In this week’s episode, we discuss ridiculous op-eds and letters to the editor in Nature this week, and the concept of fairness. First: gender equity for female scientists in war zones, and for women in mining. Are these laudable goals? Also: is division of labor between the sexes inherently objectionable? How does the concept of homeostasis relate to a body being given pharmaceutical interventions, a society being given equity interventions, or a government being given bureaucratic interventions? Then: level playing fields are the sine qua non of the West – they work in science, markets, politics, everything. Internet algorithms in their current state are, in comparison, anti-Western. Using the analogy of a card game, we discuss luck.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Track gender ratios in research to keep countries, institutions and publishers accountable: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00891-w

Give grants to female scientists in war zones: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00926-2

How to get more women into mining: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00925-3

Murdock & Provost 1973. Factors in the division of labor by sex: A cross-cultural analysis. Ethnology 12(2): 203-225: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3773347

Ralston College’s Sophia Lectures: https://www.ralston.ac/events/the-sophia-lectures-with-bret-weinstein-and-heather-heying

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