The Eco Well podcast

This episode features a conversation with Michelle Miller, otherwise known as The Farm Babe . In a world of non-gmo and organic certified, Michelle takes on the massive challenge of attempting to debunk the myths and fallacies surrounding  our food production. There's a general feeling that “organic” agriculture will be more sustainable, and you can see this even in the cosmetics industry - all of our “eco” certifiers prioritize ingredients sourced via organic agriculture. Is it?

This week's episode featured a conversation with Caroline Hirons. Misleading marketing has a long history of use in the personal care space. If misinformation has its claws dug into the cosmetics industry so deeply, how can we move forward?

This episode featured a conversation with Andrea Hardy, a Canadian registered dietitian with a passion for science communication about nutrition, an area with a lot of misinformation, including with respect to skin health and supplementation. How does our diet impact our skin? There are a lot of trendy supplements becoming popular in the cosmetics space - are any of them worthwhile? Do you enjoy this podcast? Please consider supporting it on patreon > https://www.patreon.com/theecowell

This episode featured a conversation with Perry Romanowski about science communication in the cosmetics space. Why is fear mongering misinformation so persuasive? What is the state of the problem of misinformation today? What can scientists and science-enthusiasts do about? and what are some of the challenges in our way?

This episode featured a conversation Laura Markley from Waste Free PhD. We talked about packaging - if we want more “sustainable” packaging, what are the metrics we should be looking to when informing our decisions? The major take home of this conversation was that #itscomplexitdepends but what's for sure? Black and white answers just don't work. And accessibility needs to be a big part of the equation when deciding what's right for you.

This episode featured a conversation with Dr Anke Ginzburg on the topic of misplaced fear mongering. We gave our perspectives for the trends of ‘safe beauty’, ‘non toxic beauty’ and ‘clean beauty’ - long story short, there’s a lot of marketing fueled misinformation driving these ideas. This podcast was recorded as an IG Live video and featured some of the questions we received from our audience.

New podcast alert! Feat Dr Aegean Chan in #beautyscience conversation about acne! Who should get extractions and who should you trust to do them? Accutane - is it safe (long story short - when you work closely with a dermatologist, yes.)? How often should you cleanse your skin? What are effective actives and routines for acne prone skin? We explored all this and more!

In this episode, I talked with Dr Michelle Wong from Lab Muffin Beauty Science in an AMA episode. You sent in your questions and we tried our best to answer as many as we can - including how high of an SPF factor is needed, how much sunscreen should we be applying, is hyaluronic acid something to avoid, is there a max price one should spend on skincare, do nose porestrips cause damage to the skin and how effective are they, do lash growth products work, and lots more. Enjoy!

This week, I took a break from our regular cosmetic science conversations to talk with Dr. Christopher Labos about the coronavirus. We covered the need to knows - what is the coronavirus, why does it spread so quickly, how can we reduce our chances of getting it, and why is it crucially important for us to all do our part to flatten the curve, to ultimately put less pressure on our health care system and to protect those who are at a higher risk. Sending lots of love to all of you! Stay safe out there!

In this episode, I talked with Dr Anke Ginzburg about nail polish - about what goes into nail polish formulations and what doesn’t, misplaced fear-mongering such as the whole ‘5-free’ thing and why you shouldn’t be worried, and lots more. We also answered some of the nail polish questions submitted on Instagram. This was an information packed episode - hope you like it as much as I did.

In this episode, I talked with Dr. Kevin Folta, professor and former chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida - I was really excited to get him on the podcast to talk about “GMOs”. What are they, why are they used, and how can they help us do better. We also broke down some of the misinformation floating around about the topic, including in cosmetics science industry journals where they really should be doing better.

This episode featured a conversation with Erin from @FoodScienceBabe. An AMA episode about myths surrounding "organic" and "GMO" agriculture. Is "organic" actually the "eco" choice? Long story short, probably not.

This episode featured a conversation with Dr. Christopher Labos. We talked about the body of evidence regarding talc safety, why court case outcomes don’t necessarily reflect science, the challenges and need for sciecomm, how people who have no idea what they’re talking about can get a massive platform, quantifying risks, lifestyle changes that will actually make a difference in ones health and so much more.

This episode featured the panel discussion from our Green Beauty Night in LA that happened a couple of weeks ago. The goal of this conversation was to try to find the science in the green beauty movement. What does “Green Beauty” really mean, from a science-based perspective? The panel discussion was also recorded as a video, you can find that on our Youtube channel. If you find the conversation valuable, please share.

In this episode, I spoke with Nicholas Georges, Senior Director of Scientific and International Affairs for the Household & Commercial Products Association (HCPA). We talked about some of the regulatory changes coming up in the USA, including on 1,4-dioxane limits as well limits on VOCs by the California Air Resource Board (CARB) and what it all means for the personal care industry.