Adam Ruins Everything

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Do you remember all of those video games that were made for girls back in the 90s? Well they’re not being archived the same way that stereotypical boy games are being preserved. They don’t have value in the gaming community and many of these games are being forgotten even though they were just as creative and innovative for the industry. Our guest Rachel Weil is trying to change that by preserving these ‘girl’ games by going around the world and collecting these games and talking to the people who made them. She is a software developer for Microsoft and the founder of the Femicom Museum, a hybrid physical/digital museum and archive dedicated to the preservation and reimagination of femininity, girlhood, and the aesthetics of cute within twentieth-century video games, computing, and electronic toys. Rachel did not appear on the Adam Ruins Everything TV show but her work reminded us of the themes we explored in our Adam Ruins Summer Fun episode. And since we’re in the off-season of the TV show, we’ll be invitin

When we think of conducting science experiments on subjects, we immediately think of mice models. But today's guest, Dr. Azra Raza, who appeared on Adam Ruins Science, says there's a more effective way. On the TV show Dr. Raza discussed how the mouse model scientists use for their research is actually ineffective; even though a medicine might work well on a rodent, the results don't translate as well as we thought to humans - especially when it comes to cancer research which is what Dr. Raza studies. Even though humans and mice share over 90 percent of their DNA with one another, our bodies still differ in numerous ways; we metabolize food and medicine differently and humans are significantly bigger than mice in size. This wastes money from the limited amount of funding that already exists and encourages clinical trials that ultimately go nowhere. On the podcast, Dr. Raza proposes a different research method that she has used herself, to much success.Dr. Raza is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the MDS

Placebos are commonly dismissed as “fake” treatments that have no real power on you or your body. But scientists are realizing more and more that placebos are more powerful than we realized. New research shows that while placebos may not cure diseases, they can reduce symptoms of our ailments like irritable bowel syndrome and even Parkinson’s disease, and in the process actually make us feel better. Even traditional medicine takes advantage of the placebo effect, which could mean the placebo effect could play a significant role in treating diseases. On this episode we talk to Dr. Kathryn Hall, who appeared on Adam Ruins Spa Day, about how placebos can have such powerful effects on our brains and how placebos are changing the way we conduct science and treat patients. Kathryn is a molecular biologist and Director of Placebo Genetics at Harvard Medical School’s Program in Placebo Studies.Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.c

What once seemed like a fringe movement, conspiracy theories appear more pervasive than ever. Our guest Dr. Daniel Jolley points out, conspiracy theories have been around for centuries; social media, however, has given them a wider platform and megaphone. Believing in such theories can seem like harmless speculation. But if enough people accept ideas like the faking of the moon landing or 9/11 being a government inside job, they'll feel they have no agency. This can lead to very dangerous effects like lower voter turnout and less civic engagement at large. Daniel, who appeared on Adam Ruins Conspiracy Theories, explains why people believe in conspiracy theories in the first place, how people can believe in two contradictory conspiracy theories, and how we can combat these theories to create a healthier democracy. He studies conspiracy theories at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom. Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEver

As humans, our inclination is to live in the present - not save 40 years down the line - which makes saving money for retirement hard. In the 90s many companies began offering 401(k) programs, a retirement savings plan sponsored by an employer which lets workers save and invest a piece of their paycheck before taxes. It seemed like the perfect solution to our retirement woes. But 401(k)s aren't the full proof saving plan we once thought. Even judiciously setting aside money in a 401(k) might not be enough to maintain one's lifestyle into retirement. There are also so many outside factors that can still diminish one's savings, including unexpected healthcare costs, recessions, or lost jobs. So how do we set ourselves up for a secure financial future? Our guest Professor Teresa Ghilarducci, who appeared on Adam Ruins the Future, is going to tell us how we entered into this financial mess and how we can get out of it. She suggests we do the best we can to save through 401(k)s, live within our means, start planni

While they may sport perfectly manicured lawns and beautiful white picket fences, suburbs are not the idyllic neighborhoods we think they are. They make us more sedentary, sometimes less safe, and they can even perpetuate segregation. But instead of leaving the suburbs we can actually address these issues and improve our suburbs through redevelopment and retrofitting neighborhoods to make them greener, healthier, safer and more affordable. Our guest Ellen Dunham-Jones, who appeared on Adam Ruins the Suburbs, tells us all about it. She has spent her career studying how suburbs can adapt to these 21st century challenges. Ellen is a leading authority on suburban redevelopment and is the Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Georgia Tech. Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.

