It’s the last episode of the Recombobulator Lab and Chris and Jason are taking a walk down season 2 memory lane with a little current affairs (Chinese balloon anyone?) thrown in too, because that’s what we do. 

Jason asks Chris what is going on in the United States, to which Chris replies nothing. He then asks if Chinese balloons ever float over Australian airspace. Jason points out that 90% of Australia is desert and that there’s nothing to see there.

Jason and Chris then discuss how it was a bit more difficult to pull of season 2 post-pandemic. The pandemic gave them the chance to slow down and freed up a lot fo their time when they first started The Recombobulator Lab but now they are back to business as usual. 

Chris says that pre-recording episodes helped them keep on top of it as they were both travelling a lot with work. 

To wrap up the episode, Jason and Chris talk about the highlights of season two. They talk about youth alcohol consumption (Ep. 10 with Dr Amy Pennay), fake meat (Ep. 11 with Dr. Tani Khara), and e-cigarettes (Ep. 16 with Dr Laura Crotty). Chris points out that the e-cigarettes episode was terrifying, and that the health harms just aren’t talked about in general conversation. Jason believes this is similar to a lot of the things they discuss on the show. 

Other highlights included learning about the BeReal app with Mike Hanley (Ep.9) and getting into the reeds about authoritarianism with Dr Doug Keene (Ep. 4) and discussing guns and gambling in episode 5. 

Chris and Jason are eager to understand the vaping or e-cigarette epidemic around the world. In this episode of the Recombobulator Lab they are joined by guest Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander, an Associate Professor in Residence of Medicine at UC San Diego, with undergraduate degrees in science and medicine, residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and fellowship at Harvard. Laura busts some myths about vaping and shares some interesting stats and facts.  

E-cigarettes were invented in China in 2003 and went international in 2007. They rapidly evolved from looking like cigarettes to becoming more advanced and sleek devices that heat up a fluid containing nicotine and chemicals, turning it into an aerosol that users inhale. 

While e-cigarettes were invented to help people quit smoking, the original devices did not achieve this goal. However, more modern e-cigarettes contain 10 to 15 times more nicotine, making them more helpful for quitting smoking. It has not been proven that they are more effective than nicotine patches, gum, or inhalers.

According to the FDA's 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey, more than 2 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes in the US, and 85% of them use flavored products. This trend has led to concerns about the dangers of vaping, particularly in young people who have never smoked tobacco.

Dr. Crotty Alexander and her team conducted a small study on the effects of vaping on teenagers who had never smoked tobacco. The study found that vaping alters inflammation and the immune system all over the body and causes DNA damage to cells, which is recognized as a critical factor in cancer development. The study also found that even e-cigarettes claiming to not contain nicotine actually do contain it. 

Dr. Crotty Alexander believes that to reduce e-cigarette use, the nicotine content should be reduced, and flavors should be limited to only tobacco. The big myth about e-cigarettes is that they contain water vapor and nicotine, but in reality, each puff of an e-cigarette contains 60-120 chemicals.

Dr. Crotty Alexander wants adults to have access to as much information as possible about the dangers of vaping so they can make informed decisions. The messaging around vaping is mixed, but it is more clear with regards to cigarettes, with many countries having warnings on the boxes and using price as a deterrent.

Chris and Jason have long been interested in the long term effects of concussion and head trauma. This week on the Recombobulator Lab they are joined by Dr. Ryan Takagi, nutritionist, chiropractor mechanical engineering PHD candidate. Ryan’s PHD is specifically looking at the prolonged after effects of concussion and how sleep impacts this. 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) brain condition thought to be linked to repeated head trauma. Unfortunately, the only way to diagnose CTE is through an autopsy, making it difficult to determine the extent of the problem in living patients. Symptoms of CTE can be similar to those of ADHD or depression, making it even more challenging to diagnose.

Ryan became interested in CTE as a chiropractor, observing patients who had prolonged symptoms after a concussion. He wondered why some people made a full recovery from concussion while others had prolonged symptoms. 

Jason mentions that his son has had a lot of concussions from a variety of sports and activities and Jason wonders whether he should be worried. Ryan says there are a number of studies looking into potential neurodegenerative problems that may arise from repeated concussions or subconcussive events, such as too many headers in soccer.

One of the methods used in these studies is the use of accelerometers in mouth guards or helmets. These devices can track the impact of hits to the head and provide data on where on the field there is more impact and at what age people can handle these impacts. This data can be used to help determine when certain elements of sports should be introduced, such as contact in baseball or headers in soccer. Ryan’s team are also using these in their research.

