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Antiscience

Anti-science: A Conversation with Peter Hotez (4) 2026-03-21 In this episode of Northwell Health's 20-Minute Health Talk, host Dr. Chethan Sathya speaks with Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician, vaccine scientist and one of the most prominent voices against the anti-science movement. Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-developed Corbevax, a low-cost, patent-free COVID-19 vaccine. What the conversation covers How his daughter Rachel's autism diagnosis drew him into the vaccine debate, and made him a target of anti-vaccine activists Why communicating evolving science is hard, and how misinformation fills the gaps Debunking claims such as "turbo cancers" from COVID-19 vaccines Why childhood vaccines (MMR, hepatitis B) and flu and COVID shots matter, including for heart health The political and financial forces that drive organized anti-science The evidence Large studies involving millions of children have found no link between vaccines and autism, and there is no credible evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause aggressive "turbo" cancers. Hotez's books, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism and The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science, set out the evidence in detail. Related reading: Vaccines: No Causal Link With Autism, Vaccine Hesitancy and Risks and Consequences of Antiscience. Play Time: 39:24	Anti-science: A Conversation wit (4) 2026-03-21
Examining the rise of the anti-science movement (5) 2026-03-21 Climate scientist Michael Mann joins CBS News' The Takeout to discuss Science Under Siege, the book he co-wrote with vaccine scientist Peter Hotez. Mann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is best known for the "hockey stick" graph of global temperatures and has spent decades on the receiving end of organized attacks on climate science. What the interview covers Criticism that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration are pushing an anti-science agenda The book's argument that the threat goes beyond government, to the wealthy interests, fossil-fuel states, propagandists and media that amplify anti-science Why attacks on climate science and on vaccine science follow the same playbook Why it matters Mann and Hotez come from different fields, climate and public health, but describe the same pattern: manufactured doubt, personal attacks on scientists, and policy decisions that ignore the evidence. Seeing the common tactics makes them easier to recognize and counter, whichever field they target. Related reading: Political Interference in Science, RFK Jr. and American Health Science and Antiscience Lobbyists. Play Time: 6:02	Examining the rise of the anti-s (5) 2026-03-21
How Anti-Science Influences Public Health and Safety (15) 2026-05-06 This clip from The Proof with Simon Hill, a science-focused health and nutrition podcast, looks at the real-world costs of misinformation. From GMO myths to climate denial, it argues that when facts lose to fear, people get hurt and billions of dollars are lost. What the clip covers The human and financial costs of disinformation What most people get wrong about Monsanto and GMOs How climate denial delays action Why scientific literacy is essential for a functioning democracy The evidence Major scientific bodies, including the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, have concluded that approved genetically modified crops are as safe to eat as conventional ones. Fear of GMOs has still had real consequences: Golden Rice, engineered to fight vitamin A deficiency, was delayed for decades, and some countries have restricted crops that could raise yields and cut pesticide use. Criticism of corporate behaviour is fair, but it is a separate question from whether the technology is safe. Related reading: GMOs: A Landscape of Misinformation, What Is Science Literacy? and Risks and Consequences of Science Misinformation. Play Time: 13:51	How Anti-Science Influences Publ (15) 2026-05-06
Science Under Siege (7) 2026-03-24 Peter Hotez and Michael Mann, a vaccine scientist and a climate scientist, join CNN's Jake Tapper to discuss their book Science Under Siege. The book argues that anti-science is now organized, well funded and politically powerful, and that it is "obstructing the needed response from government and civil society." What the interview covers Why the authors see attacks on vaccines and on climate science as one movement rather than two How anti-science slows the response to public health and climate threats The cost to scientists who become targets of harassment What citizens, institutions and the media can do in response About the authors Hotez is a pediatrician and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-developer of the low-cost Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine. Mann is a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, known for the "hockey stick" temperature record. Both have been targets of sustained campaigns against their work, which gives the book first-hand authority. Related reading: When Scientists Become Weapons Against Science, Scientists Must Advocate for Science and History of Antiscience. Play Time: 6:01	Science Under Siege (7) 2026-03-24
Understanding Science Denial (14) 2026-04-29 In this TEDxUNB talk from 2021, Richelle Witherspoon explores why some people fall for false or pseudo-scientific information while others don't. Her conclusion surprised her: the two groups have much more in common than either would like to believe. What the talk covers Why science denial isn't simply a lack of intelligence or education How everyone, believers and skeptics alike, relies on shortcuts when judging information Questioning your own information habits before judging others Principles of persuasion that focus on how beliefs form, not just on facts Why it matters Research on science communication supports her point. Beliefs are tied to identity, values and trust, so presenting more facts often doesn't work, and can make people dig in. Approaches that respect people's concerns, build trust, and explain how we know what we know tend to work better. Recognizing that we all share the same mental shortcuts is a good starting point for more productive conversations. Related reading: Strategies to Counter Antiscience, Critical Thinking and Restoring Trust in Science. Play Time: 11:00	Understanding Science Denial (14) 2026-04-29
Why Don't Some People Believe In Science? (8) 2026-03-24 This Seeker explainer asks a simple question: why do some people reject well-established science, such as vaccine safety or climate change, even when the evidence is strong? The short answer is that belief is rarely just about evidence. What the video covers Why some people distrust vaccines, climate science and other well-established findings The psychology behind rejecting evidence Why simply repeating facts often fails to change minds The research Psychologists describe several overlapping causes. Motivated reasoning: people tend to accept evidence that fits what they already believe and reject what threatens it. Identity: when a scientific question becomes a marker of political or group identity, accepting the evidence can feel like betraying your group. Trust: people judge a message by who delivers it, so distrust of scientists or institutions spills over onto the science. A widely cited 2022 review in PNAS, "Why are people antiscience, and what can we do about it?", groups these into four bases: the source, the recipient, the message, and a mismatch between the message and how the recipient thinks. Related reading: Antiscience, Public Trust in Science and Bayes' Theorem and the Logic of Science Denial. Play Time: 5:14	Why Don't Some People Believe In (8) 2026-03-24

