502 Conversations - Science, Skepticism, Pseudoscience, Philosophy, and more.

This episode may be viewed as a video here: https://youtu.be/9t_wwXRo4j0 Welcome! As I mentioned in the 502 Conversations Brain Training episode with Dr. Indre Viskontas, I did a prior show on brain supplements. The show is The Dr. Dennis Show, which I co-host. I thought it might be a good idea to excerpt the brain supplement segment and make it available on 502 Conversations. Enjoy! © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission, is prohibited. Links to reports mentioned in this show: MEMORY SUPPLEMENTS Clarifying FDA and FTC Roles Could Strengthen Oversight and Enhance Consumer Awareness https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-17-416.pdf The Real Deal on Brain Health Supplements: GCBH Recommendations on Vitamins, Minerals, and Other Dietary Supplements https://tinyurl.com/m5cru57j New Report Pans Supplements for Brain Health: AARP collaborative council finds little value — but lots of expense — in would-be memory boosters https://tinyurl.com/y4btb3w6 Summer 2021 update to AARP’s Supplement survey:https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/global-council-on-brain-health/supplements/    

This episode may be viewed as a video here https://youtu.be/YIkCs1XCPWo Dr. Viskontas has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience and a masters of music in voice performance. She is currently an associate professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco where she directs the creative brain lab; and she has a cross appointment at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she applies neuroscience to musical training. © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission, is prohibited.

This episode may be viewed as a video here https://youtu.be/7FuWSjf2YEQ Dr. Joe Schwarcz is Director of the McGill Office for Science and Society. He is well known for his informative and entertaining public lectures on topics ranging from the chemistry of love to the science of aging and is fondly referred to as Dr. Joe. He hosts "The Dr. Joe Show" on Montreal's CJAD radio; writes the newspaper column The Right Chemistry for the Montreal Gazette; and has authored the best-selling books such as Radar, Hula Hoops and Playful Pigs; An Apple a Day; and Monkeys, Myths, and Molecules. His newest is book, Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex: Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life. Dr. Joe is also an amateur magician and often spices up his presentations with a little magic, and like most magicians he has a pronounced disdain for pseudoscience and charlatans, from psychics to so called alternative health practitioners. © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission, is prohibited.

This episode may be seen as a video here: https://youtu.be/-8n9ZVV9M5E Dr. Paul Offit is a pediatrician; a professor of both pediatrics and vaccinology; and he is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine RotoTeq, and is a member of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Committee. He has published hundreds of papers in medical and scientific journals, speaks at both professional and public conferences, and is the author of 13 books. His newest book is Tell Me When It’s Over: An Insider’s Guide to Deciphering Covid Myths and Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World. © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission, is prohibited.

A video version is available at https://youtu.be/_VdNPIoajSc David Samson, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Toronto, and Director of the Sleep and Human Evolution Lab. He is the author of “Our Tribal Future: How to channel our foundational human instincts into a force for good”. His research directly addresses the central anthropological question of human uniqueness. In other words, the question he asks is what is it about our species that has made us the most successful animal on the planet? He’s comparatively worked with human and non-human primates around the globe to better understand the behavioral, physiological, and cognitive suite of traits that likely played a crucial role in our advance. © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission, is prohibited.

This episode may be viewed as a video here https://youtu.be/wGlswKJMHTU Anthony Magnabosco is from San Antonio, Texas and is a founder and the current Executive Director of the nonprofit Street Epistemology International (SEI). SEI is an educational organization committed to addressing dysfunction in public and private discourse by encouraging rationality through civil conversation. SEI's goal is to provide people with the resources needed to develop, practice, and promote Street Epistemology, an approach that helps people critically reflect on the quality of their reasoning so as to update the confidence they have in their conclusions. © 2024 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission is prohibited. Links: streetepistemology.com navigatingbeliefs.com linktr.ee/magnabosco Anthony's Youtube Channel

This episode may also be viewed here. Remember when we were young and chocolate was good for us? And red wine too, the more the better? Dr. Christopher Labos is here once again to set the record straight. He talks more about his book - plot and character development; the French Paradox; Mendelian randomization; this year in Cardiology, and more! A cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology, he spends most of his time doing things for which he does not get paid, like research, teaching, and podcasting. Occasionally, he finds time to practice as a cardiologist so he can pay his rent. He realizes that half of his research findings will be disproved in five years: he just doesn't know which half. He writes for the Montreal Gazette, and makes regular appearances on CBC radio and TV. © 2023 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission is prohibited.

This episode is also available as a video here: https://youtu.be/o7Jc2OKpa5o Dr. Wilson is a molecular biologist and science communicator. Dr. Wilson got his Bachelor's degree in molecular biology and biotechnology from Clarion University and his PhD in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. After getting his PhD he began working for Eurofins as a process analytical scientist, and is now currently a senior associate scientist at Janssen working on gene therapies. In his spare time he produces and hosts Debunk the Funk, his YouTube channel dedicated to debunking vaccine and COVID-related misinformation. https://www.youtube.com/c/DebunktheFunkwithDrWilson © 2023 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission is prohibited.

This episode may be viewed as a video here: https://youtu.be/gPuAxnoBaIA Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. The recipient of several teaching awards, he has taught philosophy at Colgate University, Boston University, Tufts Experimental College, Simmons College, and Harvard Extension School. Formerly Executive Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, he has also served as a policy advisor to the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. He is the author of several books, including How to Talk to A Science Denier; The Scientific Attitude; The Art of Good and Evil; and Post Truth. His latest book is On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy. © 2023 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission is prohibited.

This episode may be seen as a video here https://youtu.be/NK6QxIdhueQ Dr. Young is a Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Delaware where she studies the content, audience, and effects of nontraditional political information. She has published over sixty academic articles and book chapters on the content, psychology, and effects of political information, satire, and misinformation. She is a Research Fellow with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication and is a recipient of the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Young's 2020 TED Talk explaining how our psychology shapes our politics, and how media exploit these relationships, has been viewed almost two million times. She publishes extensively in the popular press with essays and Op-eds in outlets including Vox.com, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She has appeared on CNN, PBS Newshour, ABC News, NPR, and various national and international podcasts. Her popular University of Delaware course "Propaganda and Persuasion" was released by Wondrium’s The Great Courses in 2023. Her book Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the U.S. examines satire and outrage as the logical extensions of the respective psychological profiles of liberals and conservatives, and her new book is Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive our Appetite for Misinformation. Dr. Young is also an improvisational comedian, performing regularly with the improv comedy troupe, ComedySportz Philadelphia, and she has worked with Flackcheck.org to debunk inaccurate political claims through satire and parody. She grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from the University of New Hampshirebefore moving to Philadelphia to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. She has been a professor at the University of Delaware since 2006. © 2023 Dedham TV. Unauthorized duplication, for any reason, without permission is prohibited.