It's Monday, September 10th, 2018, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Kishorahari.

Indre's off this week. Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space for science,

politics, and society collide. We endeavor to endeavor, we endeavor, and why it all matters.

You can find us online at Inquiring.com, on Twitter and on Facebook. You can also get online at inquiring.com on Twitter and on Facebook.

You can also get an ad-free version of this show by supporting us at patreon.com

slash inquiring slides. And you can subscribe to the show on iTunes or any other podcasting app. All right. It's time. I've avoided this topic for many, many years, but we have to talk about the

reproducibility crisis. And I know you're about to turn off this podcast because reproducibility

is this huge inside baseball issue in science. But let me give

you some facts. American taxpayers spend about $30 billion annually funding biomedical research.

But some estimates point to over half of the studies generated by all that funding cannot be replicated, either due to poor experimental

design, improper methods, or just bad statistics. Now, that's not saying the science is bad.

It's just the analysis on the paper might be bad. Bad science doesn't just slow the progress of science in

general. It can spell delays, if not doom, for millions of patients waiting for cures.

This week, we go in-depth on the reproducibility crisis with NPR science correspondent Richard

Harris. Last year, he came out with a book called Rigor Mortis, How Sloppy Science Creates Wartless

Cures, Crushes Hope, and Waste Billions.

And Richard and I kind of have a frank conversation about where all of this goes wrong

and what incentives can be created to correct all of this sloppy signs.

So with that, let's take a short break when we'll be back with my interview with Richard Harris.

Today's episode comes from Google Play.

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