Zeynep Tufekci on the Sociology of The Moment (Live)

Aug 25, 2021

Zeynep Tufekci, a Columbia University professor and author, dives deep into technology's impact on society and public health communication. She shares her experience advocating for mask-wearing during the pandemic, highlighting the dysfunctions in scientific authority. Tufekci discusses the media's role in shaping COVID-19 narratives, the challenges of the lab-leak theory, and the effects of internet radicalization. She also explores persuasive techniques for vaccine skeptics, reflecting on cultural phenomena like Game of Thrones and the sociopolitical dynamics in Turkey.

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ANECDOTE

Lab Leak Controversy

Zeynep Tufekci discusses the lab leak theory and the reactions it provoked.
She highlights the scientific community's defensiveness and the political factors that influenced the discourse.

INSIGHT

Biosafety Crisis

The current fundamental mistake is framing the lab leak debate as political instead of a biosafety issue.
Tufekci emphasizes the need to address biosafety risks in scientific research, regardless of the pandemic's origin.

ANECDOTE

Outsider Status

Tufekci discusses her experience writing a mask op-ed, contradicting health authorities.
She questioned why credentialed experts didn't speak out and realized her outsider status gave her more freedom.

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When Zeynep Tufekci penned a New York Times op-ed at the onset of the pandemic challenging the prevailing public health guidance that ordinary people should not wear masks, she thought it was the end of her public writing career. Instead, it helped provoke the CDC to reverse its guidance a few weeks later, and medical professionals privately thanked her for writing it. While relieved by the reception, she also saw it as a sign of a deeper dysfunction in the scientific establishment: why should she, a programmer and sociologist by training, have been the one to speak out rather than a credentialed expert? And yet realizing her outsider status and academic tenure allowed her to speak more freely than others, she continued writing and has become one of the leading public intellectuals covering the response to COVID-19.

Zeynep joined Tyler to discuss problems with the media and the scientific establishment, what made the lab-leak hypothesis unacceptable to talk about, how her background in sociology was key to getting so many things right about the pandemic, the pitfalls of academic contrarianism, what Max Weber understood about public health crises, the underrated aspects of Kemel Mustapha’s regime, how Game of Thrones interested her as a sociologist (until the final season), what Americans get wrong about Turkey, why internet-fueled movements like the Gezi protests fizzle out, whether Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise in Turkey, how she’d try to persuade a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic, whether public health authorities should ever lie for the greater good, why she thinks America is actually less racist than Europe, how her background as a programmer affects her work as a sociologist, the subject of her next book, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Note: This conversation was recorded on July 14th, 2021, before the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

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Thumbnail photo credit: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society