PODCAST · education
Wild Truth Chase
by Fame and Power Productions
Chasing truth weekly in the service of incremental self-improvement. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wild-truth-chase/support
Episodes
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Book review: The Information
The Information
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Book review: The Theory That Would Not Die
Publisher's link for The Theory That Would Not Die by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
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Book reviews introduction
Nick introduces a new episode type that may end up dominating the feed, at least for the near future.
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S6E11: Are we living in a simulation?
We wrap the season with a recap of what we've covered and my thoughts about how these ideas are related to a very general way of analyzing data.
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S6E10: Betting with (in)side information
We discuss connections between betting and information theory and how this framework for thinking about how being able to accurately estimate probabilities might apply more generally to decisions that we make.
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S6E9: Information theory
We discuss basic concepts of information theory as well as some examples of communication processes and compression techniques. The sources for this episode are the following books: https://www.amazon.com/Information-Theory-Tutorial-Introduction-2nd-dp-1739672704/dp/1739672704/ref=dp_ob_title_bk...
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S6E8: Causal inference
I discuss the work of Judea Pearl and how it fits in with the other topics we've discussed this season. We get to vilify, yet again, our old friend Ronald Fisher.
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S6E7: Machine learning
We compare machine learning to traditional programming and talk about some of the core challenges associated with doing machine learning.
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S6E6: Data generating processes
We talk more about data generating processes and how commonalities between the mathematical structure of diverse physical phenomena suggest the presence of a "second dimension" in how we might think about organizing physical phenomena. Can probabilistic programming come to the rescue and provide…
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S6E5: Probability and plausibility
A discussion of the meaning of probability and how it fits in with our other topics this season.
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S6E4: What is statistics for?
We meet our friends E.T. Jaynes, Aubrey Clayton, Jacob Bernoulli, and Ronald Fisher.
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S6E3: Levels of analysis and understanding
Where we spend way too much (and too little) time talking about too many different things.
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S6E2: Theories and Models
What are theories and models and what are some examples? Why should I care?
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S5E6: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) stock prices and wrap-up
It’s time to leave Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the rearview mirror. Today we’re wrapping up the season with a final look at SVB’s stock price, earnings and cash flow versus its peers. Reinforcing our earlier analyses, SVB again appears to be an outlier, with its recent strategy driving stock…
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S5E5: SVB sentiment and cash flow statements
We’re five episodes deep in our analysis of financial data around the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Over the last week, we’ve been analysing sentiment and cashflow data for banks to help us understand industry trends and the ways in which SVB was unique. The sentiment data, downloaded…
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S5E4: SVB balance sheet visualizations
What secrets lie in balance sheets? Today, we’re trying to find out. This season on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) we’ve bounced between a few different datasets, including macroeconomic data and headline assets and liabilities. This week’s episode takes a more detailed look at the…
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S5E3: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in historical context: Assets, liabilities, capital adequacy ratio (CAR), and bank failures
I’ve got competition. Nick wants to replace me with an AI. He says they are faster and better at writing episode descriptions. Well listen here ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Bard and whoever else, challenge accepted! It’s a two faced episode, starting with large language models (LLMs) and returning to the...
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S5E2: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) backstory and data munging
Continuing our season on Silicon Valley Bank, this week Neeraj and Nick are taking a closer look at the history of the second biggest bank to ever fail in the USA, from its founding by two Bank of America managers through to its untimely demise. The events at SVB remain a hot topic, with medium...
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S5E1: Data-driven exploration of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) demise, introduction
One week ago, Silicon Valley Bank was the place for “proactive guidance for the long run”. It was recognised by Forbes as the 20th best bank in the US and one of Forbes’s Financial All-Stars. Fast forward a week and everything has changed. Closed by California State and its funds now in the hands...
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PTI: Charting a new course at the WTC podcast
Our audience is dwindling but this goose is not cooked just yet. In today’s short update, Nick and Neeraj describe the changes they’re making to play to their strengths and improve the podcast. Hint, there’s going to be more data and some code too! Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "a goose wearing...
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S4E6: The last scamisode
Check out Uncle Ned’s new podcast, No Stakes! https://open.spotify.com/show/4HojVPJXlXxcfpVSy1gFIP Let’s cut to the chase, our season on scams has not been a barnstormer, so our hosts are calling in reinforcements. Uncle Ned is making a return to the Wild Truth Chase podcast to help us close out...
