Simple Steps to Get a Music Gig

Simple Steps to Get a Music Gig Simple Steps to Get a Music Gig One of the best ways to build up a fan base for your band is to play live as often as you can. But sometimes, bands find themselves between a rock and hard place: To get a gig, you need an audience, but to get an audience, you need a gig. Get a Gig You can rise above the paradox, however, and get your band in front of the crowd with careful planning. Landing a single show is an important start on which you can build to book your band an entire tour. To book a gig and possibly a tour, youll need to know how to promote your band and how to do business with the venue. Think Locally The best place to start looking for gigs is in your own backyard. Get to know the music scene in your area. Which venues and promoters are willing to give up-and-coming bands a chance? Which bands in your area play live often and might need a support act? What venues in your area put on touring bands who might need a local opening act? To get a gig, all of these factors and more can come into play. Approaching the right venues will open doors for you, and there is strength in numbers, so working with the other bands in the area can increase opportunities for everyone. Plus, you can share gear. The Promo Package Have a standard package ready to help introduce yourself to venues and promoters. Much like the package you use when you send a demo to a label, this promo package should be short and sweet. Include a short demo CD, a short bio or one sheet to introduce the band, and some press clippings if you have any, especially if they review live performances. If youre going to approach people by email instead, cut and paste the info into the body of an email and include a link to a site where your music can be heard. Dont send attachments, as most people wont open them. Approach the Venue To get a gig directly with a venue, call to find out who is in charge of booking bands and send them your promo package. The venue may tell you when to contact that person again. If not, give them about a week, and follow up by phone or email. Keep trying until you get an answer. If youve havent played live much, your best bet is to try to get on an existing bill with a band that already has a following. Keep in mind that if you book with a venue, you may be in charge of promoting the show yourself and paying venue rental fees, unless you are invited to join an existing concert bill. Approach the Promoter If youd rather not self-promote and take on venue fees, you can approach a promoter to get a gig. Send your promo pack to the promoter and follow up like you would with a venue. If a promoter agrees to get you a show, they will book the venue and promote the show for you, but you may need to send them posters you have made yourself to do so. If the promoter doesnt want to put you on by yourself yet, ask them if they have any shows you could play as an opening act. If they say no, check in from time to time to remind them you are available as a support act. Research the Deal This is the trickiest part for most bands. When you are just getting started, you often will not make money on your shows. In fact, you may even end up paying something out of pocket. That doesnt mean it was all for nothing- building up your fan base will mean that you do make money on future gigs. If you do make money, you will either have a deal where you get paid a pre-agreed amount no matter how many people turn up, or you will have a door split deal. Either deal can be fine and fair. Focus on building your audience and not the money in the bands early stages. Play the Gig It sounds obvious, but the way you handle the gig can have a lasting impact on your ability to get future shows. Show up on time for the soundcheck, and if other bands are playing, remember that everyone needs time for their soundcheck. Be professional- there are likely to be free drinks around, but remember everyone is there to hear your music, not to see if you can handle your beer. Dont sell yourself short by getting on stage in anything but your top shape, ready to play a great show. Play a good show, be courteous and professional, and youll have a better chance of getting more show offers. Get More Gigs Ideas to get your band out there playing and on its way to success: Dont get caught up in the financial details Your goal is build up your audience. Promoters and venues take a chance on you when you are just getting started, and they will be more willing to give you a chance if you dont have a lot of financial demands. But dont pay to play, either If youre putting on your own show, of course, you may have to pay a venue hire fee and you may pay some promotional costs. However, dont pay money simply to get on a bill, and dont trust anyone who asks you to do so. Invite the press Keep entertainment writers at your local papers and websites informed about your activities and always invite them to the show. Also, keep your local radio stations and music podcasts up to date on whats happening with your band and when youre playing. Respect the guest list Guest lists have a way of getting out of hand, fast. Dont push it with promoters with the guest list when you are trying to build up a name for yourself. If youre part of a larger bill, you may not even have any space on the guest list. If you do, use what you have and be done with it. Dont try to get 50 of your closest cheapskate friends into every show for free.

