The Smart Human with Dr. Aly Cohen Science, Trust, and Manufactured Doubt with guest Naomi Oreskes
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What science really is, both as body of knowledge and a constantly evolving process
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Why one study is never enough and the importance of multiple methods, reproducibility, and scientific consensus over time
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When "gold standard" research falls short and why fields like nutrition require more flexible, creative approaches
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Science's built-in caution and how new ideas face a high bar of proof, slowing acceptance but strengthening reliability
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How doubt is manufactured, from the tobacco era to climate science, using fringe voices to challenge strong consensus
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The role of ideology, and how "freedom" narratives can shape public resistance to scientific evidence
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Acting without certainty and why we must make public health decisions even when data isn't 100% complete
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AI and misinformation and the promise and risk of tools like OpenAI in shaping how we consume science
Primary Areas of Research: Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge; History and Philosophy of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Technology Studies (STS); the History of Climate Change Disinformation
Secondary Areas of Interest: Science Policy, Science and Religion, Women and Gender Studies
Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world-renowned earth scientist, historian and public speaker, she is the author of the best-selling book, Merchants of Doubt (2010) and a leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action.
Oreskes is author or co-author of 9 books, and over 150 articles, essays and opinion pieces, including Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), Discerning Experts (University Chicago Press, 2019), Why Trust Science? (Princeton University Press, 2019), and Science on a Mission: American Oceanography from the Cold War to Climate Change, (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Merchants of Doubt, co-authored with Erik Conway, was the subject of a documentary film of the same name produced by participant Media and distributed by SONY Pictures Classics, and has been translated into nine languages. A new edition of Merchants of Doubt, with an introduction by Al Gore, was published in 2020. Her latest book, with Erik Conway, is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, which has been translated to French and Italian.
Oreskes wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si, and her essays and opinion pieces on climate change have appeared in leading newspapers around the globe, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Times (London), and Frankfurter Allegemeine. Her numerous awards and prizes include the 2019 Geological Society of American Mary C. Rabbitt Award, the 2016 Stephen Schneider Award for outstanding Climate Science Communication, the 2015 Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America, the 2015 Herbert Feis Prize of the American Historical Association for her contributions to public history, and the 2014 American Geophysical Union Presidential Citation for Science and Society. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In 2018, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2019 she was awarded the British Academy Medal. In 2024, she was awarded the Nonino Foundation "Maestro del Nostro Tempo" award. And in 2025, she was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize for her contributions in "shaping our understanding of how scientific knowledge is collectively constructed and addressing the challenges of misinformation in public discourse."
Curriculum VitaeSelect Publications
- The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, 2023 (Bloomsbury Press)
- Science on a Mission, 2021 (University of Chicago Press)
- Why Trust Science?, 2019 (Princeton University Press)
- Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, 2014 (MIT Press)
- The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future, 2014 (Columbia University Press) Collapse of Western Civilization Home Page
- Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, 2010. (New York: Bloomsbury Press.) Merchants of Doubt Home Page Merchants of Doubt at the 52nd New York Film Festival, October 8, 2014
- Models in Environmental Regulatory Decision Making, Whipple, Chris et al. (fourteen additional authors), 2007. (Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology), 287 pp.
- The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science, 1999. (New York: Oxford University Press)
In the Media
Testimony Before the US Senate Budget Committee, Twitter, June 22, 2023 Science Isn't Always Perfect - But We Should Still Trust It, TIME, October 2019 Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think, New York Times, October 2019 Escaping Extinction, World Economic Forum, January 2019 Yes, ExxonMobil Misled the Public, LA Times, September 2017 What Exxon Mobil Didn't Say About Climate Change, The New York Times, August 2017 Assessing ExxonMobil's Climate Change Communications (177-2014), Environment Research Letters, August 2017 Scientists Dive Into the Political Fray, PBS Newshour, April 2017 How to Break the Climate Deadlock, Scientific American, November 2015 What Did Exxon Know?, On The Media, November 2015 The Pope and the Planet, The Open Mind, November 2015 Exxon's Climate Concealment, New York Times, October 2015 Naomi Oreskes, a Lightning Rod in a Changing Climate, New York Times, June 2015 A Chronicler of Warnings Denied, New York Times, October 2014 Merchants of Doubt, Documentary from Sony Pictures Classics, 2014 "Why We Should Trust Scientists," TED Talk, June 2014
The 2014 Vatican Environmental Summit:
Prof. Oreskes discusses her book, "The Collapse of Western Civilization..."
- Naomi Oreskes - The Collapse of Western Civilization, Inquiring Minds Podcast
- "A View From the Climate Change Future," National Public Radio via Boston's WBUR
Edited Volumes
- Oreskes, Naomi, ed., with Homer E. Le Grand, 2001. Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth (Boulder: Westview Press), paperback edition February 2003.
Edited Journal Volumes
- Oreskes, Naomi and James R. Fleming, eds. 2000. "Perspectives on Geophysics," Special Issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31B, September 2000.