Science Journalist: They Called Him Crazy Then The Death Rate Went to Zero

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Matt Kaplan is a science journalist at The Economist and a trained paleontologist. His new book I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right is a candid investigation into how science actually works — and why the engine of discovery is badly in need of a tuneup.

In this conversation, we discuss why the pandemic exposed science's dirty secrets to the public, how Ignaz Semmelweis discovered handwashing saved lives and was thrown in an asylum for it, why Katalin Karikó survived where others didn't, the replication crisis and how funding models are making it worse, whether older scientists should control research dollars, why Galileo was never actually tortured, and what journalists and scientists must do differently before public trust collapses entirely.

Matt Kaplan also recently discussed science communication and dysfunction on other outlets — in this conversation, we go deeper on the replication crisis, the Semmelweis story, and why the funding model is quietly corrupting the scientific process.

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Key Takeaways

00:00 Why the pandemic was science's most damaging moment of exposure

03:30 The scientific-industrial press complex — and who's really to blame

06:50 How science journalism fails the public 85% of the time

10:00 Ignaz Semmelweis: the man who proved handwashing saves lives and was destroyed for it

20:10 Why infection rates dropped from 21% to zero — and nobody listened

24:30 What Katalin Karikó had that Semmelweis didn't: shelter

28:00 The replication crisis — why nobody is funding the most important work in science

33:00 How funding models force scientists to run experiments they've already won

40:30 Should older scientists control research dollars? A Nobel laureate weighs in

43:45 Why Galileo was never tortured — and why the myth won't die

47:00 The rhinoceros tooth: a paleontologist's lesson in confirmation bias

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📚 I Told You So! Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right: https://www.amazon.com/Told-You-Scientists-Ridiculed-Imprisoned/dp/1250372275

✍️ Email: mattkaplan@economist.com

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