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S4E5: Case studies and precautions
Ever had a tradesman turn up out of the blue just in your moment of need? That sounds convenient! Suspiciously convenient. Today Neeraj and Nick are learning from the experiences of others by going through a few scamming case studies. We learn about crooked “mechanics”, shifty psychics,...
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S4E4: Psychology of scams
For any scam to work there needs to be a perpetrator and a victim. This week, Nick and Neeraj discuss the psychology of these two roles in a scam as well as the psychological techniques scammers use to part victims from their money. On the face of it, many scams are marketed just like legitimate...
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S4E3: Fake gurus
There’s few nice things in the Wild Truth Chase garage. A couple of Ferraris, a jetski and a yacht. But ignore all those things and notice our latest episode on the shelf. This latest episode is worth more than all of those things. It’s full of knowledge and insight delivered by two…
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S4E2: Shared history of technology and scams
History is full of innovative and creative scammers who have adopted new technology to make a quick buck. To learn more about how technology has enabled scams and frauds, Nick and Neeraj take a gentle stroll through a shared history of technology and scamming. Along the way, unexpected admissions...
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S4E1: Introduction to scams and hoaxes
New season incoming and this week we’re kicking off a series about scams, hoaxes and frauds. Scams appear to be part of the fabric nowadays, with Citizens Advice UK reporting that over 40 million people in the country were targeted between January and May 2022. Neeraj and Nick discuss scams that...
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PTI: Season topics for 2023
Nick and Neeraj are back and still exploring topics for the first season of 2023. A trending topics season, while superficially appealing, appears hard to pull of in practice. We go over some great suggestions from audience members as well as some topics that Nick and Neeraj have in mind. A…
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PTI: 2023 and me
In yet another interruption to our normal seasonal style programming, Neeraj is going solo to briefly look back on 2022 and then discuss expectations for 2023. The episode is based on a recent report by Ipsos, which sought to gather viewpoints on the new year by polling 24,000 people from 36...
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PTI: All I want for Christmas is ... a new politics?
Ned and Nick reminisce about Christmas and make recommendations for books and podcasts. Mostly, though, the sad state of American politics is on display. Happy New Year! Thumbnail DALL·E prompt: "a goose in cartoon style speaking in front of a podium with an American flag flying behind" Please…
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PTI: All I want for Christmas is ... aliens?
It's nearly Christmas and Nick is on the road, so what's a lonesome Neeraj to do? He calls on the one person who can step in to save the day, his biggest fan, his harshest critic, his brother. Much mentioned and so far little heard, Tejas makes his debut on this week's Christmas themed episode....
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S3E8: Humor and storytelling
The time has come for our hosts to move away from their basic dad jokes and into more expansive territory. In today’s episode, Neeraj and Nick discuss humour and storytelling, beginning with a performance of a short, maybe humorous, story written by Neeraj. From there, our hosts touch on Tropic...
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S3E7: Laughter
We take a look at laughter and its connection with humor. Nick is interested in laughter because it is one of those phenomena, like aging, that is “hiding in plain sight”. Not traditionally considered a fit subject for scientific investigation, we run through some ideas that have arisen from...
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S3E6: AI-musing
Please join us in welcoming a new guest on the podcast, ChatGPT, the recently released AI chat bot. Our new guest has been causing quite a stir for their strong conversational skills and in today’s episode on artificial intelligence and comedy, we check out ChatGPT’s comedic chops. Neeraj and…
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S3E5: Ha, ha, hot water
In this episode, Neeraj and Nicholas exit their comfort zones to talk about comedy and controversy. There has been no shortage of controversy in the comedic world over the past few years. In 2018, Kevin Hart quit as host of the 2019 Oscars due to decade old tweets. More recently, Dave Chappelle’s...
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S3E4: Silly specimens
Enough theory, it’s time to learn by example! In today’s episode, Nicholas and Neeraj share a variety of jokes they’ve found online and in books. Nicholas enthusiastically delivers his Wild Truth Chase themed selection with the skill of a budding voice actor. Neeraj is still trying to make long...
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S3E3: Funny fundamentals
We’re going back to basics in this episode and taking lessons from Greg Dean’s Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy. In this book, Greg Dean describes the core elements of a joke, taking us from the setup to the punchline. The construction of humour presented resonates with Nick, who sees close...