The Power of Marketing Synergy for Promotional Media Tie-Ins

The Power of Marketing Synergy for Promotional Media Tie-Ins The Power of Marketing Synergy for Promotional Media Tie-Ins “Movie tie-in edition” or “TV tie-in edition” (sometimes simply referred to as a “movie tie-in” or a “TV tie-in”) as it relates to book publishing is a book whose jacket, packaging, contents, or promotion relates to a feature film or a television show, respectively. Promotional Tie-Ins and Marketing Synergy The relationship of a movie or TV show to a book, or vice versa, creates a marketing synergy between the book and the film (or television series) to which it relates. In the best-case scenario, the film/show and the book each helps to expand the audience of the other. Here are a few types of tie-ins and how they work: Movies and TV Movies or TV shows related to bestselling books (such as the feature films made from Kathryn Stockett’s The Help or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series- or HBO’s True Blood television series based on the novels of Charlaine Harris) bring passionate fans of the story into theater seats or to the initial Nielsen ratings.  Even classic works and their films (such as Whit Stillmans Love and Friendship  based on Jane Austens  Lady Susan)  can benefit from synergies. Having hoards of book club members, teenage fans, or Janeites showing up the opening weekend or watching the premiere is especially important to boost box office numbers or audience levels and jumpstart the film’s or series’ success with word-of-mouth. In a media marketplace that must increasingly compete for eyeballs, any level of head start into audience recognition is important. Novels For the book, the publicity surrounding a feature film release or the launch of a new TV show helps spread the word of the source material and opens the book to new audiences who might have otherwise not considered reading it. Conversely, books can be developed from popular media in order to exploit, expand, and/or otherwise capitalize on the popularity of the source material. These range from novels (like the X-Files series of books), fan books (Star Wars and Star Trek spawned many of these), or even cookbooks (Blue Bloods,  The Sopranos). One brilliant stroke of TV tie-in genius and corporate media synergy was executed when ABC TV sister company Hyperion Books developed and launched a series of novels by “Richard Castle,” the titular (and fictional) novelist who is the main character of the ABC mystery series Castle. Book Jackets The visual relationship between the film or television show and the book is important, especially at the bookseller level, when customers who might not have been aware of the existence of the book can happen upon it by recognizing the familiar book title or artwork on the jacket. For that reason, tie-in editions are re-jacketed to reflect the marketing campaign of the related film or TV show. This happened with the paperback version of Washingtons Spies,  which was designed to tie in closely with the  AMC series  Turn, which was based on the book. When the stars of the screen are hugely popular, the most selling jacket tie-in will  incorporate photos of the film’s stars (the Twilight series is a good example of this).  There is usually a rights negotiation and fees involved in the publisher’s use of the movie artwork. In the case where the material is in the public domain and many publishers print essentially identical copies of the content, a particular publishing house will negotiate the with film producers for the exclusive rights to use the movie tie-in artwork. If the book is popular already, re-jacketing a book with the artwork from a new movie can prolong sales. For a backlist book, the movie tie-in edition brings consumer attention to an older title by relating it to something that is currently in the media and being actively promoted. While the substance of the film might be condensed or expanded from the source material (as was the case with Brokeback Mountain, a short story by Annie Proulx), the movie tie-in edition acknowledges the roots of the story  and can bring new readers to it. Significantly for publishers’ profit margins, a tie-in to a very popular media property can command a premium price; in the case of Brokeback Mountain, the individual short story was pulled out of a collection, packaged by itself with the art from the film, and priced at $9.95 for its 64 pages. Tie-Ins by Association Books might tie in more loosely with the release of a film or television show, but still feel the sales benefit of a film release or major television event. For example, a biopic movie about a famous figure generates interest in learning more about that person and, consequently, boosts biography sales.

