The DISRUPTED SCIENCE Podcast

A brief episode to talk about where the podcast has been and exciting plans for where it is going next. Also, two great "Discoveries of the Week," and don't miss this week's silly sign-off in honor of National Joke Day.

Paid OA has co-opted editors into paid placement collaborators within publishers. We talk about the implications of this, explore it as a cleaner thought experiment and its implications, and reflect on how dumb a business it is if the goal is article placement commerce.

Also, we discuss the related issue of why paper mills and others exist and are flooding the literature.

PNAS paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2420092122

NYTimes coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/science/04hs-science-papers-fraud-research-paper-mills.html

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

Contact us: [email protected] 

In this episode, we talk about "gaslight" preprints, retractions, and then explore some of the signs that we may be approaching an "AI winter" due to high expenses, lackluster offerings, a conceptual bubble bursting, and more. Inspired by Ed Zitron's work, we apply it to some scientific publishing offerings, as well.

Our "Discoveries of the Week" involve music, books, and delight.

Show Notes

"Gaslight" preprints — https://www.the-geyser.com/now-its-gaslight-preprints/

Ed Zitron's newsletter — https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Ed Zitron's podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-offline/id1730587238

Hum "manifesto" — https://blog.hum.works/posts/the-alchemist-future 

Katina review of AI tools — https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/reviews/2025/deep-dive-into-three-ai-academic-search-tools 

Our Cactus Communications interview — https://allthingsscicomm.buzzsprout.com/1933426/episodes/17561515-rethinking-science-communication-beyond-technology-trends 

Joy's "Discovery of the Week" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOigILEBilo 

Kent's "Discovery of the Week" — https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Myth-Curious-History-Dangerous/dp/B0DX9W74SZ/ 

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

The USDA is quashing scientific research. Ozzy leaves us. And two discoveries of the week. Music stings provided by friend of the pod, Lucas, at Provoke the Truth: https://provokethetruth.net/

Related posts:

https://www.the-geyser.com/scientific-pubs-epstein-file/

https://www.the-geyser.com/sci-pubs-epstein-files-part-2/

https://www.the-geyser.com/fascism-comes-to-the-farm/

We tackle a host of topics and try new technology

ALSO, "Discoveries of the Week" that will chill you out and make you feel alive!

In this week's special episode, we cover some recent news (medical groups suing HHS, NSF grants icing out biomedicine, and sleuths being leveraged for anti-science), dive into the recent interview the Director of the NIH had with Charlie Kirk, give a book update, and share our Discoveries of the Week.

We summarize a terrible week for science, provide a book update, share some News of the Week, add a couple of justifiable rants, and provide two nice science-based discoveries you can use. Four thumbs up!

Link to the third thumb.

Newsletters are reshaping science policy in new ways thanks to various technologies and business models. We explore. Also, our new "Rant of the Week" feature gets a test drive, so let us know what you think! And, new "Discoveries of the Week" — two great new summer reads from the non-fiction aisle.

One of our first episodes, with lots of good stuff about how bioRxiv and medRxiv are carrying water for MAHA, our first look at "gaslight science," and a recommendation for "The AI Con" and pickleball in an abandoned Dick's.

MAHA and RFK Jr. denigrate independent, high-quality scientific journals while hinting that they will launch journals of their own. These "gaslight journals" already exist and are having massive effects on public health policy with their intentional science meant to deceive the public — their "gaslight science." We explore one of these papers used in Congressional testimony, and how it all is part of a larger grift.