Category: HEALTH

GENERIC DRUGS

Katherine Eban believes generic drugs are important for global health because of affordability and accessibility. One wonders if anyone who reads or listens to “Bottle of Lies” will take generic drugs if they can afford the original FDA approved product.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Bottle of Lies (The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom)

Author: Katherine Eban

Narrated By: Katherine Eban

Katherine Eban (Author, American Rhodes scholar with a MPhil from University of Oxford.)

“Bottle of Lies” is a history of duplicity and dishonesty in the generic drug industry. It is a damning dissection of the lure of money at the expense of human life. On the one hand, affordability, healthcare savings, global health, and the value of regulation are made clear in “Bottle of Lies”. On the other, Katherine Eban shows how the lure of capitalism and greed creates an incentive to evade regulation and kill innocent people seeking drug treatment for their illnesses.

Katherine Eban reveals the history of an India drug company named Ranbaxy that was founded by two brothers, Ranbir Singh and Gurbax Singh.

In 1937, these two entrepreneurs recognized the economic opportunity of creating a drug manufacturing operation with lower labor costs in India to capture the market in drugs nearing their patent expiration dates. They were focused more on organizational cost cutting and the money that could be made than the efficacy of the drugs they could produce. The company was sold in 1952 to their cousin Bhai Mohan Singh. This cousin transformed Ranbaxy to a pharmaceutical giant, but his experience was in construction and finance, not pharmaceuticals. However, his son Parvinder Singh joined the company in 1967 and was a graduate from Washington State University and the University of Michigan with a master’s degree and PhD in pharmacy.

Parvinder Singh (1944-1999, became the leader of Ranbaxy in 1967.)

Eban argues Parvinder Singh looked at his father’s business as a scientist with a pharmaceutical understanding and a desire to produce lower cost drugs for the world for more than a source of wealth. Parvinder appeared to value quality, transparency, drug efficacy, and long-term credibility for Ranbaxy. Parvinder recruited talent who believed in lowering costs and maintaining the efficacy of drugs the company manufactured. However, Parvinder dies in 1999 and the executives who took over the company focused on maximizing profit rather than the efficacy of the drugs being produced. Parvinder’s leadership is succeeded by Brian Tempest who expands the company by navigating the regulatory restrictions on generic drug manufacture. Tempest tries to balance profitability with global health efficacy of generic drugs. Parvinder’s son, Malvinder Singh eventually becomes the CEO of the company. He returned control to the Singh family. The corporate culture changed to what its original founders created, i.e., a drug producer driven by profit. Malvinder was not a scientist.

Malvinder Singh (Born in 1973, Grandson of Bhai Mohan Singh and son of Dr. Parvinder Singh.)

Under Malvinder, Eban shows the company turns from science to economic strategy to increase revenues of Ranbaxy. Internal checks on the efficacy and testing of their drugs is eroded. Criticism from regulators and whistleblowers are either ignored or sidelined by company management. Peter Baker Tucker’s role in exposing Ranbaxy is detailed in Eban’s history. With the help of Dinesh Thakur, an employee of Ranbaxy, Tucker bravely exposed the company’s fraud. (Thakur received $48 million compensation as a whistleblower award.) Tucker is an FDA investigator who reviewed Ranbaxy’s internal documents that revealed their fabricated data about their drug manufacturing process.

Peter Baker Tucker (aka Peter Baker, former FDA investigator.)

Ranbaxy is sold to a Japanese company called Daiichi Sankyo in 2008. Eban explains that Malvinder concealed critical information about FDA investigations and data fraud in the company’s sale. Malvinder and his brother, Shivinder Singh, are arrested in 2019 and remain in custody in 2021, facing multiple fraud accusations.

Sun Pharma acquires the remnants of the Ranbaxy-Sankyo’ sale.

Though Eban does not focus on what happens after the sale to the Japanese company, it is sold at a loss to Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Singh family’s ownership is sued by Sankyo for hiding regulatory issues of the company. Daiichi received a $500 million settlement but effectively lost money on their investment. Eban, in “Bottle of Lies” offers a nuanced indictment of generic drug manufacturer and sale.

Eban believes generic drugs are important for global health because of affordability and accessibility.

Quality and drug efficacy must be insured through international regulation. Eban endorses unannounced inspections, routine testing of the drugs, and strict legal enforcement against poor manufacturing systems. Without transparency and oversight of all drug manufacturing, human lives are put at risk.

This is quite an expose, but it ends with criticism of inspections of China’s drug manufacturing capabilities.

