Change, Technically

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1. Stem Cell Buffet

   12 september 2026 · 38 min

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   Ashley and Cat discuss stem cells, gene editing, a future in which we can grow new organs, and explore the borders of creepy-exciting science! Lees meer

   Show Notes

   Gene editing in the news

   Gene editing incident described in the introduction:

   https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-death-girl-chinese-gene-editing-trial-was-never-made-public

   More recent coverage of this incident and others: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02497-2

   Proof-of-concept reports on gene editing in patient cells

   Ashley underestimated how many proof-of-concepts there have been for gene editing in cells derived from patients themselves. There actually are some exciting clinical trials to treat various diseases (though nothing at a large scale as of yet):

   Sickle cell: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2309676

   Type 1 Diabetes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39326417/

   Parkinson’s: https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/aspen-neuroscience-announces-positive-12-month-data-from-its-aspiro-clinical-trial-in-a-late-breaking-oral-presentation-at-the-ad-pd-2026-international-conference-on-alzheimers-and-parkinsons-diseases

   Core research papers

   The original “Yamanaka” paper (actually Takahashi & Yamanaka, 2006): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16904174/

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

2. Dopamine, misunderstood

   5 augustus 2026 · 41 min

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   Are we addicted to talking about dopamine? In this episode, we tackle dopamine hype with real science: what dopamine is doing in the brain, how we study it, and how it's been misunderstood. Lees meer

   ----

   SHOW NOTES

   two articles tackling dopamine nation:

   https://awjuliani.medium.com/beyond-dopamine-nation-towards-a-fuller-picture-of-addiction-and-recovery-97b37e17235e

   https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/opinion/addiction-dopamine-brain-chemistry.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yVA.uvbi.PVfFQMzMudvb&smid=url-share

   other great takes on this topic:

   mark humphries "the crimes against dopamine" https://medium.com/the-spike/the-crimes-against-dopamine-b82b082d5f3d

   https://youtu.be/HZRGWPLeMIg?si=Ponb7AagEa4QN2BY

   things that cause dopamine release, as studied with PET:

   video games https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9607763/

   music https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2726

   yes, cocaine https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9331351/ (relatedly, nora volkow's work: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18617195/)

   not just reward in isolation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922009521

   more papers that fueled the sciency talk here:

   https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135722

   https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1513619112

   https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1014269108

   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32974872/

   songs covered in the episode:

   "dopamine" by robyn https://youtu.be/vitil9qMN6A?si=mMu1FliQP4-6QSIE

   "dopamine" by madelline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upy4rB8V3T4

   ----

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

3. You have bad mental models of learning

   7 mei 2026 · 1 uur

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   You can find the talk Cat gave about learning and its citations here: https://github.com/DrCatHicks/tailscale_talk Lees meer

   On beliefs about humans being more genetically dissimilar than they are, work primarily done by Brian Donovan: Donovan et al. (2024). "Humane genomics education can reduce racism." Science, 383(6685), 818–822. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7895

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

4. You can write a book

   30 maart 2026 · 51 min

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   📚 PREVIEW CAT'S BOOK, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOFTWARE TEAMS! Pre-orders will be available in June. Lees meer

   https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Software-Teams/Hicks/p/book/9781032963389

   📝 EPISODE NOTES

   Jeff Shreve's Substack that Ashley mentions in the beginning https://jeffshreve.substack.com/

   Ashley is not linking anything about the reiki on rats paper here because she doesn't want that paper to get more hits than warranted but she *does* you to see the figure from it and has put it here for your viewing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WQGGjh2VT87XbbmaqdK2g7tyyknzwr6s/view?usp=sharing

   Cat read a couple of papers about creativity for this episode, including: Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation and Innovation Relies on the Obscure: A Key to Overcoming the Classic Problem of Functional Fixedness

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

5. You can learn with AI

   16 februari 2026 · 37 min

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   Can people learn in the AI era? Ashley and Cat think so. We talk about Ashley's experiences teaching programming and co-designing WITH students (not against them) to create shared classroom norms around AI, and about the metacognitive skills that Cat is sharing with the software teams and developers she works with to bring a "dynamic textbook" approach to using AI to build understanding, not degrade it. Lees meer

   Cat's Learning Opportunities Claude Skill, with a scientific reference list to the effects we also talk about in this episode, can be found here:

   https://github.com/DrCatHicks/learning-opportunities

   Cat also wrote a recent piece about the complexity of measuring the impact of AI in Software Organizations: https://www.fightforthehuman.com/how-not-to-measure-the-roi-from-ai-in-your-software-organization/

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

6. Know your neighbors

   9 februari 2026 · 15 min

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   This isn't the episode we planned, but it's what is on our minds right now. We talk about the power of knowing your neighbors and a few ways in which we've found solace and meaning in building our local community. Here's a glimpse into our playbook -- tell us about yours in the comments. Lees meer

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

7. Math is for girls

   22 december 2025 · 51 min

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   The story from Janet Hyde about her motivations to get a grant and "fight with data" can be found here: Lees meer

   https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/janet-shibley-hyde-sinks-stereotypes-with-data

   Cat summarizes a ton of research for this episode. Key citations, most of which contain large literature reviews themselves:

   Adamecz-Völgyi, A., Jerrim, J., Pingault, J. B., & Shure, N. (2023). Overconfident boys: The gender gap in mathematics self-assessment.

