This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.comIt’s been five years since the start of the COVID pandemic (yes, you read that correctly—five years). And the debate still rages online—did the virus come from a wet market, maybe via a pangolin, or from a gain-of-function experiment in a biolab?In this paid-only episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart cover the lab leak hypothesis, and talk about what it means for how people should make their minds up about scientific controversies.To hear the full episode, read the show notes, and leave a comment, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber on Substack. You can become one at www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe.
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Episode 64: IQ
Every so often there’s a controversy related to IQ. The latest was caused by [checks notes] the new Vice President of the US attacking the IQ of a political podcaster on Twitter.You could argue that the VP should have better things to be doing. But Tom and Stuart certainly don’t, because they’ve recorded a whole episode of The Studies Show on the science of IQ. Hasn’t IQ been debunked as a measure? Does anyone take it seriously in 2025? Doesn’t an IQ test only tell you how good you are at doing IQ tests? In this episode, find out the answers to all these questions and more.The Studies Show is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine. It’s an online magazine associated with the broad “progress studies” movement, where you can find excellent, data-driven essays on what works to drive scientific and technological advances. You can find every issue of the magazine, for free, at worksinprogress.co.Show notes* JD Vance’s tweet about Rory Stewart’s IQ; Rory Stewart’s response* Study on how standardised testing helps get more poor/minority kids into “gifted and talented” programmes* 2023 meta-analysis on intelligence and lifespan* 2018 study (n >2m) from the Israeli military on intelligence and early mortality* Brief Nature article discussing why intelligence might relate to lifespan* 2018 article on the psychological problems of high-IQ people* Huge Swedish study on psychiatric hospitalisation and intelligence* Can you ever be too smart for your own good?* Meta-analysis on self-knowledge of IQ* 2020 study showing that the Dunning-Kruger effect is a “statistical artefact”* 2023 follow-up analysisCreditsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe
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Episode 63: Philosophy of science
It had to happen eventually: this week The Studies Show is all about philosophy. As we look at science in general, how do we decide what those studies are actually showing? Tom and Stuart take a look at the Big Two of philosophy of science: Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, with their respective theories of falsificationism and paradigm shifts. Both are theories that almost everyone interested in science has heard of—but both make far more extreme claims than you might think.The Studies Show is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine, the best place to go online for fact-rich, data-dense articles on science and technology, and how they’ve made the world a better place—or how they might do so in the future. To find all their essays, all for free, go to worksinprogress.co.Show notes* Tom’s new book, Everything is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World* Wagenmakers’s 2020 study asking scientists how they think about scientific claims* David Hume’s 1748 Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding* Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on the problem of induction * Bertrand Russell’s 1946 book History of Western Philosophy* Popper’s 1959 book The Logic of Scientific Discovery* Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Popper* Kuhn’s 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions* Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Kuhn* 2019 Scott Alexander review of the book* Michael Strevens’s 2020 book The Knowledge Machine* Daniel Lakens’s Coursera course on “improving your statistical inferences”CreditsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe
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Episode 62: Violent videogames
Before the panic over social media—but after the panic over “video nasties”—was the panic over violent videogames. Was Pac-Man causing little Johnny so much frustration that he’d take it out on his siblings with his fists? Was Doom secretly training little Timmy to be a school shooter?You don’t hear so much about videogames and violence any more, but if you look at the studies (and the critiques of those studies) there’s a lot to learn about where science can go wrong. In this episode of The Studies Show—in addition to, if we’re honest, just spending quite a lot of time talking about videogames—Tom and Stuart ask whether there’s any decent evidence that gaming can make people more aggressive.The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine—a journal of underrated ideas to make the world a better place. In the episode we discussed a recent essay on cruise ships, and the surprising (and continual) improvements over the years. You can find all their essays, all of which are free to read, at worksinprogress.co.Show notes* Horribly violent games of yore: Death Race, Postal, Postal 2, Carmageddon, Doom II, Quake* Newer games mentioned in the episode: Slay the Spire, Hades, Doom Eternal, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring* Hilarious attempt by an MP to ban Space Invaders in 1981* Chris Ferguson’s 2013 review of videogames and violence* 2003 review of “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth”* Pete Etchells’s 2019 book Lost in a Good Game* List of publications based on the Singapore dataset* Influential 2008 study by Chris Anderson showing a correlation between videogame violence exposure and violence* Small Ferguson study from 2012 controlling for several variables and finding no correlation* Study in the ALSPAC/Children of the 90s dataset* Are modern, more realistic games worse for us than older ones? Study from 2021* Use the CRTT to get whichever result you want* Psychological measures aren’t toothbrushes* Violent crime rates over time in the US, UK, various European countries, JapanCreditsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe
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Paid-only Episode 16: Recycling
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.comIs recycling worthwhile? Is sending your rubbish to landfill actually so bad? Grab your cotton tote bag and join Tom and Stuart as they look at the evidence—and the intense political debate and even conspiracy theories—over the surprisingly controversial topic of recycling.This is a paid-only episode, and to hear the whole thing (and read the show notes), you’ll need to become a subscriber to The Studies Show. Find out how at www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe.