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Taylor Swift sparkles in black-and-silver gown at 2026 VMAs
Taylor Swift made a show-stopping return to the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet.
Across the South, Black voters weigh a new political reality
New voting maps in the South have sparked a wave of grassroots activism following a major Supreme Court ruling.
Teyana Taylor’s Transparent 2026 VMAs Look Featured a Plunging Neckline and Dramatic Details
Teyana Taylor turned heads on the 2026 MTV VMAs red carpet in a transparent black look with a plunging neckline. See photos here.
Experimental Emulator Brings Nintendo Switch Games to Jailbroken PS5 Consoles
An unofficial port of the Eden Nintendo Switch emulator is now running natively on jailbroken PlayStation 5 consoles. Developer BlackBearReloaded released ProsperoEden, which adapts Eden, itself a fork of the now-defunct Yuzu project, to run directly on Sony's hardware as homebrew rather than...
Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: Great sound, incredible battery life, and few compromises
I spent the last few weeks with the Sennheiser Momentum 5 to determine if this pair actually stands out, testing everything from sound quality and noise cancellation to comfort and battery life.
Black Men's Mental Health Conference
Link to Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/detroit-black-mens-mental-health-conference-tickets-1865704595669
Oliver Moore Deal Sets Tone For Blackhawks’ Next Big Contracts
Oliver Moore's new deal signals a shift for Chicago. See the numbers on Levshunov, Rinzel, and Lardis as the rebuild moves forward.
I tested the Pixel 11 Pro XL against the Pixel 8 Pro. Here's why it's time to finally upgrade
The Pixel 8 Pro is one of my favorite Google smartphones, but the company has done enough with the Pixel 11 Pro XL to think about upgrading.
Logan Mailloux Leaves Preseason Finale With Upper-Body Injury
Defenseman did not return following fight with Chicago's Cole Smith late in first period of 3-2 loss to Blackhawks
UN adds major Israeli companies to ‘blacklist’ over settlement ties
The UN added 61 companies to its 'blacklist' of businesses linked to West Bank settlements, including Tnuva, Netafim and Aroma; Israel condemned the list as a 'distorted mechanism' targeting companies that committed no wrongdoing
In science fiction thriller, civil engineer focuses on our vulnerabilities in the age of AI
J. Luke Bennecke's book, "Blackout" blends science fiction with real U.S. infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Man Utd Eye Sunderland's Brian Brobbey As Price Tag Revealed
Manchester United target attacking reinforcements to revive a stagnant front line, but the Black Cats demand a premium for their prolific Dutch talisman.
He washed dishes beneath BlackRock’s headquarters, landed his dream job there—then quit to build his family’s restaurant empire
Anthony Scotto III traded corporate security for seven-day workweeks, hundreds of employees, and a rapidly expanding family business.
For third time, Supreme Court rejects Missouri's bid for another GOP-leaning House district
The GOP wanted to redraw a district in Kansas City that had elected a Black Democrat. Six of the state's eight congressional districts favor Republicans.
Federal appeals court rules Pentagon’s blacklist of Anthropic was legal
The Department of Defense can blacklist Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The decision is a blow to Anthropic after it won a separate challenge in a California court in August that partially invalidated the Trump administration’s label.
Black Women. Health. Power.: Creating Space for Connection, Community and Collective Calls to Action
This year marked the 55th anniversary of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference (ALC). The conference convenes policymakers, advocates, organizers, faith and community leaders in Washington, D.C. to identify the priorities of Black communities that demand legislative action. In the same spirit that brings thousands of changemakers to D.C. for this annual event, […]
US court upholds Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic
Conflict began in February when Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on use of Claude for fully autonomous weapons.
Some iPhone 18 Pro Max Users Experiencing AT&T Cellular Issues
A subset of iPhone 18 Pro Max users in the U.S. are experiencing issues with AT&T cellular connectivity and/or eSIM provisioning, according to complains across the MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Community. Affected users are unable to connect to the AT&T network for phone calls, text messages, or data. Notably, the U.S. version of the iPhone 18 Pro Max is the only new iPhone released this month that is equipped with a Qualcomm cellular modem.
The Business of Educating Black Parents, Teachers and Kids
Parents once used her name to discipline their children. That unexpected moment sparked an idea that would become a growing education business.
Exclusive: First Look at HomePod Mini 2 in Three New Colors
Apple's new HomePod mini will share the same design as the original model and come in five colors, MacRumors has found. The information originates from Apple's own code (spotted by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris) and shows clear product images of the new models in all of their colors. The above image contains Apple's own icons, which specifically refer to a "HomePod mini 2". The new HomePod mini will come in green, pink, blue, white, and black.
H3D Foundation, IFPMA and Leith Host Webinar on How Storytelling Helps Science Travel Further
Little Black Book, This session formed part of the H3D Foundation’s webinar series focused on strengthening African scientific leadership and visibility
Angie Nixon’s campaign runs through the labor, Civil Rights movements
Nixon’s rise comes as Democrats, Black activists and legal scholars say the gains of the Civil Rights Movement are under attack.
UConn Health Broadens Deployment of APPs
Advanced practice providers help expand access to care, meet growing demand
Eagles Face Massive Defensive Question Before Bears Week 3 Showdown
The Philadelphia Eagles are looking for some payback as they take on the Chicago Bears in Week 3.Last season, the Bears torched the Eagles on the ground, rushing for 281 yards to win 24-15 on Black Friday. It was a rough loss for a Philly team that was trying to close out the NFC East […] The post Eagles Face Massive Defensive Question Before Bears Week 3 Showdown appeared first on HEAVY.
Tolton film cast, director to appear at special Quincy screening
QUINCY — The story of Father Augustine Tolton, the nation’s first publicly recognized Black Catholic priest, will return to Quincy on Wednesday, Sept. 30, when the film “Tolton: From Slave […]
Black Men's Wellness Day, 'Real Men Real Talk' put men's health front and center in Baltimore
We hear all the time that men will put work, family and everything else ahead of their own health.
How Open Science Can Help Researchers Prepare for the Next Pandemic
NVIDIA is collaborating with organizations including Google DeepMind and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute to release an open dataset of viral protein structures — giving scientists a head start against diseases.
Hitachi Solutions achieves the 2026-2027 Microsoft AI Business Solutions Inner Circle award.
/PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Solutions, has been selected for this AI Business Solution's 2026-2027 Microsoft Inner Circle membership. Participation within Inner...
Capitol agenda: Democrats fracture over college sports - Live Updates
Despite bipartisan backing of a college athletics bill, Black Democratic lawmakers are warning their own party that supporting the measure risks exploiting Black athletes.
Hitachi Solutions achieves the 2026-2027 Microsoft AI Business Solutions Inner Circle award.
/PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Solutions, has been selected for this AI Business Solution's 2026-2027 Microsoft Inner Circle membership. Participation within Inner...
Hitachi Solutions achieves the 2026-2027 Microsoft AI Business Solutions Inner Circle award.
/PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Solutions, has been selected for this AI Business Solution's 2026-2027 Microsoft Inner Circle membership. Participation within Inner...