3 Questions to Ask Your Would-Be Boss at the Interview

3 Questions to Ask Your Would-Be Boss at the Interview Interview Questions You Must Ask 3 Questions to Ask Your Would-Be Boss at the Interview In many ways, moving ahead in our careers depends on our bosses: the people who can motivate us, advise us, challenge us, or on the other hand make our lives miserable. If you've never had a boss who made you miserable, consider yourself lucky. And if you want to wind up lucky in a new job, you need to know something about your would-be boss. That's why you should ask these three questions in your first or second interview to determine whether this is someone youd want to work with: What words would you use to describe the people who report to you? What you want to hear: A quick answer with positive-sounding words like creative, smart, friendly, or talented. The quickness of the answer indicates a good grasp of the direct reports individual qualities. The words, meanwhile, speak more about the bosss attitude toward them. What you don't want to hear: A long pause. Or worse, phrases like diligent, serious, and hard-working. These may indicate that the boss is more interested in getting the job done than in the people who get it done. If you had a problem with something I did, how would you tell me? What you want to hear: A thoughtful answer spoken in a soft tone something like, I'd ask you to come into my office, explain why it was a problem, and ask why and how it happened. Then, I'd ask for your ideas on how we can avoid it in the future and if there's anything I can do to help you. What you don't want to hear: An abrupt response such as, Id email you about it, or a dismissive statement about not letting it happen again (without offering solutions on how to avoid it). This may indicate an unwillingness to open up to you or help you grow on the job. Mistakes happen, and they're often our best lessons for improving our skills. A boss who doesn't recognize that shouldn't be managing people. Within my first three months on the job, what are some of the things you'll be expecting to see from me? What you want to hear: Reasonable expectations for a new hire, such as that you're mastering the role, you work well with your teammates, you show interest in learning new things even beyond your role, and that you can be trusted to get the job done. What you don't want to hear: A curt statement such as I just need someone to fill the job, or expectations that go beyond what anyone could accomplish during the first few months after starting a new job. As we struggle to recover from a hard-hitting recession, more people whove been stuck in jobs with bad bosses will be looking for something (and someone) better. Savvy employers are aware of that, and recognize that retaining key workers will be increasingly important for their future success. One of the most important ways of doing that is to grow and develop good managers who will help others grow in their work and chosen career paths.

WeGrow is a new entrepreneur school for five-year-olds

WeGrow is a new entrepreneur school for five-year-olds WeGrow is a new entrepreneur school for five-year-olds It’s never too early to start a business. This is the spirit behind WeGrow, a private elementary school for “conscious entrepreneurship” from the founders behind the office-sharing company WeWork, which is valued at $20 billion.After disrupting how we work in offices together, the WeWork founders, Adam and Rebekah Neumann, have set their sights on a familiar question the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergs of Silicon Valley also want to solve: How should we educate the next generation? If you believe that current education is “squashing out the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity that’s intrinsic to all young children” as Rebekah Neumann does, then WeGrow is the school for you.Neumann has enrolled one of her own children in the pilot program that’s underway. These budding entrepreneurs, ages five to eight, spend part of class in a WeWork space in Manhattan, and one day a week they go to a 60-acre farm north of the city. In one example the Fast Company profile on the schoo l gave, Neumann described how the children sold crops they harvested on the farm and called this experience “empowering.”“Now that I’m a mom, I’m noticing there’s been a huge missed opportunity in the educational system, because children are ready to start creating their life’s work when they’re five,” Rebekah Neumann said. “And that’s just the truth of it. So why are we waiting until they graduate from college? I don’t even know if my kids are going to go to college.”Do children really know what their “life’s work” is going to be at age five? Should children’s empowerment be linked to how much reach their ideas have and how much money they could make?If you’re skeptical of WeGrow’s pedagogy, so was  Samuel Abrams, the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, at Columbia University’s Teachers College, when Bloomberg News asked him to weigh in on the idea. Abrams said WeGrow’s instrumental approach to how k ids should learn is “essentially encouraging kids to monetize their ideas” which “at that age, is damaging” because it makes learning less fun.Kidpreneur businesses are growingWhether you’re a lover or a hater of WeGrow, the idea of a “kidpreneur” is here to stay and is part of a growing trend of education companies catering to the ideas of young hustlers.If you’re not ready to fully commit your child’s education to entrepreneurship, there are companies and competitions that will facilitate a child’s business savvy on the side, including  summer camps teaching teenagers how to build their personal business brand and Shark Tank-like business competitions with real equity investment money on the table for high schoolers.The Acton Children’s Business Fair, which bills itself as the “largest entrepreneurship event for kids in North America,” allows young children to sell products at the fair. One of the biggest success stories from the fair is  Mikaela Ulmer, w ho at age 4, was encouraged by her parents to bring her lemonade recipe to the fair, which eventually led her to score a $60,000 investment on  Shark Tank  and get her Me the Bees Lemonade stocked in Whole Foods.To succeed as a kidpreneur, you need to dream big like a kid, Ulmer advises. “When a kid has a dream and they want it to come true, they will do whatever it takes to do so. They don’t see the obstacles in the way, they will just fight hard to make it come true,” she said.

