In October, Kathryn and the team hosted the first Science or Fiction Live! A live recording of The Science or Fiction Podcast. Kathryn started the podcast in 2022 in collaboration with young people: in each episode, they separate the science from the fiction in news headlines on mental health and psychology. The aim is to equip listeners with knowledge of scientific methods and results to empower them to be critical of science in the media.
The first live recording was produced and co-hosted with youth advisor and clinical doctorate trainee Mariam Shah. They covered Self-diagnosis in ADHD: social media, statistics and everything in-between.
Should we worry about increasing rates of ADHD? What role does social media play in self-diagnosis of ADHD? Kathryn and Mariam interviewed experts Professor Ellie Dommett, group leader of the ADHD Research Lab, and Shauna Campbell, Podcast Director at ADHD Babes, to answer these questions and more.
We learnt so much from this panel, particularly how we need to shift our perspectives on self-diagnosis, be careful with the content we’re consuming and how adjustments for people with ADHD could help everyone. You can read more about the key insights from the evening in Chloe’s article..
In case you missed it, you can watch or listen to the episode on the website: https://www.scienceorfiction.co.uk/p/live-self-diagnosing-adhd-social. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to get the latest episode and information about future events in your inbox.
A huge thank you to the 150+ people who attended in person and online, it was so lovely to meet so many of you and your engagement and thoughtful questions made our first live recording so special!
Thank you to our brilliant volunteers: Ayla Pollmann, Chloe Carrick, Lauren Turner and Lara Acosta. Thank you to Milly Remington for helping to produce the event, Exell Film for livestream and filming, and to the ESRC Social Science Festival 2024 for funding the event. Thank you to Lucy Foulkes, Ellie Middleton, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and David Speigelhalter for donating your books to the raffle!
This event is funded by the ESRC and is part of the ESRC Social Science Festival.