S01E06 Truth and Trust

*Recorded on Aug.3, 2020 *
Gabe goes on a very long walk to make to some pretty simple connections between the nature of truth and the trust we have in it. But, boy-houdy, it's not the destination that matters, it's how you get there. Join us as we learn about the celocanth, the half-life of truth, and non-neutonian states of being. There is also some dentist-bashing.

Mini Topics

• Nick wants you to stop and apreciate the humble O'possom, bald-tailed, snarl-toothed eater of ticks.
• Nkenge needs some help clearing out her inbox. Gabe suggests bankrupsy.
• Gabe sent a letter to the local health department.

• The Half-life of Facts — The Half-life of Facts is a good read that help puts what we think we understand about the world into perspective.
• Truth Survival in Clinical Research: An Evidence-Based Requiem? | Annals of Internal Medicine — In 2000, 285 of 474 conclusions (60%) were still considered to be true, 91 (19%) were considered to be obsolete, and 98 (21%) were considered to be false. The half-life of truth was 45 years.
• YANSS 099 – The Half Life of Facts – You Are Not So Smart — In medical school, they tell you half of what you are about to learn won’t be true when you graduate — they just don’t know which half. In every field of knowledge, half of what is true today will one day be updated with better information, and it turns out that we actually know when that day will come for many academic pursuits.
• (1) VW Commercial - Jetta - Spare Tire - YouTube — VW Commercial - Jetta - Spare Tire
• Coelacanths | National Geographic — The primitive-looking coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But its discovery in 1938 by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler fascinated the world and ignited a debate about how this bizarre lobe-finned fish fits into the evolution of land animals.
• NOVA | Ancient Creature of the Deep | Moment of Discovery | PBS — Three days before Christmas, 1938, in the South African coastal town of East London, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the young, black-eyed curator of the local natural history museum, got a phone call that would turn her world upside down and ultimately make her name known internationally. The events that followed that call sparked a series of urgent letters between Courtenay-Latimer and J.L.B. Smith, a chemistry professor and amateur ichthyologist at Rhodes University in the nearby town of Grahamstown. The letters chronicle the discovery she made, and he confirmed, of a creature thought extinct for at least 66 million years.
• Empiricism - Wikipedia — In philosophy, empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.[1] It is one of several views of epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions.[2]
• Rethinking Trust — For the past two decades, trust has been touted as the all-powerful lubricant that keeps the economic wheels turning and greases the right connections—all to our collective benefit.
• Declare Email Bankruptcy and Get a Fresh Start — ave you ever felt so overwhelmed by email that you wanted to just delete your email account and start over? If so, you are not alone.
• Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction: Tetlock, Philip E., Gardner, Dan: 9780804136716: Amazon.com: Books — argues that success is all about the approach: foresight is not a gift but rather a product of a particular way of thinking