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Science Fictions

Science Fictions

By: Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie
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A weekly podcast about the latest scientific controversies, with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie

sciencefictionspod.substack.comTom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie Science
Episodes
  • Paid-only episode 30: Cancer screening

    Paid-only episode 30: Cancer screening
    Aug 11 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com

    It seems like the most obvious thing in the world: if you do more cancer screening, you’ll catch tumours early and people will be better off. Former Top Gear presenter and current farmer Jeremy Clarkson recently went viral for saying exactly this about prostate cancer—in fact, he said you should lie to your doctor just to get the test.

    But it’s not quite as straightforward. In this paid-only episode, we look at how strong the evidence is for universal screening for prostate cancer, breast cancer, and more. Oh, and guess what? Tom takes the opportunity to talk about Bayesianism again.
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    10 mins
  • Episode 103: Medical Hypotheses

    Episode 103: Medical Hypotheses
    Aug 4 2026
    It sounds like a good idea in theory: a non-peer-reviewed scientific journal dedicated to pure scientific creativity. Send in your craziest hypotheses and as long as they’re original ideas, the editor will publish them, and let them inspire the readers.That’s the journal Medical Hypotheses—or, it was. In this episode we discuss some of the maddest papers they ever published, including the one about how wearing heeled shoes causes schizophrenia and an astonishing idea about why humans get acne, and then discuss how the whole thing went wrong.Show notes* “Withdrawn” 2009 Duesberg et al. paper on HIV-AIDS in South Africa* Flensmark (2004) on heeled footwear and schizophrenia* Neuroskeptic’s 2019 investigation into Flensmark* Expressen interview with Flensmark (auto-translated)* 2008 letter proposing ejaculation as a treatment for nasal congestion* Notorious 2007 Down syndrome paper* Ben Goldacre’s piece on it* Judith Rich Harris (2006) on parental selection and human hairlessness* 2014 paper arguing van Gogh had acute porphyria* 2022 paper arguing van Gogh had vestibular migraine instead* “Why do humans get acne? A hypothesis” (2020)* 2024 paper on dummies/pacifiers and SIDS* The original 2013 Brainspotting paper* 2024 Brainspotting debunking in the same journal* “Medical Hypotheses RIP” from sacked editor Bruce Charlton* Charlton’s earlier piece on the journal’s philosophy * 1991 paper on the inflammation–depression hypothesis* 2004 paper on the mitochondrial hypothesis for Alzheimer’s* 2005 gut microbiome/brain paper* 2017 paper “On human parthenogenesis”CreditsThe Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Episode 102: Why We Sleep

    Episode 102: Why We Sleep
    Jul 28 2026
    In 2017, Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep became a huge bestseller. It said, among other things, that we are living through an epidemic of sleeplessness, that the less we sleep the sooner we die, and that sleeping less than six hours a night doubles your risk of cancer.But are its claims as robust as you might hope? Well, you’ve listened to this podcast before, so what do you think?This podcast is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine. Find endless fascinating pieces on human progress at worksinprogress.co.Show notes* Matthew Walker’s TED Talk (”Sleep is your superpower”)* Bill Gates’s glowing GatesNotes review of Why We Sleep* Alexey Guzey’s 130-hour fact-check of the book’s first chapter — the source for most of this episode* His appendix of reader emails on the anxiety the book caused* On “the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span” — the two mortality meta-analyses Guzey cites: Cappuccio et al. 2010 and the 2016 dose-response one (both U-shaped, optimum ~7 hours)* On “more than doubling your risk of cancer” — Zhao et al.’s 2018 review in BMC Cancer (65 studies, ~1.55m participants, 86,201 cancers; central OR never above ~1.1)* On whether the West is sleeping less — the review with the table of nationally representative surveys (the table itself)* On the Alzheimer’s claim — the paper suggesting reverse causation (early dementia symptoms include sleeplessness)* The alleged data manipulation:* Yngve Høiseth’s misconduct complaint to UC Berkeley (the deleted graph bar as “falsification”)* Andrew Gelman on “institutional failure”* Scott Alexander’s “If It’s Worth Your Time to Lie, It’s Worth My Time to Correct It”* The cheese wrap reel* What we actually know — the 2024 UK Biobank accelerometer study (~60,000 people; sleep regularity more predictive than duration)* Walker’s 2020 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization — awarded after Guzey’s critiqueCreditsThe Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 3 mins
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