“You have to be careful if you become too much of a believer in any idea, because often, even good ideas get overturned as science progresses, and you have to be able to recognize it.”
Today’s episode is Part I of a special conversation with Jack Feldman, Ph.D and Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology at UCLA. Jack and his team are responsible for discovering the Pre-Bötzinger complex, a bundle of neurons in the brain stem that we now know to be responsible for our respiratory function - without these neurons, we literally could not breathe.
It’s not every day that a lamen (or a “waiter,” as we’re endearingly referred to in academic circles) has the opportunity to speak for hours with one of the leading experts in a field of interest. Honestly, people literally pay thousands of dollars in admissions fees for this type of access.
As many of you know, I have been studying and teaching pranayama (the yogic practice of controlling the breath) for years; so I was BEYOND excited to chat with Jack and learn about the biological basis of breathing. In Part I of this conversation, Jack explains his research and answers simple questions like “Why Do We Breathe?” In next week’s episode, I share some of the yogic teachings around the breath, to see how they stack up against Jack’s scientific research.
Thank you to my friend, Julia Zsolnay, for introducing me to Jack!
What I’m Reading
Ideas
The All Seeing “i”: Apple Just Declared War on Your Privacy
Markets
Investors in Xi’s China Face a Rude Awakening, George Soros
The Everything Bubble & TINA 2.0, FTX Research
ARM China Seizes IP, Relaunches as an ‘Independent Company’
Metaverse, NFTs, and Digital Collectibles
Turning 11 ETH to 862 ETH Flipping NFTs, a Thread by “MEV Collector”
Why I gifted Artblocks NFTs to my LPs, Jesse Walden, Variant
We Like the $LOOT, Robot Ventures
Launching Floor Perpetuals, Dave White @ Paradigm
Crypto
Hyyype announces $1.5M Seed Round Led by Electric Capital
Analyzing the First Day Pop In Digital Asset Markets, Wesley Pryor
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