Growing up WEIRD Podcast
Growing up WEIRD Podcast
Podcast Description
WEIRD cultures are Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic. Us WEIRD adults get allergy, diabetes, arthritis, etc – and these are shaped by how we’re raised. Traditional cultures show us how to give children better adult health. guenbradbury.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The show primarily focuses on health-related issues affecting WEIRD children, encompassing themes such as childhood constipation trends, the impact of paternity leave on maternal behavior, and the anatomical development of jaws and teeth with specific episodes exploring changes in jaw deformity patterns in South American Amerindian communities.
WEIRD cultures are Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic. Us WEIRD adults get allergy, diabetes, arthritis, etc – and these are shaped by how we’re raised. Traditional cultures show us how to give children better adult health.
In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on picky eating in adolescence, on childhood exposures that increase the risk of bowel cancer, and on how the gut develops tolerance to potential allergens. We then talk about why everyday pains are so important for children, what allows them to experience these pains, and why mildly painful rites of passage can help children to learn to manage their own pain. Finally, we discuss the effects of humming on airway health.
Topics covered
* Do Children Who Were Preschool Picky Eaters Eat Different Foods at School Lunch When Aged 13 Years Than Their Non-Picky Peers? (actual paper title question!) [01:02]
* What’s the deal on the media hype about colibactin in childhood and bowel cancer risk? [07:55]
* What are thetis cells and how do they reduce a child’s risk of allergies? [10:12]
* How can we set children up for better long-term ability to deal with pain? [16:34]
* How can we help adolescents learn to better deal with pain? [38:07]
* Why is humming good for you? [40:42]
These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics:
Resources mentioned in this podcast
* My recent pain article (and all the associated pain references that we discuss here):
* Cross-cultural picky eating here:
* Social learning and reinforcement of pain features in my article about setting up guts that work well throughout life:
* Do Children Who Were Preschool Picky Eaters Eat Different Foods at School Lunch When Aged 13 Years Than Their Non-Picky Peers? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jhn.70063?msockid=006b94e58178633c336581b580b362d3
* Colibactin and risk of bowel cancer: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09025-8
* Thetis cells and immune tolerance: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp0535
* Humming greatly increases nasal nitric oxide (15 fold): https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.200202-138BC
* Case report on humming for chronic rhinosinusitis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987705006328
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guenbradbury.substack.com
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