Podcast #27: Robert Lustig on Biochemistry and Health

Author and endocrinologist Robert Lustig explains the neurochemical difference between happiness and pleasure and how it’s been exploited to make so many of us fat, addicted, and depressed. Then, he reminds us how to reclaim our health.

By Mo Lotman | February 27, 2019 | Cognition, Environment, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Podcasts, Well-Being | Academia, Addiction, Adolescence, Alcohol, Amino Acids, Aristotle, ATP, Availability, Behavior, Biochemistry, Caffiene, Calories, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Cavities, Cell Death, Child Development, Chronic Metabolic Disease, Chronic Renal Disease, Clinicians, Cocaine, Computers, Connection, Connectivity, Contentment, Contribute, Coping, Cortisol, Dementia, Dentistry, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Dieticians, Doctors, Dopamine, Drugs, Dyslipidemia, Endocrinology, Enjoyment, Environment, Exercise, Exposure, Facebook, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Flow, Food, Food System, Fructose, Giving, Glucose, Happiness, Health Care, Heroin, Hypertension, Hypothalamus, Information, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Marketing, Metabolic Syndrome, Metabolism, Mindfulness, Mirror Neurons, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Money, Multitasking, music, Myelin, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, OCD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Opioids, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Philanthropy, Pleasure, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, Prefrontal Cortex, Processed Food, Profit, Propaganda, Quantification, Refining, Regulation, Religion, Reward, Sales, Seizures, Seratonin, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Social Security, Stimulation, Substance Abuse, Substances, Sugar, Suicide, Taking, Taylorism, Technology, Tolerance, Tryptophane, Utilitarianism

The Limits of Efficiency

Demanding convenience in every aspect of life might have some rather inconvenient effects: the atrophying of skills, self-worth, and wisdom.

By Mo Lotman | April 19, 2017 | Automation, Economics, Identity, Philosophy, Well-Being | Bangladesh, Capabilities, Compassion, Convenience, Driving, Drizly, Ease, Efficiency, Entitlement, Garment Workers, Happiness, Helplessness, Impatience, Inconvenience, Joy, Laziness, Peace, Reward, Self-Reliance, Walking, Wisdom

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous, part two

European communist states were, perhaps, the ultimate manifestation of the modern conflation of technological development with progress. But with such [...]

By David A. J. Reynolds | November 9, 2016 | Culture, Economics, Philosophy, Religion, Society | Christianity, Communism, Distraction, Empire, Happiness, Heidegger, Industry, Knowledge, Materialism, Michael Sacasas, Narcissism, Progress, Russia, Science, Secularism, Soviet Union, Space Race, Stalin, Steel, Sublime, Technological Determinism, The Frailest Thing, Transcendence

Podcast #6: Kentaro Toyama on the Fallacies of Tech in Development

Kentaro Toyama is Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan and the author of the book Geek Heresy. After spending five years in India attempting to deploy technology to aid international development, he came back disillusioned. He chats with the Technoskeptic about his experience there and in years of teaching that gave him an understanding of how technology often exacerbates, rather than levels, underlying disparities.

By Mo Lotman | October 26, 2016 | Economics, Education, Podcasts, Society | Buddhism, Community Development, Discernment, Disparity, Distraction, Happiness, Inequality, Intention, International Development, iPads, Microsoft, Microsoft Research India, Self-Discipline, Structural Change, Wealth, Wisdom