Evolving with Nita Jain: Health | Science | Self-Development

In this week’s episode, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Brandwatch James Creech talks about creator monetization methods, parasocial relationships, video podcasts, content moderation, blockchain social media, AI applications, and more! Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Find the full show notes at nitajain.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

In this week’s episode, digital forensics expert and certified fraud examiner Jerry Bui talks about personal privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, white collar crime, and more! Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Find the full show notes at nitajain.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

In this week’s episode, engineer, recruiter, and podcast host Andrew Baines talks about breaking into tech careers, representation in STEM, salary negotiation, cold-pitching your way to success, and overcoming bias during the hiring process! Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Find the full show notes at nitajain.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

In this week’s episode, writer, coach, consultant, and Ironman athlete Charlie Rogers talks about training for a triathlon, overcoming injury, maintaining an Olympic mindset, and building a portfolio career. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Chapter Summaries: [00:00:45] Charlie began running at the age of 14 when a coach recognized his raw talent. During his first year at university, he collapsed during a race. A cardiologist informed him that his high heart rates while running could be due to stress. [00:05:31] Biological mechanisms can help facilitate successful conditioning. Exercise creates changes in blood flow, which are detected by a protein called Piezo1. This protein then begins to remodel the vasculature in order to bring more oxygen and nutrition to your muscles, enabling them to grow and recover faster. [00:08:17] Physical exercise is necessary to keep our brains and blood vessels healthy, protect against cognitive decline, and ensure healthy lo

In this week’s episode, Ryan Prior, author of The Long Haul, shares his insights on patient advocacy, long COVID, ME/CFS, healthcare technology, and precision medicine. We cover many questions, including: * What kind of symptoms does long COVID cause? * How has the pandemic highlighted the need for patient advocacy? * What is precision medicine? * What is the role of genomic innovation in healthcare? * How can we make healthcare technology more accessible? * What kinds of accommodations should be made for long haulers? * What does an inclusive society that embraces disability look like? Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

In a world where simplicity is attractive, Avisha NessAiver, founder of Distilled Science, bucks trends and embraces nuance while setting out to maximize his health, income, & productivity. We talk about his daily gadgets and apps, science communication, safe workouts for hypermobility, the importance of having a digital second brain, and the need for adequate nutrition as we age. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Find the show notes at: https://nitajain.substack.com/p/utilizing-technology-for-improved This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

Are women naturally more nurturing or are these roles simply the result of social conditioning? Any discussion revolving around a given gender’s “natural” propensity towards certain roles is guaranteed to quickly get heated. In her book, Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home, Kate Mangino discusses how predefined gender norms hurt both men and women and outlines steps for how couples can move towards more equal partnerships. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.com

This week, I sat down to chat with Ricky Derisz, author of Mindsets for Mindfulness: Awakening From Crisis To Higher Consciousness and creator of MindThatEgo, a new paradigm for mental illness, spirituality, creativity, consciousness, and human potential. In this episode, he shares his insights on meditation, intrinsic motivation, ikigai, intentionality, intuition, interdependence, and intimacy. Time stamps: 00:44 The enchanted worldview, meditation, perception, & the nature of reality 04:05 Mind-body connection, interconnected consciousness, metaphysics 07:22 Models of depression: chemical imbalance, root-cause analysis, biological vs spiritual, ego dissolution 14:51 Spiritual but not religious (SBNR) label, esoteric vs exoteric, spiritual narcissism 19:05 Self-compassion and self-criticism, suffering and empathy, self-awareness 24:15 Intrinsic motivation, permissionless leverage, creativity 29:19 Westernization of ikigai, meaning and purpose, non-attachment to ideas 32:56 Pa

This week, I had the opportunity to chat with the multi-talented Natasha Mott, a neuroscientist, writer, and podcaster. We talked about her views on multiple intelligences, epigenetics, absurdism, acceptance commitment therapy, and more! Time stamps: 1:26 IQ and multiple intelligences 2:50 Emotional intelligence (EQ) 3:50 System 1 and system 2 thinking 5:27 Impulsivity and emotional self-regulation 8:02 Acceptance commitment therapy 9:00 Epigenetics and transgenerational trauma 10:14 Cancel culture 12:19 The nature of science and falsifiability 16:19 Postmodernism and absurdism 18:34 Anti-intellectualism 20:22 Absurdism as a counterculture movement 23:08 Being present and living intentionally 32:34 Effective altruism 34:39 Natasha's daily dialectical book Subscribe to Natasha's newsletter and follow her on Instagram and TikTok! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitajain.substack.c

Last time, we discussed how short periods of controlled stress can help us better adapt to future challenges. This week, we’re discussing strategies for stress management in order to maintain optimal function even during times of duress. Inherently, stress means we care about something important to us. The stress response can help us parse time more efficiently and focus more intently. Channeling the stress response to help overcome the situation at hand leads to more favorable health outcomes. Developing resilience and managing anxiety can drastically improve coping skills. Anticipating what could go wrong through the practice of negative visualization can help us become better prepared for future challenges. Intentionally seeking out regular, short periods of stillness and quiet in our daily lives can help prevent rumination and lower levels of stress. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nitaja

