Anecdote in Science: The 224th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying

In this 224th 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 animal behavior: the implications of an orangutan using a medicinal plant to treat a wound, and the one-off videos that we’ve all seen—of cats preventing toddlers from falling, of a beluga whale retrieving a woman’s phone. What does this say about the minds of these other organisms, and about us? Also: dog domestication, from wolves, but not from foxes. And: the New York Times publishes more insipid garbage about vaccine injury, Bret returns to the question of what safety means, and The Nation turns its back on its muckraking roots.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Laumer et al 2024. Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan. Scientific Reports, 14(1), p.8932. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-58988-7

County Highway: https://www.countyhighway.com

Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccines-side-effects.html

Chris Martenson on the NYT: https://twitter.com/chrismartenson/status/1787602191114526836

Benn et al 2023. Randomized clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines: Do adenovirus-vector vaccines have beneficial non-specific effects?. Iscience, 26(5): https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/publications/randomized-clinical-trials-of-covid-19-vaccines-do-adenovirus-vec

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