Hi everyone and welcome to the Addiction Recovery Channel. I'm Ed Baker, and I'm your host. Thank you for sharing your time with us today. Today, as our guest, we have Dr. Joseph D'Razio. Dr. D'Razio is an emergency physician, medical toxicologist and addiction medicine specialist at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. He cares for temple patients in a variety of settings, including the emergency department, an inpatient consultative service for addiction medicine and toxicology, the trust clinic, an office-based opioid treatment program, and begin the turn, Temple's low barrier access street side medicine program. Dr. D'Razio is a medical toxicologist for the Poison Control Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is regarded as a regional expert regarding substance use and substance use disorder treatment in Philadelphia. Thank you, doctor, for being on the show. Thanks for having me. You know, I just like to set the stage by giving you some information about what's happening in Vermont. In Vermont since 2010, we've seen a quintupling of poly-drug overdose death. 2022 was the worst year ever. It seems like every year is the worst year ever. In 2022, we had confirmed 237 accidental poly-drug overdose deaths with 24 penting, so potentially 261 deaths in one year. That's one every 33 hours in this little state. 93% of those deaths involved fentanyl and just under 30% involved xylozine and you know, you've done a lot of research on this. You've got boots on the ground on this in Philadelphia and I would just like, I'd like to hear from you to begin with and then we can zero in on stuff, but to begin with what is your assessment about what's happening in our country with the unregulated drug supply? Well, I think sort of echo exactly what you said there. I think the major drug that we're dealing with is fentanyl as the cause of deaths of overdose. You know, here in Philadelphia, we're seeing the same sort of things.  But we're seeing the same effects fentanyl as the major drug. You know, more than 90% of overdose deaths are caused by fentanyl here and you know, more than 30% of those opioid overdose deaths are test positive for xylozine and postmortem, so they're being exposed to xylozine also. For the viewing, now my viewing audience is varied. There are some, you know, practitioners, some recovery coaches, some people who are using drugs, families, harm reductionists.  Why is it being mixed with fentanyl? What is going on? So xylozine is a sedative. It's a veterinary sedative. So it's typically used to sedate animals to do a procedure. You know, if you need a surgical procedure done on a horse, a cat, a dog, they will get xylozine and it puts them to sleep so they can perform that procedure. It has now made its way outside the veterinary supply, or the veterinary supply has made it outside of the veterinary world and is on the streets. And so we first started seeing xylozine in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s and the first hint of it being here in the mainland was in Philadelphia in 2006 and then we saw a rapid increase in 2018 with xylozine. And so why it's in there, I think, is a really good question and I don't think we necessarily have that answer. I think there's a lot of conjecture about what a potential reasons it could be in there. You know, the word on the street is that it gives fentanyl legs and that's the phrase that I hear all the time, you know, that like fentanyl is a really short-acting opioid and xylozine can provide like a longer period of sedation associated with fentanyl use and so there's not nearly as much up and down. I'm not quite sure that's necessarily true, you know, and I'm not quite sure that's the reason why xylozine is in the supply, but it certainly causes a sedative effect. Dr. Richard Rawson, who's a researcher here in Vermont with the University of Vermont, has been active in this field for a long time in addictions and he was wondering, he's hearing from people who use drugs that one of the things that's occurring is because xylozine has a relatively long half-life and fentanyl has a relatively short half-life, some users are experiencing the sedation of xylozine longer than the drug effect of fentanyl and they're coming out of the xylozine sedation in withdrawal from fentanyl. Have you heard? Is that true? Have you heard anything like that? You know, I hear about this a lot from my patients that I'm taking care of. They'll say, you know, I used a bag and it was heavy on the trunk, meaning xylozine, and I woke up three or four hours later. I feel like I got no opioid effect out of it and then I was in withdrawal when I came to. And certainly that goes to that sort of the pharmacokinetics certainly work there, the duration of effect of xylozine is going to be much longer than fentanyl. It really depends on the dose at which you're getting though too, but certainly you can see a scenario in which the xylozine is going to outlast the fentanyl effect, duration of effect, and then people, you know, the opioid portion has worn off and you're just to date from the xylozine. So now we're seeing people with fentanyl addiction and we're seeing people with xylozine addiction running concurrently. Is that what's happening? Well, you know, we're not really seeing anyone that's necessarily using xylozine alone. And actually when I talk to people who are using, they typically say they're trying to avoid xylozine. Like they wish it wasn't in the supply and they really want the opioid effect, not the sedative effect. So we're not necessarily treating anyone for addiction to xylozine. You know, certainly we have noticed a lot of talk about xylozine dependence and when people are not using xylozine, they're getting sick. But to my knowledge I'm not quite sure there's a lot of treatment going on for like an addiction to xylozine as in like people having difficulty putting it down. You know, I think I used the wrong incorrect terminology. So we have fentanyl addiction and xylozine dependence. Do we see withdrawal from xylozine? You know, it's a good question because certainly people who are using xylozine will describe that. You know, it's my withdrawal is just not the same anymore. You know, I used to be able just like a couple of days if I were to stop and go through opioid withdrawal but now I'm having anxiety and restlessness that lasts much longer or that. You know, ever since xylozine made it into our supply, my withdrawal just felt different. But you know, the symptoms typically of xylozine withdrawal are like anxiety, dysphoria, restlessness. And as you can see that those are overlapping symptoms with opioid withdrawal. And so sometimes it's really hard to differentiate the two. Is this just really bad opioid withdrawal or is there really such thing as xylozine withdrawal? You know, you certainly can't find it in a textbook. There has not really been much research into this. At least not that I know of. And certainly we need to start looking into the dependence to xylozine. But what we have seen is an ever increasing dose of fentanyl in the community. And so while maybe a couple years ago we were talking about like a milligram of fentanyl. Then it went to two milligrams of fentanyl per bag and now we're dealing with five milligrams of fentanyl per bag in Philadelphia. And so, you know, some part of me thinks that there is xylozine withdrawal. There really is a dependence. But another part of me thinks that it really just could be due to the, you know, the ever rising dose of opioid. Yeah, you know, I visited Kensington in February. And you know, it's interesting that you say people would be trying to avoid xylozine. But I was told that people are also trying to avoid fentanyl. And that there was heroin, you know, a specific brand, a bag with a specific brand. I believe it was Turbo. And that this particular brand included heroin and not fentanyl. And that was selling for like an increased price on the street. Is there any truth to that? Are people looking to get away from both xylozine and fentanyl and purchase heroin? You know, good question. I really don't think you can avoid fentanyl and xylozine if you're consuming bags dope in Philadelphia right now. It seems like, you know, greater than 90% of the bags in drug tracking programs have xylozine in them. And almost all of the bags have fentanyl in them. And if they don't have fentanyl, it's either a nidazine, like a non-fentanyl synthetic opioid or a different fentanyl analog. And really finding heroin in Philadelphia is like a needle in a haystack. I don't think it really exists in significant quantities. And that's not just from like talking to people because I think people just don't know what's in the bags. But actually from drug checking programs. And you know, we're really not seeing much heroin at all. And unfortunately, while people may want to go back to the age of heroin, brown heroin, it's a thing of the past. It's not coming back. You know, the monetary constraints or what is going on with the money making through fentanyl is just never going to allow for the natural product to ever come back again. And also from the user experience, now that we're at these doses of fentanyl that are so high, they could never go back to heroin because heroin just wouldn't ever support their dependence. And they'd actually be sick despite using heroin. Isn't that something that this completely supply-driven phenomenon has changed the nature of drug use and drug addiction in America? That's what I hear over and over again too. It's a supply-side market. It has nothing to do with the end user. It really has everything to do with the people who are selling it. This is what I have and this is where I can make the most money and so I'm going to push this out into the streets. And there's no, if not your typical supply and demand market. Yeah. It just underlines the incredible vulnerability of the population that we're describing. And when I was out there in Kensington because I was with a couple of people who have been working in that particular area for a number of years, they've established the trust of the people like I'm sure you have. So I kind of benefited by that trust. And I was allowed into some abandoned buildings and I spoke with some people. And I saw some things that, you know, frankly, I wish I hadn't seen. You know, the wounds associated with xylazine contamination are mind-boggling and profound. And I wanted you to talk a little bit about that, but first I wanted to ask you a question about it because I've asked a few people this question because it's on my mind. So we know that xylazine causes a soft tissue wounds when you inject it. What about insufflation or snorting it or inhalation, otherwise smoking it? Is there any data on other routes of administration and wounds? No, there really is not much at all. Actually, this is an area that really needs a lot of concentration. We need more research