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With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking. With Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends, it's pretty much all he talks about. In a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com Bank Capital One NA member FDIC AI is transforming customer service. It's real and it works. And with fin, we've built the number one AI agent for customer service. We're seeing lots of cases where it's solving up to 90% of real queries for real businesses. This includes the real world. Complex stuff like issuing a refund or canceling an order. And we also see it when FIN goes up against competitors. It's top of all the performance benchmarks, top of the G2 leaderboard. And if you're not happy, we'll refund you up to a million dollars, which I think says it all. Check it out for yourself at Finn AI. Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas.
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I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
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And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
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And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
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That's right.
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Hey Hei.
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So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives magic Explain, and Steven will
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even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert.
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He'll be wrong. Newsflash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome to Curiosity Weekly. I'm your host, Dr. Samantha Yamin. People who live beneath the waves are called aquanauts. And after living underwater for an extended amount of time, many of them report this deep sense of awe and a newfound connection to the ocean and the planet. So we want wanted to hear firsthand what it feels like to undergo such a transformation while surrounded by water. Enter Dr. Don Karnagas. She's an Aquanaut who spent 16 days in an underwater habitat. We'll talk about her work and what it's really like among the fishes. We'll also look at a new way to measure pain because the current method, that 1 to 10 scale could definitely use some improving. But first I'm excited to share with you the Artemis mission, NASA's ambitious program to understand the moon and beyond.
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Challenger, you go for enter 34.
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We're right on altitude. The HDOT start dropping off, except that we want to keep it high.
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You're allowed two quick looks out the window. One now and one when we pitch over.
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I can't see a thing except the Earth.
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That's what I'm telling you to look at.
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Oh, there's the old Earth.
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That's the Apollo 17 mission from 1972. It was the last time humans ventured as far as the moon. But not for long. The Artemis 2 mission is bringing humans back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years. As the crew orbits around the far side of the moon, they'll be further in space than humans have ever gone before. At that point, they'll be about 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the moon. When they look out the spacecraft's windows, they'll see our moon up close with the Earth way, way in the background. There are a lot of firsts for this mission, including for representation. For the first time, a Canadian, a woman and a black astronaut will be headed to the moon, logging the longest continuous space flight ever by a woman.
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Your mission specialist, Christina Hammett Koch.
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It's also a first for the space shuttle and rocket. For 10 days, the astronauts will call the Orion spacecraft home. Orion launches from the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket. And the SLS rocket has only ever been used in the first Artemis mission, which didn't have crew on it when it successfully circled the moon back in 2022. The Artemis II mission is the first time crew will be aboard the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. Now this doesn't include a lunar landing that's scheduled for future Artemis missions, starting with Artemis iii, which is currently slated to launch in the next two years. That will mark the first time humans explore the south pole of the moon. There they'll take pictures and video of this lesser explored part of the moon. They'll survey the geology, collect samples and lots of other data to better understand both our moon and the solar system. And it's not a one off for future Artemis missions. NASA is planning to launch Gateway to support a long standing presence on the moon. Gateway is a lunar space station. Think of how the International Space Station orbits the Earth and astronauts live there long term. Well, Gateway is Like that. But it's around. The moon gateway will allow astronauts and robots to stay and explore the moon for longer periods of time, pushing the boundaries of humans capacity to live further in space. The increasingly difficult missions under the Artemis program are seen as a necessary foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars. Now you might be thinking why? Why do humans need to go to the moon or Mars? Especially when there's so much we could be working on here on Earth. There are a few important reasons. I mean first, why not? The spirit of scientific discovery and curiosity about the universe around us has often led to unexpected discoveries or even deepened our understanding of our own planet. The Moon is a four and a half billion year old time capsule. Studying it helps us uncover the history and future of our solar system in more detail. Then there are social benefits like international collaboration and the way astronauts inspire future generations. Economically, innovations for space exploration have led to patents and new technologies across sectors. For example, innovations co developed by NASA have helped create the life saving search and rescue satellite aided tracking technology for those out on sea or in remote land areas. Many bioreactors for cell culture in space are now used in biomedical labs here on Earth. Sensors on satellites and the International Space Station help NASA track wildfires. If Apollo was one small step for man, I think of Artem. Giant steps for humanity in space and here on Earth. Mom, I saw Dylan's dad make dinner. Like actually cook and it was straight fire. He said it was Blue Apron assemble and bake. All the ingredients showed up pre chopped and he just laid it out on a baking sheet and no cap. Dinner was on the table in like 25 minutes. Apparently it's chef design and it has like over 40 grams of protein. That's a lot, right? So maybe we try it.
