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The Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterCanada’s Sex Bias in Health Research Funding“This is feminist economic policy in action.”Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Deputy PM, Minister of Finance (Budget 2022)Investigations into the way that government’s allocate money into health research is important, because taxpayers should know how their money is being used and if that use aligns with broader societal interest and medical need.At The Nuzzo Letter, I have previously shown that substantial differences exist in funding of men’s and women’s health research in Australia and the United States (U.S.). In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) invests about five...2025-04-1027 minYoga With Jake PodcastYoga With Jake PodcastDr. James Nuzzo: Differences Between Men & Women in Exercise Science. Men’s Health Research Isn’t a Zero-Sum Pursuit. How Ideological Language Infiltrates Science.Dr. ​​James L. Nuzzo isan exercise scientist and men’s health researcher. Dr. Nuzzo has published over 80 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, and he writes regularly about exercise, men’s health, and academia at The Nuzzo Letter on Substack. Dr. Nuzzo is also active on X @JamesLNuzzo.James' Substack: https://jameslnuzzo.substack.com/Support the show2025-04-071h 22The Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterAustralia’s Federal Budget Forgets MenOn Tuesday, March 25th, the Australian Labor Party hnded down the country’s federal budget for the 2025-26 financial year. Men’s health was not part of the budget. However, women’s health received its usual smorgasbord of government goodies, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers stating that women's health is a “national priority."According to government documents and Nine News, 793 million dollars has been budgeted for women’s health. This money has been labelled “critical” and entails the following, according to Nine News:* $134.3 million for insertion and removal of long-acting reversible contraceptives by nurse practitioners* $109.1 mil...2025-04-0318 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterBrothers of the Barbell and the Blackout(*Don’t forget to scroll to the end to see more interesting photographs!)Today, there exists much concern about women’s representation as participants in exercise research. I have covered this topic in essays such as “History Didn’t Start at Title IX,” “Men: The Martyrs of Medicine,” and “Is There a Bias Against Women in Research?”To the extent that women have been less frequent participants in certain types of research published in specific journals in certain years, this does not then necessitate a conclusion of discrimination against potential female participants. For one, participation in research is not...2025-03-2512 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterAnti-Male Bias in Contemporary AcademiaRecently, in a piece titled, Men Putting the Brakes on Exercise Science Degrees, I explained the results from my research on numbers of exercise physiology degrees earned in the United States (U.S.).For the research, I collated data on degrees earned in exercise science since 2002. I presented the data in a sex-segregated way such that separate trend lines are shown for male and female degree earners. The analysis revealed that the field has experienced substantial growth over the past 20 years and that the number of women earning bachelor’s degrees in the field has exceeded the nu...2025-03-2115 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterWomen’s Viewership of Women’s SportsA significant amount of data on sex differences exists. Over several decades of research on human psychology and physiology, thousands of studies have been conducted regarding men’s and women’s unique and overlapping preferences, behaviors, and abilities. Moreover, in recent years, government agencies and academic journals have advised that data, when acquired in studies that include both male and female participants, be segregated by sex. Fair enough.Given this long history of sex differences research, and the continued and proper emphasis on segregating future scientific data by sex, I have remained perplexed at the difficulty in trac...2025-03-0713 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterMen Putting the Brakes on Exercise Science DegreesIn December of last year, I wrote a paper titled, “Exercise physiology degrees in the United States: an update on secular trends.” The paper, which is an update of my previous analysis from 2020, was published in the journal Advances in Physiology Education. Advances in Physiology Education is the education journal associated with American Physiological Society.The reason I examined the number of degrees earned in exercise science is because such information is not monitored by professional exercise science organizations in the U.S. Consequently, whether the exercise science field is growing, stagnating, or retracting remains unclear.Fo...2025-02-2412 minAmerica in View Political News PodcastAmerica in View Political News PodcastTop News Stories of the Week & Beating Back ESG and DEI with Special Guest Sal NuzzoOn this week's show, Brett and Matt are talking about some of this week’s top news stories and discussing the fight against ESG and DEI with special guest Sal Nuzzo, Executive Director of Consumers Defense and formerly with the James Madison Institute.2025-01-3143 