Robinson's Podcast 276 - Craig Callender: Lab-Grown Meat, De-Extinction, and the Tolman-Ehrenfest Effect
May 3, 2026
Craig Callender, philosopher of science and physics at UC San Diego, explores cultivated meat, de-extinction, disinformation, and quirky physics. He unpacks how press releases and bad assumptions can warp science coverage. He examines realistic uses and limits of genetic revival and explains the surprising Tolman-Ehrenfest temperature effect in relativity.
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God Versus Man Argument In Legislatures
- Florida legislator argued to ban cultivated meat because 'real meat is made by God' and lab-grown meat is 'made by man'.
- Callender recounts this as an example of culture‑war rhetoric shaping policy despite limited market availability.
Outlier Preprint Can Infect Media and AI
- A single outlier preprint (claiming cultivated meat has 25x higher CO2 footprint) dominated coverage and search/AI outputs.
- Callender collected ~430 items and found 94% rehashed UC Davis framing with only 6% nuance.
Key Modeling Assumptions Inflated Emissions Estimates
- Two modeling assumptions drove the inflated carbon footprint: pharmaceutical‑grade media and outdated grid cleanliness data.
- Pharmaceutical‑grade media multiplies footprint ~20x and using 2007–2010 European grid data made energy emissions much higher.