The DISRUPTED SCIENCE Podcast

June 18, 2026 — Let’s Talk Impact Factor

Quantification as proxy for qualification of scientific and academic publications has been around for a very long time.  Today, we touch a little on the history of bibliometrics and scientometrics, but not as much as in the chapter in our book [https://www.disruptedscience.com/], where we go into the metrics of it all over the last 30 years. Griping about the JIF has been going on for decades. “Responsible use” or “don’t count it” per DORA “should” statements, etc., and to no avail because in the end it is a commercial product that influences careers, university rankings, and provides fodder for profit-driven publishers all over the world. Constraints on publication made it a reliable measure of centrality in a community. Disrupting constraints on publication via cascading portfolios, pop-up journals, special issues, AI slop, and preprints has compromised the JIF. Researchers no longer recognize lists of high impact journals in their fields. Clarivate has not addressed in their marketing copy how their 2026 product accounts for what is actually happening in scientific publishing today. They highlight “transparency,” “publisher-neutral,” “6th decade of trust,” and “responsible use,” but the reality is that what they are selling includes fake citations, fake papers, real citations to fake papers, real papers citing fake papers, paid-for authorships, author appropriations, journals that have gone hybrid or OA getting rankings boosts because they are easier to be cited, including by AI, etc.  What’s different today, even moreso than a year ago, is that the tricks and schemes to use scientific papers as currency for various reasons are known, and turbo-charged by AI. We’ll be talking more about this in the coming months. But we wanted for now to have a frank conversation about the JIF during “announcements week.” It’s our effort to make you a little more aware of what’s going on in the trust marker and metrics space from our point of view. Subscribe to our podcast * Subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast/id1822274221?ref=the-geyser.com] on Apple Podcasts * Subscribe [https://open.spotify.com/show/0ykJaYbzqed0VEUypuXACC?ref=the-geyser.com] on Spotify * Subscribe [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd5cccff-0f34-4907-8f63-a4f3e8eaa3e9?ref=the-geyser.com] on Amazon Music/Audible * Subscribe [https://www.youtube.com/@DisruptedScience?ref=the-geyser.com] on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ [https://provokethetruth.net/?ref=the-geyser.com]

May 27, 2026 — Relevance Check

We turned the manuscript for our book in almost a year ago now, but we were working feverishly on it around this time given that MAHA was busy undermining vaccine science even then. Now, a year later, how is our book looking? More or less relevant? In this episode, we take a walk of some key chapter to find out: * Trapped In the Tech Shrine * An Ad Model for Scientific Claims   * Everything Counts, Nothing Matters  * Amateur Hour * “Code Is Law”  * The Price of “Free”  * Feudalism Makes a Comeback   * Not the Same as the Old Boss   * What Does an LLM “Know”?   * Unnatural Science   Bottom line?  The book is more obviously relevant, but perhaps like other books we’ve heard authors reflecting upon after publication, we didn’t go far or hard enough. We also include our “Discoveries of the Week.” Subscribe to our podcast * Subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast/id1822274221?ref=the-geyser.com] on Apple Podcasts * Subscribe [https://open.spotify.com/show/0ykJaYbzqed0VEUypuXACC?ref=the-geyser.com] on Spotify * Subscribe [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd5cccff-0f34-4907-8f63-a4f3e8eaa3e9?ref=the-geyser.com] on Amazon Music/Audible * Subscribe [https://www.youtube.com/@DisruptedScience?ref=the-geyser.com] on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ [https://provokethetruth.net/?ref=the-geyser.com]

