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Totalitarianism and Literature with Michael Matheson Miller on the Moral Imagination Podcast

In this podcast, Michael Matheson Miller and I discuss how both violence and entertainment and distraction are tools of state control. We discuss Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, some of the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of Butterflies about life under the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. We also discuss Victor Frankl, Josef Pieper, Michael O’Brien, Tocqueville’s idea of “soft despotism,” and Neil Postman’s argument in In Amusing Ourselves to Death about Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. I note that these novelists take evil seriously, but are also careful not simply villainize the opposition so as to increase our understanding and self-awareness, and help prevent us from falling into the trap of another ideology.

Ep. 52 Philip Ovadia MD Metabolic Health, Diet, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, and Modern Medicine – The Moral Imagination

In this episode I speak with heart surgeon, Dr. Philip Ovadia MD, about metabolic health, diet, science, cholesterol, insulin resistance, the US government food pyramid, Ancel Keys and the cholesterol – saturated fat -heart disease hypothesis. We discuss medical education, health insurance, scientism, and some of the obstacles doctors and scientists face with “group think.” Dr Ovadia tells his story of how lost 100 pounds changed everything he learned about fat and food. He explains that while half of the patients who have heart attacks or heart surgery have normal levels of cholesterol, over 90% have insulin resistance. He argues that metabolic health is not only important for heart health, but for mental health, and plays a key role in preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We discuss a number of themes including Gary Taubes: The Case Sugar and Why We Get Fat Problems of Crony Capitalism and Subsidies How the Government Food Pyramid makes you fat Metabolic Health and Covid The Campbell Effect and how bad science has dominated medicine Weston Price Insulin Resistance Diabetes Saturated Fat Pharmacuetical Industry and Medication Seed Oils Health Insurance and the need for new models The connection between metabolic health and mental health This episode and podcast is for informational purposes and does not provide medical advice. Biography Dr. Philip Ovadia MD is a board certified cardiac surgeon and founder of Ovadia Heart Health. He grew up in New York and graduated from the accelerated Pre-Med/Med progra at the Pennsylvannia State University and Jefferson Medical College. This was followed by residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey and a fellowship in Cardio-thoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Learn more about Dr. Ovadia at www.ovadiahearthealth.com Resources See books below Campbell’s Law Dave Feldman on Cholesterol Podcast with Jay Richards on Fasting and the Ketogenic Diet Podcast with Diana Rodgers on Food, Meat and Health Podcast with James Madden on Embodied, Embedded Persons Podcast with Joel Salatin on Food and Farming
  1. Ep. 52 Philip Ovadia MD Metabolic Health, Diet, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, and Modern Medicine
  2. Ep. 51 Titus Techera Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American Life
  3. Ep.50 On Benedict XVI -Reason, Freedom, Beauty, and the Intellectual Sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization
  4. Ep. 49 Flagg Taylor, Ph.D The Parallel Polis
  5. Ep. 48 Rene Girard – Social Pressure, True and False Desires, Sacrifice, and Belief

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