What The Sh*t Ariel Castro

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Swift who is a Phd Candidate at the University of Oxford in Oxford England. She is in her final year of her DPhil/Phd program or doctorate program in womens reproductive health and her research looks at contributions to PCOS, endometriosis, and fibrosis. She’s been able to work with residents of the Cyprus, a small island in the Middle East, to gather data and present the first health statistic on this population.




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Puberty Part 2 finishes out puberty to talk about 

• How chromosomes don't necessarily dictate your future

• The most common reason puberty is delayed or irregular

• Why teenagers have every right to be raging monsters 

We start out with Pobodys Nerfect from the last episode Puberty Part 1 

Then we finish out with Pobodys Nerfect from todays episode Puberty Part 2 



Ep. 9 Pobody's Nerfect: 

~00:06:19: I'm talking about C-AIS and say that "don't have androgens" I correct myself later, but just to be absolutely clear, Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome is characterized by having androgens, but not having the ability to register that they are present. 

~00:45:00: I'm describing puberty and the parts of emotions and the brain and I'm strictly referring to androgens, puberty is different for sexes and so are the hormones, females are having estrogen drive the sexual attractive same as males have androgens. I'm simply staying on the topic of Jimmy being my example whom I've chosen to be a male with androgens for the sake of an example. 

References: 

Puberty Part 2 includes 31 citations which can be found at this link: https://www.whatthesht.com/general-5






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WTS* is back!!

Season 2 episode 8 is all about puberty and the hormonal changes that happen and what that does to a person externally. 

Puberty is complex, so in order to do it justice I broke this topic into two different episodes: 

For part 1 today we’re going to cover


the stages of puberty
within these stages whats similar for everyone
what different for girls and boys

And then if you want to hear mine and Christophers personal puberty stories considering joining WTS* patron page, otherwise we'll see you in part 2. 



Pobody Nerfect: 

Quick reminder that this will be vocalized on the next episode of the podcast for those that prefer to hear it. 

18:58 

I have a spoonerism mixup here, I swap the first letters of the two hormones released from the hypothalamus and say "LSH and FH" it is actually FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone). 

28:55

I say "premature ejaculation" when I am referring to "wet dreams," I meant to say "involuntary ejaculation" as I had stated previously. Involuntary ejaculation refers to when there is no stimulation in order to achieve an orgasm and it can arise from, in this instance, an erotic dream when the person is asleep. Premature ejaculation is when an ejaculation/orgasm happens much faster than anticipated or intended occurring just before or shortly after beginning sexual intercourse or manual stimulation. 



Reference Link: https://www.whatthesht.com/general-5

Episode 8 reference list was so long that I couldn't fit just the references within the characters allowed in my show notes.


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As promised this weeks episode is an interview of one of my graduate student instructors (or GSI) from UC Berkeley. Alina studies mating behaviors in frogs and how chemicals that run off into their environment change not only their behavior but their physiology changing males to female frogs.



Since I know some of my listeners like to just get into the details of research I've added time stamps to topics so you can skip ahead or backtrack to different topics. 

Topics include:

• Alina the early years (00:02:02) 

• How she got into graduate school (00:20:13) 

• Alina's research with frogs and mating behavior (00:47:33) 

• A brief chat about my interest in research (1:19:11) 

• Why nuns are more likely to get breast cancer (1:27:48)

• Fun shit fact (1:33:08) 



If you have any questions for myself or for Alina drop a voice note at anchor.com, a comment or DM on instagram or send me a question on the website.

Like, subscribe and rate WTS* for a chance to win some supplements from FNX Fitness. 



If you an undergraduate student and want more information about the conferences Alina mentioned check them out here:

ABRCMS: https://www.abrcms.org

SACNAS: https://www.sacnas.org

For more information on toxic shock syndrome:

https://www.webmd.com/women/guide/understanding-toxic-shock-syndrome-basics



References:

Perry, C., Kench, P., O’Leary, M., Morgan, K., & Januchowski-Hartley, F. (2015). Linking reef ecology to island building: Parrotfish identified as major producers of island-building sediment in the Maldives. Geology, 43(6), 503-506. doi:10.1130/g36623.1



Pobodies Nerfect

00:08:27 

I talk about the lumpsucker fish, this is not the correct fish name. The fish in question is the “hagfish.”

00:12:40

I mention the women that did the x-rays to get the DNA helix structure, her name is Rosalind Franklin.