Student loans are an absolute necessity for many students in today's economy, but they're also among the worst forms of debt you can have, burdening students and sometimes permanently crippling their financial lives. Our guest Heather Jarvis, who appeared on Adam Ruins College, is going to tell us how we got here and give us practical tips on navigating the world of student loans. Heather is an attorney and student loan expert. She has practiced public interest law for more than a dozen years and has contributed to student debt relief policy for the House Education Committee and others in Congress. Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.

Is the antibiotic resistance apocalypse approaching? This week's guest, Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, who appeared on Adam Ruins the Hospital, says yes. On the podcast, Adam and Arjun discuss how doctors are overprescribing antibiotics, an incredibly dangerous practice. Overprescription actually makes our bacteria more resistant to antibiotics; if we become immune to these antibiotics, they can't help us fight against mild infections -- let alone extreme ones. Arjun says doctors should be intentional in how often they prescribe antibiotics and patients shouldn't think of them as a cure-all. Additionally, governments should be investing in funding for methods of battling antibiotic resistance, including new drugs and research.    Arjun is the Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs at the CDC. Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.

We all know how filing taxes is a pain. Every April Americans dig through receipts, meet with accountants, claim their expenses, and pray they're not audited. It takes a significant amount of time and energy, and frankly, it doesn’t make that much sense that we have to calculate what we owe the government.   But our guest, Jessica Huseman, who appeared on Adam Ruins the Economy, tells us taxes doesn't have to be so hard. In many other countries around the world, citizens file their taxes through a system called return-free filing. That means instead of citizens calculating what they owe the government, the government will calculate their taxes and essentially send them the bill. Unfortunately, the tax companies like H&R Block and TurboTax prefer the status quo because that means more business for them; they've actually very successfully lobbied the government to keep this system in place.   Jessica is a reporter with ProPublica and helped break this story for the organization earlier this year.   Adam i

We've seen it time and time again. A journal publishes a seemingly significant scientific study which gains traction in the press only to be subsequently deemed irreproducible. This pattern is known as the reproducibility crisis, and our guest, University of Virginia Professor Brian Nosek, is trying to awaken the scientific community and the public at large to these challenges. Brian says the reproducibility crisis is not a new problem. Because scientists' career advancement is contingent on publication, the community is incentivized to create studies that tell a positive, novel and tidy story, known as publication bias, and leave findings out of publications that don't advance their conclusions.   In response, Brian, who appeared on Adam Ruins Science, founded the Reproducibility Project, which tried to replicate the results of 100 psychological experiments published in respected journals in 2008. In 2015, their results were published in Science and found that only 36 out of the 100 replications showed stati

On Adam Ruins Everything, we're all about using persuasive, rational arguments to bring awareness to a topic and hopefully change some minds along the way. But as our expert Professor Stephan Lewandowsky points out, that can lead to the opposite result, known as the backfire effect. The backfire effect says that the more you try to change someone's mind, the less likely you are to actually change it. What is more effective is to restate facts, provide alternative narratives, and ask questions that poke holes in that person's argument.   Stephan appeared on Emily Ruins Adam Ruins Everything and is the Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Bristol in the UK.   Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.

Many people have an idyllic view of the suburbs. You can have a lawn! Access to good schools! Safety! But much of that American dream has been historically reserved for white people. On this week's episode, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who appeared on Adam Ruins the Suburbs, joins us on the podcast to discuss racist federal housing laws like redlining, which prevented African American families from buying homes in certain neighborhoods in post-World War II America. This had disastrous rippling effects on the African American community; these laws made it harder for them to accrue wealth over the years and join the middle class. And even when these laws were ultimately deemed illegal under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, many didn't have the money to move into wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. This continues to have repercussions today - segregated neighborhoods means segregated schools, which means education resources are of course going to the wealthier, whiter school districts.   Nikole is an award-winning investigati

When it comes to gambling, there's a perception people get addicted because there's always that glimmer of hope they can hit the big jackpot. But according to our podcast guest, Natasha Dow Schüll, many gamblers, and more specifically many slot machine gamblers, get addicted because they're in the "zone" - the feeling players describe when they're completely absorbed in a game. They don't really care about winning; rather they want to escape the world and become subsumed in their game.   Natasha, who appeared on Adam Ruins Vacations, says casinos also facilitate this addiction by designing the most optimal gambling experience which keeps gamblers playing...and playing...and playing. This ranges from the perambulant layout of the casinos themselves to the ergonomic design of the slot machine chairs, to the games' false wins that create an illusion of winning. Casinos are now even taking advantage of big data systems which track users' gambling preferences to incentivize players to stay in their chair

We'll be back next week with a brand new Adam Ruins Everything podcast episode. Thanks for tuning in!

