Serious Inquiries Only

CW: Discussion of suicide; please skip this episode if it's better for your mental health After a long hiatus, Dr. Alan Smerbeck AKA Stormy Decisis is back to cover a topic we've been talking about discussing for a while. What does the research tell us is the responsible way to cover death by suicide? What kind of impact can the media have on the greater population if they get it wrong? And how ma...

Dr. Bryan Gillis is back to walk us through a space travel concept that would have upended Physics as we know it if it had worked. But, wait a second - turns out there were quite a number of studies that actually successfully demonstrated its effect so why aren't we using it to zip through the universe these days? We also learn a bit of statistics in this discussion to help us uncover what happene...

Quantum Anne is back! She had a fantastic idea to quiz us all on some quantum products she has come across. Here's the thing though, mixed into the bull shit is the real stuff that she actually uses in her lab! Can you pass the test? It's not as easy as you might think!   This one was lots of fun. Don't forget about the Patron Hangout Tuesday 2/27 at 3pm pacific 6pm eastern!   Are you an expert in...

This was a really fun one! Dr. Joe Siev and Dr. Jake Teeny join to walk us through their findings from a series of studies in their recent article , which explored the differences in how artists and scientists are punished following news of misconduct, and the mechanism for why this may be the case.   Be sure to check out the Academic Sexual Misconduct Database too!   Are you an expert in somethin...

Dr. Harry Barbee out of Johns Hopkins University recently co-authored a meta-analysis in JAMA Surgery, examining postoperative regret for those people seeking gender-affirming care. We talk about how many people *actually* regret receiving surgery, how that compares with general postoperative regret in the cisgender population, the politics and misinformation influencing the bad science in this ar...

We speak with cosmologist and science communicator Dr. Paul Sutter about his upcoming book, Rescuing Science . Dr. Sutter thinks (Capital S) Science has made some significant errors, and that people do not trust science because of the very system it has created for itself. Where has the discipline gone wrong, why is academia such a mess, and how do we fix it? Be sure to buy his book when it comes...

First off... I'M BACK ON OPENING ARGUMENTS!!! Good court thingies! Please please please go check it out! patreon.com/law!   OK after that announcement, I wanted to talk about something that has been on my mind for a few months, ever since the NHL announced they were banning pride tape. While I used to be way more cynical back in the day about corporatized pride and that kind of virtual signaling,...

Dr. Jesse Preston , Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Warwick, joins to discuss a recent paper she published regarding whether or not science may serve as a spiritual experience for nonbelievers. Could loving science offer similar psychological benefits that the literature has demonstrated for those in religion?   Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show?   Ap...

Astrophysicist Dr. Bryan Gillis is back! And here's here to talk about... sperm? Well, when a science headline claims that sperm is violating Newton's 3rd Law, that's when the science police have to lay down the law, no matter how weird the topic. But before you think this is just a bad journalist, the paper may actually be where the problem is... Bryan explains the whole damn thing. Public articl...

For the Bonus this month, Dr. Rick Sullivan, SIO's resident synthetic biologist, joined me to comment on the recent "debate" between Bill Maher and Seth MacFarlane on the COVID vaccine. The right says Bill pWnEd Seth, but what do you all think? Will Dr. Rick's PhD in immunology be enough to stand up to Maher's COVID "facts"?   There was so much important information here that I wanted to be sure t...

On a recent episode of Tucker Carlson's show, fossil fuel shill Dr. Willie Soon came on to discuss ... friggen... dinosaurs on Saturn's moon. I mean, not quite but close. It's nonsense. Too bad for Tucker, cause we have a resident expert on space resource acquisition over here on SIO! J.D. Menges is currently working towards his PhD in Space Resources at Colorado School of Mines with a focus in Pl...

he 2nd half of my conversation with Alejandro Ruiz! We get deeper into examples of technological anti-solutions. If you work for a self-driving car company, should you quit? Also why are people burying trees to save the planet?   Alejandro's experience in the tech industry, including his time at CERN, led him to creating the engineering co-operative Interstitial Technology , as well as The Luddite...

