Hi everyone, so today we'll be talking about gut immune function how to balance our ancestral genome with our modern-day environment for optimum gut and immune health and I think when you look at this issue from the perspective of the immune system You start to see why I've made some recommendations that have been counter to What you may hear in other places and this is because I think one of the things that's been left out of the picture Is looking at how our immune systems are formed? and how our immune systems are not hunter-gatherer immune systems So therefore creating a hunter-gatherer gut may not be a great idea because the immune system and the gut may not get along And i'm going to expand on that posit here throughout the body of the talk today So here's the outline we'll go through Replicating ancestral dietary and lifestyle practices can clearly be helpful claims suggesting otherwise are clearly not taking into account all the data two Some ancestral practices are mismatched with our genome or i'm sorry mismatch with our immune systems and can make people ill Creating a gut environment suitable for the immune system may involve a reduction of some seemingly healthy foods Point four imbalances in the microbiota are sometimes adaptations to protect the host Attempting to force change to these imbalances can be damaging Five Overtesting is one of the most damaging practices in natural functional or complementary and alternative medicine And a sound process can be used to optimize one's gut and immune system health. So let's jump in The point one let's Expand on this slightly All diets that reduce process foods and focus on whole fresh foods can improve health It's important that we're clear on this Any diet that's a shift from a process food laden standard american type diet Shows health benefit in clinical trials. It doesn't matter if it's vegetarian Mediterranean akins paleo They all tend to work Now comparative trials have found many of them have found that paleo or low carb diets often have a slight edge But the effect size Is minimal significant but minimal meaning taking weight as one parameter Low-carb diets produce more weight loss But oftentimes the effect size in terms of the difference between a vegetarian diet for weight loss and a low-carb diet may only be three pounds So they do work better But they all work and this is important to keep this in mind. So we don't have dietary dog mind, right? And we are a little bit open-minded And some other things that have been helpful outside of a a ancestral type diet, which would be a paleo-waste type of diet Fasting we could argue that's something that falls in the ancestral paradigm Sleep and I mean sleep according to Sarcadian rhythm and also good sleep hygiene a dark room and I just see dan party sitting down So he's the godfather of that um Also time in nature As shown to have health benefit for example Observational trials have clearly shown that people that live in blue zones or green zones Oceanic or forest type environments have a lower all-cause mortality And walking has been shown to be arguably the foundation of fitness making sure we get enough steps And this may be because it's more important to have a large amount of low-level activity Rather than a short Punctuated burst of high-level activity, right? So this fits back to the ancestral paradigm, right? So all this supports that many ancestral practices are health promoting So that's an easy point to substantiate. Let's move on to point two And this is what where we get a little bit more controversial Some ancestral practices are mismatched with our immune systems and can make some people ill So let's develop this Now the foundation that's important to understand here is that much of the immune system is programmed in early life They have done studies where they've shown That the earlier antibiotics are administered 12 months 9 months 6 months 3 months the earlier they are administered the more damaging they are Conversely the same thing holds true with probiotics The earlier they are administered the more beneficial they tend to be And this can even mean for when someone is a teenager or In adulthood the effects of early life programming are are somewhat locked in for the perpetuity of your life C-section and breastfeeding has either a negative Positive impact depending on if your natural bird then your breast feed that's protective if your cesarean bird and your bottle fed That's a detriment And also living on a farm Has also been shown to be health promoting Now The challenge can be if a non hunter-gatherer immune system is presented with a hunter-gatherer type environment that can be Detrimental and a quick side point. I'm using the term hunter-gatherer diet diet loosely And the context here is There there's been some excitement with the Research in the microbiota and I spoke about this at the last ancestral health symposium Much of this research is coming out of areas that eat a relatively higher carbohydrate fiber and prebiotic diet And so an erroneous assumption is being made That a paleo diet needs to be a higher fiber prebiotic and carbohydrate diet So i'm saying i'm using this term Hunter-gatherer diet a little bit loosely because you could argue against that as I did in my presentation last year And we'll expand on that more in just a moment But I want to bring you down to where it says examples Of non hunter-gatherer immune systems not doing well with a hunter-gatherer like diet or gut Interestingly if a child grows up on a farm, it's protective against many Allergic or inflammatory disorders But if they visit a farm that can actually cause a flaring of inflammatory conditions like allergies atopic dermatitis So this is this was a big observation for me that opened my eyes to the fact that If you have a non hunter-gatherer immune system, and then you try to force yourself into a hunter-gatherer environment that may not jive Continuing a low fob map diet which reduces foods that feed bacteria Actually shows impressive clinical benefit for many people Also a low histamine diet has shown some impressive clinical benefit for people with various health ailments Now although fob map diet reduces foods that feed bacteria, although histamine diet reduces many fermented foods That we harp on as being so health promoting and they can be health promoting, but they may not be for all people So this supports The statement I made a moment ago essentially this is a paper by cordane where they surveyed hunter-gatherer diets worldwide and to quote Most 73 of worldwide hunter-gatherer societies derived over 50 of their energy from animal foods Whereas only 14 of these societies derived over 50 from plant foods Okay High reliance on animal-based foods coupled with relatively low carbohydrate content of wild plant foods so This is supporting the my contention which is Not everyone needs to be on a higher prebiotic higher carbohydrate diet It's not saying everyone should be on a ketogenic diet All right, don't don't take a counterpoint me meaning that we have to swing all the way to the other extreme But clearly there's evolutionary evidence showing that being on a high carb high prebiotic diets is not going to be helpful for many people Now I want to just show this study really quick because you may hear that and think Oh, so does this mean everyone should be on a low carb diet? No, this study essentially showed better weight loss when going on a high carb diet for Asian women So again, we need to get away from this model of thinking About one thing being the best all the time This is the only way to do it because that doesn't really help people It confuses people because then you hear one camp saying to do this another camp saying no do that People read all this stuff. They don't know what to do and they feel paralyzed right So let's continue developing my main contention Creating a gut environment suitable for the immune system may involve a reduction of seemingly healthy foods Again, so much of much of creating a suitable environment for one's health does involve Recommendations that we're all probably accustomed to paleo diet sleep time and nature walking However, it can require also the reduction of seemingly healthy foods I made the example of low FODMAP and low histamine. So let's develop these In this study entitled dietary guidance normalizes large intestine endocrine cell density in patients with irritable bowel syndrome They took I'll just I'll read it here for you The study included 13 patients with IBS and 13 controls the patients received three sessions of individualized dietary guidance on the low FODMAP diet Both the control subjects and the participants were scheduled for colonoscopies at baseline and again At three to nine months after dietary guidance Biopsies were taken from the colon and rectum and were immunostain for all types of large intestinal endocrine cells The daily total consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in FODMAPs decrease significantly from 16 grams before dietary guidance to nine grams after conclusion The density of large intestine endocrine cells tend to normalize Following dietary guidance in this case a low FODMAP diet and may have contributed to the improvements of the patients with IBS symptoms And this is some of their data here They're essentially showing the main change here was an increase in serotonin cells in the colon so we get so Obsessed with the fact that a low FODMAP diet may cause a decrease of bacteria in the gut and freak out because We've heard that bacteria are so important, but it may not all be about the bacteria We may be causing an improvement in the endocrine cells in the intestines that are responsible for serotonin release And serotonin is important for not only nociception, but also for motility And this may be why the low FODMAP diet works well But you get confused when you try to make the recommendation based upon mechanism the mechanism is Bacteria are good So a low FODMAP diet must be bad because the low FODMAP diet decreases bacteria This is why I've repeatedly said you should not make clinical recommendations based upon mechanism You should look at clinical data when you look at clinical data The low FODMAP diet is very effective for IBS