Support my work and keep it sustainable: ko-fi.com/evolio

In this episode I explain bullshit to my friend, comedian Zach Jobe. Yes, bullshit. It turns out it is a legit hard nosed topic of philosophical debate with decades of work and thousands of academic publications behind it. We talk about what it is, why people do it, who is vulnerable to it and how to recognize it in your everyday life. Building a robust detector it turns out is one of the best ways to to steel yourself against it.

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Created by: Ryan Pevey at evolio.org and Zach Jobe @zhjobe

Concept: A science and comedy conversation about what philosophical bullshit is and how to detect it.

Tools: DaVinci Resolve, GIMP

Intro music by Maksym Malko from Pixabay (pixabay.com/music/upbeat-podcast-interview-music-254186/)

Podcast streams:

redcircle.com/shows/04ecc7a3-3383-4ca0-bff3-c55d04100ed5

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-science-stories/id1874450380

open.spotify.com/show/50xaIb6jjmSJv7georpfVt?si=16e6c0e030414593

music.amazon.com/podcasts/b0415a99-f209-4c66-80c5-d8eb2b490811/hidden-science-stories

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Citations:

Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton University Press, 2005 [original essay 1986]. The foundational philosophical treatment. Essential starting point. 67 pages; highly readable.

Frankfurt, Harry G. On Truth. Princeton University Press, 2006. Frankfurt’s follow-up, addressing why truth matters as a value. Reads as a companion to On Bullshit.

Pennycook, G., Cheyne, J.A., Barr, N., Koehler, D.J., & Fugelsang, J.A. "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit." Judgment and Decision Making, 10, 549–563, 2015. The paper that launched empirical bullshit research. Open access.

Pennycook, G. & Rand, D.G. "Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking." Journal of Personality, 88(2), 185–200, 2020. Key empirical link between bullshit receptivity and misinformation susceptibility.

Bergstrom, Carl T. & West, Jevin D. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. Random House/Allen Lane, 2020. The best practical guide to bullshit detection for a general audience; particularly strong on data-driven and scientific bullshit. Course materials also freely available at callingbullshit.org.

Cassam, Qassim. Vices of the Mind: From the Intellectual to the Political. Oxford University Press, 2018. Develops the concept of epistemic vices, including insouciance and malevolence, with political applications. Theoretical but accessible.

Hicks, M.T., Humphries, J. & Slater, J. "ChatGPT Is Bullshit." Ethics and Information Technology, 26:38, 2024. The most cited academic paper applying Frankfurt’s framework to LLMs. Open access. Directly relevant to the AI segment.

Szanto, Thomas. "Epistemically exploitative bullshit: A Sartrean account." European Journal of Philosophy, 31(3), 711–730, 2023. Extends Frankfurt to cover politically weaponized bullshit. Relevant to intersections of bullshit and power.

Serena Iacobucci, Roberta De Cicco. "A literature review of bullshit receptivity: Perspectives for an informed policy making against misinformation." Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, 6(S1), 23–40, 2022 Comprehensive review of empirical research on bullshit receptivity from 2015–2021. Good for overview of the field.

Vaidya, Anand Jayprakash. "Are LLMs Natural Born Bullshitters?" The Philosophers’ Magazine, 2024. Accessible philosophical analysis of the AI-bullshit question for a general audience. A good bridge between the technical Hicks et al. paper and lay readers.

0:00 On Bullshit

11:44 Two types of Bullshit

18:14 The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle

21:43 Psychology of Bullshit

27:51 LLMs and the rise of Botshit

44:31 Propaganda is political Bullshit

49:22 The Bullshit of Pseudoscience

56:03 Bullshit detector 101

62:57 Point of Optimism

66:51 2026 Predictions Update

Support my work and keep it sustainable: ko-fi.com/evolio

Have you ever heard that coffee and caffeine are bad for kids because it stunts their growth? Well an argument between Ryan and his wife lead him to look into this seemingly verifiable scientific fact and it turns out this super common knowledge idea is a myth. Made up for marketing purposes by C.W. Post to sell his coffee alternative product, and it worked even better than he could have ever expected. The scientific evidence directly counters this idea though. Ryan and Zach discuss how this myth took hold in the U.S. We discuss the neuroscience of caffeine and how it works to make you feel awake. Also, how does caffeine interact with an ADHD brain? Finally we move onto how to maximize the effects of caffeine and get the most out of the most commonly used psychoactive substance on the planet. If you want to have the most efficient coffee intake according to neuroscience, then follow this advice. The episode ends with a discussion on political violence in the news, then specifically the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. And a follow up of Ryan’s prediction from earlier in the year about the President’s apparent dementia and how it affected the events that unfolded at the dinner party.

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Created by: Ryan Pevey at evolio.org and Zach Jobe @zhjobe

Concept: A science and comedy conversation about caffeine, whether it’s bad for kids, how does it work on your brain and ADHD. As well as how to maximize the effects of caffeine.

