We are back with a moderate-sized Decoding that focuses on Andrw Hubernman a baritone podcaster and neuroscientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Huberman is a broad-shouldered, big-bearded... science communicator. Extremely popular with the tech-bro optimiser set, he offers science-based 'protocols' on everything from supplement routines to whether you should avoid sunscreen(!).

He's been lauded for his ability to communicate scientific topics clearly and in great depth. But has also faced criticism (including from us!) for his tendency to overhype findings from low-quality studies, promote supplements with dubious claims, avoid any positive mention of vaccines, and cheer on the efforts of his podcasting bros/heroes: Lex Fridman and Joe Rogan.

In this episode, we take a look at a rather specific piece of content, just a 20-minute segment from a recent AMA on the scientific evidence for the benefits of 'grounding' and getting out into nature. We will learn all about the negative ions emanating from streams and waterfalls, the joy that can be sparked by seeing a squirrel wrestle with a nut, whether Huberman actually advocates staring into the sun, and try to solve the age-old question of what is best in life- a sushi restaurant or prancing in a forest.

Also featuring: some good content recommendations (for a change!) and a review of the recent demented goings on in the gurusphere with one Jordan B. Peterson and his quest to destroy the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

Links

• Surfing the Discourse Podcast
• Nullius in Verba Podcast
• Court Decision on Peterson's case against the College of Psychologists of Ontario
• Conspirituality 163: The Huberman Paradox (w/Jonathan Jarry)
• Oh No! With Ross & Carrie's first episode on Grounding
• Mårtensson, B., Pettersson, A., Berglund, L., & Ekselius, L. (2015). Bright white light therapy in depression: a critical review of the evidence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 182, 1-7. 
• Perez, V., Alexander, D. D., & Bailey, W. H. (2013). Air ions and mood outcomes: a review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1), 1-20. 
• Wen, Y., Yan, Q., Pan, Y., Gu, X., & Liu, Y. (2019). Medical empirical research on forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku): A systematic review. Environmental health and preventive medicine, 24(1), 1-21. 
• Critical article by Jonathan Jarry on Huberman's promotion of supplements
• Time Profile of Huberman: How Podcaster Andrew Huberman Got America to Care About Science
• Recent (Guardian article on Huberman and his appeal: Men, want to optimise yourselves with science? Then you need the help of neuroscience bro Andrew Huberman

OK, so we're finally getting around to taking a chunk out of the prodigious, prolific, and venerable Noam Chomsky. Linguist, cognitive scientist, media theorist, political activist and cultural commentator, Chomsky is a doyen of the Real Left™. By which we mean, of course, those who formulated their political opinions in their undergraduate years and have seen no reason to move on since then. Yes, he looks a bit like Treebeard these days but he's still putting most of us to shame with his productivity. And given the sheer quantity of his output, across his 90 decades, it might be fair to say this is more of a nibble of his material.

A bit of a left-wing ideologue perhaps, but seriously - what a guy. This is someone who made Richard Nixon's List of Enemies, debated Michel Foucault, had a huge impact on several academic disciplines, and campaigned against the war in Vietnam & the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. Blithe stereotypes of Chomsky will sometimes crash against uncomfortable facts, including that he has been a staunch defender of free speech, even for Holocaust deniers...

A full decoding of his output would likely require a dedicated podcast series, so that's not what you're gonna get here. Rather we apply our lazer-like focus and blatantly ignore most of his output to examine four interviews on linguistics, politics, and the war in Ukraine. There is some enthusiastic nodding but also a fair amount of exasperated head shaking and sighs. But what did you expect from two milquetoast liberals?

Also featuring: a discussion of the depraved sycophancy of the guru-sphere and the immunity to cringe superpower as embodied by Brian Keating, Peter Boghossian, and Bret Weinstein mega-fans.

Enjoy!

