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A family in Florida have decided to raise their baby without a gender identity until the child is old enough to decide for themselves who they would like to be. Piers Morgan gets into a heated debate about whether this is detrimental to the child at such an early stage of development. Broadcast on 06/03/2019
15 Oct 2019
An online petition for Piers Morgan to be sacked from Good Morning Britain has been signed by thousands. The petition takes issues with Piers’ view on gender and transgender issues. But should he be sacked or saved?
India Willoughby and Benjamin Butterworth debate. Subscribe now for more! http://bit.ly/1NbomQa Broadcast on 15/10/2019
This is a snippet from ‘Lecture 15: Human Sexual Behavior I’ of Stanford’s ‘Introduction to Behavioural Biology’ given by prof. Robert Sapolsky.
8 Jun 2023
What if gender wasn’t a predetermined reality, but a fluid construct formed by culture, history, and individual identity? This is a question that drives the work of Judith Butler, a gender theorist and distinguished professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
While acknowledging the biological realities of sex, Butler promotes the concept of gender as performative — something that is enacted and shaped through our actions and interactions. This view, although challenging to traditional perspectives, is instrumental in the discourse on queer, trans, and women’s rights. Butler encourages a shift in societal conversation to include diverse gender identities.
This transformation, they believe, allows us to work toward a society where equality, freedom, and justice are at the forefront, reinforcing the foundations of our democratic society.
0:00 What is gender theory? 1:34 Sex and gender: What’s the difference? 2:29 Learning from genocide 3:34 Queer theory in the 1970s & ’80s 4:56 Big ideas in gender theory’s evolution 7:06 Gender is “performative”: What that means 9:04 The resistance to trans rights 10:37 Countering the attack on gender
About Judith Butler: Judith Butler is a post-structuralist philosopher and queer theorist. They are most famous for the notion of gender performativity, but their work ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, mourning and war.
They have received countless awards for their teaching and scholarship, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a Rockefeller fellowship, Yale’s Brudner Prize, and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award.
Their books include “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity,” “Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex,” “Undoing Gender,” and “Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?”
Boys and men are falling behind. This might seem surprising to some people, and maybe ridiculous to others, considering that discussions on gender disparities tend to focus on the structural challenges faced by girls and women, not boys and men. But long-term data reveal a clear and alarming trend: In recent decades, American men have been faring increasingly worse in many areas of life, including education, workforce participation, skill acquisition, wages, and fatherhood.
Gender politics is often framed as a zero-sum game: Any effort to help men takes away from women. But in his 2022 book Of Boys and Men, journalist and Brookings Institution scholar Richard V. Reeves argues that the structural problems contributing to male malaise affect everybody, and that shying away from these tough conversations is not a productive path forward.
12 Nov 2023
In 1972, when Title IX was passed to help improve gender equality on campus, men were 13% more likely to get an undergraduate degree than women. Today, it’s women who are 15% more likely to get a BA than men. That’s just one of the startling statistics revealing how millions of young men today are struggling to understand how or where they fit in.
Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves about his new initiative, the American Institute for Boys and Men; with students at the University of Vermont, where women make up 62% of this year’s freshman class; and with Kalamazoo Promise in Michigan, a scholarship program reaching out to young men who haven’t been taking advantage of the help being offered towards higher education.
Plato famously described the human psyche as two horses and a charioteer: One horse represented instincts, the other represented emotions, and the charioteer was the rational mind that controlled them. Astronomer Carl Sagan continued this idea of a three-layer, “triune brain” in his 1977 book The Dragons of Eden.
But leading neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges this idea of the brain evolving in three layers, instead revealing a common brain plan shared by all mammals and vertebrates. The development of sensory systems led to the emergence of the brain, and hunting and predation may have initiated an arms race to become more efficient and powerful predators.
Despite advances in neuroscience and genetics, the question of why the brain evolved remains elusive. But Feldman Barrett’s fascinating exploration of the brain’s evolution offers insights into the most important functions of this complex organ, and invites us to think more deeply about the origins of our own intelligence.
