Two for Tea Podcast

Find out more about Francesca, including her academic publications, here:

https://www.francescaminerva.com/

For more on the Journal of Controversial Ideas, co-edited with Peter Singer:

https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/

Her interview with Jay Shapiro can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScOeJnLiCb4

For more on Francesca’s controversial paper with Francesco Giubilini:

https://jme.bmj.com/content/39/5/261.short

Her 2004 paper in Bioethics on academic freedom can be found here:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bioe.12066

Her 2017 paper, “Rethinking Academic Freedom” is here:

https://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2015/15/e015p095.pdf

Follow Francesca on Twitter @franciminerva

Further References

Rebecca Tuvel, “In Defence of Transracialism” (2017):

ttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hypa.12327

Timestamps

2:03 Francesca’s paper with Francesco Giubilini and the resulting furore

8:05 The need for the Journal of Controversial Ideas and how it works

26:19 How new media and especially social media have impacted academic freedom

50:47 Lookism (discrimination against the unattractive)

1:05:55 Cultural vs. evolutionary conceptions of beauty

1:13:45 Cosmetic surgery

1:18:10 Men’s and women’s different relationship to looks, more on cosmetic surgery, photoshop

1:29:55 Vaginoplasty

1:33:47 Incels

ERRATUM: Rebecca Tuvel's paper on transracialism has not been retracted. It can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hypa.12327

Stuart is the author of Intelligence: All that Matters (2015):

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/stuart-ritchie/intelligence-all-that-matters/9781444791808/

and Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (2020):

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117290/science-fictions/9781847925657.html

You can find some of his academic publications listed here:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/stuart-ritchie

Follow Stuart on Twitter: @StuartJRitchie

Further References

Charles Murray, Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class (2020)

My article on circumcision can be found here:

https://areomagazine.com/2019/09/24/a-wrong-against-boys-an-impossible-conversation-about-circumcision/

Brian Deer, The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s War on Vaccines (2020)

David Robert Grimes, The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World (2019)

Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams (2018)

Alexey Guzey, “Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors”:

https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ (2019)

Andrew Gelman’s scientific blog can be found here:

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/

Timestamps

2:09 Fraudster Paolo Macciarini and his tracheotomies

11:26 Bias towards positive results in scientific publications

15:56 Stuart and his colleagues’ failed attempt to replicate a startling psychology finding

20:03 P-values, p-hacking and the disgrace of Brian Wansink

39:17 Reproducibility failures

42:54 The relationship between power and effect size: Amy Cuddy & power posing; neuroscience; candidate genes; ethical questions in cancer research

01:00:55 Scientists’ own hype when they present their work; the scientific publication system; Andrew Wakefield

01:09:22 How has Stuart managed to avoid becoming disillusioned with all of science & with experts?

01:14:26 How has writing this book affected Stuart’s own practice as a scientist? The Mertonian principles.

01:19:51 How can laypeople do better at critically assessing a scientific finding?

01:24:20 Matthew Walker and his Why We Sleep book.

Helen’s book, co-written with James A. Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody (2020) can be found here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cynical-Theories-Scholarship-Everything-Identity/dp/1634312023.

Helen’s writing for Areo magazine can be found here:

https://areomagazine.com/author/hpluckrose/

For more on the Sokal Squared hoax, which Helen perpetrated, alongside James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian see:

https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/

You can follow Helen on Twitter @hpluckrose

Further Notes

Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle II: To a Lady on the Characters of Women (1743) (I misremembered the title as An Essay on Woman):

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44893/epistles-to-several-persons-epistle-ii-to-a-lady-on-the-characters-of-women

Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” (1991):

https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mapping-margins.pdf

Walt Anderson, The Fontana Postmodernism Reader (1996)

For more on the Evergreen story, see my interview with Benjamin Boyce:

https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/27-benjamin-boyce

and this video series by Mike Nayna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2WeWgcSMk

For the Ravelry knitting group scandal, see:

https://quillette.com/2019/02/17/a-witch-hunt-on-instagram/

Herbert Marcuse “Repressive Tolerance” (1965):

https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEMarcuseToleranceTable.pdf

Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks (1929–35), for the concept of hegemony

Andrea Lynn Lewis and Liam Kofi Bright’s letter exchange on Critical Race Theory:

https://letter.wiki/conversation/322

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind (2015)

Isabel Wilkinson, Caste: The Lies that Divide Us (2020)

Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2019)

Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993)

Timestamps

2:40 Helen reads a passage about how people can stand up for liberalism without having to go down the woke route

5:35 Cultural and moral relativism

9:14 How postmodernism developed into critical theory: knowledge, power and discourse

19:45 The two evolutions of postmodernism: in the late 1980s and 2010s and the rise of identity politics

25:42 Being woke

26:59 The impacts on wider society and politics

30:08 Why social justice isn’t neo-Marxism or cultural Marxism

34:50 The influence of critical theory on academe

38:00 What is the relationship between critical theory as theory and critical theory as practice

41:37 How people are being affected in the workplace

49:01 How much should we focus on economics and how much on identity

53:03 Freedom of speech

56:15 Why is it called “theory”?

