Entrepreneur: Hello, Wales. Have you ever looked in the mirror
and thought to yourself, I wish it was a little bit taller? I
wish it was a baller? Well, wish no longer my friends. Imagine— a
product that can give anybody, ANY BODY they want at the snap
of a finger. Introducing the BD 5001, by my company Built
Different Enterprises.
Tina: So like "Build a Badger"?
Entrepreneur: Sort of. You can build it, rebuild it, buy it,
break it, use it, fix it, trash it, change it. Anything you
want!
Tina: This is ridiculous.
Whale 1: Yeah, you can't just change your body like that. The
way your built is the way you're built. It's all genetics.
Tina: Well..
Entrepreneur: Are you an endomorph but want to be an
ectomorph? Are you a mesomorph, but want to be a mighty morph?
With the BD 5001, you can be built different.
Tina: Okay, so we know that people's bodies are different.
We come in all shapes and sizes. But why is that?
Is it because of differences in our DNA? Or is it because of
differences in our behavior and environment? Or could it be
both? The answer is that most traits exist on a spectrum. On
the one end, there are traits that are very easy to change
because they're incredibly responsive to environmental and
behavioral changes. On the other end, there are traits that are
constant throughout our lives and strongly determined by our
genes. Somewhere in the middle. There are traits that become
fixed at some point in our lives, but can be influenced by
environmental and behavioral factors early in development.
So, how easy is it to change our bodies? Well, the answer is, it
depends on what you're trying to change.
Entrepreneur: Let's say this week, you want to be an Olympic
sprinter. And next week, you want to be a marathon runner.
With the BD 5001 has you covered.
Whale 2: Sounds good to me! Hey, if you can put your mind to it,
you can put your muscle to it. Build-a-body. Now that's an idea
I can invest it.
Whale 1: You can't just build a body. Everyone has limitations.
Yeah, there's people that can be sprinters and marathon runners.
But what about the people that can't do anything at all? You
can't just change these things.
Tina: Okay, when it comes to muscle, there is some truth to
the fact that different people have different limitations. But
to say that we can't change at all isn't really accurate. While
we all have muscles, how much muscle we have and how strong
they are, differs from person to person. This is the result of a
complex interaction between our genes and our behavior. We
usually talk about three different muscle types: cardiac
muscle, smooth muscle, and skeletal muscle. We'll be
focusing on that last type since it's the one we can voluntarily
control. But did you know that there isn't just one type of
skeletal muscle? There are two: slow-twitch (type one) and
fast-twitch (type two). Fast-twitch muscles are used in
explosive movements and slow-twitch muscles help with
activities that require endurance. But we actually all
have both kinds. It's just that we have them in different
proportions. The proportion of fast to slow twitch muscles is
strongly influenced by our genes. For example, certain
mutations in the AGTR2 gene, which is involved in skeletal
muscle development, result in people having significantly
higher percentages of fast-twitch muscles. Another
gene, the ACE has variants associated with an increase in
slow-twitch muscles. However, it's not just about our genes.
Our behavior influences what we can do. So don't assume you can
win the 100 meter dash just because you have a high
proportion of fast-twitch muscles. You're still going to
have to show up to track practice if you're really about
that life. But overall, when it comes to muscle, it's true that
you can change your body. You can grow your muscles and you
can train them to get better at specific kinds of movement. If
you want to run marathons, you'll be engaging those
slow-twitch muscles. If you want to do high intensity things like
sprinting, you'll be firing up those fast-twitch muscles. You
can train to do both things. Although, switching it up on a
weekly basis might be a little bit intense for us nonathletic
regular people.
Entrepreneur: Look, our tech doesn't just make you buff.
Sometimes you want a little junk in your trunk. You want that
thang to be thang-in'. You know what I'm saying?
Whale 2: Ha Ha! Yeahhehe
Whale 1: No.
Entrepreneur: Trying to fill in those jeans a little bit better?
The BD 5001 has you covered. Not enough cheeks for grandma to
pinch? We can fix that too. You know the vibes!
Tina: Okay, we know the vibes, but how about we get the facts.
What we call fat is also known as adipose tissue, which is a
loosely joined tissue made mostly of adipocytes. The
primary job of adipocytes is to store energy. Biologically,
adipose tissue is an essential part of our energy storage
system and plays a key role in protecting our organs, absorbing
nutrients, and producing important hormones. But did you
know there are actually two different types of fat? The kind
that we most often think of is white adipose tissue, but
there's also a brown adipose tissue.
Entrepreneur: Listen, right now we have a special sale going on
where you can upgrade your fat to premium Brown addition. It
has a heating function to keep you warm during those frosty
winter nights.
Tina: White adipose tissue is responsible for storing energy
in the form of triglycerides. While brown adipose tissue burns
energy to generate heat. Hormones play a role in
regulating how much white versus brown adipose tissue you have in
your body. Evolutionarily, brown adipose tissue helped humans
thrive in cold environments. Even today, reindeer herders in
the Arctic have been shown to have relatively high proportions
of adipose tissue, especially brown adipose tissue, to help
keep them warm. So how easy is it to control when and where we
gain fat? Unlike muscle, there isn't a particular movement you
can do to promote the accumulation and loss of fat in
a particular area of the body. Hormones play a major role in
regulating fat cells. And those hormones can indeed be linked to
particular behaviors or environmental factors. In terms
of fat distribution, sex hormones and sex hormone
receptors play a big role. Sex hormone receptors are proteins
that are found on the surface of cells. These receptors are
responsible for receiving signal molecules (hormones) and
transmitting them into the cell. There are two main types of sex
hormone receptors: estrogen receptors and androgen
receptors. These two receptor types interact differently with
how our bodies distribute our fat. People with more estrogen
and estrogen receptors typically have more of their fat stored as
subcutaneous adipose tissue. Meanwhile, people with less
estrogen often have more visceral adipose tissue. If
estrogen levels go down, such as during menopause, the proportion
of subcutaneous adipose tissue can drop, while the proportion
of visceral adipose tissue increases. In terms of
interventions, we can see certain correlations with
overall hormone and hormone receptor levels when it comes to
subcutaneous versus visceral adipose tissue. And of course,
depending on our calorie intake, we can make it easier or harder
for our body to increase the amount of fat that we have.
