Don’t Get Fooled: Thinking Clearly in the Wellness Era | Dr Steven Novella, PhD

The Proof with Simon Hill

Simon Hill

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Education

4.9 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of The Proof, I’m joined by Dr. Steven Novella, a clinical neurologist at Yale School of Medicine and host of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. Steven has spent decades helping people think more clearly, spot misinformation, and navigate the increasingly noisy world of science, health, and media. Together we explore what it really means to be a skeptic — not a cynic — and why scientific humility is more powerful than absolute certainty. We talk about how to have better conversations with people who believe in conspiracy theories, the psychology behind motivated reasoning, and why embracing “I don’t know” can actually make us more grounded, not less. What we cover: Scepticism vs. denialism Why stories often override facts What science literacy actually looks like The cognitive traps we all fall into How social media fuels misinformation Rebuilding trust in science and institutions If you enjoy this episode, I’d love it if you shared it with someone who values critical thinking and curiosity. 00:00 Introduction 05:48 Sceptic vs. Contrarian: What's the difference? 08:57 Combating Misinformation and Disinformation 12:13 The Role of Critical Thinking 18:06 Why We Reject Facts That Make Us Uncomfortable 21:09 How Echo Chambers Hijack Reality 24:41 The Hardest Choice: Truth or Belonging? 37:54 Why People No Longer Trust Experts 48:16 Debating Pseudoscience 52:53 The Deadly Cost of Misinformation 56:03 The GMO Lies People Still Believe 01:03:00 How to Teach Critical Thinking to Anyone 01:10:00 How to Think, Not What to Think 01:14:34 Why Science Sounds Uncertain and Why That’s a Good Thing 01:23:51 Being Sceptical Doesn’t Make You Automatically Right 01:35:59 The Double-Edged Sword of AI This episode is brought to you by: 38TERA Consider 38TERA's ⁠DMN prebiotic supplement⁠ a daily multivitamin for your gut. Formulated by yours truly and gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz. Use code THEPROOF for a discount at checkout. Function Health Take charge of your health with advanced blood testing and personalised insights. Function Health provides a practical solution to track key health markers such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and more. For the first 1,000 listeners, new members get a $100 credit when signing up. Head to ⁠functionhealth.com/simonhill⁠ to claim your credit. Only available to those living in the United States. Momentous My go-to supplement brand for protein and creatine is Momentous. Get 20% off your first purchase by using the code LIVINGPROOF at checkout at ⁠livemomentous.com⁠ Shopify Shopify, the world's leading e-commerce platform, helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet’s best-converting check out–up to 36% better compared to other leading e-commerce platforms. To boost your conversion rate, and grow your business, sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at ⁠shopify.com/proof⁠. Birch Sleep deeply and wake up refreshed with a Birch Natural Mattress, combining premium natural materials with unbeatable comfort. Rest easy with a 100-night trial and 25-year warranty. Get 20% off sitewide and 2 free Eco-Rest Pillows at ⁠birchliving.com/simonhill⁠. Pique Tea Pique's Nandaka provides sustainable, all-day energy and makes you feel like you’re doing something good for your body! Try Pique and get 20% off plus a FREE starter kit when you shop exclusively at ⁠Piquelife.com/simon⁠. Simon Hill, MSc, BSc (Hons) • Creator of ⁠theproof.com⁠ • Host of ⁠The Proof with Simon Hill⁠ • Author of ⁠The Proof is in the Plants⁠ Subscribe & Connect: • ⁠YouTube⁠ • ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ • ⁠Spotify⁠ • Instagram: ⁠@simonhill⁠ • Twitter: ⁠@theproof⁠ • Facebook: ⁠The Proof with Simon Hill⁠ Nourish your gut with my ⁠Plant-Based Ferments Guide⁠ and download my ⁠Two-Week Meal Plan⁠.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In a world where everyone has a platform and anyone can sound like an expert, how do we know what's real?
0:06.9	Dr. Stephen Novella joins me for a conversation about the power of scientific thinking, not just in a lab, but in everyday life.
0:14.2	We unpack the foundations of science, why scientific literacy is so important, and how to become more discerning in the
0:21.4	face of overwhelming and often misleading health advice.
0:25.5	His book, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, is one of my all-time favorites, and in this
0:30.0	episode we use it as a springboard to navigate today's wellness world with more clarity,
0:35.4	curiosity, and humility.
0:47.8	You've built a career out of promoting scientific literacy and debunking pseudoscience, which are things that I think about and speak about quite regularly almost in every episode. What sparked that mission for you?
0:59.0	I mean, it's always gone hand in hand with my love of science. You know, even like I remember in high
1:07.0	school, you know, earliest days really, really getting involved in, like, self-study
1:13.0	and science, like going beyond what I was learning in the classroom to, like, really, you know,
1:16.9	voraciously reading, you know, books and articles in magazines and subscribing to discover, you know,
1:22.0	the thing that the science, you know, popular magazines that were at the time.
1:27.0	And, you know, encountering things like creationism was definitely an early issue, or ESP, Bigfoot,
1:36.4	UFOs.
1:38.7	I kind of started believing, not the creationism part, but believing a lot of the paranormal stuff when I
1:45.3	was even younger, like in, you know, before high school or early high school. Because to me,
1:50.9	it was all the same, right? Because you watch science documentaries on TV, you know, in one documentary
1:57.5	they're talking about, you know, the dinosaurs and the next one they're talking about Bigfoot, you know, or whatever. And it's kind of all seamless to the end user.
2:06.3	And even like, you know, Leonard Nimoy and in search of and whatever. So there were, you know,
2:11.6	voices that my younger self-respected that were promoting it. But once I started to learn about like how science
2:19.5	actually works, it started to all crumble, right? And, you know, for that I largely credit, like,
	...

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