Point of Inquiry
By Center for Inquiry
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Podcast Description
Launched in 2005, Point of Inquiry is the premier podcast of the Center for Inquiry. Point of Inquiry critically examines topics in science, religion, philosophy, and politics. Hosted by science journalist Chris Mooney and neuroscientist Indre Viskontas, each episode takes on a specific issue and features lively discussion with leading scientists, researchers, and writers. Point of Inquiry is produced by Adam Isaak at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y.
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CleanJohan Braeckman - The Rise of Islamic Creationism | Host: Chris Mooney Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the 2012 World Skeptics Conference in Berlin. It's important to keep tabs on our skeptical and freethinking colleagues around the world, and the challenges they're facing. And in this case, perhaps the most disturbing story out of the conference involved the spread of a new form of creationism—namely, Islamic creationism—in Europe. It's a topic I've wanted to explore on the show for some time. So in Berlin, I stopped to speak with Johan Braeckman, who has been tracking the subject closely. Johan Braeckman is a professor of philosophy of science at Ghent University in Belgium, and his research focuses on philosophical issues in the life sciences, particularly evolution and neuroscience. He's the author of a number of books and papers, including, most recently, Doubting Thomas Has a Point: A Guide to Critical Thinking, coauthored with Maarten Boudry. | 21 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGreta Christina - Why Are You Atheists So Angry? | Our guest this week is Greta Christina, a leading atheist blogger, speaker, and commentator, and a regular contributor to AlterNet.org. Christina is author of the new ebook Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that P**s Off the Godless, which grows out of a 2007 blog post on the same topic. The book will also be out in print in June. Greta Christina blogs at FreeThoughtBlogs.com, and her writing has appeared, among other places, in Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer. She is editor of the "Best Erotic Comics" anthology series, and of "Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients." | 14 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanM.G. Lord - The Accidental Feminist | Host: Indre Viskontas In developed countries at least, the status of women has improved considerably in the last century. But in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), they remain underrepresented in all but one field, according to a recent study conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Often, femininity can seem incompatible with STEM and other male-dominated careers—but can young women today find an unlikely role model in Elizabeth Taylor, an actress dogged by the Catholic Church because of her sex appeal and promotion of secular ideas, including gay and lesbian rights? Cultural critic and acclaimed author M.G. Lord explores the contributions of Elizabeth Taylor to feminism—and her struggles against the Church—in her latest book, The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted By Her Beauty to Notice. | 30 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNaomi Oreskes - Neoliberalism and the Denial of Global Warming | Host: Chris Mooney This week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a conference convened entitled "Science Writing in the Age of Denial." The keynote speaker was a former Point of Inquiry guest and a very popular one—Naomi Oreskes, co-author of the influential book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Point of Inquiry caught up with Dr. Oreskes at the conference and interviewed her about her lecture there, entitled "Neoliberalism and the Denial of Global Warming." Naomi Oreskes is professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her 2010 book Merchants of Doubt, written with Eric Conway, described how a small group of scientists sought to undermine a large body of research on issues like global warming, the health risks of smoking, and ozone depletion. She is the author of the famed 2004 essay for the journal Science entitled "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," which was cited in the Academy Award winning film An Inconvenient Truth. | 24 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAustin Dacey - The Future of Blasphemy | Host: Chris Mooney This week, our guest is a return one: Austin Dacey. He's a philosopher, a writer, and a human rights activist, and the creator of the Impossible Music Sessions, which we featured in a past show. Austin's books include The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life and, just out, The Future of Blasphemy: Speaking of the Sacred in an Age of Human Rights. This show focused on Austin's new book on blasphemy. But he helped enhance the discussion with a few pieces of music that have been called blasphemous—which is why we wanted to distribute them as widely as possible. | 16 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Mooney - The Republican Brain | Guest Host: John Shook In this special episode of Point of Inquiry, we interview our host himself—about his new book, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality. From climate change to evolution, the rejection of mainstream science among Republicans is growing, as is the denial of expert consensus on the economy, American history, foreign policy and much more. Why won't Republicans accept things that most experts agree on? Why are they constantly fighting against the facts? Science writer and host of Point of Inquiry Chris Mooney explores brain scans, polls, and psychology experiments to explain why conservatives today believe more wrong things; appear more likely than Democrats to oppose new ideas and less likely to change their beliefs in the face of new facts; and sometimes respond to compelling evidence by doubling down on their current beliefs. | 9 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - Space Chronicles | Host: Chris Mooney This week, Point of Inquiry is thrilled to welcome back one of our most popular guests: Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famed astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Last time we had him on, Dr. Tyson engaged in a wide ranging discussion about science communication and the place of science in America. This time, we focus in on his new book—Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier—and his call for revitalizing NASA and letting it play a central role in reconnecting America and science. Neil deGrasse Tyson is America's most pre-eminent science communicator. In addition to his work at the Hayden Planetarium and his books and television appearances, he is also the host of Star Talk Radio. | 2 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid Morrison - Cosmic Impact Hazard | Host: Indre Viskontas The end is nigh. 2012 is a banner year for doomsday prophecies, though there still seems to be debate concerning precisely how life as we know it will be snuffed out. Hollywood seems to prefer the 'death from the skies' scenario, with Lars von Trier's latest film Melancholia exploring the psychological consequences of believing that another planet is on a collision course with ours. But would we know? How much warning would we receive if such a catastrophe were to occur? There is no better source for this information than Dr. David Morrison, the founder of the field of astrobiology, or the study of life in the universe. Once the Director of Space at NASA Ames, he is best known for his work on assessing the risk of near earth objects such as asteroids and comets. As the mind behind the popular 'Ask an Astrobiologist' blog on NASA's website, Dr. Morrison has all the answers. David Morrison is the senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, where he participates in a variety of research programs in astrobiology—the study of the living universe. Dr. Morrison obtained his doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University. He is the author of more than 155 technical papers and has published a dozen books. He has been a science investigator on NASA's Mariner, Voyager and Galileo space missions. Morrison is recipient of the Dryden Medal for research of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Sagan Medal of the American Astronomical Society for public communication, and the Klumpke-Roberts award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for contributions to science education. He has received two NASA Outstanding Leadership medals and he was awarded the Presidential Meritorious Rank for his work as director of space at NASA Ames. Morrison is perhaps best known for his leadership since 1991 in defining the hazard of asteroid impacts and seeking ways to mitigate this risk. Asteroid 2410 Morrison is named in his honor. | 26 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind | Host: Chris Mooney Why is it that some of us are religious, some of us not... some of us liberal, some of us not? If you've been paying attention, then by now you might have noticed that this doesn't really have a lot to do with the intellectual validity of religious, or irreligious, or liberal, or conservative ideas. So what causes it? And why can't we all get along? To get at this, Point of Inquiry invited on a scholar and thinker who has become famous for his scientific approach to this question—Jonathan Haidt, author of the new book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Jonathan Haidt is a professor of social psychology at the University of Virginia, and a visiting professor of business ethics at the NYU-Stern School of Business. Haidt's research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, and he and his collaborators conduct research at the website YourMorals.org. | 19 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAri Rabin-Havt - The Fox Effect | Host: Chris Mooney If there's one thing Point of Inquiry is concerned about, it's ensuring a rational, sensible conversation in politics, in public life. And you simply can't have such a conversation if the culture is awash in political, and politicized, misinformation. What do we mean by "misinformation"? The denial of global warming. Claims about "death panels." Assertions that the President of the United States wasn't actually born here. One thing all these falsehoods have in common is that if you watch Fox News, you're more likely to believe them. Fox increases your risk, so to speak, of believing factually wrong things to support a political agenda. With other networks, this "Fox effect" just isn't there. How did it get this way? How did one leading network become a fount of misinformation? For that, we turn to the most dedicated Fox monitors of them all—Media Matters. They've got a new book out on Fox, and I've invited their Executive Vice President, Ari Rabin-Havt, on to talk about it. Ari Rabin-Havt is Executive Vice President at Media Matters. He is co-author, with David Brock, of The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine. | 12 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSean Faircloth - Attack of the Theocrats | Host: Chris Mooney A common goal of freethinkers, humanists, skeptics, and atheists is to preserve Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation" between church and state. But we haven't always been successful in this area—help from the courts notwithstanding—or at beating back the steady advances of the religious right. How can we do better? Our guest this week has a new book on the topic, and just as important, a new way of thinking. His name is Sean Faircloth, the director of strategy and policy for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Before that, Faircloth served five terms in the Maine Legislature and went on to serve as executive director for the Secular Coalition for America. He's author of the newly released book Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All and What to Do About It. | 6 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGerald Woerlee and Susan Blackmore - Near-Death Experiences and Consciousness | Host: Indre Viskontas One of the costs of being conscious is that, once in a while, we are forced to contemplate the fact that we are mortal. Ironically, a close brush with the grim reaper leaves many people more convinced than ever that our minds are not tethered to our bodies, and therefore can survive physical death. What can these near-death experiences tell us about how well we understand our own consciousness? To explore this topic, we first talked to anesthesiologist Gerald Woerlee, author of Mortal Minds: The Biology of NDEs to get a sense of what makes NDEs so compelling to people looking for evidence of an afterlife. Then, we sought the expertise of Susan Blackmore, psychologist and author, whose book Consciousness: An Introduction breaks down the complex theories of consciousness into digestible chunks. Dodging the sandtraps of dualism along the way, we speculate on implications of NDEs for meta-consciousness while keeping the mind strictly within the confines of the body. | 27 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Mann - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Michael Mann, the prominent climatologist and, above all, leading defender of his field—and himself—against political attacks. Mann is out with a new book this month, which details his ten year battle against political attacks and misrepresentations. It's called The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines. And already, people are attacking it on Amazon.com without having even read it. Michael Mann is an American climatologist and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He's a co-founder and contributor to the blog RealClimate.org, and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He has over 150 peer reviewed publications to his name, and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars is his second book. | 20 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDan Kahan - The Great Ideological Asymmetry Debate | Host: Chris Mooney So who's right, factually, about politics and science? Who speaks truth, and who's just spinning? It's kind of the million dollar question. If we could actually answer it, we'd have turned political debate itself into a... well, a science. And is such an answer possible? What does the scientific evidence suggest? In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Chris Mooney brought back a popular guest from last year, Yale's Dan Kahan, to discuss this very question-one that they've been emailing about pretty much continually ever since Kahan appeared on the show. In the episode, Kahan and Mooney not only review but debate the evidence on whether "motivated" ideological biases are the same on both sides of the political aisle—or alternatively, whether they're actually "asymmetrical." Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at the Yale Law School. He's also the Eli Goldston Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. His research focuses on "cultural cognition"-how our social and political group affiliations affect our views of what's true in contested areas like global warming and nuclear power-and motivated reasoning. Before then, he served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, of the U.S. Supreme Court (1990-91) and to Judge Harry Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1989-90). | 13 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLawrence Krauss - A Universe from Nothing | Host: Chris Mooney We had Lawrence Krauss on Point of Inquiry less than a year ago, to discuss his recent book on the scientific works of Richard Feynman. But in order to keep up with him, we had to have him on again. Already. You see, Krauss has a new book out that's causing quite a stir right now—A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing. Here's a hint as to why: Krauss's answer to this age-old question isn't God. In fact, as discussed on the program, Krauss has arguably written the book that "kicks God out of physics." And along the way, he also manages to explain a heck of a lot of science. Lawrence Krauss is an the internationally known theoretical physicist and popular author. He has published hundreds of scientific papers, as well as acclaimed books like the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek and Fear of Physics. He's director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. | 6 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBrian Malow - The Science Comedian | Host: Chris Mooney Earlier this month, Point of Inquiry host Chris Mooney attended Science Online, the premiere science blogging conference, in the research triangle area. There were many science aficionados, communicators, and wonks present, but Chris found himself hanging out a lot with Brian Malow—aka, the Science Comedian. And get this—Malow lived up to his name. He was pretty funny. Chris decided he had to get him on air. Now, obviously, we couldn't have Malow do stand up for this program. Instead, Chris had to try to... draw humor out of him. And in the process, however inadvertently, he may have even told a joke himself. Brian Malow describes himself as Earth's Premier Science Comedian. He makes science videos for Time Magazine's website and contributes to Neil deGrasse Tyson's radio show—and performs widely. He's been featured on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and in Nature, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. | 30 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEugenie Scott - Defending Climate Education | Host: Chris Mooney Eugenie Scott is no stranger to Point of Inquiry, or to the secular community. Her endless travails to defend the teaching of evolution have won her immense respect. And that's why, when Scott and her National Center for Science Education take on a new initiative, everybody listens. So for this Point of Inquiry episode, we invited Eugenie to break some news about why she is venturing into a very new and very challenging area—defending the teaching of accurate climate change science in schools from a mounting ideological assault—and how you can help her out. | 16 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBrian Greene - The Fabric of the Cosmos | Host: Chris Mooney It's the beginning of a new year here at Point of Inquiry, and we've got a pretty good guest to kick it off. He needs no introduction. He's Brian Greene—celebrity physicist, bestselling author, television star and all around science communication maestro. Officially: Greene is co-founder and director of Columbia University's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, author of the bestselling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and co-founder of the World Science Festival. We caught up with Greene to discuss the recently aired four part NOVA special based on The Fabric of the Cosmos, as well as, well, sciency things in general. | 2 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanStuart Robbins - The End of the World as We Know It | Host: Karen Stollznow Dr. Stuart Robbins is a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His work focuses on planetary geophysics, and he’s currently researching craters on Mars, and on the moon. Stuart received his PhD in Astrophysics through the Geophysics program from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Stuart has a special interest in astronomy education, especially correcting myths and misconceptions about astronomy. To that end, he has a blog entitled Exposing PseudoAstronomy, and a podcast by the same name. Since 2012 is supposed to be our last year on earth, again, Stuart dispels some claims about the Mayan Prophecy. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Stuart provides a rundown on the Mayan Long Calendar, and discusses the different calculations and end dates. He talks about the link, or lack thereof, between the calendar and the end of the world. Stuart talks about the many ways in which the world is supposed to end in 2012, via planetary lineups, galactic alignments, pole shifts, crustal displacement, solar flares, or the mysterious Planet X. Stuart delves into metaphysical claims that 2012 isn’t the catastrophic end of the world, but represents some kind of beginning, or new age of transformation. Finally he tells us, when December 21, 2012 has come and gone, when is the next Armageddon? | 26 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Cook - The Debunking Handbook | Host: Chris Mooney How do you successfully debunk misinformation? The question is a deceptively simple one—which is precisely the problem. Debunking is easy—just refute false claims, and provide corrective information. Debunking successfully is something else again-you have to change minds, and make the corrective information stick. And how does that work? Well, as it turns out, we actually don't know very much about the process. But what we do know was recently compiled into a brilliant short document, the Debunking Handbook, available free for download from the website Skeptical Science. Point of Inquiry recently caught up with one of its authors, John Cook, in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. John Cook is the Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland in Australia. He studied physics, and maintains the popular global warming website "Skeptical Science," which refutes misinformation by explaining, in user friendly fashion, the findings of the peer reviewed literature. | 19 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDaniel Dennett - The Scientific Study of Religion | Guest Host: John Shook Recently, the Center for Inquiry held a conference titled "Daniel Dennett and the Scientific Study of Religion: A Celebration of the Fifth Anniversary of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon". During that conference, John Shook, CFI's Director of Education, sat down with Dennett for this interview. | 12 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert McCauley - Why Religion is Natural (And Science is Not) | Host: Chris Mooney Over the last decade, there have been many calls in the secular community for increased criticism of religion, and increased activism to help loosen its grip on the public. But what if the human brain itself is aligned against that endeavor? That's the argument made by cognitive scientist Robert McCauley in his new book, Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not. In it, he lays out a cognitive theory about why our minds, from a very early state of development, seem predisposed toward religious belief—and not predisposed towards the difficult explanations and understandings that science offers. If McCauley is right, spreading secularism and critical thinking may always be a difficult battle—although one no less worthy of undertaking. Dr. McCauley is University Professor and Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University. He is also the author of Rethinking Religion and Bringing Ritual to Mind. | 5 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanScott Gavura - Dispensing Skepticism | Host: Karen Stollznow Scott Gavura is a registered pharmacist in Ontario with a personal and professional interest in improving the way we use medication. Scott started the Science-Based Pharmacy blog in 2009 to scrutinize pharmacy practices, and to begin a discussion within the industry about its obligations as a health profession. Scott has a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Toronto, and has completed an Accredited Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Residency Program. His professional background includes pharmacy work in community, hospital and government settings. Scott is also a contributor to the Skeptic North blog and the Science-Based Medicine blog. In this interview with host Karen Stollznow, Scott talks about the changing scene of the pharmaceutical industry. They discuss the pseudoscientific products and services to be found in compounding pharmacies, integrative pharmacies, and general pharmacies. Scott explains his position on taking supplements, fortified foods and placebo prescriptions, and answers a few practical questions about generic drugs vs. brand name drugs, expiry dates, and storing and disposing of medication. Scott speaks about the new applications of old drugs, and answers the all-time question: How does a pharmacist learn to read a doctor's handwriting? | 28 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJonathan Weiler - Authoritarians Versus Reality | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Jonathan Weiler, a political scientist and director of global studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Weiler is co-author, with Marc Hetherington of Vanderbilt, of the book Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. In it, they describes this strange and troubling creature called an authoritarian—usually conservative, usually a religious fundamentalist, and very closed minded. Authoritarians are identified in surveys by asking people some very simple questions about the qualities that children should have: Whether they should be "independent," for instance, rather than showing respect for their elders. (See here.) Based on this measure, Weiler and Hetherington show not only that the U.S. is full of authoritarians—but also how people with this psychological profile are driving our political polarization, as well as the divide over factual reality in the U.S Weiler also writes regularly for the Huffington Post. | 21 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - The Trouble With Christmas | Host: Robert Price Ebenezer Scrooge once called Christmas "a false and commercial holiday." Is it? Should Humanists refuse to observe it? Should they