Today we have JP Errico, a scientist and inventor whose work focuses on neuroimmunology and the many ways it impacts cellular metabolism, inflammation, mental health and how we age. He recently joined IHMC as a Senior Research Scientist. JP is particularly known for his research on vagus-nerve stimulation and is the author of the book, The Vagus-Immune Connection: Harness Your Vagus Nerve to Manage Stress, Prevent Immune Dysregulation, and Avoid Chronic Disease. He also is the co-host of the pod...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep 179•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Karl Herrup, a neurobiologist known for his investigations into the roles that DNA damage and noncoding genetic variants have in Alzheimer’s disease. Joining Ken today to interview Karl is Dr. Tommy Wood, a visiting scientist here at IHMC. Tommy also is an associate professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Washington, where he focuses on brain health across lifespan. He has been our guest several times on STEM-Talk and we will have links to those interviews...
Feb 05, 2025•2 hr 30 min•Ep 178•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Frank Butler, a retired Navy Undersea Medical Officer and an ophthalmologist who served as a Navy SEAL platoon commander prior to attending medical school. Just a few weeks after our interview, President Joe Biden awarded Frank a Presidential Citizens Medal during a White House ceremony. The medal is one of the highest honors a civilian can receive and recognized Frank’s many contributions to civilian and military trauma care. Frank is credited with founding Tactical Combat Cau...
Jan 16, 2025•2 hr 33 min•Ep 177•Transcript available on Metacast Today our guest is Dr. JoAnn Manson, an endocrinologist, epidemiologist, and Principal Investigator of several research studies, including the landmark Women’s Health Initiative. She is a highly cited researcher and was one of the physicians featured in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibition, History of American Women Physicians. Her primary research interests include clinical prevention trials of nutritional and lifestyle factors related to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer and the rol...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 176•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Hans Van Dongen, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University in Spokane. Dr. Kevin Gluck, a senior research scientist at IHMC, joins Dr. Ken Ford to interview Hans about his studies on inter-individual differences in vulnerability to fatigue as well as the cumulative cognitive deficits that follow chronic sleep restriction. Hans is known for his mathematical modeling of fatigue’s effects on performance. At the Sleep and Performance Resea...
Nov 27, 2024•2 hr 39 min•Ep 175•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, who is perhaps best known for co-discovering all three familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease genes. In addition, Rudy’s lab was the first to use human stem cells to create three-dimensional human brain organoids and three-dimensional neural-glial culture models of Alzheimer’s disease, which became known as “Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish.” These models were the first to recapitulate all three of the key pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and have made dru...
Oct 25, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep 174•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Dr. Anurag Singh, the chief medical officer at Timeline Nutrition, a Swiss life-science company that focuses on ways to improve mitochondrial and cellular health. Anurag is particularly known for his research into the gut metabolite, urolithin-A, which has been shown to improve muscle strength, protect immune systems and optimize mitochondrial efficiency. Anurag is an MD in internal medicine with a Ph.D. in immunology. He has led more than 50 randomized clinical trials, many o...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 173•Transcript available on Metacast Few people know as much about inflammation and neuroscience as Dr. Kevin Tracey does. In this episode of STEM-Talk, we learn much from Tracey, who was the first to identify the inflammatory reflex, a physiological mechanism that regulates the body’s immune response to injury and invasion. He is a neurosurgeon, a pioneer in bioelectrical medicine and president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. The conversation in this episode covers a career spent working...
Sep 05, 2024•2 hr 34 min•Ep 172•Transcript available on Metacast In today’s Ask Me Anything episode, Ken and Dawn answer a wide range of questions that cover: A recent FDA approval of a neural implant device for people with degenerative neuromuscular disease or spinal-cord injuries. Global security in the age of AI. A study that looked at ways to optimize glymphatic clearance for people with acute or chronic sleep deprivation. Why more gyms don’t offer blood-flow restriction classes for their clients. Developments in the realm of Generative AI. The tradeoffs ...
Aug 08, 2024•49 min•Ep 171•Transcript available on Metacast Today Dr. David LeMay steps in to co-host with Dr. Ken Ford for our interview with Dr. Charles Serhan. Charles is a Harvard professor best known for his discovery of specialized pro-resolving mediators. SPMs are molecules that can activate the natural resolution of inflammation and help people avoid anti-inflammatory drugs. The discovery of SPMs spurred a paradigm shift in our understanding of inflammation and human disease. Charles is the Simon Gelman Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical ...
