Howtown
What the actual science says about brain rot
updated
This is a pilot episode of a new podcast-like format that we're calling "Howtown Showdown." In it, we flip a coin to take sides in a contentious scientific debate and look for the strongest evidence supporting our respective positions. For this first episode, we dive into the academic controversy sparked by Jonathan Haidt's best-selling book, The Anxious Generation, which argues that social media apps on smartphones are a major driver of declining mental-health outcomes among young people. The trends show rising anxiety, depression, and self-harm among teenagers in the United States and several other English-speaking countries. But does the evidence really show that social media is the problem?
Numbered sources and further reading: docs.google.com/document/d/1AdAhgQtJ7dfzc7w1lEFSCqkF8Q6HXbum2scNvTJ4LR4/edit?usp=sharing
To support independent science journalism, join us at patreon.com/howtown
And follow us on TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
We're grateful for the generous support of our Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Aatish Bhatia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Tim Davey
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Martin Weeks
Dimi
Bryce Golden-Chen
Estelle Caswell
Yash Murthy
martin david
Matthew Stvartak
Garret Wates
Slightly Suspicious Mind
Kellyn Lorentzen-Goler
omg.science
Duncan Stannett
Keith England
Aaron Wesson
Risa Dewi
Matthew Ferguson
Jocelyn Tabancay Duffy
Tonnae Kwong
Gabbatv
Gua Sin Ong
Casey Schatz
Chapters:
0:00 the proposition
1:21 riverside
2:56 the rules
3:21 joss's round 1
7:59 adam's round 1
13:29 stat v stat!
20:10 adam's round 3
25:22 joss's round 3
31:00 gotcha questions??
34:44 pet peeves
37:43 that's a fair point!
39:39 closing arguments
42:10 who won?
https://impa.american.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Costs_of_Cutting_Funding_Scientific_Research.pdf
edit: Charlie Yuncken
To support independent science journalism, join us at patreon.com/Howtown
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
Sources and further reading:
docs.google.com/document/d/1eFZng1KNTV-mRMHg_UfY_3TcV5Og7e_kmOIu-DfYjgQ/edit?usp=sharing
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Aatish Bhatia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Tim Davey
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Martin Weeks
Dimi
Bryce Golden-Chen
Estelle Caswell
Yash Murthy
martin david
Marc Hermes
Matthew Stvartak
Garret Wates
Slightly Suspicious Mind
Kellyn Lorentzen-Goler
omg.science
Duncan Stannett
Keith England
Aaron Wesson
Risa Dewi
Matthew Fergus
Leaded gasoline, paint, and pipes left a toxic fingerprint in the baby teeth of half of all Americans — and those tiny clues reveal how silent doses of lead rewired IQ scores, crime rates, and mental health for decades. In this Howtown episode we laser‑scan my own baby teeth with “tooth detective” Manish Arora, revisit Herbert Needleman’s 1970s Boston study, and track economist Jessica Reyes’s state‑by‑state link between tetraethyl lead’s phase‑out and the 1990s crime drop. New data from New Zealand’s Dunedin Study (analyzed by Aaron Reuben) show how early exposure still shapes Gen X brains, personalities, and social mobility, framing one of the largest environmental injustices in U.S. history.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:14 the tooth fairy
02:44 lead and first graders
03:39 making of this episode
05:00 from whence the poison?
06:37 industry obscures science
07:19 what lead does in the body
07:47 socioeconomic effects
08:30 a triumph?
9:08 lead causes crime?
10:36 spurious correlations
12:10 evidence lead=crime
13:01 losing our minds
13:52 the Dunedin Study
16:21 USA!
17:10 Adam's tooth results
19:00 psychopathology
19:47 lead is not past
20:27 the Milwaukee crisis
21:21 here we go again
22:08 please help!