to understand what the cause of xylazine-associated wounds are. You know, is this a site of toxic effect of the drug? Is it a local effect if injected into the skin? You know, I think when I first started understanding xylazine a number of years ago, I would have said that it's associated with intranasal use, inhalational use and injection. But over the years, just talking to people more and more, it seems like that it's more associated with injection drug use. And so, and this is also not just talking to people who are using substance, but like looking at the variation and differences or geographical differences. You know, certainly we know that on the West Coast, there's a lot more smoking offense than there is injection drug use and talking to people who are treating opioid use disorder on the West Coast. They, you know, they're never seeing wounds. And we sort of have this concentrated group of people in Philadelphia that are engaging with injection drug use behavior that we're seeing the wounds. And it's not just like someone who uses here and there. This is typically a person who is associated with severe heavy fentanyl injection drug use. Yeah, and I had spoken with a few. I met one young man who had lost a foot to amputation. I met a couple of other young women who had xylazine sores. And you know, interesting and I'm happy to tell you that the two women that I talked to, I had very positive things to say about the medical care that they were getting. And specifically that they weren't, they didn't feel like they were judged. They didn't feel like they were looked at in a punitive way and they were, they were welcome. And I really, I really, it was just wonderful to hear that. So, you know, thank you for the work that you're doing there. No, they're just to sort of speak to that. There are some amazing groups that have their boots on the ground in Philadelphia and Kensington and specifically prevention point is doing a lot of care. Savage sisters is another non for profit that's helping. You know, there are a lot of these programs in Philadelphia that are helping people who are living on the streets who are engaging with injection drug use in particular fentanyl who have these wounds. And you know, I'm not quite sure where we'd be without them. Yeah, exactly. My sentiment exactly. And you know, it's the same here in Vermont. We have coaching, we have volunteers, we have 12 step programs, we have recovery centers, we have the medical profession. You know, we have harm reduction. I mean, we're all out. There's been a robust response in Vermont. We're doing everything we can and that really kind of to me just throws light on the severity of what we're dealing with. Because even with a robust response still the numbers of deaths climb each year more each year more. Which brings me to another question from Dr. Ross and Dr. Ross and wondered if if he cited some some drugs that have infiltrated America for good and then some that have come and gone. And he wondered, do we think that xylozine is something that is going to be here indefinitely or will it pass on to some next thing? Do we have any idea about that or any way to kind of make a guess about that? No, but I can give you some of my opinions. I think xylozine is here to stay. I think it's only going to get worse. I don't think we have seen the peak of this disorder or this epidemic just yet. I think with a recent switch from a veterinary pharmaceutical supply to an illicit powder supply just like fentanyl, the monetary forces in there are just really going to just point toward it's only going to continue to increase. Well, you know, so then I'll go into this segment now. I had planned to go into it a little bit later, but this is really the time to do it. With that in mind, a rising number of loved ones taken from us yearly. I just read some data from Nuravalkov. The figure for 2021 was over 109,000 people. The figure from October 21 to October 22, which is the latest figure, was over 107,000 people. Now, all of those are not opioids, but unless I'm mistaken, more than two-thirds are. It's up, it's around 70% are opioids. So we're looking at it like a tsunami of death and all our responses are inadequate. So what, what comes to mind for me and what I've been focusing on is really two things. One is overdose prevention centers or systems of overdose prevention centers. And then the second is safer supply. Do you have, do you have opinions on, on both those interventions? Yeah, I think, you know, over and over again, we focus politically on like prohibition, right? And that just does not seem to work. And the more regulations, the more scheduling, the more border patrol activity we sort of concentrate on, we just keep seeing increasing, increasing number of overdose deaths. So there's like the overdose death crisis. And I think prohibition is not going to fix the overdose death crisis. And what we really need is a safe supply or a safe way for people that are going to use.  We're providing a safe supply, especially for people with the severe use that despite multiple attempts at treatment, I've just have never been able to get into recovery. We're going to keep those people alive until, you know, better treatments are available to help them achieve recovery. And a safe supply seems to be like a step towards that. For the viewing audience that may not be familiar with that term, would you explain what safe or safer supply is? I think just simply a supply that people, a supply of opioids that people can use that they know, know the dose. They know that it's pure, that they know that it is not contaminated with lots of other substances. So people can meter a dose so they know what they can expect.  And, you know, the variability in the supply and the contaminants in the supply is what typically kills people. And so if there was a safe supply, they knew what was the dose, they knew the dose that they were getting, and knew what was in it, then overdose deaths would drop tremendously. You know, we have, I'm fairly certain you're familiar with it, we have On Point, New York City in Harlem and Washington Heights in New York. And then we have two sites getting ready to open in Rhode Island. It seems that the sites in New York unequivocally have remarkable data coming in all the time. Hundreds and hundreds of overdoses are reversed. I think maybe between five and ten times they had to call emergency services. Incredibly high cost savings to the city in terms of law enforcement, sanitation, you know, different types of very costly services that have to be provided. With data like that, do you have any kind of feeling about, you know, America is coming to a place where we can finally begin to embrace overdose prevention centers? Yeah, I think I just wish we were able to sort of keep this in a medical conversation and take the overdose prevention sites out of a political conversation. But unfortunately, this is like highly controversial sort of stuff, and so it gets highly politicized. But certainly from like a science research and medical treatment perspective, you know, it reduces, you know, the needles on the street. It reduces, you know, open air use where people are just on the sidewalk using and everyone is there to see it. It's reducing overdose deaths. You know, all of this stuff would look like we're saving lives from a public health standpoint. And, you know, to compliment that in the traditional harm reduction approach, people using drugs go to overdose prevention centers and they're welcome as, you know, worthy people with dignity. You know, worthy of being paid attention to and, you know, getting to know each other. This relationship, you know, offered to them. It's a safe place. And this particular population that we're talking about, and you know better than I do because you work with them every Wednesday, they're probably the most unsafe population in America. Besides being unhoused and unfed, they're addicted to drugs that are contaminated with poison. I don't think you can get more at risk than that. Now, this particular population also, unfortunately, tragically has to face stigma. And one of the places that I know of where there is no stigma is in the harm reduction world. So bringing these people in and allowing them to take drugs, helping them, basically teaching them to take drugs safely, it seems to be the epitome of meeting someone where they are. And that, you can't, you can't fake that. And for this population, and many of them have been persecuted, prosecuted, stigmatized, punished, rejected, traumatized, this particular population, the harm reduction world is probably the only place they can engage. And it's overdose prevention centers, and we have, we have harm reduction centers in Vermont, don't get me wrong. They're not overdose prevention centers, and they do exactly what I'm saying. They engage people. But an overdose prevention center seems to me to be the next logical step in this, in this evolution. I just want to echo those, those thoughts there, Ed. And you know, this is why I really, I really like the term comprehensive user engagement site. That was, that's somewhere along the evolution of the name. We've landed on overdose prevention sites, but really overdose prevention sites can be so much more than just preventing an overdose. You know, if you add medical care and recovery services to a site like that, you, you improve the health of people who are using substances. And you know, you know, one day where I'm not interested in recovery, I'm, I show up there and I meet Joe and I say, you know, like, and Joe was there and nice to me and doesn't treat me in a stigmatized manner. And I get, I create a relationship. And then, you know, in due time, when I'm ready for recovery, I now have, I have the trust of Joe to help me get into recovery. And if it all is engaged there, people know where to go for that care. So, yeah. Yeah. And in New York, I've spoken with a couple of times with the people from New York, Klan C in particular.  They have washers and dryers. They have showers.  