Redish Lab

Scientist studying learning, memory, and decision-making. Poet and Playwright.

Lab Website: https://redishlab.umn.edu/
Books: Changing How We Choose: The New Science of Morality
Books: The Mind within the Brain

Last Notes

2026-03-05 14:08:01 CET

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One of my colleagues (Steve Kelley) had a very helpful perspective on this. He said that one should always engage with politicians (and other activists) knowing which of three hats you were wearing:
Hat 1. This is my expertise. I am the world expert in this topic. It comes from my research and I am *the* person to talk to about this topic.
Hat 2. This is my field. I know the nuances and questions that one needs to ask. I'm qualified to tell you which science is well-founded and which is bogus.
Hat 3. I'm a citizen. I'm a reasonably smart person who wants to share my opinions on what one should do in this situation.
I've found that talking to politicians being explicit about which hat I'm wearing has been very helpful. (And all three hats can be important. Remember, politicians want to know what their constituents want ... well, good politicians do. This why "call your representative" matters.)
Steve knows from what he is talking about. He was a state senator here in MN and then transitioned to be faculty in our School of Public Affairs. He ran a class once for other faculty in engagement, which is where I got this from.

2026-03-02 16:56:28 CET

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I think this is a good idea.
Anyone who wants a grant has to do at least 3 reviews for each submission. Anyone who wants to publish a paper has to do at least 2 reviews for each submission.
Not only would that help the review backlog, it would help limit the people who submit way too many grants and papers.

2025-08-02 20:22:01 CEST

An interesting thing that I realized in a response to @npub1xne…xqch and @npub14c5…rfvf.
There are ~60k postdocs in the US. Assume a lab costs on average $500k/yr. 60k PD @ $500k/yr = $30b.
Giving EVERY current postdoc in the US a lab would require doubling the NIH budget, but not more than that. 🤯
We just gave $300b/yr in tax cuts to the wealthy. 🫤
I don't know EU numbers, but I assume they're similar.