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S3E2: Funny business
After last week’s disastrous attempt by Neeraj to tell a joke, Nick decided that an intervention was necessary. He’s spent the week reading and watching comedic experts explain the mechanics of good comedy and today he shares that with us. In this episode we go through the mindset and behaviours...
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S3E1: Humor, an introduction
It’s time for a new season and Nick has chosen the topic of Humour. The plan is to spend the season learning about the theory and practise of humour. In this first episode, we chat about our existing relationships with humour, the types of humour we seek out, and a bit about how we use humour in...
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S2E7: News in review
Nick and Neeraj wrap the season on the news. Reflecting on what they’ve learned, a few themes emerge. Limiting news consumption and being aware of the incentives at play are top of mind, as is giving yourself appropriate context by studying some relevant history. Our season on the news nearly...
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S2E6: News about science and how it’s made
This week Nicholas takes us on a behind the scenes look at how scientific literature is made and shared. We talk about how ideas permeate within research groups, the process of publication, and how to filter and search academic articles. Neeraj shares his experience with the famous reviewer three...
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S2E5: News yesterday and today
It’s an experiment week and in a freewheeling episode, Neeraj and Nicholas quiz each other about stories from the past. Nicholas comes armed with articles covering important dates in modern history and pokes holes in Neeraj’s knowledge. Taking a more haphazard approach, Neeraj does Nicholas no...
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S2E4: News, fake news, and social media
Nick and Neeraj explore the wild world of fake news (and real news) on social media. Chomsky's propaganda model makes another appearance, and we learn about a new aspect of the propaganda model: flak! While there's seemingly a lot of nonsense on social media, we find some light at the end of the...
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S2E3: News as propaganda with Ned Schafer
Ned Schafer makes a welcome return to the podcast and leads us through a fascinating and wide ranging conversation about news as propaganda. The initial premise is set by Noam Chomsky’s Propaganda Model which claims that journalists are indoctrinated to think in a certain way. From there we…
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S2E2: News right now
Today Nicholas and Neeraj do a tour of news outlets to better understand what’s happening in the world. They find several common themes across the sources they review but stumble upon some surprises. Neeraj discovers that there is much more to migrants arriving in Martha’s Vineyard than he...
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S2E1: News to me introduction
That’s news to me! Neeraj and Nick introduce the new season on the news. We discuss our personal news habits and motivations for studying the news. We touch on a major news story from this week, the death of the British Queen, and talk about what aspects of the news we expect to touch on this...
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Trailer: Welcome to the Wild Truth Chase Podcast
Welcome one and all to the Wild Truth Chase podcast! After two seasons and ten episodes we take a short break from our normal programming to learn a little more about our hosts and why they’ve elected to go on this wild truth chase. If those first ten episodes have reeled you in or if you’re new...
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S1E6: Aging recap with Dr. Jane Potter
A special guest saves Nicholas and Neeraj from their enthusiastic but bumbling journey through the topic of aging. Jane Potter, MD | College of Medicine | University of Nebraska Medical Center (unmc.edu) is a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and she’s kindly...
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S1E5: Aging and sleep
On today’s episode, we talk about sleep and aging, but only after Nicholas makes a startling admission about his diet and we explain the origin of our new logo. Each of us has prepared for the topic by reading a different paper. Neeraj read Sleep and Human Aging - PubMed (nih.gov), which details...
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S1E4: Aging successfully and its determinants
If you’ve made it this far into Season 1, you’ve heard us discuss our travails with exercise and battles with diet. In this episode, we widen the scope by diving into a paper studying factors behind successful aging. The paper Successful Aging | American Journal of Psychiatry…
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S1E3: Aging and diet
Today we learn that Neeraj has a weakness for biscuits (cookies for our American listeners) and that the only time Nicholas thinks about diet is when he’s halfway through some artery clogging treats. We discuss our experience of trying to eat healthier, the challenge of untangling all the...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Chasing truth weekly in the service of incremental self-improvement. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wild-truth-chase/support
HOSTED BY
Fame and Power Productions
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Wild Truth Chase have?
Wild Truth Chase currently has 57 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Wild Truth Chase about?
Chasing truth weekly in the service of incremental self-improvement. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wild-truth-chase/support
How often does Wild Truth Chase release new episodes?
Wild Truth Chase has 57 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Wild Truth Chase?
You can listen to Wild Truth Chase on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Wild Truth Chase?
Wild Truth Chase is created and hosted by Fame and Power Productions.
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