Michael Specter on the Charlie Rose Show

I’m watching Michael Specter, a science writer for the New Yorker, on the Charlie Rose Show right now. I’d never heard of this guy before but I adore him already. (I’m also admittedly not usually a fan of Charlie Rose, I suppose because I’ve fallen victim to the flashiness of modern media — I struggle to stay awake for his one-on-one interviews in front of a black screen for a full hour. The interviews are usually brilliant, though, and this is no exception.) The show’s bio of Specter says he’s just written a book called Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens our Lives. The interview and the book are about some of the same things he covers for the New Yorker: the current anti-vaccination chaos and its effects, misconceptions about organic food and genetically engineered crops, obsession with vitamins and supplements that don’t do any good … among other things. A few highlights that I managed to type before the moment passed by:

  • Insightful line from Specter: “Science isn’t a company, it isn’t a country, it’s a method of doing something.” People often oppose scientific consensus and dispute the results of study after study because they claim that political and business interests shaped the results. To be sure, some funding-source bias may slip through occasionally, and a couple so-called “researchers” pop up from time to time who are outright sleazy. But to portray the entire institution of science as something so malleable, so easily lobbied and influenced, is to misunderstand deeply the concepts at the root of science.
  • Explaining that eating locally grown, organic food is a nice goal but not a workable solution to the problems of starvation in the developing world, Specter emphasizes, “We’re not going to be serving everyone Swiss chard from the backyard. We’re just not.” The normally somber Charlie Rose starts giggling and says, “That’s true.”

You can watch the interview here once it goes online, probably later on Wednesday.

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December 30, 2009 · Written by
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Comments

One Response to “Michael Specter on the Charlie Rose Show”

  1. Emily K Identicon Icon Emily K on December 31st, 2009 7:56 pm

    For developing countries, “locally grown” is hardly an ideal. But in a country like the US, or Italy, where farmland is still real and natural and technical resources rich, eating local is good. It supports local farming and is much fresher. The fewer steps from market to kitchen that are made, the fewer variables you need to worry about. I’m speaking especially about simple foods like produce. certain specialty foods like cheese, or fish that are not local, will of course come from overseas. But there’s no reason you can’t get apples from an orchard that’s relatively close, if you live in PA. Agribusiness concerns me. Food is something very close to humanity, vital to our survival. I get concerned when not human well-being but rather money is the means to the end regarding our sustenance.

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