine, for example, not everyone has access to a trained expert in their cancer center, and things like telemedicine and telehealth can really potentially broaden that. How do you think telehealth could help broaden the exposure of cancer patients and even practitioners of oncology to integrative medicine? Dr. Chloe Atreya: Yes, I think that telehealth is crucial for all patients with cancer to be able to receive comprehensive cancer care, no matter where they're receiving their chemotherapy or other cancer-directed treatments. So, we will routinely be including patients who live outside of San Francisco. Most of our patients live outside of San Francisco. There's no way that they could participate if they had to drive into the city again to access this. And in the group setting, it's not even safe for people who are receiving chemotherapy to meet in a group most times. And with symptoms, often people aren't feeling so well and they're able to join us on Zoom in a way that they wouldn't be able to make the visit if it was in person. And so, this has really allowed us to expand our catchment area and to include patients, in our case, in all of California. You also mentioned training, and that's also important. So, as someone who's involved in the [UCSF] Osher Collaborative, there are faculty scholars who are at universities all over the US, so I've been able to start training some of those physicians to deliver group medical visits at their sites as well via telehealth. Dr. Nate Pennell: I'm glad we were able to make a plug for that. We need our political leadership to continue to support reimbursement for telehealth because it really does bring access to so many important elements of health care to patients who really struggle to travel to tertiary care centers. And their local cancer center can be quite a distance away.  So, sticking to the theme of training, clinician education and resources are really crucial to continue to support the uptake of integrative oncology in comprehensive cancer care. Where do you think things stand today in terms of clinician education and professional development in integrative oncology. Dr. Chloe Atreya: It's growing. Our medical students now are receiving training in integrative medicine, and making a plug for the Educational Book, I was really happy that ASCO let us have a table that's full of hyperlinks. So that's not typical for an article. Usually, you have to go to the reference list, but I really wanted to make it practical and accessible to people, both the resources that can be shared with patients that are curated and selected that we thought were of high-quality examples for patients. At the bottom of that table also are training resources for clinicians, and some of those include: The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, where people can receive training in how to teach these mind-body practices; The Integrated Center for Group Medical Visits, where people can learn how to develop their own group medical visits; of course, there's the Society for Integrative Oncology; and then I had just mentioned the Osher Collaborative Faculty Fellowship. Dr. Nate Pennell: Oh, that is fantastic. And just looking through, I mean, this article is really a fantastic resource both of the evidence base behind all of the elements that we've discussed today. Actually, the table that you mentioned with all of the direct hyperlinks to the resources is fantastic. Even recommendations for specific dietary changes after GI cancer diagnosis. So, I highly recommend everyone read the full paper after they have listened to the podcast today.  Before we wrap up, is there anything that we didn't get a chance to discuss that you wanted to make sure our listeners are aware of? Dr. Chloe Atreya: One thing that I did want to bring up is the disparities that exist in access to high quality symptom management care. So, patients who are racial and ethnic minorities, particularly our black and Latinx patients, the evidence shows that they aren't receiving the same degree of symptom management care as non-Hispanic White patients. And that is part of what may be leading to some of the disparities in cancer outcomes. So, if symptoms are poorly managed, it's harder for patients to stay with the treatment, and integrative oncology is one way to try to, especially with telehealth, this is a way to try to improve symptom management for all of our patients to help improve both their quality of life and their cancer outcomes. Dr. Nate Pennell: Well, Dr. Atreya, it's been great speaking with you today and thank you for joining me on the ASCO Education: By the Book Podcast and thank you for all of your work in advancing integrative oncology for GI cancers and beyond. Dr. Chloe Atreya: Thank you, Dr. Pennell. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. Dr. Nate Pennell: And thank you to all of our listeners who joined us today. You'll find a link to the article discussed today in the transcript of the episode. We hope you'll join us again for more insightful views on topics you'll be hearing at the Education Sessions from ASCO meetings throughout the year and our deep dives on approaches that are shaping modern oncology. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate, educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Follow today's speakers:    Dr. Nathan Pennell   @n8pennell  @n8pennell.bsky.social  Dr. Chloe Atreya  Follow ASCO on social media:    @ASCO on X (formerly Twitter)    ASCO on Bluesky   ASCO on Facebook    ASCO on LinkedIn    Disclosures:   Dr. Nate Pennell:       Consulting or Advisory Role: AstraZeneca, Lilly, Cota Healthcare, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Amgen, G1 Therapeutics, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Viosera, Xencor, Mirati Therapeutics, Janssen Oncology, Sanofi/Regeneron      Research Funding (Institution): Genentech, AstraZeneca, Merck, Loxo, Altor BioScience, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jounce Therapeutics, Mirati Therapeutics, Heat Biologics, WindMIL, Sanofi   Dr. Chloe Atreya: Consulting or Advisory Role: Roche Genentech, Agenus Research Funding (Institution): Novartis, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Guardant Health, Gossamer Bio, Erasca, Inc.

