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 feminists vs those who don't. But on the other hand... the man-hating feminist is definitely a myth perpetua...
Dec 30, 2023•47 min•Ep. 412
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 show on patreon ! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 411
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 simulation?" what unfolded was hours of really fascinating deep dive into the issue! And so here is part 1, ...
Dec 28, 2023•51 min•Ep. 410
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 the show on patreon ! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!...
Dec 17, 2023•54 min•Ep. 409
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 at Patreon.com/seriouspod. But secondly, Dr. Steve provided some actual medical knowledge for us tha...
Dec 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 408
It's another physicode with Dr. Bryan Gillis! Bryan heard the food episode recently and wanted to chime in with a physics perspective on why your brain needs energy. Sure, there are obvious biological reasons, but also, speaking more universally, there's a reason why computing information requires energy. It involves entropy! Come learn about 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 episo...
Dec 11, 2023•48 min•Ep. 407
Dr. Dawn Fariello, a lecturer at Fordham University who helped develop their popular course The Ecology and Economics of Food Systems, joins the show today to walk us through cravings and how our body's response to sugar is being weaponized by, you guessed it, capitalism. Sources: Moss, Michael. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. Random House trade Paperbacks. 2014. https://mossbooks.us/ Lenoir M, Serre F, Cantin L, Ahmed SH (2007) Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. PLOS ONE...
Dec 01, 2023•44 min•Ep. 406
Well..... Yes and no. Political science expert Joe Magestro joins us for a fascinating conversation! We catch up on a little bit of Wisconsin politics. The news is actually pretty decent lately! And then we talk about the concept of polarization. There are many different ways to look at it, including one you might not have considered that is perhaps the most important going forward! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here ! Please please pretty please support the sh...
Nov 30, 2023•52 min•Ep. 405
As crazy as that sounds, it seems to be the case! How does that work? And also... how does the immune system work? And can someone please explain it using vampires and hot dogs as analogies? If those are for some reason questions you've ever had, then Dr. Rick Sullivan is your guy! 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!...
Nov 28, 2023•52 min•Ep. 404
Dr. Elizabeth Deitch returns to the show to take us through some science thingies! CRT bannings and other conservative nonsense got Beth interested in the question: when should we actually talk to kids about race? When will they understand it? When do they actually notice race? These questions brought her to two studies. These studies reveal some interesting things about how parents approach conversations on race. When do they think they should have them? And when do they actually have them? And...
Nov 25, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 403
Today's expert takes us through some of the ways that Biden's underrated climate legislation is driving research and investment into clean energy, carbon capture, and more! 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!
Nov 21, 2023•42 min•Ep. 402
You may have heard our episode about our struggles with food labeling and Arlo's allergies. Well, so did Dr. Steve Proper, and he is an actual expert in the field! He teaches us about the medical science involved. What are allergies? What aren't they? How are they different from other seemingly similar phenomena? But even more interestingly, a somewhat recent study completely changed our understanding of how food allergies are caused! Dr. Steve takes us through it. Are you an expert in something...
Nov 17, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 401
Seriously Awful Movies 3, Good Will Hunting, was approximately 3 episodes worth of content. So, we thought it would be fun to put out some of that for everyone! Dr. Alan Smerbeck and returning SAMtacular guest Omar Najam join us as we explore the science (?) in Good Will Hunting. Is this how therapy actually works? Is Robin Williams even a therapist? Is this movie actually any good? Stormy also tells us about the actual disease Robin Williams died of, and how his case was a cautionary tale of wh...
Nov 13, 2023•54 min•Ep. 400
Special Education teacher Kelly Burke joins us to debunk the classic Andrew Wakefield vaccine study, but there's probably a whole lot that you don't know about it because holy crap this thing was shockingly terrible. It's especially insane that it had such an impact on the anti-vax movement when it was literally a pile of garbage in every way imaginable. Come learn more about truly one of the worst science thingies to ever thing. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply h...
Nov 08, 2023•56 min•Ep. 399
We're borrowing this brilliant title from a panel at QED, and while we're at it, we're also borrowing one of the panelists, Nicola Throp, to cover all things Menopause - what it is, why we need to talk about it, and the barriers that women face in not just its treatment, but the recognition of what is happening to them and diagnosis from their providers. This is a significant life event that half of the world will experience, and women have historically kept it to themselves. It's well beyond th...
Nov 02, 2023•53 min•Ep. 398
It's a phun physics phepisode! Dr. Bryan Gillis is here to teach us about some of the interesting physics of air travel. Why is breaking the speed of sound so difficult? What's a sonic boom? How do flights make up time in the air? And probably some way more interesting stuff as well! Veritasium video on turbulent flow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zI9sG3pjVU Extra-Life charity link: https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=517279 Are you an exp...
Oct 31, 2023•56 min•Ep. 397
That's what the UN's top official Secretary General António Guterres said recently. Israel completely blew a fuse over that sentence, and demanded he resign or be removed. They canceled UN Visas. They canceled diplomatic meetings. They say his statement "justifies terrorism." But is he right? I've collected some elements of the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict you might not be aware of, and my contention is that this situation is far from a "vacuum." Are you an expert in something and wa...
