On episode 217, we welcome Bill Sullivan to discuss the burgeoning field of epigenetics, why genes are better thought of as dimmers rather than light switches, the antipsychiatry argument against mental illness and why all mental illnesses are organic, what we discovered about the microbiome, the Libet experiments and whether they cast doubt on free will, how genes and parasites affect personality development and change, why it’s difficult for people to understand and accept genetic determinism, fraud in the field of medications purporting to affect gene expression, the ACE studies and their implications for mental health, and how identical twins can be reared in the same environment and exhibit different personalities.

Bill Sullivan is the author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are (National Geographic Books), which has been translated into a dozen languages. Sullivan is the Showalter Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he studies infectious disease. He received his Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and has published over 100 papers in scientific journals. An award-winning researcher, teacher, and science communicator, Sullivan has been featured in a wide variety of outlets, including CNN, Fox & Friends, CBS News, ESPN, The Doctors, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, TEDx, The Scientist, and many more. He has written popular science articles for National Geographic, Discover, Scientific American, Washington Post, WIRED, Psychology Today, The Conversation, and more. He is an editor and writer at PLOS SciComm, chairs the Editorial Advisory Board for ASBMB Today, and serves as a board member of the John Shaw Billings Medical History Society. Visit him at authorbillsullivan.com and on X/Twitter @wjsullivan.

| Bill Sullivan |

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