The Smart Human with Dr. Aly Cohen Aly Cohen, MD

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of The Smart Human Podcast. Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Professor Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist and exposure scientist in the Nicholas School of Environment at Duke University. And also Dr. Stapleton serves as director of the Duke environmental analysis laboratory. Today we're talking nonstick, waterproof and greaseproof chemicals, flame retardant chemicals, drinking water quality and different types of water filters and so much more!
Here are a few links that might be helpful 
Heather's research website:
https://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/stapletonlab/?_ga=2.18850623.768299926.1674595325-2095479730.1672774084
Heather's foam testing website:
http://foam.pratt.duke.edu
Company website for under the sink RO water filter Heather had installed back in 2019:
https://www.theperfectwater.com/reverse-osmosis
water filter study:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00004
article on flame retardants:
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/success/2021/stapleton/index.cfm

Heather Stapleton Bio:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es2007462
 
Heather M. Stapleton, Ronie-Richelle Garcia-Johnson Distinguished Professor, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC USA.
 Professor Heather Stapleton is an environmental chemist and exposure scientist in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.  Her research interests focus on identification of halogenated and organophosphate chemicals in building materials, furnishings and consumer products, and estimation of human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children.  Her laboratory specializes in analysis of environmental and biological tissues for organic contaminants to support environmental health research.  Currently she serves as the Director for the Duke Superfund Research Center, and Director of the Duke Environmental Analysis Laboratory, which is part of NIH’s Human Health Environmental Analysis Resource.

Rob is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination.  Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob.  Rob’s story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.”  Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world.  Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina.  Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College.
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm
https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/01/pfas-forever-chemicals-rob-bilott-lawyer-interview
https://time.com/5737451/dark-waters-true-story-rob-bilott/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html
https://www.taftlaw.com/people/robert-a-bilott
 

Dr. Terry Wahls is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials in the setting of Multiple Sclerosis. In 2018 she was awarded the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Linus Pauling Award for her contributions in research, clinical care and patient advocacy. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, (http://terrywahls.com/about-the-wahls-protocol/) and the cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life. (https://terrywahls.com/wahls-protocol-cooking-for-life/) Learn more about the current study Efficacy of Diet on Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis at https://wahls.lab.uiowa.edu/. Pick up a one-page handout for the Wahls™ Diet at https://terrywahls.com/diet/

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with expertise in metabolism, obesity, and nutrition. He is one of the leaders of the current “anti-sugar” movement that is changing the food industry. Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in 1976, and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1980. He also received his Masters of Studies in Law (MSL) degree at University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2013. He is the author of the popular books Fat Chance (2012), The Hacking of the American Mind (2017), and Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine (2021). He is the Chief Science Officer of the non-profit Eat REAL, he is on the Advisory Boards of the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health, the Center for Humane Technology, Simplex Health, Levels Health, and ReadOut Health, and he is the Chief Medical Officer of BioLumen Technologies, Foogal, Perfact, and Kalin Health.

Welcome to The Smart Human Podcast, today I have the pleasure of chatting with actor Fran Drescher! Yes, you may know her as the star of the TV show The Nanny, but she's also an author, an activist and an educator. Today we're talking about her work in health education, her history as a cancer survivor, her plans as new president of The Screen Actors Guild and much much more.
Fran Drescher was elected president of SAG-AFTRA in September 2021.
 
