This episode was inspired by this Insider article, Baby Boomers Are More Sensitive Than Millennials. Science is often butchered by the media, so I sent it along to our own Dr. Lindsey Osterman to see if the study backs up the article. As it turns out... not really. But it does say some interesting things. Listen in and find out! Wetzel and colleagues (2017), The Narcissism Epidemic is Dead; Long Live the Narcissism Epidemic...
Jul 15, 2021•54 min
Today Lindsey and I are joined by Dr. Caleb Lack. Caleb is a full professor of psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma, and he's here to talk about evidence based mental healthcare. When it comes to treatment, what is actually evidence based and what is unsupported at best and pseudoscience at worst? Also, find out how Caleb trolled a predatory academic journal! Check out Caleb's book, Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience . Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, short and to...
Jul 08, 2021•59 min
It's episode 300! And also the June patreon QnA! Topics covered include: moral panics – does the left engage in them too? Syria and an old SIO guest. Are we close to full institutional breakdown? How f*cked are we in 2022 and 2024? Who would we root for in a war against America? Christian socialists, critical race theory, people on the left wanting to lift mask mandates. And, what episodes are good for reachable right wing people?
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr
You've seen Critical Race Theory discussed everywhere thanks to an entirely ginned up moral panic by Christopher Rufo, but have you gotten to hear someone who actually teaches it talk about what it's really about? If not, I hope you'll listen as Dr. Ery Shin takes us through some basics, and also answers a few anti-CRT talking points from James Lindsay's Christian Nationalist funded New Discourses.
Jun 27, 2021•52 min
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!
Jun 15, 2021•56 min
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.
Jun 10, 2021•53 min
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 Creati...
Jun 03, 2021•53 min
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...
Jun 01, 2021•58 min
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 Oste...
May 27, 2021•56 min
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...
May 20, 2021•51 min
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 P...
May 13, 2021•51 min
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.
May 06, 2021•51 min
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!
May 04, 2021•1 hr 6 min
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...
Apr 29, 2021•51 min
This episode is the sequel to the last one, so make sure to check that out. I go into the "whataboutism" around the AHA Dawkins award thing, and talk about a really terrible thing another atheist said that I think people should know about.
Apr 28, 2021•55 min
Sorry, we interrupt the scheduled programming to bring you a yelly rant episode about how terrible all the arguments around the Richard Dawkins humanist award revocation are. It's a bunch of the "smartest people on the internet" saying really stupid things and I've had enough.
Apr 27, 2021•54 min
Official co-host Dr. Lindsey Osterman is here to give us a breakdown of some studies measuring racial bias in Criminal Justice. Part 1 talks about split decision shooting studies, part 2 will focus on sentencing discrepancies. Links: Meta-analysis on racial bias in first-person shooter tasks , Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot , When Fatigue Turns Deadly: The Effects of Cognitive Depletion and Sleep Deprivation on the Decision To Shoot , When Pra...
Apr 22, 2021•54 min
Here is Part 2 of our debunking of a book by Dr. Debra Soh called "The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society." Soh is someone with a relevant credential, which perhaps makes her anti-trans schtick even more dangerous. Within the text are kernels of truth about the science of sex and gender, but she abuses that science beyond recognition to defend cultural conservative norms. Lindsey has the breakdown for us! Links: (for both parts) Proposal about the definition...
Apr 01, 2021•58 min
Somehow, esteemed co-host Dr. Lindsey Osterman got through all of the terribly transphobic book by Dr. Debra Soh called "The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society." Soh is someone with a relevant credential, which perhaps makes her anti-trans schtick even more dangerous. Within the text are kernels of truth about the science of sex and gender, but she abuses that science beyond recognition to defend cultural conservative norms. Lindsey has the breakdown for us,...
Mar 31, 2021•46 min
What is the "What the FUP?" Podcast, you ask? It's none other than Dr. Lindsey Osterman's new show with physicist Dr. Brian Gentry! We all watched "What the BLEEP Do We Know?" with a mind to critique it, but the episode turned into a fascinating Quantum Physics 101 lecture because there was so much to go over before we could even dive into how wrong the documentary is on every level!