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterGender Equity at Curtin UniversityCurtin University is one of 42 universities in Australia. It is a public university located in Perth – the city where I reside. Total student enrolment at Curtin University is approximately 60,000.Earlier this year, Curtin University advertised a job titled STEM Outreach Officer. According to the job advertisement:“The Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University is excited to be expanding the Girls Engineering Tomorrow program, and we are looking for a dedicated and passionate STEM Outreach Officer to join our team and help inspire the next generation of STEM superstars! This role is all about conn...2025-01-2011 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterDead Men and the Bureau of Labor StatisticsOn December 19, 2024, the United States (U.S.) Bureau of Labor Statistics published their annual press release on fatal occupational injuries. The release, which amounts to a brief report, is 10 pages long.In the first sentence of the report, the Bureau states that there were 5,283 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2023. The Bureau then displays the results in a bar graph, labelled “Chart 1.” Chart 1 shows the number of fatal work injuries in the U.S. each year from 2014 to 2023. From the graph, one learns that the average number of work fatalities per year since 2014 has been abou...2025-01-0212 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterTaylor Lorenz and the Counterfactual of a Murdered Female CEOOn December 4th, Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare (UHC), was purposely gunned down in Manhattan outside the New York Midtown hotel. The alleged assassin, who is now in custody, is Luigi Mangione. Taylor Lorenz is a former Washington Post journalist, who is known for making various irrational and unhinged remarks about social and political issues. A few days after the murder of Thompson, Lorenz participated in a panel discussion about the case on Piers Morgan Uncensored. During the discussion, Lorenz said that she felt “joy” and “certainly not empathy” after hearing the news of Thompson’s death. Loren...2024-12-1307 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterCommunist China and Exercise Science PublishingOn October 13, I received an email from a master’s student of exercise science at the Shanghai University of Sport in China. The student’s name was Mingyue Yin. Mr. Yin invited me to co-author a consensus paper about minimal dose exercise training. Minimal dose exercise training, which I have discussed previously at The Nuzzo Letter, is an amount of exercise that does not meet recommended exercise guidelines but that still has the potential to improve health and function. I was likely asked be a part of the consensus paper because of a review that colleagues and I pu...2024-11-0819 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterFewer Men Than Women Vote - Why?On October 28, I shared data at The Nuzzo Letter showing that substantially fewer men than women vote in elections for United States (U.S.) president. This has been the case dating back to at least 1964. Each election, women make up roughly 53.5% of those who vote, while men make up the other 46.5%. In 2020, 68.4% of the adult female population voted compared to 65% of the adult male population.Nevertheless, I did not previously discuss why fewer men than women vote in U.S. elections. In fact, that fewer men than women vote in elections seems somewhat contradictory at the surface...2024-11-0112 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterA Woman President“I would not want to be president and would not vote for a woman president. A woman cannot reasonably want to be a commander-in-chief. I prefer to answer the question by outlining what a rational man would do if he were president.”That was Ayn Rand’s answer to an article-interview question that asked her and 15 other prominent women in 1968 about what they would do if they were President of the United States (U.S.).Ayn Rand moved from Russia to the U.S. in 1926. She was the founder Objectivism – a philosophy that integrated reason and logi...2024-10-1522 minPsychobabblePsychobabbleThe Rise of Woke Medicine: Dr. James Nuzzo on Social Justice in AcademiaIn episode 20 of Psychobabble, we sit down with Dr. James Nuzzo, a published researcher and expert in exercise science and Men’s Health, to discuss his widely read paper ““Woke” nomenclature in health research." Dr. Nuzzo shares his first-hand experiences navigating social justice-driven research and battling with peer reviewers who prioritize politics over science. From the frustrations of trying to get published to the broader consequences on patient care, we explore how ideological bias is reshaping scientific research and the pressures academics face for challenging the status quo. Dr. Nuzzo pulls no punches as he reveals the growing risks to resea...2024-09-1849 minDr Joe UnpluggedDr Joe UnpluggedEp 64. James Nuzzo PhD and Research That Won’t Make the Legacy MediaJame Nuzzo PhD joins Dr Joe to talk about studies which are important but wont get publicity because they question the narrative Sources: 1. https://jameslnuzzo.substack.com/p/biological-sex-and-flexibility-in 2. https://jameslnuzzo.substack.com/p/yoga-in-the-united-states 3. https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/441 4. