During the Covid-19 pandemic, Morgan McSweeney — who has a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and innovation — got frustrated by the misinformation he was seeing online. So he named himself Dr. Noc and joined the fray. Today, more than 4 million people across social media platforms follow him for his engaging, evidence-based content about health, from how urine is made to why people should be skeptical about links between Tylenol use in pregnancy and autism.
He joined me on the debut episode of the new season of the “First Opinion Podcast” to discuss how he got started, why more experts should engage on social media, and his goals online.
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“It would be really, really easy if my goal is to get as big numbers as I can and as many followers and as much reach,” he told me. “What I would do is speak passionately to people who already agree with me, really rile them up about the other side. The problem … is you’re not changing people’s minds at that point, you’re just making them emotionally engaged.” Instead of targeting people who already agree with him, or those who vehemently disagree, he focuses on those in the middle who are open to receiving the information he has to offer.
“I’m never going to speak to everyone. And this is why I think we need a much greater diversity of science communicators and researchers and experts making content is from the get-go,” he said.
Our conversation was based on his recent First Opinion essay on becoming a trusted scientific voice online.
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