Despite the ever-increasing number of probiotic supplements, foods, and beverages out there, there’s still a lot of confusion about what probiotics are, how they work, and why we should take them. On today’s Broken Brain Podcast, our host, Dhru, talks to Ara Katz, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health, a microbial sciences company pioneering the application of bacteria to impact human and planetary health. A serial entrepreneur, she’s worked at the intersection of tech, media, and consumer brands. She co-founded the mobile commerce company, Spring, and advises and invests in companies like mindbodygreen and the healthcare startup, Mahmee. She was a fellow at the MIT Media Lab and named in Marie Claire’s The New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in the US.In this episode, Dhru and Ara discuss the greatest lessons she has learned in her experience as an entrepreneur and co-founder, as well as the importance of finding the right business partner and nurturing that relationship. They talk about what Ara’s experience as an entrepreneur has taught her about self-care and how her own journey of having a miscarriage helped her to realign her focus to do something that had great meaning and purpose. They also talk about what steps you need to take if you are looking to conduct your own study or clinical research, as well as the importance of integrity when it comes to marketing your business or product. They dive deep into the topic of probiotics and how not all probiotics are created equal, as well as the common misconception that probiotics have to colonize your gut and alter the composition of your microbiome to be effective, which Ara says is actually not true.In this episode, we dive into:-Ara’s current venture, Seed (1:35)-What Ara was doing prior to Seed (6:46)-Ara’s journey into health and wellness and what she learned from her mother’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis and death (9:46) -The impact Ara’s miscarriage had on her and what shifted in her career (12:33)-How Ara’s challenge breastfeeding was the driving force and inspiration for her company, Seed (21:09)-What you should think about when choosing a business partner (34:16)-The difference between a probiotic strain and a probiotic species (40:05)-Why kombucha is not a probiotic (45:58)-A common misconception about probiotics (47:58)-Seed’s Daily Synbiotic (prebiotic + probiotic) and what makes it different from other probiotics (50:54) -What you need to know if you want to do your own clinical study (56:58)-LUCA Biologics, the future of medicine for UTIs and the vaginal microbiome (01:02:15)-SeedLabs probiotic for honey bees (01:10:10)-Where to learn more about Ara and Seed (01:20:44)For more on Ara Katz, be sure to follow her on Instagram @arakatz and @seed, and on Facebook @seedmicrobiome. Check out her website https://seed.com. To learn more about Seed University and to become an affiliate visit https://seed.com/seeduniversity/. If you are are a beekeeper and interested in SeedLabs probiotics for bees email bees@seed.com. Learn more about LUCA Biologics and the development of living medicines targeting the vaginal microbiome at https://luca.bio.Lastly, use code BROKENBRAIN at seed.com for 15% off the first month of your Daily Synbiotic subscription.