Episode 28: Calling Bullshit with Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West Science in the News

Episode 28: We’re back with a new episode of Sit’N Listen, this time with guests Dr. Carl Bergstrom and Dr. Jevin West to discuss their book "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World."

Introduction (00:00)
About the authors (00:50)
What is bullshit? (09:01)
Goodhard’s Law (13:39)
Graph reading pitfalls (20:46)
Correlation and causation (24:39)
Assessing scientific claims (34:23)
Combating public misinformation (39:50)
Conclusion (46:25)

For More Information:

Book: https://www.callingbullshit.org/
Course Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2OtU5vlR0k&list=PLPnZfvKID1Sje5jWxt-4CSZD7bUI4gSPS
Carl Bergstrom: http://ctbergstrom.com/
Jevin West: https://jevinwest.org/
Tyler Vigen’s website on unrelated correlated variables: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations.
Article in The Atlantic about the marshmallow test and confounding variables: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/

This episode was written and produced by Edward Chen, Sanjana Kulkarni, Shantam Ravan, and Samantha Tracy. Special thanks to Justin Skycak for help with Zoom audio processing.

Feel free to send us any comments, questions, or topic suggestions at sitnpodcast@gmail.com.