How do you talk to a loved one about vaccines without it spiraling into an argument? What do you say when a parent insists on a remedy passed down for generations, but you’re unsure if it actually works?
These are the kinds of conversations one of our public health domain consultants, Wan Naszeerah, has spent years unraveling. And now, she’s putting them to the forefront of her new book, Debunk with Empathy: How to Talk About Health When Emotions, Uncertainty, and Misinformation Are Involved. Launched on February 19, 2025, at UC Berkeley, the book explores how we should really show up in difficult health conversations, especially given today’s information-saturated climate.
A Doctor of Public Health candidate at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Projek Infodemik, a social impact initiative tackling misinformation in Southeast Asian languages, Wan Naszeerah didn’t always think she’d write a book on this topic. But more than a decade ago, a moment changed that.
She was a Yale graduate student, newly immersed in the world of public health and epidemiology, when a video call with her mother in Brunei became an unexpected lesson in communication.
"I had fallen sick, and my mom, like any mom, wanted to help," Naszeerah recalls. "She offered a remedy she grew up with. I dismissed it immediately. And in that moment, I realized I might have had the science of epidemiology, but I didn’t have the language to truly connect."
From that conversation came a question that drives Debunk with Empathy: What if how we talk about health matters just as much as what we know about it?
The book takes readers beyond surface-level advice on “debunking” misinformation. Instead, it examines why certain narratives take hold, why emotions so often override evidence, and what it really takes to have meaningful health conversations, especially with those we care about.
At the heart of Naszeerah’s approach is hati, a concept from the Nusantara (the cultural region that includes today’s Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore in Southeast Asia). Often translated as “liver,” hati is more than an organ. It is the seat of both emotion and intellect, a reminder that the two are never truly separate. Naszeerah argues that before we can hope to change someone’s mind, we need to understand their hati
"Misinformation isn’t just about a lack of knowledge," Naszeerah explained, "People believe what speaks to them, what feels true, even when it isn’t."
As part of the book’s launch, Wan Naszeerah will also be hosting a follow-up event at SanDai in Walnut Creek on February 21, 2025. This intimate, culturally immersive evening will feature Nusantara cuisine curated by Chef Nora Haron, along with conversations on health, healing, and hati. The night will conclude with a book signing and a special Nusantara giveaway—including artisanal batik and small-batch sambal. Reserve a seat at the SanDai event here. Signed copies of Debunk with Empathy will be available at the event.