The inspections of foreign companies that manufacture generic drugs, like those she refers to in her book, are conducted by similar inspectors who do not know the culture or language of the countries in which generic drugs are being produced. The FDA was paying their inspector in India $40,000 per year at the time of Ranbaxy’s investigation. It is by instinct, not interrogation, that malfeasance is detected. Too much is missed when one cannot talk to and clearly understand employees of manufacturing companies.

It seems America has two choices: one is to increase the salaries of FDA inspectors and require that they know the language of the countries in which they are working and two, set up a system of random reverse engineering of generic drugs allowed in the United States. This not to suggest all other FDA regulations would not be enforced when a generic drug is proposed but that site reviews would be more professionally conducted. One wonders if anyone who reads or listens to “Bottle of Lies” will take generic drugs if they can afford the original FDA approved product.

GENDER MATTERS

All gender differences beyond women’s birth of children seem more culturally than naturally determined. Gender does matter but not because of inherent qualities but because of cultural influences.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Why Gender Matters (What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences) 

Author: Leonard Sax MD PhD

Narrated By: Keith Sellon-Wright

Leonard Sax (Author, psychologist and family physician, graduate of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.)

After listening to Sayaka Murata’s satire about gender differences and a future that minimizes the differences between males and females, one may wish to read/hear what a physician writes about gender and why difference matters. In listening/reading Doctor Sax’s book, this review is somewhat skeptical of his judgement about gender differences. Having been raised by a single parent, some of what he claims seems formulaic and based on weak evidence.

Gender differences.

Though Dr. Sax cites studies that support stereotypes of girls who are less inclined to pursue math and science, it seems impossible to separate acculturation from gender bias. One wonders if his opinion is not influenced by his own gender. As is true of all human judgements, we have a tendency to conflate correlation with causation.

Whether there is a direct relationship between two variables like gender and one’s potential in science or math may be culturally reinforced rather than intellectually adduced.

There may be some truth in gender difference based on women giving birth that naturally induces a more nurturing requirement for women than men. The fact that women bare children and traditionally take on the role of caregiving suggests a cultural as well as gender driven characteristic. Inequality of the sexes is well documented by numerous studies that show women are paid less for the same work done by men. Unequal pay has nothing to do with biology.

Gender difference.

It is economic and social circumstance that limits women’s potential. The question becomes whether a woman would run a business any differently than a man based on gender. One might believe women who have given birth may manage differently because of their experience as nurturers of early life. Why else, if education and intelligence are similar, would there be any difference between a woman or man who manages others?

Though most humans wish to be part of something greater than themselves, the shaming in this cell-phone age seems significantly more impactful on women than on men.

On the other hand, there are some observations about gender differences that seem true when one thinks about their own life experience. Though social acceptance is important to both sexes, it seems boys are less likely to be as stressed about not being part of the “in group” than girls. Though even that is challengeable in that males also have a desire to be a part of something greater than themselves.

On balance, this listener/readers’ opinion is that Doctor Sax’s explanation of innate gender difference is suspect with the caveat that women are different from men in that they give birth.

All gender differences beyond women’s birth of children seem more culturally than naturally determined. Gender does matter but not because of inherent qualities but because of cultural influences.

VANISHING WORLD

Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to societal destruction.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Vanishing World (A Novel) 

Author: Sayaka Murata

Narrated By: Nancy Wu

Sayaka Murata (Author, Japanese novelist.)

Sayaka Murata’s subject is clearly revealed in its title, “Vanishing World”. “Vanishing World” is a provocative assessment of how sexual relationship and sex education has changed. Murata satirically reveals how human reproduction, objectification of life, motherhood, and technology may dehumanize society.

Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women.

In one sense, Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women. As a reader/listener, Murata offers a detailed description of the physical difference between the sexes. Many who think they know something about sexual difference will find the author’s candor enlightening. However, her depiction of social relationship is off-putting with a satirical exaggeration of socio/sexual objectification.

Murata writes about a single parent family with a young daughter who lives with her mother and is nearing the age of puberty.

(Though not mentioned in Murata’s story, single family homes in America have grown by nearly 30% in the 21st century.) The main character’s name is Amane and Murata’s story is about Amane’s sexual awakening and how she views social relationship. Amane is infatuated with an animated male character on television. She imagines being married to this character before puberty but holds this character in her mind throughout childhood and later life.

Murata suggests reproduction may evolve into a preferential desire for artificial insemination rather than sexual intercourse between a man and woman.

