Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Bad Advice
- Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren't Your Best Source of Health Information
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Bad Advice
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
Science doesn't speak for itself. Neck-deep in work that can be messy and confounding and naïve in the ways of public communication, scientists are often unable to package their insights into the neat narratives that the public requires. Enter celebrities, advocates, lobbyists, and the funders behind them, who take advantage of scientists' reluctance to provide easy answers, flooding the media with misleading or incorrect claims about health risks. Amid this onslaught of spurious information, Americans are more confused than ever about what's good for them and what isn't.
In Bad Advice, Paul A. Offit shares hard-earned wisdom on the dos and don'ts of battling misinformation. For the past 20 years, Offit has been on the front lines in the fight for sound science and public heath. Stepping into the media spotlight as few scientists have done - such as being one of the first to speak out against conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism - he found himself in the crosshairs of powerful groups intent on promoting pseudoscience. Bad Advice discusses science and its adversaries: not just the manias stoked by slick charlatans and their miracle cures but also corrosive, dangerous ideologies such as Holocaust and climate-change denial.
Listeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"The author's rare storytelling...leads to an entertaining and captivating read that is hard to put down." (Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH, Columbia University Medical Center)
What listeners say about Bad Advice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-23
Public speaking for scientists
I love how the author uses his own scientist-in-the-public-eye experience, to inform us here (mistakes and all).
He lays this book out as a manual for scientists who may enter the public media arena in opposition to unscientific opinions being touted by usually charismatic and powerful people. He explains why It is so important to have scientists who can navigate this media jungle.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Binky
- 15-08-23
Excellent!
I am biased in favour of this book, in that I fully support the use of vaccines. This is because I am old enough to remember the devastation that childhood diseases wreaked upon communities in the past. I also saw less children becoming sick over the years, but now we are seeing more because of parents being swayed by the anti-vaccination movement. This is more or less the theme of this book.
Bad Advice is interesting and includes the struggles of people, including the author, who were at the sharp end of criticism by the mislead and those who should have known better. If anything it confirms that people are right not to trust anything anyone recommends, celebrity or otherwise, unless it is supported by constantly updating and verifiable scientific data and research.
The narration was very good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tom O'Rourke
- 19-10-21
Excellent
Apart from the deluge of information good and bad relating to the corona flu virus of 20/20 and into 20/21 which has been disturbing, the quest for global collective consensus of understanding science/ scientists and the "cashcow" mentality the big pharma greed which is virilantly active and at the present point in human history seemingly impossible to stop, any vaccination is inevitably seen as suspicious to say the least.
Will there ever be a virus free world? From a scientists view the answer can only be a resounding no but with the attached caveat let us try our best to eliminate unnecessary suffering.
Tom O'Rourke 1953...? love always
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-10-23
Very informative that easily dismissed anti science stance with facts
Easily breaks down the anti science wave that has been getting more and more attention in today’s media. Very informative book that is easy to understand. By using simple facts it completely destroys anti vaccine snake oil salesmen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mike Odonnell
- 11-02-23
Good science, petty author
The whole book just comes across as quite petty. The author using it as a platform to insult people hes met through life. He even mentions this as a mistake he made during an interview (attacking the person and not just explaining the science) and spends the rest of the book attacking people. Shame as it makes it hard to enjoy the book otherwise.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Jem
- 02-11-23
Gave up listening
Too many unnecessary anecdotes about his kids. He criticises people for not carrying out proper non-web based research which I agree with but then slates global warming skeptics, I’m wondering how much ‘proper’ research he’s carried out on that before analysing facts for or against human causation. Perhaps he does later in the book but I’ll never know, the book is just too anecdotal and he’s still adhering to some popular culture / current norms himself in the areas that he cherry picks.
I wish they wouldn’t pick readers with ‘bag yourself a bargain’ mode of presentation for this type of book, aren’t there science based media people out there who could do a better job?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!