Black Lung Disease Remains a Threat, but Federal Officials Delay Effort To Address It
The disease has long been a risk of coal mining, an industry the Trump administration is trying to reinvigorate.
Meta's Next Smart Glasses Collab Is With Blackpink's Lisa
Blackpink in your upper-facial area.
Nonprofit Black Health Matters No Longer Says 'Health Equity'
In a new political climate, the nonprofit revises its mission statement -- but not its mission.
Marijuana business eyes Oak Bluffs zoning amid legal disputes
A cannabis entrepreneur group’s plans to set up a dispensary on the Island fell through last year, and assets in 90 Dr. Fisher Road in West Tisbury, the former location of the Island’s only marijuana-growing facility, are being liquidated. But representatives of Black Harbor Group, which had rented the West Tisbury location, said they’re making […]
The InSight Take: US Drug Certification: Law Enforcement or Politics?
Why did the US remove Venezuela from its drug blacklist while Colombia and Bolivia remain on it? We unpack it this InSight Take.
📸 Germany unveil their latest adidas shirt on Thursday
The German national team will wear its final adidas shirt as early as Thursday, coinciding with Jürgen Klopp’s debut as head coach.The German brand brought forward the launch of the black shirt, wh...
Logitech’s new Blue Yeti 2 mic adjusts itself to where you are
A modern solution to its classic problem
Official | Enzo Le Fée extends Sunderland contract
Enzo Le Fée (26) has extended his contract with Sunderland AFC until 2031, the club has officially announced.Loaned from AS Roma in January 2025, then signed permanently by the Black Cats six months ...
Talarico works to reach Black voters in his bid to win a US Senate seat as a Democrat in Texas
Democratic Texas U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico is working to reach Black voters, a key demographic in his race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton
Apple Intelligence Taking up 30GB+ on Some Macs Running macOS 27
After you install macOS 27 Golden Gate, Apple automatically downloads a multi-gigabyte AI model to your Mac the next time it's connected to the internet. Unlike previous versions of macOS, you can't prevent it. Siri AI, and by extension Apple Intelligence, are now a mandatory part of your system.
'The Peterson Show' review: Janine Nabers' new play goes awry
The Echo Theater Company presents the world premiere of 'The Peterson Show' by Janine Nabers, a play that reunites the cast of a beloved Black sitcom after the TV dad has gone to jail.
Brown Health axes multiple execs after $13M operating loss
Rhode Island’s largest health system has been trying to get its operations back in the black this year.
Black Business Association Launches Microgrant Program
Source: Black Business Association of Amherst Area The Black Business Association of Amherst Area (BBAAA) encourages current and aspiring entrepreneurs to apply for support with startup costs and operating expenses. The application deadline is Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The grant application form and guidelines can be found on the BBAAA website: Eligible Expenses Grant awards
Abdul El-Sayed says Kamala Harris' visit for his Michigan U.S. Senate race is about Democratic unity
El-Sayed said Harris, who will attend a roundtable on Black maternal health with him and separately join an event hosted by the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, is a critical advocate in helping him close ranks as he tries to defeat Republican Mike Rogers.
Abdul El-Sayed says Kamala Harris' visit for his Michigan U.S. Senate race is about Democratic unity
El-Sayed said Harris, who will attend a roundtable on Black maternal health with him and separately join an event hosted by the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, is a critical advocate in helping him close ranks as he tries to defeat Republican Mike Rogers.
Platinum Equity Completes Sale of Global Environmental Services Business Urbaser to Blackstone and EQT for $6.6 Billion
Sale of Madrid-based environmental infrastructure platform follows multi-year transformation process LONDON (September 22, 2026) – Platinum Equity announced today that the sale of Urbaser to Blackstone and EQT in a transaction valued at approximately $6.6 billion (€5.6 billion) has been completed. Urbaser is a global integrated environmental infrastructure platform specialized in the collection, management and […]
Black business leaders to emphasize economic development at Fort Worth conference
The Texas Association of African American Chambers of Commerce will hold their 2026 state conference in south Fort Worth.
Beats 360 Pre-Orders Open at Amazon With Cushion Kits on Sale, Plus More Beats Deals
The new Beats 360 headphones were announced today, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon ahead of their launch on Thursday. They're available in Black, Cloud, plus a bundle where you can style the headphones however you'd like thanks to interchangeable ear cushions and headbands. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
The Walmart GeForce Week Sale Has Black Friday Worthy Gaming PC Deals, But They're Selling Out Quickly
The best prices I've seen all year on prebuilt gaming PCs with RTX 5060 to 5090.
Black Men's Wellness Day comes to Baltimore with free health screenings and events
Black Men's Wellness Day will offer free health screenings, a 5K run and walk, entertainment, and community resources to promote men's health and wellness.
In Memoriam: Dr. Lorenzo Morris, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Former NCOBPS President -
This obituary includes excerpts from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. APSA is saddened by the passing of Dr. Lorenzo Morris, a distinguished scholar, Professor Emeritus, and former Chair of the Department of Political [...]
In Memoriam: Dr. Lorenzo Morris, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Former NCOBPS President -
This obituary includes excerpts from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. APSA is saddened by the passing of Dr. Lorenzo Morris, a distinguished scholar, Professor Emeritus, and former Chair of the Department of Political [...]
EU removes two Russian oligarchs form sanctions blacklist
Latvia will abstain on the decision after a row that took EU sanctions regime to the brink of collapse
BDHEA Releases New Health Equity Playbook to Help Safety-Net Institutions Turn Community Needs into Actionable Solutions
/PRNewswire/ -- The Black Directors Health Equity Agenda (BDHEA), a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing health equity through healthcare governance,...
Wave Life Sciences Appoints Monika Vnuk as Chief Business Officer
Wave Life Sciences appoints Monika Vnuk, MD, as Chief Business Officer to lead business and corporate development efforts.Quiver AI SummaryWave Life Sciences Ltd. announced the appointment of Dr. Monika Vnuk as Chief Business Officer, bringing extensive experience from her previous roles at Sanofi, Blackstone, and Pfizer. In her new role, Dr. Vnuk will oversee business and corporate development, as well as alliance management, aimed at advancing
Montgomery receives first senior Scotland call-up
Blackburn Rovers midfielder Kristi Montgomery receives his first call-up into the senior Scotland squad for their Nations League matches.
Sunderland’s International Break: Where Are the Lads in Action?
International rosters are teeming with Black Cats this long window.
‘Diary of a Black Girl’: the politics of code-switching
As a Black girl growing up in a predominantly white space, it is common to hear phrases such as “Why
Chicago Blackhawks Coach Makes his Stance Clear on Analytics
One of the great debates when looking at the modern NHL game has been how much to rely on analytics when it comes to assessing on-ice play. While analytics can provide more usual information that may be missed by the casual observer, there are often flaws with how these models function. Sometimes, the old school […] The post Chicago Blackhawks Coach Makes his Stance Clear on Analytics appeared first on HEAVY.