Climate Change

Carbon Pricing (1) 2026-03-13 This Global News explainer looks at carbon pricing, one of the most debated tools for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It sets out the basic idea: put a price on carbon pollution so that polluters pay for the damage instead of passing it on to everyone else for free. What the video covers Why some governments treat a carbon "tax" as a way to make polluters pay The main objection: that the money is just revenue and isn't spent on climate action What the research says about whether carbon prices actually reduce emissions The evidence Carbon pricing is one of the most studied climate policies. British Columbia introduced a revenue-neutral carbon tax in 2008, and studies of it found emissions fell with little measurable harm to the province's economy. Carbon pricing now covers roughly a quarter of global emissions. The political debate is real (Canada dropped its consumer carbon price in 2025 but kept pricing for large industrial emitters), but economists broadly agree that putting a price on pollution is one of the cheapest ways to cut it. Related reading: Economics of Renewable Energy, Who Drives Climate Change? and Climate Change. Play Time: 4:45	Carbon Pricing (1) 2026-03-13
Extinction Crisis (18) 2026-09-14 In this BBC film, Sir David Attenborough looks at the extinction crisis: around a million species are at risk of extinction. He explains why the loss of nature isn't just a wildlife problem but a threat to people too. What the video covers The scale of biodiversity loss, with a million species at risk Threats to food and water security as ecosystems break down How losing nature undermines our ability to control the climate Why destroying habitats raises the risk of new pandemic diseases The evidence The "one million species" figure comes from the 2019 global assessment by IPBES, the intergovernmental science panel on biodiversity. It found that nature is declining faster than at any time in human history, driven mainly by land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive species. Healthy ecosystems pollinate crops, purify water and store huge amounts of carbon in forests, soils and oceans. When wildlife habitats are destroyed and people and animals come into closer contact, diseases are more likely to jump from animals to humans. Related reading: Climate Change, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and Doomism in Climate Change Communication. Play Time: 6:00	Extinction Crisis (18) 2026-09-14
Global Temperature Anomalies (2) 2026-03-17 This short NASA Goddard visualization shows how Earth's surface temperature has changed since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Each frame compares temperatures with the 1951–1980 average, so warming shows up as a steady spread of warmer-than-normal colours across the globe. What the video shows NASA's analysis that 2017 was the second-warmest year on record at the time, about 0.90 °C above the 1951–1980 average That 2017 was the third year in a row more than 1 °C above late-1800s levels How the record is built: about 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based sea-surface measurements, and Antarctic research stations Since this video was made The trend it shows has continued. Every year since 2015 has been warmer than any year before it, and 2024 became the warmest year on record, about 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Independent groups, including NASA, NOAA, the UK Met Office, Berkeley Earth and Japan's Meteorological Agency, use different methods and reach the same result, which is strong evidence that the warming is real and not an artifact of how the data are processed. Related reading: Anthropogenic Climate Change, Graphical Misinformation and Anecdotal Evidence and Climate Change. Play Time: 0:55	Global Temperature Anomalies (2) 2026-03-17
