Dr Ben Goldacre is a best-selling author, broadcaster, medical doctor and academic who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks. As of 2012 he is Wellcome research fellow in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

His first book, Bad Science sold over 400,000 copies, is published in 18 countries, and reached #1 in the UK paperback non-fiction charts. His new book, Bad Pharma, which exposes bad behaviour in the pharmaceutical industry, was published at the end of 2012.

For this interview, we discuss the extent of the problems that face the medical establishment – the ramifications of an unscrupulous alliance between the pharmaceutical industry and regulators, the suppression of negative studies revealing many drugs to be either ineffective or less effective than those they seek to replace – and what we can do to solve these problems, including the new petition AllTrials.net, for the publication of clinical trial results, at www.alltrials.net.

We also reveal the New Zealand and Australian tour plans that will be featured on the Bad Science website, soon! You can follow Dr Goldacre on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bengoldacre.

Theme songs are “P&P” by Derek K. Miller of www.penmachine.com and “Leap Second” by Milton Mermikides, of www.miltonmermikides.com. Song used in this episode: “Laundry“ by makardos.

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