and IBD, right? So outcome always trumps mechanism Does that make sense? Yeah, okay So you may be saying to yourself, but what about the small intestine? Maybe you've heard me talk about how important the small intestine is And how the small intestine is oftentimes left out of this conversation Another study has been done changes in duodenal. So small intestine Enteroendocrine cells in patients with irritable bowel syndrome following dietary guidance The densities of enteroendocrine cells are abnormal in patients with IBS However, they tend to change toward normal levels in the stomach, ilium and colon following dietary advice The aim was to identify types of duodenal and enteroendocrine cells affected after receiving dietary guidance, again low FODMAP, in this group of patients In conclusion, the densities of several duodenal and enteroendocrine cells in IBS change toward the values measured in control subjects following dietary guidance The changes in serotonin and somatostatin cell density may have contributed to the improvements in IBS and particularly pain in diarrhea So now we're showing, not only in the colon, but also in the small intestine you can have improvement in cells that secrete things like serotonin So while, yes, the low FODMAP diet may decrease bacteria, that may not be a bad thing because we may see an accompanying improvement in some of the wiring and some of the hormones in some of the cells in the intestines in patients who go on a low FODMAP diet But wait, there's more A low FODMAP diet has also shown the ability to decrease leaky gut as assessed by LPS, lipopal saccharide And another study showing, and this I think is very key Metabolic profiling of urine showed groups of patients with IBS differed significantly after the diet And this is a low FODMAP diet again, as you see there With three metabolites, histamine, p-hydroxybenzoic acid and azelaic acid being the primarily responsible for discrimination between these two groups Histamine, a measure of immune activation, was reduced eight-fold on the low FODMAP diet Again, I don't want to paint myself as a low FODMAP fanatic, right? But it's important, I feel like I'm one of the few people saying Hey, maybe not everyone needs to try to feed their bacteria And you see this, if you work with patients and you're objective And you're not married to a particular philosophy, you clearly see that bacterial reducing approaches Work far superior for many patients with IBS, with IBD, and other food sensitivities, health ailments, gut involvement, what have you Again, it's not to say that low FODMAP is the diet that every patient in my office gets in a dogmatic way But it's important that we're familiar with some of this information Because I don't think it's getting the attention that it deserves It's coercing us into this thinking that everyone needs to be feeding their gut bugs when I don't think that's really supported Oh, and one more So in this study, concomitant prevalence of low serum, diamine, oxidase activity, and carbohydrate malabsorption 20% of patients showed histamine intolerance, making it as common as lactose intolerance in this group Abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea are some of the leading symptoms associated with histamine intolerance Histamine is a signaling molecule in the gut, not only in the gut, but it's involved in the immune response Now, when people have overly zealous immune systems, especially in their gut, they will have a predilection toward high levels of histamine Although FODMAP diet can lower histamine by eight-fold So what does that tell you? It tells you that somehow, by decreasing bacterial load in the gut, you are calming down the immune system Does that make sense? Low FODMAP and low histamine diets, though, call on one to restrict foods that we often times associate being the beacon of healthy diets So it's important that we understand this because by understanding this, we can get people to recommendations that will be more beneficial for them In this study? So this study essentially took patients that had been non-responsive to other IBS therapies and they assessed them for things like fructose intolerance, lactose, malabsorption, histamine intolerance, and they essentially found about just under a third of patients had histamine intolerance, making about as common as lactose intolerance All right, so it's important that we understand this So yes, these are IBS-type symptoms, abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea being very abdominal pain and altered bowel function being the two most predominant symptoms associated with IBS So let's review Normalization of intestinal and enteroendocrine cells can occur on a low FODMAP diet and these cells are responsible for the release of serotonin and somatostatin We also see with a low FODMAP diet a normalization of immune activation via reduction of a leaky gut and reduction of histamine Are we all on the same page? You guys with me on this? Yeah, okay Now, I do have a clinical newsletter For anyone in the audience or listening to this who is a clinician who wants to get more into this because I do think it's important that clinicians are aware of this information We've done a number of case study write-ups in our clinical newsletter So, and this is one of them I'm not going to go through this case study but if you go to that URL there Dr. Ushua.com slash review You can access case studies where we go through What does histamine intolerance look like? How does it present clinically? And how do people respond? I'll tell you one of the most common flags is when someone says the healthier I eat the worse I feel That's a that's oftentimes a flag for histamine intolerance because they what are they eating? They're having lots of soups and bone broth or they're having lots of fermented foods Right and these things can be very problematic for people that are histamine sensitive So they keep trying to eat these foods because the community keeps harping on how healthy they are and they can be healthy for many people but for people who have this immune dysregulation in the gut that can actually make this subset of people worse As I said earlier antimicrobial therapy is oftentimes more effective than promicrobial therapy and this is very important for us to understand Low FODMAP, low carb, low histamine, herbal antimicrobials or antibiotics if you look at all of the literature I'm not saying that there's one cherry-picked study but if you look at the evidence at large and you weigh it those therapies are generally more effective than higher FODMAP diet, higher carbs, prebiotic supplementation and fiber Again, for some not for all right so this is not an absolute but you do see a trend in the data when you look at the clinical trials there tends to be more benefit for antimicrobial strategies than promicrobial strategies The more symptomatic someone is the the iller you are the more important this is the more likely you are in my observation to do better with antimicrobial approaches rather than pro-microbial approaches Now what about probiotics? Probiotics are more likely to be net antimicrobial amongst other things than they are pro-microbial They most probiotics do not colonize you They've been shown to reduce SIBO combat Candida and fungus and assist in the clearance of H. pylori and various protozoa So we oftentimes don't realize that by taking a probiotic we may actually be taking a pseudo-antimicrobial Doesn't colonize you and kill stuff in the gut right? Elemental diets can also be very helpful As you continue down the spectrum of people who are progressively more ill or more more challenged with their diet or their gut health Elemental diets which are essentially hypoallergenic liquid diets that have essentially zero fiber and probiotics in them can be very helpful for these highly sensitive patient subgroups And ironically at least one study showed the ability of an elemental diet to somehow increase microbial diversity in the small intestine Now why might that be? How could something that starves bacteria increase diversity of bacteria? Because what's probably happening is by starving bacteria you're calming down the immune system and it's the immune system attacking the bacteria in the gut that's causing the low diversity to begin with When you calm down the immune system you reduce the insult on the microbiota and allow the microbiota to then flourish Does that make sense? Now this is maybe a slightly off topic but I think it's worth mentioning When all else fails and we can't create the right environment in a gut for the microbiota we can replace the microbiota so if you can't fix it you can replace it and this is where FMT can come in and I just want to touch on this briefly This is a retrospective analysis of 406 patients who underwent FMT and they've listed here or I've listed here for you from the study the cure rates and the improvement rate So RCDI recurring clostridium difficile infection 85 percent versus 95 percent you know cure rate and improvement rate Now that probably doesn't apply to many people here but constipation may 40 percent cure rate 67 percent improvement rate ulcerative colitis 34 percent 68 percent IVS 47 percent 73 percent and Crohn's So we see some hopeful benefit here for people that fail out of all other therapies but I want to be clear in saying this is something that should be reserved for people who fail out of all other therapies not I read two books on gut health and now I'm going to do a FMT you should definitely get yourself to a highly skilled gut doctor like myself or someone else who knows what they're doing and have them help you before you think about doing an FMT Also here I'm cautious with this regarding IBS because IBS is extraordinarily prone to placebo effect So this is a systematic review with meta-analysis showing again benefit of about 45 percent for IBD I think the next FDA approved condition that FMT will be sanctioned for will be for inflammatory bowel disease because the data is there But this is why I caution adverse events do occur a systematic review of adverse events in contrast the incidence of serious adverse events were 2 percent and 6 percent for upper and lower gastrointestinal administration