Beyond Plastic: where science meets consciousness

Dr. Elie Haddad
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"Beyond Plastic: where science meets consciousness" is a journey into the science of living well and the wisdom of living deeply. Hosted by cardiologist, author, and TEDx speaker Dr. Elie Haddad, the podcast explores the intersection of modern medicine, environmental health, longevity, consciousness, and the deeper questions that shape the way we live. Drawing from decades in medicine and a lifelong curiosity about the human experience, Dr. Elie moves beyond symptoms and diagnoses to explore the connections between our bodies, our environment, our minds, and our inner lives. Through science, storytelling, and reflection, each series invites us to question what we take for granted, understand the forces shaping our health, and make more conscious choices for ourselves and the world around us. The journey begins with The Plastic Age, a series tracing the extraordinary rise of plastic from a revolutionary invention to one of the defining materials of our civilization. We’ll explore how it reshaped the way we live, how micro- and nanoplastics found their way into our environment and our bodies, what emerging science is revealing about their impact on human health, and what we can realistically do about it. Future series will venture into longevity, wellness, consciousness, resilience, purpose, and the evolving science and wisdom of what it means to live a healthier, more meaningful life. Because living well is about more than adding years to our lives. It is about bringing more life into our years.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Plastic and The Cardiovascular system

    What happens when microplastics and nanoplastics enter our bloodstream and encounter the arteries that supply the heart? In this episode, Dr. Elie explores the emerging human evidence linking plastic particles with cardiovascular disease—from the landmark 2024 New England Journal of Medicine study that detected micro- and nanoplastics inside carotid artery plaques, to a 2026 European Heart Journal study finding them far more frequently in the coronary circulation of patients experiencing acute heart attacks. We explore how a heart attack actually happens, why inflammation and the health of our arteries matter, and what scientists are beginning to investigate about the interaction between plastic particles and the cardiovascular system. The evidence does not yet prove that microplastics cause heart attacks. But their presence in human blood, heart tissue, atherosclerotic plaque, and coronary circulation raises questions that are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. What happens when the environment we created becomes part of the biology we inherited?

  2. 4d ago

    How Plastic Gets Inside Us

    Plastic is no longer just in the environment. It is entering the human body. In this episode of The Plastic Age, Dr. Elie explores the two major routes of exposure: what we eat and drink, and what we breathe. Drawing on published human, animal, and laboratory studies, we examine micro- and nanoplastics in bottled water, food containers, household air, human stool, lung tissue, and blood. But exposure is not the same as absorption. The crucial question is what happens when the smallest particles cross biological barriers and enter circulation. This episode marks the beginning of a new chapter in the series: following plastic from the world around us into the tissues, organs, and systems of the human body.

  3. Aug 20

    There Is No Away

    We throw something into the trash, the truck takes it away, and it disappears from our lives. But there is no place called “away.” In this episode of The Plastic Age, Dr. Elie follows plastic beyond the trash can, from landfills and recycling systems to rivers, oceans, agricultural soils, marine ecosystems, and eventually the food we eat. Along the way, we examine the startling reality of how little plastic is actually recycled, the enormous accumulation of plastic waste across the planet, and emerging research showing that microscopic plastic particles can interact with soil organisms and even enter food crops. What begins as a story about waste ultimately becomes something far more personal. Because the environment is not separate from us. It is our air, our water, our soil, and our food. There was never an away. There was only a journey, and eventually, that journey led back to us.

  4. Aug 15

    The Material That Nature Never Made

    In this episode of The Plastic Age, Dr. Elie Haddad begins with a question that changed the course of his own work as a physician: What happens when the material that transformed civilization also becomes part of our biology? From the extraordinary benefits that made plastic indispensable to modern life, to the emerging discovery of microscopic particles in human blood, arteries, reproductive organs, the placenta, and even the brain, this episode introduces a story that reaches far beyond environmental pollution. It explores the exposome—the world of environmental influences constantly interacting with our biology—and asks whether we may be overlooking an important piece of the modern chronic disease puzzle. This is not a story about fear or blame. It is an invitation to curiosity: to follow the science honestly, distinguish what we know from what we are still discovering, and begin looking differently at one of the most ubiquitous materials on Earth. Welcome to The Plastic Age.

  5. Season 1, Episode 1 Trailer

    Introduction

    Before we begin exploring The Plastic Age, I want to tell you a little about who I am, what has shaped the way I see the world, and why I created Beyond Plastic. I’m Dr. Elie Haddad—a cardiologist, husband, father, author, and lifelong seeker whose curiosity has taken me far beyond the traditional boundaries of medicine. Over the years, I’ve become increasingly interested not only in how we treat disease, but in the larger questions of how we live: what creates true health, what gives our lives meaning, and what science, ancient wisdom, and our own human experience can teach us about living more consciously. In this short introduction, I share the vision behind Beyond Plastic and the journey I hope we’ll take together, from medicine and longevity to environmental health, consciousness, resilience, purpose, and the deeper dimensions of being human. And then, we begin with our first series: The Plastic Age.

  6. Aug 15

    How We Got Here

    In Episode Two of The Plastic Age, we go back to the origins of one of humanity’s most transformative inventions and ask a deceptively simple question: What exactly is plastic? From the search for an alternative to elephant ivory, to the invention of Bakelite and the rise of synthetic polymers, Dr. Elie Haddad traces the remarkable scientific breakthroughs that gave humanity the ability to create materials nature had never made before. Along the way, we explore the chemistry that makes plastic so versatile, durable, inexpensive, and ultimately indispensable to modern medicine and civilization. But hidden within that extraordinary success was a paradox we are only beginning to fully understand: we created materials designed to endure, then built a culture that uses many of them only once. This episode explores how the very properties that made plastic revolutionary also allowed it to persist, fragment, and eventually enter a microscopic world where the chemistry of plastic begins to intersect with the chemistry of life.

Trailer

About

"Beyond Plastic: where science meets consciousness" is a journey into the science of living well and the wisdom of living deeply. Hosted by cardiologist, author, and TEDx speaker Dr. Elie Haddad, the podcast explores the intersection of modern medicine, environmental health, longevity, consciousness, and the deeper questions that shape the way we live. Drawing from decades in medicine and a lifelong curiosity about the human experience, Dr. Elie moves beyond symptoms and diagnoses to explore the connections between our bodies, our environment, our minds, and our inner lives. Through science, storytelling, and reflection, each series invites us to question what we take for granted, understand the forces shaping our health, and make more conscious choices for ourselves and the world around us. The journey begins with The Plastic Age, a series tracing the extraordinary rise of plastic from a revolutionary invention to one of the defining materials of our civilization. We’ll explore how it reshaped the way we live, how micro- and nanoplastics found their way into our environment and our bodies, what emerging science is revealing about their impact on human health, and what we can realistically do about it. Future series will venture into longevity, wellness, consciousness, resilience, purpose, and the evolving science and wisdom of what it means to live a healthier, more meaningful life. Because living well is about more than adding years to our lives. It is about bringing more life into our years.

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