Follow These New Rules for Resume Writing

Follow These New Rules for Resume Writing Follow These New Rules for Resume Writing 3 If you feel that way, and youve been in your job for a while, chances are you havent updated your resume for years. And that means your document likely hasnt kept up with the times. Its important to have an updated resume ready for any opportunity that may come your way, so you should take a few minutes to review it and bring it up to date. As you do so, plan to follow these new rules for resume writing- including some that may have changed since your last update- to make sure your new version is as good as it can be. Here are 10 new rules for resume writing:   Be concise. Youve probably heard in the past that a resume should never be more than one page. While some experts no longer offer that recommendation, you should still make your document as focused and concise as possible. Hiring managers dont have a lot of time, so dont waste the few seconds they spend looking at your resume by including unnecessary information. Triple-check for typos. This isnt exactly a new rule, but its one that a surprising number of people ignore. If your resume is riddled with spelling or grammatical errors, youre not putting your best foot forward. Make sure your copy is clean, not only by running a spell checker, but also by asking several trusted friends to review it. You have no excuse for anything less than perfection in this regard. Ditch the formatting. In the past, you may have spent hours coming up with a unique and fancy design for your resume. Dont waste your time on that when building a new version, unless youre looking for work in creative or design fields. Stick to basic formatting, such as using either the Times New Roman or Arial font at no smaller than 10 points. This will make it easy to read and ensure that your resume makes it though the common automated resume scanners used by many HR departments. Dont include references. Most people listed at least three references on their resumes in the past, but a CareerUp piece says you should ditch them now. You are looking for recruiters to talk to you, not your references, the article says. Speaking to references is further into the process, and when it gets to that point they will reach out to you and ask for those names. Make it easy to access. You may think all company recruiters can easily open a Word doc, but if they have different versions of the software, it could mess up even your simple formatting. That could confuse recruiters or waste their time, leading them to throw your resume into the virtual trash. Instead, offer a PDF that is simple, clean, and easy to open. Forget the objective and emphasize a summary. Objective statements are a thing of the past, according to an article from Time. Instead, include a summary, which is basically just an elevator pitch for why you’re the best person for this job, the article says. When it makes sense, change the title on your resume to match how it’s presented in the job listing. If the company is looking for a Marketing Communications Director, and you meet the qualifications, it’s in your best interest to use that title, something like Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications.' Focus on keywords. An article from Jody Michael Associates says this is also vital to getting your resume through applicant tracking systems (ATS). Now, especially, it’s critical to use keywords that showcase your knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), making sure they align with the knowledge, skills, and abilities listed on the job posting, the article says. It not only proves to the employer you’ve got what it takes for the position, it will get your resume past tight ATS screening. Remember LinkedIn. While youre spending time updating your resume, you should also take a few minutes to make sure your LinkedIn profile is strong and accurate. In fact, you may want to include your LinkedIn address with your other contact information on your resume. Hiring managers are bound to check your online profile, and theyll appreciate it if you make that easy for them. Quantify your accomplishments. Numbers and data bring your work experience to life and help hiring managers envision the potential impact you could have in their organization, says an article from Indeed. When you can, back up your achievements with real data to boost your credibility and add informative detail to your resume. Tell a truthful story. No matter what else your resume does, it absolutely must give an accurate picture of who you are and what you can do. The Muse says this is how hiring managers will know youre the right person for the job. Ultimately, when you re-read and edit it, make sure that it tells the story of your background, the skills you gained along the way, the experiences that you’ve had, and makes it crystal clear why you’ve ended up where you are today and why the role that they are hiring for is the perfect next step for you. This is a lot to cover in just a few words, and getting it right will require time and focus. But following these new rules for resume writing should ensure that your document gets past a computer screen and into the hands of a hiring manager who will be inspired to give you a call and start the interview process. If your resume can take you that far, the rest is up to you. Know someone looking for a job? Refer a friend to with this link- you’ll get a month free service and they’ll get 30% off!

How to Get a Job Using Social Media [Step-by-step Guide]