routes A total of 44 kinds of serious adverse events occurred in 9 percent of patients including death in 3 and a half percent infection in 2 and a half percent relapse of inflammatory bowel disease in 0.6 percent in clostridium difficile infection So it's not to say this therapy is not without its risks and this is why I get admittedly irritated when I hear people talking about this being the next weight loss cure and oh my cousin's skinny can I just do an FMT with her poop and lose weight I mean come on Okay so review Anthemicrobial therapy often more effective than pro-microbial therapy If no therapies work we can replace the microbiota 4 imbalances in the microbiota are sometimes adaptations to protect the host attempting to force changes to these imbalances can be damaging Just a few things here I hope you can yeah you can see that Okay all right So treatment of diabetes improves the microbiota They did nothing but gave type 1 diabetics insulin and the microbiota improved Is that possible? Yes it's possible because the health of the host is the environment for which the microbiota lives and if you improve the environment you improve what lives inside of you Type 2 diabetics going on a low carb diet saw an improvement of their microbiota as their blood sugar became more normal Exercise has been shown to correlate with the healthy microbiota in fact cardio respiratory fitness in one study predicted microbial diversity and another study tracked changes from sedentary to active and showed that as you exercise and improves the health of your microbiota So this this thinking that the microbiota is the cause of all disease and treating the microbiota is is the next miracle is really ill founded and you're taking this from a gut geek if anybody wants it to be true it's me right but it's not it's not true certainly improving your gut health can be a miraculously helpful intervention but trying to custom manipulate your microbiota to do what you think it should do doesn't really pan out Vacuuming using a sponge So one study showed children that grow up in households that use a sponge have a lower incidence of allergic diseases compared children growing up in houses that use dishwasher probably because of the residual bacteria in the sponge So another thing in your environment that can affect your microbiota The frequency of vacuuming has also been shown to affect your microbiota So we need to get away from these things thinking that if we if we show a change the microbiota we're going to be able to do so much it's a little silly and even a calorie reduction improves the microbiota in obese subjects probably because the calorie restriction diet improved metabolism in these subjects Another study showed a reduction of carbohydrate improved thyroid autoimmunity and what's more important here is that 80% of these patients express signs of carbohydrate malabsorption So again coming back to this thinking that feeding the gut with carbs and prebiotics may not always be the best thing to do Anti-inflammatory drugs also increase the diversity in the gut microbiota and I would speculate the same thing would occur with anti-inflammatory herbs Now why is that? It's likely because the anti-inflammatory drugs are toning down an overzealous immune system that's attacking the microbiota So the diversity may not be the cause of the disease it may be a result of the disease the disease being an imbalanced immune system And now developing this further prebiotics caused inflammation and a doubling of symptoms but a healthier microbiota So let's pick into this Effective varying dietary content on fermentable short-chain carbohydrates on symptoms, fecal microenvironment and cytokine profiles in patients with IBS Study of purpose to evaluate the effect of a low FODMAP diet compared to a diet high in prebiotics on IBS symptoms and related co-morbidities They tracked IBS symptoms, general health symptoms GI microbiota, short-chain fatty acids and cytokines So essentially here the intervention they took a bunch of patients they put them on a low FODMAP diet Then they kept them on a low FODMAP diet one group took a placebo the other group took a prebiotic and then they switched groups Here's what they found There was a significant improvement in all IBS symptoms after three weeks on a low FODMAP diet and overall patient satisfaction of 85% Those on a low FODMAP diet also expressed a significant improvement in belching, passing gas, nausea, vomiting and fatigue Here's the key piece When transitioning to either placebo or FOS fructillary saccharides, a prebiotic 80% of those on the placebo maintained their improvement whereas only 30% of those who started taking a prebiotic maintained their improvement Went on a prebiotic patients experienced a worsening of nausea, vomiting, headache, belching and passage of gas Additionally cytokines a reduction in inflammatory cytokines was noted in those on a low FODMAP diet but not for those on the prebiotic Now the microbiota paradoxically became slightly more dysbiotic what we think is dysbiotic I think we still don't really know what a dysbiotic microbiota truly looks like and the short chain fatty acids decreased So we see some things that may be considered bad but my argument would be that we don't know how to truly label a dysbiotic microbiota yet so I totally discount that and short chain fatty acids decreasing is not always a bad thing because you do see elevated short chain fatty acids in some subgroups patients with IBS may have elevated short chain fatty acids patients who are obese may have elevated short chain fatty acids So if you go back to the erroneous thinking via mechanism short chain fatty acids good therefore if I increase short chain fatty acids people become healthier do you see how quickly that can get you into trouble we should look to clinical data to make decisions not speculate based upon mechanism There's also the bifidobacterium paradox another reason why we should not make decisions based upon mechanism the low FODMAP saw a decrease in bifidobacterium but people felt a lot better Ironically though, bifidobacterium is one of the most beneficial supplemental probiotics in the IBS literature So again, it's why we shouldn't be speculating for mechanism Okay, so to improve the health of the host or by improving the health of the host we can improve the microbiota treating diabetes, exercise, stress hormone support these can all reduce inflammation or I'm sorry and reducing inflammation can all improve the microbiota a dye that discourages bacterial growth can benefit the host it can reduce inflammation and reduce symptoms this may occur while becoming quote unquote dysbiotic and maybe accompanied by less short chain fatty acids neither one of these may be a bad thing and I'll be brief here because I'm a little over time over testing is one of the most damaging practices in natural functional complementary and alternative medicine the state of functional medicine excessive and expensive there's a belief that more testing equals better results this is simply not true there's a belief that more treatment equals better results this is simply not true and information has become a form of marketing you can take a mechanism and you can find a mechanism to support whatever it is you're trying to sell lab tests supplement whatever it is but you can't do that with clinical data which is why I always come back to the evidence-based pyramid where we should be making our decisions based upon high-quality clinical outcome data when it's available and in gastroenterology we have a wealth of data available empiric medicine has been forgotten we've been sold a bill of goods that this fancy functional medicine testing holds the key to becoming healthier and it preys upon the desperation of sick patients and the fear of doctors not being able to help their patients and it's really wrong and it does a lot more harm than it does good what's needed is a return of practical and cost-effective care which is progressive but also conservative I'm growing increasingly concerned that's what's happening at least two times a month I have a patient come in from another clinic where they were required to do $3,000 worth of testing or more on day one and this doesn't even include the consultation visit or what have you again, more testing does not equal better results and a few examples not needed at all in my opinion adrenal testing, food allergy testing microbiota mapping many functional GI markers like certain enzymes, fecal fat, shortening fatty acids, obscure inflammatory markers and most gene testing often not needed initially expanded thyroid panels, Lyme, metals, mold, and female hormone assays this is a big difference between or this is a difference between, for example, $4,500 worth of testing out of the gate and $800 to $1,200 of testing out of the gate now if you have insurance these totals will all be a little bit less but these things make a big difference but I know someone who did a microbiota mapping assessment and felt better on fiber and prebiotic supplementation great but you didn't need the test to do that right so the flawed assumption the gut is important so perform microbiota mapping then use specially tailored diets, prebiotics and fiber and probiotics and this is simply not true it wastes time and money and I think worsens care if we are treating markers that are meaningless what are we doing? we're wasting time we're wasting money and we're potentially harming someone and just as a quick aside I was lecturing at the international symposium on natural medicine in Australia a few months ago I was there with Professor Rob Knight and we were both on a question and answer panel and he's sitting right next to me and someone asks Dr. Russo do you use microbiota mapping like American gut and new biome in your clinic sitting next to the guy pretty much invented this testing and I said I really don't because it's just not clinically relevant and I was so pleased to see Professor Knight the guy when it comes to this nodding his head in agreement as I'm saying this and essentially being completely in agreement so take it don't take it from me if you want to take it from the guy who has pioneered this work the microbiota mapping is