The Field Guide to Not Getting Fooled | Root to Rx

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Root to Rx

The Field Guide to
Not Getting Fooled

Every tool we have built, in one place. Free. No login. Built for the conversations you are already having.

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Evidence Tools

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Root Room Scenes

Why This Exists

You are going to encounter bad health information today. Probably before lunch.

It will show up in your feed, in your group chat, in a conversation with someone you care about. It will sound confident. It may cite something that looks like a study. And if you are not equipped to evaluate it, you will either believe it, argue badly against it, or walk away frustrated.

Root to Rx exists to hand you the tools. Not to tell you what to think. To give you the equipment to find out for yourself, and to help the people around you do the same.

This page is where those tools live. It grows every time a new one is released. Bookmark it. Come back when you need it. Bring someone with you.

Start Here

Getting Rooted

If you just found Root to Rx, these three issues give you the foundation everything else is built on. Read them in order.

Issue 001, Read First

Why Distrust Is Rational

The history behind why people do not trust medicine, what actually changed, and why that history still matters for every conversation you will ever have about health.

Read Issue 001 →

Issue 003b, Read Second

The Skeptic's Toolkit

The ten questions that let you evaluate any health claim, from any source, without needing a science degree. This is the core instrument. Everything else in the Field Guide extends it.

Read Issue 003b →

Issue 004, Read Third

The Pipeline

How a molecule becomes a medicine. The full drug development pipeline explained plainly, so you understand what it actually takes before a treatment reaches a patient.

Read Issue 004 →

New here? Start with The Roots for where all of this comes from, then come back for the tools.

Your Field Equipment

The Tools

Each tool below addresses a different part of the evidence literacy challenge. Use them in sequence when you can. Use the one you need when you cannot.

Start Here • 2-Minute Quiz

What’s Your Skeptic Type?

A quick quiz that shows how you naturally read a health claim, then points you to your best next step. Free, no signup, and the best place to begin.

Take the quiz

Play • Free Interactive Games

Two Free Games from Open Label Media

The toolkit and the cards, turned into practice.

Got Skepticism? Run any claim through a five-move toolkit and see if your confidence is earned.

Stay in the Room Practice talking to someone who disagrees, without a fight.

Play Got Skepticism? Play Stay in the Room

Tool 01 • Evaluation

The Skeptic's Toolkit

For evaluating any health claim, from any source.

Ten questions that turn a headline or a social media post into something you can actually examine. Who funded it. Was it peer reviewed. How large was the study. Has anyone else replicated it. What does the scientific consensus say. The Toolkit does not tell you what to believe. It tells you what to look for before you decide.

This is the foundation. Every other tool in the Field Guide assumes you have read this one first.

Download Free — The Skeptic's Toolkit See it in action → Root Room, Issue 003b

Tool 02 • Source Evaluation

The Battlecard

For evaluating science communicators, not just claims.

Good science is getting drowned out. Bad science goes viral. The Battlecard helps you identify which communicators are actually worth following, and which ones are performing credibility without earning it. It is the Skeptic's Toolkit applied to people rather than papers.

Use it when someone cites an expert and you want to know whether that expert deserves the weight being placed on them.

View the Battlecard See it in action → Root Room, Issue 005

Tool 03 • Information Hygiene

The SIGNAL Battlecard

6 steps for navigating health misinformation every day.

The Skeptic's Toolkit is for evaluating a specific claim. SIGNAL is for the daily habit. Before you share. Before you quote. Before you forward. Six steps that take thirty seconds and work every time.

SSource it. Trace the claim to its origin. Who made it, and what did they actually say?
IIdentify the study type. A press release is not a study. A mouse study is not a human study.
GGet the consensus. One paper is never the whole picture. What does the weight of evidence say?
NNote the uncertainty. Good science says we don't know yet. No uncertainty is a warning sign.
AAmplify what's real. Don't stop at wrong. Share content that gets it right.
LLink to the original. Attach the actual source. Not the headline. The study.

Download Free — The SIGNAL Battlecard

Tool 04 • For Young Readers

The Junior Skeptic's Toolkit

The same evidence habits, scaled for kids.

Five questions a child can ask out loud, write down, or color in. Built for kitchen tables, classrooms, and anyone raising a curious kid in a world full of health claims they didn't ask for. Same framework as the Skeptic's Toolkit, in a form they can actually use.

What do I notice?
What do I wonder?
What's my best guess?
How could I check?
What changed my mind?

The Sprout Asks Why coloring book series walks kids through these same five questions step by step, with space to draw and write their own answers.

Download Free Printable Browse the Coloring Book Series →

Tool 05 • Conversation Protocol

The PAUSE Protocol

For staying in the room long enough to use the Toolkit.

The Skeptic's Toolkit tells you what to ask. PAUSE tells you how to be in the room when you ask it. Five steps that keep a conversation from becoming a fight. Use it when someone you care about is about to stop listening.

"Before we argue, let's research it together."

