This week, Science for the People is talking about weapons: both the ones that evolve in nature, and those created by humanity. We’ll talk about the arms races that spur the development of horns and claws, warships and nuclear weapons, with Doug Emlen, Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Montana, and author of Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle.
*Josh provides research help to Science for the People and is, therefore, completely biased.
No one does the long form science interview like Science for the People does the long form science interview*. If you have time to listen to Science for the People, then you have time to complete the mere ten questions that make up the Science for the People Listener Survey (if you want, you can save time by skipping the credits where they say I am marginally useful).
Think of it as your civic obligation to keep great science programming coming at your earholes – like voting, except that here your opinion actually matters.
*Probabilistically speaking, this is quite likely to be literally true.
This week Science for the People is learning more about the fossil fuel that powered humanity’s first industrial age, and helpedset us on a course for a looming climate crisis. We’ll speak to Richard Martin, energy editor at the MIT Technology Review, about his book Coal Wars: The Future of Energy and the Fate of the Planet. We’ll also explore the environmental impact of coal with Jeff Deyette, assistant director of energy research in the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
*Josh provides research & social media help to Science for the People and is, therefore, completely biased.
This week we’re looking at the science – and surprising sophistication – of the instincts we serve in the pursuit of pleasure. We’re joined by science writer and journalist Zoe Cormier to talk about her book Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science. We’ll also indulge our passion for nerdy gift giving with Simon Saval, co-founder of GeekWrapped.
*Josh provides research & social media help to Science for the People and is, therefore, completely biased.
On the Pop My Culture podcast, actor Josh McDermitt described his first audition scene for the role of Eugene on The Walking Dead.
…I was taking to a girl. We were both backstage about to give this big presentation in front of, like, the world’s top scientists about some, you know, medical breakthrough we just had; and I’m backstage talking with her and I’m, like, berating her and, like, telling her how stupid she is, and then, and then, I try to sleep with her…
The scene, although fiction, rings very true, because this scene happens – not always in such a confined time frame, with those particular details, or with that intensity – but the aggression, denigration, and sexual objectification of women in science is ever present.
The focus of the description is on how the abuse of the female character illustrates flaws in the male character, because the description of the scene exists to illustrate the process of auditioning for a specific character. In real life, however, should we be more concerned with the character of the jerk or the life experience of those who have such behavior directed at them? As Janet Stemwedel notes in her column in Forbes on Tim Hunt’s controversial comments:
What if, when asked to say a few words to the Korean women scientists and the science journalists at the luncheon, he had recognized the audience he was speaking to was likely to have had quite different experiences in science than he had?
The Finch and Pea 