User:Robincantin/Articles/Christopher Labos

Christopher Labos is a Canadian cardiologist, science communicator and author. He is frequently interviewed as a medical expert by the Canadian news media and has regular columns and television appearances.

Early life and medical work
Labos grew up in Montreal from Greek parents. Labos graduated high school at LaurenHill Academy in Saint-Laurent as part of the 1998-1999 cohort. He attended the English Montreal School Board's Hospital Opportunity Program and developed an interest in medicine.

He got his medical training at McGill University, including his cardiology residency. In addition, he did a Master's degree in epidemiology at the same institution, where he became familiar with research methodology. Labos lived in Toronto in the late 2010s, where he obtained a journalism certificate from the University of Toronto and worked as a researcher and clinician.

As of 2023, Labos has been involved in teaching, clinical work with patients and research, the latter on Pre-eclampsia. He is a member of the Cardiovascular Prevention Centre at McGill University Health Centre. He co-authored more than 40 publications journals.

Science communication
Labos became interested in science communication during his epidemiology training, when he sent letters to the editor to newspapers, the first one correcting misleading news coverage on the impact of strawberries consumption on heart disease. His letters attracted the attention of other media outlets, leading to regular appearances in print and electronic media. He had moved back to Montreal when the COVID-19 pandemic started. His familiarity with the media and his expertise in epidemiology made him a valuable resource for local newsrooms.

Since 2015, he co-hosts with Jonathan Jarry The Body of Evidence podcast. The podcast started after Jarry had him as a guest on his previous podcast, Within Reason. It uses humour to present discussions on medical issues between Jarry and Labos (and sometimes guests). "I truly believe we are the only medical comedy podcast featuring a teddy bear. I don't think any other podcast can make that claim," according to Labos. The podcast won the Canada’s Favourite Blog for 2017 award from Science Borealis.

He is an associate at McGill University's Office for Science and Society.

As of 2023, Labos is a freelance contributor for the Montreal Gazette (with a regular column since 20019), CJAD's Sunday morning program (Sunday Morning House Call) and has a regular segments on CBC and CTV, both locally and on the national network, as well as on Odyssey TV in Greek. He also writes for specialized publications such as Medscape.

Aside from the podcast, Labos tends to work with traditional media for his science communication work. "It still has a massive audience. Where I think it becomes a little bit challenging is that you don't have the feedback that you would get from your own platform," he said in 2023. He is often interviewed as a medical expert on news media such as The Canadian Press, Global News, CTV News, City News, and the National Post.

Book
Labos' book Does Coffee Cause Cancer?: And 8 More Myths about the Food We Eat was published in 2023.

The book uses a fictional story to present and dispel misconceptions around nine topics related to food science, ranging from red meat, chocolate, coffee, eggs, salt and red wine to the virtues of vitamins C and D.

The book aims to explain why food science is complex and to debunk some of the food myths that permeate our society, with an evolving relationship as a narrative. Labos' publisher suggested he emulate the fictional style of The Wealthy Barber. He ended up developing a nine-chapter story arc featuring conversations between fictional characters that mirror exchanges that Labos had with acquaintances in real life. Mathematical and methodological discussions are appended to the text, on topics such as demographic selections p-hacking.

Labos is hoping to write a sequel, for which he wrote a sample chapter.