Serious Inquiries Only
Join Thomas for some critical thinking on questions of science, philosophy, skepticism and politics. These serious topics are discussed with some serious guests, but in an entertaining and engaging way! This is not your typical interview podcast; it's a friendly dialogue, conducted thoughtfully and with plenty of humor. It's Serious Inquiries Only; but like, not boring or anything.
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SIO517: How Is It That 9 Days in Space Means Weeks of Rehabilitation?
Thomas is joined by Dr. Jenessa Seymour to dig into the brain science behind a surprisingly strange phenomenon: why do astronauts who spent just nine days in space need weeks of physical therapy to walk normally again? The answer turns out to involve ancient calcium carbonate ear stones, the same material crabs use for shells, a multi-layered sensory system your brain is constantly running without your knowledge, and a wild evolutionary theory about why motion sickness exists at all. Also: why pilots fly perfectly good planes directly into the ground, and what deaf NASA research participants revealed about how proprioception actually works. Come see me at SkeptiCal! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod
SIO516: How a Botched 1840 Census "Proved" Freedom Made Black Americans Disabled, with Sari Altschuler
The history of disability rights is often treated as a modern story, but what if that framing misses centuries of earlier, more complicated history? This week, Thomas is joined by Professor Sari Altschuler, Associate Professor of English at Northeastern University, to explore her new book Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship. In the book, Professor Altschuler traces how disability and citizenship have been intertwined since the founding of the United States, and what that reveals about who America decided belonged and who didn't. In the early Republic, many physical and mental differences were accommodated within the framework of citizenship; by the antebellum era, however, those same differences had been weaponized as tools of racial exclusion, and eventually as justification for eugenics. Thomas and Professor Altschuler dig into the intersections of race, disability, and civic belonging, and what early American history can teach us about the fights happening today. Be sure to buy Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship (release date: 6/16/2026)! Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We Read Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod
SIO515: A Vast, Global Network! ... of 3 Guys
Continuing the discussion of the CNN Rape Academy article. It gets even worse. And also, how our information environment is ruined and getting ruineder.
SIO514: No Part of the "62 Million Men Enrolled In Online Rape Academy" Claim Was Correct
You might have seen the CNN article from a while back entitled Exposing a global 'rape academy'. While most of the article is technically true, the broad takeaway that virtually everyone had (including me) was wildly, irresponsibly false. Even if you came across debunks of this, there's a good chance that I'm debunking this even more than you've seen. I don't think people have fully grasped how misleading it was.
SIO513: Debunking Butler Conspiracy Theories in Descending Order by Scope
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?
SIO512: NO It Was Not Staged. Stop Being Joe Rogan.
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.
SIO511: What a Recent Chappell Roan Incident Teaches Us About Sexism
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. The Chappell Roan Harassment Campaign Is Plain Old Misogyny (Alex Nguyen - Mother Jones, 4/14/2026) X profits from turning Chappell Roan into a viral villain (Kat Tenbarge, 3/30/2026) Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!
SIO510: Digging Into the Science of the Placebo Effect
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 to hear how on earth that could be possible. Nolan, T.A., Price, D.D., Caudle, R., Murphy, N.P., & Neubert, J.K. (2012). Placebo-induced analgesia in an operant pain model in rats. Pain, 153, 2009-2016. Brissonnet, J. (2015). Placebo, are you there? Science Based Medicine. Studeman, D. (2007). But I regress… The Hardball Times. McCambridge, J., de Bruin, M., & Witton, J. (2012). The effect of demand characteristics on research participant behaviours in non-laboratory settings: A systematic review. PLoS One, 7. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!
SIO509: What Project Hail Mary Gets Right (And Very Wrong...) About Biology
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.
