Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast, although today we're sharing a sample of this week's episode of our other show, solved.

Best of Left members get solved early, ad-free, and complete with a members-only backstage segment all via podcast.

But we're also putting the show out on the Best

of Left YouTube channel where we're attempting to find a new audience. Consider supporting us

directly by signing up for a membership or help us grow on YouTube by subscribing to the

Best of Left YouTube channel and catching every episode of Solved there. And now here's a few minutes

for free to wet your appetite,

but just like Best of the Left, the Real Benefits Kick in when you hear the whole show,

which is greater than the sum of its parts. Today, we're discussing how the Great can fall,

and it usually happens, according to the classic quote, slowly at first, then all at once.

And sometimes it can happen due to a failure to act, like a failure to evolve with changing

times.

But when it comes to scientific inquiry and the people in places that do the hard, mostly

thankless work of pursuing new knowledge

for the sake of it, the fall of these places actually don't tend to be caused by inaction,

but rather deliberate choices. When someone decides to silence those who follow truth where it

leads, rather than follow any ideology or dictates prescribed by

political leaders. The science doesn't just suffer because the scientists aren't able to do

their work. The scientists also simply leave. This is what's called a brain drain. It

happened in the Soviet Union. It happened in Nazi Germany. And now it's happening in Donald

Trump's America.

But to ease us into today's discussion of downfalls into irrelevance, we start with this article

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