Badly behaved record execs, badly behaved scientists

What this episode covers

We rarely go into this thing with a theme in mind, but an unfortunate (and all too common) one just fell in our laps this week: men doing bad things — and getting away with it. First we talk about the repeated reports of sexual harassment coming out of the science community, and why universities and organizations like the National Science Foundation aren't incentivized to do much about it. We also talk in a larger way about how important it is to recognize the fallibility of our heroes — whether they're scientists or football players — and how keeping abusive people around discourages other people (i.e. women) from the community. Conveniently HBO's about to launch their latest men-being-despicable drama, the Martin Scorsese-Mick Jagger coproduction Vinyl. You can read Emily's review here; on the pod we talk a little more about why our narratives are about the businessmen and executives at the top, rather than artists and strivers coming up from the bottom. These things tend to go in cycles, but for the past few years — especially within Scorsese's oeuvre — it seems like we're siding with The Man. Finally, Liz talks with Kate Clancy, a professor at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana who studies harassment in field research. They talk about the steps being taken to protect researchers and student — ideally before they drop out of the field altogether — and just how much funding clouds the issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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