Oct. 1: A Virtual Conversation with George Zaidan, Author of Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us

A Virtual Conversation with George Zaidan, Author of Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us

Thursday, October 1, 7 pm ET on Zoom

  • Will eating Cheetos shave off years of my life?
  • Can I drink my coffee in peace, or do I need to fear heart disease and cancer with every sip?
  • Is wearing sunscreen safe or worse than not wearing it at all? 
  • Is vaping worse than smoking?

On Thursday, October 1, Science Writers in New York invites you to join us on Zoom for a conversation with SWINY co-chair David Levine (@dlloydlevine) and George Zaidan, author of Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us (published April 4th, Penguin Random House).

In his book, Zaidan explains what food processing means on a chemical level and how it has existed for thousands of years. He shows how scientists decide what is true (and what’s not). Beware: the numbers used to scare you into changing your daily consumer habits may not mean what you think they do. Interspersed with hilarious footnotes and informative diagrams drawn by the author, Ingredients builds upon basic scientific principles in surprising ways: take a tour of your disease horoscope; learn how to safely eat poisonous potatoes; discover what happens when you overdose on fentanyl in the sun, and what do cassava plants and Soviet spies have in common?

Before you know it, complex chemistry concepts are as plain as day. George Zaidan’s ability to communicate science reaches far and wide; foreign rights for Ingredients have already been sold around the world in ten languages. Amid the vast landscape of conflicting information and the onslaught of headlines demanding you change your diet and lifestyle, Ingredients equips readers with the ability to make informed decisions, explaining what will kill you, what won’t, and why.

Do you have a question for George Zaidan you would like answered? Submit it here.

George Zaidan is a science communicator, television and web host, producer, and MIT-trained chemist. Zaidan cohosted CNBC’s hit TV series Make Me a Millionaire Inventor and has written and voiced several TED-Ed viral videos.

Zaidan created National Geographic‘s webseries “Ingredients,” and he cowrote and directed MIT’s webseries “Science Out Loud.” His work has been featured in The New York TimesForbesThe Boston GlobeNational Geographic Magazine, NPR’s The Salt, NBC’s Cosmic LogScienceBusiness Insider, and GizmodoIngredients is his first book.

When:
Thursday, October 1
7 to 8 pm ET

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