This Headline Might Kill You

Undiscovered

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Society & Culture, 805813, Science, History, Friday, Studios

4.6 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this Undiscovered Cares Report, Annie and Elah dig into a scary science headline to help Elah’s friend, David, figure out how scared he should be that his B12 vitamins will give him lung cancer. And we find out how—even with top-notch scientists, journalists, and readers—science communication can go very wrong.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:10.2	This is undiscovered.
0:15.0	Today we're going to try something a little bit different.
0:17.7	Okay.
0:18.2	We're going to help someone.
0:19.4	Great.
0:20.0	I love being helpful. We're going to help someone with your science question. Okay. Okay. We're going to help someone. Great. I love being helpful.
0:21.2	We're going to help someone with your science question. Okay. Okay. So this is an experience I think
0:26.3	we are all familiar with. We see a headline that says something like tomatoes cause cancer.
0:32.3	No. Bad news. The next day we get some good news. We see a headline that says drinking five beers a day
0:39.6	reduces your risk of cancer. Obviously, these are not real examples. Right. So you stop eating
0:46.3	tomatoes, you start drinking a lot of beer, you're feeling really good about your health choices,
0:50.9	time passes, and then, oops, you hear beers out, tomatoes, back in. And at a certain
0:56.4	point, you start to wonder, am I getting good advice here? It's kind of whiplash. Exactly.
1:01.9	So today, we are going to help my friend David with one of these headlines. And hopefully we'll
1:06.6	also get a bit of insight into why this happens. Like, how do we get a piece of advice one day and then
1:12.2	a complete reversal later? Like, how much of that is the science actually evolving? And how much of
1:18.2	that is science journalism? That's getting stuff wrong. I know that's us. So we're going to look
1:23.4	inward today also. Okay. Okay. So here's what happened. My friend David is a very health conscious guy. He
1:28.9	cooks all the time, very nutritious foods. You know, he exercises, he flosses. He does, he wears a mouthguard at
1:35.3	night. Yeah. Was he the guy who got you lifting weights? Yes. Had an ass like a shelf for about six
1:42.5	months. I thought there was a reason I remembered him. Okay. Okay, so David is a very
	...

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