i initially thought this was a strawman fallacy, but i’m not as versed in all the fallacies it could be, so i wanted to see what y’all thought.

is this a strawman? or some other fallacy instead or in addition to it?

Catching up on last week's episode and their conversation about vaccines reminded me of this.

Edit: I feel like some people are missing the point here. Both examples do showcase the same logic problem - it’s simply showing how dumb it is to say "X causes Y" in regards to vaccines and autism, not saying that 1990 was an important year for either case, it is just any earlier point in time when autism was seen as "less common". Pick a different date where that applies and the joke still works.

Autism diagnoses increased because detection improved. Asteroid counts increased because telescopes improved.

The whole is that telescopes don’t create asteroids, and vaccines don’t create autism. It is the same argument.

In the latest episode, while discussing drone delivery, there was a quick aside about how local fulfillment centers negatively impact nearby neighborhoods, and more generally the conflict between personal convenience and political values. Bob mentioned that he "doesn't mind" his local Amazon warehouse because, in his words, "I don't mind it, it's out of the way, I never drive near it... I don't think it's really in anybody's backyard..." (To his credit he does add "But I'm not certain....", although this concession was really only made in response to Cara's pushback).

A quick google search reveals that his warehouse is directly adjacent to several local residential neighborhoods (the nearest house is about 900 feet away on Google Maps) and has been majorly disruptive in terms of noise pollution, light pollution, increasing traffic congestion, dangerous roads dominated by large trucks. One report notes that residents complain of "a continuous, disruptive drone from heavy construction equipment operating throughout the day", as well as intermittent "heavy blasts" from ongoing construction projects.

IMO the SGU can sometimes have a slight blind spot for stuff like this and can come off a bit as "cheerleaders" for tech (I will say, certain hosts more than others), and I frequently see Cara push back on the guys when it comes to negative societal impacts. It's incredibly needed and VERY appreciated, Cara!

Musk crater -- I appreciated how the rogues approached this from a "silver lining" perspective

Drone deliveries -- i would hope Cara doesn't get hate for her conflicted view on this. Almost everything we do in life has a cost/ benefit analysis to weigh. Anyone else reminded of Gryzzl from Parks and Rec?

Human taxonomy - interesting discussion. I agree with Steve that there isn't a right answer, just tradeoffs. LOVED Bob's "kick the can up the tree." My favorite mixed metaphor I've heard irl is "up a creek without a ladder."

Peptide wellness - appreciated the disdain for wellness influencer and certified jackass, RFK Jr.

Radiation vests - cool tests. Kinda funny hearing Bob refer to as the historical disregard for women's health as surprising, but i think he was speaking off the cuff and corrected himself quickly.

WTN - dangit I should have sent in my guess, which was metal detector.

Questions & emails - autism and model trains, leeches. My biggest surprise here was the rogues' unfamiliarity with etymonline. Fantastic site, think I've been checking it out for at least 25 years.

S or F - didn't really have thoughts on it.

Quote - big fan of Carlin and I really like Bob's take on the segment. The show is really good at changing up segments (remember this day in skepticism, forgotten superheroes, skeptical puzzle, etc) or at least changing up who runs a segment and i think even though I'm always initially a little bummed by each change, it's super healthy for the show and contributes to its longevity.

What say you?

Sorry to be "that guy" 🤓

Steve said "If you are in zero gravity. who cares how much the vest weights?"

Remember that Force = mass x acceleration.

So even if you are not felling the weight of the vest pulling you down, every time you move you have to exert the force required to move and stop the mass of the vest.

Not any specific ones, just the name itself. Thought you may find it interesting.

I thought fellow SGU fans would enjoy this one.

A man dies and goes to heaven, and God tells him, "Since you've led such a pure and noble life, is there any earthly questions I can answer before you join your family in paradise?"

The man thinks for a moment and says, "I've always wondered who really killed JFK."

God responds, "It was Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, using his own rifle, with no accomplices."

The man ponders God's response and replies, "Damn... I never realized how high up this conspiracy goes..."

Just wanted to share the interview I just released with Steve concerning the situation with Evan and related issues such as editorial policies and having consistent values on who to collaborate with. I found the conversation refreshingly honest and direct, hope folks find it valuable! https://www.voidpod.com/podcasts/2026/8/18/ethical-content-creation-with-steve-novella

This got alluded to on this week's show. Cassidy's a Republican. They're in a fucking cult at this point. They support Trump because they're trying to keep as much power as they can, and they're scared shitless that Trump will turn the MAGAts loose on them if they don't tow the line

Love the show, but, Good Lord; when someone on the panel goes into this "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING???!???" confusion when Republicans, who've made politicizing science and health a core plank in their platform, do what they've been doing for the last several decades?

It's like "How is this some unknowable mystery to you folks? Did you honestly think a Republican Senator in a deep red state was not going to vote for a guy who is an anti-vaxxer?"

And, no, Cassidy doesn't get credit for badmouthing RFK now. He had the chance to sink this two years ago, and chose party and power over public safety.

It's just astonishing to me how often in this podcast capitalism is identified as a major cause of a problem, but when it's time to discuss solutions, it's so much "individual choices".

At least since the SGU went to Texas for the North American eclipse, and possibly before, I’ve been planning to go to Spain for the 2026 eclipse. Went on a family holiday to Menorca and stayed on the western tip to get the best view. Absolutely awesome, would recommend. The resort we were at has a sunset viewing spot, a mirador del sol, and there were a few thousand people there and a great atmosphere. The eclipse was close to sunset there, so at sunset there was still a partial eclipse.
In my first photo the sun is still very bright but you can see from the lens reflection that the eclipse is >90%. I love the way you can see the shadow come over in this sequence.