People can come in, you know, can, can get a couple of other needs met, can feel safe. And even, even if they're just going there for that, I just want a cup of coffee and I want a haircut. Fine. You know, and if that's why you're coming, come and let's engage you because you may come here for other more profound reasons going forward. So, yes. Like wound care, HIV care, hepatitis C care. Yeah. Those are all really important things. Yeah. You know, so I'm just really glad we're on the same page and the more we can hear people like you, you know, speaking out about this, the more likely we are to turn this corner at some point. What do you, do you have any opinion about the reluctance? This seems to be, it's lessening now. There are more, we seem to be reaching like a little bit of a tipping point where you'll hear more and more people speaking out, you know, calling out for change, you know, citing the science of overdose prevention centers or what did you call it comprehensive? I like that. What was that? Comprehensive user engagement sites. Comprehensive user engagement sites. You'll hear more and more people about speaking out, but what do you think it is that keeps people with scientific minds, people with medical minds, people with wealth of experience, what is keeping the majority of them silent? I don't understand it. No, I think it's a generational thing, Ed, and I think it's really amazing that someone with your experience of life is on this side. But, you know, I think there are many people and a generation that came before me that don't really understand this and aren't ready to accept it or engage with it. And so I think just like using the analogy of HIV, I think is super important. You know, when HIV, when we first discovered what HIV was and started treatment for HIV, I think we ran into a lot of the same sort of stigma we see here with opioid use disorder, and it took generations to get to the point where we are now. And losing that stigma, supporting research and treating it just like any other infection or disorder has been really important because getting HIV to the point today where, you know, you're living with HIV, it's not a death sentence, it's been really amazing. And I think it's going to take generations to get to the same point with opioid use disorder. Yeah, I think unfortunately you're right and it's just the human way.  I was an injection drug user. I was unhoused in San Francisco for seven years. I entered into my own personal recovery and my recovery, I have no doubt about it, was abstinence-based, 100%. And I believed in abstinence-based recovery and I still do.  And what opened my mind was the reality of death, mounting death within a population of people that couldn't just achieve abstinence. They were going to continue to use. And as a result of stigma driving them away from healthcare systems and addiction driving them toward drug use, they were dying left and right. How can one adhere to an abstinence-based dogma when that is reality?  So there are many people today opening their minds and I agree with you though, you know, this is going to be a generational thing. So, you know, I should retire, but this is so exciting that I can't. You know, to not be so pessimistic, looking on the optimistic side, I engage with a lot of medical students today and engaging with them, I have a lot of hope that the next generation gets it. This is going to be their burden, you know, the HIV of their generation. You know, this is the biggest crisis of their lifetime and the horizon looks good because a lot of medical students I engage with understand this and there's a new wave of doctors coming up that are treating people in non-stigmatized ways. They're learning at a very early stage in their career to meet people where they're at and be patient-centered and I think I've got a lot of optimism. That's beautiful to hear. I know the American Society of Addiction Medicine for a long time has been kind of leading the way. I know that there are programs with addiction psychiatrists, addiction, there's certifications in addiction, there's certainly a growing field. Do you do any of that work at your University of Philadelphia Temple? I'm addiction medicine, not to be confused with addiction psychiatry, which there is a huge overlap there, but a lot of the work that I'm doing is through ASAM, which is the Society of Addiction Medicine. And then I work at Lewis Cat School of Medicine at Temple and I engage with a lot of medical students through an addiction medicine interest group and there's lots of interest and there's lots of the next generation of students trying to get involved and to find a cure. You mentioned that it's interesting because recently Noravalkov had a blog very recently about a cure for addiction and it involved ultrasonic brainwaves and different types of brain treatments that were really something that I had never ever thought of. So apparently there's a tremendous amount of funding going into research at this point. Yeah, there is a lot of funding, grant funding out there for addiction research and boy we need it because the options for treatment right now are so limited and for so many people buprenorphine and methadone just don't work for them and we need to have alternative options for people. We've talked about safe supply but I think there are treatments out there, there's medications out there that we need to work on to help treat dependence withdrawal and then addiction. We need, there needs to be a new wave of medications and treatments. And I know there's research going into that but along those lines I know that there is like an antidote for xylazine overdose in animals but that antidote or overdose reversal drug has not, I don't think it's been tested on humans. Is there any hope that in the future we might have an overdose reversal for xylazine that humans can use? You know there certainly is a medication that is used for reversal of xylazine in the veterinary world, medications that tip them is all. But I think probably the bigger question is do we need a reversal agent? You know just like we have a reversal agent for benzodiazepines which is flimazanil, it's not a medication that we use regularly. And actually there's significant harm that is associated with that drug if you're giving it to someone who has benzodiazepine dependence. But the way I look at xylazine is you know it's not causing a significant number of overdose deaths. And we're certainly only seeing it with opioids and opioids are really the major cause of overdose death. And actually after reversing opioids if a patient remains sedate from xylazine they usually do pretty well with just supportive care. And so if it's you know someone in the field managing this overdose or someone coming to the emergency department it's typically really just some supportive care managing their airway. And even from the data from overdoses that are associated with xylazine the patients are typically discharged from the emergency department because it's not this prolonged sedation or they don't end up in critical care intensive care units. They typically the drug wears off and they're fine. You know when you mention that again what comes to my mind immediately is over those prevention centers because with xylazine I believe it's called hypoxia. There's a blunted response to hypoxia. In other words the person stops breathing and they don't really care. They're not even aware of it.  With xylazine you want to keep breathing something gets in the way of your breathing and you're so sedated that you don't do anything about it. So it seems that in an overdose prevention center people in overdose prevention centers could be very quickly trained on how to position a body to keep airways open and perhaps save a life. Whereas people on the street with Narcan may not know about this and getting the information out to them I think it's going to take a while but I also think we need to get this information out to people who are using drugs on the street. You're absolutely correct. I think there's some misinformation out there but it seems like you've been to a couple of my lectures about xylazine. Xylazine does not cause respiratory depression in the sense like opioids do where they slow the respiratory rate down. You know what xylazine does is very similar to what benzodiazepines or alcohol in large quantities would do.  You don't wake up to clear your airway like you would with someone with a sleep apnea. If they're sleeping and including their airway, catechol means wake them up and then they breathe and take a deep breath. Whereas with xylazine it makes you so sleepy you don't wake up to clear your airway to take a deep breath. Getting all this information out and that's part of what this interview will do. This information will get out. People will share this widely and your information that's potentially life-saving will be disseminated. That's the purpose of the addiction recovery channel and I know from your generosity with your time that it's your purpose too. To get this word out there to help people to really understand what we can do about this because we're in this together. I want to thank you. I want to offer you with a deep sense of gratitude for your time today doctor. Do you have anything else you'd like to add today? I think we sort of, with some new information out from ONDCP that xylazine, they're working towards scheduling xylazine. They've announced that is the combination of xylazine and fentanyl is an emerging drug threat. I think it's going to be super helpful in spurring on some research to make sure everyone's aware that this is a dangerous drug and that we need to understand a lot more about it.  I'm concerned that it's not going to curtail the drug supply and while that may be what people are intending to do, I think as we move to powder supply for xylazine it's not going to make much of an effect and really it's only going to negatively impact people who are using drugs. Yeah, I sadly agree with you. I think that Dr. Gupta at the RX summit made this announcement and he also, from what I've heard, implied that resources would become available but the definition of resources and the definition of resources for what? Well, it was left a little foggy so no one really knows right now but criminalization, as we've seen since the inception of the war on drugs, does exactly the opposite of anything, anyone would want to accomplish. I agree with you on that. So thank you and I love your enthusiasm about the medical profession and the way the medical profession is moving forward. I love your enthusiasm about committing to this. Even if it takes generations, we're not going to give up, we're not going away, we're not going to stop loving people, we're not going to stop being here for people who need us. Thanks for having me, Ed. To my audience, there's going to be a screen lingering now with 211. 211 is the helpline in Vermont. If you call 211 and hit prompt five, you'll get in touch with a real person who will give you information on harm reduction services, treatment services, recovery center services, a wide, very wide range of services and I want everyone to know that I would never ever recommend something I hadn't tried and I call them today. I call 211 today and I was put in touch with a person and I asked all the questions I wanted to ask about harm reduction, about syringe supply, about wound kits, about fentanyl test strips and I was treated with the utmost respect, the utmost dignity, I didn't even feel a whiff of stigma coming toward me. So this is a safe number for you to call 211. If you need help, immediately call 211 and hit prompt number five and you will be directed toward a resource. So again, thank you doctor and thank you my viewing audience. See you next time.