Ryan's research explores the relationship between concussions and sleep. His research is looking at two things: 

1. How a concussion results in injury to sleep centers thus causing sleep disturbances
2. How these sleep disturbances impact recovery 

The Recombobulator Lab is discussing an important topic today - sachets. What is a sachet and why is it important? Sachets are small plastic packets used to sell smaller servings of food and other groceries in lower income countries, but they come with a heavy environmental cost. Chris and Jason spoke with Yobel Novian Putra, Climate and Clean Energy Campaign Associate for GAIA Asia Pacific, to learn more about the issue.

According to Yobel, incineration is a problem for a number of reasons

• In some countries, rubbish is not separated, so everything gets burned in incinerators. 
• Incineration is expensive for countries that can't afford the fees- incineration is the most expensive way to get rid of waste
• Incineration is much more carbon intensive than burning coal. 

Essentially incineration contributes to both the climate crisis and the debt crisis. Yobel pointed out that the environmental issue is a social issue as well. 

And now, the sachets. Yobel discusses the Unilever project in Indonesia that attempted to recycle sachets using a pilot technology called CreaSolv. The project was rushed through without proper permits and licensing, and the factory has since shut down. Yobel says the claim that it could recycle sachets, has since been debunked as a myth .

He discussed a waste bank in Indonesia that pays people to collect sachets and separates them for recycling, but the sachets are no longer being collected by the recycling facility. The waste bank has continued to collect sachets, however, because people have created the habit of recycling them. 

Instead, Yobel suggests that the solution lies in education and meaningful dialogue with communities.

He emphasized the importance of accountability and preventing factories from shutting down without proper arrangements. Indonesia is a young country with opportunities to avoid the mistakes of the global north, leapfrogging right to sustainable solutions.

January is Zero Waste Month. Yobel says it is a month to celebrate the progress we have made in so many areas. The theme for this year's festival is Zero Waste Month is Zero Waste for Zero Emissions. 

GAIA is hosting a number of events throughout the month. Events will be happening online and in person. The Zero Waste Digital Film Festival is taking place online for the rest of January. There are several conferences, marches and launches taking place throughout the month in India, The Philippines and around Asia. 

It’s been a while since Chris and Jason did an episode with just the two of them on The Recombobulator Lab. So they have a lot to chat about. They are going to talk about some predictions for the year of 2023 and chat a bit about what’s been going on in their respective countries so far this year. 

Chris and Jason note that inflation is super high at the moment in both the US and Australia. Chris notes that in his local shop free range chicken cost $9.99 for about a pound, but the organic one was $19.99. Chris quotes a friend of his: “Why do we have to pay more for someone not to poison us?”

As well as this high inflation is a very high employment rate, but the tables are turning in this. Lay-offs are starting in some companies in the US. Amazon recently let a lot of staff go. 

The prediction: Inflation will continue for a while anyway. 

The guys speak about AI software ChatGPT, an AI bot where you enter a question or prompt and it writes content based on this. 

Jason even challenged it to write in certain referencing and writing styles and it did a great job. And the writing was plagiarism free. 

The prediction: that this won’t actually take people's jobs, but make them a lot easier. 

Jason and Christ discuss Elon Musk's latest negative publicity. He’s saying more outrageous things and his reputation is going down. 

We can’t forget that he’s a genius with tech but Twitter is a different game. It is a sociological exercise, where he is potentially in over his head. 

The prediction: Chat GP said it is hard to tell if Twitter will survive Elons leadership but based on his past history of success he might. 

Will we still do this in 2023? Chris and Jason think that the way we work will never be the same again. People have gotten used to a certain way of living that communing into an office does not allow. People may go to coworking spaces or work in the office sometimes but not full time. 

Chris sees the benefit of the new remote work culture as in his company Tsongas they can now hire from all over the country. They have a much larger pool of potential employees to choose from, and on the flipside knowledge or support workers don’t have to choose between their career and their preferred homebase. 

The prediction: online/computer work will never be the same again. 

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and its main organisation UFC, has absolutely exploded in recent years with Irish fighter Conor McGregor becoming the highest paid sports person in the world in 2021, the first time an MMA fighter held this position. 

Chris and Jason are fascinated by this rapid growth and want to know more. They are joined by Irish journalist Ronan O’Flaherty to learn more. 

The UFC is now a billion dollar organisation and is overtaking boxing in popularity. Ronan discusses a number of reasons for this growth. 

To start, people enjoy watching organised fighting with a ref. But why the UFC over boxing? Ronan says that boxing has become progressively damaged as a spectator sport because there are so many different governing bodies. Boxers could avoid fights by being in different competitions. 

In MMA there are also lots of bodies and competitions but the UFC “is the only show in town”, Ronan says. “For a fighter starting out it's the only place to be.”

Because of this unified organisation fighters can’t avoid each other making it much more satisfying for fans. 

Jason asks Ronan about some of the previous UFC fighters, Ronda Rousey, Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell. 

