Signal, Noise & Nonsense
by Kristen Hansen
A Biostatistician’s Guide to Scientific Bullshit The world is drowning in bad science, viral health claims, and headline-grabbing studies that crumble under the slightest mathematical scrutiny. From chocolate weight-loss hoaxes and dead salmon reading human emotions to $p$-hacked TED Talks and flawed spatial maps, Signal, Noise & Nonsense is your weekly antidote to scientific hype. Hosted by a trained biostatistician and practicing data leader, this show strips away the media spin, pulls back the curtain on academic publishing, and exposes the methodological flaws behind headline-grabbing research. Through sharp single-paper autopsies and friendly expert debates, each episode dissects the statistical crimes—from tiny sample sizes and $p$-hacking to flawed spatial models—that turn random noise into global news. Whether you’re a researcher, a data practitioner, or just a professional skeptic tired of bad science reporting, this podcast gives
Episodes
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Minisode 7.5 - Kristen's Causal Inference Workshop
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Wading past the shallow waters of simple correlation and straight into the statistical deep end. If your workflow relies on a naive linear regression, you aren't doing causal inference—you're...
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Why Are We Treating the Shadow Instead of the Patient?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Why do lifestyle headlines and blockbuster drugs keep celebrating chemical wins while patients get worse? In this episode of Signal, Noise & Nonsense, we expose The Proxy Illusion and the...
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Why are we drawing vertical cliffs in a Continuous World
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Human biology doesn't operate like a light switch—it’s a dynamic, continuous gradient. Yet clinical medicine, epidemiology, and health tech are obsessed with drawing arbitrary lines across...
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Does Mozart Make your Baby Einstein?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Can playing a classical sonata to a newborn instantly boost their brainpower and turn them into a genius? In 1993, a modest study on 36 college students got completely mangled by the media,...
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Is Drinking Red Wine Equivalent to the Gym?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Drinking red wine is just like going to the gym, or so the internet claimed back in 2012. We look at the actual rodent research behind the headlines, the dose mismatch that makes the human...
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Does Posing Like Wonder Woman Make You Super?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In 2012, a viral TED Talk promised that standing like a superhero for just two minutes would alter your hormones, boost risk tolerance, and turn you into an executive power player. The catch?...
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Can a Dead Fish Read Your Mind?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! According to the uncorrected output of an fMRI scanner, a dead, ice-packed Atlantic salmon was actively reading human emotions. This week, we dive into Craig Bennett’s legendary 2009 Ig...
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Eating Chocolate Helps You Lose Weight?
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Can eating a bar of dark chocolate every day actually accelerate weight loss by 10%? In 2015, global news headlines proclaimed it as a breakthrough scientific fact. But behind the viral media...
About this show
A Biostatistician’s Guide to Scientific Bullshit
The world is drowning in bad science, viral health claims, and headline-grabbing studies that crumble under the slightest mathematical scrutiny. From chocolate weight-loss hoaxes and dead salmon reading human emotions to $p$-hacked TED Talks and flawed spatial maps, Signal, Noise & Nonsense is your weekly antidote to scientific hype.
Hosted by a trained biostatistician and practicing data leader, this show strips away the media spin, pulls back the curtain on academic publishing, and exposes the methodological flaws behind headline-grabbing research. Through sharp single-paper autopsies and friendly expert debates, each episode dissects the statistical crimes—from tiny sample sizes and $p$-hacking to flawed spatial models—that turn random noise into global news.
Whether you’re a researcher, a data practitioner, or just a professional skeptic tired of bad science reporting, this podcast gives
Hosted by
Kristen Hansen