When I was eleven years old, my grandmother predicted the demise of the personal computer. “Staring at the screen will ruin your eyes,” she proclaimed. The same story is repeated with all new technology: initially it’s met with resistance and fear, and later becomes so important in our lives that we cannot imagine life without it.

In recent years, virtual reality experienced a lackluster launch, and the metaverse is the butt of hundreds of jokes. The generally accepted belief is that VR is dead on arrival, and yet it’s not. It just hasn’t found its use case yet. But it will. On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet a VR start-up founder focused on the educational potential of virtual learning.

Listen to learn:

• How VR brain games can help neurodivergent kids
• Why VR hasn’t really found its feet yet
• Next steps in terms of VR use cases and consumer adoption

Links

Virtuleap

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Amir Bozorgzadeh is the co-founder and CEO of Virtuleap, a tech start-up focused on  virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for brain health.

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Technology is accelerating at a blistering pace with obvious innovations in the devices we have in our pockets, in our homes, and in our cars. Less visible are the changes that are happening in love, sex, and relationships that are potentially reorganizing society in subtle, and not too subtle ways. On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet an anthropologist whose recent work has explored the wild and wacky world of AI boyfriends, sex dolls, and dating apps. 

Listen and learn:

• How dating dynamics have changed dramatically in the last 25 years
• The boring downside of an AI boyfriend
• Why it’s impossible to define love
• How the want and need for intimacy drives so much of human behavior
• The risk vs reward of social media and love ideals 

Links

Roanne’s Site

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Roanne van Voorst is an author, speaker, and anthropologist based in Amsterdam. She has written eight books, including Once Upon a Time We Ate Animals and her upcoming title, Six in a Bed: The Future of Love.

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One of the biggest challenges that comes with aging is cognitive decline. You lose your keys, you can’t remember the neighbor’s name, and your brain seems to putter along instead of humming like it used to. From conversations with listeners over the past year, concerns over brain health are top of the list, so I’ve invited a neuroscientist onto the podcast to share his insights.

Listen to learn:

• About the challenges of social media
• The connection between isolation and brain health  
• Whether crossword puzzles really do prevent cognitive decline
• Autism misinformation debunked

Links

Ben’s site

ABOUT OUT GUEST

Ben Rein, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and a science communicator on social media.

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Bob Ross was a popular PBS painting instructor in the 80s and 90s, but little did he know that decades later, he’d develop a cult following of people who simply wanted to hear his voice. Why? Because it triggers an autonomous sensory meridian response, known as ASMR. ASMR is a well-studied phenomenon that creates a pleasant tingling sensation on the skin, relieves stress and helps you sleep. My guest on this week’s podcast is an academic, author, and expert on the subject.

Listen and learn:

• About paresthesia “brain tingles” from soothing voices and sounds
• Misophonia triggers that can be confusing
• The history of ASMR
• Potential self-care and soothing benefits 

Links

ASMR University 

Calm History

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Craig Richard, PhD, is a leading expert in Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a phenomenon characterized by tingling sensations in the brain and scalp. His research focuses on the neurological mechanisms behind ASMR. He’s the author of the book, Brain Tingles.

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Kane Tanaka of Japan died in 2022 at the age of 119. Lucile Randon of France died in 2023 at 118. Jiroemon Kimura of Japan died in 2023 at 116, the oldest male ever. What did these people have in common? Were they biohackers? Did they do CrossFit? Did they take NAD supplements or run marathons? Nope. Like almost all centenarians they lived exceptionally long lives most-likely due to genetics, combined with a moderately healthy or even average healthy lifestyle. Despite the overwhelming abundance of evidence that we’re all going die sooner rather than later, the quest for longevity never stops. My guest on this week’s podcast has developed a unique way to measure biological age and his work is playing a key role in longevity research and biohacker communities.

Listen and learn:

• The overlooked role of epigenetics in your health and lifespan
• Biohackers, science fiction, and the reality of living a long time
• How methylation patterns can be predictive of lifespan
• The significance of GrimAge for reducing early mortality 

Links

Steve on X

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Steve Horvath is a German-American researcher, geneticist, and biostatistician. He is a professor at UCLA and the principal investigator at Altos Labs, specializing in epigenetic biomarkers of aging, genomics, and comparative biology. 

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