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Just saying.
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You can be the next Dylan's dad. Blue Apron get 50 off your first two orders plus free shipping with code STIR50 Terms and conditions apply. Visit blue apron.com terms for more.
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With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends it's pretty much all he talks about. In a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC howdy, howdy ho and welcome to Fantasy Fan.
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Fellas, I'M Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
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And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
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And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
A
That's right. Hey. Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will
B
even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert.
A
He'll be wrong. Newsflash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. Want to upskill in one of the most effective ad channels out there? With Acast Ads Academy, you can learn everything you need to plan and run podcast advertising campaigns completely free. Whether you're new to audio or ready to sharpen your skills, our self paced courses fit your schedule and finish with an industry recognized certification. So if you want to grow your
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expertise and stand out in a competitive
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industry, head to go.acast.com forward/academy.
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Imagine living in an underwater habitat surrounded by the ocean and conducting research on the unique challenges that come with living down below. Back in 2016, NASA kicked off the NEEMO 21 mission, sending a team of researchers 62ft underwater for 16 whole days to do just that. This project was all about figuring out how humans can adapt to extreme environments. Kind of like a dress rehearsal for future deep space missions. Our guest was one of those researchers. We're chatting with neuroscientist and aquanaut, Dr. Don Kernegas. She's an adjunct professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of North Carolina and the scientific director at deep, an international ocean engineering and technology company working to make humans more aquatic. Welcome to the show, Dawn.
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Hi, Samantha. Thank you so much for having me.
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I want to start by asking about the actual experience of being an aquanaut and living under the ocean for such a long period of time. So first off, can you tell us what you were researching when you were down there that we can't necessarily study from the shore? Like, why go through all that?
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Yeah, absolutely. So just to note, that was a life changing experience for me. And this is, you know, I'm somebody who spent a lot of time diving and underwater over the course of. I'm going to age myself now over 30 years. That's amazing. It was just incredible, right? We were down there for two back to back eight day missions. And you really just become a part of that ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean. And so you get to typical scuba dive, you drop down and you see a little snapshot, a little window and a tiny little space that you're swimming around of what's happening on a reef. We got to sit at that reef and then also do excursions outside of the habitat and watch what's happening 24, seven in a full, you know, a full cycle, multiple days and all how all the species are interacting with each other, just all those little nuances of what that life on the reef looks like. 24, 7. So for that mission itself, it was a NASA mission called NEEMO. So NASA extreme environment mission operation. NASA's really good at that acronyms. But they've been doing this mission since 2000, or had been doing that mission since 2000 to test out things like protocol and software and hardware, other types of equipment before it went to space station. So it's kind of a proving grounds of you had physiological isolation, you had psychological isolation, you had communication, you can create communication gaps and things along those lines. And so it was really probably the best ground based simulation of being in space. And so for our mission, we were doing reef restoration on deeper coral, which was really exciting and kind of the first time it had been done because we could do these extended excursions outside of the habitat, living on the bottom. We were collecting blood samples and other types of biological samples and data on the divers themselves. We are testing out technology that had been developed for the astronauts for testing out their vestibular system, so seeing how well they balance and how react to different types of stimuli. We were testing out different types of biomedical equipment that was being developed for remote medical monitoring and for crew on the station in particular. And then we had a number of projects, for example, using some new protocol that had been developed for things like being able to extract DNA from a sample in the environment in the habitat and actually analyze that DNA sample using a device called the Minion device that was new at the time. And so we were actually testing out protocol that had been developed by NASA before it was going to space station. Kate Rubins then used that updated tested protocol to be the first person to sequence DNA in space. So we were the first to sequence DNA underwater and she got to do it in space. So yeah, just a slew of different projects, but it was just amazing to think about. Essentially we were living in an undersea laboratory. So it Wasn't just us living in the habitat itself, but just doing the work and really maximizing that time on the bottom of the ocean.
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Can you describe to people what it looks like? You're living in something, but then you can also go out and do excursions, as you said. But the quarters itself, what does that look like?