not ready for clinical practice it's just not so if you're doing that test I would ask you kindly to stop and just to realize that hey sometimes you think something's going to help when we learn more we realize I guess that wasn't really helpful so we can just change doesn't doesn't mean anything bad or foul play but if you're trying to treat something that does not have meaning you are making the clinical process harder because you've introduced a meaningless variable into a already variable rich process does that make sense and I've seen patients I'd say there's a small contingent of patients that I see who've gone to doctors and the doctors have treated their microbiota mapping test results instead of treating the condition or treating the patient and what happens oftentimes to put it simply someone with IBS or IBD goes to see a doctor they poop in a cup they have low diversity ensuing of bacteria so they're given a bunch of fiber prebiotics and probiotics and guess what the clinical literature shows people who take prebiotics and fiber have the the highest adverse event that's reported is a flaring of gastrointestinal symptoms so what do you think happens to these patients they get worse and the doctor goes huh that's weird you know your diversity was low I'm trying to feed your diversity you were low on this bacteria so I gave you this bacteria they're not getting that there's there's not clinical data substantiating that has any effect and that's why they're not getting any better okay so last slide or last couple of slides a sound process can be used to optimize one's gut health and immune system this will be outlined in my coming book healthy gut healthy you it'll publish in February but here's a brief overview start with the ancestral paleo type diet and lifestyle those who are mostly improved from this are good candidates for prebiotics and fiber they may obtain additional benefit from this those who do not will most likely need to visit reduction strategies autoimmune paleo low carb low FODMAP low histamine probiotics robolenthalmicrobials potentially even pharmaceutical antibiotics then later reintroduced to see how much they can tolerate and how much benefit they obtain from feeding strategies this group B may need occasional trimming of the shrubs guys some conditions have a natural ebb and flow a natural remit relapse remit relapse and it doesn't mean that the world is ending all right if you've had a musculoskeletal injury like a knee injury you may notice every once in a while it flares up a little bit right you have to take it easy do your stretches do your rehab whatever and then it gets better same thing happens in IBS and an IBD and in SIBO all right and it's unfortunate people read on the internet that you can never get rid of SIBO and it always and that guys it's not really how this works the analogy I like to use is think about the shrubs the bushes outside of your house they grow and then something just trim them and then they grow and you trim them again it doesn't mean that you need to rip out your shrubs right so there are some people that I think don't have good ability to keep the the the shrubs trimmed because their immune system may not be highly attuned at doing that or they may have certain genetic polymorphisms and so they need to occasionally visit something like a couple of days on an exclusive elemental diet or a short low dose gentle course of antimicrobials or a low FODMAP or low histamine diet right to kind of keep that proper environment in the gut and there's nothing wrong with that and we should stop painting that as SIBO is this chronic condition you can never clear because of auto immunity in the gut it's it's just way it's too much okay so getting off my soap box improvement gut health is not a cure all but it's a great place to start why GI problems can manifest solely as non-GI symptoms fatigue pain depression skin lesions and so you may be chasing down what you think is hypothyroid and it's actually not it's actually a problem in the gut more in-depth testing and treatment has a time and a place but we've become way too exotic with our approach more does not equal better the resources for you the link from my book was published in February the link for the training newsletter which is active and the website there with podcast articles videos and I'll open it now for questions and thank you guys for your time and your attention


Authorities in Wadena County say the deaths of two men at a home in Monaga appear to be a murder-suicide case. Sheriff's officials responded to a call early Monday and found the bodies of 82-year-old Carl Albin and 67-year-old Michael Callahan. Both were dead of gunshot wounds. The bodies were transported to the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office for autopsies. The shootings remain under investigation. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Recording in progress.  And I know that this is virtual, but I know many of you who are joining this session, of course, are panelists who are leaders in the humanitarian space and many humanitarians around the world, I'm sure, are tuned in, but also lots of people beyond the humanitarian sector. And that's important because the traditional humanitarian space has been something of a niche and the purpose of this session today is to talk about expanding, to talk about how we bring in many new actors, especially private sector and investors. And that's critical because fragility is not a niche topic. The OECD figures suggest that one in four people on this earth live in some kind of a fragile setting. And yet the funding going to these most fragile places from overseas development assistance is that it's the lowest level since 2016. And all of that is happening at a time when we all know wherever you live in the world, rich country or poor, there's one headline which is around prices, right?  It's making life much more challenging. For many parts of the world, those that are in conflict, certainly, but even those that are not, those that are kind of living on the edge. And this is billions of people who are living on the edge. So the moment for this conversation is critical. And the idea that we open this conversation to more people and especially the private sector is essential. And it's something the World Economic Forum has been doing for a while. And since 2019, it has helped to push forward this idea of humanitarian and resilience investing. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that today. What does it actually mean? How is it going? We're gonna hear some examples from leaders working on it. And then we're gonna hear about a new announcement, a challenge to try to really spur the sector to go forward. And it's essential, because if we don't bring in that private sector funding, if we don't bring in these new actors, if we stay niche, we cannot address these core issues around fragility in a world that's becoming more fragile. So it's a really important discussion and I just thank all of you from around the world who are joining us. I don't wanna mention who's on the screen with me. We have Jorge Brande, who's, of course, the president of the World Economic Forum. I'll return to being shortly. We have Sarah Pantoliano, who's the chief executive of ODI and has been a leader on these conversations of the forum for a long time now. Bernard Cowich is the head of the Innovation Accelerator at the World Food Program. Ziad Hussami is the founder and CEO of Emruna. And Mads Hansen is the CEO of Cube Energy. And we're gonna have a fast-paced conversation today to get into this idea of humanitarian and resilience investing. I wanna turn it over, if I can, to Borges. Just to get us started on this idea of why HRI, humanitarian resilience investing, is so important now. Why is it and why should it be high on the humanitarian agenda? Borges? I think you already touched on it. The humanitarian challenges are huge. We know that more than 200 million, close to 300 million people, rely on humanitarian assistance in the world today. But also, one billion people are in very vulnerable situations. And for the first time in three decades, we see more people moving into the category of extreme poor, extreme poverty this year. So what we know we have to do is to build more resilience in many of these vulnerable communities where there is war, where there is conflicts, hit by climate change. And we know that there are limited resources available. So on top of the humanitarian assistance, the overseas development assistance, the so-called ODA, we also need to mobilize private sector to become a partner. Or we will not be able to support and get growth and development and prosperity in these regions in the future. One thing is that we have to bring also the private sector on board, investing in resilience. But we also need new ideas and thinking out of the box how to really invest in the local community so they can deal with these challenges themselves. So that's really what this initiative is about. It is really fulfilling the core sustainable development goal, eradicating all poverty by 2030. There were two key sessions in Davos just in May on this book. And I just very quick follow-up question to you. You work with the private sector very directly. Maybe you have your finger on that pulse better than anyone. Do you see a real appetite in the private sector, in the investment community to invest against these issues? In other words, if the people who are part of this conversation today can develop the right kinds of projects, is there investment that can really come in this space? I think there are investments available, but we just have to make it clearer what it means or where it is needed. And also we have to make it attractive and we have to mobilize the private investors. And that's what we're trying here today, saying that it is possible also to invest in these communities. And the price of not investing is of course much higher. So this is also awareness racing and that's why we also launched this in Davos as you referred to in 2019. And we are seeing some momentum, but this today on uplink, I think hopefully will create also increased interest, especially among then smaller, medium-sized investors