Here we are at the FEMS summer school for postdocs, would you mind introducing yourself and just telling me about the institution that you work in? So my name is Julia, I work in Paris at the Pasteur Institute in a unit that is filled with geneticists and actually I was hired in that unit to bring a different approach on the same topic, which is the evolvability to antibiotic resistance and to environmental stresses. The lab led by Dieter Mazel is mostly focusing on genetic stability and maintenance and all the diversity that contributes to bacterial adaptation, but also on bacterial evolution of antibiotic resistance. And I'm bringing a slightly different approach, which is a combination of microscopy and microfluidic to actually look at the cell behaviour at the cellular level and also at the population, the whole population dynamics. Have you found the experience then of the summer school in relation to your research as well? So this summer school is totally focused on a topic that I've been studying for now since my PhD, I always worked on the perfect adaptation to stress of bacteria mostly antibiotic driven and I actually explored the question at various level of the cell organisation. PhD was mostly focused on the molecular and then I moved during my postdoc in the US on cellular level and population and now I'm exposed again here at the summer school with the more molecular aspect of the bacterial evolvability. So it's great for me to catch up with the novelties in the field and I'm super happy to be here and speakers and also the audience is just lovely and perfect. Have you found lots of crossover between your research and their research or was it in like to work with all these different scientists? Some of the postdocs I think they relate on my research because there's always like one filamentation form for instance that is induced by antibiotic treatments that are happening in their project and they were curious about that because I spoke about cell shape changes when you treat with antibiotics and many students actually were interested about that and then in the second talk I gave it was more about the membrane vesicles that are highly produced during antibiotic treatment and also I had a chance to discuss with some of the postdocs that they were also interested in the content of the vesicles that they could find or their bug that they're working on is also producing vesicles and there's always a little connection that we can make even though this is not their topic I think that's the way it works you're learning from the talks of other speakers. The idea is that the mentors are giving ideas to the students in a way but have you felt anything coming back the other way? Oh yeah absolutely yeah I got many questions and I was a little frustrated at the end of the talk it was super active and super interactive sorry and actually I really enjoyed the format of like being interrupt every time they had a question because if you wait in the end of the talk then you forget so it was very rich to have it in this format so that the students and the postdocs would just interrupt anytime something would come to their mind and I was super open to it and a little bit frustrated that I couldn't actually take note of the question because I thought oh that's a good point I haven't thought about that but I will look I will look it up this worked very well. The environment here has been quite relaxed and informal all week is that right? Absolutely yes so and I think because it's so relaxed it actually allows this kind of interaction they're not shy to ask questions when they need to and it makes it very enjoyable. Is there anything that you're going to take back to your research after this week that you immediately want to start working on or anything that's like piqued your interest in a new idea? I don't think I will start a new project based on what I learned here but these are definitely many many ideas that I pulled in my mind and that I will definitely consider also maybe strengthening some collaboration that already started with some of the mentors here so it just yeah it's going to spiral up and So did you know all the other mentors before or just a few I mean have you made deeper connections with them as well? Not all of them so that's a good point actually I think out of them I knew from conferences and and one of them is a colleague of mine where we collaborate so I met them yeah conferences also related to bacterial evolvability because in the end when you think about that it's a small world so we always happen to meet but I was actually very glad to meet new people like Laurence and even Miro I didn't get a chance to actually meet him very well I met him like a while ago but I was still a student and I mean you gain maturity and then you understand better yeah just like I think I also evolved and I maybe understood better things or the way maybe he would enroll the hypothesis he had on his research because his conceptual level is so high and so advanced the way he looks at all of these different I don't know even like RNA mechanisms or any of the stuff he's presented I've seen in the past has always just been fascinating no I think he's lucky I mean to be able to zoom out on a problem and then like bring different perspectives I would love to have his knowledge and just think of a problem the way he thinks about so if you know a young postdoc is watching us in this video what would you say they would get out of this summer school if they haven't been before I would tell them that you learn a lot because the environment is very prone to interactions and questions and and the idea is really to brainstorm about a topic it's not like I'm going to show you my research and then you swallow it and then this is it it's always open questions in the field and I think we are inviting the students to think about the field from different angles in different approaches with always open questions and we try to raise those questions so it invites the students or the postdoc to discussions right and maybe they can also relate their own project to the question that we are raising awesome well thanks a lot for your time it's fascinating to chat and yeah I hope that anyone watching this is inspired to come and join another summer school with mentors like yourself yeah thank you thanks a lot


I think the family is going to take good care of it. It's going to be a lot of fun. Sometimes the people is going to be like, you have to love yourself. You have to love yourself. I don't know. Do you need what you're doing? Well, I'm just going to go. I have to think too much. I'm serious. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. . . . . . . Oh Just one Let's join in a moment of centering silence and gathering him number 380 is in your order of service Good morning Welcome to the first Unitarian Society of Madison This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual ethical and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world My name is Dorrit Bergen and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors We are a welcoming congregation so whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey we celebrate your presence among us Visitors are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and look for people carrying teal stoneware mugs These are FUS members knowledgeable about our programs and community life and they look forward to the chance to speak with you this morning You can also stop by our information table outside of the library where you can find more information about our upcoming events and programs In this lively acoustical environment it can become difficult for those in attendance to hear what is happening in our service So we remind you that our Child Haven and Commons areas are excellent places to go when anyone needs to talk or move around The service can still be seen and heard from those areas We do have hearing assistance devices available please see one of our ushers if that would be helpful for you This would be a good time to turn off all electronic devices that might disrupt the service Experienced guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service So if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition or our national landmark meeting house Please meet near the large glass window on the left side of the auditorium I'd now like to acknowledge those individuals who help our service run smoothly Our sound operator this morning is David Bryles Your greeters were Joe Kramer and Claire Box Your ushers Diane Olson, Chuck Evanson, Brian Channis And hospitality folks are Biss Nitschke and Sandra Plisch Please note the announcements on the Red Force insert in your order of service Which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities And I have one special announcement On the off chance that the signage hasn't caught your attention We want to remind you that today, yes today, is our annual art fair, art in the right place The landmark building has been transformed by the incredible talent of 47 area artists This is a great opportunity to load up on holiday gifts You'll not only be supporting artists, you'll be supporting our children's religious education program as well 15% of all sales are donated to children's RE And for something sweet, be sure to stop at the bake sale table in the commons Also a fundraiser for our children's program We have some spectacular bakers in our community and here's your chance to indulge in the fruits of their labor The bake sale will end at around 1pm, the art fair continues until 4pm today Again, welcome We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit Roman Catholic priest who passed away last year Autumn prayer O sacred season of autumn, be my teacher, for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment As I gaze upon your full colored beauty, I sense all about you and at home-ness with your amber riches You are the season of retirement of full barns and harvested fields The cycle of growth has ceased and the busy work of giving life is now completed I sense in you no regrets for you have lived a full life I live in a society that is ever restless, always eager for more mountains to climb I am seeking happiness through more and more possessions As a child of my culture, I am seldom truly at peace with what I have So teach me to take stock of what I have been given and received May I know that it's enough, may I know the contentment that allows the totality of my energies to come to full flower And may I know that like you, I am rich beyond measure So autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty Let me also take delight in the abundance of the simple things of life Which are the true sources of our joy With the golden glow of peaceful contentment, may I truly appreciate this autumn day I invite you to rise in body and spirit for the lighting of our chalice As we kindle the flame, please join me in repeating the words of affirmation We light this chalice as a symbol of our thanks for the bounty of life We are grateful for the many gifts we have been given Gifts of love and laughter, where mutual support is most evident Gifts of conscience, which encourage us to contribute to the common good Gifts of hope, which give purpose to our days and meaning to our efforts For these and many other unnamed gifts of life, we give thanks And now in the spirit of that thankfulness, please turn to your neighbor In exchange with him or her a warm greeting Thank you, Dory Please be seated And I would like to invite the children to come forward for the message for all ages I didn't know I had any pigs here in my audience Okay, here we go Get past the animal noises All right, so what am I holding? A box A box And what kind of a box do you think it is? Some of you have had boxes like this before A money box because it has a slot in the top And what do you put in the slot? You put money in the slot A money box, but it's a special kind of money box, isn't it?  