This idea feeds into a listener/reader’s mind as a diminishment of the need for emotional attachment to the opposite sex for procreation. Sex becomes detached from procreation, evolving into only “hooking up” for sexual stimulation and/or personal gratification. Murata infers desire is no longer needed for procreation but only to experience intercourse as an emotional and physical pleasure. Consequently, it seems perfectly natural to transfer sexual desire to a fictional character because it becomes unnecessary to have emotional attachment to humans when a figment of one’s imagination is available.

Murata creates a bizarre world.

The bizarro world that Murata creates is an extension of a belief that society is becoming less attached to their humanity. Marriage, human relationship, and motherhood are replaced by mindful personal’ inwardness and endless pursuit of physical stimulation without emotional entanglement. By extension, Murata suggests science will create wombs for men so that the difference in sexes equalizes childbirth and care of children. Caregiving becomes bureaucratic and collective because caregiving is no longer personalized.

Murata suggests that a new system of childcare will evolve into collective training camps for working parents who are too self-absorbed to raise their own children.

Collective childcare disconnects parents from the management and development of their children. The sterility of conception by artificial insemination, collective childcare, and social acceptance of multiple sex partners diminishes both familial relations and child development. Birthing and raising children becomes a clinical process, i.e., less personal with both men and women capable of experiencing pregnancy and delivery; all without responsibility or obligation for childcare.

In some sense, this satire illustrates the negative potential of socio/sexual equality.

Murata’s story ends with the birth of their first child from a man who is Amane’s husband. She is torn over not being able to take the baby home because the child is already being “cared for” in a ward meant to raise and nurture all newly born children. A final point is made in the story by a visit from Alane’s mother after the birth. She asks Amane where the child is, and Alane explains the child will not be raised by her and her husband. Alane’s mother is aghast. Her mother falls to the floor and dies without any apparent familial concern for her sudden collapse and presumably, death. The next thing to happen is a visit from one of the children born in this new world. Alane chooses to have sex with him and the story ends.

“Vanishing World” implies 21st century science, organizational bureaucracy, and social change threatens survival of humanity. Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to society’s collapse.

GOTHIC TALE

The climax of “Modern Gothic” is where myth enters Moreno-Carcia’s story. The fundamental truths of colonization are revealed in her creative story while its denouement is an entertaining explosion of imagination.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Narrated By: Frankie Corzo

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Author, Mexican/Canadian novelist, editor and publisher.)

Moreno-Garcia’s “Mexican Gothic” is a chilling story of colonization, eugenics, ecological contamination, mystical beliefs, and control of society by men. The author chooses the name of Doyle as an English family that exploits the Mexico’ silver mining industry in earlier centuries. A dynasty is created by generations of Doyle’s. They created a colonial manor called “High Place” from which to rule a crumbling empire. As colonizers they capitalize on Mexico’s silver deposits by exploiting native Mexicans’ land and labor to grow their mining operation. The wealth of local citizens is lost to the English foreigners who keep wages low to increase the wealth of the Doyle family.

Over generations, the Doyle men married local women that were related to each other. A common practice of royalty before the twentieth century.

They wished to maintain the genetic purity of the Doyle bloodline by having future Doyles marry genetic descendants of Mexican women that had been their wives. This is not greatly different than the experience of royal marriages in European cultures. The consequence of that marriage tradition is that recessive genetic mutations become more prominent in offspring. Children were more susceptible to diseases like cystic fibrosis and had higher incidents of developmental and cognitive disorders. This is one of many threads of meaning in “Mexican Gothic” because one of these descendants becomes a murderer of Doyle family members and the current Doyle generation seems socially dysfunctional. Added to that dysfunction is the Doyle family’s diminishing wealth.

An arranged marriage is a lynch pin to the story.

The heroine, Noemi, is the daughter of a wealthy Mexican family. She is sent to investigate a letter that was received by her father from a young woman that marries a Doyle. She is a cousin of Noemi’s. The marriage is arranged in part because of her father, and he feels something is wrong and wants Noemi to visit the Doyle family to find what the mysterious letter means. Soon after Noemi arrives, she begins to have hallucinatory dreams. Listener/readers find the hallucinations are because of spores that are in the bedroom of the deteriorating Doyle house. A clever thread of meaning in Moreno-Garcia’s story is ecological contamination that comes from colonization. As one nation colonizes another, it inevitably brings different plants and animals that are not indigenous to the country they are colonizing. The author notes a fungus is growing in the Doyle household that may have come from the original colonizers.

The penultimate theme in “Modern Gothic” is the creation of myths that compound the horrific events that occur in the Doyle house.