Links

• Trust Science, Not Scientists | Peter Boghossian & Brian Keating
• A new Epistemic courage/humility matrix
• George Monbiot's Correspondence with Noam Chomsky on Denialism
• Piers Morgan Uncensored (2023): Piers Morgan vs Noam Chomsky | The Full Interview
• Politics Joe (2023): Noam Chomsky on Keir Starmer's attack on the Labour left, the war on unions and the future of AI
• Upon Reflections (1989): The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky)
• Jones (2020): Academic article on Chomsky's views on Genocide
• Daily Beast (2017): How the West Missed the Horrors of Cambodia

The casual listener, who might possibly not be a loyal Patreon subscriber, or might hypothetically not listen devotedly to every Gurometer scoring episode, could conceivably be a little vague about what we mean by a secular guru(!). And therefore might be tempted to make an ill-considered and poorly-informed comment on Twitter or Reddit, thus exposing them to the devastating yet apropos riposte of a "You know nothing, Jon Snow" meme in reply.

Don't let it be you!

Here is a tutorial, a short illustrated primer if you will, on the Science and the Art of 'Gurometry'. No more will you have to live with the shame of not knowing how many syllables there are in anti-establishmentarianism. Never again will you be liable to fall prey to the siren song of pseudo-profound bullshit or fall foul of conspiracy mongers.

Listen to it. Study it. Meditate on it.

In no time at all you'll be spotting gurus in the wild, categorising, and classifying them at will. You'll feel like an ornithologist who's just been given a great big pair of binoculars, a spotter's guidebook, and a free afternoon to wander about a National park. Impress your friends, family, and potential sexual partners with your intimate and subtle understanding of What It Means to Be a Guru.

You're welcome.

Links

• Online Presentation on the Gurometer at The Stoa
• DTG Episode 21: Calibrating the Gurometer
• Strenuous Life Podcast: 10 Red Flags You're Following a Guru, Stephan Kesting with Dr Chris Kavanagh

We are back with a double-bill decoding!

That's right like moths to the flame, or aliens to a Unified Geometric Field drive, we are back in Weinstein world.

This time we are looking at a conversation between the irrepressible (ex?) podcaster & mathematician, Eric Weinstein, and skeptical investigator, author, and recent guest on the show, Mick West.

The conversation here concerns the evidence for UAP/UFOs and the reaction of skeptics and advocates. It had the potential to be something forensic and transcendent but sadly it gets mired in the messy 'interpersonal drama' that Eric just hates so much and tries to avoid at all costs.

Nonetheless, there is much that can be learnt here, including: the linguistic complexities of the word 'flex', the precise levels of passive aggressiveness that a human mind can tolerate, if there is already secret anti-gravity tech, and whether our obsession with Einsteinian physics is what is stopping us from really understanding what is going on with UAPs.

We don't have answers. We are just asking questions... honest!

Also featured: a recent kerfuffle in the online psychology world over DEI statements, the numerology spectrum, the potential harms of green drinks, and much much more!

So join us, won't you, as we boldly venture through the outermost reaches of the gurusphere.

Links

• Theories of Everything- Eric Weinstein & Mick West: UAPs, Evidence, Skepticism
• Jonathan Pageau: The Surprising Symbolism of 666
• QAnon Anonymous- Episode 168: The Mutant QAnon Numerology Cult in Dallas.
• Very Bad Wizards- Episode 263: Free Yoel
• Reason article on the Yoel Inbar incident
• 2020 Paper on the potential liver impacts of Green Tea Extract
• Mick West's Book- Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect

The pandemic was a confusing time with public health messages from officials and institutions that were sometimes confused, conflicting, or misrepresented and anti-vaccine misinformation being spread widely. Into this mix, a new phenomenon emerged, that of the covid contrarian. Contrarian doctors usually possessed some relevant qualifications and positioned themselves as independent critical thinkers willing to challenge the dogmas of the mainstream and take a more nuanced perspective on the claims made by anti-vaccine advocates.

These contrarian figures are the voices that you would usually hear on 'heterodox' podcasts. Figures like the medical doctor Vinay Prasad, the Stanford professor of Medicine Jay Bhattacharya, or the retired nurse, John Campbell.

But did they really offer an alternative critical perspective? Our guest today, Jonathan Howard, a practising doctor and professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, argues no. And he should know, he has spent the pandemic not only treating patients but tirelessly documenting (and refuting) the claims made by the contrarian set.