How to Get a Job Using Social Media [Step-by-step Guide] How to Get a Job Using Social Media Social media is great for posting selfies and connecting with people you barely knew back in high school. OK, there are plenty more useful functions, and most of them have become part of our everyday lives.The advantages of social media aren’t limited to our personal lives: sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become essential tools for professional purposes as well. Just ask any job recruiter.With so many companies and recruiters searching for candidates online, it makes sense you hunt for jobs on the same platforms they use. But you need to have a game-plan in place. Social media can help you land an interview or even a job, but it can also spoil your chances of getting hired.There’s a lot to make sense of when it comes to searching for jobs through social media. Which is why your attention should fall on these four areas:1) Perfecting your profile2) Effective networking3) Refined search4) Building authorityHere are some strategies within each area using Facebook, Twi tter and LinkedIn, the most commonly used platforms for hiring purposes.Perfecting Your ProfileWhether you are searching for a job on social media or using more traditional channels, your online profiles are of critical importance to getting hired.This is because reviewing social media accounts has become a common step in the applicant screening process for employers. In fact, recruiters expect links to social media accounts on candidates’ resumes.Social accounts can leave a lasting impression with recruiters, and thus are a key part of your personal and professional brand.Keep in mind that someone examining your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages does so without any explanation for what they find. How elements are interpreted can make or break your chances of getting hired, so precaution is in order.The easiest way to ensure your image is protected is to separate your online activities into personal and professional accounts, specifically on Facebook and Twitter.It may seem like a burden to have to create and manage two sets of profiles, but take the time to develop your professional profiles with content relevant to employers.This includes listing professional interests, work experience, and education. Offer a short description of yourself and career ambitions. You will also want to provide a professional photo, links to your resume, CV, portfolio and/or any pieces of work you wish to showcase.Once this cornerstone content is in place, you can be confident that whoever you engage online will see your professional side. Just remember there’s a good chance employers will likely also seek out your personal profiles at some point.If you aren’t comfortable with a potential employer seeing the same content that you share with close friends, adjust your privacy settings to limit public visibility.Effective NetworkingOnce your polished professional profiles are in order, it’s time to harness the true power of online social networking. Much like the offline world, connecting with the right people online opens many doors for job seekers.The biggest advantage of networking online is accessibility. You can contact millions of people who can provide you with a lead. Of course, the challenge then becomes narrowing your efforts. Here are just a few steps you can take:Review your own networks: It can sometimes be easy to overlook people we already know. Go through your current contacts on LinkedIn and Facebook to see who is working where or in what capacity. If you find people working for a company or in an area that aligns with your career goals, initiate a conversation with them. Even if you barely know the person, that fact that you are already connected gives you grounds for contact.Follow relevant organizations and individuals: Be sure to “follow” or “like” the pages of companies or individuals that interest you. Once you do so, you are fed content updates from these pages, which can even include new job postings. On LinkedIn, yo u can also see who works at the companies or organizations you follow, helping you identify potential points of contact for informal interviews or job information.Join groups: Facebook and LinkedIn are full of groups that are relevant to your job search in different ways. First, there are industry groups, where people interested or involved in the same field of work share content, organize events and engage in discussions. The groups vary considerably in size and focus, which means you can join larger groups with a robust discussion involving people from around the world. Or you can take part in more localized groups devoted to niche areas.The groups you take part in don’t necessarily have to be industry orientated for you to discover job opportunities. Student clubs, alumni associations or community organizations can connect you with people who share a common background. Through conversations with group members, you may learn of individuals working in companies or fields of inter est to you.Refined SearchIf you’re lucky, you will be fed news on job postings by the companies you follow or like. However, this limits the number and frequency of opportunities you hear about, so expect to do a little digging.The obvious starting point for searching for a job through social media is LinkedIn, which many companies use for finding and hiring candidates. LinkedIn lets you narrow your search results using a variety of filters, including industry, experience level and location, allowing you to find positions suited to your career goals.However, it’s important to realize that not all companies post their jobs to LinkedIn and that there are other ways of discovering positions through social media.Hashtags are great way to uncover these hidden gems. Many companies will post job information on Facebook or Twitter using hashtags like #careers, #jobopening, #nowhiring, as well as other hashtags that are more specific to the position. For example, if you are looking for a job in marketing in Chicago, it’s worth trying to search #marketingjob #chicago to see if anything interesting pops up.Building AuthoritySocial media also offers a tremendous opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise and to build credibility amongst potential employers. Much like you share interesting content on your personal social accounts, you should share relevant, interesting news, articles, research reports and event information pertaining to your desired career using your professional social accounts.However, building authority in a specific area is not merely a matter of sharing links to other people’s content. The next level up is to produce and share original content that shows your knowledge of your field. This content can serve as a catalyst for discussion within the groups you have joined on Facebook and LinkedIn.A blog is an ideal medium for developing such content, and you can use social media to disseminate your writing to a larger group. After a while, you may even develop a significant following of your own, including individuals from companies where you’d like to work. You’ll also be able to reference this content when you apply for jobs.Of course, it’s crucial that anything you write to be carefully thought-through and edited to preserve your professional reputation. Use caution when it comes to topics that may be contentious since potential employers may judge you on your opinions.The takeaway to building your online authority is the same for all other areas of social media usage when job hunting: be strategic. If you are smart about how you represent yourself, who you engage with and how to find job openings, a slew of opportunities will present themselves online.Now that you know how to find a job using social media, you can create or update your résumé by trying our

