Serious Inquiries Only

Today’s show starts with an observation about how we talk about the primary candidates and how we tell the history of 2016. Then I’ve got lots of voicemail! Topics include: Trump being a Russian mole, technology improving quality of life while taking jobs from us, a few on whether Kristi and I unfairly lumped Sam Harris in with Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin in our episode on Louis CK, further insight into the IRB process, and finally how exactly do we define the term ‘racism’? Lots of great stuff, thank you so much for the messages and keep them coming for next month!

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Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point!

Lots of people have asked me for an episode about this, and it turns out I was working on one anyway! Happy coincidence. Lots and lots to talk about here, and since it’s me, I have to start by getting all meta on you. Very curious to hear the response on this one, make sure to leave a voicemail for next week’s show!

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There has been another chapter in the ongoing saga of classical liberal types seeking to prove that entire fields of academia are bogus. They allegedly do so by publishing a handful of fake studies and papers in a few different academic journals, mostly in the field of gender studies. Due to the fact that these hoaxes have utilized fake data, wasted tons of innocent people’s time, and possibly constituted human experimentation, Peter Boghossian has come under a totally reasonable investigation. This hasn’t stopped the usual IDW types from reacting as though Boghossian is awaiting public execution. Eli, who broke down the original hoax expertly in SIO44, is back to provide an informed and hilarious breakdown of the whole thing!

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Twitter thread on datasets; letter from PSU faculty; excellent Slate article.

Here are Eli’s notes and links that I am publishing in a clear violation of his copyright:

Singal article; hey wait don’t I remember that Jesse Signal Guy from somewhere; Turning points USA is terrifying; here’s their professor watchlist; Go down the rabbit hole of highly funded crazy; They are coming for Peter’s Vital Fluids Video Source; Digilante; hey speaking of crazy shit boghossian has said; Hey look more people with brains

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Andrew Torrez, of the hit legal pod Opening Arguments, was kind enough to hop onto the ol’ SIO to break down the recent Michigan FGM law court decision. This is one of those times the law wasn’t covered very well by some media outlets. It’s great to have a genius lawyer we can trust to tell us what is actually going on! Along the way we get to learn about plenary powers, the commerce clause, and all kinds of other legal goodies!
Here’s the NYT coverage (which was more or less correct, but Andrew still gives us way more context!)
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Support the show at patreon.com/seriouspod!
Come watch us on Twitch!
Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SIOmembers
For comments, email thomas@seriouspod.com

Recently, some audio leaked of a new Louis CK standup set and…. it wasn’t good. It was so bad it led to Dennis Miller trending on Twitter. Lazy, unfunny, punching down using anti-trans punchlines that are at least a decade old. I wanted to do some solo commentary on this and so many of the thoughts I’m having and bad arguments and borderline harassment on Twitter I’ve seen over this, but then I remembered that Kristi also used to be a huge Louis CK fan and she was kind enough to join me! Kind of using each other as sounding boards, we share our thoughts and ideas and talk about the collateral damage to fans that can happen in the wake of #metoo. Maybe Louis wasn’t your thing necessarily, but I think these same ideas and principles might be helpful when/if your fave goes down in a Ronan Farrow article or something.
Later on, Kristi gives us a bit of an update on Carl and how Sam Harris and Jordan B. Peterson are shutting off their Patreon accounts in protest of Carl not being able to use the n-word however he wants (yeah, really….)
Here’s the full video of the standup.

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Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point!

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For comments, email thomas@seriouspod.com