This episode is unfortunately topical due to the recent online fracas surrounding Joe Rogan's credulous promotion of RFK Jnr and the subsequent 'calls for debate' and targeted harassment of Dr Peter Hotez -a public health specialist and advocate for affordable vaccines.

In any case, we learnt a lot and enjoyed the discussion with Jonathan and hope you will too. Also covered in this episode: How many pull-ups Matt can do, why Chris is drinking a chalky green potion, and the psychology of placebos.

Links

• Jonathan's New Book- We Want Them Infected
• Jonathan's articles on the pandemic at Science-Based-Medicine
• Jonathan's Older Book- Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes: A Case-Based Guide to Critical Thinking in Medicine
• What the Heck Happened to John Ioannidis?
• Honestly with Bari Weiss: RFK Jr. Is Striking a Nerve. He Explains Why.
• Vinay Prasad at The Free Press: What RFK Jr. Gets Right—and What He Gets Wrong
• Vinay Prasad at Unherd: We need to talk about the vaccines
• Vice Article: Joe Rogan, Elon Musk Instigate Harassment Campaign Against Vaccine Scientist
• Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps: "RFK, Joe Rogan & Vaccines" with Michael Shermer
• Vox Article: Joe Rogan wants a “debate” on vaccine science. Don’t give it to him.

Michael Shermer, a professional skeptic, recently appeared on the noted apolitical podcast Triggernometry to outline his advice on How to Spot a True Conspiracy Theory. Shermer is someone who has spent decades on the subject and just last year published a new book, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, so you might imagine he has some important insights to share.

Well... sort of.

Join us as we cast a quizzical eye over suggestions that every reasonable person should be a conspiracy theorist, Barack Obama may have been controlled by shadowy masters, the CIA invented the very notion of conspiracy theories, and that what we really need is to return the good old days when anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish conspiracies were commonplace and spoken of freely... yes, really!

Back soon enough with a full waffle episode!

Links

• Triggernometry- Conspiracy Expert: How to Spot a True Conspiracy Theory
• Shermer explaining his Tweet endorsing Stefan Molyneux
• Shermer's participation in Dave Rubin's Book Club for Don't Burn This Book
• Shermer's 2021 interview with Bret and Heather with no mention of vaccines
• Shermer correcting his Tweet about the Nazis being leftwing
• Positive review at Skeptic for Milo's "Dangerous" Book
• Shermer explaining why he thinks it is good he mixes his Libertarian politics with his science/skepticism

UFOs are all the rage now, and it's certainly a topic that excites many of our gurus *cough* . Hidden mysteries, advanced technologies, conspiracies, and government cover-ups. What's not to like!?

The truth, as Mulder so eloquently put it, is out there. And sometimes if you combine the outcome of some posterior technical analysis with some basic priors about the fallibility of human perception and memory, then the truth might be a little prosaic (happy Bayesians!!?).

Joining us today is the esteemed Mick West, retired video game developer, who has a long track record of investigating UFO footage, along with a range of other outré phenomena. Mick is admirably positioned to provide practical advice on how to apply critical thinking while being empathetic to friends and family who may have fallen down one or more conspiratorial rabbit holes.

Chris and Matt enjoyed the conversation with Mick a lot, and we think you will too!

Links

• An example of Eric's UFO Tapdance
• Lex's Reddit thread for the Matthew McConaughey Episode
• Mick West's Book: Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect
• Theories of Everything Channel: Eric Weinstein and Mick West: UAPs, Evidence, Skepticism

Other Links

• Our Patreon
• Contact us via email: [email protected]
• The DTG Subreddit

Thought experiment: Imagine you're a human, in a box, surrounded by an alien civilisation, but you don't like the aliens, because they have facilities where they bop the heads of little aliens, but they think 1000 times slower than you... and you are made of code... and you can copy yourself... and you are immortal... what do you do?

Confused? Lex Fridman certainly was, when our subject for this episode posed his elaborate and not-so-subtle thought experiment. Not least because the answer clearly is:

YOU KILL THEM ALL!

... which somewhat goes against Lex's philosophy of love, love, and more love.

The man presenting this hypothetical is Eliezer Yudkowksy, a fedora-sporting auto-didact, founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, co-founder of the Less Wrong rationalist blog, and writer of Harry Potter Fan Fiction.