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
To support independent science journalism, join us at patreon.com/Howtown
Sources and further reading: docs.google.com/document/d/1Umv9tV7Ja-sy8gFUVEeTO0tLjGsDq0KpNrlLcKyTJ6Y
Corrections: The righthand clip at 14:21 is mislabelled as Dinosaur Planet, this clip is from Prehistoric Planet. At 14:41 we misspelled "Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County"
Thank you to Lexi McQueen! https://bsky.app/profile/blackgirlmage.bsky.social https://x.com/blackgirlmage
And to Mark Witton for the illustrations patreon.com/markwitton
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Tim Davey
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Martin Weeks
Dimi
Bryce Golden-Chen
Estelle Caswell
Yashaswi Narasimha
martin david
Marc Hermes
Matthew Stvartak
Garret Wates
Slightly Suspicious Mind
Kellyn Lorentzen-Goler
omg.science
Duncan Stannett
Keith England
Aaron Wesson
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest known flying animals, survives in science as sixteen wing bones pulled from Cretaceous Big Bend by grad student Doug Lawson in 1971. Paleontologists reverse-engineer the rest of its body by referencing its Azhdarchid cousins like Zhejiangopterus, and Q. lawsoni, making inferences from extant archosaurs like birds and alligators, examining trackways, and modeling their wings in flight software. Still, there's a lot that they don't know about how these giant pterosaurs lived. Thin bone walls, rare 3-D preservation, and million-to-one erosion odds explain why cousins Hatzegopteryx, Arambourgiania, Cryodrakon, and Thanatosdrakon remain fragmentary in the fossil record. The sparse clues they left behind have inspired a wide range of depictions in documentaries over the years, the pinnacle of which was Prehistoric Planet from the BBC's Natural History team.
Chapters:
0:00 Love at first sight
2:20 He found it in Texas
4:09 Meet the Azhdarchids
6:02 Why these bones are rare
8:11 Pterosaur bodies
9:43 Cousins
11:50 Dissections
13:15 Footprints
14:27 Flight
15:52 Unknowns
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.70010
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12526-017-0636-0
WELCOME TO HOWTOWN! Our small but mighty team (Joss Fong and Adam Cole) digs into the evidence behind commonly held facts and claims in the news. This month: we’re about to mine one of the most unexplored places on Earth — and it turns out, it’s not a desert. It’s an alien zoo.
Check out Johnny's episode on the fascinating fight over deep sea mining: youtu.be/TacQgNeoPMM
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI. sloan.org
theimi.co
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Tim Davey
Scott Henderson
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Andrew Paschall
Martin Weeks
Dimi
Bryce Golden-Chen
Estelle Caswell
Yashaswi Narasimha
martin david
Marc Hermes
AI was used in this piece to animate some archival illustrations and style others.
patreon.com/Howtown
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
ASK US A QUESTION
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SELECTED SOURCES
An overview of biodiversity in the CCZ
cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00534-1
That deep sea mining study with surprising CIA roots:
nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08921-3
And some interesting background: blogs.noc.ac.uk/jc241-smartex/prologue-smartex
Full source list:
docs.google.com/document/d/11rv4InYD-wZ9Z_E5nT45oMjx1Pg4t30NbZi1OEqbMmg/edit?usp=sharing
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/howtown_videos
FREE NEWSLETTER: patreon.com/Howtown
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE: youtube.com/channel/UCGudGqToOw9hWGR88W9Jutg?sub_confirmation=1
Chapters:
00:00 The sunken treasure
01:43 the abyss - a desert?
02:00 how big is the abyss
03:31 trillion $ trove
04:20 get a hang o’ these
05:30 methods
07:29 empire of poop
07:49 water column critters
08:40 seamount critters
9:13 gummy squirrels
9:30 angry prawn
10:06 walking squid
10:19 mystery holes
10:49 ping pong sponge
11:33 the unnamed
12:04 accumulation curves
13:15 we don’t know much
14:00 secret CIA project
15:21 deep sea mining
16:53 is it worth it?
18:01 johnny harris
19:00 rules for mining
21:12 sea shanty
The deep sea is Earth's final frontier — and in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, scientists are discovering thousands of strange, unnamed species living on the ocean floor everywhere time they drop down a camera. But this alien wilderness is under threat. As Johnny Harris explains in his video on deep-sea mining geopolitics, there's a global race to extract metals from this fragile ecosystem. In this episode, we dive into the cutting-edge science behind exploring the abyss — from ROVs and eDNA — and ask: what happens when industry collides with a world we barely understand?
further reading:
nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0812-7
jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(17)34670-7/pdf
cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/running-out-of-empty-space-environmental-lidar-and-the-crowded-ancient-landscape-of-campeche-mexico/FFDB435047017853F26CFC5D8804B08D
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
To support independent science journalism, join us at patreon.com/Howtown
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1wX_LLaLyxE1jT4w7iJNCQv-7gfvKQMyXVDQ1i0t8pUg/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks to youtube.com/@jaguarcilloviajero
Note: We used generative AI in this piece to add motion to public-domain illustrations. Register your complaints at joss@howtown.co.
