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Dragons’ Den host Steven Bartlett’s podcast The Diary of a CEO is sharing dozens of harmful health claims that go against scientific evidence, a BBC investigation has found.
The podcast, launched in 2017, is reportedly the fastest growing podcast in the world having recently reached 1 billion views and listens across the Apple, Spotify and YouTube platforms.
But the entrepreneurship and business-focussed podcast, which has turned more to health issues with guests billed as health experts over the past year, has come under scrutiny in a BBC World Service probe.
With the help of health professionals, the BBC has claimed that across 15 health-related episodes, an average of 14 harmful health claims were made in each.
Flight Studio, the production company behind the podcast which Mr Bartlett owns, said “thoroughly researched” guests gave views that offered “an open-minded, long-form conversation”.
But public confidence in healthcare professor Heidi Larson, an expert in public confidence in healthcare, told the BBC: “They [the guests] are way overstretching. It sends people away from evidence-based medicine. They stop doing things that might have some side effects, even though it could save their life.”
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The BBC investigation found that “potentially harmful claims” were made in 15 of 23 health-related episodes released between April and November this year.
The investigation claimed that anti-vaccine conspiracies and the downplaying of the success of proven cancer treatment were among the misleading claims made.
In an episode in October, cancer researcher Dr Thomas Seyfried told Mr Bartlett that the treatment of cancer could be helped by following a keto diet, the BBC said. He compared modern cancer treatments to “medieval cures”.
When approached by the BBC, Mr Seyfriend stood by the statements he made on the podcast interview.
In another podcast episode in July, doctor Aseem Malhotra told Mr Bartlett said the “Covid vaccine was a net negative for society”, the BBC said.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Malhotra defended his statement, claiming because people disagreed, it “does not mean that they have been debunked”.
The investigation comes just months after adverts for health brands Zoe and Huel that feature Mr Bartlett were banned for failing to disclose their commercial relationship with the celebrity entrepreneur and influencer.
The Advertising Standards Authority found the ads “omitted” information about their links to Mr Bartlett, who is an investor at both brands. Huel, Zoe and Bartlett were contacted for comment at the time.
Flight Studio has been approached for comment by The Independent.
A spokesperson told the BBC: “The Diary of a CEO is an open-minded, long-form conversation… with individuals identified for their distinguished and eminent career and/or consequential life experience.”
It also said that the BBC probe only reviewed a “limited proportion of guests” to the podcast.
