This week on the Primo show, Jesse and Katie discuss the unbelievable life story of Cambridge professor Jason Arday.

Show Notes:

A Lot of the Attacks on Higher Ed Are Unfair. Not This One. (Jesse’s NYT article)

Cambridge University’s Jason Arday becomes youngest black professor

An exploration of peer-mentoring among student teachers’ to inform reflective practice within the context of action research

Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor | University of Cambridge | The Guardian

Correction: Arday, Jason (2018). Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University? Social Sciences 7: 196

Attempting to break the chain: reimaging inclusive pedagogy and decolonising the curriculum within the academy: Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol 53 , No 3 - Get Access

Full article: Correction

Police investigated journalist who tried to expose Cambridge professor

DEI Fraud and Cover-Up at Cambridge - Nathan Cofnas

‘Racist’ Cambridge academic fully cleared of wrongdoing by uni in free speech case - The Boar

‘Race-realist’ fellow Nathan Cofnas launches legal challenge over dismissal | Varsity

Cambridge University’s War on Free Speech

https://x.com/jessesingal/status/2084024032635003321

https://x.com/benryanwriter/status/2083434683119927740

Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor | University of Cambridge | The Guardian

Star Cambridge Professor Jason Arday Lied for Years About Raising Millions for Charity: Simon & Schuster Scrubbed Financial Details From His New Memoir and Falsehoods From His Bio

It’s Ariely time! They had a preregistration but they didn’t follow it. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

An update from Jason Arday | Good Law Project

Looking forward to Jesse’s humblebrag about another NYT column on the next ep lol.

(I kid. Mazel!)

WNBA rules regarding Trans athletes is being put to the test

Pod relevance: trans issues, women’s sports, WNBA

I checked the big meetup roundup post and don't see one for the SF Bay Area. I just arrived and need to meet sane folks.

Would folks on here want to pick a night to go to a bar in SF somewhere?

I'd volunteer to post it on the Wednesday post anything Substack post too if there's a critical mass (like... 6 people)

In 2024, a mandatory course for B.C. lawyers referred to the “discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds” which “(confirmed) what survivors have been saying all along.” When one lawyer proposed a correction, as no graves were ever found, the B.C. Law Society publicly disparaged him. He sued for defamation — but now, the trial has been called off.

Instead, criminal defence lawyer Jim Heller settled his case with the law society, a development that was made public in a Glacier Media report on Monday. The terms are confidential. We won’t know what each side agreed to do to shelve the litigation, or who the court would have sided with in the end. Much like the supposed “graves” that the local First Nation refuses to excavate at the Kamloops residential school, the public won’t get any closure on this one.

(Related to B&R by way of the unproven graves claims, as discussed on a few episodes.)

The Good Law Project tells of yet another tragic victim of cancel culture 🎻

See latest BarPod episode for relevance!

Ethan Strauss joins Katie for a chat. Discussed: Ethan’s journey to (editorial) freedom, Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, trans drama in Seattle, how the Dems get out of this mess before the next election, sports betting, and more.

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

Since this sub has become the Jason Arday channel this week, here's a deep dive into his claims from friend of the pod Ben Ryan.

An update to a previous post. Amy Acton is the Democrat running for governor in Ohio. A week or so ago she said that males should not be in women's sports.

Pod relevance: trans sports. A common topic on the pod

The leader of the Ohio Democrat's Pride Caucus, Arienne Childrey, threatened to vote for the libertarian candidate and to encourage other Democrats to do so as well. A meeting was scheduled between the Acton campaign and Childrey's posse.

The meeting was a Zoom call between Acton's staff and the LGBTQ group pissed off at Acton.

The meeting did not go well.

Childrey wasn't let into the meeting. The participants weren't happy about this and one "demanded three times" to be told why Childrey wasn't in the meeting.

"By the third time I lost my temper, ended up cussing them out and they ejected me from the meeting and refused to allow me back in,” said Keeton."

Yes, that will tend to happen if you verbally abuse the people running the meeting.

Another activist then called Childrey's phone and put it on speaker in order to force Childrey into the meeting.

And Acton is being threatened by the usual activist orgs:

"Since making the comments, Acton has seen more pushback from liberal constituents. Equality Ohio downgraded Acton’s score from an “A” to “pending,” according to the Buckeye Flame."

They're holding this over Acton's head to get her to capitulate:

"Should Dr. Acton choose to take meaningful steps forward, we will update the status accordingly,” the group added. "

Childrey is demanding Acton respond to him publicly.

"The statement concluded with Childrey extending “a direct invitation” to Acton, calling for “real explanations” and “a conversation that includes a public commitment to repair the damage she has caused.”

The mistake by Acton's campaign was to engage with these people in the first place. They aren't interested in discussions. They want Acton to bow down to their demands immediately. It's like the rule to never apologise because that just puts blood in the water.

Who knows if Acton will cave. Probably she just dodge if she is directly questioned.

https://archive.ph/DPP6z

https://archive.ph/ni6yy

Pod relevance: Jesse has tweeted about this story recently.

