Pseudoscience: Stories about scientific misinformation

This week’s special episode—produced in partnership with Challenging Pseudoscience, at the Royal Institution, with support from the Open Society Foundation—features two storytellers who share just how easy it is to fall for scientific misinformation, and how difficult it can be to find your way back.

Part 1: When Lydia Greene’s infant daughter has a troubling reaction to a routine vaccine and her concerns are dismissed by a healthcare professional, she turns to an online parenting forum for answers.

Part 2: After moving to a new town and feeling isolated, Sarah Ott looks for connection through talk radio and a local church—only to find herself pulled into a world of climate denial and conspiracy thinking.

Lydia Greene, nurse, wife, mother, geek, and vaccine advocate. Co-founder of Back to the Vax.

Sarah Ott is a science educator and climate activist. Her work is focused on building resilience locally and nationally as we adapt to a changing climate. As the granddaughter of a Pennsylvania coal miner and former doubter of the science of climate change, she uses her personal story to shine a light on the path away from science denial and toward a life based in evidence.
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Whether we wear a lab coat or haven't seen a test tube since grade school, science is shaping all of our lives. And that means we all have science stories to tell. Every year, we host dozens of live shows all over the country, featuring all kinds of storytellers - researchers, doctors, and engineers of course, but also patients, poets, comedians, cops, and more. Some of our stories are heartbreaking, others are hilarious, but they're all true and all very personal. Welcome to The Story Collider!

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