The DISRUPTED SCIENCE Podcast

September 11, 2025 — News Update: MDPI Pulls a MAHA Preprint

A July 2025 preprint on Preprints.org (MDPI) gets withdrawn, and the caterwauling about censorship begins. This episode helps you get your bearings, we hope.

Show Notes

The MDPI withdrawal: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202507.2155/v1

The MAHA Substack complaint: https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-mdpi-censors-one-of-the

 

September 10, 2025 — What Is the Zuck Really Doing in Science?

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is widely reported as a philanthropy. In fact, it is an LLC operated by the holding company the family uses, sells assets off after acquisition, and is platforming biomedical preprints and other scientific information for its own purposes. It has effectively acquired bioRxiv and medRxiv, operating them in a new entity, openRxiv Corp.

In this episode, we explore how CZI LLC was set up, how Meta got its name (hint: they acquired the brand via a science AI acquisition), and discuss the implications of having billionaires with shifting political ideologies involved in funding scientific initiatives.

 

Show Notes

Krumholz Is an Officer of openRxiv — https://www.the-geyser.com/krumholz-is-officer-of-openrxiv/

Editor Becomes a MAHA Darling — https://www.the-geyser.com/editor-becomes-a-maha-darling/

What Is CZI Really Up To? — https://www.the-geyser.com/what-is-czi-really-up-to/ 

Chicago bird collision monitors — https://www.birdmonitors.net/

Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

September 2, 2025 — Private Wealth NOT Public Health

In this episode, we dive deeper into the background of Jim O’Neill, the interim acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the heels of the messy firing of the Senate-approved Director (and actual scientist) Susan Monarez.

It turns out, the Silicon Valley desire to have science become predictable, end death, and create endless wealth for a few is really driving a lot of this, from Peter Thiel to RFK Jr. to O’Neill. 

 

Show Notes

Interview with Demetre Daskalakis: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-c-d-c-s-vaccine-chief-on-why-quitting-was-his-only-option/id1200361736?i=1000724015879 

Insilico.com: https://insilico.com/ 

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

August 27, 2025 — Science ≠ Tech, Tech ≠ Science

Today, we dive into a few aspects of the imposition of tech thinking into the scientific endeavor, including business models, AI, accidental certifications, and new NIH policies. 

 

Show Notes

Jessica Knurick post: https://drjessicaknurick.substack.com/p/trust-the-science-doesnt-mean-what

Comet Plus: https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-comet-plus

"Scholarly Kitchen" guest post by Mike Olson: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/08/26/guest-post-beyond-classification-the-human-cost-of-library-and-information-labor-under-digital-capitalism/

Clay Shirky on the return of the Blue Books: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/opinion/culture/ai-chatgpt-college-cheating-medieval.html

Pygmy sea horses: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/science/evolution-genetics-seahorses.html

Video of pygmy sea horses (NatGeo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4q3sBuCkRQ

Better bee food to thwart colony collapse: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250822073807.htm

See our book cover: https://www.the-geyser.com/how-the-internet-disrupted-science/ 

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

Contact us: DISRUPTEDSCIENCE@GMAIL.COM 

August 20, 2025 — Interview with Jason Steinhauer, Author of "History, Disrupted"

It's our first interview for the podcast, and we landed a great guest!

Jason Steinhauer is a “public historian” working at the intersection of history, tech, media and politics. He writes and speaks about how social media, tech, and A.I. are shaping our history, politics, democracy, and future. His 2021 book, “History, Disrupted,” touches on many of the same issues we discuss in our forthcoming book about expertise, gatekeepers, the sharing of knowledge, and how information incentives work.

Link to his book: https://www.amazon.com/History_-Disrupted_-How-Social-Media-and-the-World-Wide-Web-Have-Changed-the-Past/dp/3030851168/

Link to his newsletter: https://jasonsteinhauer.substack.com/

Link to his page: https://www.jasonsteinhauer.com/ 

Link to the FT story about Sam Altman’s desecration of the kitchen: https://www.ft.com/content/b1804820-c74b-4d37-b112-1df882629541 

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

Contact us: DISRUPTEDSCIENCE@GMAIL.COM 

August 13, 2025 — Looking Ahead

A brief episode to talk about where the podcast has been and exciting plans for where it is going next. Also, two great "Discoveries of the Week," and don't miss this week's silly sign-off in honor of National Joke Day.

 

August 6, 2025 — The Dumbest Ad Business

Paid OA has co-opted editors into paid placement collaborators within publishers. We talk about the implications of this, explore it as a cleaner thought experiment and its implications, and reflect on how dumb a business it is if the goal is article placement commerce.

Also, we discuss the related issue of why paper mills and others exist and are flooding the literature.

PNAS paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2420092122

NYTimes coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/science/04hs-science-papers-fraud-research-paper-mills.html

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/ 

Contact us: DISRUPTEDSCIENCE@GMAIL.COM 

July 30, 2025 — The Coming AI Winter

In this episode, we talk about "gaslight" preprints, retractions, and then explore some of the signs that we may be approaching an "AI winter" due to high expenses, lackluster offerings, a conceptual bubble bursting, and more. Inspired by Ed Zitron's work, we apply it to some scientific publishing offerings, as well.

 

Our "Discoveries of the Week" involve music, books, and delight.

 

Show Notes

"Gaslight" preprints — https://www.the-geyser.com/now-its-gaslight-preprints/

Ed Zitron's newsletter — https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Ed Zitron's podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-offline/id1730587238

Hum "manifesto" — https://blog.hum.works/posts/the-alchemist-future 

Katina review of AI tools — https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/reviews/2025/deep-dive-into-three-ai-academic-search-tools 

Our Cactus Communications interview — https://allthingsscicomm.buzzsprout.com/1933426/episodes/17561515-rethinking-science-communication-beyond-technology-trends 

Joy's "Discovery of the Week" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOigILEBilo 

Kent's "Discovery of the Week" — https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Myth-Curious-History-Dangerous/dp/B0DX9W74SZ/ 

Provoke the Truth (pod music) — https://provokethetruth.net/