The Mind Behind It

This week Sahil and Huda say their goodbyes and thank yous in their final episode. But before they do, they punch out a few more episodes that weren’t released. Their guests for these are:Tasha Jackson, MFT who has been practicing psychotherapy for over 16 years and has her own clinic in San Francisco, California. She has a diverse clientele ranging from drag queens to CEOs. Tasha Jackson MA has been widely published in magazines and academic journals. She has done a TED talk ‘Can We Not Let Our Breakups Break Us’ and released a book ‘Master Dater’ and is internationally recognised as the first to advocate for the LGBTQ community and was one of the first US-based therapists to openly champion gay parenting. In our interview with Tasha, we discuss all things relationships – she integrates different techniques to meet her client’s individual needs and truly understands intuitively the differences between people so not to try and fit them into a theoretical box. She has been trained under both traditional and more modern progressive theories and typically leans on Control-Mastery, Psychodynamic, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Structural Family Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Head to her page to find out more: https://www.tashajackson.com/Professor Hal Herzog of Western Carolina University; he has been investigating the complex psychology of our interactions with other species for three decades. His research interests include the impact of pets on human health and well-being, attitudes towards the use of animals, and the evolution of pet-keeping. He has published more than 100 research articles for news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, New Scientist, and Time Magazine. He is the author of the book ‘Some, We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard To Think Straight About Animals’ which is the one we primarily discuss in this interview. Check him out at: http://halherzog.com/Professor Constantine Sandis of University of Hertfordshire is a professor of Philosophy and co-founder of Lex Academic. Constantine has published multiple articles and written plenty of books, one that we mention in this particular interview is a book titled ‘The Things We Do And Why We Do Them’. His philosophical curiosities primarily focus on the philosophy of action, moral psychology, and interpersonal understanding. His studies and theories in the psychology of philosophy is advanced by Philosophers Hume, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. Current projects that Professor Constantine is working on is a collaboration on AI Intelligibility with Abigail Sellen at Microsoft Research which we touch on in this interview, and a book on gender with his colleague Danièle Moyal-Sharrock. To know more and read about his amazing work head to: https://www.constantinesandis.com/Sahil and Huda take the time to individually thank their team members, who without them none of this would have been made possible:Pedro Arbelaez (@pedro_arbelaez) their amazing graphic designer from Colombia that invented the branding for Humane Productions and has worked closely, but autonomously to create dynamic and interesting covers for the episodes.Chris Foreman (@swampshackstudios) the co-founder of SwampShack Studios in New Zealand, is the audio engineer who makes the episodes sound engaging and interesting by adding music in the background and gets creative with each episode.David Boland (@thedavidboland) from Ireland is the editor of the podcasts, he ensures that all the interviews have had the fat trimmed and all the very innapropriate jokes Sahil makes are removed, so that the episodes are streamlined...

Sahil and Huda speak with Dr. George Church, a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His pioneering work has contributed to the development of DNA sequencing and genome engineering technologies. He has also had an important role in the launch of CRISPR technology, including a landmark paper in 2013 that marked one of the first demonstrations of CRISPR genome editing in human cells.George speaks about his early interest in genetics through his physician uncle, his battle with narcolepsy as a child and his first interaction with CRISPR technology. He also goes into an in-depth layman's explanation of the process involved with gene editing, IVF babies and his lab's work at the Wyss Institute in developing vegan meats for a sustainable feature.Finally, he gives us an insight into the ethics involved with CRISPR/designer babies, what it means for future research and interestingly how pigs could be used ethically for organ transplants in humans in the future.

Sahil and Huda speak with Dr. Beth who is the author of the Best Selling book, The Female Fat Solution, the creator of the 12 Week Female Fat Solution Challenge, the Eat for Your Cycle™ Method, and the host of The Female Health Solution Podcast.We chat about how a woman's body goes through four different stages during her period, how different hormones affect your food cravings and energy levels and what nutrients the body needs during each of those periods. She also talks about how the female body can efficiently consume calories throughout the month that would result in the best weight/fat loss results. Finally, Beth briefly summarizes PMDD and it's impact on women's health and some of her go-to remedies.Join us on a jam-packed discussion, and to know more head over to Dr Westie's page: https://drbethwestie.com/ to join the waitlist of her next 12 week female fat solution challenge