PPause. Curiosity, not combat. Don't respond yet.
AAsk the source. Where did you see that?
UUnderstand the bar. What would change your mind if this were wrong?
SSearch together. Look it up right now, before either of you digs in.
EEvaluate together. Not to win. Not to lose. To know.

If the bar for changing their mind is impossibly high, turn to the Skeptic's Toolkit.

Download Free — The PAUSE Card See it in action → Root Room, Issue 008

Tool 06 • Conversation Protocol

The OPEN Card

For getting both people ready before PAUSE begins.

PAUSE keeps a conversation from becoming a fight. OPEN is what comes before PAUSE. It is a 4-step posture check for the person doing the helping, not the person being helped. Before you can ask good questions, you have to show up as someone safe to answer them.

"The evidence can't come in through a locked door."

OOwn your intention. Are you here to help, or here to win?
PPicture their story. They believe this for a reason you haven't heard yet.
EExplore before you explain. Enter curious.
NName something real you share.

Download Free — The OPEN Card See it in action → Root Room, Issue 009

Tool 07 • Engagement

The REACH Battlecard

For rewarding the communicators who get it right.

The algorithm rewards outrage, not nuance. So the honest creators, the ones reading the studies and checking the sources, fight uphill every day. REACH is how you put your thumb on the scale for them. Five moves, thirty seconds, no expertise required. Just intention.

"Every comment is a vote for the kind of internet we get."

RReact out loud. Leave a real comment, not just a like. One sentence beats an emoji.
EEcho a question. Ask the creator something. Questions pull replies and keep the post alive for hours.
AAnchor it. Hit save. Saves tell the algorithm this is worth keeping.
CCarry it forward. Send it to one person who needs it. A DM share is the single strongest signal there is.
HHold on. Watch to the end, rewatch the first few seconds, then follow. Watch time is the currency.

Download Free — The REACH Card

Tool 08 • Engagement

The STARVE Battlecard

For starving the pages that profit from your outrage.

REACH is where you point your attention. STARVE is where you pull it back. The pages that hurt do not grow on being right, they grow on engagement, and even your angry comment is fuel. STARVE is six moves for refusing to feed them, without mockery and without making a martyr.

"Your attention is a vote. Spend it on purpose."

SStop before you react. The first feeling is the bait. Do not act on it.
TThink about who benefits if you spread it. Outrage is someone's business model.
AAvoid amplification. No quote-share, no dunk. Even mockery feeds the reach.
RReport or mute. Use the tools that take it out of circulation quietly.
VVerify privately. Check it for yourself, off the public timeline.
EElevate the truth instead. Spend the attention on the post that gets it right.

Download Free — The STARVE Card

Tool 09 • For Parents

The Parent Skeptic Card

For the 3am spiral, when your kid is sick and fear feels like urgency.

Five questions to run before you spiral, with a pediatrician's note on each from Dr. Leslie Treece, MD. It turns a panic loop into a plan. One page, print it, keep it on the fridge, and bring the right questions to the visit.

Am I curious, or scared?
Who is telling me this, and selling what?
One scary story, or the real pattern?
Have I actually asked my pediatrician?
Next small step, not the worst case?

"You're not overreacting. You're checking."

Pediatrician's notes by Dr. Leslie Treece, MD.

Download Free — The Parent Skeptic Card

Scripts for the Wild

What to Actually Say

The Toolkit gives you the questions to ask. This section gives you the words to use when you are in a live comment thread, a DM, or a conversation that is about to go sideways. Every script below is copy-paste ready. None of them are combative. All of them open a door.

Start Every Conversation Here

"Genuine question, not trying to be combative. I have been trying to understand this better myself."

When you want to ask who funded the research

"Do you know who funded the research behind this? Funding does not automatically make findings wrong, but it is one of the first things I check. It helps me understand what questions got asked and which ones did not."

When you want to ask if it was peer reviewed

"Has this been published in a peer-reviewed journal? I am not trying to dismiss it. Peer review just means other scientists had a chance to poke holes in the method before it went public. It is the difference between a claim and a finding."

When you want to ask about sample size

"How many people were in the study? A result in 20 people means something different than the same result in 20,000. Both can be interesting. They are just different kinds of evidence, and the headline usually does not tell you which one you are looking at."

When you want to ask about a control group

"Do you know if there was a control group? Without one it is hard to know if the outcome was caused by the treatment or would have happened anyway. That is not a gotcha. It is just how we tell the difference between a coincidence and a cause."

When you want to ask about replication

"Has anyone else found the same result independently? One study is a starting point, not a conclusion. What makes science reliable is that different teams can test the same question and keep getting consistent answers. Has that happened here?"

When you want to ask about scientific consensus

"Where does this finding sit relative to the broader research? A single study that goes against hundreds of others is not automatically wrong. But it should raise a question, not settle one. I am curious what the weight of evidence looks like."

When you want to ask about the expert's actual field

"Do you know what their background is? I am not asking to dismiss them. Expertise in one area does not automatically carry to another. A cardiologist commenting on immunology is still a doctor, but it is a different kind of authority than an immunologist would be."

