Eliene Augenbraun: How Truth Survives When Everyone Has a Microphone

We see thousands of headlines, posts, and AI-made clips every day, so how do we know what to trust? Dr. Eliene Augenbraun explains why facts alone rarely change minds, and how context, familiarity, trusted relationships, and interpretation shape what people believe.In this episode, Dante and Eliene discuss:Competing narratives and how they shape beliefThe personal influence model and social media algorithmsScience as interpretation and Kuhn's scientific revolutionsHow media technology changed, from signal fires to online videoAI's risks and uses in science and medicineKey Takeaways:&nbsp;The information environment shapes what people believe and what feels true to them. Messages that cross both sides of a divide and make sense within both narratives can help build peace.We trust what's familiar, and what's familiar spreads through the people we already trust. Modern algorithms are built on this.Science doesn't hand us final answers. It gives the best current explanation, and that explanation can be overturned when the exceptions pile up.AI can produce useful insights, but it can also carry biases from the data it's trained on and make mistakes that are difficult to catch because the output sounds so convincing.Read one in-depth article a day, and vary your sources.&nbsp;“Everybody could understand it. You just have to find decent sources and read it and ask questions, and, you know, everybody's smart enough. There's nothing. Scientists are no smarter than anybody else. They're just more patient.” - Eliene AugenbraunAbout Eliene Augenbraun: Eliene Augenbraun, D.O., Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist, educator, multimedia producer, and science communicator with more than three decades of experience at the intersection of science, medicine, education, and media. A physician and Ph.D. biologist, she has led multimedia initiatives and produced science and health content for organizations including Scientific American, Nature, MIT, Forbes, and leading academic institutions. She co-founded ScienCentral, a pioneering science news organization, and has helped make complex scientific topics more accessible through storytelling, video, podcasts, and digital media. She also teaches medical communications at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and mentors medical and nursing students. Her work has received numerous national and international awards for excellence in science journalism and communication.Connect with Eliene Augenbraun:Profile: https://www.forbes.com/health/author/eliene-augenbraun/Portfolio: https://www.sciencentral.net/videoConnect with Dante Royster:Website: https://www.danteroyster.com/Epic Mortgage Website:<a href="https://bison-primrose-