I wanted to thank you for posting this excellent rebuttal to the Time Magazine article. I actually assigned that article to my Exercise Physiology class to read last week, and we had an excellent discussion of its shortcomings. Given the level of student interest, I’m assigning them to listen to this podcast episode as a way of demonstrating that you can’t believe everything you read in a popular media article.

Great Work!
Pete

I’ve just listened to episode 150 and was interested in your story of the
meeting at Harvard where it was being arguedquietly that type 2 diabetes was
genetically determined and genetics would find a way to cure it. It brought to
mind a similar experience I had at a presentation made by the Director of a
major nutrition research unit at Cambridge University. He made the argument that
“the vast majority of cases of obesity were genetically determined” The audience
argued strongly with him. The argument was concluded when a paediatrician
pointed out to him that if everyone smoked, we would view lung cancer as a
genetically determined disease.

Try that one on him the next time!

Harry

I understand your point. And, I agree that Global Warming is depressing – my house is less than three minutes by bicycle from the ocean which evidently means it might be under water someday.

On a beautiful day on Cape Cod I can’t help but slip into the mindset that everything will be OK, not to worry. But, everything won’t be OK unless regular people like you and me do something to make it OK. All of us need to be one of those people who will “fix” the problem.

It’s too easy to pretend the big problems aren’t real, or that somebody else will fix them, or that they are just too depressing and scary to think about. By the way, I’m just as guilty of that sort of thinking as anybody else.

For the first three years of making this podcast I mostly stayed away from controversy (although, there is nothing controversial about Global Warming). I wanted to build an audience and I thought it was important not to offend people. Now I’m converting my podcast to a paid subscription podcast which would seem to make it really important not to offend anybody. But, here’s the deal: I want to make a difference with the work I do on this podcast. I could use my credibility as a doctor to sell dietary supplements or invent an outrageous weight loss diet – lots of other doctors have done that and done well with it. I could avoid the tough issues and just make money – that seems to be our modern culture. But, it just doesn’t work for me.

Fitness Rocks is not a podcast about how to get six-pack abs or bulging biceps. Fitness Rocks is about science. It’s about thinking rationally about the issues that impact our health. Global Warming and environmental destruction are absolutely central to our ability to be healthy. We ignore these issues at our own peril.

I’m saddened to hear any American express the opinion that there are problems so big, so “unstoppable,” that we can do nothing about them. That is not the spirit that built this country. I admit that I often think the same thoughts that you expressed, but I remind myself that we at least have to try to do something.

The main reason we are not solving the Global Warming issue is the billions of dollars being spent to disseminate disinformation in an effort to protect the financial interests of the industries responsible for creating the problem. The public can overcome this well-funded propaganda campaign by raising our voices. I have posted a URL at the bottom of this comment for a website that will give you the address of your congressman/woman and their web URL. Type in your zip code and you get the information. Click the link to their website and send them an email with this sentence: “I’m concerned about Global Warming and I want to know what your office is doing about it?” That’s how it starts. That’s how average people like us can solve the really big problems. Easy. Democracy is fun. Tell your friends.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Monte

Like many of your listeners I listen to the show while exercising. My hour workout is the time of the day where I don’t worry about anything, step away from the world, and do something for myself. Fitness Rocks has always been such an inspirational podcast because you give us information to better ourselves and our health. I’m not opposed to topics like Global Warming because they’re controversial, in fact I think we share very similar beliefs on many social issues you’ve raised. It’s that I don’t want to listen to facts about a potentially unstoppable global catastrophe, that realistically I can do nothing about, while I’m exercising. I want to feel empowered, not depressed. At least for the hour a day I have to just run.

That said, I will give them a listen at least initially and will always be a subscriber for when the “traditional” podcasts come out.

If you have not read this book already, perhaps you would enjoy it. It is right on topic for your current podcast.