Science Fictions

02/09/22 • 86 min

In our modern world, science is pegged as our guide to understanding what is true. But while the scientific method is the best way we have found to make sense of the world, scientists and scientific institutions have enormous shortcomings that have come to the fore in recent years.
In this episode, we discuss Stuart Ritchie's book, Science Fictions. The book enumerates the different ways in which science can go wrong, the replication crisis, and what we may be able to do to get it back on track. To top it off, Hirad draws some outlandish conclusions that Trish vehemently disagrees with.
Get the book on Amazon here.

Previous Episode

State of the Pandemic with Dr. Shirin Kalyan

On this very special episode of Fresh Lens, we speak Dr. Shirin Kalyan of the University of British Columbia’s Department of Medicine. Dr. Kalyan is an expert in immunology and immunotherapy.

In this episode, we discuss the COVID19 pandemic and the scientific foundations of Canada’s response to it. Dr. Kalyan is a fount of knowledge. Our wide-ranging conversation touches on:

The different types of vaccines
How mRNA vaccines differ from the past vaccines
How the immune system recognizes different threats
Whether reaching COVID-zero is still possible
Whether the current policies being adopted in Canada make sense based on our best science

You can find Dr. Kalyan on Twitter @tolling_bell.

Watch segments of Dr. Kalyan’s testimony for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health here and here.

Some of the papers we have referenced in this episode are listed below.

https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2074

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.21264260v1

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002198

https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital

Next Episode

The World for Sale

We're used to going to stores to buy anything we want at highly affordable prices. But where does our stuff really come from?
To answer this, Trish & Hirad have been trying to learn about the world of commodities trading. To help them along the way, they picked up The World for Sale, which chronicles the rise of the commodity traders during the new world order that started after WWII. Tune in to find out in what ways, if any, this book changes the way we see the world.

Fresh Lens Podcast - Science Fictions

Transcript

[00:00:00] **Hirad:** So Trish, I have been foolish. I've been getting into arguments with people on Facebook. So what happened was I think these arguments that are very good lead in to the book that we've been reading for a very long time. Now, it's been a while since we did a proper book episode. So I have been very inspired and supportive of the Canadian truckers that have been going to Ottawa to protest the COVID measures that we've been living with for two, almost two years.
And of cou