Pseudoscience and the downfall

1:22:01mean for for context Berkeley is like in the Oakland area of California which is very diverse very black >> and Berkeley is extremely liberal. Yeah. Like it's like it's cuz they have people around anyway. >> Yeah. Yeah. And he hypothesizes [laughter] that dark-kinned people have stronger libidos. >> And the the the lecture argues that like melanin which is the the thing that's giving us the brown and black color. Yes. that's somehow um a derivative of a compound that boosts sex drive. And then quote, he says, "That's why you have Latin lovers. You've never heard of an English lover, only an English patient."

1:22:42>> Oh, [laughter] yo, like, bro, what are you doing? >> I cannot cringe any harder. That's actually pretty That's pretty wild. >> That's pretty wild. And that's not even the start, dude. Okay, and these are some other quotes from him. Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad because you know you're not going to hire them. And then and then he goes, he doubles down later and he says that like like thin people are smarter. >> Why? >> What are you talking about? >> Why is this the consistent Anyway? >> Yeah. You know, in earlier in the episode when I when I said like, you know, this guy's controversial. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's >> it's more than controversial, right? Yeah. Like cuz the behavior was not only problematic during the discovery.

1:23:24>> Yeah. >> Yeah. During the discovery he's already like sketch >> then afterwards trying to like rewrite history at also sketch. Also sketch >> and now you're just like just pointing fingers at everyone. >> Now you're just saying nonsense, right? And I just want to read you some of the other crazy stuff you said. U people say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great. Bro, I just >> just stop talking. I just So, at this point, at this point, Cole Spring Harbor suspends any affiliation to him. >> Wait, >> there's Oh, yeah. He doesn't he he he doesn't even leave the Indians alone. So, this is what he said about one more.

1:24:04>> Yeah, there's one more. I I got to keep going. So, so he doesn't leave the Indians alone. He's like, uh, Indians are survile because of selection under cast and dogamy. Castendogamy meaning casts um you know marry within casts in the in the Hindu tradition and because of that we're survile nothing to do with uh maybe the 200 years of colonialism that was subject to us by the British >> man never love we love to never touch on that >> yeah yeah yeah and the other thing is he >> look with the cast system it's like >> he's only basically interacted with the top tier of cast probably because the way the cast system works is the lower cast haven't had the kinds of

1:24:44opportunities that the higher casts have because of the messed up nature of the cast system. So the stereotype doesn't the argument doesn't even make sense 100% >> because he's interacting with the higher you know it's like at least be scientific in your bigotry. Africans are less intelligent than westerners. Watson said his intention was to promote science, not racism, but some UK venues canled his appearances. >> Yeah. He was going on a book tour and the UK canceled his appearances. Um the in 2007 the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suspended any affiliation >> even though that it was it was he he was >> he basically created but I mean he's

1:25:26doubling down on this stuff. He's not even apologizing. >> He's just saying that no this is this is how it is. And um there's this YouTube there's this YouTube page called Web of Stories. It's one of my favorite YouTube >> channels. Big plug for Web of Stories. >> Yeah, it really is because what they do is they they have these long- winded interviews with the titans of science. So, they have James Watson, but they also have Freeman Dyson, for example, Hans Beta. Um they also have uh Edward Teller and they're just it's just stream of consciousness about their life. Okay, the ones from Hans Beta and Edward Teller I really enjoy. They talk about their time in Manhattan Project and all of the physics that they did. They talk

1:26:07about their experience with Neils Boore and things like that. Um, >> right. So, so, so they also did James Watson because he is a titan of science, let's be honest. The 20th century, he discovered DNA, the structure of DNA. He he got there in weird ways, but at the end of the day, he's the one who got there. He won. [clears throat] He won. He Yeah, he won that race. >> Max Stappen, he might be a little bit of a dirty race, but he >> he wins. >> Yeah, he wins. And um, so there was this one there was this one clip where he's asked about Rosyn Franklin. The first thing he says was, "I can't give I can't give a lecture anywhere without a few questions about Rosie." It's like, "Yeah, no, because you stole her data." [laughter] >> Like, okay. So, he's clearly already not

1:26:47in a good mood because the interviewer is asking him about Rosalyn Franklin and he thinks that Rosan Franklin doesn't deserve all this attention. Um and then and then the most unhinged thing was like you know Rosalyn she was a woman and um she was also Jewish and they say that the the the the woman brain does not think in 3D and ne neither does the Jewish brain. The Jewish brain does not think in 3D. >> Crazy, bro. He's literally saying this. >> He's saying this, right? And then the interviewer's like, "Oh, what about like Einstein, >> right?" Like I Einstein literally did like 40 mathematics and [laughter] and he's just like, "Yeah well

1:27:28he was a man. He had a penis." >> It's so It's so insane the stuff that this guy is saying. So really, I didn't really have a good appreciation for how unhinged and problematic this guy was, but but I I saw that video and I was like, "Oh my god." >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Like he's just saying this like it's everyone. It's It's fair game on everybody. If you're a woman, if you're a person of color, Jewish, like it doesn't matter. Like unless you're >> Watson. Yeah. >> You ain't >> Dude, it was it was insane. I was watching these I was I was watching these videos just going like this is the guy who discovered the double helix and like that we celebrate and you know it

1:28:09really it I don't even know what to think right because clearly he he's he's a he's a great scientist and he's a great uh thinker and he's a great manager of science but man oh man >> terrible human being >> terrible human being I got to say like