Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson is an American molecular biologist and science communicator. He is best known as a host and creator of the podcast Debunk The Funk, which focuses on pseudoscience surrounding the anti-vaccine movement and COVID-19 misinformation.

Early life and education Wilson was born in Harrisburg and lived in Pennsylvania nearly his whole life. His parents both had graduate degrees: his father in Education and his mother in environmental biology. He attended a high school in Harrisburg where his father was dean, developing an interest for science but also for conspiracy theories, including cryptids, 9/11 conspiracy theories (through the film Loose Change) and ancient aliens. He credits a good high school biology teacher for giving him the tools to challenge his own conspiracy beliefs and get interested in science communication. He gradually abandoned his beliefs in conspiracy in his undergraduate years.

Career and science communication

In January 2020, as he was completing his Ph.D., Wilson created a YouTube channel as a hobby, intending to debunk anti-vaccination conspiracists he was familiar with, such as Del Bigtree. With the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he got interested in the new influencers peddling COVID misinformation. Debunk the Funk rapidly gained in popularity in March 2020, as both the pandemic and the influencers profiting from it took off.

As of February 2023, Debunk the Funk had more than 34,000 subscribers and its videos had been viewed more than 1.3 million times.

Author Matthew Remski describes Wilson's approach as "clear, respectful, meticulous with evidence and clearly devoted to the common good."

His distinctive afro developed when he spent the first months of the pandemic avoiding the hair salon. Wilson decided to integrate it to his science communication style: "My dad when he was younger had a pretty big afro growing up in the seventies (...) I kind of like that I get to be that image of him now, I hope he's proud of that."

As of 2023, Wilson was working at Eurofins Scientific.

Publications