Interview with Dr. Paul Offit about Vaccine Safety

I am including the latest episode of my Books and Ideas Podcast (Episode 25) in the feed for the Brain Science Podcast because I think it may be the most important interview I have ever recorded. My guest was Dr. Paul Offit, author of Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure. This book examines the history of on-going controversy about whether vaccines cause autism.

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Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

I recommend Dr. Offit’s book Autism’s False Prophets to everyone because of its thorough examination of the vaccine-autism controversy. He examines the evidence from both sides, while showing compassion for why parents are easily confused and frightened by claims that physicians and scientists have dismissed. The book is unlikely to dissuade those who are convinced by the tactics of vaccine opponents, but it will be a valuable resource to parents who want a clear explanation that includes a sober account of the risks of not vaccinating their children. Physicians and scientists will also benefit from reading this book because it provides an important case study in how lack of scientific literacy can threaten public health.

Click here for detailed show notes and to learn more about the Books and Ideas podcast.

Brain Science Podcast #53: Neuroscience and Free Will

Episode 53 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will by Nancey Murphy and Warren S. Brown. This book challenges the widespread fear that neuroscience is revealing an explanation of the human mind that concludes that moral responsibility and free will are illusions created by our brains. Instead the authors argue that the problem is the assumption that a physicalist/materialistic model of the mind must also be reductionist (a viewpoint that all causes are bottom-up). In this podcast I discuss their arguments against causal reductionism and for a dynamic systems model. We also discuss why we need to avoid brain-body dualism and recognize that our mind is more than just what our brain does. The key to preserving our intuitive sense of our selves as free agents capable of reason, moral responsibility, and free will is that the dynamic systems approach allows top-down causation, without resorting to any supernatural causes or breaking any of the know laws of the physical universe. This is a complex topic, but I present a concise overview of the book's key ideas.

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Episode Transcript (Coming Soon)

Visit the Brain Science Podcast website for detailed show notes and links.

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Books and Ideas #24: Second Interview with Frank Wilczek

Episode 24 of Books and Ideas is a follow-up interview with Nobel Prize winning physicist. Dr. Frank Wilczek. We discuss the questions that we didn’t get around to in Episode 23, including the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics, String Theory, and dark matter and dark energy. Dr. Wilczek also answers some questions from listeners and tells us a little about his current work.

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Click here if you missed Dr. Wilczek’s first interview

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Please visit my website for detailed show notes and links.

Brain Science Podcast #52: Annual Review

Brain Science Podcast #52 is our Second Annual Review Episode. We review some of the highlights from 2008. I also discuss the various other on-line resources that I have created for listeners. Then we look ahead to what I have planned for 2009. This episode is aimed at all listeners, including those who are new to the show.

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Brain Science Podcast #51: Seth Grant on Synapse Evolution

Episode 51 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Dr. Seth Grant from Cambridge University, UK. Dr. Grant's work focuses on the proteins that make up the receptors within synapses. (Synapses are the key structures by which neurons send and receive signals.) By comparing the proteins that are present in the synapses in different species Dr. Grant has come to some surprising conclusions about the evolution of the synapse and the evolution of the brain. (Read more...)

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Brain Science Podcast #50: Neuroscience 2008

Episode 50 of the Brain Science Podcast is a change of pace from our usual format. In this episode I share a few highlights from this year's Neuroscience 2008, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which just concluded in Washington, DC.

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Go to Brain Science Podcast website for links and show notes

Brain Science Podcast #49: Brenda Milner

Brain Science Podcast #49 is an interview with pioneering neuroscientist, Brenda Milner, PhD. Dr. Milner is known for her contributions to understanding memory and her work with split-brain patients. Her work as an experimental psychologist has been fundamental to the emergence of the field of cognitive neuroscience.

This interview is a follow-up of Dr. Milner's recent interview with Dr. Marc Pelletier on Futures in Biotech. I highly recommend listening to both interviews.

Listen to Episode 49 of the Brain Science Podcast

Listen to Dr. Milner on Futures in Biotech (Episode33)

Click here for detailed show notes and links.

FINAL TAXI: Michael Crichton Writer of "ER & Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton has taken his Final Taxi.

Crichton is best known for his books, penning classics such as The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, and Jurassic Park among many others. On top of writing these books, he also directed some little-known films in the 70s and early 80s( Westworld, Looker, Coma) and then went on to help write the screenplays for Jurassic Park and Twister and co-create mega-show ER.

Download:
http://memberdata.wildvoice.com/RonNasty/media/Final_Taxi_Day5_%20Crichton.mp3

FINAL TAXI: Remembering Batman Creator- Bob Kane

Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman. He died November 3, 1998.


DOWNLOAD:
http://memberdata.wildvoice.com/RonNasty/media/Final_Taxi_3_napodpomo.mp3

FINAL TAXI: Who is the highest earning dead person?

Who is dead and made the most money in 2007??
The Final Taxi has the answer....

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http://memberdata.wildvoice.com/RonNasty/media/FT_2_napodpomo.mp3

Final Taxi : Ray Ellis- Composer

http://memberdata.wildvoice.com/RonNasty/media/FT_1_napodpomo.mp3

An arranger and composer, Ray Ellis, worked on such classics as "Chances Are" by Johnny Mathis, "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin and "Standing on the Corner" by the Four Lads, Brook Benton "There Goes My Baby", Ben E. King "Spanish Harlem" and Etta James "C.C. Ride

Books and Ideas #23: Nobel Physicist, Frank Wilczek

Episode 23 of Books and Ideas is an interview with Frank Wilczek, PhD from MIT. Dr. Wilczek won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2004 and recently published an excellent book aimed at general readers: Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces. This book provides an excellent review of current ideas about the meaning of both matter and space.

