Episode 94: The Goofy Pseudoscience Copaganda of TV Forensics
Citations Needed27 Marras 2019

Episode 94: The Goofy Pseudoscience Copaganda of TV Forensics

Since the early 2000s, a spate of forensics-focused TV shows and films have emerged on the pop culture scene. Years after Law & Order premiered in the '90s, shows like CSI, NCIS, and The Mentalist followed, trumpeting the scientific merit of analyzing blood-spatter patterns, reading facial and bodily cues, and using the latest fingerprint-matching technology to catch the bad guy.

Yet what these procedurals neglect to acknowledge is that many of these popular forensic techniques are deeply unscientific and entirely political. Spatter pattern-matching, firearms analysis, hair analysis, fingerprint and bite mark analysis — they're all mostly bullshit with little scientific merit. Despite this, forensics have helped contribute to the wrongful convictions of thousands of people: a storytelling aid, prosecutorial smoke and mirrors, a courtroom PR tool to lend scientific verisimilitude to what is very often just circumstantial, hunch-based police work.

On this episode, we break down how popular culture depictions of forensics helps mislead viewers — and by extension jurors — into thinking forensics are science that proves guilt rather than what they really are: slick marketing collateral to help prosecutors convict someone they already think is guilty for other, nonscientific reasons.

We are joined by Aviva Shen, Senior Editor at Slate.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(379)

Ep 240: How the Media's "Burden," the "Straining Resources" Framing Manufactures the Expendable Other

Ep 240: How the Media's "Burden," the "Straining Resources" Framing Manufactures the Expendable Other

In this episode, we discuss the ideological work done by our media's default frame of immigrants, poor seniors, homeless people, and those with disabilities as "burdens" and "strains" on our limited r...

8 Heinä 1h 34min

News Brief: Despite 9-Figure Infusion from Silicon Valley, Abundance Still Seeks Popular Support

News Brief: Despite 9-Figure Infusion from Silicon Valley, Abundance Still Seeks Popular Support

In this news brief, we catch up with Dylan Gyauch-Lewis, senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project, to discuss Abundance's PR problems, why this latest neoliberalism rebrand isn't catching on an...

1 Heinä 38min

News Brief: The ADL's Bogus Origin Story and Its Rise as Ideological Enforcer for Empire and Israel

News Brief: The ADL's Bogus Origin Story and Its Rise as Ideological Enforcer for Empire and Israel

In this News Brief, we talk with Emmaia Gelman, author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, about how––despite posing a civil rights org––the ADL functions as defender of colonialism an...

24 Kesä 42min

Episode 239: The Vague, Capital-Serving Co-Optation of "Affordability" Politics

Episode 239: The Vague, Capital-Serving Co-Optation of "Affordability" Politics

In this episode, we detail the long history of generic "affordability" discourse and how, post-Mamdani, it's become the go-to establishment buzzword justifying tax breaks for developers, deregulation,...

17 Kesä 1h 20min

News Brief: The Call to Boycott—and Delegitimize—the New York Times

News Brief: The Call to Boycott—and Delegitimize—the New York Times

In this News Brief, we talk with Chris Mills Rodrigo from Writers Against The War On Gaza about their campaign to boycott the New York Times and remove the "paper of record" from its pedestal of alleg...

28 Touko 40min

Episode 238: The Fictional, Racist, Paranoia-Sowing "Sleeper Cell" Media Construction

Episode 238: The Fictional, Racist, Paranoia-Sowing "Sleeper Cell" Media Construction

In this episode, we detail the vague, baseless racism-sowing media coverage and pop culture obsession with so-called "sleeper cells," a construction that has consumed post-9/11 America but suffers fro...

20 Touko 1h 30min

Live Show: 'How to Sell a Genocide' Book Talk at The Word Is Change Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY

Live Show: 'How to Sell a Genocide' Book Talk at The Word Is Change Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY

This is a live recording between Nima and Adam at the Word is Change Bookstore May 7, 2026. In this conversation, we discuss key findings that can be found in Adam's new book, How to Sell a Genocide: ...

13 Touko 1h 3min

News Brief: "Peak TV," Streamer Studio Accounting Gimmicks, and the Precarity of Hollywood Labor

News Brief: "Peak TV," Streamer Studio Accounting Gimmicks, and the Precarity of Hollywood Labor

In this News Brief, we talk with Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller, authors of the new book Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers, about rising inequality and precarity in Hollywood, st...

6 Touko 47min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

aikalisa
uutiscast
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
rss-podme-livebox
rss-seksicast
otetaan-yhdet
tervo-halme
politiikan-puskaradio
aihe
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-girls-finish-f1rst
rss-mina-ukkola
rss-aijat-hopottaa-podcast
rss-mita-tapahtuu
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-tekoalyfoorumi
rss-asiastudio
rss-pinnalla