David Ropeik

David Ropeik

Retired Harvard Instructor, Author

A man in a pink shirt and a pink and white tie.

David Ropeik is an award-winning broadcast journalist, a Harvard instructor, and an international consultant in risk communication and risk perception. He’s also the author of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts.

I got a call from a friend last year. He had prostate cancer and wanted some help thinking through what to do. He had gone to his doctors for the […]
     In response to a lot of feedback on yesterday’s post, the loudest and nastiest of which came from people who deny climate change, I have revised the essay to […]
          Strange name for a movement, isn’t it; “The Right to Die”?  Isn’t that like asking the government for “The Right to Live” or “The Right to Eat” […]
 Tribalism is pervasive, and it controls a lot of our behavior, readily overriding reason. 
       This is just stunning. In fact, it’s hard to believe it’s true. But the Heartland Institute, a fiercely conservative and libertarian think tank that champions denial of climate change, […]
        They are looking for Etan Patz again. He was 6 years old when he went missing in New York City in 1979, a disappearance that, along with those of […]
            My father, a journalist, died a few days ago. He taught me that journalism is not just a job but a calling, a high form of public service. I […]