Ronan says Ronda Rousey was one of the big fighters at the beginning of the current MMA boom. Anderson Silva still holds the record for longest undefeated streak as middleweight champion. And Chuck Liddell is one of the OGs in MMA. 

But where did it all start? The UFC organisation was founded in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. Back then the fights basically had no rules. There were legal headbutts, hair pulling etc. Ronan says the fighting then couldn't even be classified as what we know as MMA today. 

There were no regulations on what people wore either. Some wore tracksuit bottoms and no shirt, while others wore the traditional martial arts gi. 

Winners would fight multiple times in one night in a knockout style tournament until one was crowned champion in the final. There was a “gladiatorial element to it”, Ronan says. MMA wasn’t allowed in every state in America. It had to change hugely and rules were brought in after a few years. 

Chris notes that it didn’t form from martial arts competitions but was rather closer to fight club in its origins. 

As soon as a fighter becomes popular Dana White,president of the UFC, gets them involved in the big performance fights to draw a pay per view audience. These fights are based in the US and fought at the right time for US audiences. US audiences are the most willing to pay for sports TV. Pay per view isn’t a big thing elsewhere in the world. 

Irish fighter Conor McGregor fought Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018 and it  was the biggest pay per view fight in the UFC with 2.4 million views. 

UFC released a document on this a few years back addressing the dangers and guidelines about concussion. It was a huge document but R

Did you know that Australia's meat consumption is almost 3 times the global average? And 25 times higher than meat consumption per capita in India? This week on the Recombobulator Lab podcast Chris and Jason speak to Dr Tani Khara, research consultant with the Institute for Sustainable Futures. They talk about plant based trends around the world and discuss what role, if any, meat replacements play in this. 

20-30% of people report being vegetarian in India. 

Only some types of Hinduism or certain practices within some types of Hinduism are prohibited from consuming all meat. 

In Islam, Christianity and Judiasm people can usually consume meat, with some restrictions. 

India is one of the biggest beef exporters in the world, despite their low consumption internally. Tani thinks this is a “nationalistic, right wing, religious protocol”. 

Jason asks Tani if the reason Australia exports cattle live to the Middle East is for halal purposes. She says it’s a factor, as well as freshness. 

For any listeners wondering what halal is- it is a certification given to food meaning it has been prepared in a certain way in accordance with the Islamic faith. 

In Japan as beef consumption increased so too did cases of stomach cancer. Tani says there is a lot of data on meat consumption, especially red meat consumption, and its association with diabetes, obesity and cancer. 

The World Health Organisation also released a study about the carcinogens in red meat causing cancer. 

There is a taboo associated with eating meat in India. Tani has a whole paper about the different kinds of secret meat eating in the different segments of Indian society. 

People in the study ate meat in secret during certain festivals or days of the week where they weren’t supposed to be eating meat. Or some weren’t allowed to eat meat in their homes so went to restaurants to consume meat in secret. 

These are meat alternatives made from other protein rich, plant based sources. Tani says these can include soy and legumes. Another option in mycoprotein, which is a fermented fungus product. 

In a recent study Tani did with the Institute of Sustainable

This week on the Recombobulator Lab Chris and Jason have brought in Dr Amy Pennay to help answer the question that is puzzling older generations: why aren't the kids boozing it up any more? 

Amy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University. Within CAPR she is the Strategic Lead of the 'Intersections of drinking cultures, health and policy' program.She has done extensive research on youth drinking patterns including the 2021 paper entitled Trends in adolescent drinking across 39 high-income countries: exploring the timing and magnitude of decline. 

Amy joked that she has always enjoyed a drink and that as a young student the idea of doing studies in a nightclub seemed very appealing. Chris mentions that friend of the show, psychologist Dr Doug Keene said a lot of people in the field of psychology got into that to better understand their own issues. 

Australia is a ‘dry’ country, you might be surprised to hear. But ‘dry’ in this context has nothing to do with abstaining from alcohol but rather when most people drink said alcohol. A ‘dry’ country is somewhere where people don’t drink a lot during the week but binge on the weekends. Places like France and Italy would be considered ‘wet’ countries as they drink throughout the week in more measured doses. 

Comparing alcohol consumption in Australia to other parts of the world, Aussies drink less than Americans, but are on par with the British. 

The current trend in youth alcohol consumption is that young people in all high income countries are drinking less. English speaking countries are noticing the highest decrease while Mediterranean and Eastern European countries are seeing the least change. This trend started around 2003. 

This pattern is particularly noticeable in under age drinking but young adults of drinking age or older are also drinking less. 

Researchers are struggling to identify policy changes as a driving factor to the change in behaviour. In Australia there have been no significant policy changes to affect behaviour. 

However, education around alcohol has definitely increased and there is a lot more research showing the harms alcohol causes.