Ep. 268 - Science Communication, Gatekeeping & The Fitness Industry (feat Dr. Pak)

Dr. Pak is back on Iron Culture for his third appearance! This time, he sat down with Omar and Dr. Helms for a meta-discussion on the challenges of science communication. How do you maintain credibility when you’re using social media as a science communication tool? This challenge has changed, but it isn’t new by any means. The “Sagan effect” describes the well-researched phenomenon by which the scientific community perceives other scientists who get more media exposure as less legitimate scientists - despite the fact that, on average, scientists more active in science communication typically publish slightly more often and with a higher impact than scientists less active in science communication. In modern times, however, the incentive structures are different, and many instances of expert creep, “selling out” and pseudoscience have been propagated on social media by some academics or members of the medical community. In this episode we discuss the challenges of attempting to communicate science without being criticized for doing so, how this has and hasn’t changed over time, and the instances of gatekeeping which are ultimately counterproductive to increasing scientific literacy.

00:00 Introduction to Helms Haven/Deep

04:57 The Dr Pak Trilogy and The Grizzly at the Raskol booth at the Arnold

16:13 The Grizzly backstory

32:52 Pak’s experience with The Grizzly

42:43 The academic and the memer

52:18 The scientific community and public scientists

Martinez-Conde 2016 Has Contemporary Academia Outgrown the Carl Sagan Effect? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26888919/ 

1:13:53 Getting the reps in within the science communication game and being critiqued

1:35:00 Academics and science communicators across social media platforms 

1:42:35 The closing pieces to this monster episode 

Where to find Dr. Pak

Instagram: @dr__pak https://www.instagram.com/dr__pak/

YouTube: @Dr__Pak https://www.youtube.com/@Dr__Pak

Website: https://www.drpak.com/