Conquer your fears — with science!

Depending on how you process information, you may or may not fear things like Wi-Fi, artificial sweeteners, vaccines and fluoridated water.

But the fact is, it’s not always easy to know what might harm us.

Legitimately dangerous products that are flammable, toxic, radioactive and generally bad for us have been sold as safe in the past. If you are of a certain age and concerned about how the buckets of trans fat-laden margarine you consumed as a child might affect your health, for instance, you’ll find answers here.

In this talk, food microbiologist Virginia Ng and writer and marketer David Frank help us look at products that have killed, injured and poisoned us, and the marketing campaigns that went along with them.

They also explore formerly dangerous products that turned out to be fine, and things we know are bad for us and consume anyway. It’s packed with useful information.

This episode of Speakers Forum is part of KUOW’s ongoing partnership with the Pacific Science Center in their Science in the City series. Virginia Ng and David Frank gave this talk at The PACCAR IMAX Theater on November 26.

Come back next month for another Science in the City episode: Indigenizing Environmental and Conservation Sciences