How Science Speaks to Power

What we do:We investigate when science is (mis)presented in policy discussion, and how stakeholders shape and target their evidence to influence policy determination. Each episode is a new case study, explored with McMaster University students.

Big Pharma makes billions from medicine you may take for life, but their profit from marketing a drug you may need once in your life is too low to justify the effort. Science is coming up with many new antibiotic candidates , and we really need them- because superbugs are resistant to the antibiotics we already have. Our current system of funding new drugs is not working for us.We talk to researchers and patients about the obstacles and new ways forward to cure sepsis and develop drugs of high social value.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating and potentially terminal neurodegenerative disease where the immune system attacks the brain. Neurologists dominate the research and development of therapy. Imagine how upset they were when a vascular surgeon claimed to cure MS by opening collapsing veins from the brain? MS patients were clamouring for a treatment neurologists did not trust. Social media was filled with reports from patients reporting recovery. The resulting struggle to test and approve "Liberation Therapy" is a case study in how non-experts can derail the slow and methodical process of testing and approving a new treatment.

In 2025 the US Food and Drug Administration banned Red Dye 3, as it has been linked to cancer in rats, but only if simultaneously treated with another drug, and at incredibly high dose. Some countries ban the dye because natural alternatives exist. Others merely limit the dose.We talk to experts and lobbyists central to this policy debate, and discover cancer may have been used as a proxy to advance another cause......