Serious Inquiries Only
Join Thomas for some critical thinking on questions of science, philosophy, skepticism and politics. These serious topics are discussed with some serious guests, but in an entertaining and engaging way! This is not your ...
Insights from recent episode analysis
On the show
- Dr. Eric Jaffe4 eps
- Jenessa3 eps
- David O'Brien3 eps
Also: Dr. Jenessa Seymour, Lydia, Sari Altschuler
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Total monthly reach
Based on 1 signal.
Built from
By chart position
- 🇮🇳India · Politics#163274 to 1.4K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
274 to 1.4K🎙 Daily cadence·842 episodes·Last published 2w ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
913 to 4.8K🇺🇸71%🇮🇳29% - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
502 to 2.7K
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
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Total Plays
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Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/7/26 | SIO531: Your Brain Is Actually Two Separate Organs, According to a New Stanford Study | We welcome back Dr. Eric Jaffe to help us understand a really cool, groundbreaking scientific discovery! Our brains are not one organ! Turns out your forebrain and your hindbrain might be two completely separate lineages that never actually came from each other, more like two kids in a trench coat than one continuous evolution. Why does that matter for ALS research? And how far back in evolution does the split actually go? Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show at patreon.com/seriouspod! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! | 56m 47s | ||||||
| 10/1/26 | SIO530: Did AI Actually "Solve" That Famous Math Problem? | You've seen the headline: AI "solved" one of math's Millennium Prize problems. Thomas and Jenessa (here as a friend, not an expert) are joined by David Souther, a software engineer and LLM researcher, who's SO annoyed about it. Why did he answer Jenessa's text in all caps? And what's the deal with a rushed phone call between OpenAI and a math professor? Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show at patreon.com/seriouspod! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! | 51m 16s | ||||||
| 9/30/26 | SIO529: AI in Schools Makes Students Feel Smarter. The Tests Say Otherwise. | How does AI use affect learning? You’d be surprised how much we already know. Dr. Jenessa Seymour takes us through the research on screen use, metacognition, cognitive offloading, and some recent papers Sources: Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42, 288-325. Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L.S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. PNAS, 116, 19251-19257. Risko, E.F. & Gilbert, S.J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 676-688. Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakci, O., & Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics. Economic Sciences, 122, 1-8. Tian, J. & Zhang, R. (2025). Learners’ AI dependence and critical thinking: The psychological mechanism of fatigue and the social buffering role of AI literacy. Acta Psychologica, 260. Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod | 1h 03m 08s | ||||||
| 9/29/26 | SIO528: The Marshmallow Test Is Mostly BS, and It's Not the Only Classic Psych Test Like That | Kids are weird, like really weird, but in a fun way? Dr. Jenessa Seymour is back to tell us about some classic child development paradigms that really need to be reevaluated. Depending on when you learned about these experiments, you were either taught that they were the gospel truth, with established ages where kids can and cannot pass these tests, and major consequences for late development, or maybe you heard that recent studies show it’s a bit more complicated. Still makes for some cute and funny demonstrations either way. Sources: The marshmallow test is really about trust The “curse of knowledge” Autistic kids pass theory-of-mind tests on a computer Passing the theory-of-mind test with implicit looking measures at 15-months-old and 13-months-old Kids pass the conservation test sooner when they do it themselves Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod | 50m 56s | ||||||