The evolution of the human brain explains how we got so fat

The evolution of the human brain explains how we got so fat The evolution of the human brain explains how we got so fat It’s strange that we haven’t come up with a better way of neatly explaining the origin of life to skeptics other than The Big Bang. For one thing, the term was coined somewhat in jest by one of the theory’s staunchest detractors. During a 1949 BBC radio broadcast, astronomer Fred Hoyle (who was all about the continuous expansion theory) was the first to utter the moniker, in an attempt to illustrate how implausible the whole thing was, yet to this day, academicians and civilians alike privilege the title over all others. What’s more, as many have already pointed out, the name actually does a disservice to the content of the theory, with “Big” implying size even though space wasn’t a thing when it occurred-technically speaking, and there wasn’t actually a “Bang.”The popularity of the pet name neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, but it does seem to roll off the tongues of dense-talking-snake-enthusiasts with irritating ease. I mostly feel bad for the people t hat dedicate their lives to relevant breakthroughs; breakthroughs that sometimes offer only a single clue to the most pressing “Who Done It?” case of all time. It’s an exciting thing to watch from the sidelines, thousands of cosmologist, physicists and podcast hosts eagerly lining up to add one more pixel to a canvas that is dispiritingly closer to being vacant than it is to being completed. I recall physicist and director of the NASA Institute for Universal Biology, Nigel Goldenfeld,  who applied physics and emergent states of matter to an equation that is usually only discussed in biological terms.  Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!Every once in awhile pioneering research on the subject is less about populating the frame and more about acquiring the tools to make a new one, as is the case with a new report published this year in the journal Genome Biology and Evolut ion.Second only to how did we get here? Is how did we get so fat? Our scrappy simian cousins may only be a chromosome away from us but we’re worlds apart as far as body fat is concerned. It’s not uncommon for a healthy adult human body to be composed of anywhere between 14% to 31% body fat compared to the 9% body fat found on an average chimpanzee. At some point, after humans split with other primates in the evolutionary tapestry, the method in which the former packaged DNA in their fat cells altered drastically. The end result, according to Devi Swain-Lenz, a postdoctoral associate in biology at Duke University and the lead researcher behind the new study, hindered our ability to turn white fat into brown fat.  Brown fat vs. White fatWhite adipose tissue (often referred to as white fat) is segmented by two different variations, visceral fat or subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat refers to the white fat stored within the abdominal cavity and located near several vital organs, includi ng the liver, intestines, and stomach while subcutaneous fat is the stuff located just beneath the skin, the stuff that gathers around our waists and gifts us beer bellies, thunder thighs and so forth. White fat like brown fat serves its purpose but an excess of it is a pretty reliable predictor for several serious illnesses. Too much subcutaneous fat will companion traditionally undesirable features, but an increased build-up of visceral fat is the one you have to worry about, as this is the one associated with increased risk for conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and even depression. Conversely, brown and similarly beige fat, the former of which is primarily found in the upper neck and upper back, helps us burn calories, generate heat and regulate our body temperature. Lean people tend to have a much larger reserve of brown fat than overweight people do, though evolution has collectively curbed our ability to fund the conversion.A collection of fat samples abstracted from chimps, humans and rhesus  macaques monkeys was compared by Swain-Lenz and Duke biologist Greg Wray with the help of a technique called ATAC-seq. The researchers noted around 780 DNA regions that had become bunched in humans but were still accessible to the other primate species observed in the study. Upon further inspection, it was revealed that the genomes that better enabled us to convert calorie storing white fat to beige or brown fat were effectively tucked away.  â€œWe’ve lost some of the ability to shunt fat cells toward beige or brown fat, and we’re stuck down the white fat pathway. It’s still possible to activate the body’s limited brown fat by doing things like exposing people to cold temperatures, but we need to work for it.”Swain-Lenz told India Today.The human brain has just about tripled in size since we branched off from the other primates six to eight million years ago. To support this urgent rate of growth, our bodies began to produce more white fat than brown fat, as the human brain requires an exorbitant amount of energy (more than any other tissue in fact.) This fascinating retcon behind why we’ve become considerably less sinewy than chimps might additionally provide some useful insights into the ever-present obesity crisis, though Swain-Lenz cautions us against holding our breath for a super solution to our obesity problem.  â€œMaybe we could figure out a group of genes that we need to turn on or off, but we’re still very far from that,” Swain-Lenz continued. “I don’t think that it’s as simple as flipping a switch. If it were, we would have figured this out a long time ago,”