Prepping Now for Small Business Saturday 2026 and the Holiday Season - Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
By Barbara Weltman – Small Business Saturday this year is November 28, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving (November 26). The day follows what’s come to be known as Black Friday. November 30, is Cyber Monday. All in all, small business owners and their teams have a busy extended weekend to plan for. Many small businesses report […]
Man named in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools financial memo resigns from Black Political Caucus committee
Raki McGregor served as a consultant with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, according to a memo sent by Dr. Crystal Hill
Free health services and screenings offered at Arlington health expo
100 Black Men of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth partners with Texas Health Resources for Health and Wellness Expo.
Five Things I learned about UTEP this week.
This is a guest post from Tanner Castora, who was at the UTEP/Michigan game this weekend. There had never been a more important moment in the school’s history. In fact, the occasion was so grand, Disney turned it into a movie (Glory Road). In 1966, using the first all-black starting lineup in NCAA basketball history, […]
The Strange Politics of Giving Paraprofessionals More Money
NYC’s most under-paid educators got organized – and are now caught in a complicated political crossfire.
Sony officially announces a new limited edition PS5 DualSense controller based on K-pop star Lisa
The Blackpink singer’s controller is coming next month…
The College of Arts and Sciences Announces Its Fall 2026 Sir Run Run Shaw Lecture Series
The College of Arts and Sciences presents the Fall 2026 Sir Run Run Shaw Lecture Series, which kicks off on Thursday, September 24, with two lectures: “1.5; or, on the necessity of the humanities in nihilistic times,” featuring Jarrett Zigon, University of Virginia; and “Visible Ink: The Art of Black Women's Literary Biography," featuring Dana
Couple Uses Home Depot Bins To Create Simple Blackstone Storage
If you want to give your Blackstone griddle more storage, follow this couple's DIY and attach sliding Home Depot storage bins to the bottom of yours.
Say Sawadika to Your New PS5 Controller, Feat Lisa from Blackpink
Got this DualSense from Geneva
Fine-Tuning — for the Universe or for Life?
Teetering on the brink of science fiction is the supposition that advanced civilizations would utilize black holes for energy sources.
Listen To Spider Sports Special With John Hardt & Bob Black Wed. Sept. 23 3-4pm On 1061. ESPN
Get caught up on all things Spider Sports and college athletics when Richmond Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hardt joins Voice of the Spiders ...
Our worst performance of the season
West Bromwich Albion defender Conor Townsend labels their Black Country derby 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers their "worst performance of the season".
The future of Black political representation and power
The Supreme Court’s Callais decision raised questions about how Black communities can protect representation and build political power.
Channel 4 partners with Nivea on YouTube branded entertainment format
UK public broadcaster Channel 4 has partnered with German personal care brand Nivea and its Black & White deodorant on a branded entertainment format for YouTube.
Argyle's White relishing 'licence to shoot'
Plymouth Argyle midfielder Harvey White says his impressive goal at Blackpool was due to the confidence he is feeling.
Johnsonville Sausage Makes Its Case for Dinner Running in Political Parody Twist
Little Black Book, Campaign directed by Jordan Brady through True Gent puts a parody twist on the political ad blitz consuming Americans ahead of the midterms
Using drag, Beatrice L. Thomas shares her reproductive health experiences
AmaZing Theatre presents her laugh-out-loud solo performance ‘Black Benatar vs. The Cistem’ once only on September 26 at 3 PM.
Happy birthday, Kerim!
Kerim Alajbegovic is celebrating his first birthday in black and white. Today, Monday 21 September 2026, he turns 19 years old.The young Bosnian talent, who arrived in Turin this summer, has made a to...
Jersey Mike’s (JMKE) Owns the Sub Business. Winning Over Younger Diners is the Next Fight
On September 1, 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jersey Mike’s Subs Inc. (NYSE:JMKE), a Blackstone-backed sandwich chain that went public in July, has built a dominant position with affluent, older customers but still needs to attract Generation Z to sustain its growth, since roughly 70% of its customers skew toward older, more established […]
Rockport fire displaces 2 families, impacts businesses
Firefighters responded to reports of a gas odor Sunday morning and found thick black smoke coming from a Broadway Avenue building.
Kate Beckinsale Posts Cryptic Messages on Social Media, Sparking Concern from Fans
“Serendipity” actor Kate Beckinsale posted cryptic messages to her personal social media account early Sunday morning, leaving fans concerned. Beckinsale posted a black screen with “bye” written acros...
Manchester City 5-3 Sunderland: What Le Bris said
This is the reality of the Premier League and we have to learn. Brobbey for Sunderland today was the sixth instance of a player scoring a Premier League hat-trick but ending the match on the losing side, and the first since Roque Santa Cruz for Blackburn Rovers against Wigan Athletic in December 2007.
Lopez strike seals Wolves win in Black Country Derby
Wolves claimed local bragging rights on Sunday as Fer Lopez’s second-half goal secured a 1-0 victory over West Bromwich in the Black Country derby.Wolves dominated the opening stages and could easil...
Brahms on a period piano? Like watching snooker in black and white
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: Johannes...
As the Rich Buy Bigger Boats, Private Equity Is Investing in the Booming Marina Business
The private equity firm Blackstone now owns more marinas than anyone in the world.
Scotland must show more belief
Evie Gallagher says Scotland must believe they belong amongst the world's best if they are to compete against the top international sides. The number eight scored both of Scotland's tries against New Zealand but the Black Ferns were a class apart as they ran in 10 tries for a 66-14 victory at Hive Stadium. It was a second straight defeat for the Scots in the WXV Global Series following last weekend's defeat to Canada.
Baxter hopes football link will pay off
■By SAM JACKSON EXETER Chiefs have been sharing knowledge with Premier League side AFC Bournemouth in a bid to land the Prem trophy after last season’s final agony. The Chiefs were taken over by the US-based group Black Knight, which also owns the Cherries, at the end of June. So far, Exeter’s heads of strength […] The post Baxter hopes football link will pay off appeared first on The Rugby Paper .
Recap: Boston College scrapes by Maine, 22-16
On Saturday afternoon, the Boston College football team faced off against the Maine Black Bears at Alumni Stadium for Week 3 of the 2026 regular season. The first possession already showed some fireworks when Boston College recovered a Maine fumble on the opening kickoff. But BC failed on their 4th down conversion in the first […]
Melanie Griffith stuns in black swimsuit during wellness retreat: 'Healing and renewal'
Melanie Griffith shared stunning swimsuit photos from her week at Austrian health resort, calling the experience "a little heaven on earth."
Kaelon Black injury update: Will 49ers RB play vs. Dolphins?
One of the San Francisco 49ers breakout rookies from Week 1 may not be able to suit up in Week 2 when the 49ers host the Miami Dolphins.
Mowbray frustrated by 'patchy' Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers head coach Tony Mowbray says he is frustrated by the "patchy" form of his side.
Training: Final prep for Sunderland clash
Check out images from training on the eve of our Etihad encounter with Sunderland. Match Preview City v Sunderland: Kick-off time and TV information The Black Cats head to Manchester for a 14:00 (UK) ...
Secrets of the universe: Scientists in South Dakota may have found dark matter
Dark matter is a mysterious, theoretical substance that NASA calls “the invisible glue that holds the universe together.” Inside an old gold mine deep in South Dakota’s Black Hills, researchers believe they’re close to moving from theory to proof.
