2018-06-07
Great podcast, perhaps needs more fact checking of guests
I love and appreciate the hard work that goes into the podcast. It has a high production value and has occasionally brought me to tears with diverse and interesting topics.
One criticism is that guests of the show are often pundits, rather than experts. I think this is important in the era of fake news , where any media outlet has more responsibility for fact checking , pods included.
For example , a recent show about LSD had an author describe LSD as a non toxic drug. Having recently started to work as a doctor in emergency setting , I rolled my eyes at that one ( various manifestations of LSD toxicity can be seen at doses above 10 mcg/kg and even lower, and anyway there is no such thing as a non-toxic medicine!). I’ve had similar thoughts about episodes discussing diet as a cure for autoimmune disease, or cold showers as a cure for depression.
Not to go down a scientific elitist route, but my point is that if we are going to create conversations about how to live a better life then maybe we would do better to hear from the happiness researchers than from the journalists who wrote the books about the research. This podcast is great , but by making complex ideas accessible it sometimes ends up misinforming people.