The DISRUPTED SCIENCE Podcast

Caldera Information Solutions LLC

From the authors of the forthcoming book ”How the Internet Disrupted Science” comes this view of science from where the action is — the scientific claims and publishing space. Hosted by Kent Anderson and Joy Moore, listeners receive analyses of current events, updates about the book, and opinions on various topics of interest. Book pre-sales available now. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-the-Internet-Disrupted-Science/Kent-Anderson/9781493094400

  1. APR 1

    April 1, 2026 — Science Is Not Media

    Technology and media have become entangled and confused, so much so that the free speech of “no, thanks, not for us” is now called “censorship” and discussing public officials or people on the public payroll in accountable roles is being equated to “doxxing.” Meanwhile, it’s becoming clearer AI isn’t about knowledge, it’s about power. Media manipulation is what tech has become all about — from social media to AI. President Trump has been a media manipulator since the beginning: John Barron, John Miller, David Dennison as his fake personas to plant stories National Enquirer “catch and kill” stories (Stormy Daniels) Ghost-authored Art of the Deal The Apprentice First Twitter President First TikTok President Truth Social Which brings us to the new President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which is mostly a who’s who of media manipulators masquerading as technologists: Marc Andreessen — VC, on Meta board Sergey Brin — Alphabet, in the Epstein files (island, Ghislaine) Safra Catz — Oracle Larry Ellison — Oracle Michael Dell — Dell Jacob DeWitte — Oklo Investors (nuclear power) Fred Ehrsam — Coinbase David Friedberg — Investor (sold business to Monsanto) Jensen Huang — NVIDIA John Martinis — quantum physicist, UCSB, 2025 Nobel Prize Bob Mumgaard — fusion energy Lisa Su — AMD (on Biden’s PCAST before) Mark Zuckerberg — Meta These CEOs have a combined wealth in excess of US$900 billion. Overall, it looks like a group formed to deliver the Singularity and realize Adam Becker’s worst nightmare — nuclear power, fusion, compute, AI, and techno-authoritarianism. How are these people being propped up? “CEO Said a Thing!” journalism: https://karlbode.com/ceo-said-a-thing-journalism/  Attention economy conceits: https://www.altmetric.com/solutions/altmetric-attention-digest/ We discuss where science fits or doesn’t, and share our zero-gravity “Discoveries of the Week.” Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Amazon Music/Audible Subscribe on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/

    50 min
  2. MAR 25

    March 25, 2026 — Interview with Amanda Licastro

    Today, we’re joined by Amanda Licastro, Head of Digital Scholarship Strategies and Visiting Associate Professor in English at Swarthmore College. Amanda recently participated in one of Rick Anderson’s debates at the Researcher to Reader conference in London. This one was titled, “Resolved: AI Tools Will Provide a Net Benefit to Scholarly Communication.” Amanda took the side of opposing that statement. In these debates, a poll is taken before the participants speak to gauge audience sentiment at the outset. Then, after the speakers exchange opening statements and responses, the poll is repeated. Before the start of the debate, 80% of the audience believed AI would be a net benefit to scholarly communications. After a professional and well-natured presentation of facts, 52% of the audience came to believe that AI would not be a net benefit to scholarly communications. We discuss a variety of great and relevant topics, including use of AI in colleges, the dark downsides, and fears of skill, cognitive, and information degradation, as well as tricks and techniques companies are using to force these on us or convince them of their benign value. It’s a great conversation. “Discoveries of the Week” Amanda’s discovery: https://searchengineland.com/google-search-ai-headline-rewrites-test-472146 Kent’s discovery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busta_Rhymes_Island Joy’s discovery: https://www.phl.org/newsroom/Longestlinecheesesteaks Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Amazon Music/Audible Subscribe on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/

