Using Data to Counter Quackery and Alternative Medicine [Michael Marshall]

Using Data to Counter Quackery and Alternative Medicine
Michael Marshall, Project Director of the Good Thinking Society

As skeptics, it’s easy for us to warn people about the harms of alternative medicine at an individual level, but what can we do when quackery is being pushed by authorities, or when the problem is too widespread for a one-on-one approach? From NHS homeopathy to midwifery alt-med, via quack charities and dubious overseas cancer clinics, professional skeptical investigator Michael Marshall will explain how a dogged approach to analysing publicly available data can help us understand what we’re up against, and provide the media with the evidence they need to publish stories that make a difference.

Michael Marshall is the Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, Editor of The Skeptic, and President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast, and presents investigative reporting on the Skeptics with a K podcast. His work has seen him organising international homeopathy protests, going undercover to expose psychics and quack medics, and co-founding the popular QED conference. He has written for The Guardian, The Times, The New Statesman and New Scientist.