Main content
This episode will be available soon

Can blue dye make me smarter?

Stacey explores meth blue, a textile dye that influencers claim can boost your brain power and shocks the doctors with their deepfake socials.

Stacey explores a trend that has racked up over 200 million online views worldwide - the use of methylene blue. It’s a textile dye that influencers claim can boost your brain power and gained worldwide notoriety when US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr appeared to put drops of it in his drink.

Stacey and Drs Alex and Nighat decide to do their own playful test to find out if it might work or if any perceived boost is better explained by the placebo effect. Intrigued by the origins of the trend, Stacey follows a digital trail that leads her to Cambridge University and 40 years of laboratory research that might incredibly see meth blue to be the inspiration for a new Alzheimer’s treatment.

Back at the hub, Stacey shocks the doctors with online deepfakes created to get them to promote new trends and supplements to unsuspecting followers.

Release date:

29 minutes

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterStacey Dooley
PresenterNighat Arif
PresenterAlex George
ProducerEloise Millard
Executive ProducerTom Williams
Executive ProducerJane Root
Executive ProducerArif Nurmohamed
Executive ProducerSimon Willgoss
DirectorJoe Myerscough
Production CompanyNutopia