Well, you're going to have a chance to have one today I'm going to tell you a little more about it in just a minute But first I want to share with you a little story About a woman by the name of Ursula Rakova Now Ursula Rakova lives about halfway around the world In a chain of islands And a toll that's just off of Indonesia Long, long way away Now there's a problem with these islands Because of rising sea levels Due to warming of our planet Her islands, the islands where Ursula lives with her people They're disappearing The ocean is going to cover them up And that means that the people cannot stay on these islands And Ursula is a woman who is trying to help them To relocate to go to some place else And so she has created an organization called Tulele Piesa And in her language that means Sailing into the wind on your own Sailing into the wind on your own And the purpose of her organization Is to try to find a new home For her people that live on these islands And to help find jobs for the adults When they get to their new homes And schools for the kids when they get to their new homes And also she's trying to help her people Keep their culture alive When they move to a place where the culture is different And so Ursula has begun to arrange For her people to move to a new home In the Solomon Islands Which aren't too far away But they're a little higher So people will be safe in the Solomon Islands They won't have to worry about the rising sea levels And guess what? The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Has been providing her organization As well as six other organizations in the South Pacific With a lot of needed support to do this So in the future there are also going to be Other islands and other cultures That are going to be endangered They may disappear because of global warming And so it's really good to know That our service committee Is helping to raise people's consciousness All over the world about this problem And helping the victims of rising sea levels To find new homes and new livelihoods So today is where the boxes come in We're giving as many of these boxes as we can To our families And what would you do with it? We've already told me, right? Put money in it, that's right But when do we put money? Do we put money in it all at once? No We take the box home And you can get the boxes out in the comments After your church school classes We take the boxes home And we put it on the table Where we eat our meals This is going to be your guest at your table And so every time you have a meal You put a little bit of money in it Ten dollar bills Hundred dollar bills Or maybe just a little bit of your allowance Like maybe fifty cents Or a dollar or something like that But you know, if you do this every day The box is going to fill up, isn't it? And after a few weeks We're going to say Okay, now you all can bring these boxes Back to us here at First Unitarian Society And we're going to count all that money And we're going to send it To the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee And they will use this money To help these people on islands Like the one Ursula lives in That are threatened by rising sea levels And they're also going to be using that money To do other good work as well Because the U.S.C. does a lot of different things So for instance, right now They're helping women and children Who have escaped from violence In their own countries in Central America They're helping these women and children To come here and find new lives Here in the United States Where they'll be safe So pick up a box in the Commons After the church And put money in it in the days to come And when you're doing that Every time you put a little money in Spend a little bit of time thinking inside The box About how you're helping Ursula And people like you Because they will be very, very glad That you did So that's my little message for today And we're going to sing you out Number 127 Thank you for listening Please be seated We continue our service with a Selection from the Gospel of Matthew The 14th chapter And Jesus withdrew From that place In a boat To a lonely place Apart But when the crowds heard That he had gone They followed him on foot From their towns And as he went ashore From the boat He saw this great throng And he had compassion on the people And he healed their sick And when it was evening The disciples came to him and said This is a lonely place And the day is now over So master send the crowds away Let them go into the villages And buy food for themselves But Jesus said They need not go away You give them something to eat And they replied to him But we only have five loaves here And two small fishes And he said Well bring them to me And he ordered the crowds To sit down upon the grass He took the five loaves And the two fish And he looked up to heaven And he blessed And he broke And he gave the loaves To the disciples And the disciples Gave them to the crowds And they all ate And they all were satisfied And those who ate were about Five thousand men Besides the women and children The second reading From Mick Kodner Of Port Royal, Pennsylvania And he remembers During my third year As a fledgling organic farmer I met George And George had been farming organically For about forty years And he also owned A health food store in New York City And he had a seemingly Endless knowledge of agriculture And he taught my friend Al And me one lesson after another And so Al began organizing Educational programs for farmers And he scheduled a field trip To George's farm But a couple of days beforehand George backed out And he said He was not going to give away For free to a bunch of strangers All these farming secrets That had taken him a lifetime To learn And so we had to cancel The field trip Well we hope that maybe next summer We would be able to convince George To participate But that November George had a fatal heart attack In the twenty years since then I have shared my knowledge With other farmers Many other farmers And I have never kept What I learned a secret That's another lesson That George taught me I invite you to join me In the spirit of meditation Momentarily I will share The words of Max Coots Former minister of our church In Canton New York Max was for many years A Unitarian Universalist minister And also a master gardener As we come together this day Let us give thanks For a bounty of people For our children Who are our second planting And though they grow like weeds And the wind soon blows them away May they forgive us Our cultivation And finally where their roots are Let us give thanks Let us give thanks For generous friends Friends with hearts as big as Hubbard's And smiles as bright as their blossoms For feisty friends As tart as apples For continuous friends Who like scallions and cucumbers Keep reminding us that we've had them Let us give thanks for crotchety friends Sour as rhubarb And just as indestructible And for handsome friends Gorgeous as eggplants And elegant as a row of corn And for the others who are as plain As potatoes but just as good for you For funny friends who are as silly As Brussels sprouts and as amusing As Jerusalem artichokes And for serious friends As complex as cauliflower As intricate as onions May we give thanks for friends As unpretentious as cabbages As subtle as summer squash As persistent as parsley As delightful as dill As endless as zucchini And who like parsnips Can be counted to see us through the winter For old friends Notting like sunflowers in the evening time For young friends Coming on fast as radishes For loving friends who wind about us Like tendrils and hold us Despite our own blights And wilts and witherings And finally For those friends now gone Like gardens past that have been harvested But who fed us in their time That we might have life thereafter For all of these Let us give thanks Continue on at just a moment Or two more of silence Blessed be Adam and man 37 years ago I was enrolled In a doctoral level class In which we were exploring the origins And the evolution of religion As a social phenomenon And as part of that particular curriculum We were striving to understand How certain rituals And practices arose And functioned within the context Of religion And so during one session Of the class, our instructor Introduced the term Comensality And he asked whether Someone, anyone in the class Could provide him with the definition of that word Not a single hand was raised Not one of us made a peep We were all clueless And we were abashed Because from the professor's expression It was obvious that this was something That he thought we should have known And so after what seemed like An agonizing period of silence He deigned to enlighten us Comensality It refers To table-sharing The act of joining with others To partake of a meal Simple as that Its connection With religion is rather obvious Comensality describes practices That date back to Religion's earliest organized forms Judaism's Passover Seder The Christian Eucharist Which was originally A remembrance feast Other than a holy sacrament These are prime examples Of congregational table-sharing Comensality So is iftar, the breaking of the daily fast During Ramadan in Islam And even the church potluck Common to many faith communities Including ours This too counts as a commensal ritual When family and friends gather For thanksgiving, each party Bearing a gift to pass They return to this practice With ancient roots Scholars believe that Communal food-sharing Was instituted originally Less for religious reasons Than to avoid internecine struggles And to ensure social harmony In their observations Of contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures Anthropologists have noted That easily procured food Nuts, fruit, roots These are typically consumed By members of Individual households But meat Meat brought in by hunters Brought to the tribe by hunters That's an entirely different matter As a prized food Measures had to be taken To prevent meat from being monopolized Share and share alike Was the cardinal rule In hunter-gatherer cultures Where meat was concerned And as John Lancaster Observed in a recent issue In at least some hunter-gatherer cultures It is considered appropriate Not to thank the hunter for the meat But to insult the meat As an eater To criticize the quality Or the quantity of the meat And this Lancaster writes Was designed to make sure That hunters do not start to think That they're better than everybody else The ritual sharing of meat Was developed by Pre-civilized cultures To curb those poisonous sentiments Of envy and resentment And to maintain a more egalitarian culture Even if the respective parties Don't actually sit down and partake Of it together Food sharing has become, in our world A cultural commonplace Many of us donate to second harvest To feed America To local suppliers like St. Vincent's They're collecting today The Goodman or the River Food Pantries We do this so that others can eat Even if we can't join them And while the funds generated By the UUSC's guest at your table Program don't translate directly Into food aid The suggestion here That the daily donations be made At meal time Attests to the staying power Of this time-honored practice Of commonsality Now, according to Parker Palmer The same principle can be applied Of the multitudes as described In the Gospels So if we discount the possibility That on this occasion Jesus performed a miracle In the supernatural sense If we discount that, we lay that Assumption aside, then we can open Ourselves to a more plausible And humanistic explanation Now, Palmer argues That what we really have here Is an inspirational teaching story Rather than an affirmation Of Jesus' divinity The crowd is hungry Jesus and his companions They have only a modest amount of food Perhaps only enough to feed themselves Nevertheless, Jesus takes What they have, blesses it And after the crowd sits down Instructs that this meager Amount of food be distributed Now what the Gospel account Overlooks Is that people in the Ancient world, and in poorer Societies even today Always packed something to eat When they were embarking on a day-long journey Packed something to eat That they could eat during that