Today marks the opening of the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco.

Over 1,300 people will be in attendance, and that’s a big number.

But there’s an even bigger number that may not get as much attention but really should: The conference is receiving $400,000 from biomedical giant, Johnson & Johnson, and another $200,000 from various companies such as Bayer, Sanofi, 23andMe, and AstraZeneca.

In this podcast we ask the question: Should health care journalists — or their professional organizations — take money from the people they report on regularly?

In the podcast I mention this primer: The Trail of Tainted Funding. Our team invested a lot of effort in making this a go-to site for learning more about conflicts of interest in healthcare, academics, public relations, and journalism.

It’s a living and breathing document that we keep up-to-date with specific examples of these troublesome relationships. I very highly recommend it as both a starting point, and long-term reference.