Charles Piller
speaker
984 appearances
4 recordings
4 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard 17 Apr
Charles Piller’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Before in the past, many years ago, it was people didn't know as much science. Then it went to people were willfully ignorant. They didn't care to learn much about science, even though it was available to them. And now it's at a place where it's like, you're not just wrong, you're aggressively wrong and loud about it.
And the louder you are, the better you can do on some of these social media platforms. And I worry how ultimately that plays out because people, The scientific community is at a significant disadvantage due to their lack of competency in communication, is a nice way to put it.
Whereas those people who are aggressively wrong are so captivating, are so watchable, are the ones that the algorithms end up pushing. So I ultimately don't know how this plays out long-term.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more on that. It's kind of terrifying in that way. I guess I would just have to hold out the possibility that these institutions can get better at what they do, not just in administering and reviewing the science, but also in understanding how to use media in a way that effectively reaches people. And I would just say that...
That your example of someone who, you know, your rather substantial side gig from being a doctor is, you know, it's a good sign that we have to have people who can do more than one thing and can kind of encourage this dialogue. But yes, we're in a big hole in that way, and I certainly don't have a solution for it.
But what I'm trying to do is to put accessible information out into the world that can help move people in a good direction, that can help raise awareness of these issues, but also force institutions to sit up and take notice and to make themselves better. What's said on social media is one thing. What institutions do is another.
They're not completely separate from each other, but these institutions are powerful and they can do much better. I want to say that I work for Science Magazine. I think one thing that I've appreciated there is that even though they themselves have been caught many times in having published studies that then later are shown to have been flawed or untrue, maybe even falsified.
You know, they're quite determined to put out accurate information, to do it in a way that faces down hard issues in science and medicine. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing the stuff that I'm writing. They're willing to look at, take a good hard look at it. And I think that's,
The sort of thing that I think a lot of the institutions haven't been willing to do is to take a good hard look in the mirror and say, what am I doing that's leading to my own problems? How can I get better at this?
Yeah, they want to look outside for why their problems are happening.
That's exactly right. And it's not that they are the sole cause of all their own problems, but they need to clean up their own house. Yeah.
What's one positive thing we can leave viewers and listeners with when it comes to the future of Alzheimer's research? Where do you think we go in the next 20 years?
Well, I think one thing that I'm really looking forward to is some interesting research in two realms. One is the possible benefits of the new GLP-1 inhibitors. So these are the drugs like Ozempic and others that have been taken for weight loss.
that, wow, amazing, amazing possible effects in other realms, including the possibility of attacking dementia associated with different causes of dementia, including Alzheimer's. So I'm looking forward to seeing whether that might potentially have some benefit.
I'm also very curious about results from clinical trials coming up associated with the possibility that infections play a role in Alzheimer's disease. Even finding evidence of multifactorial reasons for the disease, meaning more than one reason, perhaps amyloid proteins play a role, perhaps infections play a role, perhaps other ways in which inflammation in the brain can play a role.
I think scientists who are looking at these various components and trying to understand how we can attack more than one thing at a time are likely to gain ascendancy in coming years. So to me, There's no quick fix on this.
We unfortunately are way behind, and I think because of the undue extreme emphasis on one way of thinking in the field, some things have been left by the wayside for many years that deserve a closer look. I think those things ultimately will get that closer look, and
Because there are so many scientists who have a lot of integrity in this field, I think we're going to see some results in years to come, but I can't make any prediction of how soon.
Yeah. I think it's equally exciting to me as it is a bit scary to know that a potential virus you're exposed to when you're younger or even as an adult can potentially play a role in something that impacts you in your 70s and 80s. without even realizing it. So on one side, very interesting. On the other side, oh man, so many unknowns, so many variables.
Yeah, yeah. So many unknowns, so many variables. And it can be a scary thing, but I think also being courageous enough to look hard at ideas that might be controversial is one part of it. It's one part of it.
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