I made this Radio 4 documentary on randomised trials on government policy

January 6th, 2013 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, evidence based policy, government reports, podcast, politics | 4 Comments »

Here’s a documentary I made for BBC Radio 4 (with producer Rami Tzabar) about evidence based social policy, and why we should do more randomised trials in government. It’s good fun, 40 minutes, with contributions from Dean Karlan (who wrote this book and is behind all these excellent trials on reducing poverty), Prof Sheila Bird, Jonathan Portes from NIESR (his excellent blog here), the man they call GOD, and many more.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01phhb9

It’s also Radio 4 documentary of the week (woo!) which means you can download it as an mp3. The link is live for another 5 days, and it works for some countries outside the UK too.

www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r4choice

And now that it’s expired on iPlayer, you can listen to it on FigShare here:

figshare.com/articles/R4Doc_04_Jan_13_Ben_Goldacre/105918

If you’re interested in reading more evidence based policy, I highly recommend this Cabinet Office paper that I co-authored a few months ago, downloadable for free online. As explained here, it’s brief, and very much designed to be the Ladybird Book of RCTs in Government. If you want more on the uses for randomised trials in criminal justice, I wrote this in the British Medical Journal with Sheila Bird and John Strang in 2011 (sorry it’s not open access, I’ll try to fix that soon). More to come on this topic soon. Read the rest of this entry »

I did a new talk at TED, on drug companies and hidden data.

September 28th, 2012 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, big pharma, onanism, podcast, publication bias | 10 Comments »

I did a new talk at TED about drug companies hiding the results of clinical trials, it went up today. This is a huge, ongoing problem, and it results in patients suffering and dying unnecessarily. So I’m really pleased that TED were able to give the story a platform. Video after the click:  Read the rest of this entry »

I made a documentary about cohort studies in epidemiology, on BBC Radio 4

August 4th, 2011 by Ben Goldacre in onanism, podcast | 10 Comments »

I made a documentary about prospective cohort studies in epidemiology, they’re the tool we use to find out if one thing is associated with another, where trials are impossible. It’s really good. Instead of reading about it, listen here:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012wg2q/Science_From_Cradle_to_Grave/

Or listen live when it’s repeated tonight on Radio 4 at 9pm. Read the rest of this entry »

Nerds at the parliamentary committee on the Draft Defamation Bill

June 14th, 2011 by Ben Goldacre in libel, onanism, podcast | 33 Comments »

Here’s me, Simon Singh, Phil Campbell from Nature, and Fiona Godlee from the BMJ giving evidence on libel reform in parliament yesterday. It’s all interesting, if you like that kind of thing, our session starts at 17:30 and I do a bit more shouting in the second half of it. Read the rest of this entry »

I made a documentary about science and libel for the BBC: here it is

December 8th, 2010 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, legal chill, libel, podcast | 13 Comments »

Hi all, I made a documentary for the BBC World Service on libel and science. It’s really good, go and listen to it here:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009xbbw

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast on government response to SciTech NHS homeopathy report

July 28th, 2010 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, homeopathy, podcast, regulating nonsense | 23 Comments »

I zipped off this quick podcast from my phone on Monday and put it on my secondary blog, which I run for scrappy stuff. People seemed to like it a bit so I’m reposting here. There’s more audio stuff coming, a bit of video too, and I’ll work out good feeds and iTunes stuff over the next couple of weeks. Cheery pip.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


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Placebo! Nocebo!

April 17th, 2010 by Ben Goldacre in onanism, placebo, podcast | 29 Comments »

Hi, two quick videos… one on the mighty placebo effect, via NHS Choices, one on the nocebo effect from Nerdstock. Read the rest of this entry »

Moments of genius

February 8th, 2010 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, onanism, podcast, systematic reviews | 25 Comments »

Sorry no column this week, I’ve got some fun stuff in the pipe, as they say, and a lot on. In case you miss me, here’s my shouty contribution to Radio 4’s “Moments Of Genius”, a eulogy to the startlingly new idea of systematic reviews.

Other bits and bobs… Read the rest of this entry »

LlewTube

January 18th, 2010 by Ben Goldacre in onanism, podcast | 11 Comments »

Brief note to say I’m a guest on LlewTube this week with Robert Llewellyn (or Kryten off of Red Dwarf if you prefer). The show’s great generally, and a galaxy of nerds, recent guests include Patrick Stewart, Graham Linehan, Martha Lane Fox, Adrian Edmondson, Brian Cox, and the rest. It’s also a genius format for interviews: cars are an intimate space where eye contact is not mandatory and occasional silences are acceptable. I mean, we didn’t talk about anything intimate. I’m just saying.

Anyway, video is right here, clicketyclick Read the rest of this entry »

Trading ideas in a toilet

February 18th, 2009 by Ben Goldacre in onanism, podcast | 46 Comments »

I met the lovely Conrad Quilty-Harper (true) in a toilet recently. He made a video of our encounter and posted it on the internet. I’ve embedded this below for your amusement and edification: I hope you find it stimulating.


Ben Goldacre of Bad Science talks about Sensationalised Science Reporting from Conrad on Vimeo.

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