Curiosity Connections

This week's podcast is Feel Better, Live More, with host Rangan Chatterjee and guest Tommy Wood, a neuroscientist, researcher, medical doctor, athletic performance consultant, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at the University of Washington.

In his just-published book The Stimulated Mind: Future-Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age, Tommy Wood asserts that aging does not mandate cognitive decline. Unfortunately, most people expect to decline with age and, in embodying this expectation, make choices that ultimately cause decline. In fact, Wood believes that up to 70% of dementia cases are preventable largely by choosing to use your brain in an optimal manner -- even if you have a genetic predisposition for dementia. You've probably heard that doing crossword puzzles and sudoku help your brain, but do they really? In this episode, Wood discusses how to optimize brain (and body) health and provides realistically-actionable information that can actually benefit you now and for the rest of your life (without peddling expensive supplements or regimens).

Please be aware that this week's podcast is long, clocking in at 2 hours, 19 minutes. But I hope you won't be daunted: I genuinely think it's worth the investment. Most podcasts we listen to don't offer direct information that can improve your brain and life; this one does. It's also a decent listening experience at 1.5x speed, which pares the time down to just over 1.5 hours.

More about Tommy Wood: Wood's research at the University of Washington focuses on brain health across the lifespan, including therapies for newborn brain injury, prevention and treatment of adult brain trauma, and factors that contribute to long-term cognitive function and decline. He has a medical degree from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of Oslo. Alongside his academic training, Tommy has worked with elite athletes in multiple sports, including multiple Formula 1 drivers. He is also a Director and Treasurer of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine, Head of Research for the dementia prevention charity Food for the Brain, and co-host of The Better Brain Fitness podcast.

PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.

ALSO, it's possible that either of the below links have changed between the time of this posting and when you click on it. Please double-check that you're listening to the correct episode of Feel Better, Live More, which is entitled: The New Science Of Preventing Dementia: Protect Your Brain, Boost Your Focus, Resist Cognitive Decline with Dr. Tommy Wood.

https://drchatterjee.com/the-new-science-of-preventing-dementia-protect-your-brain-boost-your-focus-resist-cognitive-decline-with-dr-tommy-wood/

or

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-science-of-preventing-dementia-protect/id1333552422?i=1000755729898

(2 hrs, 19 min.)

What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm

Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.

Please join us as we continue our online book club discussion of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, by Edward Fishman. Published in February 25, 2025, Chokepoints has garnered significant acclaim. It is a New York Times Bestseller and was selected as Best Book of the Year by The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and NPR. Further, Chokepoints was named Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award and was chosen as Book of the Month by the Wall Street Journal.

Assigned reading for this week: Chapters 8 - 18. Please Note: Completion of the assigned reading is a prerequisite for attending. If you did not have the chance to do the reading, please join us another time.

What's this book about?
It used to take blockades and sieges to ravage a rival’s economy. Now a single statement posted online by the US government can bring a nation to its knees.

In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top American sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the past two decades of U.S. foreign policy. As Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Ayatollah Khamenei wreaked havoc on the world stage, mavericks within the U.S. government built a fearsome new arsenal of economic weapons. Successive U.S. presidents have relied on these weapons to address the most pressing national security threats—for good and for ill.

Chokepoints provides a gripping account of one of the most transformative developments of our time, demystifying how the U.S. government harnesses the power of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Oil against America’s enemies. At the center of the narrative are the trailblazing diplomats, lawyers, and financial whizzes who have masterminded America’s escalating economic wars against Russia, China, and Iran.

Control over economic chokepoints—such as the U.S. dollar, advanced microchip technology, and critical minerals—has become the key to geopolitical power in the 21st Century. The result is a new world order: an economic arms race among great powers and a fracturing global economy. Chokepoints details how America turned economics into a weapon – and how China, Europe and Britain are now doing the same. Urgent and brimming with rare insight, Chokepoints is the definitive guide to the Age of Economic Warfare.

About the author
Edward Fishman is senior fellow and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Fishman also advises companies on geopolitical strategy and invests in early-stage technology startups. He has served in a number of foreign policy roles across the U.S. government. At the State Department, he was a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he advised Secretary John Kerry on Europe and Eurasia and led the staff’s work on economic sanctions, long-range strategic planning, and international order and norms. Fishman was also the Russia and Europe lead in the State Department’s Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation, where he played a central role in designing and negotiating international sanctions in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Earlier, he served on the Iran sanctions team, where he developed policies to strengthen sanctions against Iran and maintain pressure during the international nuclear negotiations. Additionally, Fishman served at the Pentagon as special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and at the Treasury Department as special assistant to the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. He has received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award (twice) and its Meritorious Honor Award, having been recognized for his contributions to U.S. policy toward Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Iran.

How this book club works.
Our book discussion will be spread out over several consecutive weeks, with two-hour meetings every Tuesday evening. This gives us time to explore the readings with the depth and care they deserve. Please bring your own thought-provoking questions and insights from the reading to share with the group. We like lively discussions that challenge our own ideas and those of the author and allow us to learn from each other -- while enjoying camaraderie! All we ask is that everyone be treated as co-equals, both in respect and approximate speaking time. Feel free to post (in the Comments below) any additional resources you find -- including ones that challenge the author. We hope to see you at our Tuesday meetings!