Tools: DaVinci Resolve, GIMP

Outro music by Maksym Malko from Pixabay (pixabay.com/music/upbeat-podcast-interview-music-254186/)

The mural featured in the thumbnail is by Ryan Henry Ward

Podcast streams:

redcircle.com/shows/04ecc7a3-3383-4ca0-bff3-c55d04100ed5

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-science-stories/id1874450380

open.spotify.com/show/50xaIb6jjmSJv7georpfVt?si=16e6c0e030414593

music.amazon.com/podcasts/b0415a99-f209-4c66-80c5-d8eb2b490811/hidden-science-stories

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Citations:

1. Lieberman et al. (2002). "Effects of caffeine, sleep loss, and stress on cognitive performance and mood during U.S. Navy SEAL training." Psychopharmacology, 164(3), 250–261.
2. Reifman et al. (2022). "2B-Alert Web 2.0, an Open-Access Tool for Predicting Alertness and Optimizing the Benefits of Caffeine." JMIR Mental Health / Sleep.
3. Fredholm et al. — Multiple foundational papers on adenosine receptor pharmacology.
4. Lane, J. (1999). Duke University / National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study on caffeine, adrenaline, and blood pressure in daily life.
5. Temple, J.L. et al. (2010). "Caffeine Use in Children: What we know, what we have left to learn, and why we should worry." PMC2699625.
6. Smithsonian Magazine: "It's a Myth: There's No Evidence That Coffee Stunts Kids' Growth."
7. Institute of Medicine / USAMRMC: Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance (NCBI Bookshelf, NBK223801).

0:00 Caffeine myths and Cereal Quacks

18:24 Health effects of caffeine

23:08 The Neuroscience of Caffeine

40:55 Optimizing caffeine with neuroscience

49:38 Point of Optimism, Caffeine isn’t bad in moderation

52:16 Political Violence and the WHCD

01:06:31 DJT in the background of a photo

Support my work and keep it sustainable: ko-fi.com/evolio

The bigfoot cryptid monster makes for a really fun and enlightening example of how science is not supposed to work, despite what his proponents have to say about him. While cryptid monsters can be fun and whimsical, they and the search for them, a field known as cryptozoology, are also one of the most potent examples of pseudoscience. In this episode Zach and I explore the topic of cryptozoology, why it is a pseudoscience and what legitimate science actually looks like.

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Created by: Ryan Pevey at evolio.org and Zach Jobe @zhjobe

Concept: A science and comedy conversation about what philosophical bullshit is and how to detectit.

Tools: DaVinci Resolve, GIMP

Intro music by Maksym Malko from Pixabay (pixabay.com/music/upbeat-podcast-interview-music-254186/)

Podcast streams:

redcircle.com/shows/04ecc7a3-3383-4ca0-bff3-c55d04100ed5

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-science-stories/id1874450380

open.spotify.com/show/50xaIb6jjmSJv7georpfVt?si=16e6c0e030414593

music.amazon.com/podcasts/b0415a99-f209-4c66-80c5-d8eb2b490811/hidden-science-stories

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Citations:

Bryan C. Sykes, Rhettman A. Mullis, Christophe Hagenmuller, Terry W. Melton, Michel Sartori; Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates. Proc Biol Sci 1 August 2014; 281 (1789): 20140161. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

Li, X., D. Yang, L. Wang, and J. J. Wiens. 2025. The past and future of known biodiversity: Rates, patterns, and projections of new species over time. Science Advances 11:eadz3071. wienslab.com/Publications_files/Li_et_al._Sci_Adv_2025.pdf

Smith, J.L.B. (1956), Old Fourlegs: The Story of the Coelacanth, Longmans. openlibrary.org/books/OL6196638M/Old_Fourlegs

Natural History Museum (London), "Coelacanths: The fish that 'outdid' the Loch Ness Monster" nhm.ac.uk/discover/coelacanths-the-fish-that-outdid-the-loch-ness-monster.html

Natural History Museum (London) "What is environmental DNA (eDNA)?" nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-environmental-dna-edna.html

Cornell Chronicle, Jan. 2026, "Environmental DNA breakthrough will aid conservation efforts" news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/01/environmental-dna-breakthrough-will-aid-conservation-efforts

Smithsonian Magazine "The Giant Squid: Dragon of the Deep" smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-giant-squid-dragon-of-the-deep-18784038/

NPR, 2025, "Using eDNA to track world's biodiversity". npr.org/2025/05/22/g-s1-67081/environmental-dna-edna-air-track-biodiversity

Hill, Sharon A. Skeptical Inquirer: "Cryptozoology and Pseudoscience". skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/cryptozoology-and-pseudoscience/

0:00 Bigfoot

13:13 A serious science debunking

15:42 Famous cryptids

24:27 Legitimate science efforts

31:00 The coelacanth and lazarus species

35:43 New species discoveries

39:48 The Kraken

45:10 Cyclops

50:22 Paleomythology of the PNW

58:04 eDNA

1:03:59 Point of Optimism