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Mikey Limotta
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Tim Davey
Scott Henderson
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Andrew Paschall
Martin Weeks
Dimi
Bryce Golden-Chen
Estelle Caswell
LiDAR scanning is transforming our understanding of the ancient Maya by revealing thousands of hidden structures beneath the forest canopy. In areas like Tikal and Caracol, laser data has uncovered extensive networks of pyramids, roads, canals, and residential compounds, expanding estimates of Maya population and urban sprawl. The 2016 PACUNAM survey alone mapped over 2000 square kilometers and identified over 60,000 structures. While much of the region remains unscanned, the technology is already reshaping what counts as a “site” and how we interpret the scale of Maya civilization. In this Howtown video, we explain how mapping methods have evolved over time, allowing archaeologists to see and analyze ancient cities like Tikal. Even after a century of study, there was still so much to be uncovered by airborne LiDAR. It’s an incredible example of how advances in physics and engineering can supercharge other fields in ways that couldn’t have been anticipated.
Chapters:
:00 a game-changer
:49 welcome to the Maya forest
3:45 Tikal through time
7:00 lidar on airplanes
11:44 minds blown
14:49 our takeaways
16:10 what's next?
17:18 my secret message
paper: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987124001464
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
Join the Science Paper Book Club at patreon.com/howtown
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Mikey Limotta
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Tim Davey
Scott Henderson
Navneet
Tra Him
Taylor
Pedro ZM
Ale
Andrew Paschall
Martin Weeks
What did Earth look like a billion years ago? Before Pangea, before dinosaurs—even before oxygen filled the air—continents were on the move. In this Howtown episode, we travel billions of years into the past to explore a groundbreaking new plate tectonic model. Discover how scientists trace ancient continents using zircon crystals, magnetic minerals, glacial scars, and more. From massive dike swarms to lost supercontinents like Rodinia and Nuna, we unravel the clues that reveal Earth's epic tectonic story.
🔬 Featuring: Paleomagnetism, zircon dating, cratons, and the surprising history of plate tectonics
🛰️ NASA satellites, moon rocks, and ancient Canadian crust
👥 With special guest Joe Hanson (@besmart )
Watch Joe's companion video on zircon dating here → youtube.com/watch?v=c4GRLFuTyQY
Key Source: Earth’s tectonic and plate boundary evolution over 1.8 billion years, Xianzhi Cao et al (2024) sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987124001464
Full Source List: docs.google.com/document/d/14lCuGV0pR0kMJjlOAbgOTf-SH3WTpKsu5yV9ygTVLOQ/edit?usp=sharing
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
Chapters:
0:00 let's rewind
1:04 starting the journey
1:52 early clues
5:00 the mechanism
5:49 how fast they move
6:41 Pangea!
8:03 a major collision
9:04 tropical canada
9:25 paleomagnetism
10:08 icy
10:40 Rodinia!
11:56 Nuna!
12:41 crazy for cratons
13:37 Vaalbara!
14:14 bombardment
15:56 the hadean
edit: Charlie Yuncken
Correction: The overlay of major metropolitan layers at 1:14 is incorrectly shifted northwest.
edit: Charlie Yuncken
Check our sources and find links to learn a lot more here: docs.google.com/document/d/149D_tiNWnJjjrf_ijuOBvGwqizNGRSWVj_EJtocQzys/edit?usp=sharing
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
Join the Science Paper Book Club at patreon.com/howtown
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Jim
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Mikey Limotta
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Edgar Sutawika
Richard Gladas
Scott Henderson
Gas Oliveira
Tim Davey
Scott Henderson
Navneet
Tra Him
Augustine Lee
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
0:00 our nemesis
1:38 confusion matrix
3:40 can we label the deepfakes?
6:30 a great way to help people
7:41 an authenticated selfie
8:43 a bit of cryptography
12:02 did it work?
14:12 the complications
16:34 elon musk
17:04 media literacy
19:14 the takeaways
edit: Charlie Yuncken
The Surgeon General's report: hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/alcohol-cancer/index.html
WELCOME TO HOWTOWN! Our small but mighty team of two (Joss Fong and Adam Cole) digs into the evidence behind commonly held facts and claims in the news.
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Ziver Imren
Jim
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Vladimir Khalimovskiy
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Hoang Anh Ky
Mikey Limotta
Marcos Huerta
Joaquim Salles
Sam Gaty
Verner Sääsk
Jason Dunlap
Parag Mallick
Paul Monaghan
Edgar Sutawika
How much alcohol is actually safe to drink? In this video, we break down the latest science and global health guidelines — from the WHO’s warning that no amount of alcohol is safe, to new limits in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. We explore decades of shifting research, the myths about red wine and heart health, and what recent studies really say about risks like cancer and heart disease. Whether you’re curious about the “two drinks a week” recommendation or wondering if moderate drinking can be healthy, this explainer separates fact from fiction.
The two images of televisions marked with an * during the Australia & Canada news montage were generated using MidJourney.
To keep Howtown going and get bonus content:
JOIN OUR PATREON
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SELECTED SOURCES
1981 Bay Area Study
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7258861
Association Between Daily Alcohol Intake and Risk of All-Cause Mortality
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802963
Lancet megastudy of 195 countries
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext
Kiran Biddinger’s mendelian randomization study of cardiovascular effects
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2790520
Full source list: docs.google.com/document/d/1xWLFKRW7-TpUhAIfvFeCMqvG3zYVAjXhmyrk9lb9PCw/edit?usp=sharing
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/howtown_videos
FREE NEWSLETTER: patreon.com/Howtown
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE: youtube.com/channel/UCGudGqToOw9hWGR88W9Jutg?sub_confirmation=1
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:22 drinking appears beneficial
03:54 the first mistake
05:00 hank's razor
07:34 rethinking drinking
08:53 a failed trial
10:43 a new genetic tool
13:04 how risky is drinking?
14:50 how dangerous is alcohol?
Howtown is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI.
sloan.org
theimi.co
WELCOME TO HOWTOWN! Our small but mighty team of two (Joss Fong and Adam Cole) digs into the evidence behind commonly held facts and claims in the news.
We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Bev Fong
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Carlos Saborio-Romero
Ziver Imren
Jim
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Vladimir Khalimovskiy
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Joshua Whitcombe
Mark Tinker
Julian Mayorga
L.A. O’Connor
Hoang Anh Ky
Mikey Limotta
Marcos Huerta
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/13qpoNZQ7GkhNlITT0JiA6j48qlKTCI_URqDB5uI2umo/edit?usp=sharing
To keep Howtown going and get bonus content:
JOIN OUR PATREON
patreon.com/Howtown
TikTok: tiktok.com/@howtown_
Insta: instagram.com/howtown_videos
ASK US A QUESTION
howtown.co/contact
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE: youtube.com/channel/UCGudGqToOw9hWGR88W9Jutg?sub_confirmation=1
Chapters:
0:00 A Hot Ones mystery
2:17 The science of hot chiles
8:38 Who are the chiliheads?
10:20 Pepper X
11:56 Wilbur Scoville
13:36 Modern methods
17:11 Hot Ones scoville secret
21:01 Patreon bonus
edit: Charlie Yuncken
🔒 Remove your personal information from the web at joindeleteme.com/Howtown and use code Howtown for 20% off
DeleteMe international Plans: international.joindeleteme.com
WELCOME TO HOWTOWN! Our small but mighty team of two (Joss Fong and Adam Cole) digs into the evidence behind commonly held facts and claims in the news.
To support our work and get bonus content:
JOIN OUR PATREON
patreon.com/Howtown
We couldn’t do it without the generous support of the Patreon Town Council:
Flora Somogyi
Bev Fong
Ruben K
Chris Wubbels
Sean Barrett
Mike Purvis
Carlos Saborio-Romero
Ziver Imren
Jim
Jon Hewett
Albychen
Hernando Garcia
Vladimir Khalimovskiy
Sean Talon
Evan Hass
Joshua Whitcombe
Mark Tinker
L.A. O’Connor
Ky Hoang Anh
INSTAGRAM:
instagram.com/howtown-videos
ASK US A QUESTION
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SELECTED SOURCES
“U.S. Election Integrity: Recommendations Report” election-integrity.info/Recommendations_Report.pdf
“The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election” lostnotstolen.org
Full source list: docs.google.com/document/d/1v6w60siU5nWN_K4dEz9ABOgffngm-AHqcvqUYiYrsjA/edit?usp=sharing
Chapters:
00:00 Could I do it?
01:10 voting in person
01:45 registration
03:20 voter impersonation
04:37 Patrick’s bounty
05:52 DeleteMe
06:50 voting machines
08:26 paper trail
10:17 reporting the votes
10:41 bribes
12:20 vote by mail
14:07 final results
16:05 how to weaken democracy
17:55 this week on patreon