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 3 min
If you're thinking "are they still doing this whole thing?" about 'campus craziness' then you're not alone. But fortunately Dr. Lindsey Osterman is here to do some debunking for us! Did a professor get fired for racist tweets? Did a research paper get retracted due to progressive outrage? Find out! Links: Jussim's blogpost , Articles on the Negy firing: Orlando Sentinel , NYT , pro-Negy article about it: Inside Sources Sources for the AlShebli retraction: Original article , Retraction note from ...
Mar 11, 2021•56 min
Somehow we've all been podcasting for 10 years in atheism and never done anything together (except a midnight tryst back on NYE) but Frank and Dan of Thank God I'm Atheist are finally on the show! We talk about their background and also their drive to get more atheists into office ! That could mean you! Click on the link and check it out, but also listen to this really fun interview!...
Mar 01, 2021•41 min
After last week's episode with Carrie Poppy , I got a number of responses saying we might have been a little too dismissive of the evolutionary case for repressed memory. As it turns out, Dr. Jennifer Freyd, has developed a theory that could account for something like it. Yes, that Jennifer Freyd, the accuser whose story was told in The Cut 's article that started this whole thing! The entire situation is as fascinating as it is tragic for virtually everyone involved, but Dr. Lindsey Osterman is...
Feb 25, 2021•37 min
A recent article in The Cut discusses allegations of sexual abuse which were made based on "recovered memories." Regardless of the truth or falsity of the accusations, the science of memory may have been very badly represented in this article, to harmful effect. Carrie of Oh No Ross and Carrie breaks it down for us! Complete with a Satanic Panic tie-in. ( Link to the letters.)...
Feb 18, 2021•56 min
It is unfathomable to me that Senator Kyrsten Sinema wants to preserve this idiotic accident of history. It is not anything the founders intended. It's not in the constitution. It's pure crap that stands in the way of not just progress but basic governance. I do a mini break down of how we got here, and I have a few ideas of how we could get around the filibuster and not make liars out of Manchin and Sinema.
Feb 04, 2021•47 min
The only thing that could possibly wrestle the internet back from Bernie Sanders's warm mittened hands is the GameStop madness. Joining me to break it down and try to explain and comment on approximately 1 billionth of everything to it is Phil Ferguson of the Phil Ferguson Show! Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, short and to the point! Support the show at patreon.com/seriouspod ! Come watch us on Twitch ! Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/...
Jan 30, 2021•1 hr 6 min
A recent article by Jonathan Jarry made a few waves on the internet recently, as it claims that the Dunning-Kruger effect might not actually be real! Official SIO Science-splainer Lindsey Osterman is on with a full breakdown! Is the effect real or is it just statistical noise? Tune in and find out! Links: (Original paper) Kruger & Dunning (1999) , (Review chapter) Dunning (2011) , (Response to early statistical critiques) Kruger & Dunning (2002) , (First Nuhfer paper): Nuhfer et al (2016...
Jan 28, 2021•57 min
It's a celebratory show! I've got some thoughts on it all, and why we shouldn't waste any time being mad at Joe Manchin. Also, this election was closer than 2016 and that blew my mind.
Jan 21, 2021•50 min
A few weeks back I had Eli Bosnick on to talk about Nicholas D. Kristof's Pornhub article . Eli attacked some of the fundamentalist Christian sources for the piece, and talked about the plight sex workers who had been left without income after the backlash. Tom, from Cognitive Dissonance and Citation Needed, has major disagreements with Eli on the topic and wanted to respond....
Jan 16, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Harris recently released another both sidesy "I'm the only rational one" podcast episode about the recent insurrection at the Capitol. While he condemns Trump and the right, he also makes a series of terrible arguments in the name of anti-wokeness. Lindsey and I are here to set him straight! *note I said 2 Capitol officers were arrested. They were only suspended.* Check us out at twitch.tv/seriouspod ! Lindsey's Links: Reporting on police response to January 6th vs. BLM - WaPo , ProPublica , nbc...
Jan 14, 2021•58 min