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Yeah, so the habitat we were working on in the Nima mission, and then I could talk about the Vanguard habitat that we're developing out with deep. So we had. I'm just trying to think of how many windows we actually had. I think it was one, two, maybe six windows or so. So along the sides, essentially, we have one, you know, where we were eating, which is great. So just a great way to bond with your crewmates while you're eating and. Or doing work or whatever it looks like. And just having the fish swimming around and watching outside the habitat. We had one that was at the end of the habitat, like, so essentially, if you were laying in your bunk, you were looking out that window. So that made for some cool things, like waking up and seeing a fish sitting there kind of staring into the habitat. So that was pretty neat. And then some other windows along the way, like moving towards the entrance and exit of the habitat. So the entrance and exit of the habitat is actually called the moon pool. And so essentially it looks like a pool on the bottom of the floor at the end of the habitat. And essentially the habitat is equilibrated to the surrounding pressure. And so that keeps the water out. And so we can essentially go in and out of that moon pool space with scuba gear or surface supply diving gear, whatever that might look like for the mission. And then it also allowed for crews to, for example, deliver food, take anything back out of the habitat for us at the end of the mission, just to know they actually close off that moon pool area. So then they can actually reduce the pressure of the living quarters of the habitat for decompression. So they're essentially removing us from that deeper pressure that we've been living at to then being decompressed to one atmosphere, which is like what we're living at here. And then we go through medical checks. So all that takes about 16 hours. And then we went through a medical check to make sure everybody was safe and sound and no decompression sickness, otherwise known as the bends. And then once they knew that we were okay, they repressurized the habitat to equilibrate to the surrounding pressure on the bottom of the ocean floor. So all this is happening on the bottom of the ocean, the habitat itself isn't moving. And then they open up that door back to the moon pool area. And then we throw scuba gear on and we swim back up to the surface. So that's how the undersea habitat itself works. It is small. Think about maybe a larger Airstream trailer so you get to know your crew very well. We were sleeping in bunks. So it was three bunks on each side towards one end of the habitat. And then again, kind of a small eating space, Very, very small refrigerator, very low powered microwave, hot water. And then we had a lot of paneling on one side of the habitat. So it's kind of not really usable space for us, mission wise. And then we had another section of the habitat closer to that moon pool area, where we could do crew monitoring and do communications to the divers that were working outside the habitat. So, yeah, it was incredible.
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Despite the close quarters, it still sounds like one of the most awesome research laboratories. So can you tell us more what you learned either then and what we've learned since, about how people's brains and nervous systems change. When you're exposed to those types of surroundings, long term, living at that air pressure and all the other things that come along with living underwater or in space?
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Yeah, absolutely. So there's a long history that we're building off of when it comes to that type of diving. It's called saturation diving. So it allows us to saturate the blood and tissues with the inert gas of whatever inert gas we're breathing. So in that case, we were breathing air. So it's nitrogen. So we're saturated with nitrogen. What's cool is at that point, then you can again, stay down as long as you want to. I mean, within certain reason. Right. And certain comfort. So that's days, weeks at a time. And then you can also do excursions outside of the habitat. So, again, traditional scuba diving has limitations as well as far as how long you can stay on the bottom. We could go out and do dives. Instead of 30 to 60 minutes like traditional scuba, we could do dives that were hours along. And so with saturation diving, we know that there are changes that occur to the immune system, for example, the coagulation system. So a lot of things kind of at the molecular level, we're just starting to understand because a lot of that previous research was done decades ago. So just to note, one of the things we're really excited about with deep. As we start to plan out repetitive saturation diving missions with a wider variety of people, we're really excited about capturing samples, data from people, especially with more advanced technology, to really understand comprehensively how the body is responding. And then on that note, not just the physiology, but also the performance piece. Right. So how is that affecting individual performance physically and cognitively? How is that affecting team dynamics? So there's a lot of different types of testing. We're going to be building into all the missions as we move forward. So we do know again that there are changes that occur to the body, but it's still relatively not well understood. Any kind of risks that are there have largely been kind of worked through the military and commercial diving communities. For example, bone osteonecrosis is one of them for saturation diving. But they've modified a lot of the diving profiles, even for saturation diving, to try to minimize those risks.
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What do we know about the differences between extreme environments like high altitude versus space versus being undersea? Often this underwater training is a proxy or a testing ground, as you said, for longer term space missions. But if you're talking about repeated undersea habitat living as well, then that might have its own unique things that need to be tested too. So what do we know about the differences between those environments?
