Wednesday’s Interests: Your Brain on Sex, Lyme Disease, Sleep, and Boyd Varty in Africa

Wednesday’s interests are all about Health, Wellness and Self Improvement.  Today, we were interested in Helen Fischer’s TED talk on your brain on sex, a podcast and TED talk from Boyd Varty on the art of tracking in Africa, and the rising epidemic of Lyme disease

QUOTE

• You can know every single ingredient in a piece of chocolate cake, but then, when you sit down and eat it, you just feel that rush of joy. And in the same way, I know a lot about love. I know a lot about marriage. I know a lot about adultery and divorce; I know something about the brain; I certainly know — hopefully know something about evolution. But I’m just like you and everybody else: When it hits you, you’re off to the races. – (Helen Fischer, On Being)

READ

• The surprisingly weak scientific case for emotional support animals: Increasingly, Americans are bringing pets on planes to destress. But there’s little rigorous evidence to back them up (Brian Resnick, Vox)
• Poor grades tied to class times that don’t match our biological clocks: Schedules of night owls, morning larks and daytime finches may predict their educational outcomes (University of California – Berkeley, Science Daily)
• Ticks rising: In a warming world, ticks thrive in more places than ever before, making Lyme disease the first epidemic of climate change (Mary Beth Pfeiffer, aeon)
• The Problem with Mindfulness (Brian Gallagher, Nautilus)
• I’m a “highly functional” Autistic. It takes a lot of work. On engineering a life that suits my neurotype (E. Price, Medium)
• Hesitate! : Quick decision-making might seem bold, but the agony of indecision is your brain’s way of making a better choice (Stephen M Fleming, aeon)
• The Men Who Eat Like Boys : Why some guys never outgrow the kid’s menu (C. Brian Smith, MEL Magazine)
• This Is Your Brain on Sex (Helen Fischer, On Being)

LISTEN

• The Art of Tracking, with Boyd Varty (Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Invest Like the Best)

WATCH

• This nail sticker has a UV sensor that helps protect your skin (Verge, Twitter)

• April 12, 2018

• What I Learned from Nelson Mandela (Boyd Varty, TED)
• The Brain in Love (Helen Fischer, TED)

BOOKS