University College London

They're not the guys in the spotlight.

They're the real lab workers that the guys, you know, I interviewed Professor Glenn Jeffrey, for example, at UCL about his work on light and indoor lighting and the effect of LEDs on our mitochondria.

And he is not a public figure.

He's not somebody that you'll see sitting on a daytime TV sofa.

So I'm excited to welcome to the kitchen table Khadijah Robinson, who has led a very impressive career, starting off as a lawyer and turned entrepreneur, now innovator and investor.

She's a graduate of Spelman College and received her master's from University College London and a J.D. from Harvard Law, darling.

Right now, Khadijah consults and coaches a wide range of entrepreneurs personally and as an entrepreneur in residence for Black Ambition.

She serves as the chief operating officer for the Majira Project, which is a business accelerator backed by the Boston Consulting Group for underrepresented founders.

And then in 2013, Yurika Ujiie showed that handedness doesn't track temperature across other species anyway.

So Bridget Wade's team at University College London pulled together 50 years of studies covering 56 million years across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and their idea is that nothing is slipping at all.

There was always a second species in there, genetically distinct but completely identical, under a microscope, coiling the other way.

It picks up some small advantages, spreads out on the ocean currents, and replaces the first one.

A well-known

UCL professor was one of them.

And when we met outside the green room after we'd had this quite furious debate...

He was on his walking stick looking me up and down.

I'm a writer, musician and a performer.

And I'm joined by Professor of UCL fame, Robert West.

How are you? Hello.

I'm

And I don't think they've really thought it through.

Maybe they have, I don't know.

But actually, this has arisen recently because I've been helping a colleague at UCL with a paper on basically art engagement behavior as a health behavior.

Because there's lots of evidence that engaging in artistic creation as well as experiencing other people's art and so on can have health benefits.

He is Emeritus Professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University.

honorary professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL and visiting professor in CWTS at Leiden University.

Professor, welcome to the show.

Good morning and peace be on you.

So they found that gratitude interventions were linked to significant reductions in anxiety and depression and higher life satisfaction.

So the more you're grateful, the higher your life satisfaction is.

Then the UCLA Health in 2023, they also reported that practicing gratitude for just 15 minutes a day, five days a week for six weeks, measurably reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety and can even improve your heart health.

And then recently in 2024, there was a Portuguese study that was published in the current psychology.

london buses have a cool secret viewing from above they are often white not red this heat reduction measure which began in 2004 with the intention of making journeys more comfortable for passengers particularly those on the top deck was complete by 2020 but buses still struggle to cope with rising temperatures and 2025 saw a record number of heat related customer complaints Part of the answer may be to make them even whiter.

A group at University College London, UCL, led by Ionis Pakistano, has painted the tops of two buses with material that reflects 93% of sunlight.

Commercial white paint manages 84%.

The difference might sound small, but it takes the new coating over a crucial threshold, the point at which it emits more heat than it absorbs from the sun.

He is such a brilliant operator.

And again, to that point of having a robust technical grounding and a strong operator and commercial pair, You know, that is a strong example of that, right? Farlan, an academic from UCL, you know, brilliant.

But the fact that he very early was able to bring someone like Jason, who has, you know, a strong operator experience and has led the business through, you know, several funding rounds and.

You know, the launch of their product is amazing.

Lane is an alumna and non-resident research fellow of the McConnell Center.

She's held positions at the University of Leeds and University College London, both in the United Kingdom.

Currently, she's an associate teaching professor of politics at Iowa State University.

I turn things over now to Dr.