PODCAST · education
Simple Evolution
by Brandon Haefling, Eliot Heiss
Topics evolve over time, so should our minds. Through honest conversation we decode important topics in an ever changing world. Evolving our minds may hold the key to making sense of the complexities of life.
Episodes
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#40 - DALL-E 2 and the creative potential of text-to-image AI programs
Can't believe we made it to episode 40!! Thank you all for the continued support and we hope to keep this flywheel in motion. Big things on the horizon!
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#39 - Rare earth metals and the future of electric vehicles
Yes, another pod on EVs, but from a very interesting angle. Many thanks to this video by Johnny Harris for providing the curiosity spark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_T5DgsO0jc. And yes, the fun fact for the week: Cobalt is used to make certain blue ceramics. You'll thank me later when…
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#38 - The return from sabbatical and Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition
Perhaps (some) sequels are undervalued? Your favorite duo, the scientist and the salesman, are back behind the microphones to give some life updates and discuss recent events involving Twitter and Elon Musk (someone you probably heard of by now). We hope you enjoy!
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#37 - Nuclear fusion and its potential as a renewable energy source
When people consider nuclear power, they think fission. The emergence of nuclear reactors in the 20th century sought uranium and plutonium isotopes as fuel sources, not hydrogen and helium. While fission is one method of harnessing atomic energy, and the first to be commercialized, other…
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#36 - The Freedom Convoy
Canada recently received global news coverage surrounding the Freedom Convoy, a group of protestors who arrived in Ottawa to oppose vaccine mandates and demand freedom. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, invoked the Emergencies Act, providing the federal government with new power to address the...
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#35 - Cana: the molecular beverage printing company
With Cana, anyone can be a barista, bartender, or mixologist from the comfort of their own kitchen. All it takes is water and a combination of key chemical compounds. Instead of buying single-use bottles from a store, Cana enables consumers to recreate their favorite drinks, and even design...
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#34 - Technology and its unintended consequences
Devices are designed for consumers with functional purposes, not criminal intent. Tracking fobs are designed to locate purses, backpacks and car keys, not someone's home. In this episode we discuss the dark side of technology and how good intentions can be negated by bad actors. We begin by...
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#33 - Organ transplantation: the past, present and future
Just as our car engines fail so to may our organs. Kidney, heart, and liver, just to name a few, may not function optimally to sustain the demands of life. The trouble with addressing these health concerns is less about the surgeon's dexterity in rewiring blood vessels, or availability of…
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#32 - Russia and Ukraine: a complicated history
History tends to repeat in cycles. There are highs and lows, but one thing remains persistent, conflict. Eastern Europe is one region with a complicated history where certain autonomous countries today were once part of the vast Soviet Union. Following the collapse in 1991, the redrawing of…
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#31 - The future of journalism
The power of an idea comes from its potential to be spread. In today's society, ideas are a dime a dozen. Good ideas and accurate, objective information is the needle in the media haystack. The medium may be the message, but not all mediums are created equal. In this episode we focus on the...
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#30 - Elon Musk
Time Magazine's person of the year is quite the polarizing character. Some people love him. Some people hate him. But, few don't know his name. He has revolutionized the way we travel to the grocery store, and, one day, the way we travel through the cosmos. Electric cars and reusable rockets,...
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#29 - 2022 Beijing Olympic boycott: protests on the international stage
On a global stage, absence is the message. The upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics has received significant media attention, and little of it pertains to athletics. An olympic boycott is likely to take place in Beijing, which considering the history of the olympic games is nothing new. The main…
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#28 - The Forward Party
Not Left. Not Right. Forward. This is the direction Andrew Yang is headed. The Forward Party was officially recognized as a political action committee on October 5, 2021, with goal to become a United States political party. Given the growing partisan polarization between Democrats and…
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#27 - Talks with Troy (Part II)
Enough Web 3.0, let's get a bit more personal!
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#26 - Talks with Troy (Part I)
We are back with another guest episode! Here is part one of our two-part discussion with Troy, focusing on Web 3.0. For those interested in more Web 3.0 content check out the podcast and article recommendations below: [Podcast] Tim Ferriss ft. Naval Ravikant & Chris Dixon:...
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#25 - Artificial intelligence in drug discovery
Artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery is where computer scientists meet chemists. Machine learning algorithms filter large libraries of chemical compounds down to a few potential candidates worth testing in the lab. The computer scientist runs the first leg of the track meet before…
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#24 - The state of Afghanistan
Since the departure of US forces from Afghanistan much has changed. Foreign aid, which for years has kept the economy afloat, is now drying up. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have recently halted aid into the country since the Taliban occupation, effectively shutting the tap for...
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#23 - Facial recognition payment systems and the trade-off between privacy and convenience
Transactions have come a long way. In earlier times, transactions involved exchanging physical items present in nature (e.g. sea shells, tulips and the stone wheels of Yap). However, these initial forms of value were not always recognized across boundaries, and some proved to be inferior…
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#22 - Reflections on the European chapter and the emergence of age-appropriate social media
We're back! No more conversing over the Atlantic on two continents. No more battling connection issues and saving two audio files for each recording. This marks the first in-person podcast - one mic, one table. To kick things off we begin by discussing a recently written chapter in Eliot's book…
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#21 - An antidote to grad school woes: creativity
Graduate school is a roller coaster full of ups and downs. Just when one thinks they are getting a grasp on their project, the unthinkable happens. Experiments fail, again, and again, and again. Hearing the sentences "Run it again" or "When do you expect to graduate?" are enough to induce severe...