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Yeah, and I would say most of the people that I know, at least in our field, kind of study across all of those because there are some shared interests. So things like the gas you're breathing and how that impacts you, that's shared across all those different extreme environments. So your life support system, essentially your gas. So whether that's considerations of hypoxia, so low oxygen, considerations of high CO2. So looking at potential issues around hypercapnia, even hyperoxia. So breathing too much oxygen can be a consideration, especially for certain aspects of spaceflight like spacewalk. And then also for diving, that's a major consideration, major potential issue. Life support equipment development, just in general is something of interest. Right. Trying to reduce work of breathing in those extreme environments. Because you're usually a lot of times you're breathing off of some kind of piece of equipment. So you want to make sure that you're not working too hard when you're breathing off of that equipment. And then with spaceflight, I think one of the things we're really interested in digging into is like you were kind of noting here is the repetitive exposures or even those longer duration exposures. Because spaceflight, a lot of the issues that we see are related to some things are cropping up more and more as we do longer duration flight are related to those extended duration exposures. We're really interested in looking at, in the undersea environment, do you see some of those shared changes associated with just a long duration extreme environment exposure? One of my colleagues, she's at the University of Florida, Dr. Rachel Seidler, she and I worked together on some projects around brain physiology associated with spaceflight and undersea. So we kind of cross the two fields. So she's published some really interesting findings that have just been out in the news lately about what happens to the brain, how it shifts, how it changes in response to long duration spaceflight. And now she's digging into, okay, we see these changes. What does that mean? Is it just an adaptive change? Does it mean something else or something with respect to any kind of chronic issues in those astronauts or again, maybe a positive adaptation? So she's in the thick of studying all that right now.
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We've heard of the overview effect, that intense feeling of awe that astronauts experience when they gaze down at Earth from space. And astronauts report like this increased connection to humanity and the entire planet. Recently, scientists at Northeastern University published a paper in Environment and Behavior documenting a similar experience for aquanauts, which they called the underview effect. Does that ring true to your experience having lived underwater for so long?
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Yeah, absolutely. So I know some of those researchers, including Dr. Brian Hellmuth. Yeah, it's a small community, it's a great paper. I mean, so it's funny, we were talking about it before I knew that he was going to publish it. So I was really excited to see that come out with data to support. Wasn't just talking about what could be and what was one person's experience or just a couple of people's experience. I yes, absolutely. Again, just, I think being a part of that environment makes it really shifts your perspective. It was on how many times I would just stop and think like I'm at the bottom of the ocean. And it just gives you that scope of like you're just where you are in this planetary system where you are with respect to Earth. And I think the responsibilities that we have right to protect that system, that I don't think people, unless you're really immersed in it, sometimes it's hard to describe it or really appreciate how complex the subsea ecosystem is. And so one of the drivers for our founder at DEEP is to expand that access, really get more eyes beneath the surface of the ocean. Not just through film, not just through photos. Don't get me wrong, those are all incredible ways to get that information and the visuals and experience out there. But we really want to expand that subsidy access out to a broader population so people can experience that under view effect. And thinking about people like policymakers and folks involved from the legal side of things and business development, I think it doesn't have to just be scientists and educators. Right. I think there's a whole slew of people that could benefit from that exposure.
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Are there things you notice once you return to dry land that your body needs time to readjust to. Is there anything that surprised you about that readjustment period?
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It's interesting that you asked that. So one thing, it was interesting because we ate at the time because of this, the systems that they had in place. We were eating camping food and so very high salt content. Camping food. So I was just really, like, full of salt. Essentially, when I came out of that mission for a couple of days, I mean, the rest of my body was fine. I mean, there's a sleep piece. There's like a sleep deprivation piece. Right? You're sleeping in a bunk system, and we had a little bit of snoring taking place and different things happening. And then you're just excited, right? So it's like, you want to see everything. It's hard to sleep even though you're exhausted. It was funny. The last dive of my mission, so we were doing excursion, and Megan McArthur Behnken was my dive buddy for that mission. So we had gotten through a bunch of different tasks, and so we were waiting. They were like, hey, do you guys want to stay out for one more task? We're like, yeah, absolutely. This is great. So we're out there waiting, and I was kind of like jumping up and down on the bottom, like you're on lunar surface or something. And just for a visual, we're wearing helmets, right? We're wearing these weighted helmets, and then we're wearing these white wetsuits. So it looks like we're in space, essentially doing a spacewalk. So we're kind of bouncing around talking while we're waiting for this new task to come out to us. And I made the comment and everybody in mission Control heard it. I said, I really. I don't want to go back to Earth. And everybody's like, dawn, you're on Ear, by the way. You're on planet Earth. I was like, oh, yeah. But just felt like you're a part of it. You're. You're just in a different world, right? I mean, that's like you're on a different planet. Even though. Yes, we were. You know, we're on our own planet. So it was. It was a hard adjustment. I didn't want to leave. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was happy to see my family and, and see my friends and everything, but I really enjoy being down there.
