In this episode, Gerry speaks with Michael Seen, clinical coordinator and researcher, about the troubling intersection of metabolic disease and cancer disparities.

They explore how metabolic dysfunction fuels cancer aggression, the societal and environmental roots of the obesity epidemic, and the compex role of the infamous "wonder drug" Ozempic.

The conversation also touches on the challenges of public health communication and its important role in rebuilding trust in an age of rampant misinformation and skepticism towards science.

Despite the sobering realities, Michael shares a hopeful vision for rebuilding public trust. If experts are willing to step out of the lab and meet people where they are, true progress can be made.

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Metabolic Disorders' Effect on Cancer, the Ozempic Era, and the Crisis of Trust in Science with Michael Seen

State violence doesn't fade away with the day's end - it echoes down through future generations. The brutality we are currently witnessing is a full blown public health emergency.

Kids are being arrested; communities terrorized; streets don't feel safe anymore. People of all races and backgrounds are in constant fear for their lives, their jobs, their physical and mental health, or that of their neighbors, their loved ones, their community. Our nervous systems are constantly on edge. There is no moment of true, restorative relaxation under this administration.

This is the mental health legacy of fascism; and we've seen it before. 

We must take a stand, for our own sake, but for mostly for the sake of our kids, who are living their innocent formative years in a constant state of fight-or-flight.

We must put an end to the marching songs, the war drums, the brutish yelling of these angry, power hungry men. 

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ICE-induced PTSD: Fascism is a Public Health Emergency

My father was a brutal dictator. His iron fist created an atmosphere of fear, and left lasting wounds on his children. This kind of trauma stays. Festering, ugly, screaming to be healed.

Following the same brutal, heartless methods, ICE agents showed us their true colors once again last week, as they teargassed a family in their car, leaving their kids traumatized, and one of them in respiratory arrest.

Our kids are in immediate danger of state violence. They do not have the mental capacity to process what is happening. They are the most vulnerable group in all of this madness.

The scars of this kind of violence will echo through generations. We must take a stand. For the sake of our kids, for the sake of their future.

Stay safe, friends. Band together, and don't lose hope.

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12 - Minneapolis will scar. Children are a mirror.

It has long been a dream of science fiction to enable us to do things just with our thought. We envision operating machinery, controlling robots, or communicating telepathically. Today's guest, Tom Deuel, took us one step closer to this future with his invention - the Encephalophone. 

The Encephalophone is a brain-computer interface that enables its user to play music just by thinking about it. By analyzing brain activity via EEG in real time, the Encephalophone converts brainwaves to sound, creating melodies, rhythms, patterns, without the push of a single key. 

The applications of Tom's brainchild, which started as an art project, are not just creative, but might help patients with aphasia or severe motor disabilities to retrain their brains and speed up their recovery. 

In this episode, Gerry and Tom explore the conception of the encephalophone from dream to reality, its artistic and therapeutic potential, and what the future of this fascinating project looks like.

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11 - Playing Music with Brainwaves? | Tom Deuel, creator of the Encephalophone

Venezuela's public health system is a mess. Dictators don't care about their people's wellbeing; only about their obedience.

But are we that much better? How do we fare against the "brutal" and "inhumane" governments of the rest of the world, in terms of taking care of our people? You'd be surprised. 

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10 - Authoritarian Healthcare: Venezuela and the US are not so far apart

The patent for insulin, this incredible substance that has saved millions of lives, was sold for 1$ back when it was discovered in 1921. The goal was to never, ever, let this discovery be used for profit - it was supposed to be a family inheritance for humanity by the benevolent scientists that made this groundbreaking discovery.

100 years later, today, a vial costs 3-6 dollars to produce, yet it's sold for over 400$. Because of this, millions of Americans need to ration their insulin. How on earth did we get here?

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09 - The Bitter Cost of Insulin

As of November 25, 2025, a third infant in Kentucky has died of whooping cough [https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/pertussis/third-infant-kentucky-dies-whooping-cough-national-cases-stay-high-second-year-row]. So far this year, Kentucky has reported at least 566 cases. Texas has reported 3,500 cases so far this year. Falling vaccination rates are entirely to blame for this situation.

Most of what we hear from parents who are reluctant to agree that their children should be vaccinated comes from the fear that vaccines cause autism. Which could not be further from the truth. Yet - to admit you are wrong means a loss of identity as a true believer and loss of group inclusion, of a deeply held certainty about how the world works. So our tribal times now make more sense, where clearly false beliefs or conspiracy theories have become loyalty tests for group membership.

All of this leads me to ask - what has happened to rugged American individualism, the sharp and skeptical and realistic view of the world that has guided Americans for so long?

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08 - The Sound of Whooping Cough

Why would a society turn on itself? What darkness hides in the hidden depths of the social body? Doesn't it seem paradoxical that a country living its peak cultural moment can turn that dynamic on its head and become unrecognizably repressive and barbaric? And finally, riddle me this - are these questions about N4zi Germany or the US?

Many decades after attending a university class about the rise of N4zism together, Gerry visits Lawrence in Ottawa to talk about the same subject, but under a different context, one that's a bit too close to home. Specifically, directly south of home.

Lawrence Aronovitch is a Canadian playwright and actor based in Ottawa, Ontario. He is the playwright in residence at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. His stubborn optimism about the final outcome of the US' dark descent into barbarism contrasts Gerry's calculated pessimism. Maybe he's right - disruptive, challenging, disrespectful art that challenges these barbaric narratives might just be what we need. Who would've thought that "purple dinosaurs against f4scism" might actually be a valid political statement in 2025!

Thank you for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy the interview.

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07 - The New American Barbarism | Lawrence Aronovitch

Combined analyses show that Black patients in America are 22% less likely than white patients to receive proper pain medication and are frequently on the receiving end of unconscious bias [https://www.aamc.org/news/how-we-fail-black-patients-pain].

Fortunately, medical education is starting to address race. And outcomes will improve as a result.

However, racism at the federal level is driving devastating cuts to cancer research to address health disparities [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/15265161.2020.1851811?needAccess=true].

Failure to care for the most vulnerable among us is an indictment of a cruel society, that thrills at the pain of others, that revels in destruction and bitterness, that is perfectly fine to deny pain relief to people as long as they are not family or friends.

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06 - Medically Underserved

India is now the Type 2 diabetes capital of the world, with over 100 million estimated adult cases, and perhaps equally large numbers not yet diagnosed. In some Indian states, the age-specific prevalence of metabolic syndrome among elderly women is as high as 90%. 

Barry Popkin, a nutrition and population expert at the University of North Carolina, suggested that, after economies improve and famine recedes, patterns of food consumption and physical activity shift in ways that promote the emergence of obesity and its cardiovascular and diabetes complications. Basically, we are seeing a Westernization of disease patterns all over the world.

A tsunami of cancer cases related to these shifts in the economy, and patterns of eating and exercising, are likely to affect not just India, but all of the Global South, including Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere.

Chocolate might seem to be our friend. But along with fentanyl, vodka, weed and everything else that takes away our pain, it’s just palliative care.

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05 - Death by Chocolate

The American healthcare system is failing us. Our physical and mental health is deteriorating. Our anxiety is rising. Our civil rights are slowly being taken away, one by one. Why is this happening? What can we do about it?

The Fifth Column is an inquisitive exploration of the US public health system and its intimate interplay with our increasingly authoritarian politics. Through razor-sharp commentary and expert interviews, we aim to dissect the whys and hows of our dysfunctional system, and to carve ways forward with more empathy, more equity, more humanity. 

Hosted by Gerald Denis, molecular biologist and cancer researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Gerald Denis

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