A 20-year cancer survivor, Drescher has a reputation for passion and commitment.
She is Founder and Visionary of the Cancer Schmancer Movement; dedicated to educating, motivating, and activating patients into medical consumers by connecting lifestyle to disease with her Master Class Health Summit and teen-targeted education video, Be The Change, starring Jamie Foxx.
Fran received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal as the lovable “Miss Fine'' on CBS’s hit series, The Nanny, which she both created and executive produced. She also created, executive produced and starred in the groundbreaking TV Land sitcom, Happily Divorced, which was inspired by her real-life relationship with her gay ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson. Fran recently starred in the new NBC sitcom, Indebted, about a Baby Boomer couple who go broke and have to move in with their adult son and his young family. She has worked with many great directors in films such as Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap, to which Fran won Esquire Magazine’s One Minute Oscar, Milos Forman’s Rag Time, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Jack. She also starred in Beautician and the Beast opposite Timothy Dalton. Her famous voice is currently featured in the top-grossing SONY animated feature franchise film, Hotel Transylvania: In her role as Eunice, the wife of Frank Stein. In 2019, Fran starred in two indie films, The Creatress and After Class.
An accomplished author, Fran received the prestigious NCCS writer’s award for Cancer Schmancer, which, along with Enter Whining, were New York Times Best Sellers. She also penned the celebrated children's book, Being Wendy. Furthermore, Fran made her Broadway debut as “Madame” in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Tony-Award winning, Cinderella.
Fran has won countless awards for her leadership in the health space, including the John Wayne Institute Woman of Achievement Award, the Gilda Award, City of Hope Woman of the Year Award, The Albert Einstein Medical School Lifetime Achievement Award, Queens College Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Citizen Artist Award.

Dr. Caplan is currently the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.
Prior to coming to NYU, Dr. Caplan was the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, where he created the Center for Bioethics and the Department of Medical Ethics. He has also taught at the University of Minnesota, where he founded the Center for Biomedical Ethics; the University of Pittsburgh; and Columbia University. He received his PhD from Columbia University.
Dr. Caplan is the author or editor of 35 books and more than 800 papers in peer reviewed journals. His most recent books are Vaccination Ethics and Policy (MIT Press, 2017, with Jason Schwartz) and Getting to Good: Research Integrity in Biomedicine (Springer, 2018, with Barbara Redman).
He has served on a number of national and international committees including as chair of the National Cancer Institute Biobanking Ethics Working Group; chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning; and chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability. He has also served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses; the Special Advisory Committee to the International Olympic Committee on Genetics and Gene Therapy; the Special Advisory Panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on Human Experimentation on Vulnerable Subjects; the Wellcome Trust Advisory Panel on Research in Humanitarian Crises; and as the co-director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study on Trafficking in Organs and Body Parts.
Dr. Caplan has served since 2015 as a chair of the Compassionate Use Advisory Committees (CompAC), independent groups of internationally recognized medical experts, bioethicists, and patient representatives that advise Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals on requests for compassionate use of its investigational medicines.
Dr. Caplan is a regular commentator on bioethics and health care issues for WebMD/Medscape, WGBH radio in Boston, WOR radio in New York City, and CNN. He appears frequently as a guest and commentator on various other national and international media outlets.
Dr. Caplan is the recipient of many awards and honors including the McGovern Medal of the American Medical Writers Association and the Franklin Award from the City of Philadelphia. He was a USA Today 2001 “Person of the Year” and was described as one of the ten most influential people in science by Discover magazine in 2008. He has also been honored as one of the fifty most influential people in American health care by Modern Health Care magazine, one of the ten most influential people in America in biotechnology by the National Journal, one of the ten most influential people in the ethics of biotechnology by the editors of Nature Biotechnology, and one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology by Scientific American magazine.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he is co-directing an advisory group on sports and recreation for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, created a working group on coronavirus vaccine challenge studies, developed an ethical framework for distributing drugs and vaccines for J&J, and helped develop rationing policies for NYU Langone Health and many other health systems. He is a member of the WHO advisory committee on COVID-19, ethics, and experimental drugs/vaccines, and he helped set policy for WIRB/WCG for research studies. He was an adviser to Moderna, Inc., and he serves on the NCAA COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group.
Dr. Caplan received the Patricia Price Browne Prize in Biomedical Ethics for 2011. In 2014, he was selected to receive the Public Service Award from the National Science Foundation/National Science Board, which honors individuals and groups that have made substantial contributions t