To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the McGill Office for Science and Society, a university-backed office dedicated to separating sense from nonsense, Jonathan moderated a panel discussion entitled “Talking Science in the Age of Fake News”. The panelists were Prof. Joe Schwarcz, the director of the Office; Timothy Caulfield, host of a User’s Guide to Cheating Death on Netflix; Carly Weeks, health reporter for The Globe & Mail newspaper; and Ryan Armstrong, director of Bad Science Watch.
They discussed trends in pseudoscience; how men and women are differently targeted by bunk; stem cells; newspapers running ads for quackery; false balance in the media; native advertising; the opioid crisis; deplatforming an antivaxxer; social media momentum; academic apathy; when scientists talk to journalists; mandatory childhood immunizations; chiropractors self-regulating; hate mail; Deepak Chopra; and whom should the public trust?
http://bodyofevidence.ca/podcast/special-talking-science-age-fake-news