Is Mike Israetel's PhD Just a Fitness Myth? 🤔

Mike Israetel of @RenaissancePeriodization constantly reminds us that he has a PhD. But what does that title actually represent? I decided to read his entire dissertation to find out. What I got was a document so sloppy, shallow and confused, it could only pass in a system that had already failed.

Chapters:
0:00 Prologue
1:32 Chapter 1. Introduction
3:14 Chapter 2. An overview of Mike Israetel’s PhD thesis
5:33 Chapter 3. An overview of standard assessment criteria for PhD theses
8:07 Chapter 4. Why Mike Israetel’s PhD thesis would likely fail—or at least be sent back for major revisions—at any high-ranking university
8:25 4.1. Lack of original knowledge and significant contribution to the field
11:57 4.1.1. Lack of independence of thought and approach
13:56 4.2. Ineffective communication of research findings
14:44 4.2.1. Incompetent data entry
21:06 4.2.2. Unnecessarily complicated and pretentious writing
25:49 4.2.3. Persistent grammatical, typographical and formatting errors
26:49 4.2.3.1. Copy-pasting and editorial negligence
29:37 4.2.3.2. Systematic APA formatting and citation failures
31:39 4.2.3.3. Spelling and typographical errors
34:02 4.2.3.4. Grammar, punctuation and awkward phrasing
35:30 4.2.3.5. On and on it goes
36:58 4.3. Poorly justified methods
40:56 4.4. Lack of command and critical assessment of a substantial and complex body of knowledge
41:20 4.4.1. Superficial literature review
42:49 4.4.2. The phantom research gap and distortions of cited works
48:47 4.5. Lack of carefulness, cohesion, rigour and originality
52:39 4.6. Why the thesis fails in total
55:37 Chapter 5. Why this matters
56:02 5.1. Providing a window into a failing discipline
56:51 5.2. Challenging the argument from authority
58:42 5.3. Rethinking expertise in fitness
1:00:39 5.4. Providing a cautionary tale
1:02:07 5.5. Explaining the gap between title and conduct
1:03:41 5.6. Deflating a delusion
1:07:35 Chapter 6. Conclusion

Clarification at [18:33]: my commentary at this point refers to figures 5.1 and 5.2. However, tables 5.1 and 5.2 are mistakenly displayed on screen. Apologies for the visual error! (Note added 3 October, 2025.)

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