However, if you want it to spot reduce or increase the amount of
adipose tissue in specific areas of your body, these results
unfortunately can't be produced without surgical intervention.
Whale 1: Okay, let's talk financials. How much have you
spent on this?
Entrepreneur: So far I've spent $15,000. And it's also cost me
my wife, my two kids, and feathers my goldfish.
Whale 2: I think you have a good plan. Do you know what people
will really pay for? Changing their height.
Tina: Once you're done growing, there's nothing short of surgery
that's going to make your bones longer. But why is that? What is
height and why does it stop at a particular age? Height is
determined primarily by the length of our bones. Bone growth
happens most rapidly during childhood and adolescence. As we
reach adulthood, our bones begin to fuse together and growth
slows down. Eventually, it stops altogether. The two main types
of hormones that affect bone growth are pituitary gland
hormones and sex hormones. Pituitary gland hormones are
responsible for stimulating growth plates, which are areas
of cartilage near the ends of long bones, where new bone cells
are produced. This process is called ossification. sex
hormones such as testosterone and estrogen also play a role in
ossification. They help determine the rate at which
bones mature. So before we're done growing, what factors
affect how much we will grow? One big factor is nutrition.
Since height is a question of bones, you need materials, aka
nutrition to build those bones. And in terms of that nutrition,
there are critical windows when this appears to have the biggest
effect on our final height. The first growth period occurs
between conception and the age of two. This is a very important
period because it's when our nutritional requirements are at
their highest relative to our body size. The second period is
sometimes called a catch-up period. It occurs just before
puberty. If we don't get enough nutrition during the first
growth period, our body will sometimes delay puberty, giving
us more time to grow and prepare for a final growth spurt;
meaning that we might still reach our maximum height
potential. But thinking of our final adult height, assuming we
gotten all the right nutrients at all the right times to reach our
maximum height, there would still be variation. That
variation has to do genetic differences. Those genetic
differences don't directly dictate height, but rather the
influence all the intermediaries that affect bone growth,
including the length of your growth periods, their timing and
the rate of your growth. Even though there are a lot of
genetic factors influencing height, those factors interact
with environmental signals, like nutrition and stress, in complex
ways. So, the verdict. Of all the traits we've discussed, this
one is the least changeable. Even during childhood, it's hard
to reliably influence our final height.
Whale 1: Look, I have some concerns. We are socially
responsible whales that take antiracism seriously. How do we
make sure that we're making a product for everyone? Those that
are thick with three C's or those that are skinny minis?
Whale 2: And what about people who leave the house in a winter
time with shorts on?
Whale 1: We can ignore differences in people. This is
not a good strategy for equity.
Entrepreneur: You know, based on my team's research,
everybody's built different. But those differences aren't based
on race.
Tina: So we know that there are differences between people. But
how are those differences distributed? Is it true that
certain races have certain bodies? Well, when we talk about
race, we're usually referring to continental level groupings of
people. And if you look at the global distribution of human
biological variation, traits vary within continents. And
there are traits that are present across continents.
Across Europe, Asia and Africa, we can find groups of
individuals with short and tall stature. So that's height, but
what about adipose tissue? Because this trait is so
plastic, it's very hard to tease apart how much of the variation
between groups is related to non genetic factors versus genetic
factors. So in this case, when you see differences, it's
important to pause and think about the extent to which they
might be driven by behavior and environment. We touched on
fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles and now is a good
opportunity to dispel the myth that certain races are better at
particular sports. Why some nations are overrepresented in
certain categories of sports has less to do with natural
inclination or physical build, and more to do with socio
political history that lead some communities to participate
in certain sports at higher rates. If we think about
strength and explosive power (fast-twitch muscle based), this
can be represented in sprinting, where Jamaicans have frequently
won Olympic medals. But fast-twitch muscles are also
important for strongman competitions, where Iceland is
very well represented. Conversely, marathons see a lot
of representation from Kenya and Ethiopia, while Italy and
Germany are frequently represented in cycling
competitions. But both these sports engage slow-twitch
endurance muscles. Also, for each of these athletes to
perform at their highest level, they have to train for years. No
way around it. So while there are differences between
individuals in terms of how they're built, this is a result
of a complex interaction between environments and genes. And on
the level of genetic variation, that variation is not neatly
divided among continental populations. Put another way, two
populations could be distantly related and physically similar.
Conversely, another pair of populations could be more
closely related, but built different.
Whale 1: Y'all, I'm done imagining. You're doing too
much. I'm backing out of the scam.
Whale 2: No, he's not doing enough! Look, I was rooting for
you, but you don't have enough vision. For that reason, I'm out
as well.
Tina: You know what? I think this guy is doing just enough.
Clearly, you have some science to iron out. But I see the
innovation here and I'm ready to step in and imagine with you. So
what do you say, take me on as a science consultant and I'll
offer you $600,000 for 10% of the company.
Entrepreneur: Thank you
*scheming laughter*
Whale 2: Here's the thing. I forgot my line.
Alright, here we go.
Whale 1: Scene One. Shot Delta. Take two.
Us as whales are socially responsible people that care
about or take...
*team laughing hysterically*