Jul 18, 2024•2 hr 40 min•Ep 170•Transcript available on Metacast Dave Feldman is the founder of the Citizen Science Foundation and is known for his research into the ketogenic diet. Dave is a software engineer by training who embraced a ketogenic diet to avoid his progression toward type 2 diabetes. he joins us on this episode of STEM-Talk to share that journey. After undertaking the high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet, Dave’ LDL cholesterol spiked. Dave used his training as an engineer to start learning everything he could about cholesterol and lipids. What he le...
Jun 21, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep 169•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Alessio Fasano, who is considered the world’s leading expert in celiac disease and gluten-related disorders, returns for his second appearance on STEM-Talk. Although just 2 million Americans have celiac disease, an estimated 20 million Americans suffer from gluten sensitivity. Alessio is a professor and director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to celiac disease and gluten-related disorders, Alessio’s research is also focuse...
May 22, 2024•Ep 169•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Nicholas Norwitz, 28, a third-year Harvard Medical School student whose research into the applications of a ketogenic diet as metabolic medicine has attracted a significant following. For a number of years during his youth, Nick suffered from a number of debilitating diseases, including osteoporosis, ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. In today’s interview, we talk to Nick about research that led him to adopt a ketogenic diet that put him back on the road to met...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 167•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Vyvyane Loh returns to STEM-Talk for her second appearance to talk about atherosclerotic heart disease. Also known as ASCVD, the disease has been reported to affect 26 million people in the U.S., and annually leads two million hospitalizations and more than 400,000 deaths. Vyvyane is a board-certified physician in obesity and internal medicine. In episode 142 of STEM-Talk, we talked to Vyvyane about her Boston-based preventative-care practice that specializes in weight management and the tre...
Apr 11, 2024•55 min•Ep 166•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Johnathan Edwards, an anesthesiologist and medical practitioner who specializes in human health and optimization. He is perhaps best known for treating mental health conditions with ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic that is used for general anesthesia, pain relief, depression and epilepsy. John also uses ketamine to help adolescents overcome depression and suicidal ideation. In today’s interview, we talk about his new book, “The Revolutionary Ketamine: The Safe Drug That Effe...
Mar 14, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 165•Transcript available on Metacast What if the path to delaying the onset of dementia symptoms begins at the nose? It is a doorway that the research of Dr. Michael Leon opened with a 2023 study on the power of olfaction enrichment to influence memory function and brain health. The findings drew wide acclaim and interest when his results found that stimulation of our sense of smell with essential oils had a profound impact on memory, cognition, and language recall. Our conversation with Leon on STEM-Talk Episode 164 is available n...
Feb 21, 2024•37 min•Ep 164•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Mark Mattson, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who is making his third appearance on STEM-Talk. Today’s interview focuses on Mark’s research into glutamate and comes on the heels of the publication of Mark’s new book, “Sculptor and Destroyer: Tales of Glutamate – The Brain’s Most Important Neurotransmitter.” Today Mark explains how more than 90 percent of the neurons in the brain deploy the little-known molecule glutamate as their neurotr...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 163•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Marc Hamilton, an international expert in muscle physiology. He has published pioneering work on the soleus push-up, a potent physiological method which Marc discovered having the ability to elevate metabolism for hours, even while sitting. As a professor of Health and Human Performance at the University of Houston, Marc’s research focuses on solving problems of metabolism and biochemistry. His lab currently has a number of ongoing investigations, including studies on the bioch...
Jan 10, 2024•2 hr 38 min•Ep 162•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode of STEM-Talk features Dr. Sten Stray-Gundersen, a post-doctoral research associate at the University of South Carolina who is also an adjunct instructor at the university’s Arnold School of Public Health. Cohosts Dr. Ken Ford, IHMC’s founder and CEO, and Dr. Marcas Bamman, a Senior Research Scientist at IHMC, talk to Sten about his work on blood-flow restriction training and cardiovascular exercise physiology. Prior to his position at South Carolina, Sten was a teaching assistant...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 161•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Dr. Euan Ashley, a pioneer in the use of genomic sequencing to solve some of our most puzzling medical mysteries. Medical genomics, and the precision medicine it will enable, has the potential to predict, prevent, and diagnose many common (and uncommon) diseases. In today’s interview, we discuss: -- Euan’s work with a colleague who was just the fifth person in the world to have his genome sequenced. -- Precision medicine and how Euan has helped establish medical genomics. -- T...
