Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Scientist and professor of genetic epidemiology who challenged dietary norms through gut microbiome research, founded the Twins UK Registry, and created a COVID
On the island
Eight records
Reminds me of my rather tormented teenage time. I was a very sulky teenager and life on Mars, you know, it was all about other lives and what else is out there.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Reminds me of going to Sydney Opera House in the early 1990s when I was on sabbatical in Sydney. It goes back to my Australian roots.
Reminds me of driving back for my father's funeral when I was about 21. It's a dark, melancholy tune that resonates.
Reminds me of those first three months in Belgium and meeting my wife.
It's from the film soundtrack of Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle. It's hilarious.
All of MeFavourite
Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons
Reminds me of a friend who had an accident and I brought him Louis Armstrong to cheer him up. Since then, I've always associated Louis Armstrong with cheering up music.
Reminds me of my student days and also my kids jumping up and down on the bed. It reminds me of my kids being small and cute.
Elvis is my hero. Hard to pick one song, but In the Ghetto is the one.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:54How do you describe the gut microbiome?
When I call it a virtual organ, it's like we've discovered something that has a function that's it is hard to touch, but there are trillions of these microbes in the lower part of our gut that are community, and they're really like a community of chemical factories. ... So once you realize that, that they're producing vitamins and hormones and key brain chemicals that make you happy or sad or full or hungry and alter your immune system, it gives you a whole new concept of really how our body works.
Presenter asks
4:28Why is calorie counting not the best way to lose weight?
A number of reasons. It's really hard to do. Even trained nutritionists can't do it properly. And if you do manage to reduce your calories, you will lose weight, but your body reacts to compensate for that. It slows down your metabolism, it ramps up your hunger signals, it's unsustainable. And nearly everybody, even in really controlled trials, eighty percent, ninety percent of people return to where they were and some people overshoot. And it's about time that, that message got out to people that it really doesn't work. ... So we've got to move away from calories and start looking at food quality and what actually we're eating and think about our food more.
Presenter asks
5:40Can we cultivate a good microbiome after years of unhealthy eating?
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Dickens
It's one of the few books I've read several times, so I know I can read it more than once without getting bored. It's a mixture of history and fiction, and it's also the idea of a person who has two different lives and can live different lives in different countries and different languages and sort of suits my Chameleon Personality.
The luxury
so I can ferment anything on the island and create new foods and tastes and smells. And that would keep me occupied for several months, I think. I'd be very happy'cause I'm into my fermenting phase of life at the moment.
Absolutely, and this is one of the things, you know, why in a way I've switched from genetics, where all you can do is blame your parents, to the microbiome, where you can actually, everybody can make their gut microbes better, and you can often do this in just a few weeks just by feeding them the right foods, ignoring calories, just making sure you're getting plenty of diversity, you're getting your 30 plants a week, eating the rainbow, you're having your fermented foods, you're eating in a time window that allows your gut microbes to rest.
Presenter asks
19:28Why didn't you get to know your father, and how do you feel about it now?
I don't know why. I guess he was probably just waiting for us to mature enough that we could have proper conversations with him. ... You couldn't interact at the physical level. And maybe that was it. But I've come to terms with it now, I think, more than I had. So I'm not certainly not angry anymore.
Presenter asks
36:57How did you create the COVID app so quickly?
The third week of March, they closed, they said to everyone, go home and stop going to work, go home, lock yourselves away. And I was cycling home from St Thomas' Hospital along the river and I thought, this is very depressing. All these studies that we've been doing are all going to come to an end. What are we going to do? We can't just do nothing. And so by the end of my cycle trip, I come up with the idea of using an app to at least use the twins all over the country. ... And the amazing happened, and we launched this app. And within 24 hours, because of social media and lots of help from the odd celebrity, good old Stephen Fry, thank you, Stephen. We got a million people in 24 hours. And then by the end of the week, 2 million, and then eventually 4 million. ... Just sad the government tried to shut us down and and and didn't adopt the app nationally, which would have saved many lives and and perhaps and billions of pounds.
Presenter asks
41:38What happened in the helicopter crash?
We were on a ski touring trip in Georgia near the Russian border. We weren't supposed to take a helicopter, but the other lifts were broken, so we had a day of heli skiing. And as we came into land, it must have tipped, and the helicopter blade got stuck in the snow. We flipped over and crashed down from about three or four meters. It wasn't very high, but it caught fire. ... I was extremely calm. I think you either react in two ways. You either sort of panic and scream, or I was just in this surreal shock. ... It was an experience that made me think. You know, I was lucky to survive that. ... just reaffirmed that life is for living and you got to get on with it.
“Yes, we are. And every time we go to the toilet, we become more human, is the other way of looking at it.”
“I've always tried to do research that is new and going to actually change some ideas rather than just adding on to what other people have done.”
“I was a rebel I was making sure he wasn't going to tell me what to do”
“I had 14 hours by myself in a car driving across France in snowstorms”
“I was extremely calm. I think you either react in two ways. You either sort of panic and scream, or I was just in this surreal shock.”
“life is for living and you got to get on with it”