Temperature Anomalies by Country (3) 2026-03-17 This 36-second animation from Windy.com shows temperature anomalies for every country from 1880 to 2017, based on NASA's GISTEMP dataset. It is one of the quickest ways to see that warming is happening almost everywhere, not just in a few places. Why anomalies matter A temperature anomaly is how much warmer or cooler a place is than its own long-term average, not its actual temperature Anomalies let scientists compare hot and cold regions fairly and track change over time They are the standard measure used to track global warming The evidence The animation makes two well-established findings easy to see. Warming is global: by the end of the record nearly every country is warmer than its historical average. Warming is also uneven: land warms faster than the oceans, and the Arctic is warming several times faster than the planet as a whole. That uneven pattern is why a cold winter in one place doesn't contradict a warming world, a common talking point in climate denial. Related reading: Anecdotal Evidence and Climate Change, Global Inequities and Climate Change and Anthropogenic Climate Change. Play Time: 0:36	Temperature Anomalies by Country (3) 2026-03-17
Temperature Breach is Unavoidable (19) 2026-09-23 This explainer from India's Down To Earth magazine covers a sobering milestone: 2024 was the first calendar year in which global temperatures exceeded 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, the limit set in the Paris Agreement. It draws on a United Nations Environment Programme report urging the world to plan for an "overshoot" of that limit. What the video covers Why breaching 1.5 °C in the coming years is now considered unavoidable The "overshoot, peak and decline" pathway, compared to a fever Keeping the peak below 2 °C, and as short as possible Bringing temperatures back down through net-zero emissions, cutting methane, and removing carbon from the atmosphere Current policies, which point to around 2.6 °C of warming by 2100 An important detail The Paris limit refers to long-term average warming over about 20 years, not a single year. So one year above 1.5 °C doesn't mean the goal has formally been missed, but it shows how close we are. Every tenth of a degree matters: limiting the peak and shortening the overshoot means less extreme heat, sea-level rise and damage to ecosystems. It is a reason for urgent action, not despair. Related reading: Doomism in Climate Change Communication, Climate Change: Evidence-Based Hope and Anthropogenic Climate Change. Play Time: 2:29	Temperature Breach is Unavoidabl (19) 2026-09-23
The Most At Risk Cities - Climate Change (6) 2026-03-24 This short GOOD Magazine animation looks at which cities are most at risk from climate change, and at a surprising link between the most vulnerable cities and the most resilient ones. It frames climate change as a human displacement problem as well as an environmental one. What the video covers A projection that global warming could create 150 million "climate refugees" over 40 years The five cities it identifies as most at risk How those cities relate to the world's most resilient cities The evidence Estimates of climate migration vary widely because they depend on emissions, adaptation and how "climate refugee" is defined. The World Bank's Groundswell report projected that up to 216 million people could be forced to move within their own countries by 2050 if strong action isn't taken. Weather-related disasters already displace tens of millions of people each year. Low-lying coastal cities face rising seas and storm surge, while hot, water-stressed cities face extreme heat and drought. The people with the fewest resources to adapt are usually hit hardest. Related reading: Global Inequities and Climate Change, Climate Change and Climate Change: Evidence-Based Hope. Play Time: 1:52	The Most At Risk Cities - Climat (6) 2026-03-24

