Mind & Matter
Whether food, drugs or ideas, what you consume influences who you become. Learn directly from the best scientists & thinkers alive today about how your mind-body reacts to what you feed it.
The weekly M&M podcast features conversations with the most interesting scientists, thinkers, and technology entrepreneurs alive today.
Not medical advice.
At M&M, we are interested in trying to figure out how things work, not affirming our existing beliefs. We prefer consulting primary rather than secondary sources and independent rather than institutional voices. If we encounter uncomfortable truths or the evidence suggests unfashionable ideas may be valid, so be it.
As the host, my aim is to help you better understand how the body & mind work by curating & synthesizing information in a way that yields science-based insights that you can choose to use or disregard in your own life. Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
I am motivated to connect the dots and distill general principles from what I learn, preferring to ask questions and play devil’s advocate to debating or incessantly pushing my own viewpoint.
My beliefs:
- Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
- All knowledge is provisional and we must work hard to prevent ourselves from becoming attached to our favorite ideas & preferred conclusions.
- Wisdom comes from an iterative, trial-and-error process of learning and unlearning. Letting go of pre-conceived notions can be painful, but pain is information.
Sometimes modern discoveries teach us we must unlearn received wisdom. Other times, modern information overload & historical chauvinism cause us to forget ancient wisdom which stills applies. The framework for learning that I embody is inspired by three Ancient Greek maxims inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi:
- “Γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (Know thyself)
- “Μηδὲν ἄγαν” (Nothing in excess)
- “Ἐγγύα πάρα δ Ἄτα” (Certainty brings insanity)
Mind & Matter
Mitochondria Genetics & Human Metabolic Variation in Health & Disease | Douglas Wallace | Episode 283
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Mitochondria in human evolution, climate adaptation, maternal genetics, aging, and disease.
TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- Endosymbiotic theory: Mitochondria arose from oxidative bacteria engulfed by archaea-like hosts, confirmed by phylogenetic analysis.
- Maternal mtDNA inheritance: Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother, not the father. There are adaptive reasons for this.
- Haplogroups & adaptation: Tropical lineages tightly couple energy production for efficiency; northern ones uncouple to generate heat.
- Heteroplasmy & aging: Mixed mutant and normal mitochondria accumulate in cells, eroding energy in high-demand tissues like brain and heart.
- Bioenergetics in disease: Many common conditions, from Parkinson’s to cancer, stem from mitochondrial-nuclear interactions rather than nuclear genes alone.
- Ketogenic diets: High-fat intake fuels mitochondrial beta-oxidation, which may compensate for brain energy deficits in epilepsy and bipolar disorder.
- Warburg effect: Cancer cells shift to glycolysis to prioritize biosynthetic building blocks over maximal ATP production.
- Modern mismatches: Global travel pairs ancestral mtDNA with mismatched diets and climates, raising risks for metabolic dysfunction.
ABOUT THE GUEST: Douglas Wallace, PhD is a geneticist and evolutionary biologist who has studied mitochondria for over 50 years. He currently directs the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.
RELATED EPISODE:
- M&M 260 | Energy Resistance Principle in Life, Healing & Disease | Martin Picard & Nirosha Murugan
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