Latest / Walk the Pod: 10 minute walking / S65E5 Confidence is evidence based

Transcript

S65E5 Confidence is evidence based · Walk the Pod: 10 minute walking

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: show where I take my podcast for a walk because
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I don't have a dog. You're very welcome along. This
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is episode 5, series 65 of the daily walking podcast
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that tempts you away from your desk and outside into
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: nature for just 10 minutes. Today we continue our theme
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of confidence. I'll be rounding up what we've learned so
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: far this week and bringing you a new thought that
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: confidence is evidence-based. Welcome to Walk the Pod. It's been
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: brilliant talking about confidence this week. I've really, really enjoyed it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We have considered that confidence is perhaps possible to move
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: from one area of our lives into another if we
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: just take with us a kernel of confidence, just an
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: understanding of a tiny part of how we learn, or
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: maybe transferable skills from one thing to another thing, to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: know that we will succeed even if we can't succeed immediately.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And we talked a little bit about confidence versus doubt
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and the fact that the first person you have to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: convince is yourself. Now that was Louise de Bourgeois, an
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: artist's view that the first person you have to persuade
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: is yourself. But I think it extends to all kinds
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of other things as well. Today I want to just
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: bring you briefly the idea that confidence is evidence-based. So
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Probably with art, we say, I think we need big
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: metal sculptures of spiders and we talk to everyone we
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: possibly can about this. And if anybody says, why do
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: we need big metal sculptures of spiders? That's kind of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: not quite the right question because it's art. So it
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: tells us something about what it's like to be alive.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: That's all we need to know there. But in the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: area of science and technology, or business, often confidence is evidence-based.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So we build a case out of as much evidence
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: as we can get our hands on. And if we
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: can make a persuasive case, a concise case for what
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: we want to do, we might just get permission or
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: resources to do it. This thought was sparked by a
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: press release I just read from UKRI, the UK Research
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and Innovation funder, who let me know about a company
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: who've worked out that if we can manufacture particular kinds
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of proteins in space, then we can make stable cancer
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: treatments which can be taken home by people to self-inject...
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: in the same way that some other treatments are available
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: as self-injection treatments. And this would be an extraordinary thing,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and this has blown my mind somewhat because it just
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: surprised me that it was possible to sort of work
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: out that the reason we can't make these medicines stable
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: enough to send home with people in a box with
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a syringe is because they're not stable enough. it's not
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: possible to manufacture the proteins that would make them stable
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: on Earth. And at that point, I would go, OK, well,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that's not happening then, is it? But this company came
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to the conclusion that it's not possible to manufacture these
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: proteins on Earth and then thought very much outside of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the box that we talk so much about and decided
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to send a small pharmaceutical manufacturing company centre in some format,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure what that looked like, to the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: International Space Station and they manufactured stable proteins there and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: then they brought them back to Earth and now they're
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: making well, they're continuing their research but the idea is
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: that we can manufacture these stable proteins in space and
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that if we can do that on a large enough
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: scale and we can make medicines for cancer that can
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: be sent home with people to inject at home. And presumably,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: when they were pitching this idea for the seed funding
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: that allowed them to launch their miniature pharmaceutical manufacturing centre
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: into space, they had to make a case for that support,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and they had to say... Here's the evidence that this
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: hypothesis is based on. That if we send them to
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the ISS and manufacture them there, they will come back
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in this format and we can use them in this
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: particular way. And that's very different from, I think we
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: need gigantic metal spider statues as an argument. It is
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: made in a different way, I imagine. But it requires...
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: this type of confidence I think is built out of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the scientific building blocks of research building on research building
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: on other research and creating a case that to the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: people handing over 10 million pounds for that's what they
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: did looks absolutely solid and the funders go this is
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: worth backing 100% worth backing. We're going to give it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the money and we're going to make the largest investment
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: into space pharmaceuticals that has ever been made. And I've just,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: my mind is quite blown by the concept of space
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: pharmaceuticals this morning. I have never heard of such a thing.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So there we go. That concludes the week's conversation about confidence,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: but we have a whole new week of confidence conversations
