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Science Fictions

Science Fictions

Written 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 26: Microplastics redux

    Paid-only episode 26: Microplastics redux
    Jan 20 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com

    It’s rare that we return to a topic, but it’s also nice to have been right. In 2024 we did an episode on microplastics, and cast a lot of doubt on some of the more outrageous claims about them filling up your brain, your arteries, and (for the fellas) your testicles. Since then a lot more flaws in the science have been found—and at least one of them is utterly devastaing.

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    11 mins
  • Episode 93: Many analysts

    Episode 93: Many analysts
    Jan 13 2026
    Here’s a cheery one for our first episode of the year. Guess what happens when you give several sets of scientists the same dataset and ask them to answer the same question? Well, they all find the same results, right? Right!?Sadly not. This “Many Analysts” problem has been analysed and debated in multiple different scientific fields and across several papers. We cover them in this episode. What does it tell us about the objectivity of science if different teams draw different conclusions from the exact same data?The Science Fictions podcast is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. Their excellent new article on how we’re living in “the golden age of vaccine development”, as discussed on the show, can be found (along with the rest of their articles on science, history, and technology), at worksinprogress.co. We’re very grateful that they support the podcast.Show notes* 2015 Nature commentary article on “crowdsourced research” (on racism in football)* And the full 2018 writeup titled “Many Analysts, One Data Set”* Gelman and Loken on the “Garden of Forking Paths”* 2020 many-analysts neuroscience (fMRI) paper* And the plan for the similar study on EEG* 2022 PNAS many-analysts paper on the “hidden universe of uncertainty”* 2026 critique on ideological bias from George Borjas* 2023 critique on effect sizes vs. statistical significance* 2025 ecology & evolution many-analysts paper on blue tits and eucalyptus* 2025 economics many-analysts paper with results on data cleaning* 2024 PNAS critique of many-analysts research* Julia Rohrer’s critique of multiverse analysisCreditsThe 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 19 mins
  • A Christmas 2025 compendium

    A Christmas 2025 compendium
    Dec 30 2025

    We’ve covered a lot of bad science stories over the year. Here are a few more. But in the optimistic spirit of the “holiday season”, the last one has a happy ending.

    Thanks for listening—especially if you’re a subscriber! See you in 2026.

    Stuart & Tom

    Show notes

    * A surge of low-quality AI papers on public datasets

    * A surge of low-quality AI letters to the editor

    * Retraction Watch story on the Dana Farber scandal

    * NY Times story on the papers being retracted or corrected

    * The settlement in the case

    Credits

    The 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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    32 mins
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