We left off my journey at the end of my graduate school experience and headed into my first teaching job. That new experience along with my upcoming wedding gave me a lot of different things to think about that first year of my real career. Having a life partner to help to ground me keep me feeling supported and comforted, but anyone who has had problems with their mental health knows that having a full support system does not preclude having anxiety, panic and depression. Navigating the academic job market, owning a house and having a child all provided me with many things to deal with that still gave me anxiety and panic attacks, and it is only in recent years that I have found the tools to keep myself even keeled and flourishing. This will not be the last episode of this mini-series, but this is a very important part of the journey. 

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The addition of fluoride to drinking water is considered one of the top public health developments of the 20th century. The reduction of tooth decay in citizens where fluoride was added has significantly benefited millions. Though the federal government recommended the addition after World War II, not all municipalities chose to incorporate fluoride, and now places have already removed fluoride or are considering the action thanks to confusing information spread on the internet and a rescinding of support for the practice from the federal government. We will discuss how fluoride helps oral health, the chemistry behind it, and some of the controversies that are part of the situation.

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This week’s Pseudoshort: Ad Hominem 

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With a measles outbreak occurring and potentially more childhood disease outbreaks on the horizon due to vaccine skepticism, it is a great time to talk about how the current anti-vax movement developed, and how it is affecting policy decisions made by the current administration. Science denialism is at the heart of many of these decisions and it is incredibly important that we face that information with scientific data. We are now getting into more controversial topics, but it does not help the greater good if we stay silent. 

This week’s Pseudoshort: Confirmation Bias 

Community Lecture about Vaccines (March 3, 2015)

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Enjoy this bonus episode of Baloney Detection as Dr. K reflects on one year of podcasting and topics for future episodes!

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The advertising of consumer products contains a lot of different buzzwords and phrases. Have you seen this one: “Four Out of Five Dentists Recommend This Toothe Paste”. I remember that kind of phrase a lot from my childhood. But who are those four dentists and why did the fifth one not recommend the product? We look into phrases like this one and try to find out if there is any truth to the words, and what you can do to see past the marketing.  

This week’s Pseudoshort: Spicy Food and Ulcers 

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When you are deeply angry about a certain subject, but you know that getting into conversations with others could be controversial and acrimonious, what do you do? I have been struggling with this very thing for a long time now, and I am just realizing that I have to engage with that anger, with those controversies, rather than just shy away and stay away from the difficult conversations. Taking a break from interviews, in this episode I spend a bit of time going through some recent thoughts, trying to convince myself I am going in the right direction with how I deal with misinformation and pseudoscience. Do not worry: this is not an existential crisis, just more of an important level of pondering. 

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Jodi Pierre is a research and instruction librarian at the University of Wisconsin‐Green Bay, where she specializes in information literacy, instruction, research assistance, and web and digital content design. She earned a Master of Library and Information Science from UW Milwaukee and a Bachelor of Arts from Beloit College. Jody has been with the University of Wisconsin‐Green Bay since 2016. 

Jodi shares some interesting and important information about the use of AI and how it is changing rapidly. This is a very important conversation and one that we will be continuing into the future as AI evolves. 

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Stephanie Evenson is a veterinarian and a teaching professor for the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. Stephanie has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Masters degree in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Stephanie has been a colleague of mine at the Sheboygan campus of UW-Green Bay for many years, teaching a variety of biology, human biology, first-year seminar and general education courses. I have had many students tell me how much they love Stephanie as a teacher and I can think of no higher praise for an educator. Stephanie has a unique perspective to her teaching as a vet and brings that perspective to today’s episode. 

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Jeff Bellomo is a successful lawyer in South Central Pennsylvania. He also happens to be, as I said, one of my oldest and best friends. In our senior year at Juniata, Jeff was kind of the odd man out. He was a future lawyer living with three chemists slash scientists, but he also provided so much support, which hopefully we'll get to talk about. Jeff's expertise as a lawyer is an elder law, which we can all agree is incredibly important for families with older members and families in general. Jeff has created his own podcast, the Red Wagon Estate Planning and Elder Law Show, with the intent of having another platform for educating people about the right way to get legal help, especially for elder law. On top of being an outstanding lawyer and friend and parent, it is Jeff's desire to educate a variety of people about elder law and has given me so much respect for him and inspiration for this podcast. 

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Dr. Brian Merkel has been with UW Green Bay for 20 years and teaches courses courses in immunology, advanced microbiology, microbiology, and human disease in society. He currently studies the effects of the herbal supplement echinacea on the immune system in cell models and in human subjects. He's a pre‐health advisor for human biology and biology students and the advisor for UW Green Bay's chapter of the National Biological Honor Society, TriBeta. He also teaches medical students for the Medical College of Wisconsin in Green Bay. Dr. Merkel says that this experience has helped him become a better mentor, advisor, and teacher for all of the students he works with at UW Green Bay. I'd like to also add that Brian has recently won the UW Green Bay Founders Award for Excellence in Teaching for Faculty. Personally, Dr. Merkel is part of a couple of groups that I'm involved with, including a misinformation research group with several of our other colleagues, and also a set of rural health forums that we are a part of led by a friend of the podcast and former interviewee Amanda Hartlaub. 

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