An 'impossible' black hole merger may finally be solved thanks to Einstein's relativity — but it raises an even bigger mystery
New research suggests that a perplexing signal created by a pair of colliding black holes may have been warped by a space-time phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This theory could finally explain the "impossible" size of the merging singularities, but it also poses a new problem.
Science Vs on the 49ers Substation: Anatomy of a Hatchet Job
In August, Pablo Torre Finds Out and Science Vs released an episode about my theory that electromagnetic fields from the electrical substation beside the 49ers facility may be contributing to the team’s run of soft-tissue injuries. As the originator of the theory, I was also a subject of the episode. I sat was interviewed by Wendy Zukerman and Rose Rimler of Sciene Vs. I sent them research, connected them with scientists, and spent hours digging through the City of Santa Clara’s and Silicon Valley Power’s records to help clarify critical details. Both Wendy and Rose came off as affable and professional, showing curiosity during the interviews, with Wendy going out of her way to question the “conspiracy theory” framing itself. Then they titled the episode We Solve the 49ers Viral Conspiracy Theory. I was familiar enough with their catalog that I never expected them to agree with my theory, but I did expect them to give it a fair hearing and to deliver their findings honestly. On both counts they came up short. They were not directly dishonest in anything they said, but rather in what they left out, in how what remained was cut, and in the picture painted by those two things in combination. They asked me to recorded the interview on my phone for better audio quality, and I held on to my copy for reference later. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Here is the raw audio of my first interview, unedited*. Only my side was recorded, so their questions aren’t on it, but you can generally infer them from the answers, and every claim I make below about what I said can be checked against my statements in this clip. (Note: Wendy had connection trouble at the beginning of the interview and was cutting in and out, which accounts for the false starts.) 0:00 -1:19:13 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Science Vs is a fun show. It is pitched at roughly a high-school understanding of science, for an audience that is skeptical, Snopes-oriented, and worried about misinformation. Take a claim circulating online, interview a supporter of the claim, interview consensus scientists, and then tell people which side of the line it lands on. I have listened to their episodes on raw milk, seed oils, 5G and other contested issues in the wellness space. I have problems with all of them, but each at least made an honest attempt to represent the actual range of scientific opinion by talking to credentialed scientists with differing perspectives. Dissenting researchers were heard from, answered, and often given a chance to respond. This episode did not do that. This article is not a relitigation of the science. I have written extensively about that already. This post is for the record. It is simply an accounting of what was wrong with their episode. Contents Is there a power plant next to the 49ers practice facility? — the clearest single example of getting something objectively wrong For the record — a high-level overview of all of the problems with their investigation Draw your own conclusions — why they had to make this episode at all What they left out about childhood leukemia — the exposure threshold, and playing games with statistics to minimize sick children What they left out about the mechanism — the body of literature they refused to cover, and evidence for the mechanism used against it The scientists Science Vs interviewed and did not air — four credential scientists who support myhe theory, recorded and cut, or not even called How they misrepresented me and my case — an answer severed from its question, and three telling edits How you would actually study the injuries — it doesn’t actually matter which team is the most injured, overall The theory: magnetic fields, oxidative stress, and collagen Since the episode never states my theory, here it is below. Those who are familiar with my work can skip this section. Electrical equipment produces magnetic fields, and those fields induce faint electrical currents in anything that passes through them, including people. My argument goes further than induced current. Mitochondria — the structures that generate a cell’s energy — run on continuous flows of electrons and protons, and those flows carry faint electromagnetic fields of their own. Maxwell’s principle of superposition shows that when two fields share the same space, they add together. An external field does not need to be strong to alter an internal field, it only needs to be present. The electron transport chain inside the mitochondria leaks a small fraction of its electrons by design, and those become reactive oxygen species — free radicals, which healthy cells use as signals. External magnetic fields cause the rate of leakage to change, increasing free radicals. When free radicals accumulate faster than the cell’s antioxidant systems can clear them, the result is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a recognized driver of chronic illness, including cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, diabetes and cancer, and it is in every medical school curriculum. One of its ordinary effects in connective tissue is that it switches on matrix metalloproteinases — MMPs, the enzymes that break collagen apart — while suppressing new collagen synthesis. Tendons are made of collagen. An athlete loading his soft tissue heavily six days a week is already creating oxidative stress in the tendons, so the addition of magnetic field exposure compounds the damage and inhibits repair, making him more susceptible to injury when enormous force lands on a tendon in a fraction of a second. That is the theory. We know that EMF causes oxidative stress, and we know that oxidative stress degrades collagen. The only thing missing is a study showing that direct connection. I have never claimed certainty that the substation is contributing to the elevated injury rate. I do believe it is likely, and I believe it warrants caution, and that a revenue machine like a major NFL team can easily afford to remove the exposure out of precaution. Is there a power plant next to the 49ers practice facility? Here is the clearest single instance of the problem with this episode. It requires no knowledge of electromagnetic fields at all. This story first came to me through Jon Feliciano, a former 49er, in an interview on Willard & Dibs on 95.7 The Game. Asked about why the 49ers are always injured, he said players used to joke that it was the power plant behind the practice fields. Wendy Zukerman corrects him on air. “It’s important to say that it’s not a power plant near the 49ers site.” Torre then asks her to explain the difference between a substation and a power plant. Her answer: a power plant generates electricity and transmits it to a substation, which converts the voltage into something your house can use and sends it on to your home or your business. There are two problems with that. The first is that there is a power plant on that site. The Gianera Generating Station is a natural-gas-fired peaker plant owned by Silicon Valley Power, and it has been there since 1986. I have published aerial photographs of the location from 1987 in which the gas plant is the only thing standing, before the practice facility was even there. I even mentioned the gas plant in my first interview. (Feliciano has since gone on record about this issue, and it is clear he had the substation in mind rather than the gas plant.) The second is that her definition describes a distribution substation, and the facility beside the 49ers is not that. It is the Northern Receiving Station, which takes in bulk power from outside the city’s grid and delivers it to distribution substations. Silicon Valley Power’s own map distinguishes receiving stations from substations, and Rose Rimler even reads the label out loud in the episode when she walks through that map on air. A few minutes before the map segment, Zukerman tells Torre: “like I said, we fact check everything.” Well, maybe not everything. I made a mistake On the morning of July 6th, at 10:20, I sent Rose and Wendy two studies. During the interview I had been asked which human studies show oxidative stress from electromagnetic fields, and I had not been able to name one on the spot. Rose emailed asking for the studies, I quickly searched for a couple, and I wrote that I thought these were the most relevant from that search. Unfortunately, I was busy and did not read either one closely at first. I picked them because they were topically relevant — one on substation workers, one on power plant workers. Neither were great studies, and their problems go past the ones raised in the episode. That was careless on my part. There is context that did not make the episode, though. Before that email I had been on a Zoom call with Rose talking about EMF and oxidative stress, and I pointed her to Dr. Henry Lai at the University of Washington, who