   Brescoll, V. L., Dawson, E., & Uhlmann, E. L. (2010). Hard won and easily lost: The fragile status of leaders in gender-stereotype-incongruent occupations. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1640-1642.

   Carr, M., Jessup, D. L., & Fuller, D. (1999). Gender differences in first-grade mathematics strategy use: Parent and teacher contributions. Journal for research in mathematics education, 30(1), 20-46.

   Del Toro, J., Legette, K., Christophe, N. K., Pasco, M., Miller-Cotto, D., & Wang, M. T. (2024). When ethnic–racial discrimination from math teachers spills over and predicts the math adjustment of nondiscriminated adolescents: The mediating role of math classroom climate perceptions. Developmental psychology.

   Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (2010). Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: a meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 136(1), 103.

   Gesuelli, K. A., Miller-Cotto, D., & Barbieri, C. A. (2025). Variability in math achievement growth among students with early math learning difficulties and the role of school supports. Journal of Educational Psychology.

   Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (2006). Gender similarities in mathematics and science. Science, 314(5799), 599-600.

   Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008). Gender similarities characterize math performance. Science, 321(5888), 494-495.

   Hyde, J. S., & Mertz, J. E. (2009). Gender, culture, and mathematics performance. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 106(22), 8801-8807.

   H…

8. Science deserves stories

   9 december 2025 · 37 min

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   First of all, in this episode you'll learn why Ashley has shipped ONE THOUSAND COCKROACHES through the mail. Second of all, Ashley shares about getting scientists to tell stories, taking risks to share knowledge, and doing science communication in places that don't look like a university campus. Lees meer

   We talk about work with the following amazing organizations:

   Guerilla Science

   SASSY San Diego

   Caveat NYC

   If you want more science storytelling in your life, please check out The Story Collider.

   The recording kits we sent to students were made by Backyard Brains.

   If you're curious about Ashley's neurobiology lab class, you can learn more about it here.

   Ashley also wants to give a shout out to the amazing UC San Diego staff who made shipping cockroaches during a global pandemic possible, and who still maintain the ongoing roach colony, occasionally even feeding them donuts.

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

9. The Change, Technically anniversary special

   16 september 2025 · 33 min

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   Ashley, Cat, and Danilo reflect on the major themes after one year of Change, Technically. Lees meer

   For more information on consulting with Cat, please visit https://www.catharsisinsight.com/

   ---

   SHOW NOTES:

   On women’s loss of status in gender incongruent professions: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797610384744

   On links between self-compassion and prosocial behavior: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4026714/

   On psychological essentialism: https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(04)00183-4

   On Shigeru Miyamoto's development of Donkey Kong (Note the line in this article, "Yamauchi [Nintendo's President] assured him [Miyamoto] his lack of technical skills would not be a problem."): https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-secret-history-of-i-donkey-kong-i-

   Learn more about Ashley:

   https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

   ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

   Learn more about Cat:

   https://www.drcathicks.com/

   https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

   grimalkina.bsky.social

10. Andor and the psychology of resistance

    22 juli 2025 · 49 min

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    SHOW NOTES Lees meer

    Dominic Packer’s Normative Conflict Model of Dissent is described in this paper as well as his other work: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868307309606

    Cat also mentions Mina Cikara’s work on coalitional cognition. This is a good representation of that: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065260121000137

    Cat also mentions The Power of Us, which is by Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel, and a book she enjoyed! https://www.powerofus.online/

    From the same authors, this piece talks about intergroup bias: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315735160-23/dynamic-nature-identity-brain-behavior-dominic-packer-jay-van-bavel

    Cat mentions a study about socially shared retrieval induced forgetting, that’s here: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-18938-001

    James Baldwin: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5853-you-think-your-pain-and-your-heartbreak-are-unprecedented-in

    https://www.pbs.org/video/james-baldwin-suffering-bridge-of7cq3/

    Asch’s research on conformity has been reexamined in work such as this: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1976-24067-001 and this: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_1

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2420200104

    Babies attending to prosocial actions: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61517-3

    The research that we discuss about the targeted-universal message can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/1/pgae588/7942411

    Further work on this is here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0009.12651

    Podcast we mention with Tressie McMillan Cottom is this one: https://moneywithkatie.com/status-power-economy

    Learn more about Ashley:

    https://ashleyjuavinett.com/

    https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley

    ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social

    Learn more about Cat:

    https://www.drcathicks.com/

    https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina

    grimalkina.bsky.social

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