The parts of Smolin's career that are easily integrated into a pop science article are entirely comprised of that, but his actual work in physics that doesn't f

The parts of Smolin's career that are easily integrated into a pop science article are entirely comprised of that, but his actual work in physics that doesn't fit into a soundbite does not. He didn't get his position at the Perimeter Institute by talking about how theories make him feel. Just like pop physics tends to distort people's perception of the field as a whole (e.g. giving the impression that 90% of theoretical physics is string theory) it also makes researchers' body of work look very different than it is.