Lover of literature, language, good people and animals. Great believer in the positive power of humour #YNWA
UK
Joined July 2012
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Carol retweeted
Every hour, 70 people die from cancer in the United States. That’s roughly 1,700 lives every day.
When I read those stats, I realised how overwhelming it can feel to try understand this disease and why it can feel almost impossible to navigate the science behind it.
That is why I invited Professor Thomas Seyfried back to try and understand the science further, question the system and explore what we may still be getting wrong.
Thomas has spent 50 years researching cancer. He is a Professor of Biology at Boston College, the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and one of the most passionate people I have met when speaking about this disease.
His work explores a metabolic view of cancer. In simpler terms, he believes we need to pay much closer attention to how cancer cells create energy, how their metabolism differs from healthy cells and what that could mean for future research.
We discussed things like:
- The new research he brought into the studio in a confidential envelope…
- How damaged mitochondria could change the way we understand cancer.
- The three things he believes matter most for living longer.
- Why cutting sugar alone does not fully explain how cancer cells survive.
- Where keto can become dangerous or misunderstood?!
- Changes he would make if he were responsible for public health.
There were moments when I asked Thomas to simplify his explanations and pushed for clarity on what's been demonstrated in research and what still needs further study.
That distinction matters.
Thomas's work is focused on scientific research, not clinical practice.
I left this conversation thinking about how progress often begins - someone asks a question that doesn't fit comfortably inside the existing explanation, then spends decades trying to answer it.
Cancer will affect almost every family in some way. This is a challenging conversation, but one I believe is worth hearing in full.
*The views expressed are those of the guest and this conversation is intended for general informational purposes only. This podcast and its associated materials should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Carol retweeted
What do you say to your family when you don’t know if you’ll ever see them again?
In February 2022, he told his wife and children the war had begun. Then he left as Russian forces advanced towards Kyiv, unsure what the coming hours would bring.
This is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Before politics, he built a successful career in Ukrainian television as a writer, producer and performer, even portraying a president on screen. In 2019, he was elected President of Ukraine. Three years later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Sitting down with him was surreal and an enormous responsibility. It was a rare chance to hear his account of the first hours of the war and the decisions that followed.
We discussed things like:
How he found out Russia had invaded.
Why he refused an offer to evacuate Kyiv.
The 64km Russian military convoy advancing towards the capital.
How Russian forces tried to capture a key airport.
His account of discovering hundreds of bodies after Russian occupation.
What he believes it will take to end the war.
But I also wanted to understand how he’d been coping.
One of my first questions was simply, “How are you doing?” His answer was: “It’s hard.”
He spoke about meeting parents whose children had been killed. Some, he explained, simply ask him for a hug.
And as he spoke, there were tears in his eyes.
Whatever your views on the war or the decisions made by those involved, this is a rare opportunity to hear his account of events that have changed millions of lives.
Because behind every map, every headline and every political decision, there are real people.
Out now on all platforms ❤️👊🏾
(President Zelenskyy was recorded in Ukrainian and dubbed in English.)
Carol retweeted
Every October 9th, on John Lennon's birthday, the National Trust leaves the light on all night in his childhood bedroom at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool ❤️🩹
Carol retweeted
Put American food next to its European twin and you begin to wonder whether they are the same species. The fries are pale and identical, the bread is essentially cake, the Fanta glows like a warning light, the cheese is the colour of a traffic cone, the sweets and the cereal come in shades not found in nature, and the chicken has been given a chemical bath on its way out of the factory.
The reason is wonderfully simple. In Europe a manufacturer must prove an ingredient is safe before it goes anywhere near your mouth, whereas in America it goes in first and stays there until somebody proves it is killing people.
Which may explain why only about seven percent of American adults are in good cardiometabolic health, and why, after a life spent sitting in a car in order to reach a chair, they die years earlier than Europeans. Europe treats its citizens as people to be kept alive, and not as a revenue stream with a pulse.
Carol retweeted
In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles on its roads than every other country on earth put together, and they were all delivering milk.
There were tens of thousands of them. The milk float: open sided, battery under the floor, top speed of about 15 miles an hour, and a whine you could pick out in your sleep. It was charged overnight at the depot and was back there by lunchtime.
It carried glass bottles. Each one was collected from your step the next morning, washed and refilled. A bottle went round like that 20 or 30 times before it broke. The foil cap went for scrap. There was no other packaging.
The milk had come from farms within a few miles, through a local dairy, and was on the step before 7.
So here is what the country had. A zero-emission delivery fleet. Reusable containers with a return rate any modern scheme would kill for. No plastic. A supply chain you could cycle the length of. A man who noticed if an old lady's bottles were piling up, and knocked.
It was dismantled in about 15 years, because a supermarket could sell milk a few pence cheaper in a plastic jug as a way of getting you through the door.
Every piece of that system is now the subject of a government target for 2040.
It was running in 1967, silently, in the dark, and nobody thought it was worth a mention.
Carol retweeted
🎤 The Moving Story Behind the 1987 Song "Barcelona": Joining Hands to Overcome the Stigma of Illness and Leave a Masterpiece to Humanity 🌹👑
Carol retweeted
No autotune, no flashy lights, no tricks—just pure talent. Absolutely beautiful. 🎶
💖 “Stand By Me (Cuenta Conmigo)” | The Buzztones | A cappella (Ben E. King)
Carol retweeted
Did you know that this church up on Everton Ridge is actually the great grandfather of the modern skyscraper?
If you look at St George's Church from the outside, it looks like a traditional, beautiful red sandstone building. But step inside, and you are looking at a true architectural world first.
Built back in 1814, it was the first church on the planet to be constructed with a cast iron frame. Local ironmaster John Cragg manufactured the inner skeleton (the slender pillars, the vaulted ceilings, and the window tracery) right down at his Tithebarn Street foundry. It was effectively a 19th century flat pack building
Architectural historians, including the great Quentin Hughes, have long pointed out just how revolutionary this was. By shifting the heavy lifting away from thick, load bearing stone walls to an internal metal skeleton, this Everton church proved you could support a grand building from the inside out.
It was a massive leap forward that paved the way for Liverpool's own Oriel Chambers fifty years later, and eventually, the towering steel skyscrapers of Chicago and New York. Liverpool wasn't just a busy port; it was engineering the future of city skylines. How boss is that?😀
