Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:01 — 82.6MB)
What is in the This Week in Science Podcast?
This Week: Reverence for Youth, Venom, Fossils, Bird Disguises, Bats, Bird Road Rage, NDEs, Global Warming, Taxing Science, And Much More!
Check out the full unedited episode of our podcast on YouTube or Twitch.
And, remember that you can find TWIS in all the podcast directories. If you are looking for science podcasts on Spotify, we are there! Science podcasts on Google? We are there! Are you looking for science podcasts on iTunes or science podcasts on Apple? We are there, too! Just look for This Week in Science!
Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer!!!
Before we get into the science, let’s do a quick refresher on tariffs.
Tariffs aren’t typical science fair but in the general interest of factsplaining…
Let’s explain what they are. A tax.
Essentially a sales tax, but they work slightly differently.
A sales tax is applied to consumer goods when you buy a product.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods.
Typically applied to select goods in an effort to protect native manufacturing.
A blanket tariff is then essentially a sale tax on all imported consumer goods.
Blanket tariffs and sales taxes are specifically consumer burdens.
And nobody has ever suggested adding tariffs as a way to combat inflation
Blanket tariffs = more expensive goods = which is the definition of higher inflation.
They also tend to affect financially disadvantaged people more than wealthy ones…
As the wealthy tend to spend a much smaller percentage of their income on consumer goods,
And therefore contribute a smaller portion of their income to sales tax or tariff increases.
Tariffs are not necessarily a bad thing, they can make domestic products more competitive, protecting worker wages and industries… a common tactic of social democracies
They could be used to support social services, universal healthcare, education and scientific research… like in a social democracy
But to apply them after 40 years of outsourcing… in a post-manufacturing economy.
While dismantling government services, education, and investment in science…
The things those taxes could have contributed to?
And following that up with tax cuts for the wealthy who are, again, not personally affected by the sales tax increase… as it represents a small change to the margin of the margins to them.
Raising taxes on consumers while cutting spending on consumers, in order to cut taxes for the already wealthy…
Is wealth redistribution
from the poor, from the working class, from the middle class…
to the wealthiest investor class… exacerbating wealth inequality
But hey, maybe that’s the plan?
Tax your brain with this week’s science news!
Reverence for Youth
Did wealthy people appropriate youth social status?
Holy venomous viruses, Batman!
Plants, fungi, and viruses oh my!
Fascinating Fossils
New life form found on Earth!
Male hummingbirds?
Birds dress as men to avoid the male bird gaze?!
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A TWIS SHIRT OR MUG OR OTHER ITEM OF TWIS MERCHANDISE CLICK ON THE ZAZZLE LINK TO BROWSE OUR STORE
HELP TWIS GROW! GET FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
Support us on Patreon!
Blair’s Animal Corner!
Bats avoid rough collisions
What’s their strategy?
Birds get road rage
Galapagos traffic is just crazy!
Support us on Patreon!
Some Science stories with Justin!
NDEs are real!
The truth behind near-death experiences
Religious leaders trust the science of global warming?
They just never mention it.
Support Science Talk 2025!
WANT TO HELP TWIS? LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW FOR TWIS ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORM TODAY!
Do you have questions you want us to answer (like; where is our science group chat?)? Send us your questions! We will do our best to have answers!
Leave us a message on our Facebook page, email Dr. Kiki, or find us on Mastodon Social if you can!
Take a blast into the past…
What were we discussing at this time last year? This time last year We Had Guest Host Dr. Jessica Hebert, and We Discussed Barcode Birds, Molecular Transistors, Legs Or Junk, Speed of Vision, Naked Hearts, Don’t Vent, Bacteri-leather, Robo-Mirror, And Much More Science!
This week 10 years ago TWIS we discussed Alzheimer’s Science, Singing Mice, Mass Extinction A’Comin?, No-mo-squito, Ants… In… Space!, Couch Potato Ants, Rat Pain Faces, Martian Springs, Darker Matters, Fat To Brain, Mind-Reading For Movement, A Conscious Robot?, Many Shapes, And Much More! Take a blast into the past with TWIS!