has spent years aggregating the literature on this question. His tallies show that roughly 90% of studies since the late 1990s find oxidative effects from electromagnetic field exposure — hundreds of studies, systematically counted. Rose told me she was already aware of his work. So when she asked for studies, I understood her to have the aggregate view already and that she would report anything within that context. Not reading those two carefully was still a mistake, but the larger mistake was assuming the episode would be based on a thorough review of the actual body of literature, rather than on whatever I happened to send that morning. The second email At 1:49 that same afternoon — three hours and twenty-nine minutes after the first — I sent them a second email that I had been preparing for a while. It was a structured document in six numbered sections, written in response to a request they had made two weeks earlier, laying out my entire argument with citations attached to every link in the chain. The episode aired on August 13th, five weeks later, and not a single item from the second email is in it. Here is how it opens: The full email is included at the bottom of this post in Appendix B. Nearly 1,500 words in total. It contains two named mechanisms with the physics behind them. Occupational studies in humans. The literature on oxidative stress and collagen. A section addressing the strongest counter-evidence against my own theory, which I raised myself. And a closing section stating plainly what the theory cannot yet show. My entire argument, in writing, with detailed citations for every claim, provided to them five weeks before broadcast, and none of it made it into the episode. That is the single largest omission, but it is not an isolated one. The whole episode is riddled with similar problems, and the conclusion they came to is not merely a difference of opinion about the scientific evidence. Through omission and through strategic editing, Science Vs misinformed its audience — about what the evidence shows, about what I argued, and about who they spoke to. That is a notable outcome for a show whose stated purpose is correcting misinformation. For the record I am not going to tell you that Science Vs set out to discredit me, or that they had come to their conclusion before they reported the story, or that they used misleading editing to make me look like a man retreating from his own theory. I cannot know what was in anyone’s head, and I am not going to pretend otherwise, either. What I can tell you is what is on the record. They asked me for evidence and aired the weakest thing I sent. They interviewed three scientists who supported my theory and aired none of them. They discussed childhood leukemia without ever saying the exposure level at which it appears. And they took an answer I gave weeks before Ken Karipidis, the one EMF scientist who was put on air, was interviewed, and placed it directly after his critique, where it comes off as a major concession. A friend of mine who has worked as a journalist for thirty years read that last one and called it sleazy. I agree with her. Those are just the four issues that are impossible to defend as pure editorial decision, but they are not the only issues. The most glaring issues stem from what they left out: The exposure level at which the childhood leukemia association actually appears — three to four milligauss, a number the episode never states despite it being much lower than what I measured. The mechanism itself: The episode gets as far as “oxidative stress could weaken collagen,” which leaves it sounding like speculation, rather than a known pathway. The second email, and all the studies in it. Dr. Paul Héroux at McGill, whose work my proposed mechanism rests on, whose contact details I supplied, and who was never called. Dr. Beatrice Golomb at UC San Diego, who runs a research group on oxidative stress and mitochondrial function and has specific expdertice in collagen, interviewed and not aired. Dr. David Carpenter at Albany, the most prominent academic voice on the harm from magnetic field exposure, interviewed and not aired. Dr. Joel Moskowitz at Berkeley, interviewed and not even credited. The specific, testable condition I put in writing that would make me abandon the theory. My own unprompted statement of the theory’s evidentiary gap. My caveats about my own measurements. My ranking of EMF as one factor among several rather than the only one. The new equipment installed at those facilities between 2010 and 2014, and the sharp rise in system load from 2013 onward. But that is not all. What they kept, they selectively edited to serve a narrative that was not served by the raw transcripts of the interviews. A description of thousands of commercial routers in a workplace, reduced to the Wi-Fi in your house. My own acknowledgment, multiple times, that "I'm not a scientist" clipped in an episode that spends considerable energy pointing out that I am not a scientist. And a qualification I volunteered about my own measurements, cut from my answer and delivered later by their EMF expert as a correction. Together their edit produce a portrait of a wellness guy with Wi-Fi phobia and two bad studies, backing away from his theory the moment a “real” scientist looked at it. A practice facility where nothing changed because no new substation was built. Injuries written off as random because the 49ers were not quite the single most injured team in the league over the period in question. That portrait is false even though almost no individual statement made in the episode is. Draw your own conclusions At the top of the episode, Pablo Torre says his show had been flooded with requests to investigate the substation — that it was the thing they were asked to look into over and over again. Neither show went hunting for this story. It arrived from their own audience, in volume, and it could not be waved off. A thread I posted on X reached twenty-two million people. A guy with a gaussmeter and a brand-new Substack obligated a Pultizer prize winning program to spend an hour on a question about player health, that is considered fringe enough that most media operations won’t touch it. Pablo Torre Finds Out could not ignore it. So Science Vs came in and ran a “debunking” operation instead of an investigation. Everything below is what had to be left on the cutting room floor to deliver the “debunking”. They could not ignore it. So they tried debunked it instead. The demand was strong enough to force an episode, and since the episodes release the 49ers have sustained more injuries, including season ending ones, and interest has only grown. Demand from fans and playets is strong enough to force a better investigation from someone else. An omission is not a lie until you find out what was omitted. What follows is the detailed record so you can see the full picture. Draw your own conclusions. I have drawn mine. I am going to keep publishing. A note about Pablo Torre Finds Out After the episode aired I posted publicly, calling out Pablo Torre Finds Out for concerns I had about the integrity of their investigation, and about an interview directly with Pablo Torre which had been offered but never happened. I have since spoken with a producer at PTFO. The offer had rested on a misunderstanding about where things stood between us, and it fell away as the Science Vs part of the production widened past the science. He apologized for the miscommunication and I accepted. The producer also confirmed to me that they did essentially hand off the entire investigation to Science Vs for narrative purposes — so Pablo would be genuinely curious or potentially surprised by their findings — while still taking responsibility for what went out under their name. I appreciated the candor and the accountability, and I am comfortable with where we left things. So this post is not about PTFO. My disagreement is with Science Vs. What they left out about childhood leukemia Childhood leukemia appears at three milligauss. They gave no number at all. 1. They built an EMF ruler, then discussed childhood cancer without it. The sequence on air went like this: First I measured almost 9 mG, then I measured up to 50 milligauss. Torre reacts with concern — “that sounds high.” Cut to Karipidis: the public limit is 2,000 milligauss. Torre reacts again — “What happens at 2,000?” Karipidis explains that nothing happens at 2,000, that safety factors are built in. Then: at more than 50,000 milligauss you get flickers of light in the retina, and higher still, nerve stimulation. The listener now has a ruler (their ruler) to measure these numbers with. Fifty is nothing by their ruler. Then the episode turns to childhood leukemia and states, accurately, that there is a real association — but tellingly, they never give the exposure level at which that association appears. Childhood leukemia appears at three milligauss. They conveniently left that out. The pooled analyses that produced the World Health Organization’s carcinogen classification found roughly a doubling of childhood leukemia risk above three to four milligauss. That is the number that belongs in that segment, and it is more than ten times below the reading that had just been dismissed as trivial. I gave them that number myself, on tape, in the interview. Describing my