Pseudoscience: Stories about scientific misinformation

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Performing Arts, Arts, Science

4.4 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.6	A science story, huh?
0:34.6	Is NYU scientist the...
0:36.6	I felt a huge, but I was so... And I just thought, well... I figured it felt. I was really strong.
0:38.3	And I just thought, well, it was that golden moment.
0:42.3	Because science was on my side.
0:48.3	Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Story Clutter, where true personal stories about science help us explore just how weird, wonderful, and deeply human this world can be.
1:02.7	I'm your host, Misha Gayevsky, and today's episode is a special episode produced in partnership with challenging pseudoscience at the Royal Institution, with funding support from the Open Society Foundation. Challenging pseudoscience at the Royal Institution, with funding support
1:11.3	from the Open Society Foundation. Challenging pseudoscience at the Royal Institution is an
1:16.6	informal group of journalists, scientists, social scientists, and others working to address the spread
1:21.0	of scientific misinformation and disinformation online in the media and in academia.
1:26.3	Challenging pseudoscience believes that everyone, particularly those who work as science
1:30.3	journalists, academics, and science communicators, can take greater steps to combat this phenomenon,
1:35.2	which claims so much of the public's time and attention, while also seeking to delegitimize
1:40.2	the place of reliable, evidence-based science in public discussion.
1:46.0	Its purpose is to help people access reliable information about science, to shine a light on the nature of conspiracy theories
1:51.0	and of the ideologies that seek to abuse science, encouraging everyone to think critically
1:55.5	and question before accepting. In that spirit, today's episode features two powerful stories that dive into how easy it is
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