Proper clinical research exposure in medical school is a somewhat modern invention. Prior to changes implemented by Harvard Medical School in the 19th century, medicine was more application-focused, but gradually medical schools began to expose students to basic and clinical research. By the 20th century it was the norm that doctors would have a foundation in research and physician-scientists were their teachers.

To many practitioners of yoga in the United States, its original form would be unrecognizable in everything but the name. What was once about spirituality is now about health and physical fitness. 

If you are going to be a guru in the US, one tenet of yoga remains from the past - go with the flow. As the medical claims of yoga became more prevalent and yoga catapulted into a $10-billion-a-year enterprise, practitioners embraced new marketing success or fell by the wayside. Sanskrit names for postures and religious "om"-ing are out, 'feeling the burn' is in. 

23-year-old "wellness" guru Belle Gibson claimed in spring 2013 to have cured her terminal brain cancer using her diet.  She quickly became Australia's version of Vani Hari, "The Food Babe", so popular with the same demographic likely to buy an Apple Watch that they approached her about putting her app in the new device on release, right next to the Play button.

When a sustainability advocate leaves the intellectual playground of academia and starts trying to really get things done related to climate and energy, it is easy to become disillusioned. Not because of corporations, they actually did what was expected and got sustainable because it was 'good business', as they were supposed to do. Instead, it is easy to become jaded by environmentalists.