Science Vs Logo Photo: Supplied/Gimlet Media
One week, a glass of red wine's good for you: the next week alcohol's giving you cancer.
We're saturated in science news- from gene editing to promising new treatments- these kind of stories have become killer content. But with the rise of fake news, celebrities spouting pseudo-science, and fewer specialist science reporters, there's a lot of noise and a risk that things are getting misreported or misunderstood.
'Science Vs' aims to cut through the trends, the fads and the opinions to get to the real science behind everything from vaccinations to fasting diets.
The host Wendy Zukerman was making the show for the ABC in Australia when someone at the big podcasting studio Gimlet heard it, and whisked her and producer Kaitlyn Sawrey off to make the show in New York.
And when you listen to a few episodes of 'Science Vs' it isn't hard to see why; Wendy is super enthusiastic, sounds chatty and natural, and loves a good pun (and a bad one too!). The show quickly and clearly transports you to the point of what we know- and what we don't- explaining any curly scientific issues in plain language along the way.
Each episode also comes with a transcript and citations of all the studies they've used, so you can check them out and read things for yourself. And it doesn't shy away from some big and potentially controversial subjects, including organic food, vaccinations, antidepressant use, veganism, and alcohol.
We play an excerpt of the Science Vs episode 'Fasting Diets: What's The Skinny?' from Gimlet Media (produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey and Wendy Zukerman with help from Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn and edited by Blythe Terrell, Caitlin Kenney and Annie-Rose Strasser), and speak to Wendy Zukerman about how the show's made and how the move to Gimlet went down.
Wendy Zukerman, the Australian host of Science Vs from Gimlet Media Photo: ©Lem Lattimer Photography
What's On Your Headphones? Wendy Zukerman of Science Vs' podcast recommendations
Sum of All Parts (Joel Werner/ABC)
Welcome to LA (David Weinstein/KCRW) with a special mention for the episodes 'Grace of the Sea' and 'The Case of the Missing Sparkles'
Every Little Thing (Flora Lichtman/Gimlet Media)