A look at UCSF's Weill Neurosciences Building in Mission Bay. Series: "UC Landmarks" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 40744]

The wisdom and the work continues in this powerful episode of Latinas from the Block to the Boardroom, host Theresa E. Gonzales speaks with Dr. Angela Gallegos Castillo and Program Director Carlos Izaguirre from Instituto Familiar de la Raza (IFRSF). Together, they discuss the deep roots of community-based healing, cultural preservation, and collective empowerment through indigenous traditions and mental health (Wellness)  advocacy in the Mission District of San Francisco, California,  for over 46 years. Instituto Familiar de la Raza's powerful interconnected medical network with UCSF and other California Non-profits is a statement to community strength, local and state healthcare recognition and organizing for health and wellness resources to keep communities safe and healthy. You can listen to some of their wellness programs online through their YouTube Channel. Key Highlights: • The origin and mission of Instituto Familiar de la Raza – a 46-year legacy of healing. • How cultural identity and ancestry are essential to individual and collective resilience. • The Promotoras model: Building peer-led support systems grounded in community wisdom. • Advocacy for bilingual, bicultural healthcare professionals and culturally responsive services. • The importance of reclaiming ancestral healing practices alongside modern systems. This conversation reminds us that healing begins with remembering who we are and where we come from. By embracing indigenous traditions and collective strength, Instituto Familiar de la Raza offers a model for community resilience and empowerment. Gracias to Robert Lopez for Audio Engineering and Co-production. If your'd like to learn more about sponsorship or to help support for Latinas from the Block To Boardroom Podcast, you can join us here and a monthly subscriber or reach out to discuss how we can help your marketing and media strategy with podcasting, here: Info@latinasb2b.com. Follow us: IG@Latinasb2b LI@Theresalatinasb2b YouTube@Latinasb2b Threads@Latinasb2b Gracias,  Theresa E. Gonzales  Latinasb2b.com Founder/CEO/Executive Producer  c/o 5-E Leadership & Marketing LLC All rights reserved. 

Robyn Lao knows first hand how challenging it can be to eat at restaurants when living with food allergies. Since her nine-year-old daughter Addie was diagnosed with several life-threatening food allergies as an infant, the family has generally avoided eating out. So when the family recently ventured out to a local restaurant for a meal, they were blown away by the clarity and transparency the menu provided regarding food allergens.That experience inspired the Lao family to introduce ADDE's bill, which would require restaurants in California to label menu items that contain any of the 9 major food allergens. Tune in now to learn more about Robyn and Addie's incredible mission to make dining out safer for the food allergy community!To learn more about the ADDE Act and how to get involved visit: www.addietellsall.comFollow along on social media @addie.tells.allRobyn is originally from San Francisco and has been an NP for over 15 years. She received her Masters in Nursing from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the Pediatric Acute Care NP program and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) degree in Healthcare Leadership from the University of San Francisco.  She was a Pediatric ICU (PICU) nurse at UCSF and started a PICU/transport NP program at UCSF as part of her doctoral project.  She has experience as a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner and has been practicing in pediatric surgery for over 10 years. She helped launch the pediatric general surgery program at Shriners Northern California, and she helped University of California Davis Children's Hospital (UCD ) become one of the first Level 1 Children's Surgery Centers verified by the American College of Surgery.  She was a past president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)- San Francisco chapter, and she was the founding president of the NAPNAP Sacramento Chapter. She now has been the Legislative Chair of NAPNAP Sacramento for the past 3 years, and she just completed a 2 year term as Director of Practice and Quality on the national board of the American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association (APSNA). 

In this episode, Dr. Anna Weiss from the University of Rochester moderates a discussion with Drs. Lola Fayanju at the University of Pennsylvania and Rita Mukhtar at UCSF about surgical management of invasive lobular carcinoma. This histological subtype poses challenges for systemic management and is often underrepresented on conventional breast imaging with concomitant potential for understaging.

