Serious Inquiries Only

I've felt like I wanted to say a ton about this since day 1, but keep holding back. I finally hit brain saturation and just need to share. I think I have a useful way of looking at this whole thing, hope you'll consider it. Oh and also, f--- UnitedHealthcare and f--- the for profit healthcare industry in its entirety. Please read this incredible ProPublica piece. I finally started a monthly donation to them, which I should have long ago. https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

SIO466 - Dr. Gary Slutkin has been cited in Salon and other outlets as an expert epidemiologist who runs an impressive NGO that helps reduce violence. While he may be an epidemiologist, almost everything else about him and his claims seems to be... very likely bull shit. Dr. Jenessa Seymour joins us to break this down. It gets more and more bull shit as we go, and eventually we're both live debunking parts of this nonsense. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Hey folks, this is more of an SIO, but I recorded a solo show because I have to debunk this myth about Kamala losing 10-15m Democratic votes, and Trump only keeping his same voters from 2020. That isn't correct at all. I also have a million other thoughts that I really just want to get out there and that I hope will be helpful.

Dr. Jenessa Seymour is back to talk more about synesthesia! There are some absolutely fascinating case studies that Jenessa covers in this episode, and we theorize how in the world synesthesia happens. The brain is impossible. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Dr. Janessa Seymour is back! This time she teaches us all about synesthesia. How does it work? How many people have it? Are they just faking it? How do we test for it? This episode features one of the most mind-blowing things I've ever heard on this show. I really enjoyed this one! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Everyone's favorite dino guy Dr. Eric Jaffe returns! This time, he takes us through what happened when the dinosaurs died. How did it happen? What does the evidence show and how has our understanding of that changed over time? How in the world did anything survive? Also, what did other mass extinctions look like? All this and so much more! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

What's your best option? Stop the moon and let it fall? Nuke the center of the planet? Create a mini black hole? Astrophysicist Dr. Bryan Gillis is here to help us destroy the entire planet. It might not be as easy as the movies make it seem... Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

In 2020, the United Kingdom’s (NHS) commissioned an inquiry to provide recommendations for the healthcare of transgender adolescents. It was overseen by a pediatrician named Dr. Hillary Cass and was completed in April 2024. It became known as the Cass Review, and it has since been used to justify depriving a lot of people of the healthcare they badly need. But is it good science? Obviously not. Yale's Integrity Project gathered several actual experts in the field to conduct their own review of the review. The results are not pretty. They published an excellent report entitled "An Evidence-Based Critique of “The Cass Review” on Gender-affirming Care for Adolescent Gender Dysphoria." Three of these experts, Drs. Meredithe McNamara, Kellan Baker, and Ken C. Pang, were kind enough to join us to talk about their findings. It looks to me like the anti-trans side is winning this information war, so please share this far and wide to get the word out! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

In this episode, Dr. Eric Jaffe walks us through the history of CRISPR, how it works, how it's being used currently, and how it could be applied in the future. How quickly will we be able to eradicate mosquitoes? I say let's just do it, but Dr. Jaffe has some concerns. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Dr. Eric Jaffe is back! This time, he's going to teach us about CRISPR. But, in order to do that, he first needs to lay a foundation about genetics more broadly, and how complex it actually is. Why is it that mapping the human genome didn't instantly give us the ability to change whatever we want about ourselves? Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Kelly Burke joins the pod again, this time to break down Facilitated Communication. A documentary recently came out on Netflix that explored this, and Kelly tells us why it's not just nonsense but also harmful, and how she and other experts in this field actually help people learn real communication techniques. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

Part 2! Dr. Jenessa Seymour continues to walk us through our drug journey with a brief stop to cover why it's impossible to get ADHD medication. PSA: Narcan is over the counter and (last we checked) less than $50 for two doses. Please consider buying some to have on hand so you can help save a life. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

Dr. Jenessa Seymour is here to do drugs. I mean, discuss drugs. How exactly do they work in your brain? What is addiction? I learned so much in this fascinating two-parter. This is Part 1 of 2! Part 2 is out early for patrons. In it, Jenessa talks about solutions: what works and what definitely doesn't. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

(Well, I spaced on posting part 2 of this, so I'm posting the patron cut of parts 2-3 together to make it up to yous. Sorry about the delay!) Dr. Eric Jaffe was so appalled by Bret Weinstein's idiotic takes on matters of basic biology surrounding COVID and the vaccines, that he wondered how Bret could possibly have the PhD that he does. Well, what Eric found was... weird. For patrons, I'm putting 454 and 455 together as one for convenience. The next post will just be for charge purposes. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Dr. Eric Jaffe (like me) used to watch Bill Maher. One night in early 2021, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying And because Eric cares about intellectual integrity, he's included some of his thoughts here while listening to the unedited episode. We also cover this interview specifically. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Dr. Joe Siev from SIO429 is back with us to discuss a new study he's published regarding political behavior among those who hold ambivalent attitudes. This one is very subtle and trickier to grasp fully than you might think. I talk more after the interview about how I've come to understand what this study means. Additionally, there's a blog post that makes it easier.  Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

The New York Times had a recent article discussing the United States' absence of effective pain management for IUD insertion procedures, but it doesn't have to be that way. Dr. Jenny Wu joins the show to tell us about how her research influenced her practice and the approach she now takes with patients seeking pain relief, and what she believes we can look forward to with the next generation of providers. Also, Lydia regales us with her personal IUD trauma.  Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!  

I was speaking with an OA listener the other day, and she mentioned a few things that made me reallllly want to interview her on this show. First off, she said she is a progressive working in a prosecutor's office in an extremely conservative area. That's already interesting enough, but then she said thing 2 which is: she voted for Trump in 2016! So, I just had to get her on to find out how she made that journey, and how she makes a difference in people's lives as a progressive prosecutor.  Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

And also... maybe the Southern Lights went North? Earlier this month, an incredible thing happened. The Aurora Borealis was visible to folks much further south than usual. Dr. Bryan Gillis is with us to talk about what exactly the Aurora is, what makes it happen, and how in the world it was recently seen down in my neck of the woods.  Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content

Dr. Eric Jaffe joins the show and walks us through the dream so many of us have had - building a dinosaur! With his expertise in molecular biology, we learn if this is even possible, and how exactly it would work. Would we use mosquitoes for this project like Jurassic Park tells us is totally possible and sound? Actually, what even is a dinosaur anyway? Lots of fascinating dino-talk in this one from a great science communicator! Building a Dinosaur Is a project spearheaded by the Paleontologist Jack Horner. He has worked with the labs of numerous scientists including but not limited to: Hans Larsson, Dana Rashid and Mary Schweitzer. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content