Let’s talk about stress, baby And antifragility Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things That may be Let’s talk about stress — My attempt at parodying a 1991 Salt-N-Pepa classic Stress is an unavoidable part of our daily lives. How can we mitigate stress so that it doesn’t cause adverse health outcomes? How can we leverage the benefits of stress in order to help us stay motivated? Is there a sweet spot when it comes to stress exposure? A Stressed Out Society Last time, I briefly mentioned the stress hormone cortisol and the role it plays in appetite regulation. When we’re stressed or sleep-deprived, cortisol levels spike, increasing appetite and causing us to crave comfort foods. Unfortunately, modern society is chock-full of stressors. Constantly getting inundated with text messages, emails, and Slack notifications can overstimulate your “fight or flight” response, leading to chronically elevated cortisol levels. This in turn can impair proper functioning of yo

Last time, we discussed how letting go of our sense of self can significantly impact our lives by reducing mental suffering, improving productivity, and helping us experience the benefits of awe. This week, we’ll explore another question together: Can our mindsets make us healthier? Our beliefs can indeed exert surprising physiological effects. A recent randomized clinical trial discovered that educating children about the side effects of allergy immunotherapy greatly improved patient compliance and parental anxiety during treatment for peanut allergies. Oral immunotherapy is an emerging treatment for allergies in which patients are given gradually larger doses of an allergen in order to promote immune tolerance. The appearance of mild reactions to treatment like a scratchy throat or congestion can sometimes concern children and parents alike since these symptoms closely resemble those of a more severe allergic reaction like anaphylaxis. The anxiety can be so great that families ma

Last time, we discussed the importance of loosening our attachment to our beliefs in order to have more productive discussions with people who disagree with us. Loosening our attachment to one belief in particular can alleviate mental suffering, boost our productivity through flow, and help us experience transcendence. What am I talking about? I’m talking about rejecting the idea of the self. No, I don’t mean those experiments where someone tries a series of progressively stranger tasks in order to become desensitized to the sting of rejection. I’m talking about letting go of the concept of the self completely. The Self Is an Illusion French philosopher René Descartes once famously said, “Cogito ergo sum”—I think, therefore I am. Or to be more precise, “Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum”—I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. Some philosophers and neuroscientists argue that Descartes’ statement may be a non-sequitur, and the insecurity of needing affirmation of self-existence is l

Last week, we discussed how techniques such as affect labeling and physiological sigh can help us to stay calm when triggered and get into a better state of mind. But how do we go about the messy business of actually engaging with people who think differently from us? British philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote, Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter. Sometimes, getting through to people feels impossible with both sides bolstered by a profligate confidence in their firepower. What should we do if we want to avoid living in an echo chamber but also prefer to avoid confrontation? How can we communicate our viewpoints both effectively and gently? A Case of Cognitive Dissonance Imagine two Americans named Marsha and Alexandria. Marsha supports the right to bear arms and believes abortion is equivalent to murder. Alex supports gun regulation and a woman’

We’ve all experienced the flood of negative emotions when someone says or does something triggering. It can often be difficult to remain calm when faced with attacks on our personal character. Sometimes criticism has less to do with us and more to do with the lens through which someone is looking—in light of their own values, hardships, and experiences. Before we rush to defend ourselves in the heat of the moment, we might consider the following: Man in the Mirror The self-serving bias describes our tendency to attribute positive events and successes to our own character traits but blame negative results on external factors unrelated to our character. Thinking this way can place your self-esteem on an emotional roller coaster, bobbing up and down with the ebb of the tide. When things are going well, you’re God’s gift to humanity and deserve praise. When things fall apart, you’re the victim who deserves better. This constant sense of deserving is mentally draining and unconducive to

Have you ever found yourself surprised by someone’s behavior? Perhaps a friend who had always shown you kindness betrayed you by disclosing private information. Maybe old classmates at a high school reunion felt unrecognizable from when you last saw them. Maybe you surprised yourself when you acted in a manner that was out of character. Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover We often make assumptions about other people, but human judgment is extremely prone to fundamental attribution error, the tendency to ascribe traits to individuals based on behaviors we observe. If someone donates to a food bank, we may assume that person is generous. If someone with a stutter has trouble expressing themselves during a job interview, we might erroneously assume that person is incompetent in other areas. Conversely, excellence in one discipline is not always transferable. Folklore suggests that human behavior should be relatively easy to predict. Norwegian philosopher Jon Elster writes in his book Expl

As many of you may already be aware, a bill making Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent by November 2023 has already made its way through the Senate. The decision has been met with mixed emotions. Some argue that permanent standard time is the better option and some are simply happy to no longer have to change the clocks twice a year. Arguments in favor of permanent standard time and more early morning light exposure include reduced disease risks, safer bus stop environments since kids won’t be waiting in the dark, and fewer traffic fatalities involving schoolchildren. Permanent DST, on the other hand, finds a strong advocate in big business since longer daylight hours lead to more consumer spending. As far as potential health benefits go, some research suggests that later sunsets allow children to get more exercise. Horacio de la Iglesia, a neuroscientist who studies biological clocks at the University of Washington, believes that the attempt to make DST permanent will likely fail,