Join Bret and Heather for their Q&A on June 29th. Add it to your calendar here: https://www.darkhorsepodcast.org/calendar. Look for the question collection form to be published on Locals the Monday before.

00:00:00 Holding Screen


00:03:02 Welcome


00:03:44 I'm jealous of your former students. Would you consider doing a summer week or weekend ecology class in the northwest? 


00:05:26 When doing real, actual science and investigations, it's easy to get lost in the weeds or go down the proverbial rabbit hole. How do you decide when to keep going and when to stop, back up, and get back on the trail?


00:25:20 People can see each other's eyes move and see where people are looking better when they have light-colored eyes such as blue or green. Could this be a partial explanation for why Western nations with lighter eyes tend to be high trust societies? It's harder to lie.


00:27:53 "Hi H&B. When we go to the dentist they remove plaque from our teeth. Ancestrally this wouldn’t have been done I presume, at least to the same degree in the surgery.

I recently had some removed after 12 years no dentistry. She was surprised at the good condition of my teeth. In that time I’d been strictly eating ‘Paleo’, Carnivore or Ketogenic. After the visit I noticed increased & rapid placating that was not present before. In addition to this interesting effect I’m thinking:

1. Should we be removing it?
2. Is it present due to some hyper-modern circumstance where it wouldn’t be present ancestrally?

I also wonder if your answer might include a nod to placation of the arteries (there’s a link between oral health and heart disease)"

00:36:17 My sister is pregnant with her first child. She has always been an extremely active and healthy person (not overweight, whole food diet), but was told by her doctor she needed to start taking a high dose of blood pressure medication because her blood pressure was high at her first OB appointments. Does it make sense to artificially lower her BP at all times just to avoid spikes at the doctor due apparently to “white coat syndrome?” The doctor never suggested taking BP at home to establish her actual baseline BP. The medication makes her extremely tired and there is no acknowledgment of any outside risks associated with messing with blood pressure during pregnancy. Would appreciate your thoughts!


00:44:29 Dr Clancy (recent Darkhorse guest) mentioned Lenski's long-term lab experiments on E. coli evolution. Anti-evo folks used to argue that because Lenski could only produce microevolution, that macroevolution (speciation) remains unproved. Do you have any comments on Lenski?


00:48:45 What would be the right approach to consuming the minimal amount of news possible while still remaining responsible and not losing the plot to be ready for turbulent times? Is picking a 3 - 4 trusted voices (including yours) OK even if I have no idea what the LA riots are and only first learned why war with Iran is suddenly a thing from you?

00:51:19 In trying to build a mental model of immunity I began wondering if Sourdough bread could serve as a form of inoculation. The process involves growing a culture of local airborne organisms and then attenuating them with heat before introducing them to the body. Does this track with your model or am i way off?

00:53:35 Since I started watching your shows, I have gained an appreciation for how evolution has affected us. I expect things that are beneficial to be pleasant, and things that are harmful to be unpleasant. That got me thinking about body odor. Given the necessity of working closely with other people, I would expect that we would smell pleasant or at least neutral to each other, but it is nearly universal that we try to wash away or cover our natural smells. Is unpleasant body odor a product of modernity, or is there some other reason we generally do not enjoy our own natural smells and those of other people?

00:56:59 My 76 year old father got diagnosed with cancer today. We don't know much yet but he's certain to have a bleeding tumor on the inside of his bladder; uncertain how deep the tumor goes; uncertain whether it's a malignant one. He's scheduled to be operated in 3 weeks, the doctors are going to scrape the tumor off and assess the type. Having heard so much positive stories about Ivermectin treatment in addition to other cancer treatments these last few years my question is: is there a reason to suspect that having an Ivermectin treatment next to the treatments he'll get will have a negative impact? In appreciation for your work and dedication to teach, I remain, as always thankful, Marco.