By popular demand, an entire episode dedicated to exploring the human microbiome!
Are you really 90% bacteria and 10% human? How can you manage or optimize your own microbiome? Should we do fecal-matter transplants from “untouched” indigenous tribes to reverse chronic illness? We tackle all this and much more…
Jessica Richman is co-founder and CEO of uBiome, a startup backed by Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz, which uses citizen science to understand the human microbiome.
Jonathan Eisen is a Full Professor at the University of California, Davis with appointments in the School of Medicine and the College of Biological Sciences. Dr. Eisen’s research focuses on the evolution, ecology and function of communities of microorganisms.
You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
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Scroll below for links and show notes…
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Selected Links from the Episode
- UC Davis Genome Center
- Learn more about uBiome
- Seth Robert’s honey and vinegar bedtime trick
- Neil Gaiman – The Best Commencement Speech You May Ever Hear (20 Minutes)
- Oxford Internet Institute
- Start-Up Chile
- A Field Guide to the Birds of North America by National Geographic
- The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
- The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Shackleton with Kenneth Branagh
- The Edge with Anthony Hopkins
- Connect with Jessica Richman:
uBiome’s Twitter | Jessica Richman Twitter | Indiegogo
- Connect with Jonathan Eisen:
Twitter | Personal Blog | The Tree of Life | TED
Show Notes
- Interesting answers to boring questions… [1:00]
- Defining “microbiology” [2:30]
- What is “phylogenomics”? [4:00]
- Microbiome misconceptions [6:40]
- Defining citizen science [9:30]
- Gut | Mood | Behavior [11:30]
- Scaling microbiome research using the public [21:30]
- How experts think about probiotics [34:30]
- A new perspective on probiotic solutions [42:20]
- The idea of a fecal bank, and the scientific feasibility of actually doing it [52:00]
- Exploring vegetarianism [1:04:45]
- Rules that stifle vs. constraints that enable [1:07:10]
- Jessica’s founding story of uBiome [1:13:40]
- Long-term goals of uBiome [1:17:00]
- Rapid-fire questions for Jonathan [1:19:55]
- Rapid-fire questions for Jessica [1:29:55]
- Many more rapid-fire questions…