Harvard Science Book Talk: Trisha Pasricha, in conversation with David Laibson, "You've Been Pooping All Wrong: How to Make Your Bowel Movements a Joy"

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE: JEFFERSON LAB 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA!

Welcome to the easy-to-digest user’s manual for your body’s unsung hero: the gut. Leading Harvard gastroenterologist, Dr. Trisha Pasricha takes us on a riotous deep dive into our own bowels with new insight from neuroscience, enteric biology, and physiology for an actionable framework to make pooping a breeze.

No one would expect you to have stunning teeth if you were never shown a toothbrush. You would struggle to fall asleep if you never knew how to turn off the bedroom lights. But no one talks about the fundamentals of pooping, and so many—even the highest of achievers—spiral into a quagmire of poor habits and toilet-anxiety.

You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong will teach you:

• What is a “normal” bowel movement? What do different colors mean? Is there a wrong way to sit? Is there a better way to wipe?
• The intricate connection between your brain and your gut: Why do you suddenly need to find the restroom right before your turn at karaoke and why does stress make you constipated?
• How to harness your gut’s microbiome to boost your health: How does your lifestyle influence your microbiome and how can your microbiome, in turn, reshape you?
• The three P's of having a perfect poop: A simple framework to transform your bowel habits based on years of gastroenterological expertise.
• And much more…

Here, you’ll learn the tools to achieve bowel consistency, ease, and—yes—joy so that your gut flows on autopilot and you live your life without obsessing about the toilet: in short, poophoria.

Dr. Trisha Pasricha is the Director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She writes the weekly "Ask a Doctor" column for The Washington Post where she translates complex medical topics into must-read insights—with a touch of humor—for millions each week. A graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Pasricha earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her training includes an internal medicine residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and gastroenterology and motility fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital. Currently, Dr. Pasricha serves as director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leading an NIH-funded research laboratory at the forefront of gut-brain science. Her work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Network Open, and Nature Reviews.

David Laibson is the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Faculty Dean of Lowell House. Laibson’s research focuses on the topic of behavioral economics. Laibson is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has served as the Chair of the Department of Economics. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Laibson holds degrees from Harvard University (AB), the London School of Economic (MSc), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD).

Sponsored by Harvard Division of Science, Harvard Science Library, and Harvard Book Store.

For more information and videos of Harvard Science Book Talks, see https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks.

Contact Info: science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu