Wesley J. B. Vaught

David Nunan on X: "Being truly evidence-based means having to accept that most people/groups will not consider you their friend." / X Being truly evidence-based means having to accept that most people/groups will not consider you their friend.

Living by the ethos of David Nunan: “Being truly evidence-based means having to accept that most people/groups will not consider you their friend.”

x.com/dnunan79/sta...

Check out our new paper, “Attention to Alcohol Cues is Related to Alcohol-Related Problems in College Students with Low Distress tolerance.” Attached is the abstract, main figure, the link to the paper and Kudos for a layman summary:

psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/...

link.growkudos.com/1dykz5dg268

Great to see a study come out with null results for psilocybin-assisted therapy. It's not gonna work for everyone, everywhere-these kinds of studies are important in figuring out how and where to deploy it. This is a pretty small sample for an rct with an active control. #psychedelicscience

None of this “I’m too busy”, “science isn’t political”, or “I’m tired”…

We are on the front lines of a descent into fascism. Put the pipette down. It’s go time.

@evanjwhite.bsky.social

#standupforscience2025 in Tulsa, OK yesterday. As @awiglesworth.bsky.social said, we (and the folks driving by) learned something.

Exclusive: NIH appears to archive policy requiring female animals in studies Such a shift would “put us back in the dark ages in terms of our science,” says neuroscientist Anne Murphy, who helped to formulate the original policy.

Exclusive: NIH appears to archive policy requiring female animals in studies www.thetransmitter.org/policy/exclu...

Medicaid is not for sale.
NASA is not for sale.
The Post Office is not for sale.
America is not for sale.

We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.

Thinking a lot about these brilliant papers by @neselsd.bsky.social, @brianpace.bsky.social, and Jac Lewis. Feels VERY relevant to the moment and Elon/RFK Jr.’s obsession with psychedelics. Seems they are having a White suprematist typa existentialism and hoping everyone will jump on board!

Anti-psychiatry is on the rise from all political positions. A great book that I have begun to read, but was introduced to by @drrobertchapman.bsky.social’s book Empire of Normality, is PsychoPolitics by Peter Sedewick from the @plutopress.bsky.social. It is a MUST HAVE critique of anti-psychiatry.

RFK Jr. sought to trademark MAHA for vaccine marketing, transferred to ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. transferred ownership of the trademark application in December and its abbreviation — MAHA — to an LLC managed by Del Bigtree.

Just in case anybody has doubts about what "Make America Healthy Again" really means, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. filed a trademark request to use the slogan to market supplements, essential oils & cryptocurrency. Scammity scam-scam scamming scammer. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

January 29, 2025 M-25-14 MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES FROM: Matthew J. Vaeth, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget Me SUBJECT: Rescission of M-25-13 OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President's Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel.

🚨 BREAKING: OMB has just issued a memo *rescinding* the previous memo freezing all federal financial assistance programs.

Full text, per government source:

They know the executive order is illegal, it's not designed to survive a challenge.

They are blaring a message designed to get people to censor themselves and throw their colleagues under the bus and fall in line.

2/2

If you have a smidge of power and you catch yourself thinking:

Maybe we'll be safe if we:
- tone this justice program a bit
- take that 'decolonization' reference off the website
- nix that grant for decarbonization...

know that you are playing your part in Trump's game perfectly.

1/2

Your regular reminder that the first known clinic to offer gender-affirming surgeries was … destroyed by Nazis.

In 1933.

(Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.)

They always come for trans people first.

Do you know why a president would do all the most evil and heinous shit via Executive Order? Because his party can't easily make it law. And if they can't make it law, they can't make it last.

Don't let anyone make you feel like this is The End. Do not let them demoralize you. Live to see them die.

GOOD NEWS: A federal court temporarily halted President Trump's order to freeze all federal funding, including grants for public health, education, and safety.

Trump's order would have devastating consequences for communities in every corner of the nation. Our leaders must block it for good.

If you are scientists, researcher, or scholar of any kind, it's time to invest HEAVILY in science communication. If the government won't let the people know the facts, we must.

And I already got you covered. #academicsky #science #phd #research
medium.com/educreation/...

bsky.app/profile/roxa...

Loneliness is positively associated with populist radical right support The mental and physical health consequences of loneliness are well documented. However, loneliness's socio-political ramifications have been largely u…

Does loneliness correlate with support for the populist radical right? In the Netherlands, yes-lonelier individuals were more likely to support the PRR across 15 years of data (2008-2023), with effect sizes comparable to health correlates of loneliness. (1/9)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

LOVED this lecture.

“What Should We Do with Our Brain?” by Catherine Malabou, forward by Marc Jeannerod, translated from the French by Sebastian Rand A pink lava lamp, a record player to its side, and a bookshelf full of books

“What Should We Do with Our Brains?” by Catherine Malabou

Short answer: use it!

Long answer: neuroscientists and philosophers who do not engage in each others’ materials are damned to be stuck in the ideas that they aim to transcend - a much needed dialectal (neuro)plasticity

Congratulations, Dr. C!!!

An intra-action baddie, if you will.

The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage by Catherine Malabou, translated by Steven Miller

Not sufficiently focused on trauma, but I think Catherine Malabou does a decent job detangling “trauma” from the traditional Freudian perspective toward a more neurobiological/neuroplastic perspective in the New Wounded without getting too technocratic/materialist

A must-read thread about public health and the politics of appeasement. ⬇️

One interesting thing about Musk is that his very public behaviours are making it increasingly clear to more and more people that capitalism is the enemy of democracy, a truth that used to be more widely understood but which was suppressed during the cold war.

What the most famous book about trauma gets wrong People kept telling me to read "The Body Keeps the Score." I was shocked at what it actually says.

"[MAPS principal investigator] Van der Kolk’s approach does more than just demean individual [female SV] survivors. It flattens violence into 'trauma,' ignoring the social forces that allow it to flourish."
The issues here pertain to many MAPS-trained clinicians: www.motherjones.com/media/2024/1...

Neu-AIRR lab “paper in a day” 2024 is underway! Our first attempt to do this on the same day as the institute holiday luncheon. Fingers crossed!