SIO498: The Science of Hallucinations, Ear-worms, and Phantom Limbs
Release Date: 11/26/2025
SIO513: Debunking Butler Conspiracy Theories in Descending Order by Scope
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We continue the pruning of idiotic Butler Shooting conspiracy theories. Once we establish the facts using actual sources, what room is there left for a conspiracy or staging theory?
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SIO512: NO It Was Not Staged. Stop Being Joe Rogan.
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It wasn't staged. None of them were staged. Yes Trump was shot in the ear. I thought you all were doing a bit, but apparently you weren't. This isn't good and you should stop doing it, please. In discussing this current shooting, I found that way too many of you think that it was a hoax and even more think that Trump wasn't shot in the ear. So, let's go through the Butler shooting and see why YES HE F-CKING WAS.
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SIO511: What a Recent Chappell Roan Incident Teaches Us About Sexism
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Well, what do you know - it's a day that ends in y so the internet has a woman to hate. You might have seen some of the chatter about child-hating Chappell Roan lately, and it's just so depressing every single time one of these hate campaigns rears its ugly head. Lydia joins the show as resident Chappell Roan fan to discuss what actually happened, and why society so quickly jumps on these opportunities to hate women. (Alex Nguyen - Mother Jones, 4/14/2026) (Kat Tenbarge, 3/30/2026) Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? !
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SIO510: Digging Into the Science of the Placebo Effect
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Popular media will tell you that placebos, inert inactive substances taken as if they’re medication, can work miracles. …Placebos don’t “work”. But what does that even mean? And if that’s true, why would we include a placebo group in a study? Is there anything remotely like a “true”’placebo effect, where belief in a medication could influence the body? Jenessa walks us through scientific study design, statistical artifacts, and one study that shows maybe just maybe there’s a little something like an actual placebo “effect”… but it’s still not magic! Tune in...
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SIO509: What Project Hail Mary Gets Right (And Very Wrong...) About Biology
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Everyone's favorite biologist and dinosaur enthusiast Dr. Eric Jaffe is back! Project Hail Mary is a very fun, and quite good, sciency movie that is cleaning up at the box office right now. You should see it! Eric is going to take us through the biology of the movie (and book) and what it gets right, and what it gets quite wrong.
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SIO508: The Data Shows That Authoritarianism Is Very Often Successfully Reversed. Yes, Really.
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“Yes we can” vote and protest our way out of authoritarianism. It’s a classic case of academic literature never making it to mainstream consumption. Hang around social media long enough and you’ll hear that we’re basically screwed. A complete fascist take over is either extremely likely, inevitable, or it’s already here. And there’s not much we can do about it. Unless some other country invades us, we’ll be waiting for a civil war or a bloody military coup to hopefully maybe turn things around. That’s what history teaches us, right? Literally the opposite. An incredible data...
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SIO507: Shirley You're Joking, Minnesota Fraud Man!
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It's part 2 of the Minnesota fraud stuff. We get a little more Nick Shirley, dumbest person ever to testify in congress. And then I debunk the main claims against Gov. Walz and AG Ellison. Did Walz un-stop the payments to Feed Our Future? Did Ellison meet with, and then get campaign donations from the fraudsters?
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SIO506: Minnesota Fraud and the Death of Information
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So now that we've covered a real hearing with brave whistleblowers that got NO attention, it's time to look at what happens over on the other side of the aisle.
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SIO505: The ICE Whistleblower Hearing Was Astonishing. It Needs More Attention.
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Last month, there was a devastating hearing featuring a victim of ICE, an ICE whistleblower, and a previous DHS attorney. It revealed what, in any other time, would have been a massive scandal likely resulting in multiple firings. But we live in the bad times, which means this hearing took place in a maintenance shed barely on Congressional property during lunchtime put on by a ragtag team of the few remaining people who give a shit about constitutional rights. I take you through the hearing, and then next episode we're going to compare this to the Minnesota fraud hearings, of which the MAGA...
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SIO504: The Other Kind of Nut Allergy. Well, Both Kinds, I Guess?
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Part 2! Even more fun Quibbies. Allergies Bansal, A.S., Chee, R., Nagendran, V., Warner, A., & Hayman, G. (2007). . Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology, 17, 189-191. Testosterone University of Zurich (2009, December 9). . ScienceDaily. Eisenegger, C., Naef, M., Snozzi, R., Heinrichs, M., & Fehr, E. (2010). Nature, 463, 356-359. ADHD and TikTok Verma, S. & Sinha, S.K. (2024). . Australian Psychiatry, 0, 1-7. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? !
info_outlineDr. Jenessa Seymour is on to teach us more about the brain! What do hallucinations, ear-worms, and phantom limbs have in common? And is "hallucinating" really a good term for what AI does when it makes something up?