own threshold, I said my comfort level for long-term chronic exposure is three to four milligauss, but preferably one. 2. Six children in thirteen million. The episode reports that these fields might explain one to four percent of childhood leukemias, then reframes it as a German estimate of perhaps six cases among thirteen million children. Torre, to his credit, is uncomfortable. What never gets explained is why that number is small. Almost no children lives above three milligauss in Europe. Fewer than two children in a hundred, in the Italian data. So even if the risk to those children doubles, the number of additional cases across an entire country stays small — not because the hazard is small, but because hardly anyone is exposed to it. Count the whole population and the few who are exposed disappear. And the reason hardly anyone is exposed is that siting rules keep housing away from transmission lines. In Europe, at least. The Dutch government has a standing precautionary policy against building new homes in any zone where the annual average magnetic field exceeds 4 milligauss — the same number the episode never mentioned. Denmark and Norway treat 4 milligauss as the level that triggers a look at mitigation. That is five hundred times below the ICNIRP figure quoted on air. The United States has no federal equivalent. That is evidence of infrastructure siting policy working. It is not evidence that there is no hazard. It is evidence that we already act as though there is one. If you listen to the raw audio you will hear that my proposed solution is EMF exposure is to build better infrastructure. What they left out about the mechanism 3. They accused me of cherry-picking, and then cherry-picked themselves. On air, Zukerman tells Torre that people who worry about electromagnetic fields dismiss the studies showing null results and collect the ones showing harm, and that this is why you have to be careful not to cherry-pick. They had two papers I had rattled off in a hurry, and a second email containing a carefully chosen set. They ran the two weakest, graded them on air, and presented the result as the state of the evidence for not only my theory, but the whole question of oxidative stress from magnetic fields. That is cherry-picking from my emails. The bigger picture is what they did with the literature as a whole. Zukerman acknowledges it exists, dismisses it, and disposes of it in a single stroke. You can go online right now, she tells Torre, and find scores of studies showing these fields increase oxidative stress. The issue, she says, is that they are not studies in people. Many of them are in people. The occupational studies in my second email are in people. That email had been in her inbox for five weeks. She waved off the literature on a factual claim that the documents in her possession contradict. (I have written separately about the evidentiary standard at work here). The effect was that they essentially baited me: ask the subject to supply the evidence, take the weakest thing he sends, and let that stand as a proxy for the whole argument. Wendy has been doing this show for ten years and clearly knows how to extract what she needs for her desired narrative. 4. They presented the collagen-improvement research as a gotcha, but I had already addressed it. The episode treats the existence of studies showing that EMF can improve collagen as a surprise that undercuts me, but I had pre-emptively addressed that five weeks earlier in the email they ignored. Those studies use measured, high-intensity pulsed dosing. The mechanism by which they work is oxidative signalling. The cell reads a controlled rise in reactive oxygen species as a warning, upregulates its antioxidant defenses, mounts a repair response, and the therapy stops before the system is overwhelmed. The key point is that it induces an oxidative response, which means those studies are actually evidence for my proposed mechanism, not against it. A field that produces a therapeutic effect cannot be biologically inert (which is the implication when they say “Nothing happens at 2,000 milligauss). Chronic ambient exposure is the same pathway with no off switch, and it is most consequential during the evening and while sleeping, when the body is in repair mode and the exposure does not stop. Section 5 of my email is titled What about the study showing improved collagen synthesis. I raised the counter-evidence myself, explained why I did not think it refuted the theory, and wrote that I was disappointed the question had not come up in the interview. That is worth holding against the cherry-picking charge in the item above: the studies they presented as inconvenient for me were studies I had gone out of my way to put in front of them. 5. Section 1 of my email stated a critical argument that was never put to the expert directly responsible for it. My email says the exposure limits exist to prevent acute effects and do not address chronic exposure at all, and that my dispute is with the entire framework. Zukerman gestures at this once. After Karipidis gives the 2,000 milligauss figure, she tells Torre that I would object because those levels do not capture “more subtle effects.” That is not my argument, and “subtle” is doing a lot of work here. My argument is that the limits are built to prevent acute effects — nerves firing, muscles twitching, etc — and were not designed to address chronic exposure at all. In fact, ICNIRP’s own documents state as much themselves. Mine is a structural objection to what the standard measures, reduced as a concern about subtlety, it becomes a matter of degree, rather than a categorical difference. They interviewed Ken Karipidis, vice chair of ICNIRP — the body that writes those limits. He was asked what the limit is, but he was never asked how it applies to chronic exposure. The scientists Science Vs interviewed and did not air 6. They interviewed four officials of the standards body. The episode credits roughly a dozen researchers. Four of them are associated with ICNIRP. Ken Karipidis is the vice chair. Rodney Croft chaired ICNIRP from 2020 to 2024 and led the development of its current guidelines. Dan Baaken is ICNIRP’s scientific secretary. Frank de Vocht sits on the Main Commission. One of them speaks in the episode. Their institution’s position is more than adequately represented — the 2,000 milligauss figure, the safety factors, the assurance that nothing happens below the line. 7. The four who were left out. Dr. Beatrice Golomb is Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego — a physics undergraduate degree, a PhD in biology, an MD. She directs a research group whose stated focus is the relationship between oxidative stress, mitochondrial function and health. That is the mechanism the episode spent its first half dismissing. Her published work includes the fluoroquinolone case series behind the FDA’s black box warning on an antibiotic class that ruptures tendons, where the accepted mechanism is oxidative stress and mitochondrial toxicity — the back half of my chain, already on a drug label. She is in the credits. She is not in the episode. She has told me she finds my theory biologically plausible, and that she has a recording of her interview. Dr. David Carpenter directed the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany for decades and is the most prominent academic voice arguing these fields cause harm. Childhood leukemia is the reason these fields carry a WHO classification at all, and Carpenter is the person you call if you want that case made by someone who has spent a career on it. He is in the credits. He is not in the episode. He has told me that when he was interviewed they could not have been less interested in what he had to say. Dr. Joel Moskowitz directs the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. He told me directly that they interviewed him and that he thought it went well. He does not appear in the episode, and unlike Golomb and Carpenter, he does not even appear in the credits. Dr. Paul Héroux at McGill is the researcher whose work provides the foundation for the oxidative stress mechanism my theory rests on. I gave Rose his email address and phone number. He was never interviewed. They never even called him. 8. “He’s not a scientist.” The episode leans hard on the fact that I am not a credentialed scientist. Zukerman says it. Torre repeats it. “At all.” Having built a segment on that, they then left out the physicist-biologist-physician, the professor of public health, the director of a university environmental health institute, and the McGill researcher whose work the primary mechanism comes from. They spent the episode telling their audience I am not a scientist, and then kept four actual scientists who support the theory off because their argument does not survive otherwise. How they misrepresented me and my case 9. They played my words as a response to an interview I had never heard. Near the end of the hour, Zukerman says she went to me and told me the evidence was lacking. Then she plays me saying I am not wedded to it being an EMF, that I have staked my reputation on it needing more study, and that I am not certain of anything. That segment was placed immediately after Karipidis had finished taking the cherry-picked papers apart. It plays as a man folding under expert scrutiny. Commenters have used it against me since, but it is incorrect. Here is the sequence as it happened. I was interviewed. Karipidis was interviewed weeks later. I was never told what he said, or even who he was. I was never asked to respond to it. I did not know his name until the episode aired. That is not a simple editing decision. That is a quote from one interview, moved to follow a critique from a different interview it was not a response to, so that it would land as a concession. A friend of mine who has spent thirty years as a journalist read that sequence and called it sleazy. She is right. The full passage is reproduced in Appendix A, and it is worth reading. What airs is the preamble. Four paragraphs later I say “to directly answer your question” — and that answer, about what would change my mind if the team relocated, is not in the episode. Neither is the sentence two paragraphs on, where I say the EMF might turn out to be ten percent of the problem. I will say the underlying point again, though, because I meant it and I still do. I am not wedded to my theory that magnetic fields from the substation are contributing to the 49ers injuries. I could be wrong. What I am wedded to is the process of scientific inquiry, and the fact that we should be cautious around these exposures and we need more independently funded studies. 