Tune Your Quack-o-Meter

This episode discusses how modern drugs are tested to assure that they actually work and how that differs from "Alternative medicine drugs" because all evidence for them is anecdotal. The placebo effect is discussed and the placebo effect is the reason stringent testing is necessary.

Three discredited forms of alternative medicine are discussed. Those pushing fake medicine are criticized for using Buddhist symbolism in a comedy routine. Joking about things clouds the messages.

Bill Nye admits that some of modern medicine comes from alternative medicine.

Growing up watching BNTSG I really expected a lot from this show. 1.5 episodes in I had to turn it off because I was so disappointed. The second episode in particular comes off as cruel and unnecessary. If you didn't want to cause offense by laughing at the "healer" to his face, why would you think going on international television and doing it would be OK? What is this teaching people? Everyone knows there is all sorts of gimmicks out there...was it necessary to spend a third of the show mocking people? The whole premise seems much more about riling up people who are already "on their side", vs educating and teaching everyone about science and potentially influencing those who most need it. Having a spokesperson who had the opportunity to "make science cool" I really thought they could have done so much more with this show. However, they chose to take an elitist, smug, and condescending tone that is going to further polarize an already divided country and absolutely not reach the audience which desperately needed to be reached.

Wow, you know I probably agree with most of the ideas they "want" to send, but this show is just really obnoxious.

They visit a "alternative" healer to simply mock him, and it's so mean spirited it's sad. It's not "science!" ha, it's ridiculous! Yet the only science I've seen on the show to this point was a very dramatic lighting of a Bunsen burner to boil some water with food coloring.

I really question how they would ever get a person to sign off on the rights to use that footage in such a slanderous/mocking fashion.

One guy on the panel actually has really good points to make about ultrasound, and other real world facts but he's basically shut down because "science!"

Then an Aziz Ansari wannabe lectures "white people" about cultural appropriation in what I think was supposed to be a stand-up routine. They call back some shots from the alternative-healers office with shots of his Buddha's......... I'm sorry are white people not allowed to be Buddhist? I know a good many- I guess I should tell them to stick to white people religions.

And is this a show for kids? Or just kids who grew up with Nye?

I thought that science and curiosity couldn't do without each other. As a scientist, you cultivate curiosity, you go and explore what seems unusual and challenging, and you try to understand it, observe it, describe it, analyse it, measure it, and shave off your own bias and all the other biases before drawing conclusions. This was not the case with this episode. Why invite people to your panel whom you interrupt, whom you don't listen to? Why go and pretend to actually study and try to learn about an approach that is challenging and unusual, when you're actually not trying to learn, you actually mock people. I wouldn't let my kids watch this. Firstly, it's mean behaviour and teaches people disrespect, mistrust and that mocking each other is okay and even cool. Secondly, it has nothing to do with science, but rather taking pride in being ignorant towards unresearched approaches and ideas.