# 161: Science, Skepticism, & Keeping Heart (with Paul Ingraham)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/161-science-skepticism-keeping-heart-with-paul-ingraham
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/161-science-skepticism-keeping-heart-with-paul-ingraham.md
Podcast: [The Thinking Practitioner](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450)
Published: 2026-01-07T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/e/161-science-skepticism-keeping-heart-with-paul-ingraham/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/rka34arrci6vwugz/TTP_161_audio_202512297fazx.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/episodes/161-science-skepticism-keeping-heart-with-paul-ingraham
Duration seconds: 3466

## Resource

🎙 Science, Skepticism, & Keeping Heart (with Paul Ingraham) What happens when a former massage therapist turns a skeptical eye on his own profession and starts asking uncomfortable questions about pain science and manual therapy? You get Paul Ingraham of PainScience.com — a writer whose work has challenged, irritated, and influenced practitioners in equal measure. In this episode, Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe sit down with Paul to explore how clinicians can think clearly in a field crowded with confident claims, competing models, and stories that feel true even when the evidence is thin. The conversation doesn’t shy away from friction. Paul is known for his sharp critiques of manual therapy’s favorite explanations, and many practitioners bristle at his tone. Here, we examine both the substance of his skepticism and the costs that can come with it. Together, they explore questions many therapists wrestle with, often quietly: How do we tell the difference between what helps clients and the stories we tell ourselves about why it helped? When does confidence in a method turn into intellectual blinders? And how can practitioners stay curious and effective without clinging to explanations that may not hold up? In this episode, they discuss: Paul’s move from massage therapist to science writer — and the unresolved questions that pushed him there “Modality empires” and why techniques so easily become identities The challenge of separating your identity from your methodology — and why it matters Confirmation bias in clinical practice: how we see what we expect to see and miss contradictory evidence Placebo, context, and why they complicate claims about mechanisms in manual therapy Paul’s critique of “structuralism” — the exclusive focus on alignment, posture, and movement dy…

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## Transcript

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