10. Three telling edits. They cut “I’m not a scientist” mid-sentence. What I said: “...and I am not certain of anything. I’m not a scientist. To me, I find the mechanisms compelling. I will go back to the fact that I got into this not because of the 49ers, but because of clients I was working with who suffer from EDS...” What aired: “...and that I am not certain of anything. I’m not.” The clip ends on the first two words of the sentence in which I say I am not a scientist, in an episode that spends considerable energy establishing that I am not a scientist. The full sequence is in Appendix A. They cut my own description of my work. Asked what I do, I said I run a wellness business, that I am focused on writing software to help people navigate environmental stressors, that environmental health is my focus, and that I also do independent journalism and research. What aired is the wellness business and the environmental health, with the software and the journalism removed from my own answer. The software engineering does come up later — narrated by them, as a hacker who grew up to write firmware — but my current work, in my own words, arrives as “wellness guy.” Thousands of commercial routers became home Wi-Fi. What I described: working at a wireless networking company surrounded by thousands of Wi-Fi routers, and a stress-induced health collapse afterward that working in that environment contributed to. What aired: Wi-Fi, the kind you have at home — reinforced by a clip of Christian McCaffrey talking about turning his router off at night. Three cuts, and every one of them makes me seem less credible. That is not a coincidence. 11. I gave them my own caveats and the test that would disprove me. In the first email I wrote that a well-designed chronic, ambient-level exposure study in tendon showing no collagen degradation, run over many months, would undercut my confidence in the theory. That is a specific, testable condition, stated in advance and in writing. There was a second interview, weeks later, which was not used in the episode, but in that I asked again for the falsification criterion to be included. What the episode presents instead is a man saying “we need more study,” which reads as a hedge, an open-ended request for the benefit of the doubt. It is the opposite of a hedge. Section 6 of my second email says, unprompted, that as far as I am aware there is not a single study showing EMF-driven oxidative stress degrading collagen in a human in vivo or in human tendon in a lab. I wrote that because it is true and because it is the first thing anyone should check. Under their standard it becomes the hinge of the entire first half, framed as something they had to surface without my cooperation. I had handed it to them five weeks earlier. And in the interview I said that my 25 to 50 milligauss readings were taken at knee level, and that these fields attenuate quickly, so by the time it reaches your head it is not that high anymore. That did not air either. The qualification arrives later, from Karipidis, as a correction. How you would actually study the injuries 12. They measured the wrong thing. The episode spends its final act on whether the 49ers are the most injured team in the NFL, finds no clean ranking, and lands on “injuries are random”. That is the wrong test. You would define the exposure — measured field levels at the facility — and the outcome narrowly: soft-tissue injuries, not a single MSK injury count that a broken finger and a ruptured Achilles both land in. Then you would compare the 49ers to themselves before and after the exposure changed, and compare that change against every other team over the same window. That controls for league-wide shifts in rules, turf and training load. It is a difference-in-differences design, and it is standard. I sent them that argument on July 28th, in writing, along with the fact that in eleven of the past twelve seasons the 49ers had finished top ten in Adjusted Games Lost. And by the episode’s own reporting, the 49ers are second in games lost to injury over the past decade, with FTN’s Aaron Schatz confirming that once you adjust for starters they come out second worst in the league — after having been one of the healthiest teams for years before that. A finding like that is where an investigation starts, not where it stops. 13. I did a lot of substation research for the episode that was never aired. I had reported that the substation next to the facility was expanded in 2014. That was wrong, and Rose Rimler and I sorted it out together. They gave me credit on air, which I appreciated, but framed it as a concession on my part to something they had found. In fact I had been investigating it myself, was uncertain before they asked, but was waiting for clarification from Silicon Valley Power. The uncertainty centered around a substation named “Esparanca” that was proposed right behind the facilities as part of the stadium construction, but now appears to never have been built. I spent days in Silicon Valley Power’s records, and did eventually reach Silicon Valley Power for confirmation and indentified the mistake myself. I also gave them highly detailed documents on what we do know about those facilities: new equipment installed between 2010 and 2014, and load growth across the system with an inflection around 2013–2014, with the Northern Receiving Station carrying the highest capacity in the system and sitting closest to the data center corridor. None of that is in the episode. I have a separate piece about it coming out soon. *I cut 2 seconds from the raw audio to remove personal information that had no connection to anything in the episode. Appendix A: the passage the clip was taken from This is the sequence from my first interview, in full. The episode uses one fragment of it. It’s tricky because my understanding is that there’s something like a 15-year half-life on collagen remodeling issues. They’re going to get a new crop of players. What I really need, though, is for the injuries to be broken down so we can see the soft tissue injuries. Right now, they’re categorized as MSK injuries, but let’s say we can actually identify them more specifically. Is that right? He was able to do that? Oh, cool. I wasn’t able to find that information. Interesting — I didn’t know that data existed. I tried so hard to get it, and I didn’t know it was available. Maybe you could connect me with that person. That would be amazing. I’m not wedded to it being an EMF, honestly. I’m not. I would say that, to a certain extent, I’ve staked my reputation on the fact that it needs more study. It’s important to look into it, and I am not certain of anything. I’m not a scientist. To me, I find the mechanisms compelling. I will go back to the fact that I got into this not because of the 49ers, but because of clients I was working with who suffer from EDS, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a tendon hypermobility issue. This condition is documented to be partially caused by oxidative stress. I’ve worked with them to mitigate their EMF exposure and have seen people improve. I think it’s a bigger story. In a way, the 49ers represent an occupational cluster with specific exposure risks. If someone would conduct a study on this, I believe we could learn a lot. Perhaps we would discover that it’s like, okay, maybe it’s 10% of the problem. I don’t know the exact number, but I think either way, conducting the study would provide valuable insights. To directly answer your question, it’s challenging for me because it’s part of a bigger story. If the 49ers move and stop having injuries, I might conclude that it was related to the substation. However, if they move and still experience injuries, I would want to analyze the nature of those injuries. Are they primarily soft tissue injuries? I don’t think it’s necessarily a case closed, but the story might lose traction at that point regardless. Three things are worth noting. The aired fragment stops immediately before the