How Health Misinformation Spreads | A Play About Ben Franklin And His Son

Health misinformation can circulate quickly on social media: false claims about vaccines, ads pushing suspicious-looking supplements, politicians making claims about contraception or abortion that don’t match the science.

As November nears, Science Friday is spotlighting the science that’s shaping the election with a short series about health misinformation.

Ira is joined by Irving Washington, senior vice president and executive director of the Health Misinformation and Trust Initiative at KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling, and news organization to provide a primer on the basics of health misinformation; how to identify it, emerging trends and the role of artificial intelligence.

We want to hear from you! Is there a piece of health information that you’ve seen recently that you’re skeptical about? Fill out this form, email us a voice memo to scifri@sciencefriday.com, or leave us a voicemail at 1-646-767-6532.

In the coming weeks we’ll select a couple of topics from our listeners to investigate with the help of a subject matter expert.

When you think of famous scientists of the early United States, you likely think of Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, and even the glass harmonica.

He and his son are the subject of the play “Franklinland.” It explores their sometimes contentious relationship, Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments as a scientist, and how the scientific method can be used to understand the ongoing experiment of the United States. It’s running now until November 3 at the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City.

Ira Flatow is joined by the playwright of “Franklinland,” Lloyd Suh, to learn how he joined all of these elements for the stage.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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