C
Oh, that's super cool.
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Yeah.
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Okay, Don, I have a zillion questions for you, but the last one I have to ask. I'm a neuroscientist as well. But you're also a diver. You're studying or furthering exploration of the ocean. You're studying extreme environments. You're at the intersection of all of these really fascinating fields. How does one go about having this type of career that crosses all these different topics? How did you get into this?
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Great question. Asking lots of questions and really good mentorship. So I, you know, none of this is planned, so. And even now, this current job was not something obviously this deep did not exist until a couple of years ago. So it's like this dream job that cropped up that allowed me to pull together all these things that I love. I've always wanted to be a scientist. There's a long backstory to that. But when I was 15, I got scuba certified thinking I wanted to go into marine biology. And then I just. I just got into immerse myself into the diving community. I was diving all the time. I thought everything diving related was fascinating, from hydrogeology to marine archaeology. I was like all this interesting. And I ended up working on some dive exploration projects over the years that were really kind of pushing the limits, both with respect to equipment and physiology and other things along those times. And that led me to ask questions about how can we better protect our teammates. And so just start kind of thinking about what that could look like. And then, long story short, that led to me going into research, going for my PhD and then I ended up just kind of going into these different spaces because it's just asking questions, right? And if I ask questions and I didn't have really good guidance in a certain space, I would reach out to somebody who could be a potential mentor in that space and figure out how do I make that next step. So I think asking questions, the mentorship piece, just finding good people who are great teammates, all of that, I think, has just been critical. And I wouldn't be where I am today, especially without those people around me.
C
Thank you so much for joining us, Dawn. That was so fascinating. Dawn is an adjunct professor in the department of Neurosurgery at the University of North Carolina and the scientific director at deep.
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Thank you so much, Samantha.
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With no fees or minimums on checking accounts. It's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends, it's pretty much all he talks about. In a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com Bank Capital One NA member FDIC Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas.
B
I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
A
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
B
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
A
That's right. Hey. Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
B
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert.
A
He'll be wrong. Newsflash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get
C
your podcasts, day or night. VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you you reach out from the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly
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because a great trip starts with the right support.
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And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.
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Say hello to Samantha.
C
Hi there.
A
Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps small businesses manage their workflow, but she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.
C
That's where ACAST came in. They helped me produce a professional audio ad which played to business owners and ops leads using their audience attributes targeting tools. Suddenly, my platform was showing up in the ears of the exact people I needed to reach.
A
Now that's streamlined marketing. Samantha, what's your tip for scaling smart?
C
Solve a real problem and make sure the right people hear about it.
A
Promote your business with podcast ads on Acast. Get started at go.acast.com advertise.