In his interview Dr. Wilczek helps us understand the current evidence that matter is actually made of particles that are massless. He says “I jokingly say that the more important law is Einstein’s Second Law m=E/c² (which is of course just a rearrangement of E=mc²) but this suggests that what we really should be doing is not explaining energy in terms of mass, but explaining mass in terms of energy.”

The second surprisingly concept that Dr. Wilczek helps us tackle in this interview is the idea that space is not empty. “Space is a medium with a variety of properties that make it, not only an important component of reality, but really the primary component of reality.”

These ideas are supported by experimental evidence, but the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland is expected to expand knowledge even further. The purpose of the LHC is a main focus of this interview. Dr. Wilczek has agreed to come back on Books and Ideas to answer questions about dark matter and string theory.

Listen to Episode 23 of Books and Ideas

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Brain Science Podcast #48: Our Big Brains

Episode 48 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Gary Lynch, PhD, co-author of Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence. While it is generally agreed that one of the most striking features of the human brain is its large size, not everyone agrees about how and why our brains came to be so large. In this interview Dr. Lynch presents some rather radical theories about how the human brain evolved. We discuss the pros and cons of his theories as well as the challenges faced by researchers trying to work in this field.

Listen to Episode 48

Visit the Brain Science Podcast website for detailed Show Notes and Links.

The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will be an interview with Dr. Brenda Milner. This interview will is a follow-up to Marc Pelletier's excellent interview of Dr. Milner on Futures in Biotech: http://www.twit.tv/fib33

Brain Science Podcast #47: Brain Evolution

Episode 47 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of Principles of Brain Evolution by Georg F. Striedter. My goal is to highlight the main ideas of this complicated, and often controversial subject. Understanding the principles of brain evolution is an important element in our multidisciplinary attempt to understand how our brains make us who we are.

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Books and Ideas Podcast #22: Dragon*Con 2008

Episode 22 of Books and Ideas is my summary of my recent trip to Dragon*Con 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a great opportunity to spend time with other podcasters, but the highlight of the weekend was our late night performances of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I had a non-singing part in Act 3 (as the mayor).

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Live from Dragon*Con 2008: Brain Science Podcast #46

Dragon*Con 2008

Brain Science Podcast #46 is a discussion of brain imaging with Dr. Shella Keilholz and Dr. Jason Schneiderman. The focus of our discussion is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is revolutionizing neuroscience. We talked about both the strengths and weaknesses of this technique. Both of my guests agree that mainstream coverage of this technique tends to exaggerate what we can actually tell from this kind of brain scan. An important principle is that the scan of any single individual can vary greatly from day-to-day, which means that valid conclusions require data from a large number of people.

Listen to Episode 46 of the Brain Science Podcast

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Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com

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Brain Science Podcast #45: Dr. John Ratey explains ADD

Have you ever wondered why a child with ADD can play videos games for hours but can’t concentrate on his homework for a few minutes? This is one of the paradoxes of attention-deficit disorder that John J Ratey, MD, co-author of Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood, explains in Episode 45 of the Brain Science Podcast.

During this interview Dr. Ratey discusses the latest findings about the biological basis of what he calls “attention variability disorder.” He also offers practical advice for patients and parents dealing with ADD/ADHD. One very important, and somewhat surprising, fact that he shares is that patients who are treated with medications during adolescence have a significantly lower risk of developing problems with addiction and drug abuse later on compared to those who are not treated. Also, successful “ADDers” like Michael Phelps show that “having a mission” makes a huge difference.

Dr. Ratey’s most recent book is Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, which he discussed with me (Dr. Campbell) in Episode 33.

Listen to Episode 45 of the Brain Science Podcast

Links and Show Notes for Episode 45

Brain Science Podcast #44: Meditation and the Brain

Daniel Siegel, MD

In Episode 44 of the Brain Science Podcast I talk with Daniel Siegel, MD about meditation and the brain. Dr. Siegel is the author of several books including The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being. In this interview we review the scientific evidence about how mindfulness meditation changes the brain, both in terms of short term activity and in terms of long-term structural changes. The evidence is convincing that a regular mindfulness practice can be an important element of brain health.

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Brain Science Podcast #43: Part 2 of "On Being Certain" with Robert Burton, MD

Episode 43 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Robert A Burton, MD, author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, which I discussed in Episode 42. Dr. Burton tells us what inspired him to write this book and we explore some of the implications of the fact that what he calls the “feeling of knowing” comes from our unconscious, including the fact that it is not as reliable as it feels.

Listen to Episode 43 of the Brain Science Podcast

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Brain Science Podcast #42: "On Being Certain" Part 1

Episode 42 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton, MD. This part 1 of a two part discussion of the unconscious origins of what Dr. Burton calls "the feeling of knowing." In Episode 43 I will interview Dr. Burton. Today's episode provides an overview of Dr. Burton's key ideas.

In past episodes I have discussed the role of unconscious decision-making. On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton, MD takes this topic to a new level. First, Dr. Burton discusses the evidence that the "feeling of knowing" arises from parts of our brain that we can neither access or control. Then he discusses the implications of this finding, including the fact that it challenges long-held assumptions about the possibility of purely rational thought.

Listen to Episode 42 of the Brain Science Podcast

Please visit my website at http://brainsciencepodcast.com to learn more.