“Jaw Clench Study Takes Tax Dollars,” United Press International cautioned in 1975. “‘Shrimp On A Treadmill’: Rand Paul Mocks National Science Foundation Studies,” Forbes reported in 2021. “Gov't waste report finds $400K spent to give lonely rats cocaine: 'Absurd',” Fox News told viewers in 2024. 

According to these headlines, a wasteful, woke liberal government has been squandering taxpayer money on something wholly undeserving: frivolous scientific studies. Tens of thousands to millions of dollars, we’re told, are being handed out like candy so scientists can sit around watching monkeys clench their jaws, putting shrimp on treadmills, and give cocaine to rats. And who gets to choose which studies are funded? Wasteful ultra woke organizations like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Health and Human Services. 

It’s true that some research doesn’t end up having much practical relevance––indeed this is the nature of scientific inquiry! There are sometimes cul-de-sacs and wrong paths. But the majority of the time, studies that are trivialized in media and on the Senate floor aren’t superfluous at all. 

While soundbites like “shrimp on a treadmill” might paint a ridiculous picture, they’re also taken out of context, obscuring the scientific merit and moral import of the research and researchers, who work for years on often obscure, tedious lines of inquiry only to have their lives’ work reduced to a cheap punchline by bad-faith demagogues playing to the public’s ignorance and lizard brain impulses. 

So, why is this media and political punchline so popular? And what’s the agenda of the lawmakers and media organizations that denigrate and misrepresent research and science more broadly, and the larger current of conspicuous anti-intellectualism that has always been present in American political culture, but in the last ten years has entirely taken over the modern American Right? 

On this episode, we discuss the decades-old, anti-intellectual gambit of mocking and attacking the “frivolous study,” examining how it warps and devalues science and international cooperation in a broader effort to defund public institutions, both scientific and otherwise.

Our guest is Brenda Ekwurzel, Senior Director of Scientific Excellence at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Ep 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

In this public News Brief, we detail how the NYT, Washington Post, and CNN reinforce every faulty premise of Israel's attack and how top Democrats in Congress and former Harris aides either ignore Trump and Israel's massive escalation or openly support it, showing once again the scope of debate in our politics and media ranges all the way from A to B. 

News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

"Facebook’s Zuckerberg backs online political ad regulations forwarded by Sen. Amy Klobuchar," reported the Associated Press in 2018. "CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says crypto needs to embrace regulation," announced Business Insider in 2021. "AI leaders: Please regulate us," read an Axios headline in 2023.

In recent years, major U.S. companies, especially in the tech industry, have given new life to a longstanding corporate PR strategy: self-regulation. It's a common tactic. After a scandal — say, revelations about pollution, rampant scams, or large-scale invasions of privacy — corporations rebrand as repentant and disciplined, ready to pay their debts to society and embrace the public good. "No need for oppressive and overly burdensome regulation", they insist, "we can handle it ourselves."

This, of course, isn't the real intention. Historically, this corporate voluntarism has generated little more than a few cosmetic reforms, if that, and allowed the continuation of business as usual in every industry from slavery to oil to tobacco to crypto, save for the occasional sacrificial lamb. So why, and how, do media keep assuring their audiences that, This Time, It's Different? That this time corporate America has learned its lesson and can be trusted to regulate itself?

On this episode, we examine the centuries-old damage-control strategy of industry self-regulation, looking at how corporate claims of self-policing, aided by news media, buy time and goodwill while concealing an agenda of weakening pre-existing regulations, manipulating new laws to the benefit of the private sector, or, often, preventing regulation altogether. Our guest is the Revolving Door Project's assistant director Timi Iwayemi.

Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

Episode 225: How US Media Frames Democracy that Actually Helps People as "Buying Votes"

Ep 226: The Importance of 'Seriousness,' or Why Palestinians Can't Be Witness to Their Own Genocide (Part I)

This week we're taking a look at Trump's health scare, Florida ending vaccine mandates, dog autism, the impending recession, and an article in Politico about the inevitable AI doomsday 

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 408: Scared Straight For Nukes (w/ special guest Mina Parkison)

We’re joined by Jasper Craven to talk DoD Chief Peter Brian Hegseth, warfighting, women, mothers, fathers, alcoholism, infidelity, and more.

Check out Jaspers new article on Pete Hegseth's war on women in the Baffler: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/battle-of-the-sexes-craven

Hit the tip line: (646) 801-1129 | tips@trueanon.com

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com

Episode 491: One Bottle After Another

Catching up on the latest news after a brief hiatus: Charlie Kirk memorial and everything therein; Kamala's new book about the 2024 election; and debating whether or not democracy really can survive

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 411: Awakening The Warrior Spirit

What once was fringe is now just normal. To chat about the new, strange normality, Jake, Julian, and Travis are joined by USA Today extremism report Will Carless. Carless has reported all over the globe for two decades, and has just released the first episode of his new video documentary series "Extremely Normal."

The crew chats about the James Comey indictment, Trump's executive order declaring antifa "domestic terrorists," attempts to rewrite the history of January 6th, and why some young men continue to be drawn towards the message of Andrew Tate.


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Extremely Normal from Will Carless and USA Today
https://youtu.be/NoC7t29e__A?si=f9m2Y8XVGBo2wl89

Will Carless
https://x.com/willcarless


Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media and binge the entirety of our new show Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: https://cursedmedia.net

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

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QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


What's Normal Anymore? (E342)

This week we're speaking with Evelyn Vargas and Antonio Gutierrez from Organized Communities Against Deporations (OCAD), about all the recent things going on in Chicago: Operation Midway Blitz, the Sept 30 raid on the South Shore Apartments building, Trump sending in the National Guard and declaring war on Antifa, and how the Democrats fit into all this

Support Organized Communities Against Deportations here: https://www.organizedcommunities.org/

Support us on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 413: The Monsters Of Midway (w/ special guests Evelyn Vargas and Antonio Gutierrez)

Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill return to talk more about the ceasefire deal in Gaza. We discuss what finally led to this moment, whether this ceasefire will be any different than the previous ones, and the future of Gaza, Israel, and the Gulf States. We then turn to the media’s coverage of Gaza: Jeremy’s new story on The Free Press’ “debunking” of the photos of malnourished Gazan children, the news that Douglas Murray and David Frum were writing speeches for an Israeli ambassador, a supposed document from Mohammad Sinwar, and Jacki Karsh’s pro-Israel journalism fellowship.

Subscribe to Drop Site here: https://www.dropsitenews.com/ 

NEW MERCH IS OUT NOW! Go to https://chapotraphouse.store/ and buy a new hat or shirt, especially our great new “Carousel Club” design.

AND be sure to pre-save the date of October 28 for Will and Hesse’s LIVE WATCH PARTY of Re-Animator! Tickets available now – use the promo code CHAPO20 for 20% off! https://checkout.stagepilot.com/collections/chapo-trap-house 

977 - The Next Day feat. Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Ep 226: The Importance of 'Seriousness,' or Why Palestinians Can't Be Witness to Their Own Genocide (Part I)

Citations Needed Podcast

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