Many uncomfortable secrets of publishing are revealed. Such as: just how little fact-checking is done by newspapers and magazines; an explanation of "white papers" along with who writes them, who pays for them, and a sneak peek into their darker side; how science is altered by the process of publishing it in peer-reviewed journals; how budgets at universities, government agencies, and nonprofits, grow or shrink because of the effectiveness of their press releases.

Speakers include: Jim Beall (nuclear engineer), Walt Boyes (magazine editor), Les Johnson (space scientist), Dr. Robert Lightfoot, Stephen Euin Cobb, and Dr. Robert Hampson (neuroscientist) as the moderator.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 15, 2015 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 51 minutes] This presentation was recorded in front of an audience at the science fiction and fantasy convention LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN, on June 27, 2015.

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last nine years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.