Evolution

How Evolution Works (13) 2026-04-28

How Evolution Works (13) 2026-04-28

GMOs

Organic vs. Non-Organic Foods: Food Scientist Debunks (16) 2026-05-10

Organic vs. Non-Organic Foods: F (16) 2026-05-10

Vaccines

Combating Vaccine Misinformation (12) 2026-04-20 WebMD Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Whyte talks with Steven Brill, an award-winning journalist and co-CEO of NewsGuard, about vaccine misinformation and how to find information you can trust. NewsGuard, which Brill co-founded in 2018, rates the reliability of news and information websites. What the conversation covers How false and misleading vaccine claims spread online Why misinformation sites can look as credible as real news sources Practical ways to check whether a source is trustworthy What platforms, publishers and readers can do to slow the spread Why it matters Misinformation spreads quickly because it is often emotional, simple and shared by people we trust. Checking a source before sharing it works well: look at who runs a site, whether it corrects its mistakes, and whether other reliable sources report the same thing. Brill has written about this problem at length, including in his book The Death of Truth. Related reading: Science Fact-Checking, Social Media Amplification and COVID-19 Misinformation and Mandate Resistance. Play Time: 18:04	Combating Vaccine Misinformation (12) 2026-04-20
Debunking of Anti-Vaccine Misinformation (17) 2026-09-10 In this 70-minute conversation on the Bad Boy of Science channel, molecular biologist Dr. Dan Wilson talks about his work debunking vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation. Wilson earned his PhD in molecular biology at Carnegie Mellon University and started his YouTube channel, Debunk the Funk, in 2020. It has become one of the most reliable "receipts factories" on YouTube, checking viral health claims against the scientific literature. What the conversation covers How Wilson investigates a viral claim: going back to the original studies and data Common anti-vaccine and COVID-19 talking points, and where they go wrong Why he aims to debunk claims respectfully rather than mock the people who believe them What it is like to take on high-profile misinformation spreaders Why it matters Debunking works best when it shows its work. Wilson's approach (read the paper, check the data, explain the mistake, and link the sources) gives viewers the tools to evaluate the next claim themselves. Health experts, including vaccine scientist Paul Offit, have praised his detailed responses to prominent vaccine critics. Related reading: Science Fact-Checking, COVID-19 Misinformation and Mandate Resistance and Leaky Vaccines and Vaccine Shedding. Play Time: 70:08	Debunking of Anti-Vaccine Misinf (17) 2026-09-10
Do you know how vaccines work? (9) 2026-04-20 This short animation, co-created by NHS England and the British Society for Immunology, explains in plain language how vaccines protect against serious diseases. It is designed to be shared with families, carers, staff and educators to build vaccine knowledge and confidence. What the video explains How a vaccine trains the immune system to recognize a germ without causing the disease How immune memory lets the body respond faster if it meets the real infection later How vaccination reduces the spread of disease and protects people who cannot be vaccinated Why that matters for informed decisions about consent and vaccination The science Vaccines contain a harmless piece or version of a germ, or instructions to make one, as with mRNA vaccines. The immune system responds by making antibodies and memory cells, so a later infection is stopped quickly or made much milder. When enough people are immune, the disease struggles to spread. This "community immunity" protects newborns, people with weakened immune systems and others who can't be vaccinated. When vaccination rates fall, diseases like measles return. Related reading: How mRNA Vaccines Work, History of Vaccines and Re-Emergence of Measles. Play Time: 1:55	Do you know how vaccines work? (9) 2026-04-20
Global impact of vaccines (10) 2026-04-20 This animation from the British Society for Immunology summarizes the impact of vaccines on global health. It presents vaccination as one of the safest and most effective ways to protect children from serious disease. What the video covers The World Health Organization estimate that vaccines save 2 to 3 million lives every year Why vaccines are among the most effective tools in public health How vaccination programs have changed child health around the world The evidence More recent research makes the case even stronger. A 2024 study in The Lancet, led by the WHO, estimated that vaccines have saved about 154 million lives over the 50 years since the Expanded Programme on Immunization began, most of them infants. Measles vaccination alone accounts for the largest share. Smallpox has been eradicated and polio has been pushed to the brink. These gains are fragile: when vaccination rates drop, diseases such as measles and whooping cough come back quickly. Related reading: Vaccine Evidence: A Foundation of Safety and Efficacy, History of Vaccines and Vaccine Hesitancy. Play Time: 1:24	Global impact of vaccines (10) 2026-04-20
How vaccines are made (11) 2026-04-20 This British Society for Immunology animation follows a vaccine from the laboratory to the clinic. It explains the research, testing and manufacturing steps that every vaccine goes through, and what its ingredients are for. What the video covers Laboratory research to design a vaccine Laboratory tests and clinical trials to show it is safe and effective The rigorous manufacturing process and quality checks The ingredients in a vaccine and why each one is there The process Vaccines are tested in stages. Phase 1 trials check safety in a small group. Phase 2 trials expand to hundreds of people to find the right dose. Phase 3 trials involve thousands or tens of thousands of people to confirm the vaccine works. Regulators then review the data before approval, and monitoring continues afterwards through reporting systems such as VAERS in the United States. Ingredients such as stabilizers, preservatives and adjuvants are used in tiny, well-studied amounts. Claims that they are "toxic" usually ignore the dose. Related reading: Vaccine Ingredient Controversy, The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and Thimerosal and Its Impact on Vaccine Usage. Play Time: 1:35	How vaccines are made (11) 2026-04-20