You might have heard of the placebo effect, but what about its evil twin the nocebo effect? It’s when a person experiences negative symptoms from an inert pill or treatment, sometimes even from verbal suggestions. Studies are currently being done to better understand placebo and nocebo effects. Shayla Love, science writer at Vice, joins us to discuss how it all works.

Next, it’s called Munchausen by Internet, the condition of faking illness online. It’s a form of factitious disorder, a mental disorder where people fake illness or actually make themselves sick to get sympathy and attention. But one place online that experiences this at higher rates is in the cancer community. People in online cancer support groups are routinely outed as healthy. It seems almost impossible to think that someone could lie about such a serious illness, but it happens a lot, and those that offered their love, sympathy, and support often feel betrayed. Roisin Lanigan, contributor to The Atlantic, joins us for why the internet has a cancer-faking problem.

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