Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author David Cay Johnston has covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years. In THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP, he profiles the many ways Trump has gotten wealthy by bilking others, colluding with criminals, evading prosecution, and romancing the press. Johnston is the founder/editor-in-chief of nonprofit news service DCReport.org, that reports “what the President and Congress do, not what they say.”

https://www.dcreport.org

Ever since he dropped out of college to sample the Summer of Love, DANNY GOLDBERG has been an active participant in culture, counterculture, and politics. In addition to his career in the music business – manager of artists from Bonnie Raitt to Nirvana, chairman of Warner Brothers records – he was co-producer/director of the rock doc No Nukes and CEO of Air America. We talk about all of that as well as his latest book, In Search of the Lost Chord:1967 and the Hippie Idea.

http://www.dannygoldberg.com

Nukes – How do we deal with North Korea, Iran, Russia, and Trump?
Remember 2015 when the big nuclear weapons news was the deal negotiated by the Obama administration with Iran? Why is the UN now voicing fears of catastrophe? What role is the new Trump administration playing in the escalation of provocation? Are the UN’s fears real and if so, what can we do about it? JOE CIRINCIONE is President of the Ploughshares Fund which supports people and organizations working to reduce and eventually eliminate the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.

DISRUPTIVE #10: Sports Genomics

McNally:
Hello, I’m Terrence McNally and you’re listening to DISRUPTIVE the podcast from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. 

Can sneaker endorsements, cereals, protein powders or electrolyte cocktails get any of us closer to the peak level performance of our favorite athletes? Despite billions in sales, the answer is probably no. But how about an elite athlete’s biology?

With 100 trillion cells in the human body, bacteria outnumber our own human cells 2 to 1, and bacteria in our gut affect all our key organ functions. They play a role in our health, development and wellness, including endurance, recovery and mental aptitude.

What if we could tap the gut bacteria of elite athletes to produce customized probiotics – and what if those probiotics could give recipients access to some of the biological advantages that make those athletes elite?

A former NBA hopeful in the lab of George Church at the Wyss Institute asked that question a couple of years ago and the lab is now moving toward a startup to bring such products to market.

In related news, consider this: With 2015 sales of $115B, sports-based nutraceuticals made up the largest share of the global nutraceutical market, but probiotic-focused sports products made up less than 1% of those sales.

I’ll talk with Wyss Research Fellow JONATHAN SCHEIMAN and – a previous guest on Disruptive – Wyss core-faculty member GEORGE CHURCH.
Continue reading “Disruptive #10: Sports Genomics”

NEW SHOW!
Prior to the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Rob Johnson served as Chief Economist of the US Senate Banking Committee and a DIrector at Soros Fund Management. He also worked in the music and film industries (Exec Producer, Oscar winning doc, Taxi to the Dark Side). “The concentration of wealth and power that created a twin crisis of representation – in politics and in expertise – set the stage for Donald Trump’s election victory, and has put America’s founding principles at risk.”

https://www.ineteconomics.org/research/experts/rjohnson