NOTE: From 0:01:07-0:02:36 the sound quality is lower than the rest of the episode as you are hearing the backup recording. 

This conversation is about democracy and scientific literacy. In 2023 Germany shut down the last of its nuclear plants, and is now bringing back several mothballed coal plants to keep the lights on over winter. Was this a smart decision given the scientific consensus that we need to cut carbon emissions? Similar questions can be asked about the banning of GMO crops, or government handling of Covid. More and more, the decisions being made in western democracies have a scientific basis. Can our democracies thrive (or even survive) without a well informed, engaged, and scientifically literate population? In this conversation I speak with Johannes Vogel, who is the Director General of the Natural Science Museum in Berlin, and a Professor of Biodiversity and Public Science at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. We discuss the role of museums in society, the unglamorous side of science, open and citizen science, scientific spending, ownership of museum items, the war in Ukraine, preserving museum specimens, the effectiveness of political protest and marches, scientists as politicians, AI and misinformation, and much more.

►Watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/KT_p26a_d_M

►For more information about Johannes work: https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/about/team/johannes.vogel

These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. This episode focuses on the sustainability of western democracies in the face of anti-scientific sentiment.