From the history of murders in the Doyle household, to hallucinatory dreams, to incestuous relationships, to the gloom and doom of the story, to a myth about the age of the Doyle patriarch, Moreno-Garcia offers a climax to her story that vivifies reader/listener’s imagination. The climax of “Modern Gothic” is where myth enters Moreno-Carcia’s story. The fundamental truths of colonization are revealed in her creative story while its denouement is an entertaining explosion of imagination.

MADNESS

Whether one is of a particular gender, good looking, unattractive, fat, thin, so on and so on, is superfluous. What is not different is we are all human. Murray infers that if leaders can keep humanness in mind, equality is the only thing that matters.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Madness of Crowds (Gender, Race and Identity)

Author: Douglas Murray

Narrated By:  Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray (Author, Bristish political commentator, cultural critic, and journalist.)

All humans deserve equal treatment, rights, and opportunities. No known form of government achieves that ideal. Douglas Murray shows liberal and social democracies show concern about equality, while other forms of government don’t seem to care. What Murray argues is that western nations and educational institutions are not doing enough and what they are doing is maddeningly ineffectual.

Initially, Murray writes about gay rights which are not top of mind for many listener/readers.

However, the point is that sexual preference is a human right that harkens back to the age of ancient Mesopotamia (2000 BCE) and Greece (300 BCE). Mesopotamian law treated marriage as a legal contract. Men were allowed to have secondary wives or concubines with legal codes regulating inheritance rights. Women then, as now, were treated unequally. In Mesopotamia, marriage was tied to economic, social, and legal agreements to ensure social stability through male control. Interestingly, women had some legal rights in Mesopotamia while Greece was more patriarchal with limited legal independence for women. Mesopotamia artwork shows same-sex relationships existed, but contractual agreements in marriage were only for heterosexual relations.

In Plato’s time, legal codes in marriage were less important but social stability and male domination remained in both jurisdictions.

Ancient Greek history shows same-sex relationships were widely accepted but without any legal recognition like that required in heterosexual marriages. Same sex relationships go back to the beginnings of pictographic and written history. So, why is there so much Sturm and Drang about same sex relationships?

American democracy began a civil war in 1865 over the issue of slavery.

American democracy began a civil war in 1865 over the issue of slavery, passed the 14th Amendment in 1868 to provide equal protection for all, passed a Civil Rights Act in 1964 prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, and the Marriage Equality Act in 2015. Despite all of this history, in 2025, America continues to discriminate against same sex relationships and often violates the aforementioned laws. If a male or female wishes to have sex with a consenting person of the same sex, why should any American care? America has fought and died over equal rights for all Americans. It is maddening to keep reading about Democracies continuing violation of equal rights.

Murray offers numerous examples of protest in western society that reinforce his argument about the madness of crowds.

He reflects on Ivy League colleges like Yale and a small liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington where a crowd of students caused resignations of their professors. In 2015, a Yale faculty member questioned the university’s stance on culturally sensitive Halloween costumes. A crowd of students accused the faculty of failing to create a “safe space” because their professor raised the issue of identity as culturally insensitive. He and his wife who were professors at Yale chose to resign. In 2017, a professor objected to a campus event at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. White students and faculty were asked to leave for a day to highlight racial issues. The student protest against the professor for a “day off” event became a threat to his safety. He resigned. Murray’s point is that public discourse is increasingly driven by emotional reactions rather than reasoned debate.

Murray touches on the negative consequence of technology on the growing “…Madness of Crowds”. More than ever, the reach and size of crowds who object to human equality can spread social chaos. America experienced the power of technology with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The re-election of Donald Trump is a harbinger of a future where the emotion of crowds who have the right to vote is magnified by media paid for by the richest people in America.

Murray touches on the negative consequence of technology on the growing "...Madness of Crowds". More than ever, the reach and size of crowds who object to human equality can spread social chaos. America experienced the power of technology with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Emotions of crowd-think distort the difficult and personal trials of people with gender dysphoria.

The myth of Tiresias embodies the truth that humans are different but equal.

Tiresias is a figure in Greek mythology that was punished by Hera, the wife of Zeus, to be turned into a woman after he struck two mating snakes. He remained a woman for seven years when he was changed back into a man by Zeus. Zeus and Hera debated on whether experience of sex as a man or woman was more pleasurable. Tiresias agreed with Zeus who believed women experienced greater pleasure and Hera struck him blind for siding with Zeus. The debate goes on with Murray noting it occurs in crowd emotion that refuses to deal with the facts of gender dysphoria. One thinks of the many people that struggle with gender identity and how difficult it must be to live life with one’s own confusion, let alone the stupidity of people’s emotional reactions.

