Knock Knock Eye: How Step One Pass/Fail Fueled the Research Arms Race

Knock Knock, Hi! with the Glaucomfleckens · Sep 3, 2026 · 34m

So last episode I made the case that medical student research should be banned, and I clearly touched a nerve. I got flooded with angry messages arguing against me, and honestly, I expected some backlash since it was a genuinely spicy take. But I want to be clear, I was being facetious, obviously nobody's going to actually ban med student research. What I actually want to unpack this episode is why this topic clearly struck such a nerve, and what's really driving the explosion in med student publications.

I walk through some new data, including a study that found roughly a quarter of recent…