The Studies Show

Pay attention. Focus on your breathing. Live in the moment. Accept yourself. Do you have a self? Focus on that self. And so on. This is, of course, the practice of mindfulness meditation, which seems to be everywhere: in schools, at work, in apps, and all over the scientific literature. Do any of the claimed effects of mindfulness meditation (relieving your depression! Changing the structure of your brain!) actually add up? In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart focus calmly, serenely, and gratefully on their own thoughts, and then find out. The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. WiP has started doing its own podcasts! Don’t worry—we give you permission to listen to them. The one we mentioned on the show this week is an interview with Stian Westlake, the extremely interesting Chief Executive of the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and expert in the “intangible” economy. Show notes * When Sam Harris tried to get Richard Dawkins to meditate on a podcast [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-vx1__QoCA] * Tom’s 2014 article [https://tommychivers.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/mindfulness-is-certainly-living-in-the-moment/] on mindfulness, before all the criticisms started appearing * Mindfulness tips [https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/tips-and-support/mindfulness/] from the NHS * The 2017 critical paper [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5758421/pdf/nihms870700.pdf] from Perspectives on Psychological Science * 2014 meta-analysis [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754] finding no effect beyond active controls * 2021 meta-analysis [https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003481#sec018] drawing a similar conclusion * The now-retracted 2023 [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45765-1]Scientific Reports [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45765-1] meta-analysis [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45765-1] on mindfulness and brain structure * Eiko Fried’s article [https://eiko-fried.com/antidotes-to-cynicism-creep/] discussing his experience critiquing the paper * The eventual retraction note [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-11069-9] * PLOS ONE [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153220] paper [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153220] from 2016 on the number of positive results found in mindfulness trials * 2015 meta-analysis [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124344] on mindfulness in healthcare * The eventual retraction note [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215608] * 2022 writeup of the MYRIAD study [https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/25/3/117] of school-based mindfulness techniques * Critical opinion piece [https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/56875641/Binder8.pdf] by a mindfulness sceptic * Study on mindfulness in the context of neoliberal capitalism [https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.12936] Credits The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions [https://www.yada-yada.net/]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Are cancer rates going up or down? It seems like depending on where you look, you’ll find different answers to the question. What’s going on here — have some writers just got it completely wrong? Is it something to do with different types of cancer? Are we being confused by some kind of weird statistical artefact? All of the above? In this episode of The Studies Show, we do our very best to find out. The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress [https://worksinprogress.co/] magazine [https://worksinprogress.co/], the ultimate place online to read about new and underrated scientific and technological ideas that could make the world a better place. You can find a huge range of essays online, for free, at www.worksinprogress.co [https://worksinprogress.co/]. Show notes * BBC Future [https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20241004-the-puzzle-of-rising-early-onset-breast-and-colorectal-cancer-in-younger-people] article [https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20241004-the-puzzle-of-rising-early-onset-breast-and-colorectal-cancer-in-younger-people] on early-onset cancer rates * BMJ Oncology article [https://bmjoncology.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000049] on global cancer incidence increasing by 79% * And its online supplementary information [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/instance/11235000/bin/bmjonc-2023-000049supp001.pdf] * July 2025 Economist article on how the world is winning the war on cancer [https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/07/17/the-world-is-winning-the-war-on-cancer] * Saloni Dattani’s 2025 article [https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/the-decline-in-cancer-mortality-is] on the decline in global cancer rates * The GLOBOCAN data update from the IARC, 2002 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15761078/] and 2008 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21351269/] * Our World in Data’s graph on global cancer incidence [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cancer-incidence?tab=chart&country=~OWID_WRL] over time * Their graph on smoking rates and lung cancer deaths [https://ourworldindata.org/smoking-big-problem-in-brief] * Their graph on stomach cancer death rates [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/stomach-cancer-death-rate?country=USA~GBR] * New RCT [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40658956/] on vaping and smoking cessation * A 90% drop [https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj-2023-077341] in cervical cancer rates in England * The hepatitis B vaccine and a massive drop [https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001774] in liver cancer incidence in China * On H. pylorii [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2432/], ulcers, and cancer * 2000 JAMA article questioning the utility of the 5-year survival rate [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10865276/]statistic * 2014 PLOS ONE [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4108307/] article [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4108307/] that’s more positive about the statistic * Tom’s BuzzFeed News [https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/how-the-cures-for-cancer-snuck-up-on-us] article [https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/how-the-cures-for-cancer-snuck-up-on-us] on oncology * RCT of herceptin [https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa052122] on breast cancer survival * Study on rates of colorectal cancer [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12090447/] * And the same, in relation to BMI [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11358861/] Credits The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions [https://www.yada-yada.net/]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Seconds out! Round one! Ding ding! And other boxing terms. We’ve found a topic on which Tom and Stuart actually disagree. Kind of. In this episode of The Studies Show, they use the examples of “the worm wars” (does deworming kids in developing countries help them stay in school?) and a new craze for “tooth bacteria” (can colonizing your mouth with a genetically-modified bacterium stop you getting cavities?) to argue about how we should make our minds up about uncertain—but potentially promising—medical treatments. The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress [https://worksinprogress.co/] magazine [https://worksinprogress.co/]. On the show this week we discuss one of the articles in their newest issue, on “the end of lead”—the history of countries slowly removing lead from pipes, paint, and the rest, and how much work still needs to be done. Find it, and a wealth of other fascinating free articles, at worksinprogress.co [https://worksinprogress.co/]. Show notes * Tom’s Unherd article [https://unherd.com/2020/08/what-worms-can-teach-us-about-the-ai-apocalypse/] about the Worm Wars * The famous 2004 paper [https://poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/miguel_worms.pdf] that sparked the wars * “Deworming Debunked [https://www.bmj.com/bmj/section-pdf/187715?path=/bmj/346/7889/Feature.full.pdf]”, from the BMJ * The 2014 follow-up [https://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/assets/miguel_research/64/Worms-at-Work_2016-07-12_FINAL_CLEAN.pdf] of the original dewormed Kenyan kids * GiveWell’s re-analysis [https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/deworming/reanalysis] of both studies * And another more recent analysis [https://blog.givewell.org/2017/01/04/how-thin-the-reed-generalizing-from-worms-at-work/] by the same org * The third [https://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/assets/miguel_research/98/Twenty-Year-Deworming_2020-07-17.pdf] study [https://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/assets/miguel_research/98/Twenty-Year-Deworming_2020-07-17.pdf] in the same kids, from 2020 * 2019 paper on “resolving the worm wars [https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0006940]” * Scott Alexander’s article on “defying cavity [https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/defying-cavity-lantern-bioworks-faq]”—on the Lumina bacteria * Guy who claims the Lumina bacteria made him go blind [https://substack.com/home/post/p-168042147] * Saloni Dattani’s useful thread [https://x.com/salonium/status/1778393370383065350] on Lumina * 90% of drugs [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9293739/] in preclinical trials don’t make it to become medicine * Tom’s frankly cruel tweet [https://x.com/TomChivers/status/1943667198603518258] where he refers to Stuart as “Goofus” Credits The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions [https://www.yada-yada.net/]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] Inspired by a new Nature paper on how the “maths gap” emerges between girls and boys in school, Tom and Stuart look into the evidence for psychological sex differences: in maths, in mental rotation, and, yes—in whether they like pink or blue. To listen to the full episode and read the show notes, you’ll need to become a paid subscriber at www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe].

Whether it’s people giving themselves goat blood transfusions in an effort to maintain their youth, or yet another influencer telling you to buy XYZ miracle supplements, anti-ageing is big business. In the first part of what will surely become a longer Studies Show series, Tom and Stuart look at the evidence for a few supposed “breakthrough” treatments that can slow down ageing: rapamycin, metformin, winding back the epigenetic clock, and calorie restriction. The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress [https://worksinprogress.co/] magazine [https://worksinprogress.co/]. This week we talked about their new article on “through running”—the deceptively simple idea of not having trains stop at the edge of town and instead running them right through the centre. It seems obvious if you live in London, but it wasn’t always this way. Check out the article [https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-magic-of-through-running/] for a detailed, nerdy discussion about how we can make trains—and therefore citites—better. Show notes * New meta-analysis [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70131] on rapamycin and ageing * Website for Bryan “n = 1” Johnson [https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/] and his related health claims * Our World In Data on life expectancy [https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy] and about the reasons why it increased [https://ourworldindata.org/its-not-just-about-child-mortality-life-expectancy-improved-at-all-ages] * Meta-analysis [https://www.aging-us.com/article/101020/text] on methylation and the “biological clock” as a predictor of longevity * The STAP stem cell debacle [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18412] * 2016 study using Yamanaka factors [https://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31664-6] to slow down ageing in mice * 2023 study of the same idea on wild-type mice, showing a 109% increase [https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.04.522507v1] in life expectancy * 2014 Scottish study [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25041462/] on diabetes, metformin, and life expectancy * Critical letter [https://pubpeer.com/publications/4E29C6C9E32D2C24662AED78A59AC5] noting the study’s flaws * Failed replication from Denmark in 2022 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36287641/] * The NIH’s Interventions Testing Program [https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/resource/interventions-testing-program-itp] * Older review of calorie restriction and ageing [https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.061206.171059] Credits We’re grateful to Andrew Steele [https://andrewsteele.co.uk/] for talking to us for this episode. The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions [https://www.yada-yada.net/]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe [https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]