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#20 - Two California kids, one microphone: a conversation between great friends in different places
Hey all, we are back! I'm happy to present our second guest speaker, my good friend Matt, speaking to you from sunny Los Angeles. We dive into a variety of topics, ranging from COVID-19 policies differences between the US and Canada to the importance of sports in American culture and some...
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#19 - To approve or not approve: Biogen's Aduhelm and the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
Biologics, specifically monoclonal antibodies, are becoming more prevalent therapeutics in the doctor's toolkit for combating diseases. Historically, approval of medical products (e.g. drugs and medical devices) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been lower than products...
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#18 - The future of mRNA therapeutics
DNA --> RNA --> protein. This is the central dogma of molecular biology, where deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) functions as the master copy (e.g. biological template) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) is the working copy. Messenger RNA (mRNA) provides the biological blueprint for protein development. Put...
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#17 - Biology at its best and worst: From oxygen scamming and political motives in desperate times to better preparation, resource allocation and the drive to care for others
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That's exactly what Dr. Bharud planned for in Nandurbar, where a smaller community home to two million residents overcame soaring cases in the COVID-19 second wave with supplemental oxygen on-hand for any citizen that needed it. In other regions of...
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#16 - Data, privacy and the growing rift between tech giants
Times are changing. John D. Rockefeller built a physical empire on oil, large tech companies build digital empires with data. Certain commodities are only useful when transformed. Data, like oil, becomes valuable after refinement. Instead of drilling deep underground, companies extract data by...
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#15 - Neuralink and the dawn of brain-machine interfaces
We are cyborgs. Tell a human to choose between food and their phone for the next week and it isn't obvious which one gets kicked to the curb. Our daily living is a blend of physical and digital interactions, relying just as much on our legs to get us from point A to point B as our battery life to...
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#14 - European Super League and the professional sport differences between North America and Europe
Who doesn't enjoying watching a game of soccer, I mean football, with family and friends? Well, you are not alone. Football is the dominant international sport, inspiring youth around the world to set their sights on playing for both country and world-renowned clubs. Europe is the epicenter of...
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#13 - Ireland and Northern Ireland: Us vs. Them dichotomies, the Brexit impact and the future of the United Kingdom
Anyone tired of hearing just Eliot and I talk on a microphone? Well, we've got you covered! Episode #13 introduces our first guest, Gracie, to speak on the relationship between Northern Ireland and Ireland, including conflicts that have persisted for decades. We discuss The Troubles, Protestants...
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#12 - The state of social media: dummy pages, diluted truth, and the difficulties of real-time enforcement
Social media is a pivotal tool for spreading information. The quest for quality, not quantity, is becoming more analogous to finding the needle in the information haystack. Interestingly, the use of "dummy pages", a key Facebook loophole being exploited by individuals and organizations to advance...
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#11 - The rise of an Eastern superpower
There are 195 countries in the world, but only a few seem to govern our planet. Superpowers, countries capable of flexing economic and political muscle, may be viewed as monopolies in a global market. More importantly, superpowers sell headlines in world news. This episode focuses on a key rising...
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#10 - Get to know the podcasters
The long overdue episode highlighting the people behind the microphones. We cover how we met, what we learned during our undergraduate degrees, and what we want to accomplish following our graduate school graduation. If you were hoping for discussions on quantum mechanics and consciousness, we…
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#9 - Nuclear Power: The pros, cons and social stigma surrounding this technology
Nuclear physics made huge strides in the 20th century. At its core (yes, pun intended), the nucleus is the main focal point. Small matter, big impact. The potential of the atom, and the immense power it holds, enters history books as a potential energy source of the future and the building block...
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#8 - Genes: Our past and future
Nature's programming language, our biological code, generates complexity using four simple letters: A, T, C, and G. If the 20th century was dominated by computer programming, this century is all about biological programming. A deeper understanding of our genome allows for the development of tools...
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#7 - COVID-19 and the Future of Travel in 2021
Humans are meant to travel and see new places. In 2021, amidst a global pandemic, what will it take to begin opening up the world to tourism? We discuss how countries may require more than one passport moving forward, especially the emergence of passports in digital form. Relevant travel...
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#6 - Mars, the Moon and the innate human desire to explore
We are entering an era where "reaching for the stars" has a literal, not just figurative, connotation. Humans are exploring new frontiers where planet Earth may only be a starting point rather than a final destination. Buckle up and pressurize that space suit, you're in for a wild ride!
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#5 - Genetic engineering and the evolution of species
Episode 5! We on a roll!
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#4 - Google, Australia, and the Battle for Local Journalism
On Episode 4 we take a deeper look at the situation unfolding between a tech giant and the country of Australia over compensation towards local news and media outlets.
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#3 - COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories and the Price of Misinformation
Round 2 deep dive into news surrounding the pandemic.
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#2 - How the World Responds to Periods of Uncertainty - Coronavirus Edition
Oh, back for more? We got you covered! Enjoy our second episode, an in-depth look at how countries across the world are trying to handle the pandemic.
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#1 - Humans and our Global Relationships with Animals in the Wild and Captivity
Welcome to the first episode of Simple Evolution!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Topics evolve over time, so should our minds. Through honest conversation we decode important topics in an ever changing world. Evolving our minds may hold the key to making sense of the complexities of life.
HOSTED BY
Brandon Haefling, Eliot Heiss
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Simple Evolution have?
Simple Evolution currently has 40 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Simple Evolution about?
Topics evolve over time, so should our minds. Through honest conversation we decode important topics in an ever changing world. Evolving our minds may hold the key to making sense of the complexities of life.
How often does Simple Evolution release new episodes?
Simple Evolution has 40 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Simple Evolution?
You can listen to Simple Evolution on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Simple Evolution?
Simple Evolution is created and hosted by Brandon Haefling, Eliot Heiss.
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