Today, we cover a bizarre paper, “Transfeminist pregnancy: reproductive speculation, genre, and desire” from a Yale PhD candidate who argues that pregnancy is a “political” and “aesthetic” experience that biological males can also participate in. Yes, seriously.

We break down this bizarre paper in the latest episode of the Citation Needed podcast. Plus…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

Did you know glaciers and icebergs are feminist, human-like, and… sexy?! Those were the bizarre conclusions “researchers” reached in a now-infamous paper that we break down in this episode of the Citation Needed podcast.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

How is this real!? A university literally gave this “gender fluid” therapist a PhD in Clinical Psychology even though she explicitly rejects... Clinical Psychology. Brad Polumbo & Colin Wright break it down in this episode of the Citation Needed podcast.

Plus, in the subscribers-only part of the podcast, Brad & Colin debunk an insane NPR article pushing …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

Brad Polumbo & Colin Wright break down a truly wild bit of... erm, erotic, feminist "scholarship" in this episode of the Citation Needed podcast. Plus, after the paywall, they go over a study about “queer” tarott card reading and read a bizarre poem about transgender treatments that was published in a medical journal.

Subscribe now and unlock the full show: https://www.citationneededpodcast.com/

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

In this pilot episode of the Citation Needed podcast, Brad Polumbo and Colin Wright dive into two crazy, published, peer-reviewed papers. First, they analyze a bizarre paper where feminists married shrimp and passed it off as research. Then, they examine a less funny and more disturbing paper where one academic tried to argue that babies—yes, babies—are all “queer.”

Let us know what you think of the new show and these insane papers in the comments. And consider becoming a paid subscriber so you can keep getting full episodes like this one and more member perks that are coming soon.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new weekly podcast, Citation Needed, where we shine a light on the most unhinged corners of modern academic scholarship. Every Saturday, we dissect two pieces of supposedly “scholarly” work—whether published in peer-reviewed journals, doctoral dissertations, or popular media—and break down exactly where and how they go off the rails.

The subjects we cover range from the hilariously bizarre to the deeply disturbing. In our first episodes, we look at a dissertation about “hydrosexuals” marrying brine shrimp and an academic push to “queer” babies. These aren’t fringe blog posts on Tumblr—they’re being produced, published, and rewarded by real scientific publishers and institutions. Our goal is to explain, in plain language, how these woke projects hijack the language of science and scholarship to advance radical activist agendas at the expense of truth, reason, and intellectual rigor.

One of us (Colin) is an evolutionary biologist with a background in scientific research. The other (Brad) is a political commentator who’s spent years covering the excesses of cultural and academic ideology. Together, we offer a balance of scientific insight and social commentary—and a healthy dose of humor. Because frankly, if we didn’t laugh at this stuff, we might cry.

Each Citation Needed episode features two examples: the first half is available for free, and the second is reserved for our paying subscribers. We created this show not just to poke fun at academia’s wildest ideas, but to help the public understand how far many scholarly fields have drifted from reality—and why that matters.

So if you've ever read a headline about some absurd new study and thought, “How did that get published?”—this show’s for you.

Subscribe now and tune in every Saturday. You’ll never look at academia the same way again.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com