A panel discussion with Jim Harris, Rachel Zoeller, DPT, David W. McMillan, Ph.D., and Manesh Girn, Ph.D. Recorded live at the Aspen Psychedelic Symposium In this riveting and deeply personal conversation, moderator Jim Harris is joined by three pioneers at the intersection of neuroscience, psychedelics, and disability: Dr. Rachel Zoeller (Doctor of Physical Therapy and spinal cord injury survivor), Dr. David McMillan (Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami), and Dr. Manesh Girn (neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher with Robin Carhart-Harris at UCSF). Together, they explore how psychedelics may do far more than treat depression or catalyze mystical experiences—they may also support healing and regeneration in the nervous system. The discussion opens with an acknowledgment that our cultural understanding of psychedelics has mostly focused on their psychological and spiritual effects. But as these experts reveal, the somatic potential of psychedelics is vast and understudied. They delve into promising areas like central and peripheral neuroplasticity, the anti-inflammatory effects of psychedelics, and how these mechanisms might play a role in healing from spinal cord injuries or paralysis. Dr. Girn breaks down the science behind psilocybin's interaction with 5-HT2A serotonin receptors, not only in the brain but also in the spinal cord. These receptors, when activated, may increase neuronal excitability and even help restore lost signaling in damaged motor pathways. He suggests that psychedelics could reopen “critical periods” for neuroplasticity—windows of opportunity for the nervous system to rewire and heal. Rachel Zoeller shares her powerful lived experience as both a physical therapist and a spinal cord injury patient. Her story brings the science to life, particularly her observation that psychedelic experiences help her reconnect to parts of her body affected by paralysis. Psychedelics, she suggests, have allowed her to rebuild mind-body communication and foster compassion toward her own physical limitations. She also underscores the need for patients to cultivate body awareness, meditation, and breathwork as essential tools for safe and effective psychedelic use. Dr. McMillan, who leads outreach at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, provides a clinical and safety-oriented perspective. While optimistic about the potential, he urges caution—especially with individuals who have high-level spinal cord injuries and are vulnerable to serious complications like autonomic dysreflexia. He stresses that before we can bring these treatments into clinical settings, we must carefully assess physiological risk, develop precise pharmacological protocols, and prioritize patient safety. The panel also addresses cultural and spiritual interpretations of spasticity. Drawing on both shamanic and somatic perspectives, they propose that these involuntary muscle contractions could be reinterpreted not as dysfunction, but as potential portals for healing, integration, or neurological feedback. The idea that such spasms might help the brain remap muscle groups is discussed as a provocative and hopeful reframe. The conversation wraps with a call to action: to bring together indigenous wisdom, embodied knowledge, rigorous science, and community storytelling in order to chart a new frontier in psychedelic medicine—one that does not leave the disabled community behind. As McMillan puts it, "There's a lesson to psychedelia from paralysis.” It's a reminder that neuropharmacology must consider not just molecules and mechanisms, but people and possibilities. Whether you're a clinician, researcher, patient, or curious explorer, this panel is a moving and illuminating look at how psychedelics could transform not only minds—but bodies. Thanks to Aspen Public Radio, Aspen Psychedelic Resource Center, Healing Advocacy Fund and Aspen Psychedelic Symposium for allowing us to share this podcast. A full agenda from the symposium can be found here.

Are you feeling the weight of perfectionism and the constant need to achieve? Dr. Tiffany Moon's journey is a testament to how the pressure to be perfect can hinder personal fulfillment. As a successful physician, reality TV star, and author, she realized that her life was driven by external accomplishments rather than internal joy.  In this episode, Dr. Tiffany shares how she stopped living for external validation and began to align her actions with her authentic self. From moving away from toxic friendships to learning the art of saying no, she highlights the importance of setting boundaries and prioritizing well-being over societal expectations.  Her book, Joy Prescriptions, explores this journey and how Dr. Tiffany applied her doctor's mindset to prescribe joy in everyday life. It's not just about removing the negative but creating space for what truly brings happiness.  Ready to start your own journey of self-rediscovery? Join us as we explore how you can overcome perfectionism, prioritize joy, and live a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.  "To stop filling your bucket with the wrong things is a mindset shift. First, you change your mindset, and then you start doing things that fall in line with the new mindset." ~ Dr. Tiffany Moon In this Episode: - Meet Dr. Tiffany Moon - Behind the scenes of the Real Housewives of Dallas - Jen's Real Housewives experience - Dr. Tiffany's upbringing, academic achievements, and career - Escaping the trap of perfectionism and reconstructing Life - Finding healing: therapy, self-help books, and a "friends" audit - Tiffany's Real Housewives experience  - Dr. Tiffany's life and career after her awakening - How to pre-order the Joy Prescriptions book  About Dr. Tiffany Moon: Dr. Tiffany Moon is a board-certified anesthesiologist, entrepreneur, and author. She is a proud mother of twins and a dynamic television and social media personality. Dr. Tiffany graduated from Cornell University at 19, earned her medical degree with Alpha Omega Alpha Honors from UT Southwestern, and completed her anesthesiology residency at UCSF. She has been named one of D Magazine's Best Doctors, authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, been recognized as a Distinguished Educator by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and serves as an Oral Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology. She is the founder and CEO of Aromasthesia Candle Company, Three Moons Wine, and LeadHer Summit. Her debut book, Joy Prescriptions—a powerful exploration of overcoming perfectionism and finding joy through gratitude, self-compassion, and connection—will be published in May 2025. Pre-order Joy Prescriptions: https://www.joyprescriptions.com/  Website: https://www.tiffanymoonmd.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiffanymoonmd/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tiffanymoonmd  Where to find me: IG: https://www.instagram.com/jen_gottlieb/    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jen_gottlieb     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jenleahgottlieb    Website: https://jengottlieb.com/    My business: https://www.superconnectormedia.com/     YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jen_gottlieb

