Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) · Oct 2, 2025 · 1h 12m

Patrick McKenzie is joined by Clara Collier, editor and publisher of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how we create institutions that bend towards truth. Clara explains why she launched a quarterly print magazine in the Internet age. She traces how 19th century German universities invented the modern infrastructure for rewarding knowledge production and training researchers at scale, and where our public science communication falls short of that heritage. The conversation examines why institutional trust has declined, particularly around science communication and public health, and whether we…