Let’s face it. Baseless alternative medicine and the people who profit from it have had it too easy. From time immemorial, the quickest way to appeal to a person’s heart and reach into their purse has been to scare them with dubious warnings about their health and then sell them on some supposedly safe and, of course, “natural” remedy. In the Internet Age, it’s even easier. Social media encourage knee-jerk responses that spur us to spread information that sounds just true enough, just hopeful enough, to convince us that it must be so. Baseless claims can be shrouded in scientificsounding jargon, endorsed by seemingly reputable professionals, testified to by “real” people, and, of course, garnished with the time-honored phrase, “new studies show. . . .”
But a precious few dogged and determined journalists and activists have sought to use these same tools against the peddlers of pseudoscience to beat them at their own game. Yes, they have the science and the facts on their side, but now they also have the power of digital storytelling tools, social media, and, most important, the ability to communicate clearly and accessibly to a general audience without talking down to them. There aren’t many who are engaged in this kind of crucial work, but among them one has truly stood out.