The main evidence that these guys are wrong is... the guys who make money on them being wrong, the orthodonists, say they are wrong?
You can do a little better than this. "it's just your genes"? Seriously? C'mon.
I'm not a jawmaxxer, but... I read the NYT profile you mentioned. Before that, I had always thought it was pretty strange that we remove wisdom teeth. It doesn't make sense evolutionarily. Then I read that profile and it was like: Oh, maybe it's because we don't grow up like we evolved to grow up. That makes a lot of sense.
The journalism in this episode was... very not good. I needed to hear more about why this theory is wrong before I'll believe it.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is very clear on this: Paradigm shifts are always met by intense resistance by "The experts."
And, in this case, "the experts" are a whole industry that makes a very healthy living out of people NOT taking the Mews theory seriously.
I really expect better of this show.
I'm not a jawmaxxer. I can believe that chewing the ball doesn't work for an adult. But their theory makes me ask some pretty big questions about nutrition, food and childhood that I think are worth discussing.
Actually it goes the other way - since Mewing is based on little to zero empirical research, the onus is on proponents to prove why it works, not for skeptics to prove why it doesn’t.
Your main point is that orthodontists are financially incentivized to refute Mewing. Yet, the influencers who are promoting this are also financially motivated to push this agenda.
If you are disappointed in the journalism here, by all means share some reputable sources using the scientific method to prove the efficacy of Mewing.
Unremarkable guy...thank you! You expressed exactly how I was feeling. This episode felt very smug. I felt like I was listening to the audio of a new subreddit called /WeKnowBetter. I was surprised there was no mention of the book "Breath." I know an apisode can only cover so much, but it felt VERY selective and just helped reinforced the narrative, "can you believe these dumb dumbs?"
P.S. PJ....you seem like a guy who takes these comments to heart...so I just wanted to add I LOVE Search Engine. I aprpecaite the curiosity and your unique observations.
I understand the disappointment with PJ not digging in as much and trying to prove things one way or the other, but I don't think that's the point of the show. The point of the show is to learn about how ideas propagate on the Internet, and why.
One of the saddest things was when my car was broken into in 1998 and ALL of my mixtapes from ex-boyfriends and DJ friends were stolen and gone forever. The Fugees remix was on one of those mixtapes and I never knew who that track was by. Thank you for bringing it back into my life. <3
the mouth trainer reminded me of something else I've seen recently on tiktok IQoro but it sounds like there might be some science backing that one at least. 😅
Today I learned that Laura Branigan's 1984 "Self Control" (which I was very familiar with from my 80s childhood) was, in fact, a cover of Raf's original version from that same year - a version I'd never heard before today.
If you haven't already, you should read James Nestors book "Breath" as he did a far amount of research on this and I believe spoke with Mew. One of my favorite books and explains a lot about our health.
So let me get this straight.
The main evidence that these guys are wrong is... the guys who make money on them being wrong, the orthodonists, say they are wrong?
You can do a little better than this. "it's just your genes"? Seriously? C'mon.
I'm not a jawmaxxer, but... I read the NYT profile you mentioned. Before that, I had always thought it was pretty strange that we remove wisdom teeth. It doesn't make sense evolutionarily. Then I read that profile and it was like: Oh, maybe it's because we don't grow up like we evolved to grow up. That makes a lot of sense.
The journalism in this episode was... very not good. I needed to hear more about why this theory is wrong before I'll believe it.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is very clear on this: Paradigm shifts are always met by intense resistance by "The experts."
And, in this case, "the experts" are a whole industry that makes a very healthy living out of people NOT taking the Mews theory seriously.
I really expect better of this show.
I'm not a jawmaxxer. I can believe that chewing the ball doesn't work for an adult. But their theory makes me ask some pretty big questions about nutrition, food and childhood that I think are worth discussing.
Actually it goes the other way - since Mewing is based on little to zero empirical research, the onus is on proponents to prove why it works, not for skeptics to prove why it doesn’t.
Your main point is that orthodontists are financially incentivized to refute Mewing. Yet, the influencers who are promoting this are also financially motivated to push this agenda.
If you are disappointed in the journalism here, by all means share some reputable sources using the scientific method to prove the efficacy of Mewing.
Unremarkable guy...thank you! You expressed exactly how I was feeling. This episode felt very smug. I felt like I was listening to the audio of a new subreddit called /WeKnowBetter. I was surprised there was no mention of the book "Breath." I know an apisode can only cover so much, but it felt VERY selective and just helped reinforced the narrative, "can you believe these dumb dumbs?"
P.S. PJ....you seem like a guy who takes these comments to heart...so I just wanted to add I LOVE Search Engine. I aprpecaite the curiosity and your unique observations.
Yes, overall this show is great. I was just really disappointed with this one.
It felt like the whole argument was: this must be wrong because the wrong crowd is into it.
I understand the disappointment with PJ not digging in as much and trying to prove things one way or the other, but I don't think that's the point of the show. The point of the show is to learn about how ideas propagate on the Internet, and why.
This is a fair point, and maybe you're right.
But they do, in fact, dismiss the whole concept out of hand based on very flimsy evidence.
They could have just set that aside. But they didn't.
And it isn't even evidence they provide, just a flippant appeal to authority.
And the whole episode had a sneering quality that just, well, is off-putting. Like... we don't even have to take *these people* at all seriously.
I understand the that this a standard Brooklyn journalist friendship, but not enough is brought up about the unrepentant plagiarism.
👆👆👆
One of the saddest things was when my car was broken into in 1998 and ALL of my mixtapes from ex-boyfriends and DJ friends were stolen and gone forever. The Fugees remix was on one of those mixtapes and I never knew who that track was by. Thank you for bringing it back into my life. <3
just fyi: there are 3 places with comments for this episode: SearchEnginePodcast subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SearchEnginePodcast/, this here PJ's substack page: https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/what-is-jawmaxxing, and Incognito Mode / Search Engine Show page for paid subscribers: https://www.searchengine.show/listen/search-engine/what-is-jawmaxxing
Did PJ get married? Mazel tov!
the mouth trainer reminded me of something else I've seen recently on tiktok IQoro but it sounds like there might be some science backing that one at least. 😅
Omg I haven’t heard that ready or not remix since I was a raver in the late 90s - thanks for the throwback!!!
Got Jamie XX on my headphones as I'm reading this news letter. Ace call there!
Today I learned that Laura Branigan's 1984 "Self Control" (which I was very familiar with from my 80s childhood) was, in fact, a cover of Raf's original version from that same year - a version I'd never heard before today.
If you haven't already, you should read James Nestors book "Breath" as he did a far amount of research on this and I believe spoke with Mew. One of my favorite books and explains a lot about our health.
The airport question. Is this about the Casey Newton seat?
"only a discord mod would care about this" I fear he destroyed you with that one