Libsyn Directory

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.

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...

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?

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.

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...

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? !

SIO503: Viral Post Claims Texas Has More Democrats Than Republicans. Is That True?

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It's Quibi Time (tm) with Jenessa! (Don't worry, I'll explain...) It's 2 debunks for the price of 1, or actually 5 debunks for the price of 2, because this is a two-parter! Here are the first two: AI girlfriend Caramela, S. (2025, January 31). . Vice. Fiorillo, C. & Bartlett, S. (2025, January 28). . The Mirror. Koetsier, J. (2025, April 29). Forbes. Mashable. (2025, May 22). . Yahoo!Life. (2025, May 11). . NDTV World. Ulanoff, L. (2025, May 22). . Techradar. Texas voter registration (2025, August 7). . Independent Voter Project. (Thomas saw this about it) . L2. ....

This Is The Dark Place. Why Aren't We Acting Like It?

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I had a lot I needed to say about the ICE murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti. And about the fascists who lie to our faces and know we can't do anything about it. And the concentration camps we already have. I did video because there was so much visual element to this, so watching would be best.

SIO501: What Pluribus Gets Right about Neuroscience

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Subject of much sci-fi media and philosophy discussions, the "hive mind" is also a key element of Vince Gilligan's (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) new show, Pluribus. Dr. Jenessa Seymour joins the pod to walk us through examples that we have studied of hive mind behavior (in the insect world), and why we can reasonably assert that you could not maintain your individuality if our brains directly communicated with each other (in the human world). Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? ! Please ! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!...

SIO500: A New Study Suggests Brain Imaging Might Have Significant Flaws

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Brain pics, or they didn't happen? There's a recent study that demonstrates that some brain region activity might interact differently with oxygen than previously assumed. This could upend significant neuroscience research spanning decades. Thankfully SIO has Dr. Jenessa Seymour to come in and break it all down for us! We start with a primer on the science of neuroimaging tools and the images they produce. How in the WORLD can we get a picture of a brain while a person is still alive? What are the things we need to know when evaluating scholarly articles or popular media coverage about...

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