U of A prof and media maven takes his show to Netflix

The University of Alberta’s very public intellectual debunks snake-oil salespeople

You might be forgiven for thinking there are two different Timothy Caulfields.

The first is Timothy Caulfield, lawyer and professor, the respected academic and bioethicist. He’s a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the guy who holds the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and serves as the research director of the University of Alberta’s Health Law Institute.

And then there’s Tim Caulfield, boyishly handsome media maven and populist snake-oil debunker, the author of the bestselling books Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything? and The Cure for Everything!

Somehow, one person manages to pull off both roles, with aplomb. Which is why this September, Caulfield, 54, is supervising graduate students at the U of A — while simultaneously preparing for his newest gig, as a Netflix star.

“There’s definitely a Tim resource issue.” Caulfield told me Wednesday.

“But the university has been extremely supportive of my unconventional career. Fifteen years ago, it might have been different. But they really view this as knowledge translation. It’s an important opportunity, especially in this era of misinformation and twisting facts. This is a chance to set to record straight. Because trying to get the science right matters.”

On Friday, Netflix, the American-based streaming service, will begin showing the first season of Caulfield’s documentary TV series, A User’s Guide to Cheating Death.

The series, which Caulfield hosts and co-produces, premièred in Canada on Vision TV last year. The slickly produced episodes take a sardonic look at all the gimmicks and gadgets and panaceas and quack remedies being marketed these days, to help us fend off our fears of our own mortality.

With a combination of scientific skepticism and anthropological curiosity, Caulfield investigates everything from colonic cleanses to vampire facials to stem-cell therapy. But he doesn’t just trash the junk science he encounters.

He takes a thoughtful, respectful look at the historic and sociological reasons that people embrace these sorts of “cures” — no matter how wacky they might seem.

A show like this could score easy points, by humiliating or mocking the people who buy in to these various schemes and scams. But Caulfield doesn’t take those cheap shots — and as a result, the subjects he interviews open up to him in surprising ways.

“This is not a ‘gotcha’ show,” Caulfield said. “We’re rooted in science, but we don’t make fun of people.”

Caulfield prefers to poke fun at himself, putting himself through all sorts of uncomfortable treatments in the name of scientific inquiry — and our entertainment.

Some of the people Caulfield meets in his global travels are true believers, people who sincerely think the snake oil they’re swallowing — or pitching — works. Other times, it’s clear that the hucksters he’s interviewing don’t even believe their own hype.

And it’s that contrast that adds intrigue and some dark humour to the stories he tells.

The User’s Guide to Cheating Death was a success on Vision. Then it was picked up by Britain’s Sky TV and has now been seen in 67 countries around the world, from Australia to Poland.

But until this week, it didn’t have wide North American distribution. Being on Netflix changes all of that — and gives Caulfield access to a potentially huge American audience, and to a demographic of viewers who don’t watch conventional cable television.

Netflix will start streaming the first season — all six episodes

— on Friday. Season two will start streaming in mid- October, around the same time it airs on Vision, with episodes on everything from sex to sleep to vitamins.

After that? Caulfield hopes that Netflix will step in with funding to co-produce a third season. But there’s no deal in place as yet.

There is, of course, an ironic conflict at the heart of Caulfield’s show. While the program sets out to explode the mythology around placebos and New Age nostrums, Caulfield knows there’s always the danger of unintended consequences — that the very act of giving these ploys and cons more publicity could actually backfire, and convince people to try them.

“I think that’s the broader challenge with science communication. Just giving attention to these things could make them more plausible. At the same time, I think it’s best to set the record straight. I think if you can help people to understand what the scientific consensus is and how science works, you can make some headway.”

And next semester? Caulfield will be back in the classroom, teaching a science policy class — providing his students with a fresh and personal perspective on the ways science is represented in the public sphere.

This is a chance to set to record straight. Because trying to get the science right matters. TIMOTHY CAULFIELD