    58 min
  3. MAR 18

    March 18, 2026 — More Harm Than Good

    A recent episode of Paris Marx’s “Tech Won’t Save Us” podcast featured Tim Schwab, author of the 2023 book, The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire. Recent revelations about Gates and Jeffrey Epstein have led to a reckoning at the Gates Foundation, making Schwab’s book more relevant and causing us to pause and revisit the role of the Gates Foundation and funders in general in the scientific and scholarly publishing space. Started to reputation-wash himself after Microsoft lost its 2001 anti-trust case — with Gates himself testifying in a memorable set of exchanges — the Gates Foundation’s reputation has been eroding for some time. The Epstein Files may be the end of the line for this effort to rehabilitate Gates’ reputation. As we write in our upcoming book, Gates is not alone in trying to use money to influence priorities in science, medicine, and scientific publishing: Five funders rose to prominence in “open” scientific publishing relatively quickly — Max Planck, HHMI, Wellcome, Gates, and CZI — representing an interesting historical trajectory of wealth shifting from nation-states to manufacturing to chemistry to computer science to social media. In some ways, it is the preceding century in a nutshell. They are all proving problematic. We discuss Phase 1 of funder involvement, and how this has created a bridge into a more dire potential Phase 2 as MAHA grifters have learned the tricks of sheltering cash and spending on grifter science. We also share our Discoveries of the Week. Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/

    59 min
  4. MAR 4

    March 4, 2026 — Why Should We Trust You?

    John Wiley & Sons is at it again with its “date anyone with a cute AI” approach, announcing yesterday a deal with OpenEvidence (OE). This is nothing new for Wiley, a company that seems more infatuated with tech than it is with science and scholarship, a massive departure from its roots. OE is certainly happy to make the deal, but not for the quality of the content. Rather, it keeps their targeted ad business growing. Platforming medical and health content is simply laying the groundwork for making a Facebook of medical information — a platform designed to sell user-targeted ads with the quality of content barely registering as a concern. OE has proven susceptible to eugenics-adjacent pay-to-play misinformation, pay-to-play articles placed to help shill colostrum, and pay-to-play articles published to promote “functional medicine,” a MAHA-related pseudo-specialty. And nobody at OE seems to care, because that’s just part of the Section 230 platform game — don’t interfere in the content, just use it to get qualified leads to interact with your ad system. While Facebook leveraged the trust of your social network — friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances — to get users into their ad platform, OE is leveraging trust markers in medical science, from brands to the concepts of peer review and evidence. Bottom line? OE is an advertising platform being rolled out to target physicians with premium targeted ads, likely selling for a cost-per-view (CPV) of $500-$800. With major agencies backing it and others suffering FOMO, OE is positioned to clean up. However, with only about $7 billion in annual pharma ad spending, is this enough to justify their massive valuation? And will they be able to unseat actual point-of-care tools like UpToDate? Or will they just be a second-rate sideshow after the dust settles, the fundamental flaws become clear, and the short-term wins have been pocketed? We also share our “Discoveries of the Week.” Fish doorbells: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-dutch-fish-doorbell-helps-migrating-fish-each-spring/ Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Amazon Music/Audible Subscribe on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/

    42 min
  5. FEB 25

    February 25, 2026 — Insurgents vs. Incumbents

    The last 25 years in scientific publishing has been about privileging technology-backed insurgents — business models, philosophies, belief systems, information theories. Natural science empowered by digital tools flipped to “digital science” at the expense of funding for natural science. Things are more complicated now in the sciences. Insurgents are coming from all directions, so we have to distinguish between bad insurgents and good insurgents — and some of the new bad ones are playing an updated version of the tech game, too. Disruption is so embedded now that normies are insurgents. Good insurgents want to align with pro-science players for the long-term and to the benefit of all. Bad insurgents continue to exploit communication channels and others, primarily for their own enrichment and benefit. In addition, bewildering controversies have emerged between the science-aligned incumbents and science-aligned insurgents, in particular AAAS and Stand Up for Science. We discuss the value of the newer, unencumbered insurgents vs. encumbered incumbents, how the battle is against anti-science players unencumbered by rules, norms, or bureaucratic process, and how we need to support the good insurgents who are focused beyond the horizon of crazy in-fighting. The incumbents have the power to influence, and they have a choice to make. We also share our “Discoveries of the Week.” The Murder of Jane Stanford: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-murder-of-jane-stanford/id278981407?i=1000751170391 Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/

    55 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

From the authors of the forthcoming book ”How the Internet Disrupted Science” comes this view of science from where the action is — the scientific claims and publishing space. Hosted by Kent Anderson and Joy Moore, listeners receive analyses of current events, updates about the book, and opinions on various topics of interest. Book pre-sales available now. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-the-Internet-Disrupted-Science/Kent-Anderson/9781493094400

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