Finding Your Spine
In a time when courage feels increasingly rare, Finding Your Spine challenges the status quo. Hosted by Dr. Chase Spears, this weekly podcast explores how Christians—and even secular conservatives—can stand firm in their values amid the pressures of cancel culture. With insightful commentary and bold conversations, Dr. Spears examines the tradeoff many make between conscience and comfort, reminding listeners that true freedom requires the spine to defend it. Tune in each week for thought-provoking discussions that inspire moral courage in an age of compromise.
Finding Your Spine
The Erosion of Truth in Academic Research
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Social psychologist Dr. Jose Duarte, PhD joins the conversation to examine the widespread problem of invalid and ideologically driven research in academia, particularly in social psychology. He describes how institutions that claim to seek truth often publish false claims about politics, climate, misinformation, and human nature, eroding public connection to reality and shaping policy on taxpayer dollars.
Dr. Duarte recounts his early experiences, including being denied admission to a graduate program over a blog post criticizing Jimmy Carter, and his role as lead author on a major 2015 paper documenting the lack of political diversity in academic psychology and its damaging effects on research validity. The discussion covers the replication crisis, concrete examples of flawed studies (such as those claiming conservatives rationalize inequality), the distinction between scholarship and rigorous research, and the embedding of leftist constructs like “microaggressions” into National Institutes of Health grants.
He details his recent efforts at NIH to develop a clean-science framework free of ideological bias, the limited progress made, ongoing funded projects that advance partisan narratives, and the broader consequences when media and policymakers treat such work as authoritative science. The episode closes with practical avenues for reform through Congress and the executive branch.
00:00:00 – Introduction
00:00:47 – Junk Academic Research
00:01:15 – False Claims from Academia
00:04:44 – Duarte’s Professional Background
00:05:15 – Denied Graduate Admission
00:07:58 – 2015 Political Bias Paper
00:10:12 – Military Academia Disconnect
00:11:49 – Invalid Research Methods
00:13:10 – Conservatives Happiness Study
00:16:26 – Scholarship Versus Research
00:18:16 – Lack of Logic in the Field
00:20:21 – Examples of Ideological Titles
00:22:26 – Taxpayer Funded Ideology
00:24:41 – Defining Microaggressions
00:27:10 – NIH Microaggression Grants
00:28:58 – Clean Science Framework Work
00:32:53 – Impact of Junk Science
00:34:18 – COVID Mask Efficacy Claims
00:35:46 – False Claims on Conservatives
00:37:48 – Tyranny of the Experts
00:39:03 – Current Open NIH Grants
00:41:21 – Paths to Reform
You can find more of Dr. Duarte's work at https://validscience.substack.com
You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.
To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.
#Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen
