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Latest Episodes:

SIO298: Is Life Pointless? More from the Journal of Controversial Ideas Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

with special guest Aaron Rabinowitz! You know him from Embrace the Void and Philosophers in Space, but today he's here to philosophize at us. A paper on pointlessness was published in the first issue of the Journal of Controversial ideas. How good is it? How controversial? Find out!

SIO297: New Atheists Didn't "Merge with the Far Right" Jun 10, 2021

Show notes

Perhaps some number of them did, but neither these atheist leaders, nor the movement as a whole "merged with the far right," as this Salon article says. I suppose it may seem like a minor point to some, but I think it's pretty significantly journalistically irresponsible to have a headline as explosive as that, with the picture like that, and not have it be supported by the article.

SIO296: The Journal of Controversial Ideas Jun 03, 2021

Show notes

Recently, Jeff McMahan, Francesca Minerva and Peter Singer started a journal called The Journal of Controversial Ideas. In it, people can post racist transphobic stuff that is TOO controversial for other journals! (except that it totally isn't.) Lindsey and I give some background, and do a fair bit of yelling about the race science paper published in the first issue of the journal. Links: "Who Is The Victim In The Anna Stubblefield Case?", "Gender Muddle: Reply to Dembroff", "Cognitive Creationism Compared to Young-Earth Creationism", Holly Dunsworth's essay, VBW on IQ & Race, pt 1 https://www.verybadwizards.com/122 and pt 2 https://www.verybadwizards.com/123

SIO295: Patreon QnA 2! Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

Lots of great questions from our patrons! Lindsey gives us a taser research update; why are puppies cuter than humans? Is PZ Myers wrong about EvoPsych? Spike proteins, anti-vax stuff, and more! Links: TASER study, Kurzban's response to PZ, Russian fox domestication experiment, Contrapoints on AGP, Blogpost on spike proteins, Aaaaaand one bonus link for you

SIO294: The Hannah-Jones Tenure Denial is Worse Than You Think May 27, 2021

Show notes

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer-winning journalist and developer of the 1619 Project, was appointed to a tenured professorship at UNC Chapel Hill. This is a position that is funded by the Knight foundation. However, a board of old white lawyers who happen to be the Trustees of the University, denied Hannah-Jones tenure, against the recommendations of, well... everyone who should matter in the decision making process. Many people have made bad faith arguments and whataboutisms, but Dr. Lindsey Osterman (tenured professor) is here to give us real perspective on it.

NYT: Nikole Hannah-Jones Denied Tenure, The 1619 Project, UNC Chapel Hill Faculty Handbook, Hussman School of Journalism Tenure Procedures, Open letter from the Hussman faculty, "We Are Critics of Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her Tenure Denial Is A Travesty.", Criticisms of her appointment, NYT note explaining revision of Hannah-Jones's essay, NC Policy Watch's Special Report on NHJ's tenure denial

SIO293: Did The CDC Screw Up? May 20, 2021

Show notes

The CDC recently made a surprise announcement that vaccinated people don't need to wear masks, with only a few exceptions. This was greeted with some excitement, but also with vigorous pushback by people on the left. So what's the science behind this decision, and what are the practical concerns? We break it down! Then, we talk about a very premature victory lap taken by Bret Weinstein over the lab-leak hypothesis being confir... I mean not quite technically disproven. ***FACTUAL CORRECTION*** I said that 27 states never had mask mandates. I misread that. 27 didn't have them in place at the time of the CDC's announcement. 11 states never had mandates. Links: CDC Updates To Recommendations, CDC Science Brief, KFF Report on Vaccine Hesitancy/Enthusiasm, Science Letter, "Investigate the origins of COVID-19", NYT Article on Science Letter

SIO292: More Weinstein and Heying Anti-vax Nonsense May 13, 2021

Show notes

It's part 2 of our debunk of the disgraceful anti-vaccine garbage being spewed from the Dark Horse Podcast. It's a YouTube show featuring two biologists who ABSOLUTELY should know better, but don't. Since I forgot links on part 1, here are ALL the links: Two articles who interview experts about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines: 1, 2; Edited Fauci clip; Longer Fauci clip; Summary of WHO report on origins of COVID-19 pandemic; WaPo article about Joe Rogan; The Atlantic, The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man; Worst Year Ever, “Vaccines are Dope;” Absolute vs. relative risk reduction; Salk Institute news release about spike proteins study; That elusive full text article about spike proteins; CDC Chart of Risk By Age:; FDA, on Ivermectin; NIH, on Ivermectin; “Ivermectin and Covid-19: How a cheap antiparasitic became political”

SIO291: Bret Weinstein Spreads Dangerous Anti-vax Nonsense May 06, 2021

Show notes

Joe Rogan said healthy, young people shouldn't get the COVID vaccine. This is dangerous and anti-science and incorrect. Though Rogan apologized, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein took to their YouTube channel to double down on Rogan's claims and do further damage to the cause of science and the effort to vaccinate and protect the public against this deadly disease. It's shameful, and Lindsey is here to explain why they are wrong.

SIO290: Patreon QnA 1! May 04, 2021

Show notes

We got some great questions from patrons, and we ended up answering almost all of them! They include: How did Sam Harris end up being so wrong? Should we ignore the Supreme Court? Evopsych, non-lethal weapons, parasocial relationships, and more!

SIO289: Our Disgustingly Racist Death Penalty Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

This is the second part of our racial bias in criminal justice episodes. This one focuses on sentencing, and explores studies showing just how desperate the death penalty is, and how racial bias drives that.

Baldus et al (1998) -Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era Eberhardt et al (2006) – Looking deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes Eberhardt et al (2004) – Seeing Black: Race, crime, and visual processing

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