particular period of time There were no convenience stores In ancient Palestine, and most people Were too poor to buy food From village vendors So people had some food with them But it was invisible There was more food than just what Jesus And his disciples had to offer But until Jesus himself Modeled sharing behavior People kept it to themselves But inspired By Jesus' generous gesture People pulled out their victuals The ones that they had been carrying All along and shared them With the people around them And so as Parker Palmer writes What Jesus does instead of magic Is to act on the assumption Of abundance Suddenly through a community United by a good example Scarcity turns into abundance The story does not claim That everybody walked away from this dinner With a full belly It simply says they all ate And were satisfied And here it seems to me Is the true miracle That all should end up Satisfied The organizational consultant From the Wharton School of Business Adam Grant calls this The ripple effect In which one positive act Stimulates emulation And multiplies the benefits And in his book Give and Take Adam Grant offers a number of telling examples Of how this plays out Time and time again here in our modern world But before he does this He offers us a typology In which individuals are sorted Into three categories We have the takers And the matchers And the givers Into the first category, the takers These are people who are anxious To maximize their advantage Because they believe that that's what everybody else In this dog eat dog world Is trying to do Life for the taker is all about Winning, outperforming, outsmarting Your rivals Someone like Fred Trump Exemplified that world view And his son Donald Adopted it in spades Now takers will share With others, but only in a calculating way And only if they have predetermined That this will work to their advantage Those in the second category Matchers, they're less Self-aggrandizing They are sticklers for fairness They think and they operate in terms of reciprocity Or quid pro quo And matchers feel most comfortable When everything is even Steven and no one feels A sense of obligation to anybody else For their part Givers take satisfaction In generously sharing of themselves Helping others even In the absence of any tangible Return on their investment And those who fall into this category Insist that giving is More intrinsically satisfying Than taking And they are also committed To making our planet or at least The small part of it that they occupy A better place, they have a sense Of a big picture Now surveys indicate that people Throughout the world prefer Givers over takers Respondents to surveys In 75 countries List, helpfulness, compassion Social concern as traits Worth cultivating And yet Many who subscribe to these Giving values are often reluctant To act them out Why is that? Because they're afraid of being taken advantage of And for that reason Even people who have a predilection Toward giving, toward sharing May only do so in the safety zone Of their own families Or circles of close friends In the larger world of work and commerce They exhibit behaviors much more typical Of takers or matchers When they anticipate Self-interested behavior in others Adam Grant writes It's exploited if they operate like Givers, but by encouraging Us to expect the worst in others It brings out the worst in us And so we become loath To follow our nobler instincts But getting back to the Gospel story now, here's the thing When people do Play out their giving Instincts and take the risk Of selfless sharing Others begin to lean In that direction Behavioral studies that have been Done where participants Were sorted out into small groups And then the people in those small groups Were instructed to compete Among themselves for a predetermined Amount of money Well, in some of those groups The competition could be fierce And each individual was seeking To take home the largest amount of money The biggest pot But if just one consistent giver Was present in a group The norms shifted And the participants began collaborating And so instead Of a zero sum contest With clear winners and losers The wealth in these groups was shared And as the Gospel says All were satisfied There are also certain personal advantages To being a giver People will like you better They feel you're more trustworthy Consistent givers also Generate these networks Of support because they have invested In the success and the well-being of others People will give them a boost When they need it Giver success, Adam Grant writes Creates value, doesn't just Claim value Because they are so intent On winning, takers May take full advantage of Opportunities for self advancement Even if others have to pay the price But takers can only Command the loyalty of others As long as they remain successful And others can ride on their coattails What takers have Are not friends but lackeys And that's what makes them vulnerable Takers may find themselves Desserted if and when Their luck runs out Now There are no pure types Every one of us is a mix Of matcher and giver And taker Still for some Sharing, giving seems to be Their default position When help is needed, they're going to be On the front lines But much more typical is George That organic farmer Who mentored Mick Codner Who provided Mick With this invaluable advice But then George said, unless I'm compensated I will not share my Proprietary knowledge with strangers With other people He was generous with Mick Because he may have regarded Mick As kind of a son or an acolyte Or an apprentice But to Mick's disappointment George was not a giver at heart Tim Berners-Lee The pioneering British Computer scientist who first Envisioned the World Wide Web He was and he is A giver, he also happens to be An active Unitarian Universalist The original idea of the Web Berners-Lee writes Could be a collaborative space Where you could communicate through Sharing information The whole principle behind the Web Was this universal spirit of sharing Now in recent years historians Have also been paying much more attention To the neglected role that sharing plays In the scientific enterprise Those who labor Unheralded Who work behind the scenes They often as we know Provide the data and the ideas That lead to Nobel prizes That are awarded then To the lead investigators So for example Rosalind Franklin She was an x-ray crystallographer And she produced the first photograph Of DNA And that was an indispensable piece Of evidence for Watson and Crick Who described the structure of that molecule And who won the Nobel Prize In 1962 for that discovery Franklin's accomplishment Remained unacknowledged She did not share in that prize Some of you may also have seen The recent film Hidden Figures That tells the story of three African American women who were Recruited into our nation's early Space program. They are calculating Skills contributed to the success Of the first manned missions And yet for decades these three Women languished in obscurity What stories like this Help us to realize Is that the sharing of crucial information And of skills isn't always Accompanied by the sharing Of credit is it John Glenn was Fated in a ticker take parade After he circled the globe John Glenn was later elected To the U.S. Senate from the state of Ohio Largely because of his space exploits But showering Accolades on one person Perpetuates the myth Of individual heroic accomplishment While ignoring the obvious fact That success is seldom achieved Without sharing The apostle Paul Addressed this very issue 2000 years ago In the epistle to the Romans, Paul Expressed concern about Members of those early Christian Communities whose sense of their Own self importance was causing Friction and disruption In those communities. And so he Wrote, I beg every one of you Not to think of yourself more Not to Consider he said the human body In which every organ contributes To the health of the whole Likewise he said by sharing Your special gifts as a teacher Or a preacher or a healer All in the gathered church, this body Of Christ all will prosper. When Abraham Lincoln Was elected president At a time of national crisis He knew that this crisis Was not something that any Individual leader, no matter how talented They were, was going to be able to resolve. And while much has been written About the personal qualities That enabled Lincoln to guide Our nation through the civil war The recognition of his own Limitations was crucial To Lincoln's success. As Doris Curran's Goodwin Observes in her book team of rivals Lincoln's supporters were dumbfounded After he had been elected That he was going to invite some of his Interest rivals to occupy Top-level positions in his cabinet What the heck do you think you're doing? And he replied to them We need the strongest men In the party in my cabinet And I have no right to deprive Our country of their services. So with his ability to share As well as to exercise power Lincoln ultimately earned the admiration Of his previous detractors. In this respect and in so many others The contrast between our first Republican president and the current One could not be more stark. When we share We give to others food That we could consume ourselves We give away knowledge and authority That others could use to their Advantage rather than ours. We give credit for accomplishments That might otherwise burnish Our own resumes. So why would we share these things? Well, because when we do share We feel better about ourselves Better about the values that we hold And because when unselfish Open-handed sharing occurs Then it generates respect and trust And because of the ripple effect People are often moved Others are often moved to mimic That kind of behavior Thereby creating a kinder And more collaborative world So what inhibits us From sharing more often And from sharing more deeply? It is certainly a value that we all Try to inculcate in our children But what kind of models are we? Ironically, our wealth Our own well-being May be an obstacle here. In her book Composing a Life Mary Catherine Bateson relates the story Of five of her closest friends Each one of them unique in their own way One of them is an African American woman And this particular woman grew up in the deep south And she spoke about The Sunday fried chicken feasts That were so common In black communities after church let out These were get-happy occasions Genetical remembers They featured the bountiful sharing Of food But she observes That kind of sharing becomes much less Common among African Americans Once they achieve middle-class status Another friend, Alice Diatremont She grew up in France And in the aftermath of World War II Consumer goods as well as food Was pretty scarce in post-war France But Alice remembers that people shared Whatever food they had Was well-prepared in the French manner And the conversations around the table Were stimulating In this culture of sharing All were satisfied As the Gospel says Diatremont and her family Later moved from France to Baltimore Her father had found a job in the States But then he lost that job Money again was tight But their neighbors ignored The family's plight Here she said it was so much colder People so much less willing To share when a neighbor Was in distress Well, for certain purposes Of course we all do share Some of us carpool with our neighbors We borrow books from the public library We share our time and our knowledge As volunteers We loan our personal equipment Like snow blowers and edge trimmers But what if we were to raise That sharing ethos to another level What would that look like? Well, in terms of our public policies It would look a whole lot different Than the budgets that are now being pushed At both the state and the federal level Legislation designed Legislation designed To heighten the inequality That is already plaguing And dividing us as a people This is not sharing For all the evidence That sharing is good for us We do remain for the most part A nation of takers afraid of being taken advantage of Reluctant to share With those who we feel are Undeserving But as Thanksgiving approaches May we be moved instead By the words of Charlotte Bronte Who wrote That happiness quite unshared Can scarcely be called happiness Because it has no taste Blessed be And amen In the spirit of that sharing The river food pantry will be the recipient Of your gift this morning I invite you to rise in body and spirit For our closing hymn number 407 Please be seated for the benediction And the postlude From the former universalist Seminary professor Max Kapp Often I have felt That I must praise my world For what my eyes have seen These many years What my heart has loved And often I have tried to start My lines and Dear earth I say And then I pause And I look around once more And soon I am bemused And far away in wonder So I never get beyond Dear earth Blessed be