all over the world like entrepreneurs that also think out of the box when it comes to what they can contribute with. Yeah, you're absolutely right. There is some real momentum, there's real interest at the same time the challenges are getting worse in a way and Sarah, as I turned to you, as I mentioned at the beginning, you and ODI have been working on how do we rethink the humanitarian sector, reframe it? You're trying to bring new actors to the table. Why is this focus on HRI important and why do we need to reframe kind of the traditional humanitarian space? Hi Raju, we've been working on this for a long time and I think it is important because what we have is just not meeting the needs of people and more than that is not meeting the needs the way they want. There's enormous frustration with the models that we have at the moment that actually not always really unlocking the best opportunities for people. They are too focused on what I call a model of cultural paternalism. It sort of makes us sort of give to people out of a philanthropic charity-based model and what people want in crisis that are very often protracted and gone for years and years is actually opportunities for their children to return to proper education opportunities for themselves to work or have possibilities to develop entrepreneurship. They want what we would want if in our rich sort of world would be affected by crisis. As we are seeing with Ukraine and we've seen also in the middle income countries but this is what people want all over the world when they face a crisis. So it's really time to stop thinking that humanitarian assistance can be satisfactory in terms of addressing the needs of the aspirations I would say, not just the needs of people in crisis. They want to be able to access opportunities the way we do and work better than unlocking the investment, the creativity, the energy that the private sector has to offer to deliver for people in some of the most difficult parts of the world.  But then go right back into the next crisis if we don't build a resilience and we don't invest in sustainable models. One of the exciting things about the conversation today, Sarah is that we're gonna be launching this new challenge to get ideas from the whole uplink community. So I wanna see if we can cue the video to learn a little bit more about that challenge and we'll come back and have more of a discussion on what these opportunities really are. But back to Sarah in a moment the first I wanna bring in Borges. I noticed in the video it's talking about challenges that are commercially viable not something everybody would automatically associate with emergency response or humanitarian work but commercially viable and scalable. There were a number of images of people with solar panels so my mind immediately goes to off grid solar. What are some of the sorts of things you're expecting to come out of this challenge? What do you want the uplink community to know as they think about responding to this challenge? As we know in many humanitarian crisis situations of course when you have an immediate emergency you have to support with all things necessary but there's also a phase that coming very fast it's when you have to start building back and building back better. And there I think we need to think so much more out of the box. Some of this work has to be done by traditional humanitarian organizations but that could also be in collaboration with also private sector. When you for example have to build better housing more secure housing that is also better withstanding climate change, hurricanes and et cetera that could be done with the private sector. I think also we need to think out of the box when it comes to keeping up the markets. I saw myself when I was Secretary General of Red Cross after the earthquake in Haiti it was brought in a lot of food that killed the local market. Maybe it would have been much better to give cash to people so they could buy their own food that could then be upholding also the local capacity for producing. Of course in the immediate crisis there was maybe not an opportunity but we have to also think how to make sure that these crisis are not protracted but the investments are done in a way that you aim for getting out of the crisis. And today unfortunately as you said also at the introduction there is so much lack of resources and financing. So many people are there without any kind of support. Here I think also the private sector with thinking differently but also with additional resources is a prerequisite for really helping all those that have great needs. Being refugees, being internally displaced people, being people living in crisis situation, war but also natural disasters that we see more and more of because of climate change. You know this so well from being Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross and you're right there. We often try to separate the emergency response from the rebuilding effort and there is no natural clean line. You know in the same way we talk about humanitarian and development as though there's a simple moment when you switch from one to the other and if we don't begin planting the seeds of that building back better right from the start it's really easy to fall into the trap of building houses that don't last or as you say providing food aid that destroys local markets. So all of those considerations I feel like we've learned those lessons at some level in the humanitarian sector but turning them into new approaches that private sector investors can get behind is a real challenge. And Sarah I know you're still with us and people who are watching this and are thinking about what challenge they can provide here, what idea they can provide. I wonder if you have any advice for them what you would like to see from social entrepreneurs, from the private sector from investors that they respond to this challenge. Any thoughts from you? Look there's such a wide variety of things that people could put on the table but they need to think from the perspective of countries where we would be really useful would be things that unlock the benefits of tech. That's something that the humanitarian sector really doesn't do well or doesn't do at all in some cases and this is something that people are really after because like us they would like to be either better connected or use the opportunities that technology offers either to be able to access money, access remittances more easily, really use those opportunities. Think of ways of this massive paralysis in terms of working in these countries around the whole digital identity question. So getting around how you can help people overcome this blockage when it comes to transferring money using opportunities that involve digital identity but it goes on to all sorts of things what blocks people often to unlock their own entrepreneurship is making sure that they can have access to using their legal documents and so those are the kinds of things and then there is a massive array of opportunities in the infrastructure space or in the agriculture space. Again, a lot of these places are places where we could bring some of the best innovations from a hydroponic agriculture for low intensity cultivation that people can do even when they are displaced or maybe able to, I don't know, kind of do small entrepreneurship locally. Borges already talked about the infrastructure. There is also a lot to be done in terms of how digital health could be a lot for people to be again more able to access that medical help, not necessarily to the presence of people on the ground but by accessing those resources more easily through technology. It's a wide range. It's just moving away from the mindset that we have in terms of how we approach traditional humanitarian crisis and thinking more, putting ourselves at the center if I was in a crisis, what would I want to see and what can be the response that I can help unlock? Thank you so much. And so much of this is that mindset and Bernard Kowatch from World Food Program. I feel like the World Food Program has really changed its mindset over the years and has moved in directions. Maybe people aren't as familiar with it. I know you're a key partner of this humanitarian and resilience investing initiative and you're leading an impact innovation accelerator there. How has the World Food Program changed and what are you looking for when you think about these kinds of investments in the humanitarian space? Yeah, so it is really one of the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Like as Morgan and also Sarah have pointed out, like when you look at the food space, it is really, really drastic what's happening right now. So there's 50 million people who are on the edge of famine and starvation and 345 million people who are marching towards starvation. And it's a staggering number like that has gone up more than doubled since 2019. So if we're thinking about like what we need to address like as World Food Program, just governments alone cannot address all of this. Like right now we're looking at the funding need for the whole organization of $24 billion to reach 150 million people across the globe. So which means like we need to look into different types of innovative approaches, sustainable approaches that can also help to grow sustainably with private investors. And this could be for instance, innovations that help in an emergency response like in some of the worst crisis, but also lifting people out of hunger more sustainably, like lifting small-holder farmers or vulnerable populations out of hunger. Yeah, and that of course 24 billion would be almost the entire official humanitarian aid budget for the whole world for every agency. It just shows you the scale of the problem. Every agency is operating with much less than they need to do their basic emergency work. And so we have to find a new way of working to get there. We've got two social entrepreneurs who are with us today speaking of a new way of working. I wanna bring them into our conversation and get their sense for what opportunities they see and when they're thinking about the ecosystem of people following along how they might be able to participate in this. Maybe I'll go to you first Ziad