Snake Oil
Aleks Krotoski explores why science is being drowned out by Snake Oil online, and how the balance can be shifted to keep desperate people from being exploited.
The internet began as a way for academics and researchers to share information and collaborate on projects - it was a boon for scientific discovery.
But despite there being more scientific information online than ever, in the modern day the power of the internet has completely flipped. Verified science and medicine are crowded out by a plethora of misinformation and snake oil salesmen. From the relatively harmless quackery such as infrared light treatments or 鈥榳ellness鈥� focused diets, to conspiracy theories around vaccinations that are influencing political policy, and have resulted in outbreaks of dangerous, preventable diseases across the world - what is happening online is having a tangible impact across the globe.
Aleks Krotoski explores how the infrastructure of the internet allows medical misinformation to thrive, finds out how people can be drawn into communities centred around medical misinformation and conspiracy theory, and how both scientists and every day internet users can redress the balance online.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Clips
-
![]()
Using tech to fight Snake Oil
Duration: 01:04
-
![]()
'It was like a lightbulb coming on.'
Duration: 00:45
-
![]()
Britt Hermes - using the language of quackery to fight quackery
Duration: 02:37
-
![]()
How quackery spreads - Friends and Algorithms
Duration: 03:07
Paige Brown Jarreau
Paige Brown Jarreau is 聽鈥淒irector of Science Communication at LifeOmic and editor of; Blog author of.鈥�
She tells us about the Scientists who Selfie project, and how scienctists can struggle to communicate with people due to how they have been perceived by the general public - as competent, but lacking warmth.
Britt Marie Hermes
is a former naturopath and current PhD candidate in evolutionary genomics at University of Kiel and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology.
She shares her story of how she became a naturopath, only to discover the treatments could be damaging the very patients she was trying to health and now uses her time, and knowledge of the ways people can be drawn in by so called 鈥榓lternative treatments鈥� to tell the truth about the practice, and save people from being exploited.
Picture Credit: Micah Dahlberg
Myles Power
is a professional chemist and Youtuber and a co-host on . Over the years he has gained a reputation for debunking, and occasionally sampling, quackery online.
He tells us about debunking some of the worst and most dangerous examples of Snake Oil online - includes AIDS denialists, so called cancer cures that burn and maim people, and bleach marketed as an autism cure - 聽how quacks can manipulate social media algorithms, and how to reach people who are desperate to believe in a treatment that is in fact damaging them.
Caroline Rance
Caroline Rance runs The Quack Doctor, a website that explores the history of advertised health products (which might or might not have been considered 鈥榪uackery鈥� in their time), health fraudsters and any out-of-the-ordinary medical happenings.
She is also the author of Kill-Grief(2009), The Quack Doctor: Historical Remedies for All Your Ills (2013) and The History of Medicine in 100 Facts (2015)
Caroline takes us through the strange and theatrical history of Snake Oil, and how it鈥檚 been sold throughout the centuries.
Naomi Smith
Dr Naomi Smith is a digital sociologist in the School of Arts, Federation University Australia. She researches bodies, health practices and digital聽technologies.聽<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
She shares her into the social dynamics of, and conversations within, anti-vaccination communities in social media.
Broadcasts
- Mon 25 Feb 2019 16:30麻豆社 Radio 4
- Tue 31 Mar 2020 23:30麻豆社 Radio 4
Podcast
-
![]()
The Digital Human
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world
