Serious Inquiries Only

July 21, 2021July 22, 2021

SIO303: Are the Woke Left and Alt-Right Alike? AKA Debunking a Garbage Quillette Article About a Garbage Study

Holy both sides, Batman! Yeah no suspense on this one, Quillette is garbage and the study this article references is garbage. But how garbage and why exactly? Is there any truth to it? As usual, Lindsey is here to give us the breakdown! This is a part 1. In order to grab part 2 early, make sure to pledge on patreon!

Links: Moss & O’Connor (2020b; origin of White Identitarianism Scale), Pew Poll, Political Polarization in the American Public, Master’s thesis (origin of the PC scales)

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

Download Here

July 14, 2021July 15, 2021

SIO302: Are Boomers Narcissistic? Are Millennials Entitled? What a Large Narcissism Study Does and Doesn’t Tell Us

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

Download Here

July 8, 2021July 8, 2021

SIO301: Evidence Based Mental Healthcare, with Dr. Caleb Lack

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.

Download Here

June 30, 2021July 1, 2021

SIO300: June Patreon QnA!

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?

Download Here

June 26, 2021June 27, 2021

SIO299: Debunking CRT Attacks with Dr. Ery Shin

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.

Download Here

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021

SIO298: Is Life Pointless? More from the Journal of Controversial Ideas

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!

Download Here

June 9, 2021June 10, 2021

SIO297: New Atheists Didn’t “Merge with the Far Right”

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.

Download Here

June 2, 2021June 3, 2021

SIO296: The Journal of Controversial Ideas

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 Creationism Compared to Young-Earth Creationism”, Holly Dunsworth’s essay, VBW on IQ & Race, pt 1 https://www.verybadwizards.com/122 and pt 2 https://www.verybadwizards.com/123

Download Here

May 31, 2021June 1, 2021

SIO295: Patreon QnA 2!

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

Download Here

May 26, 2021May 27, 2021

SIO294: The Hannah-Jones Tenure Denial is Worse Than You Think

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 Osterman (tenured professor) is here to give us real perspective on it.

NYT: Nikole Hannah-Jones Denied Tenure, The 1619 Project, UNC Chapel Hill Faculty Handbook, Hussman School of Journalism Tenure Procedures, Open letter from the Hussman faculty, “We Are Critics of Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her Tenure Denial Is A Travesty.”, Criticisms of her appointment, NYT note explaining revision of Hannah-Jones’s essay, NC Policy Watch’s Special Report on NHJ’s tenure denial

Download Here