Nusamni. Tell us a little bit of what you're doing and what opportunities you see for HRI. Sure, so Maruna we specialize in products which promote urban resilience and Maruna actually is a transliteration of the word resilience in Arabic. So our core product is Biome Web and Biome Web is a onsite wastewater treatment system which harnesses the power of SMEs, nature and emerging tech to treat wastewater and reuse it for irrigation. So we have two problems. We have a technology problem and we also have a business model problem and I was listening to Sarah about changing the model and that's very important. So right now, we operate technology, the infrastructure and discussion about infrastructure it's a very linear model. So bringing for example, the Cloudcom Maximum which is where you are, Bernard and Rome. Pliny the Elder called that, Rome's greatest architectural achievements and it's a sewer which is remarkably still in use today and what is even more remarkable is that we continue to use the same strategy which is send the water underground and send it as far away as possible, as quickly as possible. And that might have been okay when Rome is 5,000 people but today that leads to a whole range of problems and in a place like Lebanon which is very mountainous, you have these small villages you've got massive amounts of displaced people all throughout the country. You can't keep up with this sort of model. So we want to go to a nature-based decentralized model nature-based systems which are very easy to operate, right? And which more importantly, offer a business model innovation where we incentivize the beneficiaries to continue to operate the systems, right? So Lebanon is littered with well-intended investments in waste water treatment plants which are centralized but never see a day of operation and that's because we don't have the energy or even the budgets to operate the systems. We barely have energy to operate our fridges. Mine broke down, I didn't even fix it. So what we need is to find a way to create value from existing chains where we can actually bring that value to the beneficiaries and somebody was mentioning also how the humanitarian sector comes in and then we need to transition to a development phase because eventually that humanitarian funding is going to go somewhere else. Like in our case, it's gone to Ukraine. So now we need to find a way to keep to make sure our projects continue to have legs and to be economically sustainable in the future. And I think that's where the HRI company is very handy. Absolutely. I think you brought two really key points just to underline for the audience. One is the idea that investing in an irrigation system and a sanitation system, that's often not something you would consider as humanitarian aid. You'd say, well, it's an emergency. We're going to do other things. We're going to bring in food aid and medical assistance. But in cases like Lebanon, you have millions of people who are going to be displaced for many years. And so you have to think about these longer range solutions. And the other key point is what a shame how many development projects that are around the world, water points and sanitation systems that break down once and never get fixed because they weren't designed in the way that the people who are going to use them can sustain them. And that's a really key difference. And it gets to the point of the challenge around scalability and commercial viability. Mads, let's bring you to the discussion. Tell us about cube energy and what are some of the opportunities you see here for HRI? Thank you so much, Raj. So cube energy basically provides renewable energy to some of the most fragile countries in the world. Typically Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic. And in our experience, there isn't a conflict between having emergency response and having pockets of prosperity or investment opportunities in very small confined geographical locations. And we see this from our work in Somalia. While war, climate change, extreme poverty has displaced a lot of the populations in the rural areas. Some of the cities are doing really well. One place is Baiduwa, where you've had, the population has grown threefold in the last two decades. You've had consistent double-digit economic growth in the city. To make up for some of the increase in demand for electricity, you've had local businesses running diesel generators to power makeshift grids. The problem is that these local businesses, they don't have access to technical expertise on investment capital. So these grids are inherently unreliable. They only connect part of the population in the cities. And you have some of the highest prices of electricity in the world. But for a power producer, that's an opportunity for us as well. And we're currently building a renewable power plant in Baiduwa. So the project, it represents one of the largest international investments in Somalia to date. Then it will be the largest plant that is connected to a UN facility worldwide. And I think for us as a private company, going forward with these type of investments, sort of to be successful, you have to be very conscious about thinking about risk and be quite creative in mitigating. So the political risk is obviously a big thing in Somalia. I think we've overcome that by working very closely with the local government and making sure that they have long-term interests in the project. We've also been able to work with the MIGA in the World Bank Group to get political risk guarantees for the project. On the commercial and security side, we've been able to sign the UN up as an anchor client to the project where they guarantee to buy electricity from the plant for 10 years and include the plant in their security parameters. So those are some of them, I think they have the key elements in making these type of investments go forward. So we're currently... I'm so glad that you brought up the idea of risk and how you're planning for it, right? As opposed to saying, well, this situation is just too risky. We can't work here. You're thinking about how do we plan around those risks, mitigate those risks as part of the business model?  We may think of fragile countries. In fact, when I moderated sessions like this at the web, there's always some sensitivity around if we want to label a country fragile, right? Is that going to make investors say they don't want to go there? And we need to change that dynamic to say even within the most fragile setting, there's growth, there's opportunities, right? And so if we can think about that in a different frame, which has been a theme throughout our discussion today, I think there's a lot we can do to go forward. Now we are sadly just out of time, I think. So I will have to bring us to a close. It's been a really rich discussion. We could talk much more. The main thing I want to emphasize to everybody who's following this is the opportunity to submit your ideas if they are tested, if they are proven, if they are ready to scale, and they just required that boost that the World Economic Forum and this community can provide, and ultimately the investment to take it forward. Like the two great examples you just heard from Cube and from Enruna, this is your opportunity to bring those forward. So I encourage you to present your ideas as part of this challenge. I want to thank our fantastic group of panelists for their contributions, and especially when I gave it to the president of the World Economic Forum and for bringing us this challenge and for furthering the issue of HRI. It's been a real pleasure to be with all of you today. Thank you. Thank you.


And now stay tuned for the mystery program that is unique among all mystery programs. Because even when you know who is guilty, you always receive a startling surprise at the final curtain. In the signal oil program, The Whistler. Signal, the famous go farther gasoline.  I'm The Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak. And now for the signal oil company, The Whistler's strange story. Lady in waiting. Jean Collins' feelings didn't match the day at all. It was spring in San Francisco, and the city had a way of catching the spirit of such occasion. Jean entered a substantial looking office building, paused near a flight of stairs, her eyes examining the directories. Until they came to rest on John Bradley, attorney at law, room 208. Jean went up the stairs, forcing herself, determined to keep the appointment, even though she was more afraid than ever. When she opened the door, the secretary ushered her in to Bradley's office. Oh, hello. You're Miss Jean Collins. Yes, I called. Yes, of course. Sit down, Miss Collins. Thank you. You seem nervous. Is there something? It's just that I'm not sure you can help me, Mr. Bradley, and no one else knows what I'm about to tell you. And no one else will. But I handle the case at night. Does that make it easier? Yes, much. Well, it's quite simple, anyway. Back then, you see, I was keeping company with someone a number of months ago. At the time, I thought he was a very fine man. Go on. I wasn't in love with him, but he was kind and thoughtful and in love with me. I only tell you that till you understand. I do understand. Well, anyway, he wanted me to marry him. He said we'd go away, travel around the world for a few years. He kept talking about stuff. I'm afraid that waiting for me to give him an answer is what kept him here. Well, the case isn't too unusual yet, Miss Collins.  