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infodemic

New Podcast: Jessica Malaty Rivera Talks Vaccine Hesitancy
Virus image by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

"Making Sense of Science" is a monthly podcast that features interviews with leading medical and scientific experts about the latest developments and the big ethical and societal questions they raise. This episode is hosted by science and biotech journalist Emily Mullin, summer editor of the award-winning science outlet Leaps.org.
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Emily Mullin
Emily Mullin is a science and biotech journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine.
New Podcast: Tackling COVID-19 Misinformation with Dr. Tim Caulfield

Professor Tim Caulfield stops by the "Making Sense of Science" podcast this month to discuss the infodemic around COVID-19 and how to deal with it.

The "Making Sense of Science" podcast features interviews with leading medical and scientific experts about the latest developments and the big ethical and societal questions they raise. This monthly podcast is hosted by journalist Kira Peikoff, founding editor of the award-winning science outlet Leaps.org.


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Kira Peikoff

Kira Peikoff was the editor-in-chief of Leaps.org from 2017 to 2021. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Nautilus, Popular Mechanics, The New York Academy of Sciences, and other outlets. She is also the author of four suspense novels that explore controversial issues arising from scientific innovation: Living Proof, No Time to Die, Die Again Tomorrow, and Mother Knows Best. Peikoff holds a B.A. in Journalism from New York University and an M.S. in Bioethics from Columbia University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two young sons. Follow her on Twitter @KiraPeikoff.

55 Lessons Learned About Science Communication Around the World During COVID-19

Light-gray countries indicate a place whose local experts contributed to our compilation on science communication insights.

(Cover illustration image by Tatiana Cárdenas-Mejía)

The following insights, contributed by members of the Aspen Global Congress on Scientific Thinking & Action, offer local experts' best practices for communicating about a global health crisis with the public in nuanced and regionally specific ways.

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Aaron F. Mertz
Aaron F. Mertz, Ph.D., is a biophysicist, science advocate, and the founding Director of the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program, launched in 2019 to help foster a diverse scientific workforce whose contributions extend beyond the laboratory and to generate greater public appreciation for science as a vital tool to address global challenges. He completed postdoctoral training in cell biology at Rockefeller University, a doctorate in physics at Yale University, a master’s degree in the history of science at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree in physics at Washington University in St. Louis.
Pseudoscience Is Rampant: How Not to Fall for It

A metaphorical rendering of scientific truth gone awry.

(Cover illustration image by Tatiana Cárdenas-Mejía, original image by CDC)

Whom to believe?

The relentless and often unpredictable coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has, among its many quirky terrors, dredged up once again the issue that will not die: science versus pseudoscience.

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Stuart Firestein
Stuart Firestein is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of Ignorance and How it Drives Science (2012) and Failure: Why Science Is So Successful (2014), both from Oxford University Press.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Wants Celebrities to Promote Scientists

Neil de Grasse Tyson wants fellow celebrities to point their followers to experts and organizations who know what they're talking about.

(Photo Credit: Delvinhair Productions)

"President Kennedy was the first president to not wear a hat. Have you seen men wearing hats since then?" Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the world's few astrophysicists with a household name, asks on the phone from his car. Well, no. "If I wear some cowboy hats, it's because it's the outfit, it's not because that's my standard equipment when I leave the home."

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Amy Odell
Amy Odell is a journalist living in New York. She is the author of the humorous essay collection Tales From the Back Row: an Outsider's View From Inside the Fashion Industry. As the editor of Cosmopolitan.com, she and her team won a National Magazine Award in 2018 for a collection of stories about how to run for office. She has appeared on Crain's "40 Under 40" and Forbes "30 Under 30." Her work has appeared in New York magazine, Time, Cosmopolitan, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist's 1843, Glamour, and numerous other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @instamyodell.