#29: Science, Skepticism, and Conspiracy Theories

In this episode, Jonathan is speaking with David Gorski about science, skepticism, and conspiracy theories.

They discuss:

•His science journey and how he became a skeptic.
•How debunking Holocaust denialists eventually lead him to found his blog Respectful Insolence.
•The anti-vaccination movement, the movie Vaxxed, and how correlation doesn't imply causation.
•What confounding factors are in scientific studies and why it's so important that they must be accounted for.
•The difference between a genuine conspiracy and a conspiracy theory.
•How all science denial is based in conspiracy theory.
•How the anti-vaccination community is recycling old anti-science tropes and aiming them now at the COVID-19 vaccines.
•And other topics.

Dr. David Gorski is an American surgical oncologist, professor of surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine, and a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, specializing in breast cancer surgery. He is an outspoken skeptic, and a critic of alternative medicine and the anti-vaccination movement. He is the author of the blog Respectful Insolence and the managing editor of the website Science-Based Medicine.

You can find the websites mentioned in the episode here:

Respectful Insolence: https://respectfulinsolence.com/
Science-Based Medicine: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/

You can find David on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/gorskon

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://bit.ly/2M6gWXV

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