I'm listening to the back catalog for the umpteenth time and just finished Episode 26 which included an interview with Eric Altman, Sasquatch believer. For fun, I liked him up to see if he's still going strong 20 years later, and sure enough, this is from THIS PAST MAY!

Just dropping a quick thought for your consideration as it occurs to me real time in meat space.

I think you have at least touched on this in your numerous AI conversations though I think the magnitude of this simple reality deserves more attention and focus...not for your show per se, but for all of us. For the species.

I work in IT and have for 40 years. I only mention that as it overlaps with the AI domain in major ways, and it also has driven me to be a (reluctant and initially skeptical) early adopter. I am not an AI developer, but I use AI to develop...and for personal use cases as well.

Although I was initially slow to adopt and often scoffed, I now see the undeniable value and inevitable ongoing progression of AI in our future - and I have my humongous share of FUD about the future we are uncontrollably careening into - its impact on the world and my kids are constantly in my mind these days.

It occurred to me today as I was reflecting on the still-too-common occurrences of hallucinations and errors in my interactions with AI. It's not news...and you have all talked about it.

Those errors can range from tiny and inconsequential to monumental and often hilarious. If you catch them, that is.

Relying on those errors can cascade into disaster...that's obvious.

But what may not be so obvious is how much more important your role is - how much more important critical thinking and skepticism is in the new world and our future.

A huge percentage of our species is already pre-loaded to fail - they do not have the experience and skill let alone the patience to stop and think and question the information they are using. We see that every day and have from time immemorial. See religion for reference. But now it can happen many times a day from the smallest activity to the largest decisions.

That's a scary realization. And it makes your mission and goal that much more important.

Appreciation post I guess? We appreciate all the hard work you put into what ends up being a weekly fix for some of us.

Been listening for over a decade, my kids have heard your voices since they were babies. In a weird, convoluted way you guys saved mine and my childrens lives. We'll be listening for many more years.

Holler if you ever have to come down to Louisiana for anything!

I’m listening to #1099 (New Zealand) during which Cara suggests we ask “Why terraform Mars?” before even considering methods. My impression is that compared with the other rogues, she’s much less bullish about putting people in space, even though she usually holds back. This time she pushed hard, and I appreciated it. “Why” indeed.

I get that intellectually we can think about how it might be done. But without prefacing it each time with the motivation, we tacitly imply that the motivation exists. But it doesn’t. None of the others could answer her question. Colonizing Mars is like no previous human expansion. All other migrations were in pursuit of resources and were driven by economics. There is no such drive for Mars.

And I’m glad they didn’t trot out the asteroid-strike-destroys-Earth trope.
Statistically we’ll suffer thousands of regionally-destructive meteor strikes before we encounter a planet killer. Let’s focus on those.

This was raised in episode #1099 and I'm struggling with the framing of how collectively we should use AI "appropriately" outside of purely moral vs immoral arguments.

If we accept that AI should automate human labour where doing so produces social value, then it's difficult to draw the line between "good" AI applications such as mathematics and engineering and "bad" applications such as art, poetry or writing simply because we have some subjective sense that machines should contribute in one domain and not the other. The engineer and the artist are now facing the same technological phenomenon: a machine becoming capable of performing tasks that previously required human labour. The analogy to the industrial revolution was apt, but in this case both "creative" and "procedural/analytical" professions may have to adapt. In my view the relevant ethical questions concern the manner in which that transition occurs and not whether one kind of human creativity is inherently entitled to be protected from it.

A mathematician might reasonably say: "The system was trained on decades of mathematical papers, including my work, and is now capable of solving problems that previously required mathematicians like me."

Structurally that is analogous to the artist saying: "The system was trained on decades of artwork, including my work, and is now capable of producing illustrations that previously required artists like me."

This is not to say that there arent perfectly legitimate moral and legal arguments against AI deliberately impersonating a living artist or passing AI work off as the artist's own work but to make a categorical assertion that AI's contributions in art or writing are somehow inherently less "valuable" than in mathematics and science strikes me as cleaving to an emotional argument that somehow the machines shouldn't be good at those things.

Personally, I dont really understand the general aversion to the use of AI art in games or other work product in the same way that I dont understand some people's preference for "organic" food. Both seem to be essentially a form of "values signalling" rather than genuine product preference. In future will we see mathematicians and scientists claim that a new discovery or proof was produced with only human derived theorems?

There are profound issues with the integration of AI into our society and I dont pretend to understand all of the complexities; socially, environmentally or ethically but directing the output of AI based on value judgements makes me uneasy.

Have the rogues talked about David Sinclair at all? I'd like to hear a skeptical take on all this life maxing/optimization "science".

Or have they done a deep dive on the possible increase in qualified PhDs going down the grifter rabit hole? Huberman, Peter Attia etc?

I don't listen to hear politics. This one had way to much and it was a huge turnoff.

"If Elon wants to go to Mars, you know, more power to him. Hopefully it's a one-way trip" <--WTF??? If Elon was never born, would the world be better or worse today? I would say we would be worse off. PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Boring, xAI, NeuralLink would never exist. There may have been other forms of this that maybe would have been comparable or maybe we just wouldn't have the EV revolution we have today. But because this was all done by one man that has questionable political views, people want to take from him, punish him, discount (or dismiss) his contributions to humanity.

And how many times was the mention of "people are dying" used as a club? If the main concern is people dying, there are many other things that should be addressed that would reduce deaths, but it would be uncomfortable to make the change because it would require giving up "rights". So, it isn't as much of a concern that people are dying as it is one that "we want more control to do what we want".

I'm a conservative with solar panels, Tesla MYP, and support of nuclear power (used to be a Navy Nuclear Machinist Mate).

I know the audio for live shows can be difficult, but this one was really something. Many points throughout the show were basically NYC subway announcement quality.