We have a guest expert today! Alejandro Ruiz, a graduate of MIT, joins us to discuss a topic that he refers to as "technology anti-solutions." It's a really useful and fascinating framework that explains a lot about today's world, including why Substack sucks, for example. Or Patreon. And even, the Paris Climate Accords. Also, Elon Musk is basically the king of tech anti-solutions. It's way too mu...

Lydia Smith of Where There's Woke joins us to break down a fascinating online dating study that featured an experiment in which men and women viewed online dating profiles on either a mobile device or standard PC and rated the individual's attractiveness. The findings are very interesting! We discuss what the implications could be, and we also have a little classic WTW fun too because why not. Are...

Joe Magestro is back! First we get an update with what's going on in Wisconsin, and then we pick up where we left off in SIO405 to walk through why polarization happens, and what, if anything, we can do to reduce it. 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 othe...

When it comes to climate change, for example, it can certainly feel that way. Dr. Timothy Waring from The University of Maine has written a paper exploring these ideas. He's an expert in Cultural Evolution, and he believes that new lens may give us a clearer picture of our mysterious inability to solve many of these big challenges.   You can read the paper here: Characteristic processes of human e...

And how does that differ from the minimum wage? Or, for that matter, the federal poverty line? California has mandated a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers starting April 1st. As far as I'm concerned, those folks are saints and deserve the world. But Glenn Beck and other conservatives strongly disagree and had a meltdown over it. But who is right? Will this new $20 wage cause California as we...

THE SIMULATION SERIES FINALE!   After much philosophy and physics reading, and after the excellent breakdown of the physics and computing aspects by Dr. Bryan Gillis, here is an episode on why I don't think we live in a simulation. I'm hoping this will be an accessible final episode to sum up the case for why we should not be worrying about this!

Ok, so we've done a bunch of philosophizing about whether or not we live in a simulation, but what about the physics and computing involved? Dr. Bryan Gillis takes us through what it might actually take to simulate our whole universe. Spoiler... it would not be easy. Find out why! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show?   Apply here ! Please please pretty please  support the sho...

The elusive man-hating feminist avoided scientific detection in the previous episode, but the chase continues! The game is the foot! 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!

I decided to call an audible and give us a mini-break from the intense philosophy and physics stuff, and instead invite expert Lydia Smith on to break down an extensive set of studies into the question: do feminists hate men? This is one of those interesting questions where on one hand, I could imagine that attitudes toward men might certainly be different among those who self-identify as feminist...

Do you like philosophical thought experiments and probability theory and have a structured settlement and want cash now? Have I got the podcast episode for you! Dr. Bryan Gillis takes us through some fun and fascinating philosophical quandaries related to the Simulation Hypothesis!   Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show?   Apply here ! Please please pretty please  support the...

Good news, everyone!   Today we embark upon a bit of a miniseries! Dr. Bryan Gillis and I began with the idea to do a sort of Philosophers in Space-esque kind of thing where we talk about a Futurama episode and then discuss the science and philosophy behind it. But as we did so, and as Bryan did more and more research (including calculations of his own!) around the question "Do we live in a simula...

It's an Emergen-C episode with Dr. Rick Sullivan! With the holidays approaching, you may be wondering if there's a good way to boost your immune system and prevent getting sick. Well, there are many products that purport to do just that. Vitamins, Emergen-C, etc. Do they work? Find out!   Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show?   Apply here ! Please please pretty please  support...

For Seriously Awful Movies 4, we reviewed S6E15 of House called Black Hole. We brought Dr. Steve Proper along because the episode deals with a very curious type of allergy... We brought my brother Sam Smith along because the episode... sucks. Lydia handles the play by play. I made a cut of this into a normal episode because, for one, it was very hilarious and you should definitely become a patron...