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: next week and I will be bringing you Anna Devere
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Smith's conjecture that determination is more important than confidence in
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: any case so we move on in completely new directions
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and as always I would love to hear from you
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: too go to walkthepod.com press the button mark to leave
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a voice note for walk the pod if you'd like
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: to contribute thank you to Nige who sent me a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: song from the sound of music about confidence I need
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to post that in the Discord, actually. Can't wait to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: see where we get to with this, because you just
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: never know. And it's a bit like our daily walking games.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Once you've got a topic in your mind as the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: one that we're thinking about at the moment, suddenly all
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: kinds of things spark thoughts connected to that topic. So
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I'm very grateful to you for giving me the opportunity
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: to go out into the woods and to think about
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: confidence as I walk past a really terrific mushroom. It's
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: difficult to express how good this mushroom is, Potties, but
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: it's a really good mushroom. What can I see directly
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: in front of me? I'm walking through the woods I've
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: just passed a really good mushroom, like a huge mushroom.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It's cream-colored, about six inches tall, and has a really
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: classic sort of closed-cup mushroom. Well, it's not closed-cup, actually.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: It's more like an open-cup mushroom shape. Looks like it
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: is a portobello mushroom, if you know that kind of mushroom.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to touch it because I want to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: leave it exactly as it is, but one of my
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: favourite things about walking in autumn is the fact that
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: there are fungi everywhere. I mean, not everywhere, fungi in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: various different places. And that makes walking exciting because the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: very same logs and leaf litter and twigs and sticks
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that are around the place are suddenly a lot more
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: exciting because there's the possibility that there might be some
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: fungi there. The gods continue to punish me for making
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a flippant comment about how it never really rains at lunchtime.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: It's not actually raining, though, to be fair, so I've
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: kind of... I mean, it's spitting a little bit. But
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: we are just experiencing the tail end of what the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Met Office have dubbed Storm Austin in the UK. And
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: whilst it won't hit the south of England as much
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: as it will the north and other parts of the UK...
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: We have another storm on the way, which I think
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: is called Bolio or something like that. That's going to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: hit the north of the UK quite soon, so we're
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: sort of in between storms. at the moment. And it
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: has been raining really hard for the last, I don't know,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: 18 hours or so. So what I can see directly
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in front of me is damp. Everything is damp. The
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: path is damp, the leaves are damp, the mushroom is damp.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: But what you get in the hours after a storm
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and a lot of rain in the woods is a
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: lovely sort of foresty, sort of damp forest smell. It's lovely.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And if I was a chemist, I could tell you
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: what that's called. I know that trees release chemicals which
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: are good for our mental health and make us happy.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I know that when rain falls on hot pavement, we
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: get the smell that we call petrichor. Not quite sure
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: what the smell is when the happy chemicals in the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: wood get wet. Or maybe when chemicals are released from
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the woodland trail. But somebody out there might know. Let
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: me know if you wouldn't mind. Walkthepod at gmail.com or
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: leave me a voice note by walkthepod.com. It's been an
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: absolute delight walking with you this week, poddies. I'm so
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: grateful to you for your kind attention and your contributions
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and your thoughts on confidence. Can't wait to bring you
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: next week's episodes. We'll have another five episodes next week.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And if you're new to the podcast, having just recently
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: discovered these 10-minute bite-sized walking episodes, I hope they're helping
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you to get out the door. And if they're not,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: don't worry, because there's no rush. Surrounding yourself with people
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: for whom daily walking is a bit of a regular
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: habit is the first step. And putting your trainers by
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the front door is the second step. And then there's,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: you know, rain and snow and cold and that makes
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it harder. But we will get there in the end.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: And if it's helpful to only listen to the podcast
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: while you're on your walk as a sort of paired thing...
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: activity then have a go at that and that might
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: be an extra way to sort of give yourself an
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: accountability system with which to walk because it's difficult being
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: alive and it's even harder to do exercise so if
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you're even thinking about it that's a that's a really
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: good start Take care of your beautiful mind, dear friends.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your kind attention and your
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: company this week and I look forward to speaking to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: you next week.