Maybe it’s the most important thing any scientist can study: what makes people happy? The trouble is, despite the importance, a lot of the science on “wellbeing” tends to be very rickety.But did you know that even one of the best-known findings of wellbeing research—the midlife crisis, or “inverted U shape” of happiness over the lifespan—has been questioned? In this episode we discuss the controversy.The Science Fictions podcast is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. At worksinprogress.co you can read issue after issue of fascinating articles bursting with ideas on how humans made scientific and technological progress in the past, and how we can keep it going. You can also check out their selection of other podcasts at podcast.worksinprogress.co. Show notes* The American Psychologist paper that claimed to reveal the fluid dynamics of human happiness* Nick Brown and Alan Sokal’s devastating rebuttal* And coverage in The Guardian at the time* David Blanchflower’s original work on the inverted U-shape of happiness* And subsequent work that backs it up…* …and subsequent work that does not back it up* New paper that tries to work out why there are differing results* Afghanistan reporting the lowest wellbeing in recorded history* Our previous episode on the weird phenomenon of collider biasCreditsWe’re grateful to Dr. Julia Rohrer of Leipzig University for talking to us for this episode (though as usual, if there are mistakes, they’re ours and not hers). The Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 87: Does Tylenol cause autism?
You requested; we delivered. Lots of Science Fictions listeners have asked us to take a look into Donald Trump and RFK, Jr.’s recent claims about Tylenol (that is, paracetamol or acetaminophen—all the same thing). Does it cause autism?It turns out there’s more to this than you might’ve thought—regardless of all the recent hype, a lot of very reputable scientists take the idea seriously. But should they? In this emergency podcast, we go through all the relevant studies.The Science Fictions podcast is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. In the ad this week we mentioned “The Death Rays that Guard Life”, an article from Issue 20 of the magazine about far-UVC light and how—with a lot more research—it might be the next big thing for reducing the spread of germs in hospitals and classrooms. Find that and many other articles and podcasts at worksinprogress.co.Show notes* The FDA’s September 2025 announcement on Tylenol and autism* The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care announcement the same day* “The phrase ‘no evidence’ is a read flag for bad science communication”, by Scott Alexander* 2003 theoretical paper with speculation about paracetamol and neurodevelopmental disorders* 2013 sibling control study in the International Journal of Epidemiology* “Ecological” study in Environmental Health from 2013 about circumcision rates, paracetamol, and autism* 2015 Danish seven-year follow-up study* 2019 cord blood study in JAMA Psychiatry* 2021 “consensus statement” on paracetamol and neurodevelopment* 2025 Japanese sibling-control study* 2024 very large Swedish sibling-control study* Study that sparked the current debate: the “Navigation Guide” review from Environmental Health* Description of what “Navigation Guide” is* STAT News on the evidence for a paracetamol-autism link; and on the controversy about the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health* White House statement defending the existence of the link* BMJ article summing up the controversyCreditsThe Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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Paid-only episode 23: Suicide contagion
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.comWarning: As you can tell from the title, this podcast covers a potentially distressing topic.Recent events have had us wondering about “copycat” violence. If people see violence reported in the media, are thRey more likely to do the same thing themselves? Does this apply to homicide, or suicide too? We start with an episode on suicide—one on homicide is coming soon. What’s the evidence for suicide contagion? What does this mean for how we should portray suicide in the news, and in fiction? As ever, there’s a scientific controversy behind every question.This is paid-only episode of the Science Fictions podcast: become a paid subscriber to hear the whole thing and read the show notes.
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Episode 86: Food and climate
How can both of the following be true? (1) The world has record crop harvests this year; (2) climate change is ruining crop harvests and threatening food security. Does that make sense? Is it even really a contradiction? We look into how climate change is affecting crop yields, whether positively or negatively, and try to answer the biggest question of all: do we actually have to hand it to climate change deniers who say “CO2 is plant food”?The Science Fictions podcast is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. You can now hear the editors of Works in Progress on their own podcast, talking to interesting people from the worlds of science, policy, technology, and history. Their most recent episode, on how traffic has ruined cities, is available at podcast.worksinprogress.co.Show notes* Hannah Ritchie’s new book, Clearing the Air* Her article on record harvests in 2025* An example of Matt Ridley making the argument that “CO2 is plant food”* Our World in Data on crop yields* Paper on the slower growth in crop yields due to climate change* Nature Plants paper on trees in the Amazon getting bigger over time* 2016 paper on the effects of climate change on crops and weeds* EarthArxiv preprint on the balance of the effects of temperature and CO2 on crop yields* The World Bank on fertilizer use per hectare* And on cereal yields* China’s fertiliser use peaking in around 2015* Less good news from Sub-Saharan Africa* Our older episode on climate sensitivity* Global per capita dietary data on calories consumed per day* Emissions from different kinds of food transportationCreditsWe’re very grateful to Dr. Hannah Ritchie from the University of Oxford and Our World in Data for talking to us for this episode. Any errors are ours, not hers. The Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 85: Insectageddon
What is that? What is that!? What is it!? Augh! No! Not the bees! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAUGGGHHHHH MY EYES! MY EYES! AAAGGHHHH!!!!This episode is about bees. And all insects, actually—are they in the process of being wiped out, in what’s become known as “insectageddon”? It’s one of those scientific beliefs that a lot of people kinda-sorta hold without knowing much about the evidence, so we thought we’d look into it.Tune in to hear how, in exactly the same way as they affect our episodes on psychology and psychiatry and medicine, really difficult issues of measurement are at the bottom of the entire debate.And once you’ve listened, feel free to buzz off.We’ve been talking about Works in Progress magazine on this podcast for years, but it’s only ever been an online magazine. Now, you can become a subscriber and get a beautiful IRL physical copy of the magazine delivered to you: a gorgeously-produced item that’ll make you desperate to read the excellent articles on science, technology, and human progress within. Find out more at www.worksinprogress.co/print.Show notes* The Rothamstead insect survey* The famous 2017 Krefeld paper in PLOS ONE* An earlier 2012 survey study from the Zoological Society of London* George Monbiot’s article where he coins the term “insectageddon”* The 2019 meta-analysis finding 40% of insect species are at risk of extinction* Response letter from Andrew Bladon et al.* Improved 2020 meta-analysis from van Klink et al.* Response letter* New paper on the improvements to the Chicago River* Two papers from the GLiTRS projectCreditsWe’re very grateful to Dr. Andrew Bladon from the University of Reading for talking to us for this episode. As ever, all errors are ours. The Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe
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