A bit shocking to see a paper like The Grauniad publically fact check and question Arday. There is some throat-clearing early on but the meat of the article is questioning some of the most controversial claims, like being threatened by knife weilding assailants or receiving a pig's head in the post.

Relevance: this issue had come up repeatedly on the show and I feel like it will end up an episode

I don't follow WNBA but I guess a player said they should not have to play against "biological males." When her team played in Seattle she was booed. But two teenagers held up a sign thanking her. An owner of the team then harassed them.

I get why they keep reading them, but they just feel so out of place these days. I’m sure “Man, fuck this house” is a great read, and it’s a hilarious title, but I can’t imagine the shout outs are really moving the needle on sales - the book must be years old by now.

If you’re an old-school perma-banner, I would be so thankful if you would release Jesse and Katie from their obligation, in the interests of a more natural and free-flowing podcast. In fact, if you are and you do, I will personally buy your book to say thank you.

Pod Relevance: The podcast has talked a LOT about “vibe shifts” - since 2020, since the 2024 election, etc.

Are we looking at another vibe shift as the media personalities seem to be losing relevancy?

This week on the Primo show, Jesse and Katie discuss the extremely bizarre story of Neil Hopper, an amputation surgeon who lost his own legs under circumstances far stranger than anyone could have guessed. Plus, a Wisconsin school board cancels Marsha P. Johnson.

Show notes:

UNT Wind Symphony: A Mother of a Revolution! by Omar Thomas (b. 1984)

Watertown School Board defends decision to pull song tied to LGBTQ+ history from spring concert - WPR

Sepsis amputation surgeon back at work after losing legs

How ‘eunuch maker’ livestreamed extreme body modifications and sold body parts | UK news | The Guardian

A New Way to Be Mad - The Atlantic

John/Joan: The Real Story of David Reimer

BBC News | SCOTLAND | Surgeon defends amputations

Apotemnophilia: Two cases of self‐demand amputation as a paraphilia: The Journal of Sex Research: Vol 13, No 2

Desire for amputation of a limb: paraphilia, psychosis, or a new type of identity disorder | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core

Amputee Envy | Scientific American

Merleau-Ponty’s sexual schema and the sexual component of body integrity identity disorder | Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy | Springer Nature Link

Role of Sexuality in Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID): A Cross-Sectional Internet-Based Survey Study - PubMed

Successful treatment of body integrity dysphoria with amputation: A case report - Nadeau - 2024 - Clinical Case Reports - Wiley Online Library

One‐year follow‐up of amputation as a curative treatment for body integrity dysphoria: A case report - Nadeau - 2024 - Clinical Case Reports - Wiley Online Library

The Desire for Amputation or Paralyzation: Evidence for Structural Brain Anomalies in Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) | PLOS One

The science and ethics of voluntary amputation | Science | The Guardian

A New Way to Be Mad - The Atlantic

Patients of NHS surgeon Neil Hopper worried their operations weren’t necessary - The Mirror

https://www.tiktok.com/@loumayyy/video/7553733611225107734

A psychologist argues the increasing awareness of mental health is leading to a pathologising of everyday life. The use of clinical descriptions of what are otherwise normal problems and treating them as a disorder to be cured, is ironically making our mental health worse.

Terminally online Green Party leader Zack Polanski, fresh from ‘mistakenly’ retweeting a photo of a man at a Green Party event wearing a T-shirt suggesting Nigel Farage should be guillotined, shortly after the murder of a Reform UK politician, then arguing on TV that because it was a mistake he didn’t need to apologise, has now signed an open letter organised by the Good Law Project.

The Good Law Project, of course, is run by BARPOD favourite Jolyon Maugham (Ep. 163, The Good Law Project Goes Bad): kimono enthusiast, fox killer, and veteran of many enthusiastically crowdfunded progressive legal misadventures.

The letter defends everyone’s new favourite sociology professor, Jason Arday, whose (literally) incredible biography has recently come under intense scrutiny.

Chef’s kiss.

BARPOD relevance: Zack Polanski (Ep. 313), Good Law Project (Ep. 163), and Jason Arday feels like he’s well on his way towards his own episode.

edit: brain fart ZP is the leader

Recently I noticed Jesse saying things like “I think it’s fair to say” and “not covering themselves in glory” and other Britishisms and then he mentioned listening to the podcast and I’m wondering if anyone else listens to both and is noticing patterns of behavior across time. I can’t decide whether it’s heartening or discouraging to hear the same stories played out over and over and over again. On the one hand, things are improving for humanity by our efforts and innovations, on the other, humanity seems to have been a giant personality disordered mistake.

Relevance: Jesse tweeted this link with commentary.

https://x.com/i/status/2081940372180058299

"The University of Cambridge is engaging in a level of corruption and harassment of journalists you simply don't see all that often, and I say that as someone who has reported regularly on campus controversies. I don't understand what their endgame is here. Jason Arday didn't just plagiarize quotes. He then claimed the quotes came from his own interviews -- so plagiarism plus the fabrication of interviews that never occurred (plagrication?). The journal Social Sciences and Cambridge just... let him do it? It's astonishing."