And then there is the issue of race.

Nearly 50% of the world is classified as Caucasoid with the remainder of three racial categories being no more than 33.5%. Unique physical characteristics of race are hair color and texture, facial features, average height, eye color, blood type, and skin color. Of course, there are differences beyond these features within each racial group. Whether one is of a particular gender, good looking, unattractive, fat, thin, so on and so on, is superfluous. What is not different is we are all human. Murray infers that if leaders can keep humanness in mind, equality is the only thing that matters.

AI & HEALTH

Like Climate Change, AI seems an inevitable change that will collate, spindle, and mutilate life whether we want it to or not. The best humans can do is adopt and adapt to the change AI will make in human life. It is not a choice but an inevitability.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Deep Medicine (How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again)

Author: Eric Topol

Narrated By:  Graham Winton

Eric Topol (Author, American cardiologist, scientist, founder of Scripps Research Translational Institute.)

Eric Topol is what most patients want to see in a Doctor of Medicine. “Deep Medicine” should be required reading for students wishing to become physicians. One suspects Topol’s view of medicine is as empathetic as it is because of his personal chronic illness. His personal experience as a patient and physician give him an insightful understanding of medical diagnosis, patient care, and treatment.

Topol explains how increasingly valuable and important Artificial Intelligence is in the diagnosis and treatment of illness and health for human beings.

AI opens the door for improved diagnosis and treatment of patients. A monumental caveat to A.I.s potential is its exposure of personal history not only to physicians but to governments and businesses. Governments and businesses preternaturally have agendas that may be in conflict with one’s personal health and welfare.

Topol notes China is ahead of America in cataloging citizens’ health because of their data collection and AI’s capabilities.

Theoretically, every visit to a doctor can be precisely documented with an AI system. The good of that system would improve continuity of medical diagnosis and treatment of patients. The risk of that system is that it can be exploited by governments and businesses wishing to control or influence a person’s life. One is left with a concern about being able to protect oneself from a government or business that may have access to citizen information. In the case of government, it is the power exercised over freedom. Both government and businesses can use AI information to influence human choice. With detailed information about what one wants, needs, or is undecided upon can be manipulated with personal knowledge accumulated by AI.

Putting loss of privacy and “Brave New World” negatives aside, Topol explains the potential of AI to immensely improve human health and wellness.

Cradle to grave information on human health would aid in research and treatment of illnesses and cures for present and future patients. Topol gives the example of collection of information on biometric health of human beings that can reveal secrets of perfect diets that would aid better health during one’s life. Topol explains how every person has a unique biometric system that processes food in different ways. Some foods may be harmful to some and not others because of the way their body metabolizes what they choose to eat. Topol explains, every person has their own biometric system that processes foods in different ways. It is possible to design diets to meet the specifications of one’s unique digestive system to improve health and avoid foods that are not healthily metabolized by one’s body. An AI could be devised to analyze individual biometrics and recommend more healthful diets and more effective medicines for users of an AI system.

In addition to improvements in medical imaging and diagnosis with AI, Topal explains how medicine and treatments can be personalized to patients based on biometric analysis that shows how medications can be optimized to treat specific patients in a customized way. Every patient is unique in the way they metabolize food and drugs. AI offers the potential for customization to maximize recovery from illness, infection, or disease.

Another growing AI metric is measurement of an individual’s physical well-being. Monitoring one’s vital signs is becoming common with Apple watches and information accumulation that can be monitored and controlled for healthful living. One can begin to improve one’s health and life with more information about a user’s pulse and blood pressure measurements. Instantaneous reports may warn people of risks with an accumulated record of healthful levels of exercise and an exerciser’s recovery times.

Marie Curie (Scientist, chemist, and physicist who played a crucial role in developing x-ray technology, received 2 Nobel Prizes, died at the age of 66.)

Topol offers a number of circumstances where AI has improved medical diagnosis and treatment. He notes how AI analysis of radiological imaging improves diagnosis of body’ abnormality because of its relentless process of reviewing past imaging that is beyond the knowledge or memory of experienced radiologists. Topol notes a number of studies that show AI reads radiological images better than experienced radiologists.

One wonders if AI is a Hobson’s choice or a societal revolution.

One wonders if AI is a Hobson’s choice or a societal revolution greater than the discovery of agriculture (10000 BCE), the rise of civilization (3000 BCE), the Scientific Revolution (16th to 17th century), the Industrial Revolution (18th to 19th century), the Digital Revolution (20th to 21st century), or Climate Change in the 21st century. Like Climate Change, AI seems an inevitable change that will collate, spindle, and mutilate life whether we want it to or not. The best humans can do is adopt and adapt to the change AI will make in human life. It is not a choice but an inevitability.

