This week Nicholas takes us on a behind the scenes look at how scientific literature is made and shared. We talk about how ideas permeate within research groups, the process of publication, and how to filter and search academic articles. Neeraj shares his experience with the famous reviewer three syndrome and how he enjoys making the cheese more than writing about it. They discuss the intersection between mainstream media and academic research and how such interactions can bear both positive and negative fruits. If you're looking for ways to include more research in your diet, this is the episode for you.

Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "the cover of a magazine about science with a picture of an intelligent and well-dressed goose looking triumphant and holding a test tube, in the style of a cartoon"

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It’s an experiment week and in a freewheeling episode, Neeraj and Nicholas quiz each other about stories from the past. Nicholas comes armed with articles covering important dates in modern history and pokes holes in Neeraj’s knowledge. Taking a more haphazard approach, Neeraj does Nicholas no favours and brings what appears to be a random selection of articles peaking with the 1934 newspaper piece, “Local Couple See Famous Old Ship”.

By the end, Neeraj reflects on the power of pictures and Nicholas sees how the news yesterday can help contextualize the news today.

Correction from Neeraj: The article about the car accidents in Manchester did mention no serious injuries in the subtitle and then later in the article. Apologies, missed those.

Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "an old timey goose with an investigator's cap reading blog articles on his laptop, cartoon style"

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Nick and Neeraj explore the wild world of fake news (and real news) on social media. Chomsky's propaganda model makes another appearance, and we learn about a new aspect of the propaganda model: flak! While there's seemingly a lot of nonsense on social media, we find some light at the end of the tunnel when it turns out that popularity can actually correlate with quality, at least in some corners of the internet.

Sources:

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Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "a goose pulling its hair out while looking at a computer screen, cartoon style"

Ned Schafer makes a welcome return to the podcast and leads us through a fascinating and wide ranging conversation about news as propaganda. The initial premise is set by Noam Chomsky’s Propaganda Model which claims that journalists are indoctrinated to think in a certain way. From there we discuss how different news sources present their biases, a strange phenomenon in the perception of local crime rates, national cable news as entertainment and how media furthers international agendas and spreads propaganda. It’s a winding journey that leaves Neeraj dizzy by the end and questioning whether consumers are a part of the problem. Meanwhile, Nicholas begins to wonder whether his low news diet was the right choice all along.

Notable mentions during the episode:

Cops Say They’re Overdosing on Fentanyl Just by Touching It. | The New Republic

A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department - Knock LA (knock-la.com)

https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/National-Endowment-for-Destabilization-CIA-Funds-for-Latin-America-in-2018-20190403-0042.html

Please join us on our website, Twitter, Reddit, and Discord:

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Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "a goose shouting into a megaphone, cartoon style"

Today Nicholas and Neeraj do a tour of news outlets to better understand what’s happening in the world. They find several common themes across the sources they review but stumble upon some surprises. Neeraj discovers that there is much more to migrants arriving in Martha’s Vineyard than he initially believed and bemoans the state of the Great British Pound. Meanwhile, Nicholas finds his hometown paper dominated by sports and learns about recent events in Argentina.

And the biggest news of the day? Neeraj retains his best co-host title!

Useful resources:

Overwhelmed by your news feed? Strategies from a Princeton course can help.

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Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "a goose learning about the latest news, cartoon style"

That’s news to me! Neeraj and Nick introduce the new season on the news. We discuss our personal news habits and motivations for studying the news. We touch on a major news story from this week, the death of the British Queen, and talk about what aspects of the news we expect to touch on this season.

New(s) intro and outro music by none other than Neeraj Shah; enjoy!

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Welcome one and all to the Wild Truth Chase podcast! After two seasons and ten episodes we take a short break from our normal programming to learn a little more about our hosts and why they’ve elected to go on this wild truth chase. If those first ten episodes have reeled you in or if you’re new around these parts, find out more about the type of content you can expect and what you might gain from listening to it.

A special guest saves Nicholas and Neeraj from their enthusiastic but bumbling journey through the topic of aging. Jane Potter, MD | College of Medicine | University of Nebraska Medical Center (unmc.edu) is a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and she’s kindly helped us wrap up this Season on aging like a boss with a much appreciated dose of expertise.

On today’s episode, we talk about sleep and aging, but only after Nicholas makes a startling admission about his diet and we explain the origin of our new logo. Each of us has prepared for the topic by reading a different paper. Neeraj read Sleep and Human Aging - PubMed (nih.gov), which details changes in sleep as people age and the relationship with cognition and memory. Nicholas read How are age-related differences in sleep quality associated with health outcomes? An epidemiological investigation in a UK cohort of 2406 adults | BMJ Open which explains the outcomes of a cross-sectional study looking at age-related sleep quality and health outcomes.

We try our best to go through this complex topic. Neeraj feels somewhat lost amongst all the technical terminology but gets excited about the sleeping behaviour of dolphins. Nicholas is his usual calm and collected self (Neeraj wrote this description -Nick). Enjoy everyone!

If you’ve made it this far into Season 1, you’ve heard us discuss our travails with exercise and battles with diet. In this episode, we widen the scope by diving into a paper studying factors behind successful aging. The paper Successful Aging | American Journal of Psychiatry (psychiatryonline.org) follows two groups of people throughout their lives to characterise key behaviours or traits that impact how we age.

Can Nicholas and Neeraj have their cake and eat it too? They try to find out in this episode...