“Do your research.” Sound advice, but what does it really mean?

“Trust, but verify.” So whom can we trust? And how do we verify?

In an age of contested truths and “alternative facts,” the value of scientific research is both more critical and more in question than at any time in recent memory. Everyone—scientists included—must rely on knowledge produced and documented by others. Yet there are crucial differences between the kind of research we conduct as private individuals and the kind of research scientists conduct as a community, and these differences have major implications for how we evaluate competing knowledge claims to become informed citizens. In this episode, Jocelyn and Bradley discuss the multiple meanings of “research”; how the collaborative, systematic, and ongoing nature of scientific research yields reliable knowledge; and why the popular perception that experts are always “changing their minds” is actually a strength and not a weakness of the research process.

“Truth, Lies, and ‘Alternative Facts’: Navigating the Strange, Sticky Politics of Expertise” (Jocelyn’s SciComm talk): https://youtu.be/ZetbNSMSIRY

Related episodes:

“What’s so ‘basic’ about basic research?”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-discussion-whats-so-basic-about-basic-research/id1471423633?i=1000448570255

“Science is for Everyone”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/35-discussion-science-is-for-everyone/id1471423633?i=1000466778549

“The scientific method: Is it a thing?”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/54-discussion-the-scientific-method-is-it-a-thing/id1471423633?i=1000485209730