He's Frank Hodgson. Hodgson? Not the one... Miss, believe me, I didn't know any more about that part of his life than anyone else. He never told me. And to me, to Mr. Bradley, he'd never guess. He was a perfect gentleman. He'd never met anyone who... He got 20 years, didn't he? Yes. I remember reading about it. Quite a list of charges. You doubt his guilt, is that it? Want me to... No, Mr. Bradley, I can do it. Well, I'm glad. The evidence against him of the trial was pretty conclusive. Yes, I know. I want you to do something else. Maybe he won't be able to. I'm not sure. Frank might be stubborn about it. No, he refused to see me. He came up as far as the rest of the world knows I never even knew. Then, you have a problem? Every month, in the mailbox at my apartment, I find an envelope still returned to me. That's your problem? You don't understand. I know that somehow Frank Hodgson is sending that money. I want it stopped. I haven't touched the center, but I don't want to. But I thought if a lawyer talked to him, explained to Frank that he's really doing me more harm than good. You see, I... I have a rather responsible position, Mr. Bradley, and the people I work with ever called it. Of course. Why don't you go home and forget it, Miss Collins? I'll handle it. I'll drive up and see you hardest in tomorrow. Thank you. When will I know? I'll be terribly anxious. But you will meet me here about four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. No, I'm sorry. You see, I'm with a publicity concern, Mr. Bradley. We have an important meeting at client tomorrow afternoon. Well, then why not meet me after hours? For blue star cocktail on six o'clock? Oh, why? And I'll have all the answers for it. I hope so. It's easier now, isn't it, Jean? Now that your problem is being shared. And somehow you feel a sense of confidence in attorney John Bradley. Riding home in a cab, you hope that it will go as simply as Bradley seems to anticipate. In front of the Oxford arms, you're suddenly aware that the cab is stopped. That the Oxford arms doorman is smiling at you, waiting for you to step out. You with us, Miss Jean? What? Oh, sorry, Dan. Dreaming again. Here you are, driver. Thank you, Miss. As a fine spring day like this, Miss Jean, you should leave that desk of yours and get outside. Won't you walk through Golden Gate Park? Nothing like being outdoors. Dan, you're wonderful. How are you feeling? Man, it's spring. No, I mean really. Oh, no. I'm all right. I'm fine, fine. You think you should work like this, Dan? Well, it's all good. Doctor says that's where I'll be. All right. Just worried about you. You know, it should be more like this, Miss Jean. The way you looked and acted the past few days, I guess you've got things on your old mind.  Now, it's just a business worry, Dan. I think it'll be all cleared up at night. I toast to Miss Collins to no more worries and uninhibited future. Oh, Mr. Bradley, I'm so glad it went that way. You're not drinking. Oh, I really don't feel like it. I'm just happy that Frank didn't give you any trouble, but he understood. Oh, he did perfectly. And you're right. Frank harnessing things like a nice guy. Yeah, but practically, you should have done all those other things. Oh, I don't know. In my line, you should have discovered that most people have many different sides. Well, let's talk about you. You still have a problem. Oh? Mm-hmm, yourself. Boy, you've been brooding about all this. Can I help you to get it some way? Huh? Oh, good start. Might be a steak dinner at Rockwell Castle. You can look down at the city and tell it that Dean Collins isn't going to worry anymore about anything. I couldn't. You could. Is this a service you provide for all your clients, Mr. Bradley? No. You'll pay for it if you like. I'll be your first charity. What do you mean? All that money that's accumulated. How does he not want it back? There's a much use for it where he is. He suggests that you deduct my fee and give the rest to your favorite charity. Oh? And my fee includes the steak dinner. Fair enough? Then I'll drive you home. All right. Fair enough, Mr. Bradley.  Giant. Oh, giant. You've been very kind. I do appreciate it.  Absolutely. It's all right. You don't have to come out. The doorman's still on duty. Can I see you soon? I don't know. I'll see you. Yeah? Get in trouble again right away, will you? I'll handle it.  Good night. I'll call you. Good night. Well, evening, Miss Dean. Hello, Dad. Well, well, well, the spring days kept alive until the night. You're happy, Miss Dean. Yes. Good night, Dan. Oh, wait a minute. Did you get something, Miss Dean? No. Dan. Yes? Dan, I don't want you to think I'm talking my nose into other people's business, but what are you asking, Miss Dean? You're not really very well, are you? No, please. I just want to know if you had some money, quite a bit of money, is there any doctor that could help you?  Man, I'll not forget this. Oh, my God. I'll tell you this. A long time ago, I had all the care that a man could have. I'm just standing by the door now, waiting my chance. Oh, please. Please. Oh, please. I won't ever forget you. Good night, Dad. In the days that follow, you see more and more of John Bradley, don't you, Jim? There are evenings at the theater, dances, dining at the smart clubs down the peninsula. When you find yourself becoming extremely fond of him, you look forward to each meeting with increasing interest. Then one evening, you say good night to John on the lobby of your apartment building. Go upstairs. As you're about to open your apartment door... Just a minute, Jeannie. I'm going in with you. You hear me? I'm skipping, huh, inside. And don't holler. I'm your favorite charity. Where did you go? One of the boys was up to see Frank Hardison a few days ago. Frank Curlum, you hadn't spent any of the money he sent you. He was going to give it to your favorite charity, Miss Collins. What do you want? Oh, we'll... We'll start off as you get your check. Write out the full amount of Frankie Hardison's little donation. You didn't know it, but I was a partner of Frankie's dean. I don't like the way he's running our business, so I'm changing things a little. First, the check. He can't ask me to... They're not asking him, telling him. I'll tell you something else. You better forget your boys' names. John Bradley. Don't bow. Crossed off your book. You mustn't see him anymore. He's done nothing. Not yet, but he's a lawyer. But don't like Florida. I'd like to hang him around. Still, thanks, girl. Thanks, girl. Yeah, you're agent for 20 years, aren't you? So, you're a... a lady-in-waiting. Anyway, that's how it is the only way that's safe for me. I'll tell you, Mr.... Stark. Joey Stark. Like I said, I'm telling you, no more lawyer. No more doing things anyway but mine. I'll go to the police. You go no place. If you're doing, I can't get back to you. And you friend with John Bradley. I'll have to do it. I don't care. I don't care. Hey, hey, Jeannie. My pen. I'd like to check out now the favorite charity. Joey Stark. For nine consecutive years, now Signal Oil Company has been sponsoring the Whistler. At the long time for a radio program, yet short compared with the 21 years signal has served the West. However, just as the Whistler has grown to be the most popular West Coast program in radio history, Signal has grown too, grown from a small start in Southern California into an organization now serving seven Pacific Coast states from Canada to Mexico. Now, obviously, there must be good reasons why so many motorists have switched to Signal gasoline. And there are. There's the good mileage which has made Signal famous as the go farther gasoline. There's the way Signal delivers that good mileage by helping your engine run so efficiently you save gasoline. Save with quick starting, save with smooth pickup, free of blocking and hesitation. Save with full power that gets you into high gear fast helps you stay there with a minimum of shifting on hills or in traffic. But for the full story behind the growing switch to Signal, there's just one way to find out. An easy way, a quick way.  How about it? It vanished in an instant, didn't it, Jean? The hope for a bright, clean future. It disappeared when your past association with Frank Hardison came calling again. This time in the person of Joey Stark. Joey, who says he was Frank Hardison's partner, won't believe that you didn't know what was going on. Had no knowledge of the sort of deals that sent Frank to prison for 20 years. More than that, Joey Stark made you give him a check for all the money Frank Hardison sent you. And he insists that you stop seeing John Bradley. Joey's afraid of lawyers, afraid of anything that might put him where Frank is. So desperately afraid that he'd commit murder. You know that. That's why for the next three days you refuse to see John Bradley. You leave words you won't talk to him even on the telephone. Yes? Miss Jean, this is Dan downstairs. He's calling me again. That's Mr. Bradley. Hey, he won't take no for an answer. He'll have to. I can't talk to him. The terrible part is the realization that you love John Bradley, isn't it, Jean? That you don't want to give him up. Later, as you leave the apartment, you find something else. A note downstairs in the mailbox. Orders from Mr. Joey Stark to meet him tonight. You hurried downtown to your office. Oh, Miss Collins. Yes, Jimmy? A client to see you, Miss Collins. She's waiting in your office. A client? I wasn't expecting it. No. Well gosh, he said he'd talk to you. And sister on going right in. I can't remember. Well thanks, Jimmy. I'll go see. Hello, Jane. John, you shouldn't have come here. I'm staying right here until you talk to me. Until you tell me what's wrong. Close the door. But, it's nothing, John. Why have you refused to see me? Why had you in when I called? John, I...  Jane, if it's something I've done... No. No, you haven't done it. Then who has? What's it all about?  