0:00 What a brain costs 0:21 The triune brain (aka lizard brain) theory 1:24 Plato, Carl Sagan, and the making of the myth 2:35 Debunking the ‘lizard brain’ theory 3:39 How the first brain evolved 5:49 The brain’s ultimate job
29 May 2023
With the growth of self-help books and the fight to destigmatise therapy, people today are perhaps more unafraid than ever to talk about their emotions. But this has led to some common myths about emotions, and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett wants to debunk them.
Barrett argues that emotions are not hardwired into the brain from birth, but rather stem from events that the brain creates based on past experiences and predictions of what’s going to happen. Contrary to popular understanding, emotions are not just reactive events that happen to us — we play an active role in creating them.
By learning new things, watching movies, or even acting in a play to get outside of the normal range of what the brain predicts, Barrett argues that it’s possible to change those predictive patterns, and by doing so, to become the architects of our future selves. Understanding how our brain creates emotions can help us manage them — freeing us from repeated patterns of behaviour and empowering us to control our emotions and heal ourselves.
The brain consists of three layers: the reptilian brain, the limbic system, and the cerebral cortex. The reptilian brain controls bodily functions like hormones, body temperature, and hunger. The limbic system handles emotions such as fear, anger, joy, and gratitude. The cerebral cortex is responsible for impulse control, decision making, and long-term planning.
Understanding the functions of each part of the brain allows for more mindful thoughts and better decision-making. For instance, recalling a favourite memory or something that brings happiness can activate the reptilian brain, resulting in a decrease in body temperature and blood pressure. This can reduce stress and promote a more joyful experience throughout the day.
In this video, neurologist Robert Sapolsky explores these concepts in greater depth.
2 Jun 2023
You’ve heard about your ‘lizard brain’. But what about the other two?
What’s the best way to think about the brain? While most of us think of it as a dense gray matter that’s separate from the physical body, that actually couldn’t be further from the truth. Our brain is actually made up of 3 layers, and each layer not only directly impacts the other, but has control over the physical body and how you feel.
Neurologist Robert Sapolsky explores these separate brain systems as individual characters, all with different goals and motives. The brain comes in 3 functional layers: the reptilian brain, the limbic system, and the cerebral cortex. The reptilian brain controls the regulatory systems in your body like hormones, body temperature, blood pressure, and even hunger. The limbic system is the emotional function of your brain, making you feel fear, anger, joy, or gratitude.
Finally, the cerebral cortex is the most evolved part of the brain that oversees impulse control, decision making, and long-term planning. With a better understanding of how each part of the brain functions, we can have more mindful thoughts that will influence more favourable decision-making and outcomes in life. For example, when you think of your favourite memory or something that makes you happy, your reptilian brain will quickly cool down your body and even lower your blood pressure. This can then lead to feeling less stressed, and finding more joy throughout the day.
How can humans be so compassionate and altruistic — and also so brutal and violent? To understand why we do what we do, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky looks at extreme context, examining actions on timescales from seconds to millions of years before they occurred. In this fascinating talk, he shares his cutting edge research into the biology that drives our worst and best behaviours.
14 Oct 2023
Dr Robert Sapolsky is a Professor at Stanford University, a world-leading researcher, and an author. Stress is an inevitable part of human life. But what is stress actually doing to the human body when it happens for such a prolonged period of time? And what does science say are the best interventions to defeat it?
Expect to learn the crucial difference between short term and long term stress, how stress actually impacts the human system, the neurodevelopmental consequences of stress and poverty, how to detrain your dopamine sensitivity, what everyone doesn’t understand about how hormones work, whether believing in free will is a useful world view, why there is a relationship between belief in free will and obesity and much more…
00:00 What Robert Wished People Knew About Stress 06:00 Where is the Threshold of Short-Term Stress Becoming Long-Term? 12:29 How Brain Development is Influenced by Mother’s Socioeconomic Status 25:50 Does Your Stress Impact Your Descendants? 29:00 Finding Solutions to Manage Stress 35:52 How to Better Enjoy the Good Things in Life 42:50 Can You Actually Detox from Dopamine? 53:18 Why Robert Wanted to Study Our Lack of Free Will 1:01:46 How Having No Conscious Agency Impacts Justice 1:11:10 The Myth of the Self-Made Man 1:32:43 How to Acknowledge Your Lack of Agency & Not Feel Depressed 1:40:22 Where to Find Robert
What impact does your blood sugar level have on your brain power?
