April 05, 2014

Why We Get Fat

Countless Americans are fighting the battle of the bulge, struggling to lose the pounds and keep them off. We’ll talk to an expert who says that hormones are the key to life long weight loss. Then, it may be human nature to blame others when things go wrong at work. But doing so could crash your career.

Episode Segments:

InfoTrak: The Right Way to Diet Gary Taubes, science and health journalist, and author of Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It discusses the science of weight loss. He believes most people gain weight because they eat too many carbohydrates, and that the medical community has placed far too much emphasis on calories and dietary fat. He offered advice on how to make dietary changes for long-term weight loss and more energy.
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InfoTrak: The Blame Game It’s human nature to resort to blaming others, as well as to take more credit for successes than we should. Ben Dattner, PhD, author of The Blame Game: How the Hidden Rules of Credit and Blame Determine Our Success and Failure says the dynamics of credit and blame are at the heart of every team and organization, and make or break every career. He explained how managers can change the culture of blame, and encourage employees to speak up or experiment with new approaches.
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InfoTrak: Slow Down A recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association highlighted the role of speeding in traffic deaths. Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association explained that, despite progress in nearly every other area of highway safety, speeding continues to be a factor in approximately one third of traffic deaths every year. He outlined several recommendations the report contained for both state and federal governments.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Gary Taubes Gary Taubes (born April 30, 1956) is an American science writer. He is the author of Nobel Dreams (1987), Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion (1993), and Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007), which is titled The Diet Delusion in the UK. He has won the Science in Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers three times and was awarded an MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship for 1996-97. Born in Rochester, New York, Taubes studied applied physics at Harvard and aerospace engineering at Stanford (MS, 1978). After receiving a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University in 1981, Taubes joined Discover magazine as a staff reporter in 1982. Since then he has written numerous articles for Discover, Science and other magazines. Originally focusing on physics issues, his interests have more recently turned to medicine and nutrition. Taubes’ books have all dealt with scientific controversies. Nobel Dreams takes a critical look at the politics and experimental techniques behind the Nobel Prize-winning work of physicist Carlo Rubbia. Bad Science is a chronicle of the short-lived media frenzy surrounding the Pons-Fleischmann cold fusion experiments of 1989. Gary's Website

Ben Dattner Ben has helped a wide variety of corporate and non-profit organizations become more successful by developing a better understanding of the impact of individual psychology and group dynamics on their performance. His consulting services enable organizations to make better hiring and staffing decisions, enhance the professional capabilities of managers and employees, configure teams more effectively, and reduce the amount of interpersonal and intergroup conflict. Ben received a BA in Psychology from Harvard College, and his MA and Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from New York University, where he was a MacCracken Fellow. His doctoral dissertation analyzed the relationship between narcissism and fairness in the workplace, and his masters thesis examined the impact of trust on negotiation. Before graduate school, Ben worked at Republic National Bank of New York for three years, first as a Management Trainee and then as Assistant to the CEO. After graduate school, Ben was Director of Human Resources at Blink.com before founding Dattner Consulting. Ben is an Adjunct Professor at New York University where he teaches Organizational Development in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology MA Program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and has taught Strategic Career Management in the Executive MBA Program at Stern Business School. Ben is also an Adjunct Coach at the Center for Creative Leadership. Ben is a member of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, The Society of Consulting Psychology, and the Metro New York Applied Psychology Association. Frequently quoted in the press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, Inc Magazine, Crain's New York Business, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, HR Magazine, and The Globe and Mail, Ben has been interviewed on CNBC and CNN En Espanol and has served as the Workplace Consultant on Morning Edition on National Public Radio. Dattner Consulting