Dr. Adam Schiavi is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His areas of clinical expertise include anesthesiology, neurological critical care, disorders of consciousness and brain death diagnosis, clinical ethics, critical care medicine, and traumatic brain injury.

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Adam Schiavi discuss how the definition of death has changed throughout history, what the current definition is, and how that is determined by the medical technology of the time. Brain death is the current definition of death, medically, but what happens to a body after brain death is determined can vary depending on the state you live in. This can be a trying time for families and for the providers involved with the now-deceased patient as the definition of death is not understood by everyone. They also discuss how brain death differs from other states of consciousness and how people often confuse the terminology of those different states, as well as the ability to hope for healing from all but brain death.

Key Takeaways:

• The total cessation of all functions of the brain is the current definition of brain death in the United States. This definition is based on a clinical exam testing all parts of the brain, typically done by somebody certified in doing brain death determinations.

• You have to have a reason for the neurologic exam to be declining. Without a reason, you can't call somebody brain dead.

• You can replace every organ in the body, but you cannot replace the brain and when the brain dies, the body dies all the time 100% unless those organ systems are artificially supportive.

"Our culture changes with technology and the way we define death is a part of culture. As that culture has shifted, the way we define death has also shifted with our new technologies of how we can actually determine whether people are dead." — Dr. Adam Schiavi

Connect with Dr. Adam Schiavi:

Johns Hopkins Bio: Adam Schiavi, MD, PhD, MS

Email: aschiav1@jhmi.edu

Connect with Therese:

Website: www.criticallyspeaking.net

Threads: @critically_speaking

Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Katie Pelch discuss the harmful and pervasive effects of PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals." Found in various consumer and industrial products, contaminating air, water, and soil, they never break down. Dr. Pelch works for the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and has been studying PFAS throughout her career. Along with their many uses PFAS have been linked to serious health issues, including cancer and reduced vaccine effectiveness. The NRDC advocates for banning non-essential uses of PFAS and encourages public awareness and involvement in regulatory efforts. Dr. Pelch shares with us the prevalence of PFAS, its dangers, and the regulation or lack thereof.

Key Takeaways:

• When you heat the nonstick cookware above a certain temperature, some of the PFAS can migrate from the pan and into the food you’re going to eat, or they could enter the air that you breathe.

• Exposures from the air that we breathe and from our skin have generally been less well studied, but there is evidence to suggest that PFAS do enter our skin.

• Per the CDC, at least 98% of people in the United States have PFAS in their bodies.

• The EPA stepped up in a big way this year by finalizing the regulation of six PFAS in drinking water. This ban was preceded by many states proactively setting enforceable limits to PFAS in drinking water, some banning the unnecessary use of them entirely by 2032.

"Not only are PFAS persistent in the environment, but they're also persistent in our bodies, and in most cases, we don't have a great way to get PFAS out of our bodies. So the two most highly studied PFAS can last in our bodies for years." — Dr. Katie Pelch

Episode References:

• Dark Waters: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9071322/

• The Devil We Know: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7689910/

• Environmental Working Group: https://www.ewg.org/

• PFAS Exchange: https://pfas-exchange.org/

Connect with Dr. Katie Pelch:

Professional Bio: https://www.nrdc.org/bio/katie-pelch

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiepelch

Connect with Therese:

Website: www.criticallyspeaking.net

Threads: @critically_speaking

Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Alex Hinton explore the potential for genocide in the U.S., highlighting historical and contemporary atrocities. Dr. Hinton emphasizes that genocide can target groups based on social constructs such as race, gender, and sexuality, among others. They discuss the rise of white supremacism and hate speech, and Dr. Hinton identifies risk factors such as political upheaval, economic instability, and armed militias. Dr.Hinton also stresses the importance of critical thinking and depolarization to prevent genocide, and suggests an easy way for everyone to do so without committing 40 hours per week to stay abreast of all of the issues and topics.

Key Takeaways:

• Genocide and mass violence are not typically planned from the beginning. They often evolve from other behaviors stemming from upheaval and past atrocities, scapegoating, grievance, and legitimation of formed hierarchies.

• Hate speech is everywhere—left, right, and center. Wherever someone is on the political spectrum, they can agree it's bad. The problem is that people sometimes disagree about what constitutes it.

• People are busy. Trying to keep informed can be a full-time job. One little thing everyone can do pretty easily to begin to do this in general, as we enter the political cycle, just pick a left-leaning, more centrist, and right-leaning news media source then on the top of the hour, turn on the TV, and flip between them and see the headlines.

"Ideology is central to all genocides, in some sense. Ideologies provide legitimation to disempower groups, and to legitimate different forms of hierarchy within a society and in the extreme. That then lays the basis for saying that groups are inferior." — Dr. Alex Hinton

Episode References:

• We Charge Genocide - The 1951 Black Lives Matter Campaign: https://depts.washington.edu/moves/CRC_genocide.shtml

• 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act: https://www.uscirf.gov/resources/factsheet-citizenship-amendment-act-india

Connect with Dr. Alex Hinton:

Professional Bio: https://sasn.rutgers.edu/alex-hinton

Twitter: https://x.com/AlexLHinton

Center for the Study of Genocide & Human Rights: https://x.com/Rutgers_CGHR

Check out Dr. Hinton’s writings mentioned in this episode:

• It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Can-Happen-Here-Rising-Genocide-ebook/dp/B08L9JHRN6

Connect with Therese:

Website: www.criticallyspeaking.net

Threads: @critically_speaking

Email: theresemarkow@criticallyspeaking.net

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.