wage war on it? Should they celebrate "Sanka" versions of it like Solstice and "HumanLight"? Christians complain that the holiday has become secularized—so should Secular Humanists just say "Thanks!" and enjoy listening to "Let It Snow" and "Winter Wonderland"? As always, Tom Flynn brings new and well-informed perspectives to a difficult issue! Tom Flynn is the Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and the editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He is the author of the science-fiction novels Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred, which involve the lore of Mormonism, on which Tom is an authority. He is also a historian of the Freethought movement and a frequent speaker in humanist circles. You would be well advised to mortgage your home and purchase a copy of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, which Tom edited. Perhaps his most notorious book, though, is The Trouble with Christmas, which has a lot to do with this episode. | 17 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBill Nye - In Praise of Reason (and Skepticism) | Host: Chris Mooney Recently in New Orleans, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry held the very first CSICON—the conference dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical thinking. The main honoree: Bill Nye the Science Guy, who was given CSI's premiere "In Praise of Reason" award. The next day, Point of Inquiry caught up with Nye, a guest who really needs no introduction... at least not to the thousands upon thousands of kids who saw a little show called Bill Nye the Science Guy. Since then, Nye has has been involved in many other endeavors and television programs to improve science teaching and understanding in our country, including his latest show on Planet Green, "Stuff Happens". Nye is an engineer, inventor, author, comedian—a supporter of clean energy, and above all a skeptic. | 7 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSeth Shostak - ET, Call SETI | Host: Karen Stollznow Dr. Seth Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI). Seth is the author of Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and is well known as one of the hosts of the popular radio show Big Picture Science. (Formerly known as Are We Alone?) Seth is a science communicator who performs public outreach; especially to young people, about science in general, and astrobiology in particular. He has published hundreds of popular articles on science, and gives dozens of talks annually. He is also a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In this Point of Inquiry interview with host Karen Stollznow, Seth discusses the "three-pronged effort" to find extraterrestrial life. He believes that while no one can be certain, there is a chance of success within one or two decades, and he explains how this prediction can be made. Seth then explains why, if we find that life, we would need to tread carefully. Seth talks about SETI's past and present projects, critics and the Fermi paradox, and whether the organization spends more time searching for funding than ETs. He discusses current findings in astronomy, and how these discoveries may affect the SETI search. Lastly, Seth talks about outreach and education, and tells us exactly what the public knows (and doesn't know) about astronomy. | 31 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJonathan Moreno - Our New Biopolitics | Host: Chris Mooney Human cloning. Synthetic biology. Mood (and mind) altering drugs. Personalized medicine. Such topics are rarely at the top of the political agenda. Yet the changes they're causing, often below the radar, are monumental. Issues of personhood, identity, ethics, are at play. The human future may be very different from the human past as these changes are negotiated and assimilated. And so may human politics. To help us prepare for this radical future is Jonathan Moreno, author of the new book The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America, which underscores the strange bedfellow allegiances that may occur in what has been called our "biological century." Jonathan Moreno is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is one of 13 Penn Integrates Knowledge university professors. He is a historian, medical ethicist, and philosopher, and was part of Barack Obama's transition team. | 24 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard C. Johnson - Religion: The Failed Narrative | Host: Robert Price Richard C. Johnson Ph.D. is a retired chemist and serves as Treasurer for Freethought Arizona. For some 25 years, the company he founded worked with scientists and researchers in chemical analysis. Through family ties, Richard had long been a kind of participant observer of religion and learned well its social bonding functions, though always remaining suspicious of its metaphysical claims. He observed just too many contradictions in theory and practice to take the beliefs seriously. Here he saw the roots of the terrible present-day conflicts between religions as well as between particular faiths and the rest of the world. Dr. Johnson is the author of Religion: The Failed Narrative, in which he urges readers to scrutinize religious claims with the simple rational methods of science. Listen to his interview with host Robert M. Price who trivializes the issues with gratuitous references to Uncle Fester and other absurdities. | 19 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanShawn Otto - The Assault on Science | Host: Chris Mooney In recent months, political attacks on science have been back in the news. Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman even famously tweeted, "To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." So it's very timely that Shawn Lawrence Otto, co-founder of a nonpartisan organization called Science Debate, has got a new book out about this very problem. It's called Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, and it covers the grand role of science in our country's history, as well as the leading battles of the present. It also tells the story of Science Debate, and how it is trying to inject some reality into the 2012 election. In addition to being an author and a co-founder of Science Debate, Otto is also a screenwriter, who wrote and co-produced The House of Sand and Fog. | 10 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanCSICon - The Conference Dedicated To Scientific Inquiry And Critical Thinking | Host: Adam Isaak This October-on Halloween weekend-the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is holding a conference: CSICon. It's the latest in a line of CSI skeptics' conferences going back to what is likely the first skeptics' conference ever held, a CSICOP (CSI) conference back in 1983. This episode of Point of Inquiry revolves around CSICon. It features interviews with Barry Karr, Jim Underdown, and Debbie Goddard. Barry Karr is the Executive Director of CSI and Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He was at that first conference in 1983 and he's the driving force behind upcoming CSICon. Barry talks about how trends in skepticism have changed throughout the years, what skeptics talked (and worried) about then, what they focus on now, and where they should go from here. Jim Underdown is Executive Director of CFI LA, Chair and Founder of the Independent Investigations Group (IIG), and lead singer and songwriter for The Heathens, an "all-star, all-atheist, all-skeptic, band from Los Angeles." Jim explains how the band got started, what their music is all about, and where we can hear them play. He also talks about the IIG, their work, and what they're planning to do at CSICon. Debbie Goddard is Coordinator of the CFI On Campus program and Director of African Americans for Humanism—and more importantly she does the date stamp at the beginning of Point of Inquiry episodes. Debbie is speaking on a panel at CSICon called "Grassroots Outreach and Activism". She talks about skeptical outreach and activism—and why it's important, diversity in the skeptical movement, and how you can get involved. | 6 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanIndre Viskontas - The Miracle Detective | Host: Karen Stollznow Indre Viskontas is a neuroscientist, a soprano, and a skeptic. She is a host of the television show The Miracle Detectives that recently aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Indre appeared as the scientific investigator pitted against "believer" Randall Sullivan, author of the book The Miracle Detective. The show investigates claims of "miracles"; from supposedly miraculous dirt believed to cure cancer, through to a beam of light in a hospital alleged to be an angel of mercy. In this interview with host Karen Stollznow, Indre talks about her experiences on the show. She tells us which skeptical messages were communicated to the public, and which ended up on the cutting room floor. She discusses how the audience responded to the show; the fact she has influenced viewers in a positive way, but that people are still very reluctant to relinquish their beliefs. Indre also ponders the dangers of these beliefs. Lastly, Indre explains how to convince people to think more critically, and how to capture a large audience without sacrificing skeptical principles. Indre Viskontas will be speaking at this year's CSICon in New Orleans, October 27-30. | 3 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAustin Dacey - Rock the Theocrats | Host: Chris Mooney This coming October, in Kabul, Afghanistan—on a date, and in a location, that remain undisclosed—there will be a rock concert that's billed as the world's "first stealth music festival." It will feature rock, heavy metal, and funk from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Iran. Why "stealth"? In some of these countries, music is equivalent to political and religious subversion. Which is precisely why those of us who care about liberal democracy and secularism need to also care, deeply indeed, about music—and ensuring it gets out. This week, Point of Inquiry spoke to an organizer of the Kabul event, as well as a longtime freethinker, and musician—Austin Dacey. He's head of the Impossible Music Sessions, which describes itself as featuring "the artists who cannot appear and the music that is banned in their homelands." The purpose of the organization is to bring together musicians, producers, and audiences across cultures, space, and genres to share musical expression-and, enlarge its political potential. Austin also happens to be a philosopher, author, and human rights activist. His books include The Secular Conscience and, due out next year, The Future of Blasphemy. | 26 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLee Salisbury - From Faith to Critical Thinking | Host: Robert Price Lee Salisbury was at one time an up-and-coming Charismatic Christian pastor, even a healer! Then how did he wind up actively involved in the ranks of Minnesota Atheists? Often successful Christian activists simply cannot allow themselves to entertain doubts as to the worthiness of their enterprise, but Lee had a dangerous yearning for critical thought. It caused him to look back on all he had said and done and to wonder if perhaps he had been kidding himself and others. He left it all behind and turned instead to a new gospel, that of intellectual honesty and responsibility for one's own beliefs. He is the founder of a number of Critical Thinking Clubs in the Minneapolis area in addition to his involvement in the work of Minnesota Atheists. Listen to his remarkable story as Robert Price puts him on the spot in another exciting installment of Point of Inquiry. | 19 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRachel Tabachnick - Exposing Dominionism | Host: Chris Mooney We've heard a lot in the news lately about Dominionists—Christians who believe, basically, that they ought to be running this country. Dominionism has different strains. But one is embodied in a group called the New Apostolic Reformation, which helped organize a recent prayer rally for Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry. How seriously should we take this group, and its goals? To answer that question, Point of Inquiry turned to Rachel Tabachnik, a researcher and writer who focuses on monitoring the Religious Right. She's a contributor to Talk2Action.org, and recently wrote about the New Apostolic Reformation on Alternet.org. | 12 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Dodes - The Tooth About Dentistry | Host: Karen Stollznow John Dodes is a dentist with a special interest in dentistry and pseudoscience. He is one of the founding fellows of the Institute for Science in Medicine, a former President and Chairperson of the National Council Against Health Fraud, and a member of the Health Fraud Advisory Council. He is also a member of the American Council on Science and Health, and the Dental Consultant to Quackwatch.org. John has written about alternative therapies and myths about dentistry for Skeptical Inquirer magazine and many other publications. He is the author of the books The Whole Tooth and Healthy Teeth - A User's Manual. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, John talks about evidence-based dentistry and the inadequate teaching of the scientific method to students of dentistry. He reveals some of the hazardous practices of "Holistic Dentistry", and the integrative use of chiropractic, kinesiology and homeopathy. John clears up some classic dental myths and misconceptions—is the fluoridation of our water supplies safe? Are we being poisoned by our amalgam fillings? He also discusses some paranormal dental claims; that psychic dentists can fix cavities, and that God can turn fillings into gold. Lastly, John explains how to avoid dangerous practitioners and treatments and provides advice for consumers to make the best choices about dental healthcare. | 6 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanScott Atran - Violent Extremism and Sacred Values | Host: Chris Mooney In less than two weeks, the ten year anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil—9/11—will be upon us. In the past decade, there has been much debate and discussion about the root causes of terrorism and violent extremism. There has also been considerable scientific study of the matter. Fortunately, Point of Inquiry recently caught up with the anthropologist Scott Atran, a world leader in this research. Atran has met with terrorists face to face. He has interviewed mujahedin, met with Hamas, talked to the plotters of the Bali bombing-and sometimes found his life at risk by doing so. There's probably nobody better if you want to talk about terrorism, what motivates it, and how these extremes fit within the broad tapestry of human nature. Scott Atran is a research director in anthropology at the French National Center for Scientific Research, and holds a variety of appointments at other academic institutions. He's also the author of several books including In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion and Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists. He has published frequent op-eds in the New York Times and his research has been published in Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and other leading publications. | 29 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDan Barker - U-Turn on the Road to Damascus | Host: Robert Price Host Robert M. Price felt uncannily as if he were talking to himself when he interviewed Dan Barker, the two share so much in common. But then their story is not so unusual, come to think of it. The same sort of thing seems to be happening to more and more Evangelicals these days! For you see, Dan used to be an Evangelical preacher and a Christian musician. One day he started having second thoughts about the path he once imagined God had chosen for him. Whoever had urged him to pursue the ministry had no idea he was creating a Frankenstein monster—at lease from the fundamentalst viewpoint, for Dan has become a frequent and effective debater against Christian opponents. With his wife Annie-Laurie Gaylor, Dan is one of the executives of The Freedom from Religion Foundation. His books include Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God, and Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists. | 22 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDid Reason Evolve For Arguing? - Hugo Mercier | Host: Chris Mooney Why are human beings simultaneously capable of reasoning, and yet so bad at it? Why do we have such faulty mechanisms as the "confirmation bias" embedded in our brains, and yet at the same time, find ourselves capable of brilliant rhetoric and complex mathematical calculations? According to Hugo Mercier, we've been reasoning about reason all wrong. Reasoning is very good at what it probably evolved to let us do—argue in favor of what we believe and try to convince others that we're right. In a recent and much discussed paper in the journal Behavioral and Brain Research, Mercier and his colleague Dan Sperber proposed what they call an "argumentative theory of reason." "A wide range of evidence in the psychology of reasoning and decision making can be reinterpreted and better explained in the light of this hypothesis," they write. Given the discussion this proposal has prompted, Point of Inquiry wanted to hear from Mercier to get more elaboration on his ideas. Hugo Mercier is a postdoc in the Philosophy, Policy, and Economics program at the University of Pennsylvania. He blogs for Psychology Today. | 15 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDonald Prothero - The Psychology of Cryptozoologists | My guest this week is Donald Prothero, Professor of Geology at Occidental College, and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. Don is a distinguished academic; a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society, he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Don contributes to the SkepticBlog and he has been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of Prehistoric Monsters Revealed and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts. He has edited and written numerous scientific papers, textbooks and books, including Evolution of the Earth, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, and his most recent title, Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Karen Stollznow speaks with Don about one of his pet interests, cryptozoology and the psychology of cryptozoologists. He answers the questions, why do people believe in monsters and what do they believe? Is cryptozoology all pseudoscience or are any scientists involved in the field? What would allow cryptozoology to be taken seriously as a true science? They discuss the language, culture and characters of the "cryptozoological subculture". Lastly, Don reveals why creationists are now exploring cryptozoology, and the reasons why we shouldn't dismiss the study as an "innocent hobby". | 8 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid Frum and Kenneth Silber - Conservatives and Science | Host: Chris Mooney When it comes to the U.S. political right, it often appears that the opposition to science-and reason in general-is everywhere. From climate change denial to anti-evolutionism; from debt ceiling denial to, that's right, incandescent light bulb availability denial; conservatives today have plenty to answer for. Fortunately, some conservatives know it. And given how much he has blasted the "Republican War on Science" in the past, on this show Chris Mooney wanted to hear their take. So he invited on David Frum. Frum is the editor of the group blog Frum Forum, a former speechwriter for the George W. Bush White House, and a widely published author, most recently of Comeback: Conservatism that Can Win Again. In recent years, Frum has become a leading critic of today's GOP and its allegiance with the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Joining Frum is Kenneth Silber, a frequent contributor to Frum Forum. Silber is a science writer based in New Jersey who contributes to Research Magazine, Scientific American, and other outlets. He calls himself a "center-right dissenter, a deviationist apostle of the Frumian Heresy" and these days, a RINO (Republican in Name Only). | 1 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJaco Gericke - Confessions of a Died-Again Christian | Host: Robert Price A couple of student hecklers once reproved Marlowe's Dr. Faustus: "Faustus! Plumb the depths of that which you profess!" Many evangelical Christians have buckled down to study apologetics or biblical studies in just that spirit—and wound up not professing any more! Their stories are often eerily similar yet always fascinating! And such a delver was Jaco Gericke. First he read the "safe" stuff, then the books they warned him not to read, and then everything else! Today Dr. Gericke is on the faculty of Humanities at North-West University in South Africa. He holds the Doctor of Letters degree in Semitic Languages and a Ph.D. in Old Testament with a specialization in Philosophy of Religion. He is the author of dozens of published papers and conference presentations. One of his essays, "Can God Exist if Yahweh Doesn't?" appears in the new John W. Loftus anthology, The End of Christianity from Prometheus Books. His quest is strikingly similar to that of Point of Inquiry host Robert M. Price, who interviews him here. You're welcome to come and compare notes. | 25 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRebecca Watson - Skepticism and Feminism | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Rebecca Watson, the founder of the Skepchick blog. Recently, she's been at the center of an explosive controversy over the relationship between feminism and the skeptic/atheist movement. It all started when Watson made a relatively casual remark in a video to her followers. She was discussing her travels and a talk she'd given in Ireland about sexism in the atheist/skeptic community. Overall, Watson said, the response to her remarks had been great—but then she added something else. After the talk, she said, she'd received an advance from a man in an elevator—a man who apparently didn't get the message. "Guys, don't do that," said Watson. "I was a single woman in a foreign country at 4 am in a hotel elevator with you. Just you. Don't invite me back to your hotel room right after I finish talking about how it creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable when men sexualize me in that manner." In one way or another—and with many other debate participants involved-this story led to thousands upon thousands of blog comments, and an outpouring of support-and criticism. So Point of Inquiry asked Watson to address the controversy, and to talk more generally about atheism and feminism. Rebecca Watson is the founder of the Skepchick blog, a co-host of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast, and a prominent speaker and commenter on skepticism, feminism, freethought, and the religious right. | 19 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Wiseman - Paranormality | Host: Karen Stollznow Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in England. Richard began his career as a professional magician before pursuing a career in psychology, and developing a reputation for research into luck, deception, the paranormal, humor, and the science of self-help. Richard is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Skeptical Inquirer consulting editor. He is the author of many books, including The Luck Factor, Quirkology and 59 Seconds. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Richard talks about his latest book, Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There. Instead of examining paranormal phenomena, he discusses why it's more worthwhile to investigate the insights paranormal phenomena tell us about our brains, behavior and beliefs. Richard explains why we're "wired for weird", demonstrates how skeptics can perform "miracles", and reveals the real secrets of the supernatural. | 11 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMatthew Chapman - The Ledge | Host: Chris Mooney It's not often that Hollywood takes up the subject of atheism directly—much less sympathetically. Even rarer is finding this in a film starring major names like Liv Tyler and Terence Howard. But that's what Matthew Chapman has achieved in The Ledge—which also stars Patrick Wilson and Charlie Hunnan. Besides being a screenwriter and author, Chapman himself is an atheist, freethinker, science advocate, and great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. Without giving away the plot of The Ledge—which opens on July 8 in New York and Los Angeles—suffice it to say that it is a gutsy defense of freethinking and unbelief, framed as a star-studded romantic thriller. And perhaps even more than any work of nonfiction, it may have a unique potential to drive a national conversation about atheism. So recently, Chris Mooney caught up with Matthew Chapman for lunch in New York City to interview him about the film, what inspired it, and what he hopes its impact will be. | 4 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanD.M. Murdock - The Christ Conspiracy | Host: Robert Price D.M. Murdock, who also goes by the pen name "Acharya S.," is the author of The Christ Conspiracy, the most controversial of modern treatments of the Christ Myth theory. She has had to field flack from both apologists and atheists. An independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology, Murdock was educated in Classics and Greek Civilization, at Franklin & Marshall College and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. She has traveled extensively around Greece, participating in the archaeological excavation at Corinth, in addition, probably, to eating loads of squid. Her other books include Suns of God, Who Was Jesus? and Christ in Egypt. Her articles and books can be found at her websites TruthBeKnown.com, StellarHousePublishing.com and FreethoughtNation.com. Point of Inquiry is happy to feature an interview with Acharya by fellow Jesus Mythicist Robert M. Price (assuming, of course, that both of them exist!). | 28 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRick Perlstein - Is There a Republican War on History? | Host: Chris Mooney Recently, we've seen a spate of news stories—and news incidents—involving conservative politicians and activists getting details wrong about American history. There was, most infamously, Sarah Palin saying that Paul Revere, on his famous midnight ride, rang bells and "warned the British." There was Michele Bachman, claiming that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." Actually, the constitution explicitly treated slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning representatives to different states. And then was David Barton, conservatives' go-to guy on history, suggesting that Tom Paine was, basically, a supporter of creationism. To try to figure out what's going on lately with conservatives and history, we turn to a historian, Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is the author of several books including Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of American Consensus, and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. He's also a regular contributor to a variety of publications including The American Prospect and Mother Jones. | 20 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJean Mercer - Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings | Host: Karen Stollznow This week’s guest is Jean Mercer, a Developmental Psychologist and Professor Emerita at Richard Stockton College. She is the author of the new book Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings. Jean writes the blog "Child Myths", and along with Penn Jillette and Richard Dawkins, she is a co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion. Jean is also a contributor and Consulting Editor to the Center for Inquiry’s journal, the Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Jean talks about the developing field of developmental psychology. Jean jokes that "studying child development isn’t rocket science…it’s a lot more complicated than that!" This is an area that is fraught with myths, mistakes and misconceptions; Jean explains how these develop and the often serious repercussions. Jean discusses the importance of critical thinking about child development. Pseudoscientific therapies often have the semblance of science, so what information can we trust? Jean talks about the emphasis on evidence-based practice in developmental psychology, and why we have to think critically about that too. | 14 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Shermer - The Believing Brain | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and head of the Skeptics Society, and a longtime commentator on issues relating to science, critical thinking, and the paranormal. Chris asked Michael on to discuss his new book, which is entitled The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them As Truths. Clearly, much of what Shermer has to say here will be of great relevance to skeptics and freethinkers—and along the way, Shermer also discusses his views on global warming (real, but not such a big deal) and how to promote evolution in a religious America. In addition to publishing Skeptic, Michael Shermer is a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University. His other books include Why People Believe in Weird Things and Why Darwin Matters. | 6 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanScott Lohman - Star Trek and Humanism | Host: Robert Price Do you often wish you lived in the far future? Or on a different planet? Do your friends and family think you belong there, too? Cheer up! This may not be just because you're a science fiction nerd! It may be because you espouse a worldview that is in the distinct minority in our time and place—Secular Humanism! It is a vision of a better future. And that is no doubt why many of us feel such an affinity for SF, and of course for Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. It is a vision of a future when scientific Humanism has prevailed. Join Robert Price, himself a notorious Sci-Fi/Fantasy geek, as he interviews the far more respectable Scott Lohman, a lifelong Trekker and a prominent leader and broadcaster for Humanists of Minnesota. And by the way, did you know Captain Kirk never once said the words "Beam me up, Scottie"? | 31 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJonathan Kay - Among the Truthers | Host: Chris Mooney From Birthers, to Truthers, to Deathers—to occasional Liars—America seems to be crawling right now with fevered conspiracy mongers. What's up with that? To find out, Point of Inquiry turns in this episode to Jonathan Kay, author of the new book Among the Truthers: A Journey into America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. In it, Kay provides a fascinating look at some of our indigenous kooks, and why they seem to be thriving right now. Jonathan Kay is the managing editor of Canada's National Post newspaper and a weekly columnist for its op-ed page. Kay's writing covers a diversity of subjects, and he's been published in a variety of outlets including Commentary, the New York Post, Reader's Digest, and the New Yorker. In 2002, he was awarded Canada's National Newspaper Award for Critical Writing, and in 2004 he won a National Newspaper Award for Editorial Writing. | 23 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert Sheaffer - It's a Conspiracy | Host: Karen Stollznow Robert Sheaffer is a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow and author of the "Psychic Vibrations" column for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He writes the "Bad UFO" blog and "The Debunker's Domain" website, and is the author of The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence, UFO Sightings - The Evidence and The Making of the Messiah: Christianity and Resentment. A prolific researcher of supernatural claims, Robert specializes in UFOs and conspiracy theories. Many favor the term "investigator", but he doesn't shy away from the label "debunker". In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Robert talks about his observations of pseudoscience and the paranormal over the 30-year course of his column. He presents us with a potted history of UFOs, and discusses the trends over time in both belief and skepticism. The evidence is as poor (or non-existent) as ever, but the fascination is stronger than ever. Robert delves into the themes of conspiracy theories; what are the things "they" don't want us to know? He speaks about how and why they emerge and how we can tackle them. He answers the question, "Have any conspiracy theories ever turned out to be correct, or is a "true conspiracy theory" really something else?" | 17 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Mooney - Accommodationism and the Psychology of Belief | Special Guest Host: Ronald A. Lindsay In this special episode, Chris Mooney changes places and becomes the interviewee—and then finds himself facing some probing questions from CFI President and CEO Ronald A. Lindsay. This frank interview is all substance and no fluff as Mooney is asked to defend accommodationism and his Templeton Foundation fellowship. The tough questions elicit vigorous replies as Mooney restates his belief that some of the New Atheists are adopting the wrong tactics in criticizing religion. In the second part of the interview, Mooney discusses his recent work on the psychology of belief in general, emphasizing how our commitments and our values shape our reasoning and our processing of information. Ronald A. Lindsay is a bioethicist, lawyer, and President and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. For many years he practiced law in Washington, DC, and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and American University, where he taught jurisprudence and philosophy courses. As well as a usual host of Point of Inquiry, Chris Mooney is a science and political journalist and commentator and the author of three books, including the New York Times bestselling The Republican War on Science and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum. They also write "The Intersection" blog together for Discover blogs. Note: This episode was recorded on board the 2011 CFI Greek Islands Cruise on which Mooney was a speaker. | 11 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBo Bennett - Christian Nontheism | Host: Robert Price Robert "Bo" Bennett wears many hats (author, motivational speaker, black belt Karate master, businessman, etc.) but manages not to have a swelled head to accommodate them! His latest book is called The Concept: Introduction to Christian Nontheism, an accessible and engaging presentation of the case for maintaining one's Christian identity once one has outgrown belief in biblical inspiration, miracles, even God. True, if anyone else in your church found out, they might kick you out, but you wouldn't have a guilty conscience! How to manage this? Is it a mere mind-game? Why bother? What makes Christianity still attractive once the beliefs are gone? This is one interview certain to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable! | 2 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGeorge Lakoff - Enlightenments, Old and New | Host: Chris Mooney George Lakoff is a cognitive linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. But unlike many of his scientific peers, he's known as much for his work on politics as for his research. Lakoff the famed author of many books on why the left and right disagree about politics, including Moral Politics, Don't Think of an Elephant, Thinking Points, and most recently, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain. Throughout these works Lakoff has applied cognitive and linguistic analysis to our political rifts, and his ideas about "framing," "metaphor," and the different moral systems of liberals and conservatives have become very widely known and influential. | 25 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJosh Rosenau - The Evolution Revolution | Host: Karen Stollznow Our guest this week is Josh Rosenau, the Programs and Policy Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), and writer of the blog "Thoughts from Kansas" at ScienceBlogs. Josh has pursued a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, studying the ways ecological competition shapes the ecological niche and geographical ranges of species. In his role at the NCSE, he works with grassroots groups, testifies before school boards, meets with legislators, works with scientists to be more effective communicators and the public to increase science literacy globally. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Josh presents the "Three Pillars of Creationism", the beliefs and claims of creationists. He describes their rhetoric and propaganda, and the setbacks they cause for science, from legal cases to creationist theme parks. Josh also talks about some recent successes for science. The NCSE works tirelessly to battle creationists and improve the public understanding of evolution. But this is an organization that aims to "go out of business", and where the staff members ultimately aim to be out of their jobs. | 19 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNuclear Risk and Reason - David Brenner and David Ropeik | Host: Chris Mooney When the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last month, it left behind not only mass destruction, but also a nuclear crisis that was covered 24-7 by the international media. Since then, we've been embroiled in a huge debate about nuclear policy—should there be a "Nuclear Renaissance" in the United States, or should we put it on hold? A central issue underlying all this is the scientific question of risk. How dangerous is radiation, anyway? Do we overreact to reactors? To tackle that question, we turned to two different guests. One is one of the world's foremost experts on radiation exposure and its health consequences; the other is a journalist who's done a new book about why we often misperceive risk, to our own detriment. David Brenner is the director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. His research focuses on understanding the effects of radiation, at both high and low doses, on living systems, and he has published more than 200 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Dr. Brenner was the recipient of the 1991 Radiation Research Society Annual Research Award, and the 1992 National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Award for Radiation Protection in Medicine. David Ropeik is an author, consultant, and speaker on risk communication and risk perception, and an instructor in the Harvard University School of Education, Environmental Management program. He's the author of the 2010 book How Risky is it Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts. | 11 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAugust Berkshire - Minnesota Atheist | Host: Robert Price One of the outstanding leaders of organized atheism in our day is a man named August Berkshire. He is a non-believer of broad sympathies, having served as an officer and/or board member of organizations as diverse as Minnesota Atheists, Atheist Alliance International, Humanists of Minnesota, Freedom from Religion Foundation, and others. He is also a community activist at the forefront of church-state separation issues. August brings a winning charm and personal openness to numerous speaking engagements throughout the numerous college and high school classrooms in the Minneapolis area every year. He is a prolific author of thought-provoking anti-theological pamphlets and the caretaker of a website, AugustBerkshire.com. In this wide-ranging conversation with Robert Price, Berkshire discusses his history as an atheist activist. He explains his approach to talking about atheism to the public and why it works. He talks about what atheist activists can learn from the LGBTQ movement, why we need to come out as atheists, when we should work with religious groups and when we shouldn't, and much more. | 4 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLawrence Krauss - Quantum Man | Host: Chris Mooney Physicist Lawrence Krauss has written numerous popular books about science, including the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek. But now he's tried something different—penning a scientific biography of the famed Nobel Prize winning physicist (and infamous bon vivant) Richard Feynman. The resulting book, Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science, is a fascinating look at the scientific innovations of this larger-than-life figure—a man who also revolutionized physics teaching at Caltech, played a central role in investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, and was notorious for hanging out in strip clubs and playing the bongos. So Point of Inquiry reached Krauss to learn what writing this book was like, and what he learned about Feynman, and about physics at the very highest level, in the process. Lawrence Krauss is an internationally known theoretical physicist and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He's published hundreds of scientific papers as well as numerous popular books, including The Physics of Star Trek, Fear of Physics, and The Fifth Essence. | 28 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanCheryl Russell - Society, Statistics and Skepticism | Host: Karen Stollznow My guest this week is Cheryl Russell, a recognized authority on statistics and demographics. Cheryl is the editorial director of New Strategist Publications and the former editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine. She is the author of the "Demo Memo" blog and the books The Master Trend, 100 Predictions for the Baby Boom and Bet You Didn't Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts about Living in the USA. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Cheryl reveals that demographic information challenges deeply embedded beliefs about society and explains why there is such a gap between belief and reality. She shows that statistics and demography are not so dull, but instead they afford us a fascinating glimpse into society. Cheryl explains that typically, the more economically developed the country, the lower the religiosity. Paradoxically, the United States is one of the world's most religious countries. Cheryl discusses some statistics about belief. What percentage of Americans believe in god without a doubt? Do Americans think it is necessary to believe in God to be moral? How many people believe in religious miracles? How many believe in evolution? How reliable are these statistics anyway? | 21 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSpirituality: Friend or Foe? - Adam Frank and Tom Flynn | Host: Chris Mooney Recently, it has come to light that many scientists—scientists who don't believe in God--nevertheless claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Some in the secular movement have responded favorably to this new trend-one unfolding against the backdrop of an increasingly secular America, and a millennial generation that is also discarding traditional religion while extolling spiritual meaning. Yet others are sharply opposed, calling secular "spirituality" little more than a semantic gambit, a misappropriation of misleading, faith-infused language. In this week's show, we present two different takes on whether we should embrace, or discard, the concept of godless spirituality. Our first guest, Adam Frank, is a nonbeliever with a deep respect for the domains of human spiritual endeavor who represents the pro-spirituality view. Frank is an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, where he studies the formation and evolution of stars. He's also a freelance writer for Discover and Astronomy magazines, a blogger at NPR's 13.7, and author of the book The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate. Our second guest, Tom Flynn, is a non-believer represents the anti-spirituality view. He's the executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, editor of Free Inquiry magazine, director of Inquiry Media Productions, and director of the Robert G. Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, among many other accomplishments. He has written numerous books, both fictional and non fictional, including 1993's famed (and in-famed) The Trouble with Christmas. | 14 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanFrank Zindler - The Christ Myth | Host: Robert Price One of the most effective (not to mention hilarious) speakers for atheism and secular humanism today is Frank Zindler, author, linguist, translator, Bible scholar, and scientist—truly a Renaissance Man. He is an advocate as well for the much-despised but increasingly hard to ignore Christ Myth hypothesis, which he has ably defended in books such as The Jesus the Jews Never Knew and articles like "Where Jesus Never Walked." He was acting President of American Atheists in 2008 and is editor of both The American Atheist Magazine and American Atheist Press. Frank has also been on the ground floor of The Jesus Project and the Secular Criticism of the Bible group of the Society of Biblical Literature. Though a veteran in the rationalist field, Frank Zindler always manages to supply new and unique insights even on the most familiar questions. He has debated William Lane Craig and many others. Come and see if he'll be just as tough on Point of Inquiry host Robert M. Price! | 7 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - Communicating Science | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week needs little introduction—he may be our most famous public communicator of science. He's Neil DeGrasse Tyson, renowned American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and the host of PBS's NOVA ScienceNow, which just completed a new six part season. Tyson is also the author of 9 books, most recently Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. In this double length episode, Tyson discusses a wide range of topics: the just finished 2011 season of ScienceNow; how to restore a science "Zeitgeist" in our culture; Bill O'Reilly's recent foot-in-mouth comments about how the world works; this million-view YouTube clip of Tyson and Richard Dawkins; and much more. | 28 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Cicchini - Myths, Misconceptions, and the Law | Host: Karen Stollznow Michael Cicchini is a criminal defense attorney and a skeptic. Through extensive research and writing in the field of criminal law he has advocated for defendants' rights. Super Lawyers and Milwaukee Magazine have named him among "The Top Young Lawyers" for four consecutive years. Michael is the author of the book But They Didn't Read Me My Rights: Myths, Oddities, and Lies about our Legal System, that debunks assumptions and misconceptions about the American Legal System. He is also author of the blog "The Legal Watchdog" where he employs critical thinking to critique case decisions and report on other legal issues. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Michael shares some urban legends and absurdities to be found about the United States justice system. He talks about the effect of popular culture on the public perception of the law, and reveals that when it comes to the law, fact is often stranger than fiction. Michael discusses critical thinking in the courtroom, reason in legal reasoning, logic in the law, and the role of evidence in a trial. He also speaks about the influence of religious belief on laws that are passed in this country and why old laws rarely ever go away. | 21 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDan Kahan - The American Culture War of Fact | Host: Chris Mooney Why do Americans claim to love science, but then selectively reject its findings when they're inconvenient? And why do some cultural groups reject certain types of scientific findings (about, say, harm to the environment), whereas others reject others? Yale law professor Dan Kahan is doing some of the most cutting edge work right now when it comes to figuring this out. Kahan is trying to resolve what he has called the "American Culture War of Fact," by determining how it is that our core values-whether we are "individualists" or "communitarians," "hierarchs" or "egalitarians"—can sometimes interfere with our perceptions of reality. Most intriguingly—or, if you prefer, disturbingly—Kahan has found that deep-seated values even determine who we consider to be a scientific expert in the first place. His results have very large implications for how to depolarize an array of scientific issues-and how to communicate about controversial science in general. Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law at Yale Law School. In addition to risk perception, his areas of research include criminal law and evidence. He has served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court (1990-91) and to Judge Harry Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1989-90). | 14 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDon Webb - Devil's Advocate | Host: Robert Price The nineties witnessed an outbreak of "Satanic Panic," with psychologists dredging up false memories of "Satanic ritual abuse" which landed innocent parents in jail and banked the fires of hysteria. It seemed the Salem Witch Trials had returned! But what is Satanism? Are there actually murderous, nihilistic cults sacrificing human lives? Were there? Actual Satanism seems to be much more innocent, despite a name which invites negative publicity. In this respect Satanism is not unlike atheism. A "dirty word," it seeks to be a positive force. But how can that be if Satanists worship the devil? The Church of Satan, founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey, was a hedonistic and theatrical form of religious humanism, a cult of campy schtick. But from it emerged, in 1975, the Temple of Set, founded by Michael Aquino. This new sect describes itself as Neo-Platonic and reveres Set, an ancient deity understood as a force of will, challenge, and self-development. This religion defies most stereotypes, and thus ought to be of special interest to rationalists, skeptics, and humanists who are weary of debating standard-brand Christian theism. Don Webb, weird fiction author and High Priest of the Temple of Set, is our guest this week. Join host Robert Price as he interrogates this remarkable figure. How do you play Devil's Advocate with a guy who has been an active practitioner of the Left Handed Path of magic for three decades? Some of Don's fiction is available in the collection When They Came. Nonfiction books include Seven Faces of Darkness and Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path. Don't miss an unparalleled opportunity to learn the inside story of real Satanism, as opposed to tabloid hysteria. | 7 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanArt Caplan - Bioethics Comes of Age | Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Arthur Caplan, sometimes called the country's "most quoted bioethicist" and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. In this wide ranging episode, Caplan discusses not only the latest issues and problems in his field, but also how those issues have changed over time. Fresh from the ideological fights of the Bush administration-over culture war issues like stem cells, cloning, and Terri Schiavo-bioethicists like Caplan are now more focused on practical matters like access to healthcare. And so is the country as a whole. However, the religious right remains active-encouraging pharmacists to claim a right of "conscience" and refuse to give patients the "morning after pill." Meanwhile, as an excuse to restrict abortion, some are now also making the dubious assertion that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks of gestation. So in this interview, Caplan surveys the leading problems in bioethics today-and those we'll be facing in the very near future. Arthur Caplan is the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Director of the Center for Bioethics, and the Sydney D Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He's the author or editor of twenty-nine books-most recently Smart Mice Not So Smart People (Rowman Littlefield, 2006) and the Penn Guide to Bioethics (Springer, 2009)—and over 500 papers in refereed journals. He writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com. | 31 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - The Other Side | Host: Karen Stollznow Joe Nickell is one of the world's most prominent skeptical investigators of the paranormal. He has researched numerous historical, paranormal, and forensic mysteries, myths and hoaxes, including hauntings, crop circles, UFOs, psychic claims, the Shroud of Turin, and the purported diary of Jack the Ripper. Joe is a Senior Research Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes the Investigative Files column for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He is the author of many books, such as Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal, Secrets of the Sideshows and Real or Fake: Studies in Authentication. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Joe discusses his areas of expertise, and why investigation is an important and necessary part of skepticism. He talks about whether anyone can investigate the paranormal, and shares some of the mistakes made by investigators; not only paranormal investigators, but also skeptical paranormal investigators. Joe mentions some advances in the area of investigation, and the pros and cons of recreating paranormal claims versus trying to capture paranormal phenomena. Most people know Joe as an investigator, however, there are many surprising sides to him. He speaks about his many careers, and how he infuses skepticism into all of his roles. | 21 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe Irrationality Vaccine - Seth Mnookin | Host: Chris Mooney Recently the British Medical Journal dealt yet another blow to 1998 scientific study that first terrified the public about the possibility that vaccines might cause autism. The paper, the Journal alleged, was nothing less than "fraudulent." (http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full) Amazingly, however, no one expects anti-vaccine advocates to retract, change their minds, or cease their activities. Which raises the question: How did they grow so strongly and doggedly convinced to begin with? That's where Seth Mnookin's new book The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear comes in. It tells the page turning story behind the thoroughly refuted-but still devoutly believed—claim of a link between vaccines and autism. The book explores not only the science, but also the parents involved, the autism advocacy and support community, and the crucial role of the media, the Internet, and celebrities like Jenny McCarthy in spreading misinformation about vaccines. Seth Mnookin is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and was previously a senior writer at Newsweek. He's the author of two previous books: Hard News: The Scandals at the New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media and the bestselling Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, about the Boston Red Sox. The Panic Virus is his third book. | 14 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanHector Avalos - The End of Biblical Studies | Host: Robert Price Robert Price interviews fellow Bible Geek and secular Bible scholar Hector Avalos on a wide range of topics, from the increasingly devotional character of the Society of Biblical Literature to law enforcement in the Bible and whether Ezekiel was seeing a flying saucer. Did Abraham exist? How about Moses? David? Solomon? Jesus? Is there a future for Biblical Studied as we relegate it to the same level as the Iliad and the Odyssey? Hector Avalos serves as professor of religious studies at Iowa State University. Once upon a time, he was a Pentecostal preacher and a child evangelist. Since then he has earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology in 1982, a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 1985, and a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Near Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 1991. His many books include Illness and Healthcare in the Ancient Near East, Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence, and The End of Biblical Studies. | 7 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarry Kosmin - One Nation, Losing God | Host: Chris Mooney By now you've probably heard the finding-the United States is growing less godly. More precisely, more and more Americans in surveys report that they lack a religious identity. These are the so-called "nones," and they already comprise 15 percent of the total population. But there are estimates that their numbers will continue to grow and could someday even surpass major denominations like Catholicism (currently 24 % of the country). Being a "none" is particularly popular among those aged 18-29. Barry Kosmin is the nation's leading expert on the "nones," a group that he studies through the ARIS, or American Religious Identification Survey. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, he discusses where America is heading with respect to its religious identity, why this change is occurring, and what the implications will be for secular advocacy in the future. Barry Kosmin is a sociologist and research professor in the Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College, and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. Dr. Kosmin has been a principal investigator of the American Religious Identification Survey series since its inception in 1990 as well as national social surveys in Europe, Africa, and Asia. His publications include One Nation under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society (1993) and Religion in a Free Market (2006). | 1 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanReed Esau - SkeptiCamp: The Unconference | Host: Karen Stollznow Reed Esau is a skeptical activist and one of the founders of SkeptiCamp. Also known as Open Events, these are informal, community-organized conference where speakers tackle issues regarding science and skepticism. SkeptiCamp encourages participation as well as observation. A software architect by trade, Reed is author of the blog "An Illustrative Account", and he writes for the James Randi Educational Foundation's blog Swift. Reed is also a contributor to Skeptical Inquirer magazine for which he wrote the article "Reinventing the Skeptical Conference". In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Reed discusses the unique model of SkeptiCamp, which he calls an "unconference". He explains how these differ to traditional conferences that feature "celebrity skeptics" over local and regional speakers. He speaks about how these Open Events aim to distribute knowledge within the community, and reach people beyond the community. Must every skeptic contribute to skepticism? Does calling oneself a "skeptic" imply that one is active? Reed addresses these questions, and talks about what he calls the "Long Tail" of skepticism, and how skeptics can move from a more passive role in the movement to become participants. A self-confessed "Armchair Skeptic" for twenty years, Reed speaks about how he got out of the armchair to become involved in the community. | 25 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanWhy Facts Fail - Brendan Nyhan | Ever been in an argument with someone and felt massively frustrated, because nothing you can say seems to change the person's mind? Maybe that's what you should expect to happen. Maybe you should get used to it. According to University of Michigan political scientist Brendan Nyhan, that's how our minds work-and it's not just that. When it comes to politics, people who believe incorrect things tend to be strongly convinced that they're right, and moreover, often become stronger in that conviction when they're refuted. It's a pretty alarming aspect of human nature-but in this interview, Nyhan explains how we know what we do about people's intransigent clinging to misperceptions, and how we can work to change that. Brendan Nyhan is a political scientist and Robert Wood Johnson scholar in health policy research at the University of Michigan. He was previously a co-author of the political debunking website Spinsanity.com, and co-author of the New York Times bestselling book All The President's Spin. He blogs at www.brendan-nyhan.com. | 17 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRoger Nygard - The Nature of Existence | Host: Robert Price Roger Nygard recently produced and directed a feature documentary called The Nature of Existence. In it, he asks some of the biggest of questions to "the widest cross-section of humanity possible." Why do we exist? What is our purpose? What is truth? He asked these and many other substantial questions to individuals with a wide range of worldviews—from Richard Dawkins, to 24th generation Chinese Taoist Master Zhang Chengda, to the founder of Ultimate Christian Wrestling, Rob Adonis. In this wide-ranging conversation with Robert Price, Nygard discusses whether or not it's worthwhile to distinguish between "normal" religions and "weird" fringe belief systems. He talks about some common themes and huge differences in the worldviews he explored, and whether or not he found any of the worldviews to be helpful or genuinely harmful. He talks about the conflict between science and religion, and even shares his own best guess at the meaning of existence. Roger Nygard has directed, produced, written, and edited for film and television. He directed and edited Trekkies (1999), Trekkies 2 (2004), and Six Days in Roswell (2000), a docu-comedy about UFO enthusiasts. For television, he has directed and edited episodes of the HBO series, The Mind of the Married Man, edited episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and directed episodes of the FOX series The Bernie Mac Show and The Loop, the NBC series The Office, the DisneyXD series Zeke & Luther, and many others. The Nature of Existence is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. | 10 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe Future of Atheism: Beyond the Question of God | Host: Chris Mooney Recently at Pomona College in California, three atheists—one of them a Point of Inquiry host—got together to debate the future of the movement. And some sparks flew. Topics raised included the rise of the so-called "nones" (those professing "no religion" in surveys), the lack of representation for atheists in the U.S. Congress, and the debate between moderate or "live-and-let-live" atheism as opposed to a louder and more aggressive version. Despite their disagreement, it was clear that it’s an exciting time for the movement, as atheism becomes more visible in American life. Where do we go from here? The students in the packed audience have that in their hands. Panel participants were: David Silverman, president of American Atheists. Mr. Silverman attended Brandeis University and specialized in computer science; he worked as an inventor at Bell Labs for 8 years. He then served at American Atheists as national spokesperson, vice president, and finally president, a post he assumed this year. Hemant Mehta writes the "Friendly Atheist" blog and serves on the board of directors of the Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has also appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and is author of the book I Sold My Soul on eBay, released in 2007. Chris Mooney is a host of Point of Inquiry. | 3 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJames Randi and D.J. Grothe - Amaz!ng Skepticism | Host: Karen Stollznow This week is a special episode featuring interviews with two guests, James Randi and D.J. Grothe. James Randi is a world-renowned magician and the modern-day Houdini of skepticism. He is the author of numerous books, including Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions and the forthcoming A Magician in the Laboratory. He is the founder and Chairman of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). This interview was recorded live at The Amaz!ng Meeting 8 in Las Vegas, 2010. In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Randi reflects on his life's work. He speaks about his organization and his role as a central figure in skepticism. He also talks about the JREF's One Million Dollar Challenge, claims he'd like to test, and Sylvia Browne's infamous reluctance to be tested, despite accepting the challenge. More recently, Karen spoke with D.J. Grothe, President of the JREF and Host of the podcast For Good Reason. Grothe is the former Vice President for Outreach at the Center for Inquiry, and of course, the former Host of Point of Inquiry. Grothe speaks about the JREF’s mission, and the greatest successes and challenges of the organization. He discusses his plans to "put the 'E' into the JREF" by focusing on education, and talks about his tireless work in skeptical outreach and activism. | 27 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Abraham and Scott Mandia - Climate Science Strikes Back | Host: Chris Mooney For the community of scientists who study the Earth’s climate, these are bewildering times. They've seen wave upon wave of political attacks. They're getting accustomed to a public that grows more skeptical of their conclusions even as scientists grow more confident in them. No wonder there’s much frustration out there in the climate science world—and now, a group of researchers have organized to do something about it. Their initiative is called the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, and it pledges to organize dozens of researchers to help set the record straight. But can scientists really maintain a war room? What would that look like? How far can they go in fighting back against misinformation, without leaving themselves politically exposed? To answer these questions, Point of Inquiry called up two of the initiative's founders: John Abraham and Scott Mandia. John Abraham is an associate professor of engineering at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has some 80 published papers, conference papers, and patents to his name. Scott Mandia is a professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York. He runs the “Global Warming Fact of the Day” group on Facebook, and is known as @AGW_Prof on Twitter. | 19 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRonald A. Lindsay - Observations on Ethics, Law, and CFI | Host: Robert Price How did his studies at Catholic Georgetown University set CFI President and CEO Ronald A. Lindsay on the primrose path to atheism? Does he now count himself a lawyer or a philosopher, neither, or both? Point of Inquiry asks Ron about the basis for ethics for atheists and secularists. Are atheists nihilists, as is often said? Would that necessarily be bad? Host Robert Price and Lindsay carry on a brisk, illuminating discussion of Aquinas, Kant, and Hume, applying their insights to ethics and public policy. One often hears secularists complaining that religious believers are voting the theological party line of their church, e.g., in the case of abortion. But does it matter where their moral convictions come from? Is it the genetic fallacy for us to say they are trying to "impose their theology on the rest of us"? Ron also comments on the problem with posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Finally, he provides his privileged perspective on the direction and approach of CFI since the departure of founder Paul Kurtz. | 15 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMassimo Pigliucci - Nonsense on Stilts | Host: Chris Mooney It’s a longstanding debate in the philosophy of science: Is "demarcation" possible? Can we really draw firm lines between science and pseudoscience? Massimo Pigliucci thinks so. In his new book Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk, Pigliucci attempts to rescue the notion that there are claims we can rule out, and claims we can rule in—a real means of determining what’s science and what isn’t. Along the way, Pigliucci touches on howlers like creationism and astrology, and borderland areas of research like SETI—and weighs whether science can ever hope to test claims about the supernatural. Massimo Pigliucci is chair of the philosophy department at CUNY-Lehman College. He was formerly a professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook. He’s a prolific blogger and commentator on issues concerning science and skepticism and a prominent battler of creationists and other nonsense peddlers. You can find him online at rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com. | 5 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanWarren Bonett - Down Under Reason | Host: Karen Stollznow Warren Bonett is a skeptic, author and an independent bookseller. Warren wanted to become actively involved in critical thinking without joining an organization or becoming an –ism, so he opened "Embiggen Books". This is a unique store specializing in skeptical and science titles... right in the middle of a New Age township. He has been told that his store has "great feng shui." In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Warren recommends books for those who are new to skepticism, and suggests titles to introduce children to science and critical thinking. Warren is also a bookseller who has edited a book. He is editor and contributor to The Australian Book of Atheism. This project includes 32 essays about religion and secularism written by pre-eminent Australian atheist, rationalist, humanist, and skeptic thinkers, including Russell Blackford, Tim Minchin, Graham Oppy, Robyn Williams, and Martin Bridgstock. Its blurb states that the book "showcases the unique character of Australian atheism." Warren tells us exactly what is unique about atheism in Australia, and discusses the issues that are specific to Australian society. | 29 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanCarl Zimmer - This is Your Brain on iPad | Host: Chris Mooney On the show this week, Point of Inquiry features one of our most distinguished science writers—Carl Zimmer. He's the author of many acclaimed books, including Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, and now he’s taken on an experiment: Publishing his next book, Brain Cuttings, as an e-book, digital only. The book collects Carl’s many writings about the brain—including essays about why we zone out, whether Google is making us stupid, and perhaps most memorable of all, the Singularity folks who think our brains will soon be downloadable. Needless to say, Zimmer isn’t quite so sure. In a wide ranging conversation, Zimmer also discussed why science’s biggest undiscovered continent is inside our heads—and what our growing understanding of the brain means for the future of religion. Carl Zimmer has been called "as fine a science essayist as we have" by the New York Times Book Review. He contributes regularly the New York Times science section, as well as numerous other publications, and blogs for Discover magazine’s Discover Blogs site. In addition, he’s the author of seven books, including Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life, and teaches science and environmental writing at Yale University. | 22 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Shook - The God Debates | Host: Robert Price Our guest is philosopher and author John Shook, discussing his experiences debating religious believers and whether such debates are a good idea. Some say no, that such spectacles merely serve believers by making it look like atheists take them more seriously than they deserve. Others say yes, because debates provide a precious opportunity to introduce believers to atheistic arguments they might otherwise never hear. Price and Shook compare notes about debating superstar apologist William Lane Craig, discuss interesting insights on Presuppositionalism and Postmodernism, and talk about Dr. Shook's new book, The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers (and Everyone in Between), an introduction to major issues in the philosophy of religion, as well as debate topics old and new. | 16 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPZ Myers, Jennifer Michael Hecht, and Chris Mooney - New Atheism or Accommodation? | Recently at the 30th anniversary conference of the Council for Secular Humanism in Los Angeles, leading science blogger PZ Myers and Point of Inquiry host Chris Mooney appeared together on a panel to discuss the questions, "How should secular humanists respond to science and religion? If we champion science, must we oppose faith? How best to approach flashpoints like evolution education?" It's a subject about which they are known to... er, differ. The moderator was Jennifer Michael Hecht, the author of Doubt: A History. The next day, the three reprised their public debate for a special episode of Point of Inquiry, with Hecht sitting in as a guest host in Mooney's stead. This is the unedited cut of their three way conversation. PZ Myers is a biologist at the University of Minnesota-Morris who, in addition to his duties as a teacher of biology and especially of development and evolution, likes to spend his spare time poking at the follies of creationists, Christians, crystal-gazers, Muslims, right-wing politicians, apologists for religion, and anyone who doesn't appreciate how much the beauty of reality exceeds that of ignorant myth. Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry, including: Doubt: A History (HarperCollins, 2003); The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology (Columbia University Press, 2003); and The Happiness Myth, (HarperCollins in 2007). Her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Hecht earned her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 1995 and now teaches in the graduate writing program of The New School University. | 10 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSteve Spangler - Hands-on Science | Host: Karen Stollznow Steve Spangler is a science educator, inventor, and an Emmy Award winning TV personality. He is the author of Fizz Factor: 50 Amazing Experiments With Soda Pop, Secret Science: 25 Science Experiments Your Teacher Doesn't Know About and his latest title Naked Eggs And Flying Potatoes. Steve’s inquiry-based learning approaches to science education are highly successful. With his innovative "hands-on" approach to teaching he is the "fun science guy" who shoots potatoes, makes toilet paper fly and mixes batches of slime; but he is best known for his erupting soda geyser experiment. Behind all of this fun is a very serious mission: to improve science literacy for both children, and adults. In this episode with Karen Stollznow, Steve tackles the "science is boring" stereotype, and explains how science education can be exciting, accessible and fun. Steve talks about using the Internet for effective science education, citing his famous viral video, the “Mentos and Diet Coke geyser experiment” that has had millions of views and inspired thousands of imitations. Steve not only teaches students, but he also teaches teachers. He talks about becoming a great science teacher by creating unforgettable learning experiences. With Steve’s interactive methods, science has suddenly gone from "Don’t try this at home!" to "Try this for yourself and see how it works!" In closing, Steve discusses the state of science literacy today, and tells us what we can do to nurture scientific curiosity, build critical thinking skills and instill healthy skepticism. | 1 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJennifer Ouellette - Calculus, Las Vegas, and the Zombie Apocalypse | Host: Chris Mooney Ever wonder about the mathematical basis for battling a zombie infestation? Jennifer Ouellette has. In her new book The Calculus Diaries, the English major turned science journalist goes on an odyssey to relearn the branch of math that so intimidated her in high school. Along the way, she finds calculus in activities ranging from surfing, to catching fly balls, to playing craps in Vegas. Naturally, calculus can also tell us how to stop the marauding zombies before they take over the human population for good. At a time when the U.S. lags in science and math education, a book like Ouellette's—making math intriguing and accessible—is more than a good read. It’s an educational necessity. Jennifer Ouellette is the author of three books: Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics, The Physics of the Buffyverse, and most recently, The Calculus Diaries. She has also written widely, blogs at "Cocktail Party Physics," and until recently was director of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a National Academy of Sciences project to bridge the gap between the research community and Hollywood. | 24 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJen Roth - Atheist Against Abortion | Host: Robert Price In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Robert Price interviews Jen Roth, co-founder of All Our Lives, a secular organization committed to advocating for women's right to exercise freedom of conscience in making voluntary, nonviolent, sexual and reproductive decisions. Jen is an atheist who seeks no grounds for human rights in God or religion, but also one who happens to oppose abortion. Not an advocate for outlawing abortion, though, she believes there is much to be done by way of clarifying and defending the sexual autonomy of women. Jen Roth has written for the Secular Web and the online political magazine Shared Sacrifice. She was formerly on the board of Consistent Life, an organization which opposes war, abortion, and the death penalty. In spring 2010, she co-founded All Our Lives. | 17 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanS. Jay Olshansky - Can Science Extend Human Life? | Host: Chris Mooney At a recent conference in Lake Tahoe, demographer S. Jay Olshansky presented a roomful of technologists with an exciting prospect. Through a concerted scientific attack on the problem of aging, he suggested, we might be able to extend human life by as much as 7 years on average. Olshansky's strategy is not simply to keep battling individual diseases, like cancer, in isolation. Rather, it’s to go after the underlying process that brings on those diseases to begin with. The field of aging has long been beset by questionable claims—by hucksters try to sell us the fountain of youth. By contrast, Olshansky suggests there may be a modest, but scientifically attainable, version of human life extension that would benefit us all. On this episode of Point of Inquiry, he discusses how it might be possible, and what a world in which we all live significantly longer would look like. S. Jay Olshansky is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His work focuses on estimating the upper limits to human longevity and pursuing the scientific means to slow aging in people. Dr. Olshansky is the author, with Bruce Carnes, of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging. | 10 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBrian Brushwood - Scams, Swindles and Skepticism | Host: Karen Stollznow Brian Brushwood began his career in magic "To get free drinks at bars and impress friends," but ended up becoming a science communicator and skeptic. The author of Cheats, Cons, Swindles & Tricks: 57 Ways to Scam a Free Drink and The Professional's Guide to Fire Eating, Brian is a "Bizarre Magician". Making side show tricks cool again, Brian hammers nails into his head and eats fire in his "Bizarre Magic Show", "America’s Number One College Magic Show". He also communicates critical thinking to the college market in his lecture "Scams, Sasquatch and the Supernatural" In this episode with host Karen Stollznow, Brian discusses outreach to this important yet often overlooked demographic. They discuss tertiary-level courses in skepticism and the paranormal, and whether there is "age appropriate skepticism" Brian explains the stereotypes associated with magic and magicians, and how the "m-word" (magic) has stigmatized. He also discusses the negative connotations associated with the "s-word" (skeptic), and how to combat the image problems with guerilla skepticism, hidden beneath comedy and magic. Brian is a prolific personality on various internet shows including the Brian Brushwood Live Show, the Weird Things podcast, and NSFW on This Week in Tech TV. But he is best known for his show Scam School. Usually the ones who expose scams, Brian tells us when the skeptics should be the scammers. In this “Mythbusters” for the pool shark crowd, Brian pulls street cons, swindles and scams in the name of skepticism. | 3 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Wrangham - Rediscovering Fire | This is a show about evolution—but not, for once, about the evolution wars. Instead, it concerns one of the most intriguing ideas to emerge in quite some time about the evolution of humans. In his much discussed book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham argues that we’ve been ignoring a critical catalyst in the creation of our species—a little technology called cooking. Cooking was the game changer, says Wrangham. It upended everything. It altered how we obtained energy, which in turn morphed our anatomy and cranial capacity. Cooking even changed how we came to spend our days, and divide labor between the sexes. According to Wrangham, learning to cook therefore ranks among the most important things that ever happened to our ancestors. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, he discusses why cooking was so pivotal—and why its role has so long been overlooked. Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University, and the author, with Dale Peterson, of Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. His new book is Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. | 27 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert M. Price - Is the Bible Mein Kampf? | Robert Price being off for the week, today we present a lecture given by Dr. Price at the Center for Inquiry's annual Student Leadership Conferece titled "Is the Bible Mein Kampf?" In his talk, Price suggests the Bible has much to offer even the most secular and non-religious of us. He discusses the value he sees in the Bible, and what we can learn from the mistakes and contradictions found within it. He explains that because he sees the Christian Fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible as so wrong, a hated of this straw man Bible might also make little sense. Price explains that critical examination of Biblical texts is what makes a true friend of the Bible—even if you're an atheist. Along with being a usual host of this show, Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books, including The Reason Driven Life, Deconstructing Jesus, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured prominently in the movie The God Who Wasn't There. His latest book is Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms. | 20 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAlexander Zaitchik - Glenn Beck’s War on Reason | This week, the scope of Point of Inquiry expands to include politics and more particularly, the fount of misinformation that is Glenn Beck of Fox News. This TV and radio personality is ushering in a new reign of ignorance in our national discourse—and even has the gall to liken his efforts to those of Martin Luther King, Jr. But investigative journalist Alexander Zaitchick has pinned Beck to a wall with his new book Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. He’s even provoked Beck into denouncing him for practicing "despicable, yellow journalism." Coming from Beck, that’s a compliment. So tune in to learn more about how Beck has become a new icon of American irrationality—and just general cluelessness. Alex Zaitchik is a freelance journalist living in Brooklyn, New York. He’s contributed to Salon.com, The Nation, Wired, and many other distinguished publications. In the course of his career he has reported from locations ranging from Miami to Moscow, from Prague to Mexico City—and Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance is his first book. | 13 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAndrew Mayne - Magic, Mischief and Mayhem | Andrew Mayne is a magician, paranormal illusionist, inventor, TV producer and skeptic. One of the most creative and innovative minds in magic, Andrew has written and produced over 40 books and DVDs. Both creator and consultant, he has worked with a number of artists including David Blaine, and Penn & Teller. Andrew’s performance material ranges from close-up and stage, to mentalism and illusion, and he is infamous for his brand of tricks, effects and stunts known as "shock magic". Far from pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Andrew’s shock magic is described as "disturbing", "evil", "frightening" and "deadly". In this conversation with Karen Stollznow, Andrew speaks about being a Magician’s Magician, making multimedia magic, and not only inventing illusions but reinventing classic illusions. He explains the link between magic and skepticism, and how magic offers practical insight to protect us from charlatans, con-artists, and ourselves. Andrew shares stories of his paranormal investigations for the Weird Things TV show and podcast, and his experiences as lead investigator for the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Million Dollar Challenge. The author of the article Think Skeptically, Act Locally: 50 Things You Can Do To Encourage Critical Thinking, Andrew is one of the original activists in the skepticism movement. He talks about teaching science education and critical thinking, and presents his “elevator pitch” for becoming a skeptical activist. | 6 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanFrancesca Grifo - Science Under Obama | When President Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, he pledged to “restore science to its rightful place” in the U.S. government. And true to his word, the president promptly staffed his cabinet with distinguished scientific leaders, liberated embryonic stem cell research from the Bush era restrictions, and released a memorandum on “scientific integrity” intended to reverse the kinds of problems seen in the Bush years. Since those days, however, the "scientific integrity" agenda does not seem to have filtered through the federal government as hoped. And according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times, some scientists are having problems in this administration when it comes to speaking with the media, or having their research results properly handled by their superiors. To put these developments in context, Point of Inquiry called upon Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. As Grifo explains, claims that the Obama administration is behaving like the Bush administration did on science are absurd. However, the administration must do more to deliver on President Obama’s pledge to restore science to its "rightful place"—and move swiftly to address reports of scientific discontentment. Francesca Grifo is a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an expert in biodiversity conservation, and heads up UCS’s Scientific Integrity Project. She has testified before Congress about scientific integrity and is widely quoted in the press on the topic. Prior to joining UCS, she was at Columbia University where she ran the Science Teachers Environmental Education Program. | 30 7 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Quinn - O Sweet Jesus | Tom Quinn has spent the past 15 years as a documentary TV writer and producer for Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic and others. He has traveled the world producing programs that explore and deconstruct urban legends, psychic claims, religious myths and conspiracy theories, and has worked with the likes of James Randi and Michael Shermer. He's a graduate of the American Film Institute, he's been a film critic, a story analyst for Universal Studios and HBO, and, in 2005, he received two Emmy nominations for his History Channel special, Beyond the Da Vinci Code. He has subsequently done programs for Discovery Shark Week and on the book, Angels and Demons. Tom is the author of a new book, What Do You Do with a Chocolate Jesus? An Irreverent History of Christianity. He also gives humors lectures on all of these subjects, and blogs at choco-jesus.blogspot.com. In this conversation with Robert Price, Tom talks about his new book and how satire can be an effective education tool. He discusses his views on the history of Christianity and how to best approach the books of the Bible. He explains why those who couple religion with morality are wrong to do so, responds to the claim that one must be religious to have an ethical worldview, and much more. | 23 7 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPhil Plait - Death from the Skies | Our guest this week needs no introduction for those in the skeptical and secular world. After all, he has a frakkin' asteroid named after him. He’s Phil Plait—science blogger extraordinaire for Discover Blogs, where he authors “Bad Astronomy.” Recently, Plait joined Point of Inquiry for a wide ranging conversation about standing eggs on end, Apollo moon landing deniers, wacky yet endearing Hollywood bad science, something called “spaghettification”….and the end of the world. Phil Plait is a skeptic and an astronomer, and former president of the James Randi Educational Foundation. He lectures widely across the country and is the author of two books, most recently Death from the Skies: These Are the Ways the World Will End. | 16 7 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAdam Savage - Skeptic (Confirmed) | Adam Savage is an artist, actor, educator, special effects designer and co-host of the Discovery Channel's TV show Mythbusters. Adam has a diverse background in animation and design, and for almost two decades he has concentrated on the special effects industry for film, theater and television. A prominent skeptic and atheist, Adam lectures in science education and is a strong promoter of critical thinking. Karen Stollznow spoke with Adam in Las Vegas at The Amaz!ng Meeting, the annual conference of the James Randi Educational Foundation. In this conversation, Adam spoke about his identification as a skeptic and atheist, and his work to promote science and skepticism to the public. He talked about his experiences on Mythbusters; why the show appeals to skeptics, and how he applies skepticism to his experiments. Adam talks about testing pseudoscience and the paranormal, how myths and legends develop, and how the public reacts when their cherished myths are busted. | 9 7 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert Price & Chris Mooney - Must Atheists Also Be Liberals? | Recently in Amherst, New York, two of Point of Inquiry’s hosts sat down for a special in-studio episode of the show. One was a conservative (Robert Price), one a liberal (Chris Mooney)—and both were atheists. The topic they tackled: Is there any necessary correlation between one’s disbelief in God and one’s place on the political spectrum? The result was a fascinating—and notably civil, and frequently entertaining—conversation ranging across foreign policy, abortion, stem cell research, animal rights, and many other topics. In the end, the discussants actually found not only much disagreement, but also some common ground. Robert M. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute as well as the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism and a host of Point of Inquiry. His books include Beyond Born Again, The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny, Deconstructing Jesus, andThe Incredible Shrinking Son of Man. Chris Mooney is a science and political journalist and commentator and the author of three books, including the New York Times bestselling The Republican War on Science and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum. They also write “The Intersection” blog together for Discover blogs. In the past, Chris has also been visiting associate in the Center for Collaborative History at Princeton University and a 2009-2010 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also a host of Point of Inquiry. | 2 7 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - In Like Flynn | Tom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism, Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, Director of Inquiry Media Productions, and Director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and freethought historian, Flynn is the author of numerous articles and editorials for Free Inquiry magazine. In addition to The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, his books include two black comedy science fiction novels, Nothing Sacred, its prequel Galactic Rapture, and The Trouble With Christmas, a secularist critique of the holiday. He has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." In this conversation with Robert Price, Tom explains how he transitioned from his conservative Catholic youth Secular Humanist he is today. He talks about the part Mormonism played in his transition to non-belief. Perhaps one of the most consistent secularists around today, Tom elaborates on the problems he has with rites of passage ceremonies and marriage. He talks about what he sees as problems with some secular charity programs and the parts of life he believes should be off-limits to a secular community. Finally, he and Price discuss radical Islam and how we should approach talking about it. | 25 6 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBill McKibben - Our Strange New Eaarth | Global warming, we're often told, is an issue we must address for the sake of our grandchildren. We need to cut carbon because of our moral obligation to future generations. But according to Bill McKibben, that's a 1980s view. As McKibben writes in his new book Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, the increasingly open secret is that global warming happened already. We've passed the threshold, and the planet isn’t at all the same. It's less climatically stable. Its weather is haywire. It has less ice, more drought, higher seas, heavier storms. It even appears different from space. And that’s just the beginning of the earth-shattering changes in store—a small sampling of what it’s like to trade a familiar planet (Earth) for one that's new and strange (Eaarth). We'll survive on this sci-fi world, this terra incognita—but we may not like it very much. And we may have to change some fundamental habits along the way. Eaarth, argues McKibben, is our greatest failure. Bill McKibben is a former staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, and author of the famous 1989 book The End of Nature, as well as over a dozen other works. He is currently a scholar in residence at Middlebury College in Vermont, and founder of the global warming grassroots organization 350.org, which lobbies for tougher climate policies. In 2009, the group conducted what CNN later called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” | 18 6 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTim Farley - What’s the Harm? | Tim Farley is a computer software engineer, skeptic, and creator of the popular website What’s the Harm? His site answers this salient question with over 670,000 stories of people who have indeed been harmed, damaged, injured, or even killed by pseudoscience and the paranormal What’s the Harm’s catchphrase is: “368,379 people killed, 306,096 injured and over $2,815,931,000 in economic damages.” However, these statistics are calculated from randomly-caught, modern cases documented in English-speaking countries. Many stories are left untold. How much bigger could the problem be? In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Tim reveals the real-life dangers, and the hidden dangers, of these beliefs and practices. He treats the lack of regulatory bodies for these industries, and what recourse can be taken when harm is done. Tim talks about the question “What’s the Harm?” as used in defense of pseudoscience and the paranormal, and why this is wielded as a “checkmate” argument. He discusses the power of anecdotal evidence, and whether people are influenced by cautionary tales, or more persuaded by their own personal experiences. Tim is a prominent activist and a frequent speaker at events including Skeptics in the Pub, Skepticamp, and the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Amazing Meetings. An expert in computer security and reverse engineering, he is at the forefront of the Skepticism 2.0 movement. He talks about finding your own “niche” as an online activist, how you don’t need to be a magician or have a PhD to be a skeptic, and how we all have our own expertise to bring to the skeptical movement. | 11 6 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNaomi Oreskes - Merchants of Doubt | This week’s guest is Naomi Oreskes, co-author with historian Eric Conway of the new book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Through extensive archival research, Oreskes and Conway have managed to connect the dots between a large number of seemingly separate anti-science campaigns that have unfolded over the years. It all began with Big Tobacco, and the famous internal memo declaring, “Doubt is our Product.” Then came the attacks on the science of acid rain and ozone depletion, and the flimsy defenses of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program. And the same strategies have continued up to the present, with the battle over climate change. Throughout this saga, several key scientific actors appear repeatedly—leaping across issues, fighting against the facts again and again. Now, Oreskes and Conway have given us a new and unprecedented glimpse behind the anti-science curtain. Naomi Oreskes (Ph.D., Stanford, 1990) is Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on the historical development of scientific knowledge, methods, and practices in the earth and environmental sciences, and on understanding scientific consensus and dissent. She is the author of numerous noted books and papers, including a 2004 essay in Science entitled “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,” which was widely cited, debated, and referenced in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” | 4 6 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanS.T. Joshi - Fright and Freethought | S. T. Joshi is a leading authority on H. P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, and other writers, mostly in the realms of supernatural and fantasy fiction. He has edited corrected editions of the works of Lovecraft, several annotated editions of Bierce and Mencken, and has written such critical studies as The Weird Tale and The Modern Weird Tale. His award-winning biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, has already become a collector's item. But critical, biographical, and editorial work on weird fiction is only one aspect of Joshi's multifaceted output. A prominent atheist, Joshi has published the anthology Atheism: A Reader and the anti-religious polemic, God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong. He has also compiled an important anthology on race relations, Documents of American Prejudice. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Robert M. Price talks with Joshi about Lovecraft and how his writings were an impetus toward Joshi's atheism. Along with discussing Lovecraft's views on religion, Joshi shares his own views on the subject. He reveals his thoughts on religious writers as well as the "new atheism." He explains what horror and fantasy literature have to offer the non-religious, and how it can in some ways take the place of religious writings. | 28 5 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Specter - The Menace of Denialism | This week, we learned that J. Craig Venter has at long last created a synthetic organism—a simple life form constructed, for the first time, by man. Let the controversy begin—and if New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter is correct, the denial of science will be riding hard alongside it. In his recent book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, Specter charts how our resistance to vaccination and genetically modified foods, and our wild embrace of questionable health remedies, are the latest hallmarks of an all-too-trendy form of fuzzy thinking--one that exists just as much on the political left as on the right. And it’s not just on current science-based issues that denialism occurs. The phenomenon also threatens our ability to handle emerging science policy problems—over the development of personalized medicine, for instance, or of synthetic biology. How can we make good decisions when again and again, much of the public resists inconvenient facts, statistical thinking, and the sensible balancing of risks? Michael Specter has been a New Yorker staff writer since 1998. Before that, he was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times and the national science reporter for the Washington Post. At the New Yorker, Specter has covered the global AIDS epidemic, avian flu, malaria, the world’s diminishing freshwater resources, synthetic biology and the debate over our carbon footprint. He has also published many profiles of subjects including Lance Armstrong, ethicist Peter Singer, and Sean (P. Diddy) Combs. In 2002, Specter received the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Journalism Award for his article “Rethinking the Brain,” about the scientific basis of how we learn. | 21 5 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGeorge Hrab - Soundtrack to Skepticism | George Hrab is a composer, professional musician, singer, songwriter, podcaster, and skeptic. George is the Host and Producer of the Geologic Podcast, a popular weekly show about music, comedy, science, and skepticism. The drummer in the band Philadelphia Funk Authority, he is a successful multi-instrumentalist musician who has performed on-stage with Elton John, and given a performance in the White House for Bill Clinton. For the past fifteen years he has also been a solo artist, releasing his music independently. George’s songs tackle science, the paranormal and pseudoscience, from the Occasional Songs for the Periodic Table in which he sings to each element, to an ode to the coelacanth. George’s latest album Trebuchet includes the songs God is Not Great, Everything Alive will Die Someday, and Death From the Skies, featuring “Bad Astronomer” Dr. Phil Plait. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Karen Stollznow speaks with George about the “intersection” of music and skepticism, and how music fits into critical thinking. With eclectic influences from Frank Zappa to Carl Sagan, George describes how he infuses skepticism into his own music. A successful activist in the skeptical community, George not only speaks-out against a lack of critical thinking in society, but he also “sings-out” against this issue, promoting skepticism through song. This “nice guy of skepticism” discusses the image of the skeptical movement, and what we can do to popularize skepticism. He explains that he reaches people “through their funny bones and dance shoes” as an effective way to communicate skepticism to the public, and tells us how music and comedy can make converts to critical thinking. George’s music brings a new audience to skepticism, and provides theme songs for skeptics. In many ways, George’s music has become the soundtrack to skepticism. | 14 5 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanElaine Howard Ecklund - How Religious Are Scientists? | It’s hard to think of an issue more contentious these days than the relationship between faith and science. If you have any doubt, just flip over to the science blogosphere: You’ll see the argument everywhere. In the scholarly arena, meanwhile, the topic has been approached from a number of angles: by historians of science, for example, and philosophers. However, relatively little data from the social sciences has been available concerning what today’s scientists actually think about faith. Today’s Point of Inquiry guest, sociologist Dr. Elaine Ecklund of Rice University, is changing that. Over the past four years, she has undertaken a massive survey of the religious beliefs of elite American scientists at 21 top universities. It’s all reported in her new book Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think. Ecklund’s findings are pretty surprising. The scientists in her survey are much less religious than the American public, of course—but they’re also much more religious, and more “spiritual,” than you might expect. For those interested in debating the relationship between science and religion, it seems safe to say that her new data will be hard to ignore. Elaine Howard Ecklund is a member of the sociology faculty at Rice University, where she is also Director of the Program on Religion and Public Life at the Institute for Urban Research. Her research centrally focuses on the ways science and religion intersect with other life spheres, and it has been prominently covered in USA Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and other prominent news media outlets. Ecklund is also the author of two books published by Oxford University Press: Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life (2008), and more recently the new book Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think (2010). | 7 5 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLois Schadewald - The Schadewald Legacy: Nemesis of Pseudo-Science | Lois Schadewald's interest in both science and pseudoscience rubbed off on her from her brilliant brother Robert J. Schadewald, a prolific author and debater. When Bob died a decade ago he left behind a legacy of published essays and book chapters, as well as much unpublished material including a complete manuscript on the history of the Flat Earth movement. Lois has seen to the publication of many of these pieces in the collection Worlds of their Own: A Brief History of Misguided Ideas; Creationism, Flat-Earthism, Energy Scams, and the Velikovsky Affair. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Robert M. Price asks Lois to outline some of her brother's research in Flat Earth and Hollow Earth "science" as well as to relate some stories of his association with important "alternative science" figures like catastrophist Immanuel Velikovsky. Schadewald talks about her brother's unique approach to dealing with promoters of pseudoscience, and what he gained from it. She discusses the timeline of Bob's research interests and how he eventually made his way to studying creationism. Lois Schadewald is Professor of Chemistry at Normandale Community College in Minnesota, where she is also active with the Minnesota Atheists. Robert J. Schadewald (1943-2000) was a widely published science writer. His articles dealing with unorthodoxies of science and scholarship appeared in Science 80, Smithsonian, Technology Illustrated, and Skeptical Inquirer among others. He was a contributing author to six books, including The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia (Garland Publishing, 2000). From 1986 until the mid-1990s, he served on the board of directors of the National Center for Science Education, including two years as president. He attended seven national creationism conferences, interviewed Immanuel Velikovsky, investigated perpetual motion machines, and was thrown out of the Flat Earth Society for having spherical tendencies. Bob was nationally recognized as an expert on creationism, perpetual motion, and flat Earthism. | 30 4 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDeborah Blum - Murder and Chemistry in Jazz Age New York | For many of us, chemistry is something we remember with groans from high school. Periodic Table of the Elements—what a pain to memorize, and what was the point, anyway? So how do you take a subject like chemistry and make it exciting, intriguing, and compelling? With her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Deb Blum has done just that. Blum takes a page from the "CSI" franchise, and moves that familiar narrative of crime, intrigue, and high tech bad-guy catching back into the early days of the 20th century. There, in jazz age New York, she chronicles the birth of forensic chemistry at the hands of two scientific and public health pioneers—the city’s chief medical examiner Charles Norris, and his chemistry whiz side-kick Alexander Gettler. And while chronicling their poison-sleuthing careers, Blum also teaches quite a bit of science. Her book is a case study in science popularization, and one we should all be paying close attention to. Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and has been a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1997. Prior to that, she spent over a decade working as a science writer for the Sacramento Bee, where her series on ethical issues in primate research, “The Monkey Wars,” won the 1992 Pulitzer. The Monkey Wars also became a book, and since then Blum has written numerous others: A Field Guide for Science Writers, Sex on the Brain, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection, and Ghost Hunters: William James and the Scientific Search for Life After Death. Blum has also written for numerous publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times. She was president of the National Association of Science Writers from 2002-2004, and currently serves on advisory boards to the Council for Advancement of Science Writing and the World Federation of Science Journalists. | 23 4 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBob Carroll - Defining Skepticism | Dr. Robert Todd Carroll is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and author of The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. He is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Sacramento City College, where he taught Logic and Critical Reasoning, Critical Thinking about the Paranormal, Law, Justice and Punishment, and World Religions. He is also author of the textbook Becoming a Critical Thinker. Bob is the creator of the popular website Skepdic.com, which features numerous essays and book reviews, and the Skeptimedia blog where he provides a commentary of media coverage of pseudoscience and the paranormal. But the focus of the site is the original online version of the Skeptic’s Dictionary, containing hundreds of entries on topics ranging from “abracadabra to zombies”. This is the resource for defining skepticism. In this episode, Karen Stollznow talks with Bob about the importance of defining the topics of which we are skeptical. They discuss the inadequacies of existing definitions of paranormal and pseudoscientific subjects, and why it is necessary to counter uncritical bias with explanations that are skeptical. However, the damning evidence (or lack-thereof) usually speaks for itself. Bob reveals the top searches to his site, uncovering the themes that should be of particular concern to skeptics. He explains that his online book is reader-driven, and that user feedback and assistance has molded the shape of this dynamic resource. Even with 600 current entries in this encyclopedia-like dictionary, this is a work-in-progress that will never be finished. Bob discusses skeptical activism, becoming a skeptic, and how to invent your own pseudoscience to learn critical thinking. As a life-long teacher of this topic, Bob explains that critical thinking needs to be taught, but also needs to be learned critically. We discuss how much critical thinking can or should be taught, and how much is a process of self-learning. | 16 4 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEli Kintisch - Is Planet-Hacking Inevitable? | For two decades now, we’ve failed to seriously address climate change. So the planet just keeps warming—and it could get very bad. Picture major droughts, calving of gigantic ice sheets, increasingly dramatic sea level rise, and much more. Against this backdrop, the idea of a technological fix to solve the problem—like seeding the stratosphere with reflective sulfur particles, so as to reduce sunlight—starts to sound pretty attractive. Interest in so-called “geoengineering” is growing, and so is media attention to the idea. There are even conspiracy theorists who think a secret government plan to geoengineer the planet is already afoot. Leading scientists, meanwhile, have begun to seriously study our geoengineering options—not necessarily because they want to, but because they fear there may be no other choice. This week's episode of Point of Inquiry with host Chris Mooney features Eli Kintisch, who has followed these scientists’ endeavors—and their ethical quandaries—like perhaps no other journalist. He has broken stories about Bill Gates’ funding of geoengineering research, DARPA’s exploration of the idea, and recently attended the historic scientific meeting in Asilomar, California, where researchers gathered to discuss how to establish guidelines for geoengineering research. And now, the full story is related in Kintisch’s new book Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope—or Worst Nightmare—for Averting Climate Catastrophe. Eli Kintisch is a staff writer for Science magazine, and has also written for Slate, Discover, Technology Review, and The New Republic. He has worked as a Washington correspondent for the Forward and a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 2005 he won the Space Journalism prize for a series of articles on private spaceflight. He lives in Washington, D.C. | 9 4 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThomas J.J. Altizer - The Death of God | Thomas J.J. Altizer burst onto the religious scene in the 1960s with his book The Gospel of Christian Atheism. He was one of the "Death of God" theologians discussed in the famous TIME cover story, "Is God Dead?" Altzier holds an M.A. in theology and Ph.D. in History of Religions from the Universeity of Chicago. Now 83 years of age, Altizer remains a Young Turk among radical theologians, insisting that only Christians can be true atheists and must proclaim the death of God. In this conversation with Robert Price, Altizer delves into Death of God theology. He explains the difference between saying "There is no God" and "God is Dead." He discusses his interactions with other theologians and what they thought of his work. Altizer gives his opinion of contemporary public atheists and what he likes and dislikes about them. He relates stories from his career involving other thinkers such as Paul Tillich and Mircea Eliade—including a personal "initiation" experience. He explains how he formerly debated evangelical Christians and how Death of God theology can be used when doing so. | 2 4 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - John Dewey and the Real Point of Inquiry | Paul Kurtz is founder and chair emeritus of the Center for Inquiry and founder of a number of other organizations. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for the Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is the author or editor of almost fifty books, including his new title Exuberant Skepticism. Throughout the last four decades, Kurtz has been a leading defender of science and reason against the prevailing cults of irrationality in our society, and has been interviewed widely in the media on a wide range of subjects, including alternative medicine and communication with the dead, to the historicity of Jesus and parapsychology. In this, the third of three special-edition epsiodes featuring D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz discusses American philosopher John Dewey, and explains how his views undergird much of what the Center for Inquiry stands for. He talks about the American school of philosophy called pragmatism, and its central value of testing ideas by their consequences. He explains how active inquiry, even into controversial claims, is key for the educated mind, and why learning how to think is more important than being instructed what to think. He explores Dewey's humanism, and how nature and science should be servants of the human good. He talks about Dewey's optimism and his faith in democracy, in the common person, and in social progress. He explores how for Dewey moral values are objective, but are not absolute, static and unchanging, but that they should be modified in the light of new evidence and situations. And he explains the real value of inquiry and how it may enrich people's lives. | 26 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanScott Lilienfeld - Real Self-Help | Dr. Scott Lilienfeld is Professor of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta. Scott is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a Consulting Editor for Skeptical Inquirer and the Founder and Editor of the CSI journal Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. He’s a regular contributor to Scientific American Mind, and is Psychology Today's Skeptical Psychologist, where he investigates questionable, controversial, and novel claims in psychology. His principal areas of research include evidence-based practices in psychology and the challenges posed by pseudoscience to clinical psychology. In this conversation with Karen Stollznow, Scott discusses his latest book, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Behavior, co-written with Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio and the late Barry Beyerstein. The book treats a staggering 300 urban legends, myths and misconceptions; this is the “Mythbusters” of psychology. Scott explains the difference between psychology and “pop psychology”, which is fraught with what he calls “psychomythology”. He discusses how myths develop and disseminate, and he reports that even the experts can be deceived by these commonly-held beliefs. These myths are unpredictable blends of fact and (mostly) fiction, but as we find out, fact is sometimes even stranger than fiction. Scott busts some surprising myths, and argues for the importance of myth busting. When we believe in these myths there are often real-world consequences, but debunking itself carries risks. He discusses how to counter these myths and the “unsinkable ducks”, and how to critically evaluate future claims as we’re presented with them. Aiming to “demystify psychology”, Scott is an advocate for the effective communication of psychology to the public, and also for science-based psychology. He considers the unreliability of our intuition, gut-feelings and our (not-so) common sense, and how science is “uncommon sense”. Scott admits that human experience makes us all armchair psychologists, and we are all susceptible to Dr. Phil-psychology and self-help books. But self-help is more often hindrance than help. Backed up by science, this book is the real self-help. | 19 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanVictor Stenger - Taking a Stand for Science and Reason | Victor Stenger is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is also founder of Colorado Citizens for Science. He’s held visiting faculty positions at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and at Oxford in the United Kingdom, and has been a visiting researcher at Rutherford Laboratory in England, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati, Italy, and the University of Florence in Italy. Stenger’s search career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics that ultimately led to the current standard model. He participated in experiments that helped establish the properties of strange particles, quarks, gluons, and neutrinos and has also helped pioneer the emerging fields of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. In his last project before retiring, Vic collaborated on the experiment in Japan which showed for the first time that the neutrino has mass. He is the author of many books, including Comprehensible Cosmos, The Unconscious Quantum, Not by Design, Has Science Found God, The New York Times best-seller God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, and The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. In this, the second of three special-edition epsiodes featuring D.J. Grothe, Vic Stenger discusses who the New Atheists oppose: not just anti-science activists, but even those who have faith in God even if they support science to some extent. He explores if science is itself based on faith. He describes ways in which faith may appear to be based on evidence. He compares evidence supporting God's existence coming from the appearance of design in nature with evidence from the sciences suggesting a total lack of design in the universe. He debates which should have priority: science or atheism, and whether learning science will lead to atheism, or if being an atheist will lead to an natural acceptance of the scientific worldview. He defends causing offense to believers in the name of truth, and explores to what extent such an approach may be counter-productive at times. He explores the best ways to "frame" atheism so as to have the most impact. He recounts his appearance on Christian radio, and what it illustrates about communicating atheism and rationalism. He explains why natural explanations for events are better than supernatural explanations. He reveals who the real audience of the New Atheists is. He talks about the growing student freethought and skeptics movement, and why young people are one the target audiences of the New Atheists. He explains why he thinks within mere generations religion will fade away. And he talks about the righteous indignation of the New Atheists, and the moral imperative of atheists to speak out because of the harm resulting from religion. | 16 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAndrew Revkin - The Death of Science Writing, and the Future of Catastrophe | We live in a science centered age—a time of private spaceflight and personalized medicine, amid path-breaking advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology. And we face science centered risks: climate and energy crises, biological and nuclear terror threats, mega-disasters and global pandemics. So you would think science journalism would be booming—yet nothing could be further from the case. If you watch 5 hours of cable news today, expect to see just 1 minute devoted to science and technology. From 1989-2005, meanwhile, the number of major newspapers featuring weekly science sections shrank from 95 to 34. Epitomizing the current decline is longtime New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin, who recently left the paper for a career in academia. In this conversation with host Chris Mooney, Revkin discusses the uncertain future of his field, the perils of the science blogosphere, his battles with climate blogger Joe Romm, and what it’s like (no joke) to have Rush Limbaugh suggest that you kill yourself. Moving on to the topics he’s covered for over a decade, Revkin also addresses the problem of population growth, the long-range risks that our minds just aren’t trained to think about, and the likely worsening of earthquake and other catastrophes as more people pack into vulnerable places. Andrew Revkin was the science and environment reporter for the New York Times from 1995 through 2009. During the 2000s, he broke numerous front page stories about how the Bush administration was suppressing science, and launched the highly popular blog Dot Earth. But last year, Revkin announced he was leaving the Times. He accepted a post as a senior fellow of environmental understanding at Pace University in White Plains, New York, where he will focus on teaching and two new book projects—complementing existing works like The North Pole Was Here, a book about the vanishing Arctic aimed at middle and high schoolers. In his new life, Andy will also have much more time to play with what he dubs his “rustic-rootsy” band, Uncle Wade. | 12 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert J. Miller - The Jesus Seminar | Robert J. Miller is Rosenberger Chair of Christian and Religious Studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. A Fellow of the Jesus Seminar since 1986, he was Scholar-in-Residence at Westar Institute in 2001. He is the of author numerous books, including Born Divine: The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God, The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics, and editor of The Apocalyptic Jesus: A Debate and The Complete Gospels. In this conversation with host Robert Price, Miller discusses his work as a Jesus Seminar scholar. He reveals the unique methods of the Seminar that attracted him to it in the first place and the benefits that he sees in them. He explains the goals of the Jesus Seminar and whether or not they have changed since its beginnings. Miller lists why there has been public confusion regarding the Seminar and how it has affected public opinion of Jesus and the Bible. Miller elaborates on his own research, explaining how religious fundamentalism gets in the way of understanding how early Christians viewed some writings and shows how some New Testament authors altered Old Testament prophecies to fit their needs. He explains why the view of Jesus as an End-Times Prophet is faulty and the implications of that. He also voices his concern for debating fundamentalist scholars and suggests that it might end up lending undue legitimacy. | 5 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Mann - Unprecedented Attacks on Climate Research | For the scientists who study global warming, now is the winter of their despair. In the news, it has been climate scandal after alleged climate scandal. First came “ClimateGate,” then “GlacierGate,” “Amazon Gate,” and so on. In public opinion polls, meanwhile, Americans’ acceptance of the science of global warming appears to be declining. Even a freak snowstorm now seems to sow added doubt about this rigorous body of research. In response to growing public skepticism—and a wave of dramatic attacks on individual researchers—the scientific community is now bucking up to more strongly defend its knowledge. Leading the charge is one of the most frequently attacked researchers of them all—Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann. In this interview with host Chris Mooney, Mann pulls no punches. He defends the fundamental scientific consensus on climate change, and explains why those who attack it consistently miss the target. He also answers critics of his “hockey stick” study, and explains why the charges that have arisen in “ClimateGate” seem much more smoke than fire. Dr. Michael E. Mann is a member of the Pennsylvania State University faculty, and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. His research focuses on the application of statistical techniques to understanding climate variability and change, and he was a Lead Author on the “Observed Climate Variability and Change” chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report. Among many other distinguished scientific activities, editorships, and awards, Mann is author of more than 120 peer-reviewed and edited publications. That includes, most famously, the 1998 study that introduced the so called “hockey stick,” a graph showing that modern temperatures appear to be much higher than anything seen in at least the last thousand years. With his colleague Lee Kump, Mann also recently authored the book Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming. Finally, he is one of the founders and contributors to the prominent global warming blog, RealClimate.org. | 26 2 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanVictor Stenger - The New Atheists | Victor Stenger is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is also founder of Colorado Citizens for Science. He's held visiting faculty positions at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and at Oxford in the United Kingdom, and has been a visiting researcher at Rutherford Laboratory in England, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati, Italy, and the University of Florence in Italy. Stenger’s research career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics that ultimately led to the current standard model. He participated in experiments that helped establish the properties of strange particles, quarks, gluons, and neutrinos and has also helped pioneer the emerging fields of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. In his last project before retiring, Vic collaborated on the experiment in Japan which showed for the first time that the neutrino has mass. He is the author of many books, including Comprehensible Cosmos, The Unconscious Quantum, Not by Design, Has Science Found God, the New York times best-seller God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, and The New Atheists: Standing Up for Science and Reason. In this, the first of three special-edition epsiodes featuring D.J. Grothe, Vic Stenger discusses The New Atheism, contrasting it with the old atheism, in that it is more uncompromising in its critique of religion and God-belief. He defends the view that a soft stand on religion for the sake of science education is unacceptable, because the evils resulting from religion demand a vocal response. He describes his own history as an author critical