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/being-more-flexible-help-people-live-longer#Checking-flexibility-across-20-areas-in-the-body If you enjoyed the episode please follow and review the podcast! Recorded and produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podwave Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Dr Joe Unplugged X - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoesDIYhealth⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr Joe Kosterich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@DrJoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠2024-09-1235 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterMen: The Intellectual Giants of Exercise ScienceIn June, the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance published a survey study on the history of exercise science. The survey, titled “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Essential Papers in Sports and Exercise Physiology,” was conducted by two accomplished exercise scientists – Jos de Koning and Carl Foster. de Koning and Foster asked 52 male and female exercise science academics, who varied in subdiscipline expertise and who had been journal editors at some point in their careers, to each nominate 25 papers that they thought were “essential readings” for exercise science students. de Koning and Foster...2024-07-2512 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterNIH reveals “new” research areas for women’s healthPreviously, at The Nuzzo Letter, I explained that the White House’s Initiative on Women’s Health Research would be allocating 100 million dollars to work being done by women’s health researchers and startup companies. Now, we know more details of where that money will go.The Office for Research on Women’s Health, in coordination with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), issued a Notice of Special Interest to inform researchers of the organization’s interest in receiving applications for research studies that are focused on diseases and health conditions that predominantly impact women, including, but not limite...2024-07-1210 minDr Joe UnpluggedDr Joe UnpluggedEp 45. James Nuzzo PhD and the Rise of Woke ResearchDr Joe is joined by Dr James Nuzzo to talk about strength training mens health, and problems in medical research. They also go down the rabbit hole of “peer review”. This may surprise or shock you. Follow James: https://jameslnuzzo.substack.com https://www.jameslnuzzo.com If you enjoyed the episode please follow and review the podcast! Recorded and produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podwave Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Dr Joe Unplugged X - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoesDIYhealth⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr Joe Kosterich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@DrJoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@drjoeunplugged⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠2024-07-0452 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterGynocentrism in biomedical researchOn November 13th of 2023, the Biden White House and its Gender Policy Council announced the creation of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. On February 23rd of 2024, the White House revealed the initiative would start with an investment of $100 million dollars into work being done by women’s health researchers and startup companies.The $100 million dollars adds to the oodles of money already poured into women’s health research through government bureaus such as the Office for Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nevertheless, this did not stop Fir...2024-06-2712 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterNew research confirms the rise of Woke medicineIn March of this year, I shared a story about one of my research papers that was found to be so disagreeable to a women on the journal’s editorial team, that she decided to resign from her position in protest to the editor’s decision to accept my paper for publication. The paper was finally published online earlier this month, and what follows is a description of the content that one woman found so provocative. Consider this your official “trigger warning.”“Woke” is a colloquial term used to describe a raised consciousness or awareness of suggested social injus...2024-06-2016 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterThe muscle fatigue curveLet us pretend that you are asked to perform five consecutive sets of resistance exercise with a one-minute rest between each set. You can choose whatever exercise you like, and you can lift whatever weight you like, but the weight must be the same for all five exercise sets, and you must try to perform as many repetitions as possible during each set. For example, you might choose the biceps curl exercise and a dumbbell weight that allows you to complete 30 repetitions in your first set before failing on your 31st attempt.My question for you is...2024-06-1312 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterHistory didn't start at Title IX[Skip to the end to see all the photographs!]In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act into United States law. The broad aim of Title IX was to ensure, within federally funded educational institutions, that individuals were not discriminated against based on their sex. Men and women were to receive equal opportunities to participate in educational programs, including school sports.