Oct 30, 2023•46 min•Ep. 396
It's Israel's 9/11. Or as Biden says, it's like 15 9/11s. So I guess they get to do 15 Iraq Wars? This feels like an incredibly difficult time to do anything other than sympathize with the Israeli victims of the brutal, horrifying terror attack. But right now 7,000 Palestinians are dead, 19,000 are injured, and 1.2 million are displaced. When is enough enough? What exactly is justice? We need to speak up. Our (American) tax dollars are funding a genocide. Are you an expert in something and want ...
Oct 28, 2023•57 min•Ep. 395
Hey everyone, a big heads up. This episode is about an issue that is literally life or death for our son Arlo. This was not easy to talk about and things get emotional. I did my best to edit all that out but some of it is still pretty tough. (At least normies have auto-ads to break up the tension in the worst possible way though!) A new law went into effect this year adding sesame as the 9th allergen with all the requirements that go with that. Arlo has a pretty bad sesame allergy. So... great, ...
Oct 19, 2023•57 min•Ep. 394
Stormy's back! Dr. Smerbeck joins us today to discuss the current research around trigger warnings. Are they a no-brainer or are there downsides? If there are, are we going anti-woke and telling triggered snowflakes they need to be able to handle different ideas? Or is that still dumb? But first we start off with a fantastic update from the Little Library Project that Stormy has been spearheading. Be sure to check out sharebannedbooks.com to donate books for this initiative! A big shout out and ...
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 393
Dr. Wisdom Dogbe, an agricultural economist out of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, joins me to discuss a recent study he led investigating consumer choice with regard to taxing foods that are categorized as high fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) in the UK. Does it change behavior? How much? And what are the consequences of that? It's a really fascinating story of the trade-offs involved in public policy. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here ! Please please pret...
Oct 12, 2023•46 min•Ep. 392
Dr. Bryan Gillis is here to tell us why it just isn't aliens. Sorry. BUT WHAT IF IT WERE. That question too. This one is a super fun and educational deep dive on space, space travel, the Drake Equation, and more! I also get Bryan's best guess for how aliens ever COULD visit. 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!...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 391
So what's the deal with all this? UFOs or now UAPs... government programs... crash retrieval... basically... what the hell? Also werewolves. Hot correspondent and now FULL TIME PODCASTER Lydia Smith is here with the skinny. It actually ties back to some of our other work in an unexpected way... THEN In part 2, astrophysicist Dr. Bryan Gillis will science the heck out of about why it isn't aliens! We've also got some really cool announcements at the end of the show! Are you an expert in something...
Oct 09, 2023•47 min•Ep. 390
So says my esteemed guest, Dr. Amy Bruckman! Is she right? I won't be coy, I tend to think she is. But what a fascinating statement! And her thesis makes for an equally fascinating book - Wikipedia: The Most Reliable Source on the Internet ? So let's dig in! 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!...
Sep 27, 2023•39 min•Ep. 389
We've got even more great answers to questions in part 2! Many are about therapy. How do you know when you need it? How do you make sure you're getting good therapy? Should you change therapists? And more! One more reminder about Stormy's Woke Little Library Project. If you are able to contribute to these efforts, you can purchase banned books through the following Amazon wishlist accounts, where three incredible people will be ensuring their communities have access to topics that are being targ...
Sep 21, 2023•51 min•Ep. 388
It was such a great turnout of questions for our first ever Q&A with Dr. Smerbeck that we ended up going double! This first part touches on the misnomer of "chemical imbalance" with regard to depression, personality tests, and Alan's favorite dinosaur, among other things. Be sure to check out Part 2 later this week! Dr. Smerbeck also shares an update on the Woke Little Library Project, and if you are able to contribute to these efforts, you can purchase banned books through the following Ama...
Sep 18, 2023•51 min•Ep. 387
It's another fun science thingy! Today's guest is Tanya Horwitz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics with University of Colorado at Boulder. She is one of the lead authors on a new meta-analysis of studies including millions of couples over more than a century. In the vast majority of traits, sames(?) attract. There are a few exceptions that are interesting to talk about and we go through those as well. This one is fun a...
Sep 14, 2023•51 min•Ep. 386
And perhaps more importantly, what ISN'T it? Lots of people are diagnosing themselves and others via social media these days, and you're never going to believe this, but they're not always doing it right. After far too long, we welcome back Dr. Alan Smerbeck to the show to discuss what exactly is a diagnosis in mental health and whether or not we give them too much weight. It's science, it's philosophy, it's a little personal too - you don't want to miss it! Could be a product of long COVID or S...
Sep 11, 2023•57 min•Ep. 385
It's part 2 of astrophysicist Dr. Bryan Gillis answering all your amazing questions! Time to learn even MORE about the universe! So much universe knowledge is now yours! 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!
Sep 07, 2023•49 min•Ep. 384
I thought it would be cool to have patrons pose whatever questions they wanted to our illustrious astrophysicist Dr. Bryan Gillis. Well, they must have agreed because they came through with some great ones! We've got a two-parter this week, as we learn a bunch of cool new space stuff! 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!...
Sep 05, 2023•55 min•Ep. 383