sentence in which I say I am not a scientist — the cut described in item 10. It also stops four paragraphs before the words “to directly answer your question.” What the episode plays is the throat-clearing. The actual answer, about what would change my mind, never airs. And two paragraphs in, I say the EMF might turn out to be ten percent of the problem. That is the ranking the episode says I never gave. Appendix B: the full email, July 6th, 1:39 PM Hi Rose, You asked me to send you some studies a couple of weeks ago. I apologize for the delay. I have been incredibly busy. I also wanted to give you a chance to dig in yourself, and get your own perspective before I influenced you too much with mine. That said, I do want to make sure that the actual argument is abundantly clear, so here it is! One note before I begin, there are really two separate questions here: Does the substation cause the soft-tissue injuries? That was my specific claim, and what the podcast is about. Is the theory biologically sound? Can 50/60 Hz fields at these levels do anything biological below the safety limits? Question two is why people have been calling me a conspiracy theorist. The regulatory and advisory bodies (ICNIRP, etc) maintain that anything below their exposure limits is biologically inert, and that position is broadly accepted within the mainstream, but the actual science paints a different picture. To defend my theory I’ve had to defend a much larger claim: that the advisory bodies have the biology wrong. I can’t honestly answer question 1 without first addressing that. Here’s is a simplified outline of my theory, with links to studies: 1. Advisory body thresholds for biological effects The ELF magnetic-field limits (ICNIRP’s ~2,000 mG public / 10,000 mG occupational) exist to prevent acute effects from exposure. If a magnetic field is strong enough, it makes nerves fire and muscles contract. Muscles twitch. You can see faint flashes of light in your vision. People can even feel tingling or even a shock. That happens due to Faraday’s law, which states that a time-varying magnetic field induces an electric field inside the body via the creation of Eddy currents.The standards assume that those currents do nothing below the twitch threshold. They do not consider chronic effects at all. My argument is that they are biologically active and do have chronic effects. 2. There are multipe ELF-EMF mechanisms for inducing oxidative stress. This is basic biophysics. Below are the two primary mechanisms. Simplest first. Dr. Paul Héroux of McGill has the most intuitive explanation, which rests on Maxwell’s principle of superposition: because Maxwell’s equations are linear, two sets of electromagnetic waves sharing the same space simply add together. In the interview I pictured a pebble dropped into a pond, sending out clean ripples. Then a boat motors past at distance, sending larger waves, and where they meet the ripples, the two add together and the original pattern gets distorted. In our cells, the mitochondria run on continuous currents of electrons and protons that carry their own faint electromagnetic fields. An external field from a substation, by the principle of superposition, adds to those internal currents and shifts the pattern. The electron transport chain in the mitochondria leaks a fraction of its electrons by design as reactive oxygen species (ROS), which act as signalling molecules in a healthy cell. Distorting that field increases that electron leakage, creating oxidative stress. A tiny electromagnetic interference results in a large downstream effect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844025006474 The more complex pathway is Dimitris Panagopoulos’s Ion Forced-Oscillation / Voltage-Gated Ion Channel (IFO-VGIC) mechanism. Weak, polarized, low-frequency fields force the ions (calcium, potassium, sodium) next to an ion channel’s voltage sensor to oscillate; because that force scales with the inverse cube of the distance involved, fields far below the stimulation threshold can still force the channel open, disrupting the cell’s ion balance and driving ROS overproduction (Nitric oxide and superoxide interact and produce peroxynitrite, a highly unstable cytotoxin that breaks down into free radicals). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366088934 https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/59/5/92 https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/18/10041 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1585441/full https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3772193/ 3. Evidence of oxidative stress, in vivo, in humans from ELF-EMF There are many studies, and the strongest are occupational, which applies to the 49ers situation. 115 power-plant workers vs. 145 office controls. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA, the standard lipid-peroxidation marker), superoxide dismutase, and catalase were all significantly higher in the exposed group, and the markers rose with increasing field exposure. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3233/WOR-203244 A follow-up where they reversed the oxidative stress in power plant workers. A double-blind randomized controlled trial: 91 power-plant workers given vitamin E, vitamin C, both, or placebo for 90 days. The antioxidant groups showed reduced lipid peroxidation and raised antioxidant capacity versus controls. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32191586/ A spot-welder study: 46 welders occupationally exposed at 50 Hz, showed significantly altered red-blood-cell antioxidant enzyme activity and concluded ELF-MF “might act as an oxidative stressor… even at the recommended levels of exposure.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18504600/ A substation-specific study found oxidative stress and DNA damage https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24460415/ 4. Oxidative stress degrades collagen This half isn’t controversial at all. Oxidative stress activates the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that break collagen down and suppresses its synthesis. Here are three example studies: Siwik et al. 2001: Oxidative stress raises MMPs and lowers collagen synthesis in cardiac fibroblasts. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11121376/ Fisher et al. 2009: Collagen fragmentation drives oxidative stress and elevates MMP-1 in aged human skin. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2631323/ Varani et al. 2006: Decreased collagen production in oxidatively aged skin. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16723701/ 5. What about the study showing improved collagen synthesis I’m glad you asked this question, and I’m bummed we didn’t get to it in the interview because it is a great question, and very important to understand. Superficially it may appear to be a refutation of my theory, but I would argue that it actually supports the underlying argument. That study used a short, high-intensity pulsed dose: therapeutic-PEMF, the same type of field used clinically to stimulate bone and tissue healing. The reason this works is because it triggers the very same biological pathways that can lead to oxidative stress. The exposure still stimulates ROS production, but done at a controlled dosage, for a limited duration it has a different effect. The cell reads the ROS as a warning signal and it upregulates its antioxidant defenses, and mounts a repair/proliferation response. The therapy is then stopped before the cell gets overwhelmed. That is essentially a hormetic response: a small dose of a stressor producing a beneficial adaptation. Two things follow: At the very least, this means the field is biologically active, which by itself undercuts the regulatory claim that these fields are inert below their thresholds. There is a wealth of literature on PEMF (pulsed EMF) bone regeneration and calcium channel signalling (which is the second mechanims in section one). Here is one. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep13856 At best, it leads us straight to my actual concern, which is that under chronic, chaotic and unregulated exposure, the cell’s antioxidant capacity gets overwhelmed, resulting in oxidative stress. There are plentiful examples of things that are beneficial at controlled doses, but harmful at uncontrolled doses. Excecise is one obvious, uncontroversial example. Botox is perhaps a more interesting example. 6. What about a study that shows EMF causing collagen degradation in humans? As far as I am aware there is not a single study showing EMF-driven oxidative stress degrading collagen in a human, in vivo, or in human tendon in a lab. There are studies involving isolated fibroblasts though, which secrete collagen. The most relevant one showed that human fetal scleral fibroblasts exposed to 50 Hz ELF-EMF showed a significant decrease in collagen synthesis and that MMP-2 expression was upregulated, which is the exact mechanism I described in section 2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3626379/ That’s it! Thanks again for the interview. Best, Peter Anthony Cowan Environmental Health · Wellness Tech · Researcher & Journalist Publisher & Editor, Living Energy Bio: petercowan.comSocial: X · Instagram · TikTokApp: sunlightis.lifePhone: [redacted]
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