In this 222nd in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.

In this episode, we discuss evolution, and how we know that it is true. We discuss the different kinds of beliefs that people have—beliefs that attempt to reconcile with reality, vs beliefs that reconcile with social standing and comfort. If your beliefs put you on the outs with your friends, do you change your beliefs, or your friends? Are you willing to give up the cocktail party for reality? We also discuss research published in 2000 and funded by Fauci’s NIAID, which demonstrated that it was possible to make chimeric coronaviruses, swapping the spike protein from one to a different species entirely. Finally: sex-biased gene expression, in which genes are expressed differently in the two sexes, in anatomical systems as varied as brain, kidneys, and liver.
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Mentioned in this episode:

Kennedy 2023. The Wuhan Cover-Up and the Terrifying Bio-Weapons Arms Race: https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510773981/the-wuhan-cover-up/

Kuo et al 2000. Retargeting of coronavirus by substitution of the spike glycoprotein ectodomain: crossing the host cell species barrier. Journal of virology, 74(3):1393-1406: https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/jvi.74.3.1393-1406.2000

Rodríguez-Montes et al 2023. Sex-biased gene expression across mammalian organ development and evolution. Science 382(6670), p.eadf1046: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf1046

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Forrest Maready is the author of “The Moth in the Iron Lung”, among other books. It tells a very different story of the Polio epidemic than the one you are likely familiar with, a story with radically different implications for health and medicine. Bret talks with Forest about his book and his interpretation of the evidence with an evolutionary bent to the conversation.

Buy the Moth in the Iron Lung: https://a.co/d/dvYehmh
Follow Forest on X: https://x.com/forrestmaready

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Theme Music: Thank you to Martin Molin of Wintergatan for providing us the rights to use their excellent music.

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In this 221st in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.

In this episode, we discuss men competing against women in women’s sport, and the new research that shows there’s no problem at all. We are in a world of science cosplay, full of science skin suits. Then: cancel culture and its mirror image: promotion culture. The promotion of zombies to positions of power is a weapon of the culture. Also, if wisdom is about delayed gratification, and the counter-intuitive, and being comfortable with uncertainty, then we are in a society of deeply unwise people, a society led by people with the minds of children—just like in The Twilight Zone. Finally: how cats and humans communicate with one another by narrowing our eyes at each other.

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*****

Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com/

Heather’s newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.com

Our book, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://a.co/d/dunx3at

Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org

*****

Mentioned in this episode:

Hamilton et al 2024. Strength, power and aerobic capacity of transgender athletes: a cross-sectional study. British Journal of Sports Medicine: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2024/04/10/bjsports-2023-108029.full.pdf

Hilton and Lundberg 2021. Transgender women in the female category of sport: perspectives on testosterone suppression and performance advantage. Sports Medicine, 51: 199-214: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40279-020-01389-3.pdf

Feynman’s Cargo Cult Science: https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm

Biden v Clifton Duncan: https://x.com/cliftonaduncan/status/1780532643051741657

Freddy Sayers at UnHerd: The Disinformation Industry: https://unherd.com/2024/04/inside-the-disinformation-industry/

Katherine Maher, new CEO of NPR, on the First Amendment: https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1780597079439446250

Humphrey et al 2020. The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication. Scientific Reports, 10(1): 16503: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73426-0

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