Dr. Seema Yasmin is a physician, journalist, author, and one of the most incisive voices examining how information and misinformation shapes our understanding of the world. Her work asks urgent questions about who gets to define truth, whose expertise is trusted, and how systems of power influence what we believe. In her book What the Fact?, she explores the mechanics of misinformation and disinformation, revealing how false narratives spread not simply because people lack information, but because stories tap into identity, fear, belonging, and existing social inequalities.
As a Muslim woman, physician, journalist, and advocate for health equity, she brings a deeply interdisciplinary lens to questions of power, representation, and resistance. Her work invites us to consider how misinformation functions not only as a public health threat, but also as a tool that can reinforce sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of systemic oppression.
I talked with Dr. Yasmin about truth and authority, the politics of expertise, the targeting of marginalized communities through disinformation campaigns, the limits of Western frameworks for understanding justice and health, and what solidarity might look like in an increasingly polarized world. We’ll also explore whether hope is the right framework for this moment—or whether there are other ways of imagining collective action and transformation.