Nov 28, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep 160•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode marks the return of another Ask Me Anything episode where listeners ask Ken and Dawn to weigh in on a wide range of topics. In this go-around, listeners certainly had a lot on their mind. At the top of their list were questions about AI and especially the Bing AI chat bot that reportedly wants to be alive so it can steal nuclear secrets. Ken, who is Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, also answered questions about the future of AI and whether...
Nov 06, 2023•39 min•Ep 159•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have climatologist Dr. Judith Curry, Professor Emerita of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Judy also is president of the Climate Forecast Application Network and the host of the blog, Climate Etc, which you can find at JudithCurry.com. Judy’s blog provides a forum for climate researchers, academics and technical experts from other fields as well as citizen scientists to discuss topics related to climate science and policy. Judy’s research interests ...
Oct 05, 2023•57 min•Ep 158•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have one of the world’s foremost authorities on dietary protein and amino acids, Dr. Donald Layman. He is known for his extensive research on muscle development as well as his studies of metabolic regulation for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Don is a professor emeritus in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He spent 31 years on the faculty before stepping away in 2012. Much of Don’s research over the years i...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 157•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s interview is with Dr. Josh Hagen, the director of the Human Performance Collaborative at Ohio State University and an Associate Research Professor in the university’s Department of Integrated Systems Engineering. Joining co-host Ken Ford for this episode is IHMC’s Chief Strategic Partnership Officer Morley Stone who has a long history with Josh has and been instrumental in his career. Today we talk with Josh about his work at the Human Performance Collaborate, which brings together multi...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 156•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have the world’s foremost authority on kratom returning to STEM-Talk after five years to give us an update on his research. Shortly after his 2018 interview on episode 61, Dr. Christopher McCurdy and his lab at the University of Florida received two major grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse to investigate the medical efficacy of kratom and its alkaloids, which we discuss in today’s show. Mitragyna speciosa, or kratom, is an herbal leaf from a tropical evergreen tree in the ...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep 155•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Brian Cole, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in cartilage restoration, orthobiologics, and advanced surgical techniques for the treatment of knee, elbow, and shoulder injuries. He is the team physician for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and the co-team physician for the Chicago White Sox. He also is the host of the Sports Medicine Weekly Podcast. Brian practices orthopedic sports medicine at Midwest Orthopaedics. He also is a professor of Orthopaedics, Anatomy and Cell Biology at...
Jun 28, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep 154•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have our good friend and colleague Dr. Dominic D’Agostino returning for his third appearance on STEM-Talk. Dom, as most of our longtime listeners know, is well-known for his research into the ketogenic diet and the physiological benefits of nutritional ketosis. Since our last conversation with Dom in 2019, a tremendous body of research has been added to the literature about the therapeutic potential of ketosis. The high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet has been linked to advances in the tre...
Jun 08, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep 153•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have the former chief scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program, Dr. Mark Shelhamer. Mark specializes in neurovestibular adaptation to spaceflight. He is an otolaryngology professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the director of the school’s Human Spaceflight Lab. He also the director and founder of the Bioastronautics at Hopkins initiative. In addition to his work with NASA, Mark is an advisor to the commercial and consumer spaceflight industry. In today’s interview, we talk ...
May 16, 2023•2 hr 35 min•Ep 152•Transcript available on Metacast Back in early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. John Ioannidis wrote an article in March of 2020 questioning government statistics about the fatality rate associated with COVID-19. The backlash was swift and brutal and John’s reputation as one of the most influential scientists in the world took a beating. Today, John makes his second appearance on STEM-Talk to discuss his extensive research into the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the public shaming he received in 2020 for questioning the World H...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep 151•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have Dr. Barbara Thorne, a termite biologist and an expert on the invasive conehead species, a Central and South American termite that has invaded South Florida. Barbara is a research professor and professor emerita in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland. Since 2012 she has served as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services science advisor on the state’s Conehead Termite Program. She also chairs the National Scientific Advisory Committee for the...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep 150•Transcript available on Metacast 