HUMAN LIFE

What we see today is not reality, but our minds’ interpretation of the material world. It seems that everything in the world is process, e.g., gravity, or time relativity, or quantum unpredictability.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Brain Myths Exploded (Lessons from Neuroscience)

Lecturer: Indre Viskontas

By:  The Great Courses

Indre Viskontas (Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA, performed at Cafe Royal Opera in San Francisco, studies neural basis of memory and creativity, Lecturer at USF.)

Dr. Indre Viskontas offers interesting facts and theories about the brain in her Great Courses lectures. Her educational and musical accomplishments are remarkable examples of brain’ flexibility, human intelligence, and life-long potential. Her lectures show cognitive improvement may occur throughout one’s life while recalling incidents of brain damage and discoveries of science experiments that reveal how the brain works.

Viskontas suggests the belief that humans use only 10% of their brain is a myth.

The brain is made of eight distinctive structures which are interconnected and work together for our thoughts, feelings, and movements. A network of neurons sends electrical and chemical signals between parts of the brain that generate human thought and action; some of which are automatic and others cognitively reasoned. Viskontas explains how interconnections allow continued mental and physical functioning even when a part of the brain is damaged. Experiment and human accident have proven that the brain can adapt to loss of normal thought and action by retraining healthy parts of the brain. Retraining the brain can improve lost function. This may not return the perfect function of an undamaged brain, but it will improve function.

Viskontas explains human memory is a reconstructive process with varying degrees of accuracy.

There are people who have nearly perfect recall of their past. However, experiment has shown that even those few who can recall their personal history in detail are affected by emotion that distorts its accuracy. Furthermore, Viskontas explains personal history’ memory is limited to personal experience rather than any measurement of IQ. Of course, there are a few people who are said to have eidetic memories that can recall images with precision. They have so-called “photographic memories”, but IQ is based on problem-solving abilities that, at best, would be enhanced by a photographic memory. It is the application of recalled information to problem solving abilities that make one a genius like John von Neumann and Nikol Tesla who were alleged to have eidetic memories.

The risk is that “eyewitness” accounts can be influenced and totally wrong.

Scientific experiment has proven memory is a reconstructive process. With DNA analysis, a number of convicted murderers have been found innocent despite many eyewitnesses that identified them at scenes of crime. One is reminded of the gorilla experiment where eyewitnesses are distracted when a gorilla is sitting in a chair just as a human action scene is created in the same room. They do not see the gorilla and are surprised when it is pointed out to them later.

In the era of quantum computing, the concept of reality is evolving at a rate that boggles the mind.

The idea of a probabilistic rather than concrete reality reminds one of the differences between the science of Newton and Einstein. Newton thought of things as concrete reality. Einstein takes steps toward relativity with less emphasis on the concreteness of reality. What we see today is not reality, but our minds’ interpretation of the material world. It seems that everything in the world is process, e.g., gravity, or time relativity, or quantum unpredictability. Life and human beings may only be a pile of atoms in an atomic process of birth, life, death, and whatever comes after death.

As human beings grow older, new things take longer to learn but Viskontas explains it is commitment that makes a difference in learning something new.

Taking piano lessons as an older adult, deciding to become an opera singer after graduating from college as a neuroscientist, or reading/listening to books about science when you are not educated as a scientist takes more time as you get older, slower, and less inquisitive. Dr. Viskcontas’ lectures infer it is never too late to learn something new. It just takes longer for it to become a part of who you are.

LSD

Some academics considered Timothy Leary a visionary thinker who pioneered consciousness expansion, psychedelic therapy, and transhumanism. Others argue he lacked scientific rigor.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Acid Queen (The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary)

Author: Susannah Cahalan

Narrated By:  Susannah Cahalan

Susannah Cahalan (Author, journalist for the New York Post)

Susannah Cahalan has written a titillating story of the 60s and 70s and Americans burgeoning experimentation with illicit drugs. It focuses on Rosemary Woodruff Leary, the fourth wife of the LSD guru, Timothy Leary. Leary’s first wife committed suicide, his second seemed a rebound companion, his third is to Nena von Schlebrugge, and then Rosemary who eventually becomes his lover, fourth wife, and supporter during their 9 years of marriage. His last marriage was to Barbara Chase in 1978 which lasted for 14 years until 1992. Leary died in 1996 at the age of 75.