When you want to ask if it is correlation or causation

"Does the study show that X causes Y, or just that they tend to appear together? A lot of health headlines are correlation findings written to sound causal. The distinction matters a lot for what you would actually do with the information."

When you want to ask about conflicts of interest

"Do they disclose any conflicts of interest? Most researchers do, and most conflicts do not invalidate the work. But knowing about them is part of evaluating evidence fairly. Same standard I would apply to any source, including ones I already agree with."

When you want to ask what would change their mind

"Honest question, not a trap. What would it take to change your mind on this? I ask myself the same thing when I hold something strongly. If the answer is nothing, that tells me I am defending a position rather than following the evidence. Worth checking."

When the Conversation Starts Opening Up

"I appreciate you actually engaging on this. Most people do not. If you are curious about how to evaluate health claims in general, I follow a newsletter called Root to Rx that breaks this down in a way that is actually readable. Link in bio."

The Root Room Library

Tools in Action

Every Root Room scene, indexed by issue and by the tool it demonstrates. Follow Debby's journey scene by scene, or filter by tool to find the moments where a specific framework appears in practice.

This library grows with every issue. New scenes are added each Thursday.

Issue	Root Room Scene	Tool in Play	Read It
001	Why Distrust Is Rational Sam introduces Debby to the Tuskegee history and why her skepticism is the starting point, not the problem.	Skeptic's Toolkit	Read →
003b	Eight Claims, One Toolkit Sam and Debby work through eight vaccine myths side by side using the Toolkit questions for the first time.	Skeptic's Toolkit	Read →
004	The Pipeline Walk Rooty walks Debby through the full molecule-to-medicine journey. She starts to understand why shortcuts are not actually shortcuts.	Skeptic's Toolkit	Read →
005	Who Do You Follow? Debby encounters two accounts making opposite claims about the same study. Sam introduces the Battlecard to help her evaluate the sources, not just the claims.	Battlecard	Read →
006	The Silenced Scientist Debby sees a video claiming pharma silences scientists who find cures, and reads Brian Druker's story as proof. Sam shows the opposite. Druker published, advocated, and Novartis eventually funded the trials. Slow is not the same as corrupt.	Battlecard	Read →
007	Why They Test on Animals Debby reads that animal testing exists to hide side effects, and Bias the Brain pushes the idea that if it worked in rats, the delay is suspicious. Sam walks her through why preclinical testing protects patients, with Auntie Nani raising the thalidomide lesson.	Skeptic's Toolkit	Read →
008	The Toolkit Is Not Enough Debby tries to use the Toolkit on a friend and it backfires. She comes back to Sam frustrated. Sam's answer: the Toolkit tells you what to ask. PAUSE tells you how to be in the room.	PAUSE	Read →
009	The First Day Vera joins her first clinical trial, with Auntie Nani as her site coordinator. Debby has a sharp response ready and, for the first time, does not send it. Sam walks her through consent, the IRB, and the data monitoring committee that exist to protect Vera.	PAUSE	Read →
010	The Weight of the Record Debby goes looking for the shortcut on purpose. Starting with Cora's OPEN card to check her own intention first, she audits the Gleevec approval and finds independent reviewers at every turn, plus olaratumab, a drug the money could not save. She posts what she found, and the Lab elevates the truth instead of the outrage.	OPEN REACH	Read →
011	The Weight of What Follows The science arc is done and the price is set. Debby and the Lab turn from amplifying the truth to refusing to feed the outrage that profits from the price story.	REACH STARVE	Read →
012	The Message She Would Have Forwarded Debby gets a "Pfizer admitted they lie" forward and, instead of sharing it, runs it through the questions first.	Skeptic's Toolkit STARVE	Read →
013	Big Wellness Meets the Counter Debby brings a bag of supplements to the pharmacy, watches an influencer film health claims in the aisle, and runs the new SIGNAL card instead of taking his word for it.	SIGNAL Battlecard	Read →

Clinical Trial Registries

Find a Trial

Most people do not know they can search for clinical trials. There are 19 primary registries covering trials in virtually every country and every major disease area. All of them are free. None of them require a sign-up to search.

We mapped all of them.

Go to the Registry Map →

The tools are free. So is the newsletter.

Every new tool, every Root Room scene, every issue of the Gleevec arc delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

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The Field Guide toNot Getting Fooled

Getting Rooted

Why Distrust Is Rational

The Skeptic's Toolkit

The Pipeline

The Tools

What’s Your Skeptic Type?

Two Free Games from Open Label Media

The Skeptic's Toolkit

The Battlecard

The SIGNAL Battlecard

The Junior Skeptic's Toolkit

The PAUSE Protocol

The OPEN Card

The REACH Battlecard

The STARVE Battlecard

The Parent Skeptic Card

What to Actually Say

Tools in Action

Find a Trial

The tools are free. So is the newsletter.

The Field Guide to
Not Getting Fooled

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