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Big Oil COVID-19 disinformation Episode Feminism Gender Illinois Petroleum Resource Board IPRB Kanter's Law Marketing misinformation OERB Oklahoma Energy Resources Board WSUM

TMI 01/26/2024 – Big Oil Uses IPRB to Miseducate Students, Data Combats the Myth of the Female Shopaholic, Kanter’s Law Gives Hope on the COVID Pandemic and more

The Illinois Petroleum Resource Board (IPRB) has been a gas tax-funded education and outreach program for 25 years, with a particular aim of providing science curriculum and professional development workshops for Illinois teachers. Nevermind that the information given is solely focused on making Big Oil look absolutely indispensable to the future of civilization, or even that Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas have similar petroleum-focused “educational” programs – that under-the-radar status is just what the IPRB likes. We expose them.

Then, we look at the culturally-pervasive myth of the “female shopaholic” and explore how the data and cultural context doesn’t back up this sexist trope at all. Finally, we show how the management concept of Kanter’s Law shows some hope for the ongoing COVID epidemic. All this and more on TMI for Friday, January 26, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Bones Climate Episode Gender Science WSUM

TMI 05/26/2023 – Bones Don’t Conclusively Show Sex Nor Gender for Human Beings, Why In-N-Out Burger is Fighting Climate Accountability, How Books Now Frighten School Librarians and Educators

If you’re a fan of the TV show Bones, you know that the lead character, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan, is famously able to take a glance at a human skeleton and tell so much about the person who it once belonged to, including their biological sex. Unfortunately for the writers of the Fox drama, this hasn’t been accepted science now since the early 1970s, something Bones would have known. We discuss how this came to be, and how solid the scientific backing for gender flexibility and fluidity is.

Next, we talk about why California’s new climate accountability law is being fought by not just the usual suspects of Big Oil, but also by restaurant chains such as the west coast favorite In-N-Out Burger. Finally, we look at how librarians and educators at schools nationwide have found themselves frightened of books. All this and more on TMI for Friday, May 26, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!