Timothy Leary’s time with Rosemary is filled with mutual infidelity but with freely given support by Rosemary of a diminishing intellectual who promoted hallucinogens and their mind-altering effects. The handsome Leary became a significant influence on the use of hallucinogens like LSD and psilocybin as tools for expanding human consciousness. He believed psychedelics could unlock deeper levels of self-awareness, creativity, and spiritual enlightenment. An interesting point about LSD and other hallucinogens is how they have become useful drugs for modern treatment of psychological dysfunctions like schizophrenia and PTSD. On the other hand, Cahalan shows indiscriminate use of LSD can diminish social propriety and become an escape from or harmful distortion of consciousness.

Putting aside the value of hallucinogens, “The Acid Queen” is about the life of Rosemary Woodruff Leary.

Rosemary was born in 1935. Growing into a beautiful woman, she was drawn into the counterculture movement of the 60s and 70s in her travels to San Francisco, Southern California, and New York. Her beauty opened doors of opportunity for Rosemary. She became an airline stewardess until retirement in her early 30s that were required by age limits of airlines in those years. Cahalan infers Rosemary’s attractiveness and free-spirited beliefs led her to use sex as a useful way of getting what she wanted through relationships with men. She joined the beatnik generation because it fit her style of living. This is a generation that rejected mainstream American culture with an interest in artistic self-expression, non-conformity, and spirituality. This was in the 1950s and early 60s.

Rosemary meets Timothy Leary in 1965.

Leary’s use of LSD as a transformative experience fit into Rosemary’s lifestyle. She became one of Leary’s devoted followers. They married in 1967. Art Linkletter’s daughter died in 1969 by suicide and blamed it on LSD. Not surprisingly, the conservative President, Richard Nixon, called Leary “the most dangerous man in America”. In 1968 Timothy Leary was arrested in Laguna Beach, California and charged with marijuana possession. He was tried in 1970 and sentenced to 1o years in prison. He escaped prison with the help of the Weather Underground but was recaptured in 1973. His sentence, in conjunction with his former conviction, was extended to 20 years. He was released in 1976, after 3 years, when he cooperated with authorities by offering information on the counterculture movement.

Cahalan shows how Rosemary followed and supporter Leary in his escape from prison and how their relationship fell apart.

It is somewhat unclear from Cahalan’s story about why Rosemary gave up on Leary. One may have been because of his and her self-absorption or their penchant for attachment to others for the support they believe they deserved. Cahalan’s story of Rosemary is interesting because of her association with Leary. Though Rosemary is self-educated, she appears to have limited formal education with her claim to fame largely based on the men with whom she became intimately involved.

In contrast, Timothy Leary earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Alabama in 1943, a master’s degree in psychology from Washington State University in 1946, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950.

Leary had many intimate women friends and five wives. He had two children, a girl born in 1947 and a boy born in 1949, with his first wife, Marianne Bush. Leary’s daughter died at age 42. She hung herself with her shoelaces tied to a jail bar while waiting to be charged for shooting her boyfriend. His son Jack, at 25 years of age, is noted in a NYT’s article in 1974. The article clearly implies Jack had become estranged from his father.

“The Acid Queen” is a sad story of two self-absorbed people who had exciting and tragic lives.

Timothy Leary had fame and fortune. Rosemary Woodruff Leary had beauty and tenacity. Neither seem paragons of virtue and both seem much less than they could have been. The underlying message of “The Acid Queen” is we need to be more connected to the world, less self-absorbed, and more other-directed. (Easy to say or write, but unlikely to be.)

Some academics considered Leary a visionary thinker who pioneered consciousness expansion, psychedelic therapy, and transhumanism.

Timothy Leary showed himself to be a charismatic and persuasive speaker. However, critics argue he lacked scientific rigor and had little foresight or objectivity about the effects of drugs on consciousness. Rosemary may have been “The Acid Queen” but never achieved the sobriquet of “Queen of Hearts”.

INTELLIGENCE

After two or three chapters of Huston’s book, reader/listeners will likely complete it. The difficulty, as with all good advice, is following it.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

SHARP (Simple Ways to Improve Your Life with Brain Science)

By: Therese Huston PhD

Narrated By:  Theresa Bakken

Therese Huston (Author, earned an MS and PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.)

Therese Huston is a well-known public speaker who has written a book that has appeal for those who wish to know what they can do to improve their memory and cognitive abilities. This is not a book some will be interested in either listening to or reading. Many presume they have a proscribed intelligence and memory largely determined by genetic inheritance. Huston infers there is some science-based truth in that opinion but that one’s memory, cognitive ability, and psychological health can be treated, if not improved, at any age.