"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 set that a team of thousands of academics have been assembling for over a decade provides a unique opportunity to examine these questions with fresh eyes. To look at wannabe dictators and see how many succeeded, how many eventually lost power, how democracy returned (if ever), and why. With this systematic approach, we see that strengthened democracy specifically because of authoritarian episodes is increasingly common. In fact, in the last 30 years it's the most common response to autocratization, and most often achieved by internal democratic actors. Taking this into account, events once viewed as episodes of successful stand-alone autocratization, with resistance ultimately futile, are actually better characterized as failures that caused a wave of democratic sentiment in the populace. Successful civil resistance that just took time. Jenessa takes us through the paper that has her jumping for joy this week. Resist! Nord, M. Angiolillo, F., Lundstedt, M., Wiebrecht, F., & Lindberg, S.I. (2025). When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900. Democratization, 32, 1136-1159. Frequently asked questions. Varieties of Democracy Institute. The Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset. Varieties of Democracy Institute. V-Dem. Electoral Democracy Index, 2024. Our World in Data. Sato, Y., Lundstedt, M., Morrison, K., Boese, V.A., & Lindberg, S.I. (2022). Institutional order in episodes of autocratization. The Varieties of Democracy Institute. Armitage, C. (Aug. 13, 2025). I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%. The Existentialist Republic. Further reading: Nord, M., Angiolillo, F., Good God, A., & Lindberg, S.I. (2025). State of the world 2024: 25 years of autocratization – democracy trumped? Democratization, 32, 839-864. Anti-Pluralism. European Center for Populism Studies. Coppedge, M. (2023). V-Dem's conceptions of democracy and their consequences. The Varieties of Democracy Institute. Lührmann, A. & Lindberg, S.I. (2019). A third wave of autocratization is here: What is new about it? Democratization, 26, 1095-1113. Croissant, A. & Lott, L. (2025). Democratic resilience in the twenty-first century: Search for an analytical framework and explorative analysis. Political Studies, 0, 1-28. Tomini, L., Gibril, S. & Bochev, V. (2023). Standing up against autocratization across political regimes: A comparative analysis of resistance actors and strategies. Democratization, 30, 119-138. Wiebrecht, F., Sato, Y., Nord, M., Lundstedt, M., Angiolillo, F., & Lindberg, S.I. (2023). State of the world 2022: Defiance in the face of autocratization. Democratization, 30, 769-793. Gamboa, L. (2017). Opposition at the margins: Strategies against the erosion of democracy in Colombia and Venezuela. Comparative Politics, 49, 457-477. Laebens, M.G., & Lührmann, A. (2023). What halts democratic erosion? The changing role of accountability. In Lührmann, A. & Merkel, W. (Eds.), Resilience of democracy: Responses to illiberal and authoritarian challenges (pp. 40-61). Routledge. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!
SIO507: Shirley You're Joking, Minnesota Fraud Man!
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
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.
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 controlled congress has had... 3? 4? There is a marked difference in the seriousness of the people involved.
SIO504: The Other Kind of Nut Allergy. Well, Both Kinds, I Guess?
Part 2! Even more fun Quibbies. Allergies Bansal, A.S., Chee, R., Nagendran, V., Warner, A., & Hayman, G. (2007). Dangerous liaison: Sexually transmitted allergic reaction to Brazil nuts. Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology, 17, 189-191. Testosterone University of Zurich (2009, December 9). Testosterone does not induce aggression, study shows. ScienceDaily. Eisenegger, C., Naef, M., Snozzi, R., Heinrichs, M., & Fehr, E. (2010). Prejudice and truth about the effect of testosterone on human bargaining behavior. Nature, 463, 356-359. ADHD and TikTok Verma, S. & Sinha, S.K. (2024). How evidence-based is the "hashtag ADHD test" (#adhdtest). A cross-sectional content analysis of TikTok videos on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) screening. Australian Psychiatry, 0, 1-7. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!
SIO503: Viral Post Claims Texas Has More Democrats Than Republicans. Is That True?
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). Most Men Would Marry Their AI Girlfriend if it were Legal. Vice. Fiorillo, C. & Bartlett, S. (2025, January 28). AI girlfriends could be a thing of the future as men admit they would marry robot lovers. The Mirror. Koetsier, J. (2025, April 29). 80% Of Gen Zers Would Marry An AI: Study. Forbes. Mashable. (2025, May 22). Majority of Gen Z would marry an AI, survey says. Yahoo!Life. (2025, May 11). GenZ Believes They Could Marry AI, Replace Human Connections: Report. NDTV World. Ulanoff, L. (2025, May 22). Would you marry an AI? A recent survey says most Gen Z-ers would - here's why that's a ridiculous idea. Techradar. Texas voter registration (2025, August 7). Texas. Independent Voter Project. (Thomas saw this viral Reddit post about it) Texas by the Numbers. L2. January 2025 Voter Registration Figures. Texas Secretary of State. Turnout and Voter Registration Figures (1970 - current). Texas Secretary of State. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!