Principal Instigators

Principal Instigators
  • 5.0 (4)
  • SCIENCE

A science podcast for the haters. https://bsky.app/profile/scienceforhaters.bsky.social

Episodes

  1. 11/04/2025

    One Weird Trick™ to Fund Science in Perpetuity

    From 2021 to 2024, many Americans were worried that Trump would begin a second term as president in 2025, and slash federal funding for scientific research. But the leaders of the Democratic party rose to the top for a reason: namely, their clear-eyed insight into the best strategies for achieving their party's goals. On today's episode, Sandra, Liv, and Dan discuss how the Biden White House and Democrats in Congress worked together to (almost-but-not-quite) protect funding for American science (particularly the National Science Foundation), through One Weird Trick™, regardless of the outcome of the 2024 general election.

    1h 25m

  2. 05/17/2025

    The People Who Die Are Still Dead

    Sandra, Liv, and Dan are back to discuss the impacts of Trump and DOGE on science from destroying the scientific progress our society is based on to somehow making grad school even worse, including their most heinous crime: getting us to defend the status quo

    1 hr

  3. 09/28/2024

    Introductory Statistics for Unwashed Rationalists

    What happens when you combine internet libertarians’ favorite woman, questionably-supported statistical analyses of human sexuality, and show tunes written by guys from a prediction market? On today’s episode, Liv shows Sandra and Dan why the answer is “psychic damage.” Content warning: sex and sexual assault, transphobia

    2h 4m

  4. 06/06/2024

    You say Land Back, Lee Berger says out to space

    The past year and a half has been quite eventful for National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger. He has made big claims about fire and burials and art. Far less attention has been paid to the pair of white men who are using paleoanthropology as an excuse to buy up land outside of Johannesburg, South Africa—and the fact that their wacky antics might have increased the value of that land, and any future fossils found there, had said antics not been met with such widespread condemnation from the scientific community. What if we can’t fully grasp the meaning of reprehensible publicity stunts unless we think about the economic incentives for landowners whose recent moves will grant them even greater control over future paleoanthropological discoveries?

    1h 16m

  5. 05/18/2024

    Fossils and Cannibals and TV Cameras, oh my

    Scientists are encouraged to share their findings with the general public; organizations that communicate scientific discoveries, such as National Geographic, are helping to build an informed and rational citizenry in a changing world full of misinformation. But what if the incentives of the magazine and TV businesses come into conflict with responsible scientific research and communication? On second thought, let’s not make a big deal out of this—it’s not like a beloved scientific organization would promote a narcissistic huckster who invented a geologic feature in the pursuit of publicity.

    1h 5m

  6. 03/27/2024

    The Retracted Mifepristone Papers

    Questionable research was retracted long after the damage was done in the federal court case that will allow the Supreme Court to restrict mifepristone access. We need to prevent shoddy research from getting published in the first place, but is academia capable of enforcing even the most basic scientific standards? To answer this question, we travel back to 2018, when Trump was president, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 85 years young, and the MIT-adjacent Whitehead Institute was still enjoying its approximately $12 million dollars in fun money from federal research grants to the laboratory of one David M. Sabatini - a laboratory that published some very interesting photographs in studies of the cancer/autoimmune/abortion drug methotrexate.

    1h 5m

  7. 01/29/2024

    Science Fought the Law, and the Law Won

    You wouldn't trust a scientist—not even a physicist!—to enforce the law. But we trust judges to translate science into many of its impacts on society. Dan assures Liv and Sandra that nothing could possibly go wrong. https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2011/02/book-of-week-frogs-in-trousers.html

    1h 12m

  8. 12/04/2023

    Machine Learning for Reactionary Centrists

    On today’s episode, Sandra, Liv, and Dan take you through the tale of a climate scientist cancelled by his own petard. Free Press article Nature paper Referee report

    1h 18m

  9. 10/30/2023

    Science Wants To Be Free? Can’t Reach The Low Hanging Fruit From Your Knees

    On today’s episode, Liv, Sandra, and Dan explore the exciting world of open access journals, where science is liberated for just a fraction of a graduate student's annual salary (per paper).

    44 min

  10. 09/16/2023

    Physicists Can Do Anything, Part I: Never Retire

    Tired: a reasonably well-supported scientific consensus based on numerous lines of evidence collected by countless researchers over decades. Wired: a rando in the twilight of his career who eventually learns to get his unique ideas through peer review. Inspired: the most unqualified people imaginable spouting off on social media about topics they don't care to understand.

    1h 3m

  11. 08/25/2023

    $10,000 Baby Einsteins

    On the debut episode of Principal Instigators, Sandra, Liv, and Dan discuss ProPublica's uncovering of a scheme to make your high schooler a peer-reviewed published author. https://www.propublica.org/article/college-high-school-research-peer-review-publications

    1h 6m
  • 11 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A science podcast for the haters. https://bsky.app/profile/scienceforhaters.bsky.social

Information

  • Creator
    Principal Instigators
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Principal Instigators 2025
  • Show Website
    Principal Instigators