“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education pr...2024-05-3118 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterMinimal dose resistance exerciseThere are many reasons why one should want to maintain adequate muscle strength throughout life. Greater muscle strength correlates with reduced risk of all-cause mortality, reduced risk of falls, better ability to perform activities of daily living, and better recoveries after hospital admissions.The most effective way to maintain or improve one’s muscle strength is by participating in resistance exercise with free weights or weight machines or by completing other muscle-strengthening activities such push-ups, pull-ups, or other body weight exercises.Though decades of research has shown that resistance exercise is medicine, with regular participation ca...2024-05-1014 minThe Victor Dalziel PodcastThe Victor Dalziel PodcastWOKE MADNESS in Australian Universities with DR JAMES NUZZODr James Nuzzo is an adjunct senior lecturer in exercise science and the author of over 70 peer-reviewed research articles. Dr. Nuzzo publishes essays and podcasts regularly at his Substack page, The Nuzzo Letter. He can also be found on X @JamesLNuzzo. James is a strong, considered, and articulate men’s health advocate and university whistle-blower who exposes the woke madness and shenanigans going on in the secretive world of academic publishing. Contact Dr James Nuzzo You can FIND JAMES HERE: ...2024-04-091h 37The Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 6 – Rejected by a copyeditor stand-in for big public healthIn Story 5 of my personal experiences with ideological drama in academic peer review, we learned how an editor can hold a paper under review unnecessarily, culminating in a total review time of almost two years. Such delays hinder important data from being shared quickly with the public and with other researchers. Story 6 – the last story in this series – is similar to all the preceding stories in that it reflects the impact of reviewer bias and editorial cowardice. However, it is also different than all other stories in that it did not have a happy ending of paper acce...2024-03-2811 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 5 – Genital mutilation paper under review for two yearsIn Story 4 of my personal experiences with ideological drama in academic peer review, we learned how incompetent and biased editors and reviewers slow the review process. This then delays findings, which go against their beliefs, from being published. We also learned of the increased tendency for such delays to occur when the research in question deals with sex or gender. In the case of Story 4, the total review time for our simple survey study was 1.5 years – an unacceptable length of time for peer review. Yet, this is not the longest amount of time that one of my papers on a...2024-03-2110 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 4 – Gender word policeIn Story 3 of my personal experiences with ideological drama in academic peer review, we learned how editorial safetyism, caused by a worry to publish something that might be deemed “controversial,” delays important and corrective information from being published. We also learned that this occurs when the topic being discussed has to deal with sex or gender. Story 4 is another example of the issues that exist within peer review when one attempts to say that sex differences exist, and one is unlucky enough to have a social constructionist or determinist review their paper On April 16, 2022, we submitted a pape...2024-03-1410 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 3 – Editorial safetyism and “gender-based violence”In Story 2 of my personal experiences with ideological drama in academic peer review, we learned of a peer reviewer at the journal Sports Medicine who rejected one of my papers because I presented data to support my position that volunteer self-selection bias might be a contributing factor to fewer female than male participants in certain exercise research trials. The reviewer stated “Data be damned, I know women are understudied and you will not convince me otherwise. Perceptions trump data.”What we learned from Story 2 was that some peer reviewers are cognitively unfit for the job, and they are...2024-03-0710 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 2 – “Data be damned…Perceptions trump data”In Story 1 of my personal experiences with ideological drama in academic peer review, we learned of an editorial assistant who resigned from her post because the journal she worked for decided to accept for publication my forthcoming paper on Woke medicine. This was certainly an unusual and dramatic tale, but the story I am about to share, Story 2, is my most concerning experience with peer review In 2020, I submitted an opinion article to the high-ranking exercise journal, Sports Medicine. In the paper, I commented on the hot-button issue of female participant “underrepresentation.” In my paper, I challenged the...2024-02-2906 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterPersonal drama in academic peer review: Story 1 – Woke resignationAcademic peer review is the process by which professors critique their colleagues’ research to determine whether the research is of sufficient quality to be published in a journal and thus made available for public consumption.Contemporary peer review is littered with many issues. It is often slow. Some submissions might take several months to a year or more to proceed through the review process. And this is just for a single submission of a paper. Some papers will need to be submitted to multiple journals before they are finally published. By the time a study’s re...2024-02-2208 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterMen: the martyrs of medicineHistory is important. It helps to place contemporary issues in their proper context. It can help us to appreciate the things that we currently have, when those things are better than they were in the past. History can also provide the motivation or yearning for something better, when things in the moment are not as good as they could be. Either way, history informs.Recently, while searching for information on the history of medicine, I came across a paper, published in 1959, about typhoid vaccination in the United States (U.S.). The article, which was titled “The initial ef...2024-02-0812 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterWhat’s in an exercise name?Let’s pretend for a moment that I am your personal trainer or strength coach.I advise you that for your Monday workouts, I want you to perform the following exercises: the arm curl, the overhead press, the hamstring curl, and the heel raise.I then advise you that for your Thursday workouts, I want you to perform the biceps curl, the shoulder press, the knee flexion, and the calf raise.Thus, for your Monday and Thursday workouts, I have given you eight different exercises to perform. Haven’t I?The four...2024-01-3010 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterA reading of our letter to the White House on boys’ and men’s healthDear listeners,On January 9th of this year, the Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men, headed by Dr. Warren Farrell, published an open letter addressed to the President and First Lady of the United States, calling for more attention to boys’ and men’s health issues. The letter is available online and also displayed below. As a member of the Coalition, and one of the architects and co-authors of the letter, I thought I would read it aloud here.How to Support to The Nuzzo LetterIf you appr...2024-01-2305 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterBody weight and the feminisation of the Australian Football LeagueA news report on January 13th revealed that the Australia Football League, or AFL, is implementing a new policy where player body weights will no longer be listed in the official season guide.This may come as a surprise to many of you who closely follow sports and know that body weight is a descriptive metric of players that has been reported for many years in various sports. So, why the change?According to the report, the AFL has deemed that body weight is private information and inappropriate for publication. No other details on the...2024-01-1510 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterContinued debate about female underrepresentation in exercise studiesOur letter:“Women and men report unequal interest in participating in exercise research”Their reply:“Reply to Nuzzo and Deaner: “Investigator bias” is a potent influence on the underrepresentation of women research participants in biomedical research”Their paper:“Underrepresentation of women in exercise science and physiology research is associated with authorship gender”Our survey study:“Men and women differ in their interest and willingness to participate in exercise and sports science research”If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting The Nuzzo Letter with a one-time or r...2024-01-1332 minTrending Globally: Politics and PolicyTrending Globally: Politics and PolicyAfter four years of COVID-19, are we safer against future pandemics?This December marks four years since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. On this episode of Trending Globally, Dan Richards speaks with two experts from the Pandemic Center at Brown University’s School of Public Health about the ways our society’s approach to public health has changed since 2019. They discuss how we should be thinking about COVID-19 in our daily lives, the unexpected ways international conflicts have changed conversations around pandemic preparedness, and what the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 can teach us about how societies learn from disasters.Guest on today’s episo...2023-12-1329 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterA lie about women in exercise studies before 1975Women as participants in research trials continues to be a hot topic. In one previous post, I presented data showing that, even though we often hear claims that women are underrepresented as research participants, data from the Office on Research on Women’s Health clearly show this to be untrue. Their data show that each year women comprise more than 50% of participants in research trials that are funded by the National Institutes of Health, or NIH.The topic of representation of women as research participants is also a hot button issue within the field of exercise and sp...2023-12-0117 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterThere is still no women’s health crisisThese days, it is not too difficult to find an academic paper or news article that states that women are “underrepresented” as participants in medical research trials. In fact, in this week’s press release from the White House, in which it announced the creation of a White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, the underrepresentation of women as