Mind & Matter
Whether food, drugs or ideas, what you consume influences who you become. Learn directly from the best scientists & thinkers alive today about how your mind-body reacts to what you feed it.
The weekly M&M podcast features conversations with the most interesting scientists, thinkers, and technology entrepreneurs alive today.
Not medical advice.
At M&M, we are interested in trying to figure out how things work, not affirming our existing beliefs. We prefer consulting primary rather than secondary sources and independent rather than institutional voices. If we encounter uncomfortable truths or the evidence suggests unfashionable ideas may be valid, so be it.
As the host, my aim is to help you better understand how the body & mind work by curating & synthesizing information in a way that yields science-based insights that you can choose to use or disregard in your own life. Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
I am motivated to connect the dots and distill general principles from what I learn, preferring to ask questions and play devil’s advocate to debating or incessantly pushing my own viewpoint.
My beliefs:
- Taking ownership of your health starts with taking ownership of your information diet.
- All knowledge is provisional and we must work hard to prevent ourselves from becoming attached to our favorite ideas & preferred conclusions.
- Wisdom comes from an iterative, trial-and-error process of learning and unlearning. Letting go of pre-conceived notions can be painful, but pain is information.
Sometimes modern discoveries teach us we must unlearn received wisdom. Other times, modern information overload & historical chauvinism cause us to forget ancient wisdom which stills applies. The framework for learning that I embody is inspired by three Ancient Greek maxims inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi:
- “Γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (Know thyself)
- “Μηδὲν ἄγαν” (Nothing in excess)
- “Ἐγγύα πάρα δ Ἄτα” (Certainty brings insanity)
Mind & Matter
How Science Works: Meta-Research, Publishing, Reproducibility, Peer Review, Funding | John Ioannidis | 212
Short Summary: A rare, insider’s look at the messy realities of scientific research with Stanford’s Dr. John Ioannidis. The good, the bad, and the ugly about how scientific research actually works.
About the guest: John Ioannidis, MD, PhD is a professor at Stanford University in medicine, epidemiology, population health, and biomedical data science, with an MD from the University of Athens and a PhD from Harvard in biostatistics. He directs the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), focusing on improving research methods and practices. Renowned for his paper “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” he’s among the most cited scientists globally, tackling biases and reproducibility in science.
Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and everyone on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere. Full transcript and other information on Substack.
Key Takeaways:
- Science’s “replication crisis” isn’t new—it’s baked into how tough and bias-prone research is, hitting all fields, not just “soft” ones like psychology.
- Ioannidis’s famous claim, “most published findings are false,” holds up: stats show many “significant” results are flukes due to weak studies or bias.
- Peer review’s a mixed bag—only a third of papers improve, and unpaid, tired reviewers miss a lot, letting shaky stuff slip through.
- Publishing’s a $30 billion game with 50,000+ journals; big players like Elsevier rake in huge profits from subscriptions and fees, often over $10,000 per paper.
- Researchers game the system—think fake co-authorships or citation cartels—boosting metrics like the H-index, which tracks papers with matching citation counts.
- Ioannidis’s early COVID-19 fatality rate (0.2-0.3%) was spot-on but sparked a firestorm as politics warped science into “clan warfare.”
- NIH funding’s clogged by red tape and favors older researchers, starving young innovators and risky ideas that could shake things up.
- He’s building tools like a public database of scientist stats (4 million downloads!) to spotlight gaming and push for transparent, fair research.
*Not medical advice.
All episodes, show notes, transcripts, etc. at the M&M Substack
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