Serious Inquiries Only

Latest Episodes:

SIO531: Your Brain Is Actually Two Separate Organs, According to a New Stanford Study Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

We welcome back Dr. Eric Jaffe to help us understand a really cool, groundbreaking scientific discovery! Our brains are not one organ! Turns out your forebrain and your hindbrain might be two completely separate lineages that never actually came from each other, more like two kids in a trench coat than one continuous evolution. Why does that matter for ALS research? And how far back in evolution does the split actually go?

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SIO530: Did AI Actually "Solve" That Famous Math Problem? Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

You've seen the headline: AI "solved" one of math's Millennium Prize problems. Thomas and Jenessa (here as a friend, not an expert) are joined by David Souther, a software engineer and LLM researcher, who's SO annoyed about it. Why did he answer Jenessa's text in all caps? And what's the deal with a rushed phone call between OpenAI and a math professor?

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SIO529: AI in Schools Makes Students Feel Smarter. The Tests Say Otherwise. Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

How does AI use affect learning? You’d be surprised how much we already know. Dr. Jenessa Seymour takes us through the research on screen use, metacognition, cognitive offloading, and some recent papers

Sources:

Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42, 288-325.
Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L.S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. PNAS, 116, 19251-19257.
Risko, E.F. & Gilbert, S.J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 676-688.
Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakci, O., & Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics. Economic Sciences, 122, 1-8.
Tian, J. & Zhang, R. (2025). Learners’ AI dependence and critical thinking: The psychological mechanism of fatigue and the social buffering role of AI literacy. Acta Psychologica, 260.

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SIO528: The Marshmallow Test Is Mostly BS, and It's Not the Only Classic Psych Test Like That Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Kids are weird, like really weird, but in a fun way? Dr. Jenessa Seymour is back to tell us about some classic child development paradigms that really need to be reevaluated. Depending on when you learned about these experiments, you were either taught that they were the gospel truth, with established ages where kids can and cannot pass these tests, and major consequences for late development, or maybe you heard that recent studies show it’s a bit more complicated. Still makes for some cute and funny demonstrations either way.

Sources:

The marshmallow test is really about trust
The “curse of knowledge”
Autistic kids pass theory-of-mind tests on a computer
Passing the theory-of-mind test with implicit looking measures at 15-months-old and 13-months-old
Kids pass the conservation test sooner when they do it themselves

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SIO527: The Science of Why We Ask Why, with Dr. Tania Lombrozo Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Dr. Tania Lombrozo, professor of psychology at Princeton University (affiliated with its philosophy and cognitive science departments), joins Thomas to discuss her forthcoming book Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand.

Why are humans so driven to explain things, but only some things? Why does understanding go beyond just being able to predict? And what happens when asking why makes you the social liability in the room?

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SIO526: Why Is College So Expensive? Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

David O'Brien, higher education policy scholar with the California Community Colleges System, is back to answer the question Thomas posed last time: why is college so expensive?

They get into tuition vs. total cost of attendance, the dirty little secret of private university pricing, administrative bloat, the amenities arms race, and why the people loudest about college costs are likely well-off, but getting very little financial aid.

Mentioned:

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Some More News Is COMPLETELY WRONG About Spider-Man Brand New Day Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

I cannot stop thinking about Cody from Some More News's video in which he could not stop thinking about Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Cody is INCREDIBLY sure that you're an idiot incapable of watching movies or consuming art if you don't agree with his conception of what the ending of Brand New Day meant. The problem is... Cody gets about a billion things wrong and his arguments are terrible.

This was going to be just a Patreon bonus of Serious Inquiries Only but I wanted to put it up on YouTube so it's going out to everyone! WATCH HERE!

Cody's video: "How Did People Become So Bad At Watching Movies?"

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SIO525: Dude Who Said Autism Is "Extreme Male Brain" Walks It Back Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

... and other autism/ADHD research! So pleased to have Dr. Jenessa Seymour back - this time with a variety of studies in the Autism and ADHD realms.

Jurek, L., Duchier, A., Gauld, C., Henault, L., Giroudon, C., Fourneret, P., … Nourredine, M. (2025). Sensory processing in individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder compared with control populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 64, 1132-1147.
Le Cunff, A., Russell, C. & Dommett, E.J. (2026). Hyperactive–impulsive ADHD traits predict
Higher curiosity in adults: evidence from a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychology, 14, 1-11.
White, R.C. & Remington, A. (2018). Object personification in Autism: This paper will be very sad if you don’t read it. Autism, 23, 1042-1045.
Botha, M. & Cage, E. (2022). “Autism research is in crisis”: A mixed method study of researcher’s constructions of autistic people and autism research. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-22.
Devlin, H. (July 5, 2026). Pioneer of ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism now says phrase unhelpful. The Guardian.

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SIO524: Why We Haven't Cured Cancer Yet, Part 2 (with Dr. Eric Jaffe) Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Part 2! Dr. Eric Jaffe returns to actually treat the cancer this time: why radiation is basically catching your kid smoking and making him finish the carton, how CRISPR turns your own T cells into an assassin squad, and why oncolytic viruses are just Jurassic World Dominion for tumors.

Haven't heard Part 1 yet? Start there or you'll be lost.

Mentioned:

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SIO523: What Cancer Actually Is, Part 1 (with Dr. Eric Jaffe) Jul 28, 2026

Show notes

Part 1! Dr. Eric Jaffe, the biology teacher who keeps naming proteins after cartoon characters, returns for a two-part cancer deep dive. Today: what cancer actually is at the cellular level, why elephants barely get it, why whales get it even less, and why the "they're hiding the cure" conspiracy falls apart the second you learn who actually funds the research.

Mentioned:

Part 2, the cure, is already up for Patreon supporters!

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