Fear the Reaper: The 255th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying

In this 255th 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 week’s episode, we discuss how to avoid confusion between moral and analytical differences, especially when it comes to politics and the state of America. Probably you have people in your life whom you love, with whom you disagree adamantly about politics. If you believe those people to share your values, then you probably just disagree about what you have seen, and what it means—rather than believing that they are fundamentally bad people. Also: is it unethical to spend time and resources investigating scientific questions that have already been answered? And: excess deaths in the time of Covid, the pull-forward effect, and an analogy with treefalls during early Winter storms: strong winds cull the weak, such that in subsequent storms, there should be fewer trees that fall. Also: check out Obvious State—they make amazing art prints.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Is it unethical to replicate research? https://x.com/DrNeilStone/status/1866201925970018354

Reasonable Dowd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trjv7-eUqt4

Excess Deaths: https://phinancetechnologies.com/HumanityProjects/yearly%20Excess%20Death%20Rate%20Analysis%20-%20US.htm

More excess death analysis: https://x.com/ethicalskeptic/status/1864371228309340602

U.S. Disability Data: https://x.com/dowdedward/status/1865078933915332624

Obvious State: https://obviousstate.com

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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:05:24 Welcome
00:08:10 Sponsors: Caraway, Manukora, Timeline
00:19:23 Story of Mitochondrial Senescence
00:20:54 Tandem Bikes & Kayaks
00:30:50 Addressing the Murder of Unitedhealthcare CEO
00:39:21 Are you Confusing an Analytical Disagreement with a Moral Failing?
01:03:55 Vaccine Research: An expert says #vaccineswork
01:11:17 Bret’s Pull Forward Effect Analogy
01:35:01 Obvious State Artwork
01:38:04 DarkHorse Store Products
01:40:03 Closing