Episode 188: The Pope’s Personal Physician

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Gem, and Laura talk about more scams and scam artists, featuring a famous surgeon, a wine counterfeiter, a Canadian investment fund, and of course that Republican politician everyone’s talking about.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Paulo Macchiarini: Dr Con Man: the rise and fall of a celebrity scientist who fooled almost everyone (The Guardian) | Reading about embattled trachea surgeon Paolo Macchiarini? Here’s what you need to know (Retraction Watch) | The Celebrity Surgeon Who Used Love, Money, and the Pope to Scam an NBC News Producer (Vanity Fair) | Sweden: surgeon convicted of bodily harm over synthetic trachea transplant (The Guardian) | Paolo Macchiarini (Wikipedia)

The Crocus Fund: Crocus Investment Fund final wind-down plan approved by Manitoba court (CBC News) | An empty bank account could finally spell the end of the Crocus Investment Fund wind-down (CBC News) | Final settlement reached in Crocus Fund lawsuit (CBC News) | An end in sight for Crocus investors (Investment Executive) | Manitoba fund scandal grows (The Globe and Mail) | Crocus hit with $200 million lawsuit (Advisor’s Edge) | Anatomy of an alleged fraud (Winnipeg Free Press) | Manitoba whistleblower transferred to ‘non-job’ and read novels until retirement (Yahoo! News) | Crocus Investment Fund (Wikipedia) | Astra Credit Union remains tight-lipped on cheque scam (Winnipeg Free Press) | Bills (The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba)

George Santos: Here’s Every Single Lie Told by George Santos (New York Magazine) | Embattled Republican George Santos Won’t Serve on House Committees (BNN Bloomberg) | Canadian politics is not immune to George Santos-like behaviour (National Post)

Rudy Kurniawan: After Kurniawan’s Conviction, What Now for Fine Wine? (Wine-Searcher) | The man who sold millions in counterfeit wine to rich collectors (The Hustle) | Wine con man, ‘Sour Grapes’ subject Rudy Kurniawan deported (Los Angeles Times) | Beyond High-Profile Scandals, Wine Fraud Is Rampant (SevenFifty Daily) | The Jefferson Bottles (The New Yorker) | The Wine Fraud Story – The Beat Goes On! (The Underground Wine Letter)

Cookies!: Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies (Sally’s Baking Addiction) | Soft & Thick Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe (Sally’s Baking Addiction)

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Episode 186: LUEE Gets Cancelled

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, it’s cancel or be cancelled! Ashlyn, Lauren, Laura, Gem, and special guest Kyle Joseph discuss a few people who really deserve a good cancelling.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Wednesday Night Wallop Podcast: Wednesday Night Wallop

Mother Theresa, Missionary of Misery: Criticism of Mother Teresa (Wikipedia) | Aroup Chatterjee (Wikipedia) | Mother Teresa (Wikipedia) | Canonization (Wikipedia) | The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Wikipedia)

Bill Gates, Dubious Philanthropist: Bill Gates (Forbes) | Every Time Bill Gates Engaged in Inappropriate Conduct (Business Insider) | Bill Gates’ Nerdy Do-Gooder Image Destroyed by Divorce Revelations (Business Insider) | Who Flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ Plane? Full List of People Named (Newsweek) | Um, who are Melinda and Bill Gates trying to kid? (The Washington Post) | Bill and Melinda Gates have spent billions to shape education policy. Now, they say, they’re ‘skeptical’ of ‘billionaires’ trying to do just that. (The Washington Post) | The media loves the Gates Foundation. These experts are more skeptical. (Vox) | Bill Gates, Vaccine Monster (The New Republic) | They Pledged to Donate Rights to Their COVID Vaccine, Then Sold Them to Pharma (Kaiser Health News)

Man Doctor Diet Book Authors: Vintage Diet Books are My Favorite Thing to Collect and I’m a Fat Activist (SELF) | The problem with diet books written by doctors (Vox) | About Dr. William Davis | About Dr. Gundry | About Carnivore MD | About Paul Saladino MD (Psychology Today Canada)

J.K. Rowling, TERF: J.K. Rowling (GLAAD) | Is J.K. Rowling Transphobic? (Them) | Robert Galbraith Heath (Wikipedia) | A Complete Breakdown of the J.K. Rowling Transgender-Comments Controversy (Glamour) | J.K. Rowling’s transphobic tweets failed Harry Potter fans (Vox) | The metamorphosis of J.K. Rowling (Politico) | J.K. Rowling’s new book is about a character accused of transphobia (NPR)

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Episode 183: Hope (to replace every tree with a chest freezer)

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, and Laura discuss scientific advances that give them hope for the future, and Gem issues a correction.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

The HIV Vaccine: NIH launches clinical trial of three mRNA HIV vaccines (National Institutes of Health (NIH)) | HIV Vaccines (HIV.gov) | Zidovudine (Wikipedia) | HIV vaccine development (Wikipedia) | HIV/AIDS (Wikipedia) | Retrovirus (Wikipedia) | Why Is It So Difficult to Find an HIV Cure? (American Gene Technologies) | Understanding mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines (CDC)

The Four Day Work Week: The 4-day workweek: How realistic is it really? (NPR) | The Workweek Revolution: a Solution to the Health Care Exodus (Clinical Advisor) | More Employers Are Trying a 4-Day Workweek and Finding Benefits (Business Insider) | Why the four-day working week is ‘doomed to fail’ (HRD Canada) | Can the four day work week save us? A look at the statistics (Fingerprint for Success)

The Moxie Experiment: NASA’s Moxie instrument successfully makes oxygen on Mars (The Guardian) | Small Device Currently on Mars Is Generating as Much Oxygen as a Tree, Scientists Reveal (Vice) | MOXIE experiment: NASA made enough oxygen on Mars to last an astronaut for 100 minutes (New Scientist) | MIT’s MOXIE experiment reliably produces oxygen on Mars (MIT News) | Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (Wikipedia) | Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) – Preparing for human Mars exploration (Science Advances) | Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment: MOXIE (NASA)

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Episode 177: Contraception Should Be Free

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn and Gem are joined by Kennadie Chaudhary and Teale Phelps Bondaroff to discuss the AccessBC’s campaign for free contraception and some of the arguments made by critics of the campaign.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Links: AccessBC: Campaign for Free Prescription Contraception in BC | AccessBC (Twitter) | Birth Control Access for Manitoba (Twitter) | CoverContraceptiON (Twitter) | Canadian women opting for less effective birth control (PMC) | Household income and contraceptive methods among female youth: a cross-sectional study using the Canadian Community Health Survey (CMAJ Open) | BC Budget 2022 fails to take bold action on gender-based violence (West Coast LEAF)

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Episode 172: Quiz Show XP

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Gem, Lauren, and Laura engage in a battle of wits over today’s most important scientific topics: eels, climate change, and… Jim Henson movies?

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Eels: Surprised Eel Historian, PhD (Twitter) | European eel (Wikipedia) | Interesting facts about eels (Just Fun Facts) | Trust Us, These 9 Slithery Facts About Eels Are The Real D-EEL (AwesomeOcean.com) | 20 Interesting Facts About Eels (Nature Tingz)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC) | Summary for Policymakers (IPCC)

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Episode 170: Fish Crime!

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, and Lauren revisit Seaspiracy and discuss transnational organized crime in the international fisheries industry with returning guest Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Director of Research for Oceans Asia.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Links: Teale Phelps Bondaroff | Oceans Asia | LUEE Episode 168: “Seaspiracy”

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Episode 169: Legislative Prayer

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, and Lauren speak with Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, the Research Coordinator for the BC Humanist Association, about his research into unconstitutional governmental prayer in Canada.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Links: The Duty of Neutrality Beyond Saguenay (BC Humanist Association) | Legislative Prayer Across Canada (BC Humanist Association) | House of Prayers Report (BC Humanist Association) | Clergy residence deduction cost $1 billion over last decade (BC Humanist Association)

