Following nominations from the public and deliberations from our editorial team, The Skeptic is proud to announce the winners of the 2023 Ockham Awards:

Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism: Knowledge Fight podcast

Knowledge Fight is the long-running podcast that dissects right-wing propagandist Alex Jones, and through that lens attempts to shine light on the larger community of extremists he exists within. Created in January 2017 by Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes, it has amassed a sizeable fanbase, and has become an essential repository for understanding the conspiracy theory ecosystem of Alex Jones and Infowars.

When, in 2018, parents of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting sued Jones for defamation over his claims that the incident was “staged”, Knowledge Fight’s Dan Friesen was invited to give expert testimony as part of the case, which eventually resulted in Jones losing the case.

Michael Marshall said: “Knowledge Fight is a superb example of the importance of tracking and documenting misinformation. Many people have seen Alex Jones over the years as something bizarre and kooky, and in doing so they have allowed his more ridiculous and outlandish statements to distract them from the real harm and impact of his decades of conspiracy theory extremism. By listening to what Alex Jones actually says, and keeping track of the figures in his orbit, Knowledge Fight have shown that he is far from harmless.

“The value of developing such a detailed understanding and encyclopaedic knowledge of figures like Alex Jones was shown not just in the Sandy Hook case – where for the first time Jones has faced some genuine accountability – but also in demonstrating his links to the extremists who stormed the Capitol and attempted to overthrow the US government.

“For putting together so comprehensive a picture of Alex Jones’ world, and for delivering that deep insight in a format that keeps the audience entertained as well as informed, we’re delighted to award the 2023 Ockham Award for skeptical activism to the Knowledge Fight podcast.”

Rusty Razor Award: Dr Aseem Malhotra

Dr Malhotra has made a name for himself over the last decade as a cardiologist who advocates strongly against the broad use of statins. He has described the drugs as a multi-billion dollar “con” by the pharmaceutical industry, saying that his critics have “received millions in research funding from the pharmaceutical industry”. He has described the link between heart disease and saturated fat as a “myth”, drawing criticism from the British Heart Foundation.

In 2017, his book The Pioppi Diet put forward a diet that he claimed could prevent 20 million deaths per year from cardiovascular disease. The book was named by the British Dietetic Association as one of the celebrity diets to most avoid – with the BDA highlighting his apparently Mediterranean diet excluded pasta and bread, but included coconuts.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Malhotra has been a prolific and powerful voice spreading narratives that run contrary to the best available evidence. In 2021, his book The 21-Day Immunity Plan included a diet claimed to improve the immune system and help fight off infections – claims that drew criticism from medical professionals.

In 2022, Dr Malhotra released a paper claiming that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines posed a serious risk to cardiovascular health and that the vaccines were “at best a reckless gamble”. The paper was published in the Journal of Insulin Resistance – where Dr Malhotra sits on the editorial board.

Dr Malhotra and his campaign against the COVID-19 vaccine was subsequently praised in Parliament by Andrew Bridgen MP as part of the reasoning behind his ongoing anti-vaccine crusade. In January of this year, Dr Malhotra used a BBC interview about statins to claim that deaths from coronary artery disease were actually complications from the vaccine, prompting a slew of complaints, and an apology from the broadcaster.

The Skeptic Editor Michael Marshall said: “In our opinion, Dr Malhotra has been an incredibly prolific promoter of pseudoscience throughout the pandemic, including spreading the false notion that vaccines are responsible for thousands of excess deaths.

“Dr Malhotra’s media career has given him a very large platform, from which he spreads misinformation that undermines confidence in a health intervention that has saved the lives of countless people across the world. In doing so, he stokes the flames of conspiracy, paranoia and mistrust of medical consensus.

“For anyone with so large a platform to do this would be concerning enough, but Dr Malhotra shares these pseudoscientific messages as a registered medical professional whose opinions have influenced at least one current member of parliament.

“All of this, we feel, makes Dr Aseem Malhotra a highly deserving winner of the 2023 Rusty Razor award”