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What if saying "no" is as biologically fundamental as saying "yes"?

Groundbreaking neuroscience research reveals that the female brain contains specialized "rejection neurons" in the ventromedial hypothalamus—distinct circuits dedicated to active, defensive boundary-setting that can even override hormonal signals.

In this episode, we explore: • How fiber photometry lets scientists watch rejection neurons "light up like fireworks" • Why the brain uses two independent "dimmer switches" instead of one on-off toggle • How progesterone levels trigger these specialized neural circuits • What optogenetics reveals about controlling behavior with light • The evolutionary advantages of dual acceptance/rejection systems • Implications for understanding human consent, autonomy, and social behavior • Future possibilities for treating social anxiety and boundary difficulties

This isn't just about reproduction—it's about understanding the sophisticated architecture of choice itself.

The interplay between sexual desire and relationship functioning

Sexual desire's complex role—how it can connect yet also divide those in a romantic relationship

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

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Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

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Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

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We live in a world obsessed with learning. Conferences promise to teach us the “latest strategies.” Books offer “frameworks for success.” Podcasts deliver “insights from industry leaders.” And yet, the most transformative figures in history—the ones who actually changed their fields—didn’t succeed by learning more. They succeeded by forgetting.

The pattern is clear: look at what everyone accepts as inevitable. Question it. Imagine alternatives. Build proof. Expect fury. Persist anyway.

The question isn’t whether you have revolutionary ideas. The question is whether you have the courage to unlearn enough to find them.

Against the Grain: Defiant Giants Who Changed the World by Terry O’Reilly

Terry O’Reilly (broadcaster)

Under the Influence (radio series)

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

Read the companion article

What if your gut isn’t just digesting your food—but shaping your thoughts, emotions, and resilience.

The microbiome is finally stepping into the spotlight, and with it comes an uncomfortable truth: antibiotics don’t just kill harmful bacteria. They erase communities that regulate immunity, mood, and long-term health.

In this episode, we explore the gut as a living ecosystem—an internal democracy thrown into chaos by modern medicine’s blunt tools. We look at how microbiome damage shows up as brain fog, anxiety, depression, autoimmune illness, and vulnerability to future infections—and why this isn’t your imagination.

There’s hope. From fiber-based bacterial survival strategies to precision therapies and personalized gut medicine, the science is advancing fast—even if regulation hasn’t caught up. Until it does, your daily choices matter more than you think.

Reference: The researchers on a quest to protect the gut from antibiotics

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

📖 Read:

We like to think we’re in control. That’s the comfortable fiction we tell ourselves every morning when we’re standing in front of the open refrigerator, weighing whether to grab the leftover pizza or the sad container of spinach that’s been judging us for three days.

“I’m making a rational choice,” we whisper to ourselves. “I have free will.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth that Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler want you to understand: You were never really in control. Not completely. The refrigerator itself—the way it’s organized, what’s at eye level, what’s hidden in the back—is already choosing for you. Someone designed that space. And whether they meant to or not, they influenced what you’d reach for.

Choice architecture, nudging, and the historic environment: the subtle influences of heritage through the lens of behavioural science

Nudge: The Final Edition (Revised & Updated)

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

Read article on Substack

During deep meditative states, these practitioners showed dramatic increases in gamma wave activity—specifically in the 38-42 Hz range—with statistical significance that would make any researcher sit up and take notice (p < 0.0001). But here's where it gets really interesting: their brains showed remarkable global coherence, with different regions synchronizing in ways that suggest something far more integrated than ordinary consciousness.

This isn't just correlation—it's correlation with a twist. The same participants who showed the most dramatic brain coherence also caused measurable deviations in quantum random number generators. Let that sink in for a moment. People in deep meditative states were somehow influencing the behavior of quantum systems, not through intention or willful effort, but simply through the quality of their consciousness itself.

References:

The Kamrup Study: Empirical Investigations of Convergences Between Quantum Physics and Vedantic Consciousness

Are long-term meditators more psychologically resilient, more mindful, less psychologically distressed and have enhanced perceived qua

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

📖 Read:

The night sky isn't just beautiful. According to the latest theoretical physics, it might be the fundamental computational substrate of reality itself—a two-dimensional screen on which the entire four-dimensional universe performs its calculations. We're only beginning to learn how to read what's written there.

This work demonstrates that fundamental problems—problems that have stumped brilliant minds for generations—can yield to new perspectives. The solution wasn't found by working harder within the existing framework. It was found by questioning the framework itself.

Celestial Holography Initiative

Celestial Amplitudes Program Review talk

Celestial Holography

44 results for author: Pasterski, S

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

Read the companion article on Substack

Most people never stop to question why a sunset moves them to tears or why certain music seems to bypass their rational mind entirely. We accept these experiences as just part of being human.

But in 2001, neuroscientist Samir Zeki posed a revolutionary question: what if these responses aren't simply subjective whims but are rooted in universal patterns of brain activity?

His timing was perfect. The early 2000s saw an explosion of brain imaging technologies finally sophisticated enough to peek inside our skulls while we experienced art. For the first time, scientists could watch in real-time as neurons fired in response to beauty.

What they found was stunning.

When we engage with art—whether visual, musical, or literary—our brains don't just process sensory information. They activate intricate networks spanning emotional centers, judgment regions, memory banks, and even motor planning areas. Art doesn't just stimulate a "beauty spot" in the brain; it creates symphonies of neural activity.

This isn't just academic curiosity. Understanding how art affects us neurologically opens doors to applications from education to therapy to creativity enhancement.

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.

Send us a text

📖 Full essay:

Evolution spent half a billion years solving the consciousness problem under ruthless metabolic constraints. Maybe we should pay attention to the solution it found rather than assuming our 80-year-old computing paradigm can simply replicate it if we add enough layers.

The question isn't whether machines can think—they already do, in ways that matter. The question is whether they can be, in the continuous, integrated, metabolically-embedded way that biological systems are.

And right now, the answer might simply be: not yet, and not like this.

On biological and artificial consciousness: A case for biological computationalism

This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy

Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

Thanks for listening today!

Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world.

We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles on the Heliox Podcast on Substack.

Support the show

About SCZoomers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632045180447285
https://x.com/SCZoomers
https://mstdn.ca/@SCZoomers
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app

Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.
http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

Curated, independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, evidenced-based, clinical & community information regarding COVID-19. Since 2017, it has focused on Covid since Feb 2020, with Multiple Stores per day, hence a large searchable base of stories to date. More than 4000 stories on COVID-19 alone. Hundreds of stories on Climate Change.

Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast is a news organization with the advantages of deeply rooted connections within our local community, combined with a provincial, national and global following and exposure. In written form, audio, and video, we provide evidence-based and referenced stories interspersed with curated commentary, satire and humour. We reference where our stories come from and who wrote, published, and even inspired them. Using a social media platform means we have a much higher degree of interaction with our readers than conventional media and provides a significant amplification effect, positively. We expect the same courtesy of other media referencing our stories.