Promise me. Tell me, Jane. I'm the guy that said get in trouble, remember? Your favorite lawyer? Come on. Someone called on me. The man I never saw before. He said he was Frank Hardison's partner. Oh. He wouldn't believe I don't know about Frank. He won't. Trust me. I didn't want you mixed up in it anymore. It's no use. I should have known about Frank. I could have found out long ago. Who is this man, Jane? Where is he? His name is Joey Stark. That's all I can tell you. He sent words for me to meet him tonight. No, you're not. Oh, but I am. I have to. No. No, I'll meet him. Oh, you can't. He killed you. He said so. Let me handle it. Maybe it's just a bluff. No. I'll talk to him like I did with Frank. Please, Jane, I'll be careful. Tell me where you were supposed to meet him. There's a very demanding note. I have it in my purse. It's all there. Hotel on Ellen's Street. When you get through here, go home. Wait for me to call. Don't open the door or talk to anyone. John, please, will you be careful? I'll handle it. Just wait until I call. The waiting isn't easy, is it, Jane? Not when you realize what might happen. The afternoon at the office drags on almost endlessly. You catch a hurried dinner on the way home, scarcely touching the food. Then home to an apartment that seems to turn into a prison cell. Pace it nervously, retracing your steps, staring at the telephone. About nine o'clock, it's almost too much to bear any longer. And then... Yes? Jane? John, are you all right? There's nothing to worry about. Did you go to this hotel? Yes. You saw him? Can you come over? I... John, is everything all right? There's nothing to worry about. I'll come in. Yes? No matter what you might... As the receiver clicks in your ear, you wonder what he means by not now. But there's no use trying to guess, Jane. Nothing to do but wait until morning. You spend an almost sleepless night and then rush to the door to greet him as the buzzer sounds. Oh, John, I've been so... But then I'm willing to sound the sound. There's sergeant Lason. Maybe step in this telling. Come aside, I don't understand. There's some things we don't understand this telling. Can we talk it over? I don't know. Sit down. I won't be necessary. I'll come right to the point, Miss Collins. Have you checked the Joey Stark? Yes, yes, I did. What did you find? We found it on the body of Joey Stark. On the body? That's right. He was found late last night, brought into the morgue. Took a little while to look you up, and naturally we're interested in learning the connection between you and this man. That's quite a sum. Oh, please, I don't know anything about it. Of course, I wrote the check, but... But what? Did you go to Joey Stark's hotel at any time last night? No. You didn't leave your apartment here, I suppose. No, I didn't go there.  Something happened. It changed my mind. Ah, Lacy. Yeah? The doorman on duty. Get him and bring him up here. Yes. We'll see if he's got a memory.  Like Neil Cedder? No. I tell you, I... Oh. Ah, expecting somebody? No. Whoever it is, I'll send them away. No, I wouldn't do that, Miss Collins. We'll both see who it is. I'm quite insistent. Go ahead, open the door. John, I can't see you now. You can drive me to the office some other time. Johnny Bradford. Well, can it work? You've lost little time in calling a lawyer, Miss Collins? A good one, too. Real comable boy. Come on in. Jane, how long have you been here? What have you told him? I work fast, Bradley. You know that. He told me all I want to know. Namely, that this is her check. Check? What about it? John, they found it on Joey Stark's body. You folks talk real familiar about Joey Stark. You know him, too, Bradley? Maybe. Why shouldn't he have Miss Collins checked? She gave it to him as a favor for somebody. Really? Who? What difference does it make? None. If she didn't leave this apartment last night, and we'll know that in a minute. Do you find that doorman, Lacey? Yes, it's in here, Dan. What is all this? Miss Jean, is there something... I'll ask the questions, if you don't mind. And we're trying to find out if Miss Collins went to a certain address last night. It's to her advantage for you to tell the truth. That way. Did you notice her leave the building around nine o'clock like she said? I... I'm missing him, Miss Collins. Well, did she? Miss Collins never left the building at all last night. She worked very late, and I haven't seen her. That's satisfied you, William? I'm not trying to fasten this thing on anyone, Bradley. I just want the truth. Dan, just toast. Well, Miss Collins, if I don't doubt you and your, uh, witness, I think a jury might. What do you mean? Dan Rogers, here. I have a very good memory. Let me see. Convicted of perjury in 1929, weren't you, Dan? What? Perot for good behavior, brought back on the same charge in 1932, served five years. A nice, reliable witness. And riding up here in the elevator, he tells me what a kind young lady Miss Collins is. Offer the money for medical care. You sound prejudiced enough, Mr. Bradley. What are you going to do? Same thing you do in my position. I'm arresting your client, Miss Collins, for murder. Now, wait a minute. John, don't. You've got your murderer, William, but it isn't Miss Collins. I did it. You heard me. I did it. I killed him. If you don't believe it, pick up the cab driver who drove me over the last night. Out of all the cabs in San Francisco. His number was 4211. I made a note of it. Get him. He'll remember me. We had trouble finding Stark's address. You know what this means, Bradley? I know what it means. A baby has a way of letting you know when it's time to change. Too bad your car hasn't a way of letting you know when it's time to change oil. Chances are most cars would be saying right now. Oh, sludgy worn out winter oil. Signal premium, heavy-duty signal premium. Now, there's the oil that really protects your car. This proved and improved heavy-duty signal oil does more, much more than just lubricate. In addition, signal premium motor oil cools, cleans, cushions, seals, and protects. Results? Tests under all types of driving conditions prove new signal premium motor oil reduces engine wear 50%. Your engine keeps its like-new pep and power twice as long. So, since it's time to change, this time give your car a change for the better. Change to new heavy-duty signal premium motor oil at a signal station where you see that sign outside. Time. It's happened, hasn't it, Gene? All that you feared from that very first day when you decided that someone might be able to help you in your problem with Frank Hardison. And there's nothing you can do. It's too late. It was too late the moment you let John Bradley talk you into breaking that appointment with Joey Stark.  And now they're about to prove his story. Less than an hour later, as you all wait in your apartment, they have the cab driver who took John Bradley to Stark's hotel. One glance, and he makes the identification. Yep. I drove him to the hotel about 9 p.m. That's right. Oh, John, why didn't you let him go? Did you wait while he went up to Stark's room, driver? Nope. He went up, though. I saw him walk through the lobby and start up the stairs.  I see. Got all the time? Yeah, you can go. You're too damn... Wait a minute. What's the matter? My other fare. The fare I bought back. It was him. Sure, your old man here. He didn't come walking out of the hotel as Mr. Bradley went in. Passed him. How about it, Dan? I never forget a face, Lieutenant. So that's it, Bradley. Stark was dead when you got there, wasn't he? You lied because you thought that Ms. Collins was... Yes. Yes, that's the way it was. Want to argue the point, Dan? I wouldn't do much good, I guess. Dan, you killed him. Wait a minute, Gene.  Let me handle it. Oh, don't worry about it, son. They put me on trial. The jury did not stay out too long. Don't tell me. What? How did you even know about Joey Stark? Oh, I knew about a lot of things, Mr. Franklin. It wasn't just for you. It was for Frank. Frank? Mm-hmm. Frank Hardison put me on that door downstairs the day you moved in here. I left the envelope to the money. Stop leaving them. Whatever Frank said. Dan, you once said that someone else paid the medical expenses for you. Was it Frank Hardison? Yes, Ms. Gene. In fact, so that's why you... This, uh, Joey Stark was no friend of Frank's. He was just a cheap hoodlum, blackmailing Ms. Gene.  He wasn't only that, Mr. Bradley. We tended to be able to show you when he takes on all those eighties as a mind. You'll find one of them was Hardison. You see, Frank Hardison is my boy. He asked me to protect Ms. Gene. He was the only fine thing that ever happened to me. That fat whistle be your signal for the signal oil program The Whistler each Sunday night at this same time. Meantime, signal oil company and the friendly independent dealers who help you go farther with signal gasoline hope you'll remember. Regardless of what gasoline you use, you'll enjoy more miles of happy driving. If you drive at sensible speeds, obey traffic regulations and avoid taking chances.  Possibly your own. Featured in tonight's story where Bill Foreman is The Whistler, Mary Jane Croft, John Stevenson, Jack Moyle, Victor Rodman, Ed Mack and Vern Surry. The Whistler was produced and directed by George W. Allen, with story by Joel Malone, music by Wilbur Hatt and was transmitted overseas by the Armed Forces Radio Service. The Whistler is entirely fictional and all characters portrayed on The Whistler are also fictional. Any similarity of names or resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Remember to tune in at this same time next Sunday when the signal oil company will bring you another strange story by The Whistler. Marvin Miller speaking for the signal oil company. Stay tuned now for our Miss Brooke starring Eve Arden, which follows immediately over most of these stations. This is the CBS Radio Network.


Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Berkel, Acting Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Spring is finally here. With warm weather and longer days on the way, families are eager to enjoy outdoor activities and to do some spring cleaning around their homes. CPSC urges you to follow these basic safety tips this spring. If you are cleaning, keep household cleaners, laundry packets and medicines out of sight and out of reach of little ones in your home. Ingesting these can lead to unintentional poisoning and can have tragic results. If you're doing yard work, keep children away while you are mowing the lawn to keep them safe. Make sure your lawn mower and yard tools are in good condition and ready for spring yard work. Damage tools can become a shock or a fire hazard when wiring, motors or other electrical parts begin to wear. Getting up on a ladder? Before you climb, make sure you have a spotter and place the ladder's feet on solid level ground to avoid falls. Keep the ladder away from power lines and live electrical wires to prevent electrocution. Nice weather calls for bike riding. If you and your children go bike riding, remember to always wear helmets. Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of a serious head injury both for children and adults. Finally, be sure to check CPSC.gov for any recalled products. Enjoy the weather and stay safe this spring. Thank you so much.