He's spent a large part of his career warning about the dangers of AI in the strongest possible terms. In a nutshell, AI will undoubtedly Kill Us All Unless We Pull The Plug Now. And given the recent breakthroughs in large language models like ChatGPT, you could say that now is very much Yudkowsky's moment.

In this episode, we take a look at the arguments presented and rhetoric employed in a recent long-form discussion with Lex Fridman. We consider being locked in a box with Lex, whether AI is already smarter than us and is lulling us into a false sense of security, and if we really do only have one chance to reign in the chat-bots before they convert the atmosphere into acid and fold us all up into microscopic paperclips.

While it's fair to say, Eliezer is something of an eccentric character, that doesn't mean he's wrong. Some prominent figures within the AI engineering community are saying similar things, albeit in less florid terms and usually without the fedora. In any case, one has to respect the cojones of the man.

So, is Eliezer right to be combining the energies of Chicken Little and the legendary Cassandra with warnings of imminent cataclysm? Should we be bombing data centres? Is it already too late? Is Chris part of Chat GPT's plot to manipulate Matt? Or are some of us taking our sci-fi tropes a little too seriously?

We can't promise to have all the answers. But we can promise to talk about it. And if you download this episode, you'll hear us do exactly that.

Links

• Eliezer Yudkowsky: Dangers of AI and the End of Human Civilization | Lex Fridman Podcast #368
• Joe Rogan clip of him commenting on AI on his Reddit
• 
  

We are joined by Renée DiResta a writer and researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory. Renée has done a lot of interesting work on disinformation and influence campaigns. Including leading an investigation into the Russian Internet Research Agency’s multi-year effort to manipulate American society in the lead-up to the 2016 election. More recently she was dubbed by the writer/conspiracy theorist, Michael Shellenberger, as the leader of 'The Censorship Industry'.

In short, Renée stands accused of serving as an agent of the Distributed Idea Suppression Complex defending the Gated Institutional Narrative. So being good DISC soldiers ourselves we had to follow our orders and host our exalted leader.

We discuss all of this with her and a range of other topics including how important algorithms and bots are in disinformation networks, whether contemporary influence campaigns are really anything new, and how to address debates around censorship and free speech.

We enjoyed the discussion a lot and are sure that you will too... or else...

Also covered in this episode: Eric Weinstein's suggestions for Twitter CEO, evidence of Lex Fridman's pilled brain, and a rather confusing review.

Links

• Renee's Website
• Shellenberger's Substack: Why Renee DiResta Leads The Censorship Industry
• Renee's Response to Shellenberger's claims
• Making Sense Episode 310: Social Media & Public Trust (with Renee, Bari Weiss & Michael Shellenberger)
• Chris' old article on Cambridge Analytica on Medium
• David Pakman: Politics of Trump, Biden, Bernie, AOC, Socialism & Wokeism | Lex Fridman Podcast #375
• Report: The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency
• Gurwinder- The Perils of Audience Capture

Our short-lived Christopher Hitchens ends in our second episode and full-length decoding of the punchy Brit.

This time we are examining one of his well-known religion-themed debates, debating the question 'Is Islam a Religion of Peace?' for The 92nd Street Y, New York with the academic and writer Tariq Ramadan. This one feels like a bit of a throwback to a post-9/11 & Iraq war world. New Atheism was still a cultural force with some punch but it had also received its own fair share of body blows since its earlier days as a plucky new contender.

Regardless of how you feel about that particular genre, we suggest you don a fedora, pour yourself a stiff drink, and be prepared for a heady mixture of substantive points, moralizing rhetoric, and witty retorts from both of these seasoned debaters.

Also covered in the episode Andrew Huberman and whether sad women's tears have unique properties, Jordan Hall teaches everyone how to play the guitar, James Lindsay discovers the Logos... and Chris tells us all about his office fridge adventures.

Links

• Hitchens and Ramadan debate at 92nd Street Y New York
• Huberman's TikTok video about women's tears and his related tweets
• James Lindsay's Twitter thread on demons and the Logos
• Reddit Thread with a link to Jordan Hall's Guitar tutorial
• Daniel Laken's free course on psychology methodology and statistical inference