For decades women have been told that they should start getting yearly mammograms at age 35. We think of it as a no-brainer, and mammograms do save lives. But their effects are much more complicated than we originally anticipated. Dr. Joann Elmore, who appeared on Adam Ruins Hospitals, explains how doctors can do a better job communicating the facts with their patients about mammograms. One in ten women who receive their annual screenings are routinely called back for additional testing. This is part of the screening process in the United States, and a failure to communicate that with patients can cause unnecessary anxiety. Furthermore, many women are also overdiagnosed, meaning they might have cancer but it may not be the aggressive kind and we should discuss appropriate treatment accordingly. Joann recommends that women begin talking to their doctors about breast cancer and mammograms slightly in their 40s and begin routine mammograms, meaning at least every two years, between ages 50-74.   Dr. Joann Elmore

We've all done it. Corrected someone for saying 'literally' when they weren't being literal or for saying 'good' instead of 'well'. Professor Anne Curzan, who is this week's podcast guest, says it's normal to notice dialectical differences between different communities but we shouldn't shame people for talking as they do. Anne, who appeared on Adam Ruins What We Learned in School, explains how grammar rules are not fixed in the English language. Language is constantly evolving and we’re the ones who get to shape it -- not dictionaries! So we can all stop correcting each other and just appreciate our different ways of speaking. On the podcast, Anne and Adam discuss how we should think of the dictionary as a field guide rather than the authority on language, how young people think about language and texting, and how Anne helped choose 2000's word of the millennium! Anne is an English Professor at the University of Michigan where she researches the history of English and lexicography. She is also a member of bo

It's rare to hear about a researcher from the National Institute of Health collaborating with a reality TV show. But that's exactly what Dr. Kevin Hall, a clinical researcher at the NIH, did after watching episodes of The Biggest Loser. Kevin's lab investigates how metabolism and the brain adapt in response to a variety of interventions to diet and physical activity. After watching the cast lose dramatic amounts of weight over the show's season, he wondered how that affected their long-term health.   Kevin actually visited the set of The Biggest Loser to monitor the contestants' health and six years later, he brought the former contestants to the NIH to research how their body adjusted since the competition. He found they surprisingly maintained a very low metabolic rate even though they regained most of their lost weight. So even if you have the incredible willpower to shed those pounds, it's ultimately really difficult to maintain that weight loss. What we can do is be more forgiving of ourselves and relie

One of the most controversial topics is whether mothers breastfeed their babies versus formula feed. In a society that is so obsessed with being natural and organic, formula feeding is seen as unhealthy and irresponsible. In fact, the benefits of breastfeeding as compared to formula feeding are pretty marginal.   Courtney Jung, who appeared on Adam Ruins Having a Baby, discussed the myths behind breastfeeding and formula feeding on the TV show. Now she's on the podcast to get rid of formula feeding guilt once and for all! Courtney is a Political Science professor at the University of Toronto and the author of Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy.   Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org.    

Jackie Stevens, a Political Theory Professor at Northwestern University, has seen first-hand how detention centers and immigration courts violate every assumption we have about how a fair justice system is supposed to work. Contrary to many people's assumptions, immigration courts are part of the executive branch, instead of the judicial branch like our other courts. That means they're not subject to the same due process, like having a jury and requiring public defenders. On the podcast Jackie describes how the system can even fail U.S. citizens; she tells the long and winding case of U.S. citizen Mark Lyttle who got trapped in the system and was erroneously deported to Mexico. Whatever your political stance may be, it's pretty clear this system fails not only the most vulnerable living in our country but even our very own citizens. Adam is on Twitter @AdamConover and you can find past episodes and bonus content from the TruTV show at AdamRuinsEverything.com. Produced by Shara Morris for MaximumFun.org