Huston’s prescription for improved memory and cognitive ability requires effort.

Undoubtedly, we inherit much of our innate cognitive ability but whatever one’s genetic inheritance and age may be Huston argues cognition and memory can be improved. Huston discusses areas of the brain that are the base from which cognition and memory originate, are stored, and then called upon.

Huston notes the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, neocortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia are key brain areas involved in cognition and memory.

The hippocampus is the primary location of memories, but the other five areas interact with one’s personal experiences in ways ranging from emotion, individual understanding, decision-making, reasoning, skill development, and formed habits. As we age, the way we process, store, and retrieve information deteriorates. We lose some memories, process information more slowly, and find it more difficult to process new information in the context of past experience.

What Huston explains is that exercise, visual, and tactical experience can improve memory and cognition at every age.

Staying active, experiencing the world in ways that stimulate the production of dopamine, and exercising effort to learn and do new things improves cognitive ability and memory. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the human body that regulates mood, focus and behavior. It is released by the body when it is stimulated by exercise, engaging experience, and learning new things. Huston offers advice on how one at any age can improve their mental health and care for themselves and others when they are troubled by various common and extraordinary events in life. Life’s events stimulate the release of dopamine which can illicit rage and bad behavior but also provide focus and beneficial behavior.

Huston suggests 14 generally simple ways of helping oneself and others cope with the stresses of life.

Many of her solutions are commonly understood, others less so. Not surprisingly, she notes exercise, proper nutrition, quality sleep, and deep breathing are important for maintenance and improvement of brain function and memory. Some more difficult and less understood aids to brain health and memory are 1) importance of social engagement, 2) learning new things from personal and other’s recorded experience, and 3) practicing ways of reducing the stresses of life in yourself and others you care about.

One who reads or listens to “Sharp” will recognize the value of Huston’s advice for improving memory and cognitive ability.

After two or three chapters, reader/listeners will likely complete her book. The difficulty, as with all good advice, is following it.

ARROGANCE

A President who only sees government as a cost and the wealthy as the nation’s only benefactors, compounds America’s inability to solve the problems of poverty with eviction being a preeminent symptom.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Evicted (Poverty and Profit in the American City)

By: Matthew Desmond

Narrated By:  Dion Graham

Matthew Desmond (Author, sociologist and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Professor of Sociology at Princeton.)

Matthew Desmond has written about American poverty in “Evicted”. There are two types of poverty. One is a worker who is not making enough money to be anything more than poor. The second kind of poor is grinding poverty where one must choose between having food to eat or a roof over one’s head. One who is poor can live in America, may get an education, find a job, and get along in life. However, those with too little money to eat and have shelter–live lives of desperation. Desmond’s book is about the latter to show how American society is failing desperate citizens. Desmond interviews several poor Americans that offer a clear understanding of the difference between being poor in America and being desperately poor in America.

Some argue America is the land of opportunity and if one cannot grasp opportunity, it is because they create their own problems.

“Land of opportunity” believers argue there are jobs in America and those who choose to beg for food rather than work deserve their fate. The truth is that many jobs in America do not pay enough for those who have jobs to pay rent and feed their families. Housing is expensive and affordable housing is not being produced in large enough quantities to reduce the costs of housing. Affordable housing is hard to build because many homeowners resist having it built in their neighborhoods. When land is found, it is often too expensive for the builder to make a profit with low rents. The cost of construction is often higher than it needs to be because of high land prices, building code requirements, or rezoning needed to allow multifamily housing.

Education in America is not meeting the needs of its citizens.

School availability is not well enough managed to ensure education for all who live in America. Sex education and contraception are being discouraged in school, which is a foolish, self-destructive societal mistake. Healthcare is too expensive for many Americans with low incomes which compounds the health problems of the poor who cannot afford either medical service or treatment. Grinding poverty causes some to seek relief through drugs which increases medical problems and further aggravates inequality being fed by an illicit industry that is growing in America. Drug abuse kills Americans in many ways; not the least of which is addiction and poverty.

The history of American income inequality is burdened by forms of racism and sexual discrimination that do not treat people equally.

Jobs are changing with automation and outsourcing of goods produced by an international economy. American government has failed to create policies that help those who need more help. As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, America has been incapable of solving the spread of poverty among its citizens.

In reading/listening to Desmond’s research, it seems like there is an American conspiracy making one of the wealthiest countries in the world incapable of solving the housing, education, and employment problems of its citizens.

A President who only sees government as a cost and the wealthy as the nation’s only benefactors, compounds America’s inability to solve the problems of poverty with eviction being a preeminent symptom.