57:08 Why should we take the danger of critical theory seriously and not just see it as a moral panic?

1:00:15 Trump’s announced ban on Critical Race Theory in federal training

1:05:25 Helen’s crimes against food

1:07:35 Collective guilt, identity politics and standpoint epistemology

1:15:51 The responses to Helen as a whistleblower

1:21:09 Helen reads from the introduction to the book

For more about Azra, see her website: https://azraraza.com/

The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last is available here: https://www.amazon.com/First-Cell-Human-Pursuing-Cancer/dp/1541699521

Her book with Sara Suleri Goodyear, Ghalib and the Epistemologies of Elegance is available here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7502220-ghalib

Her physician profile can be found here:

https://cancer.columbia.edu/azra-raza-md

Follow Azra on Twitter: @AzraRazaMD

Further References

George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Story of Provincial Life (1871–2)

The complete poems of Emily Dickinson (first published 1890) are available online here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12242/12242-h/12242-h.htm

Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2011)

Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1897)

Samuel Johnson, The Rambler (1750):

https://www.johnsonessays.com/category/the-rambler/

The Crown, “Aberfan” (BBC)

Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene (2016) and The Emperor of All Maladies (2010)

Timestamps

Beginning: introduction and Azra reads from The First Cell

6:15 How Azra became interested in medicine and in oncology in particular

14:32 The evolutionary model of cancer’s development in the body

23:50 Cancer and critical systems; the MIST of aging

31:54 Peto’s paradox

41:45 Why cell culture and animal testing methods don’t work

47:41 The immune system, CAR-T treatments, B cells, checkpoint inhibitors

1:00:50 Azra’s personalised approach and how she came to develop it

1:05:59 New, more radical earlier detection methods

1:21:37 The oncology think tank

1:22:48 Monitoring technologies

1:29:32 Azra’s relationship with literature

You can find out more about Ayishat by visiting her website:

https://ayishatakanbi.com/

Follow Ayishat on Twitter: @ayishat_akanbi

Further Notes

Ayishat on the Triggernometry podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuAd_IAkOl4

Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)

Timestamps

3:40 How Ayishat first became a professional cultural commentator. How we communicate through dress and how we communicate through ideas.

5:35 Changes to Ayishat’s worldview after her brother’s death

15:38 Oppression versus discrimination

28:54 The concept of erasing someone’s identity

33:40 How to evaluate oppression

52:26 The value of diversity

57:50 Friend groups and socialisation

59:55 Fighting and arousal

1:06:21 Clothing and style

1:16:40 Race, heritage, identity and authenticity

You can find out more about Scott’s work here:

https://scottbarrykaufman.com/

Scott’s book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/552566/transcend-by-scott-barry-kaufman-phd/9780143131205

Scott’s interview on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast:

https://samharris.org/podcasts/209-a-good-life/

Scott’s interview with Sean Carroll:

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/04/06/91-scott-barry-kaufman-on-the-psychology-of-transcendence/

Follow Scott on Twitter: @sbkaufman

Further References

The OCEAN personality test:

https://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/big-five-personality/

Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (1993)

Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)

Sci fi series Salvation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/

P. D. James, The Children of Men (1992)

Peter D. Ward, Robert Brownlee Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (2000)

George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–72)

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1943)

John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy” (1819):

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44478/ode-on-melancholy

Timestamps

2:35 The pyramid image versus Scott’s sailboat metaphor

13:37 Ascetic orders, basic needs & transcendence. Can monks be self-actualizing?

21:19 My general assessment of Scott’s book

23:44 The D-realm (“deficiency” realm)

26:52 Scott’s interview with Sam Harris

29:15 Disagreeableness

30:44 Axes of human personality

31:51 Stability and plasticity

34:08 Introversion and extraversion

38:54 The B-realm (“being” realm)

42:59 How easy is to access the B-realm and to find transcendence?

53:34 Peak experiences, flow states, transcendence

1:01:05 Maslow’s discoveries at the end of his life

1:02:58 Demotivation and how to fight it

1:07:04 Attachment styles and other ways in which the D- and B-realms are inextricably intertwined

For updates on Diana’s work, see her website:

https://dianaverse.com/

My favourite other interview of Diana’s can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YmTPATEArM

Follow Diana on Twitter: @sentientist

Further References

Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2009)

J. Michael Bailey, The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism (2003)

Jorge Luis Borges, “Funes el Memorioso” (1944):

https://www.literatura.us/borges/funes.html

Timestamps

6:36 Training our lovers

34:25 Training our political allies

39:36 Training ourselves

45:54 Intrinsic motivation and external reward

50:26 Women train, men try to avoid being trained

1:06:25 Training at home

1:09:40 Rape and sexual assault

1:16:14 Why people hate evolutionary psychology

1:22:55 The non-binary movement and other resistance to stereotypes

You can find out more about Liam’s academic credentials here: https://www.liamkofibright.com/

