The Broken Science Initiative Podcast Has Commenced!
Most, and maybe even all, the platforms you use are linked. Or you can even listen at the site itself.
The episodes I recorded are mostly audio, but I’ll be redoing some or all in video, but all formats will be available.
There are also transcripts of the talks at the LINKs below.
What follows below are Emily Kaplan’s introduction to the first two episodes.
Dear BSI Community,
Welcome to the Broken Science Initiative’s Newsletter. This weekly email will introduce you to our original content, new offerings, and curated stories from the larger community that we think you’ll find interesting.
The Broken Science Podcast [EPISODE 1]: [IF THIS DOESN’T LOOK BROKEN WHAT WOULD?]
In this week’s episode, we’re sharing a talk given by BSI co-founder Greg Glassman in April 2023. Roughly 500 people gathered to hear about The Broken Science Initiative which was cohosted by Hillsdale College’s Academy for Science and Freedom and BSI.
Glassman explains, there are significant widespread issues within many areas of science, specifically within social sciences and medicine. In these areas, we are witnessing a shift towards pleasing gatekeepers and promoting industry interests. Glassman expresses his concern about the adverse impact this has had on medicine, as entire departments and fields have fallen victim to what he calls “epistemic debasement.”
Glassman shares personal anecdotes from his childhood. Reflecting on his own educational trajectory, he talks about his father, Jeff Glassman, who was the head of research and development at Hughes Aircraft Company.
The Broken Science Podcast [EPISODE 2]: [CLIMATE AND COVID, HOW MODELS WORK (OR DON’T)]
For many people the Covid-19 pandemic was the first time they realized science was being used to justify political decisions. At BSI, we’ve been looking at this corrupted relationship for decades, but a silver lining during the pandemic was how many people started to ask important questions about what science is and isn’t and what role our government and international regulatory bodies have in deciding how scientific theories and claims are used.
In this week’s episode, statistician William Briggs shares his perspectives on the state of science and its recent challenges, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. This talk was originally recorded in front of a live audience on June 3, 2023, at The Castro Ranch in Aromas California.
Briggs emphasizes that while not all science is broken, there has been an alarming trend of broken science that demands our attention. He clarifies that the intention is not to criticize science as a whole, but rather to address the increase in flawed methodologies and the undue prominence given to such flawed and broken science.
Drawing from his expertise, Briggs highlights the implications of following a broken philosophy of science. Briggs asks: Why did Covid-19 trigger such an overwhelming global panic? What led to the sudden necessity of following “the science” without question? Drawing on historical examples like the Asian flu pandemic of 1957-58 and the Hong Kong Flu pandemic a decade later, he questions the disparity in reactions between those crises and the panic that ensued with Covid-19.
Throughout the episode, Briggs delves into the consequences of flawed scientific tools and explores the role of models as tools of predictability that do not necessarily predict anything accurately.
The Broken Science Podcast [EPISODE 3]: [HOW BROKEN SCIENCE LED TO AN OBESITY EPIDEMIC]
Gary Taubes
The dietary guidelines established by the U.S. government in the 1970s—and still used in deciding the macronutrient composition of public school lunch programs, hospitals food choices, the military’s dietary guidelines, and so forth—rested solely on untested theories about calories and macronutrients.
There is evidence that pre-WWII Germans had an understanding of how hormonal regulation influences our ability to fatten up or slim down, but that research was ignored when we won the war.
No one knows this research and history better than Gary Taubes. This week we are sharing an interview recorded a couple years ago with Taubes. The original interview was taped for Empowered Health Podcast with BSI’s own Emily Kaplan. Taubes, the renowned author of “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” “Why We Get Fat,” and “The Case Against Sugar,” has undertaken the arduous process of meticulously analyzing the research and scrutinizing every footnote to discern between reliable advice and unsubstantiated claims. Prepare to gain valuable insights from Taubes’ and Kaplan’s deep dive into the world of scientific literature and their shared quest to separate fact from fiction.
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💬 a silver lining during the pandemic was how many people started to ask important questions
Now procure a few silver bullets, and we're golden! 🤸
Money quote ↓↓ 🔥
💬 models as tools of predictability that do not necessarily predict anything accurately