Don’t Look Up follows two astronomers as they discover a comet headed directly toward Earth and attempt to warn humanity of the impending danger. Join our panel of authors and scholars in science and technology, communication and media, government, and psychology as they discuss the film and its messages, including the politicization of science, the consequences of misinformation, and the roles of humor and the arts in exploring these issues. The event is being sponsored by the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. MBB is a university-wide effort to probe interfaces and relationships between neurobiological descriptions and explanations of mind and behavior and those that come from other disciplines.

Panelists:

Matthew Baum, PhD, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, studies the effects of domestic politics on international conflict and cooperation as well as the role of the mass media and public opinion in contemporary American politics.

Lauren Feldman, PhD, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers, studies media effects in political and scientific domains. Recent work focuses on climate change communication, partisan media and misinformation, and comedy and social change.

 Steven Pinker, PhD, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard, researches topics in language, cognition, and social relations. His two most recent books explored the nature of reason and how it has contributed to human progress.

Moderator:

Sheila Jasanoff, JD, PhD, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard, explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies. Her research has included the role of science in environmental decision making, and the expectations that publics in diverse countries holds regarding the uses of expertise in policy.