Liam’s talk on “Why Scientists Lie” can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNs1sumAT68

Remco Heesen and Liam on “Is Peer Review a Good Thing”?:

https://philpapers.org/rec/HEEIPR

Listen to Liam’s interview with Sean Carroll on the nature of truth here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNs1sumAT68

Listen to Liam’s interviews with Andrew Lynn Lewis here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koDd4kMDo6Q

And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a491GwvnEOI

Liam’s Letter exchange with Andrea on Critical Race Theory can be found here:

https://letter.wiki/conversation/322

Liam’s Letter with me on hating oneself can be found here:

https://letter.wiki/conversation/544

Follow Liam’s blog here: http://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/

Write to Liam at Letter:

https://letter.wiki/LiamKofiBright/conversations

Follow Liam on Twitter: @lastpositivist

Liam on the positivists (interview with former guest of this podcast, Aaron Rabinowitz, see episode 46 “Is Civility Overrated”):

https://voidpod.com/podcasts/2019/9/19/ev-108-logical-positivism-with-liam-bright

Further References

Some more sources on Rudolf Carnap: http://www.carnap.org/

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn (1968); the 1982 film version was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin jr.

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40)

Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape (2010)

My article on Bruce, “Thoughts on a Friend’s Suicide”:

https://areomagazine.com/2017/09/10/thoughts-on-a-friends-suicide/

Timestamps

2:06 The positivists

9:32 Moral philosophy and the is–ought gap.

16:24 Why scientists lie: bad incentives in science

24:16 The value of diversity of intellectual enquiry

37:33 The problem with peer review

44:05 The Star Trek post-scarcity future and the Bladerunner future

52:55 The nature of truth

1:22:35 Self-hatred

1:56:25 Twitter and parasocial relationships

Clint’s poetry collection Salute the Wreckage can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Salute-Wreckage-Clint-Margrave/dp/1630450243

His collection The Early Death of Men can be found here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Death-Men-Clint-Margrave/dp/1935520601

His novel, Lying Bastard, can be found here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lying-Bastard-Clint-Margrave/dp/1733352619

Write to Clint: https://letter.wiki/ClintMargrave/conversations

Follow Clint on Twitter: @clintmargrave

Further References

Clint’s Areo magazine article, “Forgiving Charles Simic” can be found here:

https://areomagazine.com/2019/05/02/forgiving-charles-simic/

Shaun Koo’s Areo magazine article on exploitation in academe is here:

https://areomagazine.com/2020/03/27/is-capitalism-to-blame-for-exploitation-in-academia/

Clint’s poem “My Therapist Says I Should Date Myself”:

http://www.theamericanjournalofpoetry.com/v2-margrave.html

Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (1954)

David Lodge, Small World: An Academic Romance (1984)

Richard Russo, Straight Man (1997)

John Edward Williams, Stoner (1965)

Timestamps

1:47 Clint reads the sample chapter, “Prerequisites”

9:55 Why so much academic writing is bad writing

18:45 What inspired Clint’s book

22:01 The title

23:24 Influences on the novel

29:03 The culture of academe

35:33 Writing poetry vs. writing novels

37:00 Clint’s poem “My Therapist Says I Should Date Myself”

42:22 The writing process

44:44 Separating the art from the artist

54:14 Why Clint wrote the novel

For more of Rod’s work:

https://roderickgraham.com/

Rod’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yofOWy-IrERYjfkONF3Tw

Write to Rod at Letter:

https://letter.wiki/RoderickGraham/

Follow Rod on Twitter @roderickgraham

For more on John R. Wood’s work:

https://braverangels.org/author/johnbetter-angels-org/

John’s philosophy of virtue ethics:

https://areomagazine.com/2018/08/14/virtue-ethics-for-the-modern-age/

My previous podcast with John:

https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/19-john-wood

Follow John on Twitter: @JohnRWoodJr

Further References

Glenn Loury’s interview with Sam Harris on Making Sense, which I allude to, is now paywalled:

https://samharris.org/podcasts/racism-and-violence-in-america/.

You can find a more recent discussion, with John H McWhorter, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMEiclpA7E

Follow Nicholas Christakis, who has been tracking police brutality since 2014 @NAChristakis on Twitter

Roland G. Fryer’s work can be found here:

https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/reconciling-results-racial-differences-police-shootings

Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America (2015)

Timestamps

3:03 Is the problem systemic racism or is it general police brutality?

9:26 Policing in different communities

24:40 The police as an institution: militarisation on both sides; feedback loops and the importance of context

31:27 Racial unification: what this moment might lead to

42:00 The role of leftists

47:43 Ways forward