Sahil and Huda interview Rachel Gur-Arie, a Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethics & Infectious Disease at the Berman Institute at John Hopkins University and at the Wellcome Center for Ethics and Humanities at the University of Oxford. She also completed her PhD in Health Systems Management at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer Sheva, Israel. In this episode, Rachel Gur-Arie educates us on the ethical issues related to a vaccine mandate, why Israel was one of the first fully vaccinated countries and what makes Israel's vaccine rollout so streamlined as compared to other first world countries. Rachel also expands on the need for transparency when it comes to a vaccine rollout and how a country's government should be communicating with it's citizen when it comes to public health agenda and policies.Finally, we touch on the risks involved with mandating vaccines for children and the ethical issues related to it on a global level.

Sahil and Huda interview Grant Giles, a clinical hypnotherapist and strategic psychotherapist having trained through the institute of Applied Psychology, and is registered with the Australian Hypnotherapy Association. Grant is also an elite high performance coach within sport, giving him a wealth of experience working with people of varying ages and backgrounds.This episode Grant teaches us how to visualise effectively to reach your most desired goals, how to make friends with negative thoughts and what makes babies and young children such masters of intuition and instinct. He also discusses his approach to help elite athletes succed, his own journey with anxiety and depression and how parents can set their children on the path of success during their formative years.To learn more about Grant head to https://www.inconvenientminds.com.au/

Sahil and Huda sit down virtually with Rébecca Kleinberger, who received her PhD from the MIT Media Lab where she is currently doing postdoctoral research and is a Keynote speaker (search up her TED talk ' Why don't you like the sound of your own voice?'). Rébecca creatively mixes science, engineering, design and art to explore ways to craft experiences for vocal connection. As part of this work, she designs unique experiences to help people connect with themselves and with others.In this episode, Rebecca differentiates between inner voice and inward voice, breaks down the mechanics that create voice and how the brain perceives external and internal voices. She discusses the importance of making a connection over understanding someone, how to empathise and actively listen and why Marilyn Monroe had that famous whispery voice. Finally, she highlights the importance of understanding intent when it comes to AI and future voice technology and how that could aid efficient communication.To learn more about Rébecca and her work head over to her website: https://rebeccakleinberger.com/Script for the hearing impaired is allocated to this for all listeners/readers to enjoy.

Sahil and Huda speak with Associate Professor in the Social and Decision Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon University about how personal bias affects decision making. We discuss how other people's perceptions could influence the way someone may make decisions about their future, especially when it comes to the stereo-types that are made based on people's skin color and race, and how dangerous these ingrained stereo-types can actually be for someone.To see more of Kevin's work head over to his website: https://kevinjarbo.com or follow him on Twitter: @kevinjarbo

Sahil and Huda speak with Associate Professor in marketing at the University of Wyoming, Dr Elizabeth Minton and discuss how marketing plays an important role in consumer decision making. They talk to Elizabeth about how simple cues can prime consumers to engage in societally/environmentally-beneficial behaviors or alter product evaluations, spreading activation, compound cue theory, belief congruence theory, inoculation theory, self-determination theory, values-attitudes-behavior hierarchy, and the persuasion knowledge model. We also discuss how marketing has been used in the recent COVID-19 vaccines roll-out to encourage consumers to take the vaccine. Join us on a jam-packed discussion, and to know more head over to Elizabeth's page www.elizabethminton.weebly.com to delve into her research.

Sahil and Huda sit down virtually with Dr Thomas Hansen, a Research Professor of psychology, Ageing research, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. In this episode, we discuss happiness levels of couples with or without children, societal pressure on women to have a child, distinction between loneliness and being alone, isolation among older populations and the importance of differentiating between happiness and purposefulness when making the decision to have a child. Script for the hearing impaired is allocated to this for all listeners/readers to enjoy.

Sahil and Huda sit down virtually with Novalee Wilder, Los Angeles based Numerologist and writer of the book 'A little bit of numerology'. In this episode, we discuss the basics of numerology, your date of birth and it's significance, how a name change has the potential to change your life and the differences between Pythagorean and Chaldean Numerology. Novalee also gives some helpful advice on how to navigate your mental health using numerology and does a quick reading for our two hosts.To learn more about Novalee and her work head over to her website: https://www.novaleewilder.com/Script for the hearing impaired is allocated to this for all listeners/readers to enjoy.