00:47:41

I incorrectly say Tyrell, the name of the professor that runs Alina's lab is Tyrone Hayes.




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In Episode 6 of WTS we talk about a recent study that came out where researchers where able to make contact with lucid dreamers while they were actively dreaming; topics include: 

• What is sleep? 

• What is dreaming? 

• How do we measure sleep? 

• What happened in the study and where this could lead future research?



References: 

Ferreira, B. (2021, February 18). Scientists achieve real-time communication with lucid dreamers in breakthrough. Retrieved February 22, 2021, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/4admym/scientists-achieve-real-time-communication-with-lucid-dreamers-in-breakthrough

Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., . . . Paller, K. A. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during rem sleep. Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026

For more about the hypnogogic state: https://www.healthline.com/health/hypnagogia

Walker, M. P. (2018). Why we sleep: The new science of sleep and dreams. London: Penguin Books.

https://nypost.com/2017/09/25/your-office-coffee-cup-likely-is-covered-in-poop/

UC Berkeley Courses

The Psychology of Sleep taught by Matthew Walker Ph.D, PSY133



Pobody's Nerfect


11:58

I say "Limbic system" what I mean is lymphatic system which is why in the brain with the glia its dubbed glymphatic system.

25:46 

I say adrenaline, this incorrect. Adrenaline is a trademark for a synthetic version of epinephrine or norepinephrine which is what I actually mean to say. 

31:58

I am speaking about participants in the study and I say there are three, this is misleading. There are three groups of participants, that include those I listed, but they had several participants around the world varying between 1 and 30 per study done in each lab. 

32:34

I mention the definition of narcolepsy is different than what I had learned, but here is a direct excerpt from the study by Konkoly et al., "We have recently shown that patients with narcolepsy had many advantages for lucid dreaming research. First, 78% of these patients were lucid dreamers, achieving an average of 8 lucid dreams per month without any specific training. Furthermore, narcolepsy, by definition, is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and abnormal transitions between wakefulness and REM sleep including rapid entry into REM sleep. These unique features allow collection of lucid REM sleep episodes in only a few day- time naps in a sleep lab. Of note, the overall structure of sleep is conserved in narcolepsy. Although some EEG features have been identified during narcoleptics’ REM sleep (e.g., increased alpha power), none of these features were sufficient to differentiate REM sleep in narcolepsy from REM sleep in healthy controls" (2021). [Bolding and underline is added by myself]. 

45:29 

I talk about neuroplasticity and how it is like muscles, which is technically true, but I want to clarify that neuroplasticy has ebbs and flows throughout childhood and teen years and then in adulthood there are specific areas of the brain that still have the ability to grow new neurons. This is still a hotly debated area of research whether adult neuroplasticity truly exists.  

48:22

I talk about how I think it was an epidemiologist that said that poop is in your coffee cup, it was a microbiologist. 




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In episode 5 of WTS* we go over the HPA-axis.

Topics include (but are not limited to)

• what are hormones

• The three classes: monoamines, peptides/proteins, and steroids

• The anterior and posterior pituitary

• The HPA axis and producing cortisol

• The prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and how you can train your reactions

• Today’s FSF is the “Poop Bus”



References:

A. G. Watts. (2007). Anatomy of the HPA Axis (pg. 13-29).

Nelson, R. J., & Kriegsfeld, L. J. (2018). An introduction to behavioral endocrinology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

Hill, S. E. (2019). This is your brain on birth control: The surprising science of women, hormones, and the law of unintended consequences. NY, NY: Avery.

UC Berkeley Courses

Hormones and Behavior taught by Lance Kriegsfeld Ph.D, IBC143B

Biological Clocks taught by Lance Kriegsfeld Ph.D, IBC143B

Neurobiology of Stress taught by Daniela Kaufer Ph.D, IB139

Alex Honnold the solo climber

https://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber



Pobody’s Nerfect

26:05 — I say “inhibitory feedback” which is a technically incorrect. Inhibitory feedback is not a thing, in these events it’s considered negative feedback which ends up causing inhibitory signals to whatever axis or pathway its acting on.

42:29 — I say voluntary actions which is misleading. What I mean is in terms of methodical actions of your own volition. For example, to pick up a cup is voluntary, but you don’t really think about picking up the cup, this is not a prefrontal cortex (PFC) situation. However, to decide to quit a job would be something that your PFC would have been largely involved in and ultimately the master and commander of that action.

44:01 — I say “activation signals” with the amygdala to the hypothalamus its really “excitatory” and that creates activation.


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