William de Jong Lambert is a historian of science whose research focuses on evolution, genetics and heredity. He is the author of many papers and books including The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research: An Introduction to the Lysenko Affair. Trofim Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist and promoter of kooky theories that greatly exacerbated the famines of the Stalin era.
Which makes William the perfect guest for Rhyming Chaos this week, as the destruction of the U.S. science and healthcare system accelerates under the leadership of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump. As Rick Wilson put it:
RFK, Jr., heroin addict, sex addict, anti-vaccination lunatic and aspiring architect of millions of deaths purged the CDC last night. He gutted the world’s premiere public-health agency in his endless quest to destroy vaccine science and plunge this nation into the Middle Ages.
It is widely reported that Kennedy has ordered a clampdown on reporting of COVID and human cases of H5N1 bird flu, and that he plans to entirely ban COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months.
In this podcast, we discuss:
Lysenko’s background and rise to prominence in Soviet agriculture
Lysenko’s animus against genetics and his theories about plant reproduction and animal husbandry
Stalin's Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, which was supposed to turn Siberia into a Garden of Eden
The stifling of scientific progress in the Soviet Union under Lysenkoism, and how long it took to recover
Why American institutions are vulnerable to anti-science sentiments
The challenges of communicating complex scientific ideas to the public
Life on American campuses in 2025
The Rhyming Chaos podcast is produced by Jeremy Goldkorn and Maria Repnikova, and edited by Cadre Scripts. The theme music is Paper Boy, composed and performed on the guzheng by Wu Fei. Our closing music is Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, arranged and performed by Wu Fei. Our cover art is by Li Yunfei.
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