Episode Details

Note: This podcast was recorded before Jason Arday’s death. It is now being posted with minor edits (removed a few off-color jokes about the late professor).

Today Razib talks to Gabriel Rossman, a sociologist at UCLA. The author of Climbing the Charts: What Radio Airplay Tells Us about the Diffusion of Innovation, Rossman takes a deeply analytic toolkit to questions such as why 2005’s “My Humps” became a viral hit.

Razib Khan and Rossman discuss the scandal surrounding Dr. Jason Arday, a sociologist of education at Cambridge, who was exposed for plagiarism and fabricating his credentials. Arday claimed to have run 30 marathons in 35 days and raised $5 million, which were later found to be false. The conversation highlights the poor quality of his research, which relied heavily on autoethnography, a method criticized for its subjectivity. They also discuss the broader issues of ideological capture in academia, particularly in sociology, and the challenges of maintaining academic integrity amidst political biases. The discussion centers on the perception and reality of sociology, particularly the impact of political ideologies on academic engagement. Rossman, a conservative sociologist, notes the open-mindedness of most sociologists and the importance of apolitical basic science.