If we knew that Coca-Cola was among the deadliest products in our diet, would we continue drinking it in such great quantities? The Coca-Cola Company has gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure we don’t find out. This program will discuss the findings of extensive research and deep investigative reporting, that uncovered the damage Coke does to America’s health, and the remarkable campaign of disinformation conducted by the company to keep consumers in the dark.
Murray Carpenter is the author of Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick (MIT Press, March 2025), and Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us (Penguin USA, 2014). As a journalist focusing on science, health, climate, and environmental stories, he has reported for The New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, National Geographic, NPR, and Maine Public Radio. His work has taken him across the United States, and to Guantanamo, the Colombian llanos, and a factory town in China. He holds a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado and an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and lives in Belfast, Maine.