An interview with my Dad

00:02 Hi, everyone. My name is Jade Olsen Today is December 4, 2022. I'm going to interview my dad. We are in Rochester, Minnesota. Hi, dad.

00:15 Hi, jade.

00:17 I have 10 questions for you.

00:20 Okay, let's start.

00:21 First question. What do you like about your job?

00:25 What do I like about my job? Well, I feel the first, I need to tell everybody what I do, and then I'll tell you what I like the most about my job. Okay, So I work as a scientist. So what I do is I come up with different experiments to test what we call hypothesis. And so what I like the most about that is that I can challenge myself to see whether we can solve very complex or difficult problems. So at my job, we like to study the biology of cancer. And so we come up with different experiments, then we can test those ideas and see whether we can hopefully, in the future, help patients get better, the patients that have cancer.

01:29 Okay, second question. What do you like to do when you have free time?

01:36 What do I like to do when I have free time? I feel that the thing that I like the most is spending time with you guys, with you and your sister and your mom. It's very nice to come home and play with you and, you know, we can cook dinner together or watch a movie or even play outside or stuff like that is what I enjoy the most.

02:06 Okay. What is your favorite hobby?

02:10 My favorite hobby. So now I feel that I hardly have time for a hobby nowadays. But I can tell you maybe what I used to do. And I used to play sports, like soccer, for example. So that was one of my favorite hobbies, to, you know, be in a team and have soccer games and then spend time with friends and family.

02:39 And were you a kid when you did those hobbies?

02:43 So how old? Yeah. Oh, well, that will be basically during high school and college, so maybe, you know, early 20s.

02:56 And what do you like to do? What do you like about holidays?

03:03 Holidays? Well, my favorite holidays, Christmas. And what do I like about Christmas is it's just a joy that I can see in a lot of people. You know, it's not just about the gifts and presents, but also just coming all together as a family and friends and just get together to have dinner or, you know, Christmas day to open presents, of course.

03:31 Okay, next question. This is kind of a funny question. What is a weird but true fact that, you know.

03:38 Weird but true fact. Oh, that's a tough one. Let me see if I can think something real quick about a weird but true fact. Oh, boy. Let me think. Okay, so I guess one true by weird fact is that all of the blood in your body travels through your heart once a minute. Did you know that?

04:08 No.

04:09 It's weird, huh? But yeah, it's true. Okay.

04:13 Okay, next question. If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?

04:19 If I can do anything in the world, yes. I'll just do whatever I have to do to protect you guys.

04:29 And like, if you could, if you had any money in the. It doesn't matter how much money you've had. You have, what would you do? Like, anything that you want. Anything that you want.

04:47 Well, I guess we can do a lot of stuff.

04:49 You could do like sky diving or something.

04:53 Maybe we'll try to go to the space we like to go to the moon. Yeah, maybe you can go check it out.

05:01 Okay, next question. What are you learning at work?

05:08 What are we learning right now at work? We're learning this is a cool thing that still, you know, many years away. But if it's true, at least it's true right now in animal models that we can delay cancer. So instead of people getting cancer at the age they typically get cancer, or now working with different animal models to delay when they get cancer.

05:37 Okay, next question. What do you remember from when you were a baby? Well, if there is anything that you.

05:47 Remember when I was a baby, I really don't remember much, to be honest. I remember when I was a kid, I remember like my favorite food when I was a kid, which still is, you know, pizza really good.

06:00 And do you remember like something like something that you liked when you were a baby or something? I don't know.

06:10 It's something that I liked when I was a baby. Well, I like to, I don't know, play with Legos, for example.

06:19 When you were a baby?

06:20 Well, not a baby, but more like perhaps 8 year old.

06:28 What do you like about sports?

06:31 What I like about sports? Huh. It's really interesting that he asked me this question because right now, as you know, the World cup, right, it's, it's for about a month and if you can tell, there's a lot of passion that goes into sports. You know, it's when like people really feel this one is good because it's about countries. So like Team USA versus, you know, other different countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. So you can see how people really feel passionate about sports. And you know, that's, that's amazing how a whole country can come up to cheer, you know, a very small group of people. So in Soccer it's about 10 players, but a lot of most of the people that are in the country will root for them. So it's really interesting to watch that. So that's what I like the most about sports, is that, you know, you can have a lot of intensity, but at the same time, people like. And plus, it's healthy. I think it's. If anything, it help us to be active, which. Which is good for us.

07:45 Yeah.

07:48 And of course, everything has to be safe, but playing sports, it's a good way to be healthy and to exercise. Yes.

07:56 Okay, last question. What is something that you like to do at work?

08:03 What is something that I like to do at work? Well, I guess surgeries in animal models, it's one thing that I really enjoy because then in that way I can appreciate the anatomy and how close we are, you know, how close we are with different mammals.

08:24 And why do you like to do that at work? Why is that one of your favorite parts about work?

08:31 It really, you know, keep us to the point to we can appreciate how evolution it's been going. We as humans have a lot of the tissues and organs similar to. To different mammals. So that's how we can study and learn more about the biology.

09:00 And also, what is an animal model?

09:06 So an animal model. That's a very good question, Jade, because maybe not all of your friends or the people that you know know what. It's an animal model. So in science, instead of doing experiments in humans, which is not ethical, we use animals like mice, for example, that we cannot just go and do whatever we want with a mouse that we just happen to find. We actually have experimental mice, that those mice are sick. Sick because they are engineered. They are predisposed to have some diseases, such as cancer, for example, but we go through a very comprehensive protocol that they need to be approved before we start working on those animals. So, like mice, we also have so. And not just mice. We also have rabbits. We also have rats. There is also dogs. There's also many, many different types of animals that can be used.

10:18 I remember you showing me a picture of an elephant brain, a cat brain, and a mouse brain.

10:25 Yeah. So that way you can see the differences. Right. For example, now, something that's a cool fact, too, is that, you know, you think because an animal, it's much bigger, like, for example, let's say a whale.

10:41 Or compared to a mouse.

10:43 Compared to a mouse, do you think which. Which one can be more predisposed to have cancer, the whale or the mouse? So which one do you think it's predisposed to have cancer?

11:01 I don't really know.

11:03 Yeah. So those animals have what we call inside our body, our cells. Right. So in essence, you know, all of these animals can at some point have cancer. But it's very interesting because as we age we still, we have something that we call mutations or variants and this can predispose us to have cancer. But what matters here is that the mice only live about two years in an experimental scenario. And those mice, some of them, if they're engineered, they can have cancer because of the number of mutations that they occur in their cells. But that's, we can talk a little more about that in a later interview if you want to.

11:59 And then that's all the questions.

12:03 Well, I guess I just want to say thank you for the interview. It was very nice to do this with you. I really enjoyed this.

12:12 Okay. And I, and I'm going to.

12:22 Post.

12:29 I learned a little bit more of this interview.