C
Measuring pain is tricky business. You might have been asked by your doctor to rate your pain from 0 to 10, where 0 means no pain at all and 10 is the worst pain imaginable. But there's a catch. Pain is incredibly subjective. What feels like a four for one person could be an eight for another. Plus, this approach relies on communication. For people who can't express their pain, like babies or people with dementia or someone with a breathing tube, accurately knowing their pain level is nearly impossible. This can lead to over or under prescription of pain medications, or even misdiagnosis. And the lack of objective measures for pain means that many patients often get wrongfully dismissed when asking for needed pain relief. So researchers from Germany have tried to find a new way to use AI to standardize pain classification. The team used a combination of machine learning and heart rate data, making it one of the first to use multiple measures to assess pain without requiring the patient to be able to communicate. The heart rate data is measured through a machine called a remote photoplethysmogram, or rppg, which involves shining a special kind of light on a person's skin that highlights changes in blood volume within their vessels. The more pain someone's in, the higher their heart rate. The goal was to use this device so that the patient wouldn't need to be hooked up to wires in a medical setting, letting both them and the doctors move freely if needed. Beyond heart rate, they also developed a machine learning algorithm to analyze patients facial expressions to predict how much pain they feel. The training used videos from real clinic visits and a special set of videos that showed people experiencing pain in controlled settings. These training videos included different challenges like lighting changes or a patient whose face is partially obscured. To make it more realistic to real world clinical settings, the researchers surveyed 29 patients that previously had heart procedures that involved a catheter. They found that their new pain prediction model had an accuracy of about 45%. I know 45% may not seem like much, but this measure of accuracy could serve as a baseline for the field, especially considering we can't really measure accuracy with the current way of doing things on a 1 to 10 scale. And remember, that is very subjective. But there are two important limitations to consider here. First, the device that measures the heart rate works like a pulse oximeter, the little clip that goes on your finger during checkups. And pulse oximeters fail to accurately measure heart rate and melanated skin, with previous research showing that it can lead to substandard care for black, Hispanic and Asian patients. Second, while analyzing facial expressions is an improvement for patients who can't communicate how they're feeling, not everyone is as expressive in their face. For example, people who are more stoic or even neurodivergent as they expand the training data for their machine learning algorithm, it'll be really important to ensure there's a lot of representation in that data in the future. Hopefully, as the technology evolves and more data is collected, accuracy will improve and we can have better pain management for everyone. For Warner Bros. Discovery, Curiosity Weekly is produced by the team at Wheelhouse DNA. The senior producer and editorial correspondent is Teresa Carey, our producer is Chiara Noni, our audio engineer is Nick Kharisimi and head of production for Wheelhouse DNA is Cassie berman. And I'm Dr. Samantha Yamin. Thanks for listening.
A
With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking. With Capital One, if he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends it's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC it's tax season, and at LifeLock, we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money in refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it. Guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com special offer for the threats you can't control. Terms apply. Say hello to Samantha.
C
Hi there.
A
Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps small businesses manage their workflow, but she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.
C
That's where Acast came in. They helped me produce a professional audio ad which played to business owners and all ops leads using their audience attributes targeting tools. Suddenly, my platform was showing up in the ears of the exact people I needed to reach.
A
Now that's streamline marketing. Samantha, what's your tip for scaling smart?
C
Solve a real problem and make sure the right people hear about it.
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Promote your business with podcast ads on Acast. Get started@go.acast.com advertise.
Curiosity Weekly – Episode Summary
Episode: Life Under the Sea, No Singing Crabs
Host: Dr. Samantha Yammine
Guest: Dr. Dawn Kernagis, Aquanaut and Neuroscientist
Date: March 4, 2026
This episode of Curiosity Weekly dives deep—literally—into the world of underwater exploration and human resilience in extreme environments. Dr. Samantha Yammine welcomes Dr. Dawn Kernagis, an aquanaut and neuroscientist, to discuss the realities of living beneath the waves, the unique psychological and physiological challenges this presents, and how NASA simulates space missions in Earth's aquatic realms. The episode also spotlights NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon and wraps up with a segment on an innovative approach to measuring pain through artificial intelligence.
[01:44 – 06:46]
[08:39 – 26:48]
[12:44]
[15:40 – 18:02]
[18:02 – 20:33]
[20:33 – 22:35]
[22:35 – 24:32]
[24:34 – 26:48]
[29:16 – 32:56]
“You really just become a part of that ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean.”
– Dr. Dawn Kernagis, [09:46]
“Waking up and seeing a fish sitting there, kind of staring into the habitat—so that was pretty neat.”
– Dr. Dawn Kernagis, [12:53]
“If Apollo was one small step for man, I think of Artemis as giant steps for humanity in space and here on earth.”
– Dr. Samantha Yammine, [05:45]
“It just gives you that scope of... where you are in this planetary system... the responsibilities we have to protect that system.”
– Dr. Dawn Kernagis, [21:18]
“I really don’t want to go back to Earth... Dawn, you’re on Earth, by the way.”
– Dr. Dawn Kernagis, [23:32]
“None of this is planned... It’s asking questions and really good mentorship.”
– Dr. Dawn Kernagis, [25:01]
This episode offers a fascinating, multilayered look at how extreme environments—both in the depths of the ocean and beyond our planet—push the boundaries of science, technology, and human adaptation. Through first-hand aquanaut experiences, an inspiring vision for lunar exploration, and innovative AI for healthcare, Curiosity Weekly delivers science storytelling that’s both personal and universal.