Free Associations

Matt, Chris, and Don figure out whether or not artificial sweeteners are good or bad for your weight, pontificate on whether conflicts of interest change how we judge the results of a study, and Don and Matt have surprisingly similar feelings about what shall only be called “baloney” so that we don’t get a PG-13 […]

Matt, Chris, and Don discuss a new study that suggests increasing pollution regulation standards in the US could save lives (Trump’s EPA isn’t going to like this one), debate whether or not medical researchers should make policy recommendations (spoiler, Matt is alone on an island on this one) and Chris answers the question that has […]

Matt, Chris, and Don put on their best flannel shirts and go back to the 90s to discuss the paper that set off the MMR and autism controversy (spoiler, there is no controversy, MMR does not cause autism), dive deep into the peer review system (and debate whether the system is broken) and Chris and […]

Matt, Chris, and Don dig into the latest study on whether alcohol is good for your heart (please, please, please let this one work out!), discuss what kinds of health studies the media likes to report on and review the harshest peer reviewer feedback we can find. Journal club article: Association between clinically recorded alcohol […]

Matt, Chris, and Don review a new study suggesting chocolate may reduce your risk for atrial fibrillation (and resist the urge to just declare this one causal without ever reading the paper), discuss the difference between observational studies and randomized controlled trials and ask whether Usain Bolt is fast enough to cause a Doppler shift. […]

Matt, Chris, and Don examine a report on how routines in childhood affect obesity at age 11, discuss their takes on how to critically read a journal article (without being as cranky as we’d like to be), and the gang debates the plural of platypus, debate the science behind that “asparagus smell” (don’t pretend you […]