Hey guys, it's David here, and I'm excited to share this video. It's an important one because In it I'm going to outline the number one reason Why we fail in our New Year's resolutions or goals in general So stay tuned guys and I promise I'm going to share the number one reason and what you can do To approach it differently this time So what is it guys what is the number one reason why we fail in our New Year's resolutions Or an any goal Okay drumroll the real reason guys is that we take on too big of challenges or Areas in which we want to change we have too many things or they're too big Okay, the truth about change Healthy change is that it's gradual. It's consistent. It's Predictable almost okay, but it's just small steps. Okay, you might have heard this before but When I mean small steps, I mean small steps right, so A way to think about that is whatever the big goal you have in your mind Have it And then have it again Okay, have it and have it again. So let's say for instance You have an idea of You're going to get super fit this year. Okay Now that might involve for you just randomly saying here going to the gym for an hour a day So if you have that your new resolution or goal, it's going to be to go to the gym for half an hour every day And if you have it again, it's for 15 minutes a day okay now You want to get to the point where you are saying to yourself that sounds ridiculously easy that sounds So easy in fact, it's not even worth doing okay now The whole thing that we're aiming for here is consistency this year our consistency so if we can just Encourage ourselves. Okay. Um be more loving to ourselves be more Considerate make things easy for ourselves. We are far more likely to move We're far more likely to take action Okay, and the action that comes from that mentality is always done with a grace It's always done with a willingness that's there Now and you'll find I promise this is the thing that if you do this these easy steps The 15 minutes will say okay You will occasionally just want to do more than that Okay, because you're going to be consistent. You're going to be saying to yourself. This is so easy I can't believe how consistent I am. I'm following through with this And that positivity Will Carry you forward. It'll give you the momentum you need. Okay The truth about all of this guys is that Change should be in the positive direction It should be you should be growing. It should be helpful for you. It should be bringing you to where you want to be But it should be almost imperceptible. It should be gradual growth. Okay the other way to grow There is a different path to rapid personal growth But that's always It always involves a great deal of pain If you think for a moment in personal transformation say A person might go what they call go through what they call the the dark night of the soul And that can change a person Literally overnight sometimes. Okay a person can completely change the way they look at the world But that's not advisable. Okay, you you don't want to do that because it's unnecessary There is an easier way to change just requires a small bit of willingness So I just gave the gym or the fitness as an example But this could be in relation to any goal you have whatsoever this year That could be in your personal life or in your relationships. It could be in Your professional life. It could be in your personal transformation work that you might be doing Or um therapy work that you might be doing. Okay gradual consistent steady change in the right direction And you'll find that you'll keep growing but you get you get to a point where the Progress becomes more and more rapid as long as you're consistent So guys we need to talk to ourselves in caring language this year We need to be loving to ourselves Another way to put that if you don't like that is we need to be less hard on ourselves. Okay encourage ourselves So guys, um, that's the secret. Okay One super simple thing. That's what you need to focus on ridiculously uncomfortably easy thing And apply yourself to that and see what happens. Okay, go ahead from there Guys if you like this video Um, please consider liking it and maybe subscribing to this channel as well because it it helps other people to see the videos And and also if you are interested, you can also contact me. Just hit the link in the description I do one-to-one skype coaching counseling or psychotherapy with uh With people who are interested if they're going to through something a personal transformation That's what my work is all about So, um, check it out if you're interested guys And with that, I wish you all happy new year and I will talk to you guys in the next video. Bye


Earl Glant shot foreman here at Township Chevrolet for another edition of Tech Talk Today we're going to talk about check engine lights and more specifically your evap system causing that check engine light on everyone's got a friend or a famous member or maybe it's you that's driving around One of your vehicles at home has that check engine light on You've taken it somewhere and they've said oh don't worry about that It's just an evap concern and it won't cause any drivability problems and won't cause any issues down the road So you just kind of put up with that light there some people even take it a step farther and put that little piece of the Black electrical tape over it and so today I'm just gonna give you a quick rundown on what the evap system is Kind of how it functions Maybe some reasons why you might want to think about getting that light off and your dash and getting that repair done so evap system is there to Absorb or to take care of or deal with the fumes in the gas tank. So years and years ago Before evap systems come around used to walk through a parking lot in a hot day And you kind of see the fuel vapors rising out of the out of the gas caps or gas tank filler area on vehicles So that systems there so as the temperature changes and you have the fumes come off the gas tank It stores it in the part of the evap system called the charcoal canister So that's basically just a little holding tank that stores those fumes until it can be burnt in the engine And the way the system works is kind of basics of it and pretty much all manufacturers do the same thing When you're driving down the road and it's meet it's met certain conditions So the ambient temperature outside is a certain temperature. You've got your engine at a certain temperature You're usually the rule of thumb is over a quarter tank or under the three quarter mark So in between there Once the computer sees that criteria is met then it'll open up a purge valve The purge valve is located most of the times on the engine and that uses the engine vacuum to draw those fumes out of the gas tank The one and the charcoal canister that that's been stored there and actually burn them through the tailpipe and burn them up So they're not just escaping into the atmosphere To do that it also needs a vent valve in the system the vent valve is there You can just like a just like a kid drinking a juice box if you're sucking up The juice out of the juice box the juice box tries to kind of go in on itself So what they do is they put a vent valve on that so as it's pulling the fumes out of the tank and the charcoal canister It's also drawing in fresh air behind it so that it doesn't have that suction effect So the main system the main parts of the system are your computer that Controls the system you've got your wiring obviously and you've got your your piping that goes from the Fuel tank and charcoal canister and your vent to your purge to your engine and you've got your vent valve your purge valve and your charcoal canister so Which leads me to the next thing the most expensive part to fix on that system is your charcoal canister Your charcoal canister in theory will pretty much last forever or should last the life of your vehicle what will shorten the life of your charcoal canister is If you're one of those people that are constantly, you know getting squeezing that extra few cents out of the fuel pump and filling up your gas tank You're gonna round up to the nearest dollar We don't recommend that The vent for that system for the fresh air to pull the fresh air in from your vent valve Is usually located around the filler neck somewhere So what'll happen is when you're running the fuel up the fuel actually overspill before it comes out of you know Obviously down to the ground it'll overfill into that charcoal canister raw fuel Will will damage that canister and cause all kinds of evap issue So your best bet is no matter how close you are to that dollar amount. Just let it shut off so having said that the charcoal canister normally is not an issue usually it's You've got a vent valve or purge valve issue Rarely you can have a line that's broke or an air leak in the line somewhere that can cause that light to come on Another thing is to obviously gas caps not being tightened if you if you have a car that has a gas cap You can usually read on the cap It'll say two clicks to tighten and that's to seat that valve in there properly So that you don't end up having to like come on for a small leak in the evap for a medium leak or large leak Or an evap system fault code So you want to make sure that's tight all the way and then with a lot of the newer cars with the cap Capless fuel system where there is no fuel cap You want to make sure if you're you're fueling your car up and you're seeing a bunch of ice and snow around Don't just you know shove the nozzle in there and start fueling just clean that snow off because the flap that you're sticking the The nozzle into that's actually not the one that does the ceiling there's actually one further down But when you open that up sometimes you'll get some water or ice will fall down in there Of course it can melt when it gets warmer and freeze up again and hang that hang that little Valve open or flap open there and cause that light to come on so It doesn't normally cause any drivability issues anything around with your evap That is true. The only downside of the whole deal is if you have another fault in your vehicle somewhere Emissions related fault. You've got no idea That it's happening. So with your check engine laid on all the time You're not going to know unless there's a drivability issue. So It's always good to have that light off and most of the time It's it's not a real difficult system to diagnose if the shop You're thinking if he was got the proper equipment and we have it here And you get the knowledge to fix it.  It's an evap problem. You think it might be Bring it on into us and we'll put our scan tool on and give you an idea what it's going to cost to get that light out That's been another edition of tech talk today. We're all glad here township Looking forward to do business with you and once again if you guys have any Comments or anything you have on your own car that you might want to kind of a rundown on how things work or Any systems on a car just drop it in the comments below in the video and we'll do our best to get that on there Thanks again


