As you may have heard, we are in the midst of a global viral pandemic. At a time like this with things changing at what seems a minute to minute basis, it is very easy to get caught in the weeds and miss the big picture concepts that are at play. Concepts around governmental policymaking, the role of science in guiding political decisions, the potential weaponization of scientific knowledge by biased actors, critical thinking, logical fallacies, the precautionary principle, and evidence-based practice are concepts that will remain important long after this pandemic has passed.  These factors are of extreme interest to my guest today due to his personal interests and professional history.

This episode is me picking the brain of Alan Flanagan. We chat about the policy-making decisions by the UK government around dealing with the virus. While Alan is not an epidemiologist/virologist/medical professional, the reason I asked him to do this is that he seems the perfect bridge between the worlds of science and policy because he (1) worked as a lawyer for more than a decade and so obviously has a firm grasp of the workings of law and policymaking (2) is currently doing a Science-based Ph.D., works as a Science educator and has written extensively about epidemiology from a public health sense as it relates to nutrition (3) currently lives in the UK (4) has as big an interest in critical and scientific thinking as anyone I know or know of. 

Alan's Links

Instagram: @thenutritional_advocate

Website: https://www.alineanutrition.com/about/

Ciaran's links: 

Twitter: @ctquarrelsome 

Instagram:@ctquarrelsome

Website: quarrelsomelife.com