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Episode 168: “Seaspiracy”

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Laura, and Gem watch the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, and find that they have more to say about it than they expected!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Additional Music: This episode includes The Mariner’s Revenge Song by The Decemberists and So Long and Thanks for All the Fish performed by the Tenebrae Choir from the soundtrack to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Links: Seaspiracy (Netflix Official Site) | Seaspiracy (Wikipedia) | Seaspiracy: Netflix documentary accused of misrepresentation by participants (Environment, The Guardian)

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Episode 167: Medical History

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Lauren, and Laura swap tales from medical history, including the story of Ben Carson’s separation of the Binder twins, the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, and the “tainted blood scandal” that led to the formation of Canadian Blood Services.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Ben Carson: The story of the surgery that made Ben Carson famous and its complicated aftermath (The Washington Post) | Separation of craniopagus Siamese twins using cardiopulmonary bypass and hypothermic circulatory arrest (The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery) | Patrick and Benjamin Binder (Wikipedia) | From Vaccines to Creationism, Ben Carson’s Views Perplex Some (The New York Times) | Ben Carson on Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Evolution News) | Ben Carson’s Scientific Ignorance (The New Yorker)

Henrietta Lacks: Henrietta Lacks (Wikipedia) | Significant Research Advances Enabled by HeLa Cells (Office of Science Policy) | Cell Lines – an overview (ScienceDirect Topics) | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads)

The Tainted Blood Scandal: Canadian Red Cross apologises for distributing HIV infected blood (BMJ) | ABCs of eligibility to donating blood (Canadian Blood Services) | Collaboration, Competition, and Coercion: Canadian Federalism and Blood System Governance (Adam David McDonald) | Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada: Krever Report (Publications du ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec) | The Krever Commission Recommendations: What They May Mean for Hospital (Longwoods) | The Krever Commission – 10 years later (CMAJ) | Commemoration of the Tainted Blood Tragedy (Canadian Hemophilia Society) | Canada’s Tainted Blood Disaster (CBC Archives) | Unspeakable: the truth about HIV-tainted blood in Canada (The Lancet Infectious Diseases) | Today’s blood system no longer unsafe or “Unspeakable” (Canadian Blood Services) | Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (Wikipedia) | Research shows promising development in hunt for HIV vaccine (ABC News)

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Episode 166: The Wellness Industry

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Laura leads Ashlyn, Gem, and Lauren in a discussion of the wellness industry, including a brief detour into QAnon conspiracies, and together the panel tries to figure out what wellness even is, anyway.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Additional Music: In addition to original music by Ian James, this episode also features Cavatina performed by the Mangoré Duo.

Wellness, Defined: Frequently asked questions (World Health Organization) | Twenty-first century health promotion: the public health revolution meets the wellness revolution (Health Promotion International, Oxford Academic) | The dark side of the wellness industry (New Statesman) | What is Wellness? (Global Wellness Institute)

Apps and Plans: Why The Wellness Industry is So Utterly Broken (In Fitness and in Health) | Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations (Annual Review of Public Health) | The Truth Behind Weight Loss Ads (FTC Consumer Information) | Tons of Weight-Loss Ads Show Fake Before/After Photos: Report (Women’s Health) | The History of Dieting (Skyterra Wellness) | Is Fasting Healthy? (WebMD) | “Find Your Fit”: Wearable technology and the cultural politics of disability (Journal of New Media and Society)

QAnon and the Wellness Industry: How Instagram Aesthetics Repackage QAnon (The Atlantic) | How COVID-19 Guided Wellness Influencers to QAnon (Bitch Media) | This yoga instructor is fighting the rise of QAnon in the wellness community (CBC Radio) | New Agers and Wellness Influencers Are Falling for Far-Right COVID Conspiracies (Vice)

Police Officers and Domestic Violence: Police Domestic Violence: Data Shows 40 Percent of Cops Abuse Family (Fatherly)

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