Welcome to The Superhumanize Podcast.I'm your host, Ariane Sommer and today, we're not just talking about heart health…We're decoding it.My guest is Dr. Ronald Krauss, one of the most influential voices in cardiovascular research today. A professor of medicine at UCSF and a pioneer in lipidology, Dr. Krauss has reshaped how we understand cholesterol, inflammation, and the subtle particles that move through our blood and, often, determine our fate.In this conversation, we go far beyond the standard cholesterol panel.We explore the deeper nuances like the size and density of LDL particles, the overlooked power of ApoB and Lp(a), and how refined carbohydrates, not saturated fats, may play a much larger role in cardiovascular risk than we've been led to believe.We also enter emerging frontiers:How the gut microbiome shapes the heart, how our genes can guide more precise therapies, and how personalized nutrition may become one of the most powerful tools for prevention in the years to come.This episode is not just for the curious, it's for those who sense there's more to the story of heart disease than numbers on a lab report.It's for those who believe science can be both evidence-based and visionary.And for those of us who know the body carries not just risk, but memory, intelligence, and code.Episode highlights:Why small, dense LDL particles are more dangerous than large onesThe role of ApoB and Lp(a) as underused but powerful heart health indicatorsHow metabolic syndrome and inflammation interconnect with lipid disordersThe surprising truth about saturated fat vs. refined carbsThe promise (and limitations) of personalized nutrition and genomicsHow physical activity and gut health shape lipid metabolismNew frontiers in the fight against dementia linked to cardiovascular functionResources mentioned:Dr. Krauss' Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Krauss_(medical_researcher)Dr. Krauss' professional profiles:https://profiles.ucsf.edu/ronald.krausshttps://amecenter.ucsf.edu/people/ronald-krauss-md

View the Show Notes Page for This Episode Become a Member to Receive Exclusive Content Sign Up to Receive Peter's Weekly Newsletter Susan Desmond-Hellmann is a physician and scientist whose remarkable career has spanned clinical medicine, oncology, biotech innovation, and global health leadership. In this episode, Susan shares insights from her journey training in internal medicine during the early AIDS crisis, treating HIV-related cancers in Uganda, and developing groundbreaking cancer therapies like Herceptin and Avastin. She reflects on her leadership roles at UCSF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offering lessons on guiding large-scale health initiatives, navigating uncertainty, and fostering scientific innovation. The conversation explores the promise of precision medicine, the integration of patient care and policy, and the evolving role of artificial intelligence in transforming diagnostics, drug development, and global access to care. We discuss: Susan's medical training, the start of the AIDS epidemic, and the transformative experiences that shaped her career [3:00]; Susan's experience working on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Uganda [12:30]; Susan's time working in general oncology and her transition to biotech where she helped develop taxol—a top-selling cancer drug [26:30]; Genentech's origins, and its groundbreaking use of recombinant DNA to develop biologic drugs [33:45]; Susan's move to Genentech, and her pivotal role in the development and success of Herceptin as a groundbreaking therapy in targeted oncology [44:00]; The rise of antibody-based cancer therapies: the development of Rituxan and Avastin [52:15]; The step-by-step drug development process and the scientific and strategic challenges involved [1:01:30]; The ethical and economic controversy surrounding Avastin's high cost and limited survival benefit [1:12:30]; Susan's tenure as chancellor at UCSF: leading during a financially strained period, and her strategic approach to fundraising and institutional development [1:14:45]; What Susan learned as CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: strategic processes and decision-making frameworks [1:26:00]; Susan's philosophy of leadership and how she sought to build an empowering, values-driven culture at the Gates Foundation [1:35:15]; The erosion of public trust in science during COVID, the communication failures around controversial treatments like ivermectin, and the need for better public health engagement and transparency [1:39:30]; The role of AI in transforming medicine: from drug development to cancer detection and beyond [1:53:00]; and More. Connect With Peter on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube