SCIENCE FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A SHIT
The Most Important Question
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Essay: What's in a name?

This week: There are a million legitimate reasons why standing up to bullies may require a pseudonym (and a cowl), or even anonymity. As has been clear for centuries, and even more so in this moment of inescapable mass survei...

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May 12, 2025

Essay: What's in a name?

This week: There are a million legitimate reasons why standing up to bullies may require a pseudonym (and a cowl), or even anonymity. As has been clear for centuries, and even more so in this moment of inescapable mass survei...
May 5, 2025

Changing the Abortion Conversation

63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and yet here we are. So what can we do to make the language around abortion more positive? My guest today is Sophie Nir . Sophie is the CEO of the Abortion P...
April 14, 2025

Table To Farm

Sometimes you buy organic, sometimes you hit a restaurant that's plant-based, or at least you choose the veggie option. Maybe the fish option at the market or the restaurant is marketed as being sustainable. Maybe you compost...
April 7, 2025

History's "Viral" Lessons We Keep Ignoring

We've spent the last few years learning up close how a crisis like a global pandemic reveals and deepens all of our faults, inequalities, biases, and outright failures of empathy. But here's the kicker: it's not the first tim...
March 31, 2025

You Might Also Like: The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women

The United States has long been the largest aid donor in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of humanitarian assistance globally last year, according to the United Nations . But that is quickly changing. Most U.S. fore...
March 28, 2025

Essay: Give A Little

This week: You’ve never had a better opportunity to improve one person’s life than you do right now. I would argue, in fact, that there’s never been a better time to improve one person’s life than there is today. Sounds crazy...
March 24, 2025

Don't Move The Goalposts

One of the ways this Trump administration is different from the last is, relatively at least, how much more unconstitutional, how much more organized and comprehensive the attacks on our institutions, particularly the scaffol...
March 17, 2025

Going Quietly Is Not An Option

We didn't always call our work science for people who give a shit. But ever since we did, we've welcomed at least two types of people to our flock. The first is people who are deeply invested in science, but are unsure how to...
March 3, 2025

No Country for Poor Men (or Women)

What can we do about land power? It's the most important question and my guest today is Mike Albertus . Mike is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago . He's the author of the new book, Land Power . Who...
Feb. 25, 2025

Essay: The Story of Not Right Now

This week: Not. Right. Now. I hope you enjoy our new show. It’s super, super informal, and fun, and full of profanity, and personal, and — I hope — something you or a parent in your life can identify with, and maybe get some ...