Good Communication Must Survive Contact with Real Life

Send us Fan Mail

A doctor hands you a post-it note with a disease name, tells you not to Google it, and sends you home. That moment is where a lot of health communication quietly fails, because the next steps happen without the clinician, the communicator, or the system in the room. In this episode we pick up part two of our conversation with our colleage Laura Dattner to ask a blunt question: what happens when we don’t address what people actually want to know?

We break down how trust, emotion, and real-world constraints decide whether health and science communication actually works. 

Listen in to hear us talk about:
• why “don’t Google it” fails without a trustworthy next step 
• why labels change meaning 
• how fear and uncertainty reshape what people can absorb 
• the difference between giving information and helping someone use it 
• the impact it can have when you deliver difficult medical diagnoses/results with empathy and a clear plan 
• teach-back as a practical tool for checking understanding 
• designing public health messages that fit exhausted parents’ real lives 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This podcast is a project of the Center for Injury Research Translation and Communication (CIRTC). Connect with CIRTC: www.cirtc.org

Find CIRTC on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and YouTube.

Note: all thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are personal and not representative of any organization.