participants in health research was mentioned in the press release’s first sentence.By underrepresented, authors mean that women are being excluded from participating in research studies, or that researchers are not taking an interest in women’s health iss...2023-11-1609 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo Letter“What will happen when Bobby Knight dies?” – An essay that I never finishedFor several years, I have had scribbled down in my notes an idea for an essay that I had planned to title, “What will happen when Bobby Knight dies?”Obviously, I never got around to writing this essay, and on November 1, 2023, legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight passed away. Here, I want to share some notes that I had written for this unfinished essay. I think the notes will suffice for understanding what the essay was intended to be about.In the essay, I was going to present the idea that society is not perhaps adequately repl...2023-11-0207 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterDisproportionately fewer funds for men’s health research in AustraliaIn 2022, American astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss brought international attention to Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) by writing an essay in Quillette about the bias against men within the agency. The NHMRC resides within the Australian federal government and is tasked with funding much of the country’s health and medical research. Krauss’ criticism of the agency centred around a new policy that was informed by their Gender Equality Strategy and designed to “address systematic disadvantage faced by female and non-binary applicants to its Investigator Grant scheme.” The NHMRC’s policy is a gender quota system, which was establis...2023-11-0210 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterThe repetitions-%1RM relationship updated after 20 yearsI want you to pretend for a moment that today is your first day lifting weights at the gym. You have a hired a personal trainer to create and guide you through a resistance exercise program. In one of your first sessions with your personal trainer, they assess your maximal strength. They do this by testing, what is called, the one repetition maximum or 1RM. The 1RM is the maximal amount of weight that you can lift for a given exercise. For the sake of this example, we will say that your trainer has tested your 1RM on the...2023-10-1812 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterOne million dollars for research on “gender equity” in motor vehicle accidentsOn September 13th, here on The Nuzzo Letter, I discussed an advertisement for research grants aimed at funding projects in Australia that “address equity issues across the entire higher education student lifecycle.” I explained that the grants were intended to help improve higher education outcomes for six groups. One of the groups was “women in non-traditional areas” while the other groups were based on demographic characteristics that were not gender-specific but that were generally associated with poorer educational outcomes. That men were not considered a cohort of their own in this call for grants was unusual given that in Australi...2023-10-0509 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterWomen’s studies – on the rise or fading away?The field of women’s studies, sometimes called gender studies, concerns itself with the lives and experiences of girls and women. It is defined by the National Center for Education Statistics in the United States as:“A program that focuses on the history, sociology, politics, culture, and economics of women, and the development of modern feminism in relation to the roles played by women in different periods and locations in North America and the world. Programs may focus on literature, philosophy, and the arts as much as on social studies and policy.”This is a forgiv...2023-09-2109 minThe Nuzzo LetterThe Nuzzo LetterAustralian research grant for equity in higher education ignores menRecently, while searching for research grants to support my own projects, I came across a call for grant applications advertised by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). This is an organisation housed within Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.The call for grants was termed the Small Grants Research Program. A total of 13 grants valued at $30,000 to $50,000 Australian dollars could be applied for. According to the advertisement, the program “fund[s] proposals that address equity issues across the entire higher education student lifecycle.”The organization listed six groups that their funds coul...2023-09-1307 minSports Science DudesSports Science DudesEpisode 42 - James Nuzzo PhD - Dissecting Sex Differences in Fiber Types, Women in Research, and Men's HealthIn a riveting conversation with researcher Dr. James L Nuzzo, we dissect the differences in skeletal muscle fiber types between men and women. James brings unique insights from his meta-analysis of over 100 studies, unraveling fascinating intricacies about muscle power and strength differences between men and women.  Then, we turn the spotlight on the less examined subject of gender differences in exercise sciences and academia. The absence of discourse on the physiological disparities between men and women, the controversy of transgender females competing against biological females, and the need for a proactive dialogue in this realm are just some of t...2023-08-1652 min