Is there anything better than a piping hot cup of coffee on a frigid winter day, or the first cold brew of a beautiful summer? For a lot of us… likely not. Coffee is the way we kick off a day, pick up an afternoon, and rehash the work week with a friend on the weekend. Besides saving us an untold amount of cash, is there any health benefit to giving up coffee? Or is it actually making us live longer? Today we talk Professor Rob Van Dam from George Washington University and answer the question of caf, decaf, or no-caf: what science tells us about coffee, caffeine, and health.

A cocktail with your friends, a glass of wine after work, a beer at a barbecue–alcohol is everywhere. Undoubtedly, it’s been an integral part of our society for thousands of years. But when it comes to its effects on our health, results can feel more mixed than your favorite margarita. Is alcohol a “poison,” or maybe, in moderation, is it actually ok, or even good for us?

Donuts, cupcakes, lattes, and cookies–sometimes it seems like the best things in life are full of it: the sweet, delicious thing we call sugar. It’s one of the first places we look to when we’re trying to make a “lifestyle change,” and also one of the first places we look to when we need a pick-me-up. Some scientists say that sugar is akin to a poison, giving rise to diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Others say, it’s not actually that bad. So what’s the truth? This week, we talk to Professor Jim Mann from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Is sugar bad for us? Are all sugars the same? Should we even be giving up sugar at all? Find out on our sweetest episode yet.

We’ve all done it: you resolve to… go to the gym, eat healthier, save money. You’re excited and doing great, and then… It’s January 10th and you’re back to grabbing takeout, sitting on your sofa, and thinking, “Eh… I’ve got too much going on right now, next year!”

Well what if there was actual research conducted on New Year’s Resolutions and how we can maybe (gasp) actually keep them for once? It turns out–there is. This week, in the first episode of our Resolutions series, we talk to Professor Alexander Rozental and Martin Oscarsson from Stockholm University in Sweden. They published the largest study on the making, keeping, and breaking of New Year’s Resolutions. This week, we find out what kind of goals to set, how to set them, and what to do to ensure that “this year is (actually) different.

The metabolism may seem like a magical concept: some people eat whatever they want and don’t gain weight. Others so much as look at a dessert and feel the pounds creeping on. But what do we know about our metabolism? Can it speed up? Can it slow down? Does yo-yo dieting damage our metabolisms? On this episode, Juna and Eddie talk to Dr. Herman Pontzer, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University all about the ins and outs of human energy expenditure, and what hunter gatherer tribes can teach us about how our metabolism works.