19: Bret Weinstein - The Prediction and the DISC: Difference between revisions

There was however, a remarkable story of science at its both best and worst that had not been told in years. After an initial tussle, we dusted off the cobwebs and decided to reconstruct it raw and share it with you, our Portal audience, for the first time. I don't think it will be the last as we are now again looking for our old notes to tighten it up for the next telling. We hope you find it interesting, and that it inspires you younger and less established scientists to tell your stories using this new medium of long form podcasting. We hope the next place you hear this story will be in a biology department seminar room in perhaps Cambridge, Chicago, Princeton, the Bay Area or elsewhere. Until then, be well and have a listen to this initial and raw version.

== Relevant Links ==

'''Bret Weinstein's''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Weinstein Wikipedia], [https://bretweinstein.net/ Personal Webpage], [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5N_uAqApEUIlg32QzkPlg Youtube Channel], and an archived version of Bret's website, [https://web.archive.org/web/20020722173540/http://www.telomere.org/ Telomere.org]

===Papers and articles===

* Bret Weinstein and Deborah Ciszek's 2002 paper in Experimental Gerontology, [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531556502000128 "The Reserve-Capacity Hypothesis"]

I think in this episode we're going to do something interesting. I see Bret in two separate ways: On the one hand, I view him as a very heroic figure and he's an absolutely brilliant person. It's been a pleasure sparring with him throughout my life. However, I'm also his older brother and you're going to hear me at sort of my overbearing best, brow beating him a bit. Now the point isn't to push him down, but quite the contrary. I'm rather competitive as Bret's older brother and I don't want to compete with the weakest version of Bret, the professor and exile. Instead, I want him seated again inside of the institution where he always belonged. And in order to do that, I want him to tell the tale, not with embellishment, but as it actually happened, because I think it's one of the most fascinating episodes in modern biology that I've ever heard.  

I believe that a lot of us are sitting on intellectual gold. I don't think that the story that somebody’s work didn't see the light of day, or got attributed to somebody else, is as exotic as the institutions would have you believe. In fact, I think it's quite common. I think many of us find that we don't have careers inside of science because something goes wrong quite early when we're quite vulnerable. And my hope is that some of you listening, who I know are struggling as graduate students or as postdocs or as undergraduates, will listen to this and find some courage to stand up for yourself, because, quite frankly, if you choose not to do it in order to make nice with your fields, the chances are you will probably won't have a career in the long term. You might as well swing for the fences and you might as well clear your throat and tell your story as it actually happened, without fear.  

'''Eric:''' Thanks for coming. You've been through The Portal with Dr. Bret Weinstein, professor in exile from the Evergreen State College. Please subscribe on Apple or on Stitcher or on Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, navigate over to our YouTube channel and not only subscribe, but remember to click the bell icon to be notified with our next episode drops. And hope to see you back on the next episode of The Portal.