So we've seen that when we try to maximize the entropy, when we try to figure out which macro state of the system is most likely, when we're using probability constraints, then we get a fairly boring result. Every state is equally likely to all the others, but it turns out things get a lot more interesting when we impose constraints on the energy of the system. So to illustrate what I mean by that, let's start with a fairly basic example. Let's say that we have a system where the molecules can be in any one of three energy levels. They can have an energy of zero, an energy of one, or an energy of two. So this is essentially a lattice model for the energy. I'm only allowing the energies to have energies of zero or one or two, no other values in between. So if the particles can have energies of zero, one or two, so these are the possible energies that the particle can have. For my problem, let's say we've got a total of 21 molecules, each of which can be in any one of these energy states they like, except I only have a total budget of six units of energy to go around. So not every molecule can be in the upper energy levels. Energy is conserved. I only have six units of energy. I can't create or destroy energy. So if I start out with six units of energy, if one molecule gains some energy, another molecule has to lose energy to compensate. So the question becomes, which macro state, which distribution of particles in the system is going to be most likely under these conditions? And in this case, what I mean by a macro state is, if I tell you how many molecules have energy zero, how many have energy one, how many have energy two, that's a macro state of the system. For example, if I say 15 of the molecules are in the ground state with energy zero and six of them are in this state, that would be, and none of them are in the state two, that would be one macro state of the system. There's several different macro states I can write down and we'll write several of them down. The question is, which of those is more likely than the others? So this is our macro state. A micro state, on the other hand, would be if each of my 21 particles had a label and I could say particle number one is in this state, particle number two is in that state, particle number three is that state. If I knew microscopically where every individual particle was and what its individual energy was, that would be the micro state of the system. The macro state, I don't care which one is which, I'm just saying five of them are in one state, 12 of them are in another state, and so on. So let's start by writing down a few possible macro states of the system. So again, as a reminder for this diagram, those are the different energy levels. For each of those energy levels, I can, let's illustrate that macro state by populating these energy levels with actual molecules. So if I have to put 21 molecules into these energy levels, let's start by figuring out which ones have some energy. So the easiest way I can think of to do it would be to have, let's say six molecules, one, two, three, four, five, six of them have an energy of one. So that's used up all my total energy budget of six units of energy, so I can't have any molecules left up in the E2 state. There's no energy left for those, so all the other 15 molecules have to be down at the bottom. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. So all 15 of the remaining molecules are down in the ground state. So that's one individual macro state of the system, so N0, N1, N2, I put 15 of them in the ground state, six of them in the next state, and none of them in the highest state. So that's a macro state of the system. That's one of my possibilities. I can think of others, for example, so I could do that, or it's not terribly interesting to have none of them in the E2 state. Let's suppose I do want to put one of my molecules up there with the total energy of two. I've taken one of these molecules and I've lifted it up to here, but remember energy has to be conserved. Total energy has to be six. One way of thinking about that is if this molecule gained one unit of energy, somebody else had to lose one unit of energy. So there's only four of them left in that intermediate state. Or the other way of thinking about it is in order to add up to six, this molecule has two units of energy. Each of these four have to have one unit of energy each to add up to six. Five molecules with any energy whatsoever and the other 16 of them have to be in the ground state. So that's 16 molecules in the ground state. So that would be a macro state described by 16 in the ground state, four in the intermediate state and one in the highest state. So that's a different macro state. I can write down multiple different macro states. I've written down two. There are some more. But notice that each of these valid macro states has to obey two constraints. There were two rules I had to obey when drawing one of these diagrams. First of all, if I add up how many are in each individual state? If I add up N0 and N1 and N2, those have to add up to 21. I've got 21 molecules in this macro state. I've got 21 molecules in this macro state. I have to have 21 molecules no matter what. I could not, for example, put 10 molecules in this state, 10 molecules in that state, 10 molecules in that state. That certainly would not obey this constraint. I have to have 21 molecules total. Likewise, there's a constraint on the total energy. I had to be careful not to spend more than six units of energy when partitioning these molecules among different states. So the way to write that constraint down is however many molecules in each state multiplied by the energy of that state. So for example, 16 times 0 plus 4 molecules with energy of 1 plus 1 molecule with an energy of 2, that has to add up to the total energy of 6. So for all my three states, the 0 state, the 1 state, the 2 state, molecules times energies have to add up to my total energy. That's two different constraints on my macro states. So we can use those constraints to identify possible macro states. So we've already written down 15 comma 6 comma 0. We've written down 16 comma 4 comma 1 as two possible macro states that obey these constraints. To find some others, we can just continue this process. If I can certainly have 0 molecules in the highest energy level, I can have 1 molecule in the highest energy level. I could have 2 molecules in the highest energy level. But again, if I want to pay to lift 1 molecule up, I have to, in order to conserve energy, let 1 molecule fall back down. So I'm going to lose not only the one that I excited, but one that has to fall down to the ground state. So I can double check and make sure that I've got 21 total molecules and that 2 with energy 1 and 2 with energy 2 adds up to a total energy of 6. So that's another valid macro state of the system. And if I do that one more time, I can put as many as 3 molecules up in the top state if I wish. But then I don't have any energy left to put anybody in the intermediate state. So there's another valid macro state of the system. So what can I do with that information? My goal was to figure out which of these macro states is most probable and I can't write down anymore. If I can't have any fewer than 0 molecules in the top most state, I can't have any more than 3 molecules in the top most state because I've used up my full energy budget. So these, it turns out, are the only 4 macro states that are allowed for this particular system if I'm limited to having only 6 energy. My goal then is to figure out which of these has the highest entropy. So for each of these macro states, if I know the probabilities, I can calculate the entropy divided by Boltzmann's constant to be minus the sum of P log P's. So just as an example, to show you that we do, in fact, know what the probabilities are. If I have 21 particles and 15 of them are in the ground state, 6 of them are in the intermediate state, none of them are in the upper state, then the probability that I'm gonna find a molecule in the ground state is 15 out of 21. In the intermediate state, it's 6 out of 21. And in the top state, it's 0 out of 21. So knowing the total number of particles in each state and knowing the total number of particles, these probabilities are just little ends over the total begin. So we do, in fact, know what these probabilities are. If I were to calculate minus the sum of the probability, log probabilities, in other words, negative 1521 times log of 15 over 21 added to negative 6 over 21, log of 6 over 21 added to zero, log zero. If I calculate that for this macro state, I get a number. I can tell you what that is. That number is 0.60. And I can do that for each of these states. Calculate the probabilities, sum up the P log P's. And what I find is that each one has a different value for the entropy. So which one of these states is most probable? Which distribution of particles among these energy levels is most likely and has the highest entropy? That would be this one, the one with the highest value of the entropy. So what that tells us is this macro state where I've got 16 in the ground state, four in the first excited state, one in the uppermost state, that's the one with the highest entropy. So this one that I happen to draw second here is the most probable macro state. More likely that I have 16 in the ground state, one up in the uppermost state than I have this distribution or some other distribution. Just to answer a potential question, you might ask yourself, based on what we talked about in the last video lecture, what we learned is that entropy is maximized when the distribution is flat, when every probability is equal, right? So if I have an equal probability, one third or seven out of 21 chance of being in the ground state, seven out of 21 chance of being in the middle state, seven out of 21 chance of being in the upper state, seems like that ought to have a higher entropy than these cases based on what we talked about previously. And that's in fact true. The probabilities, one third, one third, one third, if I calculate minus one third, log one third, add that to minus one third, one third, add that to minus one third, along one third, what I get when I do that is 1.10 times k. So that does in fact have a higher entropy than this state where they're not as equally distributed. It's a higher entropy, more random, to put an equal number of particles in each state rather than to have a distribution like this one. But what's wrong with this solution, with an entropy of 1.10 times k? What's wrong with that solution is it disobeys this requirement. I still have 21 particles, but I have spent more than my total budget of energy. I've put seven molecules in the upper most state. That costs 14 energy, these cost seven energy. I used up 21 energy in order to get this much entropy, and that's not allowed. If I only have six units of energy to go around, this state is not permitted because it breaks the constraint on the energy. So what we found can be summed up by two observations. Number one, when we have an energy constraint, when the energy is constrained, in addition to just the number of particles or probabilities being constrained, then we may not be allowed to have equal number of particles in every state. So the flat distribution of equal number of particles in every state isn't allowed, and one of the other distributions is going to be most probable or have the highest entropy. And notice that it's interesting that what we see here is typical for what we see in a chemistry problem in the real world, which is that high energy states are less probable, less occupied, have a lower probability than low energy states. In the real world, it certainly is true that low energy states, states with relatively little energy are pretty common, they happen with high probability, only rarely do you find systems with a lot of energy in them. So we're beginning to see why that's true. We've only done this for one particular example. We had to enumerate every individual possibility to figure out which one had the highest entropy. So the next step is going to be to use Lagrange multipliers and the general case to see what, in a case where we have an arbitrary energy constraint, what indeed are the probabilities that are most likely.