you've gotten things wrong.
Wait, are you gonna do a correction segment?
I've always wanted to do one of those!
Well, let's see how ya like it!
Exhibit A, "Adam Ruins Forensic Science."
You claimed that DNA was
the only foolproof type of evidence.
The killer's DNA is all over this crime scene.
We'll know for certain who killed this man.
(cell door closing, slams)
But according to new research,
DNA evidence can suffer from the same problems
as other forensic science, such as incomplete samples
and crime scene contamination.
(sneezes)
My bad.
When German police found matching DNA
at 40 different crime scenes,
they concluded it was a serial killer
called the Phantom of Heilbronn.
(German accent)
40 crimes, 40 cotton swabs with the same DNA?
What a ruthless killer.
(Emily) It turned out,
that matching DNA was actually from a woman
at the factory that made the cotton swabs.
♪♪
This will make it clean
for my nice police officers.
So, face it, DNA evidence isn't foolproof.
You're ruined.
Wow.
Thank you for bringing this up!
It's true. Since that episode aired,
we have learned
that DNA evidence
is not infallible.
And even though
it's still an amazing tool,
we need to use it carefully
and think about it critically. Wha--!
Hey, bud, so, all this is on-camera...
so you shouldn't be so happy about being wrong,
'cause people will think that you don't care about the facts.
Oh, I really care about the facts.
That's why I'm excited for this.
Hit me with another one.
Okay.
(clears throat)
(gasps) Oh, this one's a doozy!
You specifically said
that air marshals stop terrorist attacks.
(Emily) That just ain't true.
Between 2001 and 2008,
air marshals didn't make one arrest
related to terrorism.
Ugh, why are there never any terrorists to shoot?
(whining) I'm bored.
The few arrests they do make
are drunk people
and celebrities who won't get off their phones.
A-ha! Gotcha!
And we're paying through the nose for it.
Taxpayers spent $800 million
on air marshals in 2014 alone.
And since they only make around four arrests per year,
that's about $200 million per arrest.
Air marshals are so ineffective,
one member of Congress has even called
for the program to be abolished.
Wow, yep. Sounds like
we were definitely wrong on that one.
(all gasp)
Adam...
hey, man, be cool. This is a steady gig.
Don't go ruining your credibility
by admitting mistakes.
Oh, no, that'll just increase our credibility.
Hit me with another one,
Emily!
You sure about that? Okay.
(clears throat)
Remember that segment on electric cars?
Whew! People did
Adam, you know I love you like a weird friend of my wife,
but you were wr-wr-wr-wrong
when you said that no one should ever buy a Tesla.
Elon Musk is a super brainiac,
and Teslas are totally saving the planet.
Tesla!
So stop taking money
from "big oil,"
and a do a little something
called research.
(woman) Babe, what are you doing?
Uh, looking at naked photos!
(whispering) Please subscribe.
Okay, I know Tesla fans didn't love that one,
but our argument was actually more nuanced than that.
First of all, our source wasn't the oil industry,
it was scientists and environmental groups.
And their data shows that
in some cases,
buying a brand-new electric car
can actually increase your carbon footprint.
But that doesn't mean that no one should ever buy one.
In fact, our expert in that episode said the opposite.
(man)
If you really want to help
save the environment,
the best thing you can do is to reduce
the amount you drive, and to drive your current car
as long as possible,
provided it's reasonably efficient.
But if your car is beyond repair
and you absolutely need to buy a new one,
then go ahead, buy yourself
a nice, small electric car, perhaps even a used one.
(button clicks)
(Adam) Look, we don't hate electric cars.
Our goal was to show how even green products
affect our carbon footprints.
In this case, our facts weren't wrong.
Our point was just misunderstood.
Ah, but since it's your show,
that's on you. You should have been clearer.
I mean, the title of the video was...
Do you wonder why people got the wrong idea?
Yeah, you're right.
If that many people misread our argument,
that means we should have done
a better job explaining it.
Doing nuance on TV is hard, but that's my job,
so in the future I'll try to be better.
Okay, have you ever actually seen your own show?
Because you're supposed to be getting upset.
That's how everyone knows I'm doing a good ruin.
One minute till act break.
Ooh, lightning round!
In an "Ever Wonder Why?" segment,
you said the Empire State Building
was 12,000 feet tall.
Oh, yeah, that one was really embarrassing.
It's actually a little over 1,200 feet tall.
I guess we added a zero somehow.
In "Adam Ruins Football," you referred to a lineman
but pointed at a linebacker.
I still can't tell
the difference.
Don't let him get to you, Todd.
And one time,
you showed snowflakes that have eight sides,
but they almost always have six.
Sorry, Jorge.
So there you have it, Adam.
I have proved that your show makes mistakes!
Okay, why aren't you storming off?
I mean, I'm starting to feel like
you don't like my present.
No, of course I do! Because you're right,
we have gotten a few things wrong.
But that doesn't ruin our show at all.
Look, this is our research team.
They spend every day calling experts,
combing through sources and fact-checking scripts
to ensure that the information
we present on this show is as close
to the truth as possible.
But, they're also human,
and humans sometimes make mistakes.
(computer beeps)
But this entire show is predicated
on you being truthful and honest.
Right!
And it wouldn't be truthful to claim we're infallible.
The intellectually honest thing to do
is to be transparent about our process
and public about our mistakes.
That's why we put our sources
on-screen,
and why we admit when we can do better.
The point of our show isn't
to be right every time.
It's to encourage the audience
to question what they think they know
and, if we're lucky, to change a few minds.
Well, then, I guess you're ready