Serious Inquiries Only

Latest Episodes:

SIO329: Lindsey Shares Her Abortion Story May 05, 2022

Show notes

Our own Dr. Lindsey Osterman has had an abortion, does not regret it, and wants to tell us why this basic healthcare right matters not just for those in extreme circumstances. Then, we discuss the political situation and what can actually be done about it. Yelling may be involved.

SIO328: Making Sense of Sensemaking with Aaron Rabinowitz Apr 30, 2022

Show notes

There's possibly a new brand of centrist-IDW-know-it-all online, and it's called a "sensemaker." Or, is it a totally normal good thing? I don't know. So I brought in way-too-online-person Aaron Rabinowitz to explain just wtf is going on here. We ended up having a wide ranging discussion on the centristy-IDW manosphere and what makes it tick. And why Elon Musk blows.

SIO327: Does Paying Fox News Viewers to Watch CNN Pull Them Back Into Reality? Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

You've likely seen this study covered across the interwebs. Well, does it hold up to the SIO-Osterman treatment? Find out!

SIO325: How to Be Persuasive, According to Science - Part 2 Mar 13, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Lindsey Osterman explains the rest of the persuasion review paper. This episode has a lot of good, practical info if you're wanting to try to change minds, for real!

Links: Hussein & Tormala (2021) Undermining Your Case to Enhance Your Impact, Jost et al (2003) Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, Jost et al (2007) Are Needs to Manage Uncertainty and Threat Associated With Political Conservatism or Ideological Extremity?

SIO324: How To Be Persuasive, According to Science Mar 09, 2022

Show notes

With so many people in our country seemingly living in an alternate universe of facts, persuading people to change their mind has never been more important. But... how can we actually do that? What actually works? Dr. Lindsey Osterman is here to science us about it!

Hussein & Tormala (2021) Undermining Your Case to Enhance Your Impact

SIO323: Did COVID Precautions Increase Adolescent Suicide Risk? Feb 19, 2022

Show notes

That's the claim made by many right wing anti COVID restriction people. What's more, it seems to be based on a CDC report. So is there anything to it? Find out!

Links: Yard et al (2021) CDC report, Popular press coverage of report 1, 2, 2020 CDC report (claiming that adolescent ED visits for mental health increased by 31% in 2020 compared to 2019), CDC Reports on decline in total ED visits for March/April 2020, Through March 2021, Timing of State and Territorial COVID-19 Response, CDC Mortality data 2014-2019, 2020-2022 (provisional), WISQARS nonfatal injury reports, WISQARS fatal injury reports, Lindsey's Graphs

SIO322: Again with the Garbage Free Speech Arguments Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

Yeah it's some commentary about the Joe Rogan controversy. I couldn't help it. People are being too wrong on the internet.

SIO321: Does Giving Money to Mothers Boost Baby Brain Activity? Feb 05, 2022

Show notes

You might have seen the coverage recently of a study that claims to show that giving poor mothers cash payments changed their babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development. So what is the study, and does it hold up to SIO science thingy scrutiny courtesy of Dr. Lindsey Osterman? Find out!

Links: NYT write-up, Troller-Renfree and colleagues (2022) The Impact of a Poverty Reduction Intervention on Infant Brain Activity, Other publications from Baby’s First Years

SIO320: Patreon QnA 8! Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

We had a number of questions from the November QnA that never happened to get to, as well as some new ones for January. Here's to getting back to regular on these!

SIO319: The Rise (and Fall?) of r/antiwork Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

What the saga around the subreddit r/antiwork says about our society and capitalism's death grip on us.