Serious Inquiries Only

Yeah it's some commentary about the Joe Rogan controversy. I couldn't help it. People are being too wrong on the internet.

You might have seen the coverage recently of a study that claims to show that giving poor mothers cash payments changed their babies' brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development. So what is the study, and does it hold up to SIO science thingy scrutiny courtesy of Dr. Lindsey Osterman? Find out!

Links: NYT write-up, Troller-Renfree and colleagues (2022) The Impact of a Poverty Reduction Intervention on Infant Brain Activity, Other publications from Baby's First Years

We had a number of questions from the November QnA that never happened to get to, as well as some new ones for January. Here's to getting back to regular on these!

What the saga around the subreddit r/antiwork says about our society and capitalism's death grip on us.

It's time to give another viral thingy the Dr. Lindsey Osterman treatment! A viral tweet summarizing the findings of a political science study alleges that the people have "near-zero" impact on public policy. What is this study, what did it find, and was it good science? Find out!

Links: Gilens & Page (2014) - Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, Vox article on Gilens and Page and rebuttals, Bashir (2015) – Response to Gilens and Page, Enns (2015) - Response to Gilens and Page, Middle class income calculator (by region)

The Facebook Whistleblower's testimony and interviews have made some alarming claims about social media and the harms it may cause. But do all of those claims hold up to scrutiny? Maybe not! Let's see what psychologist Dr. Lindsey Osterman has to say!

Lindsay's billion links: Internal Report 1, Teen Mental Health Deep Dive, Internal Report 2, Hard Life Moments: Mental Health Deep Dive, Whistleblower Full Senate Hearing Transcript, Body image dissatisfaction in preadolescent children, Disordered eating and the transition to college: A prospective study, Prevalence of body dissatisfaction among a United States adult sample, Prevalence, Onset, and Course of Suicidal Behavior Among Adolescents and Young Adults in Germany, Lim et al (2019) Suicidality and Self Harm in Children and Adolescents, Swannell et al (2014) Prevalence of NSSI in nonclinical samples, Woods & Scott (2019) #Sleepteens, Keles et al (2002) Social Media and Depression, Anxiety, and Distress, Ferguson et al (2013) Peer, TV, and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, ED Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girl, Orben et al (2019) Social Media's Enduring Effect on Adolescent Life Satisfaction

Is it ghosts? Dave Chappelle's boring unoriginal transphobia, rat jacket fetishes, Democratic party bashing, and more! Here's that Grandpa Joe blackface post.

It's part 2 of our Littman breakdown, find out what her latest junk study says. This time it's about detransitioning and it suffers from many of the same problems as her first study we covered in part 1. Also, friend of the show Aaron Rabinowitz, host of Embrace the Void, dug up some of the questions Littman asked. Which ones were and were not included says a ton about what the answers must have been. Links: MacKinnon (2021), Littman (2021), Turban (2021)

Recently, a study by Lisa Littman has been making the rounds among the anti-woke. You may remember Littman mentioned in the amazing 2 part series debunking The End of Gender. She is the inventor of the transphobic bull shit concept "rapid onset gender dysphoria" which is science words for "kids these days." In this two part series, Dr. Lindsey Osterman breaks down both of her bogus studies and why they are terrible science thingies.

In a vital follow up to our police bias episodes, today we break down a new study that shows police killings were undercounted by MORE THAN HALF. This confirms what many of us have suspected about the "official data" on police violence, and it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Links: Lancet article, Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence, The Counted