| 9/15/26 | SIO527: The Science of Why We Ask Why, with Dr. Tania Lombrozo | Dr. Tania Lombrozo, professor of psychology at Princeton University (affiliated with its philosophy and cognitive science departments), joins Thomas to discuss her forthcoming book Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand. Why are humans so driven to explain things, but only some things? Why does understanding go beyond just being able to predict? And what happens when asking why makes you the social liability in the room? Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod | 48m 45s | ||||||
| 9/1/26 | college coststuition+4 | David O'Brien | California Community Colleges SystemThe Daily+3 | — | college expensestuition vs total cost+3 | — | 54m 13s | ||
| 8/31/26 | Spider-Manfilm criticism+3 | — | Some More NewsSerious Inquiries Only+1 | — | Spider-ManBrand New Day+4 | — | 1h 38m 07s | ||
| 8/11/26 | autism researchADHD studies+5 | Dr. Jenessa Seymour | The GuardianJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry+3 | — | autismADHD+5 | — | 59m 04s | ||
| 7/29/26 | cancer treatmentradiation therapy+4 | Dr. Eric Jaffe | CAR-T therapyRAS inhibitor drugs+2 | — | cancertreatment+6 | — | 47m 58s | ||
| 7/28/26 | cancercell biology+3 | Dr. Eric Jaffe | XKCDThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | — | cancercellular biology+5 | — | 56m 05s | ||
| 7/21/26 | higher educationstudent loans+3 | David O'Brien | California Community CollegesThe Daily+2 | — | college tuitionstudent loan crackdown+3 | — | 40m 56s | ||
| 7/21/26 | Trump's education policystudent loans+5 | David O'Brien | California Community CollegesThe Daily+2 | — | Trumphigher education+5 | — | 47m 25s | ||
| 6/30/26 | skepticismButler shooting+3 | — | SkeptiCalYoung Turks | — | skepticismSkeptiCal+4 | — | 48m 06s | ||
| 6/24/26 | genderconsent+3 | — | Obsession | — | Obsessiongender+4 | — | 1h 01m 48s | ||
| 6/16/26 | biological definitionsinductive sciences+4 | Dr. Eric Jaffe | Cells at WorkProject Hail Mary | — | biological definitionsinductive sciences+5 | — | 1h 03m 44s | ||
| 6/9/26 | space travelastronaut rehabilitation+4 | Dr. Jenessa Seymour | NASASkeptiCal | — | astronautsrehabilitation+5 | Patreon | 1h 04m 22s | ||
| 5/31/26 | disability rightsAmerican citizenship+4 | Sari Altschuler | Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship | — | disabilitycitizenship+4 | — | 45m 33s | ||
| 5/18/26 | CNN Rape Academyinformation environment+3 | — | CNN | — | CNNrape+4 | — | 1h 00m 02s | ||
| 5/18/26 | misleading claimsrape culture+4 | — | CNNExposing a global ‘rape academy’ | — | rape academyCNN article+4 | — | 54m 37s | ||
| 5/2/26 | conspiracy theoriesButler Shooting+3 | — | seriouspod.com | — | Butler Shootingconspiracy theories+3 | — | 1h 00m 49s | ||
| 4/30/26 | shootingTrump+3 | — | — | — | Butler shootingTrump shot+3 | — | 59m 45s | ||
| 4/18/26 | sexismmisogyny+3 | Lydia | Mother Jonesseriouspod.com | — | Chappell Roansexism+4 | — | 1h 00m 03s | ||
| 4/12/26 | placebo effectscientific study design+3 | Jenessa | Placebo-induced analgesia in an operant pain model in ratsPlacebo, are you there?+2 | — | placeboeffect+5 | — | 56m 16s | ||
| 4/4/26 | biologyscience fiction+3 | Dr. Eric Jaffe | Project Hail Mary | — | Project Hail Marybiology+4 | — | 56m 10s | ||
| 3/31/26 | authoritarianismdemocracy+3 | Jenessa | seriouspod.com | — | authoritarianismdemocracy+3 | — | 1h 10m 40s | ||
| 3/26/26 | Minnesota fraudcongress testimony+3 | — | Feed Our Future | Minnesota | Minnesotafraud+7 | — | 43m 48s | ||
| 3/24/26 | fraudwhistleblowers+3 | — | — | Minnesota | Minnesotafraud+4 | — | 47m 48s | ||
| 3/15/26 | ICEwhistleblower+5 | — | ICEDHS+1 | — | ICEwhistleblower+5 | — | 1h 19m 28s | ||
| 3/15/26 | allergiestestosterone+4 | — | University of ZurichScienceDaily+2 | — | nut allergytestosterone aggression+3 | — | 1h 02m 01s | ||
| 2/26/26 | Texas politicsvoter registration+4 | Jenessa | ViceThe Mirror+8 | Texas | TexasDemocrats+5 | — | 51m 19s | ||
| 1/27/26 | ICE murdersfascism+3 | — | ICEfascists | — | ICEmurders+3 | — | 2h 27m 19s | ||
Showing 31 of 842
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Chart history for Serious Inquiries Only
Peaked at #163 in India, currently #163 in India.
| Market | Genre | Peak | Current | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | — | #163 | #163 | — |
Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.
Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.