May 13, 2026 — The Podcast Pivot

We’ve been doing our podcast [https://disruptedscience.podbean.com/] for nearly a full year, starting right as we were putting our pencils down from writing the book [https://www.disruptedscience.com/]. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but we were excited to try something new, and we learned how to do a podcast, which felt like an accomplishment. We’ve also has some great interviews: * AI experts (the professor kind) * Librarians (who serve communities of students and faculties) * Historians (who put today things into context) * Business professors (who talked about incentives) * Artists (who create) * Scientists (who study and learn) * Up-and-coming leaders (who have perspective for the next generation) * Public health experts (who are having to fight for the right to do their jobs) * Silicon Valley insiders (who know where the money comes from) * Philosophers (who think about the big picture) * Editors (who do the work) We’ve covered a few very active topics in a variety of ways: * MAHA * AI * OA This all allowed us to keep learning while we put the finishing touches on the book and got closer to publication date. But now, we are going to pivot . . . Our book is coming out, so we’re focusing on everything that goes into that, while leaving coverage of developments to “The Geyser” and writing there. We also have some other projects in the works that are going to require a lot of focus, so we’re using the time saved doing this to focus on those. Basically, we’re not sure what the podcast will be now. Here are some possibilities: * Once in a while, we may have episodes like the ones you’ve heard before * We may make some announcements about the book or have interviews with people involved with it in some way * We may podcast from an event like a signing or talk * We may have announcements about the other big projects we’re working on * We may just jump on it if something crazy happens and we want to talk with you about it So, stay subscribed to the feed, and we’ll show up soon enough with something we hope you’ll find interesting — we’re just not entirely sure what it might be! We also will continue to have our “Discoveries of the Week” every time. This week, they include a history of jaywalking: * https://www.npr.org/2026/05/10/nx-s1-5813709/diving-deep-into-the-fascinating-history-of-americas-jaywalking-laws [https://www.npr.org/2026/05/10/nx-s1-5813709/diving-deep-into-the-fascinating-history-of-americas-jaywalking-laws] Subscribe to our podcast * Subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast/id1822274221?ref=the-geyser.com] on Apple Podcasts * Subscribe [https://open.spotify.com/show/0ykJaYbzqed0VEUypuXACC?ref=the-geyser.com] on Spotify * Subscribe [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd5cccff-0f34-4907-8f63-a4f3e8eaa3e9?ref=the-geyser.com] on Amazon Music/Audible * Subscribe [https://www.youtube.com/@DisruptedScience?ref=the-geyser.com] on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ [https://provokethetruth.net/?ref=the-geyser.com]

April 29, 2026 — Eric Topol’s Misdiagnosis

Today we take a deep dive into a fake paper involving Eric Topol, one of the most prominent names in what we have to call “mainstream medicine” today. We’re going to offer our second opinion on what we know to be his misdiagnosis of what should be done to cure this “problem.” A clue to the real source of the problem is the only “real” thing about the paper — the DOI. CrossRef has failed to realize that the DOI is a brand asset being exploited across scientific publishing as a fake certification code. Predatory publishers boast when they get a DOI. Pseudoscience grifters litter their citation lists with DOIs to make it appear as if certifying bodies have signed off on their claims. So, it’s no wonder that usage of DOIs is spiking as MAHA and other fake science grifts accelerate. This points out a lack of serious governance of certification in general, even accidental certification via technological tools that can be made to look validating and certifying to those outside science. We start with a side-quest into the papers offered to the Trump Administration by Joe Rogan to get an executive order about psychedelics rolling. Finally, we have our “Discoveries of the Week.” Subscribe to our podcast * Subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast/id1822274221?ref=the-geyser.com] on Apple Podcasts * Subscribe [https://open.spotify.com/show/0ykJaYbzqed0VEUypuXACC?ref=the-geyser.com] on Spotify * Subscribe [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd5cccff-0f34-4907-8f63-a4f3e8eaa3e9?ref=the-geyser.com] on Amazon Music/Audible * Subscribe [https://www.youtube.com/@DisruptedScience?ref=the-geyser.com] on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ [https://provokethetruth.net/?ref=the-geyser.com]

April 15, 2026 — The Authors’ Interview

This week, guest host Michael Magoulias takes the reins to conduct a lighthearted interview of your intrepid authors, partly to take the sting out of this being tax day in the US. Michael has worked in scholarly publishing at the University of Chicago Press and is currently at Elsevier. He’s a trenchant observer of the scene and mutual friend. We tackle some introductory questions and then . . . the Colbert Questionert! * What is the best sandwich? The scariest animal? So many topics. Enjoy this lighthearted episode, including three “Discoveries of the Week.” We’ll be back with more interviews and serious topics next week. Subscribe to our podcast * Subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast/id1822274221?ref=the-geyser.com] on Apple Podcasts * Subscribe [https://open.spotify.com/show/0ykJaYbzqed0VEUypuXACC?ref=the-geyser.com] on Spotify * Subscribe [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/dd5cccff-0f34-4907-8f63-a4f3e8eaa3e9?ref=the-geyser.com] on Amazon Music/Audible * Subscribe [https://www.youtube.com/@DisruptedScience?ref=the-geyser.com] on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ [https://provokethetruth.net/?ref=the-geyser.com]