Freelance science journalist Tim Requarth joins the TWiVers to explain why scientists should stop thinking that explaining science will fix information illiteracy.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler
Guest: Tim Requarth
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Download TWiV 442 (70 MB .mp3, 116 min)
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Links for this episode
- Neuwrite 2:50, 27:25
- JMBE science communication issue 3:40
- Smallpox vaccination day 4:35
- The problem with facts (Fin Times)
- Countering antivaccination attitudes (PNAS)
- Effective messages in vaccine promotion (Pediatrics)
- Science curiosity and political information processing (Political Psychol) 52:30
- Teaching science using pseudoscience (D. Duncan)
- Letters read on TWiV 442 1:19:00
Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!
Weekly Science Picks 1:34:25
Kathy – Life Saver Lightning
Alan – Model rocket engine burning in slow-mo
Rich – scistarter
Vincent – The quest to wipe out a virus and FCC Votes to Begin Dismantling Net Neutrality
Listener Pick
Robert – Zika presentation
Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.
Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]
So I listened to the “Every Little Thing” podcast on measles, and it is truly terrible. They trivialized measles in the USA using the Brady Bunch sitcom argument. That is not the experience shared by many of my fellow baby boomers. Some who remember being in darkened rooms because light hurt their eyes.
I went to bed one night when I was eight years old and did not wake up for two weeks (my memory), apparently my illness worried my parents (in the mid 1960s not much could be done, so no point going to the hospital if the kid was breathing and did not yet have pneumonia). They thought I had an influenza because I had no spots (not always a measles symptom). But a big clue came later: I got mumps a couple of years later. I had had mumps before, it turns out measles can wipe out the immune memory and kids get reinfected (or I was very unlucky):
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-measles-vaccine-protects-against-more-than-just-the-measles/
(note: my mother died a year after I had mumps, my dad was clueless to all things related to childhood illness, so I only had my brother who even though he is six years old than me was still just a kid…. but I do remember the biggest result of being bedridden for two weeks, my lovely long wavy hair was a matted mess and needed to be sheared off)
I heard that another Gimlet podcast, “Science Vs”, was mentioned, It is actually quite a bit better. If they give a “contrary” comment on the science they come back later with the actual scientific evidence. Plus they do mention the podcasts and the other references. Even in their rss feed:
http://feeds.gimletmedia.com/sciencevs