Every cell in your body needs energy to run. And one of the main ways you provide this energy is through glucose. But while eating foods high in starch and sugar will give you a glucose spike, that doesn’t actually give your body or brain the energy it needs to be consistent. I’m excited to have Jessie Inchauspé (@GlucoseRevolution) on our show today.
Jessie is biochemist who shares her insights and knowledge of the effect glucose has on the body and brain. She’s also a bestselling author, and she’s here to talk about the strategies from her latest book, The Glucose Goddess Method: The 4-Week Guide to Cutting Cravings, Getting Your Energy Back, and Feeling Amazing: https://amzn.to/49cuG97
Giving your body energy isn’t simply a matter of eating more glucose. In fact, eating too much can lead to a wide range of problems including inflammation, diabetes, and more. Listen in as Jessie shares four simple food principles you can introduce into your diet today to help balance your glucose, improve cognitive performance, and live a better life.
0:00 Glucose Goddess 2:04 What is glucose 4:00 Glucose spike and brain health 5:24 The Glucose Goddess Method 6:55 Breakfast: Sweet vs Savory 9:20 Do this before meals 12:38 If you eat bread first thing in a meal… 15:04 Do this hack after a meal 17:11 How to make a change effortlessly
How to make a change effortlessly Join my brand-new membership Kwik Success today: https://bit.ly/3tSLwK1
Welcome to my brand new show! Today, we’re tackling the science behind sugar cravings. Learn practical hacks to control cravings and why breakfast is key. For more tips and glucose hacks, hit subscribe. Let’s conquer cravings together!
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Cravings Are Not Your Fault 01:02 – 4 PM Chocolate Cravings 02:17 – Diving into the Science of Cravings 03:46 – Glucose levels 04:22 – The cravings centre in our brain 07:31 – Dopamine 09:40 – Introducing Glucose Hacks 10:11 – When to eat sugar 10:54 – How to ‘Dress’ Your Carbs 11:50 – The Vinegar Hack 12:30 – The Protein Leverage Hypothesis 14:20 – Savory Breakfast 16:23 – Anti-Spike Formula
Welcome back to the show! Today, I’m unpacking the essential blood tests that go beyond the usual to give you the full picture of your health. From the importance of checking your fasting insulin to understanding what the HbA1c test and HOMA-IR ratio mean for you. I’ll share simple lifestyle tweaks to improve your health markers and avoid the trap of insulin resistance.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Intro 02:08 – Fasting Glucose Levels 04:08 – Importance of Insulin Measurement 06:05 – Fasting Insulin & Health 07:02 – HbA1c Test Overview 09:17 – HOMA-IR Ratio & Insulin Resistance 10:01 – Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) 13:23 – Specific Tests Explained 15:05 – Insulin Resistance and Health 16:37 – Calculating HOMA-IR Ratio 19:00 – Lifestyle Modifications 21:51 – Recap & Practical Hacks
Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode, I’m diving into the effects of coffee on our health and glucose levels. Let’s tackle the beloved ritual of coffee drinking – from the benefits and potential glucose spikes caused by black coffee to the impacts of sugar, sweeteners, and different types of milk.
TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Intro 01:06 – Coffee and Type 2 Diabetes Risk 02:18 – Coffee, Stress, and Glucose 04:33 – Coffee and Insulin Spikes 05:15 – Sugar’s Impact on Coffee 05:34 – Sugar Cube in Coffee 06:53 – Sweeteners 07:50 – Oat Milk and Glucose Spikes 08:44 – Choosing the Right Milk 12:11 – Dairy vs. Nut Milk for Coffee
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