Dr. Tania Lombrozo, professor of psychology at Princeton University (affiliated with its philosophy and cognitive science departments), joins Thomas to discuss her forthcoming book Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand.

Why are humans so driven to explain things, but only some things? Why does understanding go beyond just being able to predict? And what happens when asking why makes you the social liability in the room?

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David O'Brien, higher education policy scholar with the California Community Colleges System, is back to answer the question Thomas posed last time: why is college so expensive?

They get into tuition vs. total cost of attendance, the dirty little secret of private university pricing, administrative bloat, the amenities arms race, and why the people loudest about college costs are likely well-off, but getting very little financial aid.

Mentioned:

• The Daily: College, Student Loans, and Trump

• Sara Goldrick-Rab's research on college costs and student basic needs

• Cal Grant program (California)

• Pell Grant

• Americans with Disabilities Act

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I cannot stop thinking about Cody from Some More News's video in which he could not stop thinking about Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Cody is INCREDIBLY sure that you're an idiot incapable of watching movies or consuming art if you don't agree with his conception of what the ending of Brand New Day meant. The problem is... Cody gets about a billion things wrong and his arguments are terrible.

This was going to be just a Patreon bonus of Serious Inquiries Only but I wanted to put it up on YouTube so it's going out to everyone! WATCH HERE!

• Cody's video: "How Did Everyone Become So Bad at Watching Movies"

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Part 2! Dr. Eric Jaffe returns to actually treat the cancer this time: why radiation is basically catching your kid smoking and making him finish the carton, how CRISPR turns your own T cells into an assassin squad, and why oncolytic viruses are just Jurassic World Dominion for tumors.

Haven't heard Part 1 yet? Start there or you'll be lost.

Mentioned:

• CAR-T therapy

• RAS inhibitor drugs

• Oncolytic viruses

• mRNA cancer vaccines

• Red Queen hypothesis

• Cancer-sniffing dogs

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Part 1! Dr. Eric Jaffe, the biology teacher who keeps naming proteins after cartoon characters, returns for a two-part cancer deep dive. Today: what cancer actually is at the cellular level, why elephants barely get it, why whales get it even less, and why the "they're hiding the cure" conspiracy falls apart the second you learn who actually funds the research.

Mentioned:

• Peto's paradox

• HeLa cells

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

• XKCD cancer comic

Part 2, the cure, is already up for Patreon supporters!

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Part 2! Thomas is joined again by David O'Brien, a higher education policy scholar with the California Community Colleges system, to finish dismantling The Daily's take on Trump's student loan crackdown. Reagan, Pell Grants, and decades of quiet state defunding all get their due, plus a theory on why tuition keeps climbing that has nothing to do with cosmetology degrees.

Mentioned:

• The Daily college episode

• Gainful employment rules

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Thomas is joined by David O'Brien, a higher education policy scholar who works for the California Community Colleges system, to pick apart Trump's new rules threatening to cut off student loans and Pell grants from "low-earning" degree programs, and to fact-check The Daily's recent take on the same story. The real history runs through Reagan, Prop 13, and decades of quiet austerity nobody on that podcast wants to mention.

Mentioned:

• The Daily college episode

• Reagan 1966 campaign clip

• Prop 13

• CUNY tuition history

• California Master Plan for Higher Education

Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod