Emeran Mayer, MD is a Gastroenterologist, Neuroscientist and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience at UCLA and has authored two books, The Mind-Gut Connection and The Gut-Immune Connection. Emeran has been at the forefront of microbiome research for nearly four decades, with work focusing on communications between the gut, the brain, and the immune system. While these connections seem commonplace today, informing treatments ranging from autoimmune therapies to fecal transplants, they were not always so widely accepted. “Our abstracts had a hard time getting traction and attention. And many of the key opinion leaders in this field of irritable bowel syndrome or functional gastrointestinal disorders always emphasized this is a disease of the gut and had nothing to do with the brain.” Thanks to new technologies like brain imaging, Emeran was able to receive the grants needed to fund his projects. Since, his work has contributed to understandings of chronic diseases, obesity, and cognitive decline. In this episode, Emeran discusses his journey in pioneering the study of the microbiome, delves into the history of the gut, suggests ways we can harness brain-gut communication to manage our overall health, and offers insight into the future of the evolving field. Here are the details of our conversation: [00:02:04] Emeran’s early career [00:06:18] Gaining support for brain-gut research [00:10:47] History of the brain-gut connection [00:15:33] Homeostasis in health and disease [00:18:15] The “Common Denominator” of immune activation [00:23:57] Disease prevention through diet and microbe exposure [00:29:01] Commercial microbiome testing [00:34:23] Gut feelings and intuition