of the paranormal and how this further fueled his atheism, contending that skepticism of the paranormal may lead to skepticism of religion. He talks about Carl Sagan and Stephen J. Gould, and their reluctance to criticize theism, and argues that sometimes, contra Sagan's famous line, "absence of evidence is evidence of absence." He defends making a positive statement that God does not exist -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- as opposed to merely stating that one lacks belief in God. He wonders if authors Susan Jacoby and Jennifer Michael Hecht should also be considered New Atheists. He describes lines of positive evidence from cosmology, physics, biology and neuroscience that he says necessary leads to a conclusion of atheism. He tells why he doesn't think the battle over evolution education should take priority over the New Atheist's larger war on faith, and why rationalists should not unduly seek the support of religious moderates and religious supporters of science. And he shares his optimism about the growing popularity of vocal, uncompromising atheism, especially among young people. | 24 2 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanIan Rowland - The Cold Hard Facts of Cold Reading | Ian Rowland is a Mentalist and Mind Reader living near London, UK. The world’s foremost authority on cold reading, he is the author of the Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. In this book, Rowland has defined and categorized the different types of psychic readings, and created a taxonomy of cold reading techniques. Rowland was the first person to lecture on cold reading to the Magic Circle and his book has been described as “the definitive work” on the subject by Derren Brown, James Randi, Martin Gardner, Teller, and Banachek. Rowland is a prolific writer and a charismatic lecturer and entertainer who has appeared on television numerous times and performed in many countries around the world. Rowland performs better than the psychics. He convinced an audience he was a psychic medium for ABC’s Primetime, and during a BBC documentary one of his psychic readings was rated as 99.9% accurate. In this conversation with host Karen Stollznow, Rowland explains the history and meaning of cold reading, and how and why it works. He demonstrates how cold reading is a “Win-Win Game” and psychics are “right” even when they’re wrong. He claims that he can replicate any psychic ability. Rowland recounts some of his performances as a psychic, tarot reader, astrologer, and medium, and his “miracles” of spoon bending, psychic surgery, and hammering a nail into his head. Rowland also discusses the practical, non-New Age applications for cold reading, and how these strategies can be used for law enforcement and business, but why they probably shouldn’t be used for romance. A qualified yet reluctant spokesperson for skepticism, Rowland presents his “off-message skepticism”, and shares his opinion of what he thinks the movement is doing right, and what he thinks we are doing wrong. | 19 2 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Offit - The Costs of Vaccine Denialism | Recently, there was another nail in the coffin for vaccine skeptics. The British medical journal The Lancet took the dramatic step of retracting a 1998 paper that lies at the root of modern vaccine denialism. Authored by a doctor named Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues, it was heavily touted as having uncovered a new cause of autism—the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, or, the MMR vaccine. Not so fast. Twelve years later, there are more problems with the paper than you can count—and yet somehow, it managed to spawn a movement. In this conversation with host Chris Mooney, Dr. Paul Offit— author of Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure—discusses the state of the vaccine skeptic movement in light of this latest news. In particular, Offit explores why the tides may be turning on the movement—as well as the grave public health consequences of ongoing vaccine avoidance. Paul A. Offit, MD is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition, Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Offit has published more than 130 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC. Dr Offit was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation, and is the author of five books, the latest of which is Autism’s False Prophets. | 12 2 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBanachek - Mentalism and Skepticism | Banachek is an American mentalist and skeptic. He has written numerous books and invented various magic and mentalism effects, and is often sought out by top entertainers such as David Blaine, Lance Burton, James Randi and Criss Angel. He has been the recipient of a number of awards and recognitions, including the Dave Lederman Memorial Award (Awarded for Creativity in Mentalism) and the Dunninger Memorial Award (Awarded for Distinguished Professionalism in the Performance of Mentalism), both awarded by the Psychic Entertainers Association, as well as the College Campus Novelty Act of the Year, and the Entertainer of the Year on two occasions, all awarded by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities. He is renowned for fooling scientists at Washington University into believing that his supposed psychic abilities were genuine during the Project Alpha hoax in the early 1980s. In 2009, he conducted a preliminary test of psychic claimant Connie Sonne's dowsing ability for the James Randi Educational Foundation's Million Dollar Challenge that was witnessed by hundreds in person at The Amazing Meeting 7 in Las Vegas, NV. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Banachek recounts his origins as a mentalist in South Africa, including how James Randi's books influenced the development of his worldview. He talks about his involvement helping develop Penn and Teller's bullet catch, the current finale to their Las Vegas show. He describes his role in Project Alpha, and explores to what extent he thinks the researchers involved were aware of his and his colleague's deceptions. He details the role that magicians and mentalists may play in informing the public about psychic and other paranormal claims, and describes the virtues of being an open-minded skeptic as opposed to a "debunker." He talks about his role n the James Randi Educational Foundation's Million Dollar Challenge, and recounts his preliminary testing of Connie Sonne's dowsing ability in front of a live audience at The Amazing Meeting 7, in Las Vegas in 2009. Link of interest: http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html | 25 1 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanFrank Schaeffer - Crazy for God | Frank Schaeffer is New York Times best selling author whose books include three semi-biographical novels about life in a strict, fundamentalist household: Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma, and also the memoir Crazy For God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back, which is now out in paper back. His latest book is Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism). In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Frank Schaeffer discusses Crazy for God, describing how he grew up in fundamentalist Christianity with his famous father, Francis Schaeffer, a leading founder of the Religious Right, and recounts his role in his father's career. He details how his relationships were affected by his leaving the movement. He explains exactly how fundamentalist Christianity took over the Republican Party. He describes the anti-democratic and anti-American elements within Evangelical Christianity. He draws a direct line from the worldview promoted by the Religious Right to the Tea Party movement, the rise of Glen Beck and Sarah Palin, the recent murder or Dr. George Tiller, and the use of biblical passages calling for the assassination of President Obama. He shows how the Religious Right actively wants America to fail, in order to prove that it has taken the wrong path in adopting secular, democratic and humanist values. He explores how evangelical "foot soldiers" are often used by secular neoconservatives to advance political aims seemingly unrelated to Christianity, such as energy deregulation and public policies in support of the insurance lobby. He defines secular humanism, and tells how his father at once opposed humanism in his writings such as The Christian Manifesto, even while living a complex, and sometimes deeply humanistic life. Finally, he contrasts and compares the New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, to leaders of the Religious Right, arguing that they are both not only extreme in their views, but also absolutist in their views of fundamental truth. | 5 11 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe 13th Annual CFI Houdini Seance | Harry Houdini, the world-famous magician and debunker of mediums, earnestly explored the religion of spiritualism and communication with the dead after his beloved mother’s death in 1913. In this episode for Halloween 2009, skeptics and former professional magicians Joe Nickell and D.J. Grothe discuss how Houdini's background in magic motivated his debunking of spiritualism. They discuss his religious beliefs. They explore the fraudulent methods of the mediums, including slate writing, the Sprit Trumpet, spirit photography and the use of "ectoplasm." And they conclude their conversation by conducting the Center for Inquiry’s 13th Annual Houdini Seance. | 30 10 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRandy Olson - Dont Be Such a Scientist | Randy Olson is a marine biologist and filmmaker who holds a PhD in biology from Harvard University. A graduate of the U.S.C. Cinema School in 1997, he wrote and directed the movies Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus, and Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. His new book is Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Randy Olson discusses his background as a Harvard-trained scientist and tenured professor and why he changed careers to become a filmmaker. He explains the differences between science education and science communication. He recounts the social changes, beginning in the 1980's, that have harmed science education and the communication of science to the public. He describes the ways that filmmaking is ideal for public science advocacy, and how his films, such as Flock of Dodos, have unexpectedly led to further public engagement with the scientific community. He emphasizes the role of storytelling as the means to best communicate science to the public, and describes how scientific papers are like screenplays. He talks about the Daily Show and the Colbert Report as examples of how serious issues, including scientific controversies, can be communicated to the public in entertaining and engaging ways. He talks about how Stephen J. Gould and Carl Sagan exemplified ways to avoid being "such a scientist," by arousing interest and by being likable. He addresses the stereotypes of scientists as being humorless, stuffy and too literal. He describes the reaction his book has received from the science community. He criticizes the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their disinterest in science activism. He contrasts the community of scientists with other professional learned societies, such as within law or medicine. He examines the responsibility of the public to learn science even despite how effective scientists are at communicating it. And he explores the role of increasingly mainstream anti-science movements in the public's misunderstanding of climate research, evolution, and vaccinations. | 23 10 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDarrel Ray - The God Virus | Dr. Darrel W. Ray is author of three books, two on organizational psychology. He has been a psychologist for over 30 years. After practicing counseling and clinical psychology for 10 years, his focus shifted to organizational psychology and consulting. A longtime student of religion, his latest book is The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Darrel Ray talks about religion being like a virus, elaborating on Richard Dawkins' concept of the meme. He explains why the metaphor of God belief being like a virus of the mind is so useful. He details how religion is communicable, and propagated through vectors, just like biological pathogens, and why the rational "immune system" of children makes them more susceptible to the contagion. He explores why some people are immune to the God virus, and how to inoculate children from it, such as through exposure to many strains of the virus early in life. He describes the role that guilt over sex has in the success of the God virus. He discusses whether there is a skepticism virus, and why he feels atheism is a poor organizing principle, but why humanism is not. And he talks about the New Atheist agenda, and the best ways to engage in "public health measures" to protect people from the God virus. | 16 10 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Mooney - Unscientific America | Chris Mooney is a 2009-2010 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and author of three books, including the New York Times bestselling The Republican War on Science, Storm World, and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Chris Mooney talks about the growing divide between science and society. He contrasts the issues addressed in The Republican War on Science with the current problems facing society as outlined in Unscientific America. He argues for the unique public policy significance of science for society, and why scientific literacy matters more than other kinds of cultural or historical literacy. He discusses the policy relevance of scientific illiteracy in terms of global warming and biotechnology. He talks about the need for scientists to become better communicators to the public. He shares his criticisms of the New Atheists and explains why their attacks against religious moderates works counter to the goal of scientific literacy. He recounts his experiences as an atheist activist while in college, and how his views have changed about campus forethought activism since that time. He explores other underlying causes of scientific illiteracy, including our educational system, the media's dysfunctional treatment of science, and growing anti-science movements such as the climate deniers and vaccine skeptics. And he details concrete actions that science advocates can take in order to increase scientific literacy. | 9 10 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRussell Blackford - 50 Voices of Disbelief | Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Evolution and Technology. His new book, edited with Udo Schuklenk, is 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Russell Blackford explains the need for 50 Voices of Disbelief. He argues that there can be no more important question than whether religion and faith deliver on their promises. He explores whether religion will persist. He contends that religious leaders are not our society's moral leaders. He discusses a number of contributed essays in the 50 Voices collection, such as James Randi's, entitled "A Magician Looks at Religion," which explores how a background in magic may inform one's understanding of religion, and Peter Adegoke's essay, which argues that religion is impeding Nigeria's social, economic and scientific progress. He talks about how the book includes contributions from people all over the world and from every continent, except Antarctica. He discusses essays by Sumitra Padmanabhan and Prabir Ghosh that explore the harms that religion cause in India, and alternatives to religion, such as humanism. He talks about how the diversity of views in the essay collection show that there is "no party-line of atheism." He comments on essays by psychologist and parapsychologist Susan Blackmore ("Giving Up Ghosts and Gods"), and philosopher Philip Kitcher ("Beyond Disbelief"). He discusses recent controversies over CFI's International Blasphemy Day, and opposing views of Paul Kurtz and Ron Lindsay regarding criticism of religion, and whether "moderate religion" should be criticized or viewed as an ally to advance secular, pro-science values. He talks about the relationship between atheism and progressive social values. And he argues that religion should not be allowed to remain private, and therefore beyond public scrutiny and critique. | 2 10 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBen Radford - Skepticism 2.0 | Ben Radford is is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into psychics, ghosts and haunted houses, exorcisms, Bigfoot, lake monsters, UFO sightings, crop circles, and other topics. He is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine and author of Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us, and Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures (with Joe Nickell). He also writes online at LiveScience.com, MediaMythmakers.com and Monsterscience.com. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Ben Radford surveys the current issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which is focused on "Skepticism 2.0" and the future of the skeptical movement. He describes various articles by contributors to the issue such as Daniel Loxton, Jeff Wagg, Karen Stollznow, Blake Smith, Heidi Anderson, Reed Esau, Tim Farley and others. He talks about blogging, podcasts and youtube and the opportunities they present for new skeptical outreach. He explores ways national skeptical organizations can collaborate. He talks about why it is important to build on the important work of skeptical luminaries such as Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, James Randi, Martin Gardner and Joe Nickel, and how to do so. And he also talks about his sacrilegious board game Playing Gods. | 25 9 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGreg Craven - What is the Worst That Could Happen? | Greg Craven is a high school science teacher and climate change activist from Oregon. His new book is What's the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Greg Craven discusses the youtube video on global warming he created that now has nearly 8 million views. He talks about applying game theory to the "decision paralysis" people have surrounding the global warming debate, using a "decision grid." He explores misunderstandings most people have about the nature of science, and whether or not science can provide certainty about important questions facing society. He emphasizes as a starting point the acknowledgement, whether one is a skeptic of global warming or a "panicked activist," that one could be wrong about global warming. He argues that the evidence is not what is most important in the climate change debate, because each side has "evidence" to support its conclusions. He talks about "confirmation bias," and how it makes it difficult to find out the truth about global warming. He explains why it is less important to personally live "green," and why others kinds of social environmentalist activism is more important. He details why America's mobilization in World War II and also modern social networking on the internet are the only two things that give him hope regarding responsibly responding to climate change. | 18 9 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJ.D. Trout - The Science of the Good Society | J.D. Trout is a professor of philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, and an adjunct professor at the Parmly Sensory Sciences Institute. He writes on the nature of scientific and intellectual progress, as well as on the contribution that social science can make to human well-being. He is the author of Measuring the Intentional World, and co-author of Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment. His most recent book is The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, J. D. Trout argues for using science to engineer society in ways that help people overcome their natural cognitive biases. He notes that whether or not we know it, we are always participants in the social experiments, often experiments conducted by unqualified elected officials. He details a number of small experiments that have public policy implications, such as using social science to trick people into keeping hospitals more germ-free, public bathrooms cleaner, and prescriptions from being filled erroneously. He explores the tensions between the unfettered free market and governmental regulation in this regard, and argues that in many cases it is an empirical question as to whether the free market can solve a particular problem. He discusses the anti-vax movement, and the best strategies to adopt in order to overcome suspicions public health measures such as widespread vaccination programs. He argues that the evidence is overwhelming that the general public lacks the cognitive resources to consistently make good decisions about its well-being, and he defends this view from charges that it is "Big Brother." He makes a distinction between the public making good decisions about what priorities to pursue, and good decisions about the means to pursue them. He tells why he thinks the U.S. Government should create something like a House Committee on Social Science, and how such a Committee would offer an alternative to failed "Blue Ribbon" panels such as the Meese Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. He contends that the United States Government should have tax-payer funded "well being programs," similar to countries in Europe, as a public health measure (because happy people are healthier people). He he explains how the Obama Administration is allied with such proposals to use science to better engineer society, because Obama is an "Enlightenment President," who believes in the power of science to transform society for the better. And he describes what science activists can do to advance such an agenda. | 10 9 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJ.D. Trout - The Empathy Gap | J.D. Trout is a professor of philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, and an adjunct professor at the Parmly Sensory Sciences Institute. He writes on the nature of scientific and intellectual progress, as well as on the contribution that social science can make to human well-being. He is the author of Measuring the Intentional World, and co-author of Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment. His most recent book is The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, J. D Trout draws distinctions between empathy and sympathy. He talks about the "empathy gap," which is a set of natural, evolved limits on empathy, and how these limits negatively affect society, such as difficulties people experience when trying to empathize with others who are religiously, culturally or psychologically different from themselves. He talks about how the results of empathy can actually be crippling for an individual. He talks about how we should use new research in the social sciences to overcome the empathy gap. He explores if new social science questions basic capitalistic assumptions of the American Dream and also philosophical concepts, such as free-will. He explains how new social science research supports the Enlightenment outlook. He details a number of well-researched cognitive biases that lead people to make bad decisions, such as the base-rate effect, overconfidence bias, the omission bias, the hindsight bias, and the availability bias, among others. He shares his skepticism that education about cognitive biases, or the adoption of "inside strategies," can diminish the negative effect of such biases. He proposes that society adopt "outside strategies," which is the government or institutions adopting policies and strategies to help the public overcome their cognitive biases, because he argues individuals will not be very successful on their own in counteracting them. And he explores to what extent these kind of institutional or governmental strategies and policies are "social engineering." | 3 9 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJeff Sharlet - The Family | Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor for Harper's and Rolling Stone, and a visiting research scholar at New York University's Center for Religion and Media, where he has taught journalism and religious studies. He is the coauther, with Peter Manseau, of Killing the Buddha, and editor of TheRevealer.org. His latest book, a New York Times bestseller, is The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. In this in-depth interview with D.J. Grothe, Jeff Sharlet explains why secularists should not assume that just because there is a Democrat in the White House it follows that the religious fundamentalists' power has waned. He talks about how a secretive Christian political organization called The Family is founded in a doctrine of "Biblical Capitalism" and the "totalitarianism of Christ" that draws no distinction between religion, economics and politics and he recounts its origins in a supposed revelation from God that attacked organized labor and stated that Christianity has historically been overly focused on the poor, the weak and the suffering. He draws distinctions between the "pulpit pounders and the Bible thumpers" and "the fundamentalist elite," which is exemplified by The Family, which is comprised almost entirely of well-educated, affluent political and business leaders. He describes how The Family organizes Congressman into "private prayer cells," and runs the C Street House, which was made famous through the political sex scandals of Senator John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford. He contrasts organizations like the Heritage Foundation and Christian leaders such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson with The Family, arguing that at least they are open with their agenda, as opposed to the Family, which unapologetically encourages secrecy by working to be "an invisible organization." He describes how The Family's relationship with the powerful is different than groups like Focus on the Family, and explains how their lack of rigid partisan or religious orthodoxy allows them to be more effective. He argues that The Family literally works to subvert democracy, and how the organization celebrates Hitler, Mao and Stalin as being among the few men the 20th Century who actually "understood the New Testament." He reports that The Family acts consistently as an intermediary between US Politicians and military leaders and businessman on the one hand, and overseas dictators such as the Somali dictator Siyad Barre, Ugandan dictator Museveni, and Indonesia dictator Suharto on the other hand, often with disastrous consequences. He details the history and importance of the National Prayer Breakfast to The Family's agenda. He describes ways that writing his expose has resulted in a backlash against him. He lists ways that secularists and progressives can work to reduce the influence of The Family in government. And he reveals a number of elected officials in high office who have ties to The Family, including Republican United States Senators Chuck Grassley, John Ensign, Jim DeMint, James Inhofe, Sam Brownback, and Lindsey Graham; Democratic United States Senator Mark Pryor; South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Former United States Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Ed Meese; and Democratic Congressmen Mike McIntyre and Bart Stupak, among others. | 28 8 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanWilliam Little - The Psychic Tourist | William Little is a freelance journalist based in London, England. He has written for the Saturday Telegraph magazine, Weekend Telegraph, the Guardian, The Times and the Financial Times. He has also worked for Arena, Esquire and Cosmopolitan, and contributed articles to the Independent, the Daily Express and the Big Issue, among many others. His recent book is The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, William Little recounts his experiences researching The Psychic Tourist, including his seminar with Sylvia Browne, meetings with UK mentalist Derren Brown, scientists Richard Dawkins and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Brian Jospehson, attending a psychic college, and his sister's star chart predicting her death. He reveals his motivations writing the book, and talks about how his journalistic approach is different than the approach of some academic skeptics who write for more of an already skeptical audience. He explores what it might say about society if there is such widespread belief in psychics when there is so little evidence to support psychic claims. He contrasts the harm psychics do with how they may help people. He explains why he thinks of psychic belief as "disorganized religion." And he talks about the skeptics he met who weren't cold-hearted, but instead were interested in helping people. Also in this episode, Jim Underdown recounts his experiences with famous psychics making bad guesses, including John Edward and James Van Praagh. | 21 8 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - A Kinder, Gentler Secularism | Paul Kurtz is founder and chair emeritus of the Center for Inquiry and founder of a number of other organizations. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for the Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is the author or editor of almost fifty books, including The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge. Throughout the last four decades, Kurtz has been a leading defender of science and reason against the prevailing cults of irrationality in our society, and has been interviewed widely in the media on a wide range of subjects, including alternative medicine and communication with the dead, to the historicity of Jesus and parapsychology. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz argues against associating secular humanism with atheism and explains whether or not he himself is an atheist. He reviews the history of the word "agnostic," and shows how it "is not a creed but a method." He explains why he is skeptical of the claims of theism. He denies that atheism is a necessary condition of secular humanism. He describes what he considers as the third "categorical imperative." He explains why he considers some atheist activists to be "fundamentalist atheists," arguing that their anti-religious stance stems from "being bruised" by religion. He talks about why he is against CFI's support of the International Blasphemy Day, and why it is "blasphemous to the whole humanist outlook" and is contrary to the "civic virtues of democracy." | 14 8 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBenjamin Wiker - The Darwin Myth | Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and is also a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute. His books include Answering the New Atheism and Ten Books That Screwed Up The World. His Newest is The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Benjamin Wiker talks about his book The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin. He argues that Darwinism is a distortion of evolution, and based on the secular and atheistic influence of the "radical Enlightenment." He shares his skepticism of other historians' accounts of Darwin's anguish over the implications of his views for religious belief. He contends that Darwin was a third-generation religious skeptic, and that he had an atheistic agenda from early in his life. He relates Alfred Russell Wallace's critiques of Darwin's atheistic account of evolution by natural selection, and defends Wallace from the charges of Spiritualism. He compares evolutionists who accept natural selection with neurologists who think neuroscience may or will entirely account for the human self (without a soul), and suggests both views are based on ideology. He explains his motivations to criticize Darwin based on what he argues are the immoral effects of Darwinism in society. He links Nazism, Social Darwinism and eugenics to Darwinism. He talks about abortion in the context of the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. He discusses the "is-ought problem" in philosophy, and the "naturalistic fallacy." He criticizes Darwin's accounts of how human morality may have evolved. And he argues against creationists who reject evolution, even while he himself attacks "evolution by natural selection." | 6 8 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRon Lindsay - International Blasphemy Day | Ronald A. Lindsay is a bioethicist, lawyer, and chief executive officer of the Center for Inquiry. For many years he practiced law in Washington, DC, and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and American University, where he taught jurisprudence and philosophy courses. His new book is Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Ron Lindsay describes CFI's Campaign for Free Expression, and its goals to defend free speech and oppose even self-censorship. He details the pleaseblock.us website, which is a component of the campaign, along with announcing a cartoon contest in honor of the Danish Muslim cartoon controversy of a few years back. He explores the relationship between free expression and free inquiry. He examines the recent controversy surrounding the Yale-published book on the Muslim Cartoon issue, and why the book's editors chose not to include the cartoons in the book. He talks about CFI's sponsorship of International Blasphemy Day, and its aims, which include highlighting blasphemy laws around the world, some of which carry life-sentences or the death penalty. He argues against recent United Nations resolutions against the defamation of religions. He shares details of CFI's "Blasphemy Contest." He defends the strategic utility of organizing people to blaspheme, despite the fact that it may be offensive. And he lists some of the ways listeners can get involved celebrating Blasphemy Day at various Centers for Inquiry throughout North America and around the world. | 31 7 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMark Blumberg - Freaks of Nature | Mark S. Blumberg is Professor and Starch Faculty Fellow at the University of Iowa. His books include The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Behavioral Neuroscience, Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth, and Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, and President of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology. His newest book is Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Mark Blumberg describes how he became interested in "freaks of nature" as a way to question prevailing concepts within biology regarding genes, instincts, and pre-formed abilities. He talks about why he sees genetic determinism as "action at a distance thinking," and why he thinks it is similar to creationist views, and describes both as "magical ways of thinking about nature." He explains epigenetics. He describes how certain non-genetic factors that shape behavior may be inherited from one generation to the next. He discusses "sexual freaks" and sexual ambiguity in nature, and shows how in many ways, it is the norm in nature. He predicts the extinction of creationist thinking, and talks about how freaks of nature are a missed opportunity for those science advocates battling intelligent design and creationism, even as he also criticizes belief in "evolution's design" and "magical genes." He contrasts his views with those of evolutionary psychology as regards brain development. And he responds to notable critics of his views, such as Jerry Coyne. | 24 7 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanZachary Shore - Blunder | Zachary Shore is Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He previously served on the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State. He is the author of What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy, and Breeding Bin Ladens: America, Islam, and the Future of Europe. His most recent book is Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Zachary Shore talks about decision making, both at the personal and international level, and shares reasons even smart people make bad decisions. He describes what the field of history uniquely reveals about the tools needed to avoid decision-making blunders. He details the many ways that people fall into "cognition traps," including "exposure anxiety," "causefusion," "flatview," and "static cling," drawing from examples from individuals, international politics and statecraft, and corporate America. He identifies the various rigid mindsets that cause the cognition traps. And he suggests solutions to avoid blunders in thinking, including increasing one's empathy, imagination, and flexibility. | 16 7 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJames Randi - The Faith Healers | James "The Amazing" Randi is a world-renowned magician, skeptic and investigator of paranormal claims and is a central figure in the founding of the world-wide skeptical movement. Perhaps best known for the One Million Dollar Challenge, in which his educational foundation awards $1,000,000 to anyone who is able to show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Randi has appeared widely in the media, including on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show at least 22 times and he is also a regular on Penn and Teller’s Showtime series, Bullshit! He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the MacArthur Genius Grant, and the American Physical Society's Forum Award for Promoting Public Understanding of the Relation of Physics to Society. He is the author of many books, including The Truth About Uri Geller, Flim-Flam! and The Faith Healers. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, James Randi talks about the future of The Amazing Meeting, his annual popular critical thinking convention in Las Vegas. He also discusses various faith healers he has investigated, and his real motivations in doing so. He talks about the first faith healer he exposed in Toronto as a teenager. He explores reasons why faith healers he has debunked still persist in their TV empires. He shares his views of Ernest Angley. He recounts his expose of Peter Popoff, including Popoff's use of an earpiece to receive information about his congregants that they believed was revealed by the Holy Spirit. He explains why people believe in faith healers despite evidence to the contrary. Other faith healers he criticizes include Pat Robertson and his "Words of Knowledge," V.A. Grant, Oral Roberts, and Filipino psychic surgeons, recounting some of their deceptive methods they use to beguile believers. He talks about the special place "psychic surgery" has in the Pentecostal Church. He compares faith healers' methods to the methods of psychics and "cold readers" such as John Edward, and explores whether faith healers are deliberately deceptive or are merely self-deceptive. He also debates whether faith healing might actually work on occasion, due to psychological phenomena such as the placebo effect. And he talks about the role that magicians should play in exposing frauds in the public interest. Also in this interview, James Underdown, scientific paranormal investigator and executive director of CFI's Hollywood branch, recounts his experiences with Benny Hinn's healing crusades, and talks about how Benny Hinn may or may not be like Adolph Hitler. | 10 7 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAyaan Hirsi Ali - The Caged Virgin | Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali came to the Netherlands as a refugee. She earned her M.A. in political science and worked for the Dutch Labor party. She has served as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West. She was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and by Reader's Digest as "European of the Year." She is the author of The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam, and the acclaimed Infidel. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Ayaan Hirsi Ali recounts opportunities that have allowed her to become emancipated from Islam, emphasizing that every woman in Islamic societies can likewise work against oppression and "have faith in reason." She talks about how 9-11 was a turning point in her "gradual process of enlightenment" to renounce Islam. She explains why she rejects Islam and all religions, even while recognizing that religion has some positive characteristics. She draws distinctions between favorable concepts of God in Judaism or Christianity versus destructive concepts of God within Islam. She argues that Islam, unlike Christianity and Judaism, is not a just a religion, but is a political ideology at its core, and that it is fundamentally incompatible with liberal democracies. She contends that anyone who cares about the freedom of individuals should work to "defeat Islam." She recounts how gay rights figured prominently in her initial decision to speak out and write as a Muslim apostate. She explores why Islam needs its own Voltaire, and why it has been so difficult for Islam to have its own Reformation or Enlightenment. She shares examples from the Koran that demand from Muslims complete submission, even at the expense of one's empathy and conscience. She talks about reform movements within Islam, including Bahá'í, the followers of Āgā Khān, and Ahmadiyya, and why they have failed to moderate the core political ideology of the Muslim faith. She talks about every individual Muslim is commanded in the Koran both to do good and to punish evil, and the implications of this doctrine for the rule of law in society. She talks about why liberal reinterpretation of religious texts is easier in Christianity and Judaism than within Islam. She discusses her own experience of female genital mutilation, and how the practice is used to enforce the dogma of virginity. She compares and contrasts female genital mutilation with male circumcision, and argues that both practices -- cutting into the bodies of children based on religious belief -- should be stopped. She talks about her involvement in slain director Theo van Gogh's movie Submission, which focused on how Islam harms women. She defends 17-year old Rifqa Bary's decision to convert from Islam to Christianity, even though in Ayaan Hirsi Ali's view it is just going "from one superstition to another." She expresses outrage at the death threats and other reactions from the Muslim community to Bary's decision. And she explains how situations like Bary's and Van Gogh's murder, along with the death threats that she has received, only motivate her to speak out more, because "it is a worse kind of death to be alive but to be silenced." | 2 7 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - Secular Humanism versus . . . Atheism? | Tom Flynn is Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry, many addressing church-state issues, as well as the best-selling The Trouble With Christmas, about which he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly “anti-Claus.” He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novels, Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred. His latest work, The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America’s fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Tom Flynn talks about his new role as Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and the relationship of that organization with the Center for Inquiry, including contrasting the Council's grassroots network of secular humanist and freethought societies with the growing network of Centers for Inquiry throughout North America. He describes the Council's and CFI's new jointly sponsored Campaign for Free Expression. He explores the philosophical underpinnings of the Council for Secular Humanism, which includes advocating for and defending a nonreligious life stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy and humanist ethics. He criticizes the impulse among some secularist activists to avoid the term "atheism," because secular humanism presumes atheism, and he argues that secular humanists should "come out" as atheists. He explains why secularist or science activists in the political arena who strategically avoid the term "atheist" may appear to be disingenuous. But then he contrasts secular humanism with atheism, arguing that "atheism is just the beginning." He details new survey results showing that the fastest growing cognitive minority group and the only life-stance minority group that has grown over the last eight years in all fifty States is the nonreligious, and argues that between 8-10% of the U.S. population are "hard seculars," those who are explicitly atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, as opposed to people who are merely "unchurched." He explores the possibility of more elected officials "coming out" as atheists and secular humanists, and more atheists and secular humanists getting elected to public office. And he details some factors he thinks will indicate in the near future that secular humanism and atheism have become more widely acceptable in our society. | 26 6 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter Singer - The Life You Can Save | Peter Singer has been called "the world’s most influential living philosopher," by The New Yorker and Time Magazine listed him in “The Time 100,” their annual listing of the world’s 100 most influential people. He is DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne. He writes a regular column for Free Inquiry magazine, and is the author of dozens of books, including Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, and Animal Liberation (which has sold more than a half million copies), Writings on an Ethical Life, One World: Ethics and Globalization, The President of Good and Evil (about George W. Bush), and The Way We Eat. His most recent book is The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Peter Singer details how twenty-six thousand children die each day of preventable diseases and poverty worldwide, and contrasts this toll with the public's moral outrage over the blackest days in our history, such as 9/11/2001. He talks about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth regarding the poor, and questions why most Christians today have seemed not to make ending world poverty a priority, instead focusing on issues such as abortion and homosexuality, which are not mentioned by Jesus. Singer argues that when people in affluent societies value even small luxuries more highly than saving the lives of the world's poor, that it is morally equivalent to standing by when one could easily save someone from drowning. He says that "if you're not doing something serious to end world poverty, that you're not living an ethical life." He suggests that much philanthropy, such as charitable giving to the arts, should be less of a priority than fighting world poverty. He recommends various aid organizations that merit financial support, such as Oxfam International, and highlights GiveWell, whose purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of other aid organizations. He suggests that it is often more efficient for private organizations to administer aid than it is for governments to provide poverty relief. He argues against various challenges to his position: that giving to the poor may foster their dependence, that charity should begin at home, that the poor deserve their lot, and that our lack of concern about the world's poor may be a natural function of our evolved human nature to care primarily about our own kin. He argues that while his ethics is informed by the worldview based in the sciences and Darwinism, that it is not derived from Darwinism, and he argues against "Social Darwinism," and "the survival of the fittest." He explores the strategic implications that the demanding nature of his ethics has for its more widespread adoption in society. He talks about the meaning and sense of purpose that fighting to end world poverty may create in one's life. And he expresses the hope that skeptical and nonreligious people will become more motivated to fight world poverty, even without religious incentives, and that they will become part of a new culture of giving. | 19 6 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Clark - Scientific Naturalism and the Illusion of Free Will | Tom Clark is director of the non-profit Center for Naturalism and author of Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses. He writes on science, free will, consciousness, addiction and other topics, and maintains Naturalism.org, an extensive resource on worldview naturalism. He is also moderator for the monthly philosophy café at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Tom Clark discusses the implications of a thorough-going scientific naturalism for the concepts of the self and of free will. He contrasts "contra-causal free will" with kinds of political or social freedom, and argues that the former is a vestige of outmoded religious or dualistic thinking. He talks about compatibilism, and how he can be a skeptic of free will while also prizing personal freedom, how determinism can be compatible with certain kinds of free will. He explores what these implications of scientific naturalism might actually mean for criminal justice, and how rejecting concepts of free-will may empower society to be more humanistic and to solve social ills more effectively. And he talks about the growth of skepticism about free will, both in the academic scientific communities and in the skeptic and freethought world. | 11 6 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRay Hyman - The Elusive Quarry | Ray Hyman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon and one of the leading figures of modern skepticism. He was a founding member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP). He has been a consultant with the U.S. Department of Defense, helping investigate parapsychology for the government and is the author of many books, such as The Elusive Quarry, and many articles in the scholarly literature, such as his popular manuscript that teaches people how to appear to have psychic powers by using "cold reading." A former magician and mentalist, he has been featured on the cover of The Linking Ring, the magazine of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Hyman was a co-recipient of the 2005 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and also CSI's In Praise of Reason Award. For almost 20 years, he has run the popular Skeptics Toolbox, which trains rationalists in the best methods of advancing skepticism in our society. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Ray Hyman recounts the history of his many critiques of the various Ganzfeld Experiments, which are scientific tests of psychic ability. He details his assessments of the later "Auto Ganzfeld experiments." He shares his evaluations of other various research projects in parapsychology, and levels criticism against some skeptics who have too hastily dismissed parapsychology's findings. He talks about his beginnings as a magician-debunker, and as a mentalist, and how he got involved in applying magic to his skeptical investigation of parapsychological claims. He explores whether or not the government should make fortune-telling illegal. He explains how leading scientists can believe in the claims of parapsychology, even without sufficient evidence. He describes some of his experiences with Uri Geller. He talks about the ethical implications of teaching non-magicians the art of cold-reading. He reveals ethical problems he has had with the Psychic Entertainers Association, and how giving psychic readings may cause real harm to clients. And he talks about how he may disagree with James Randi as regards the usefulness of magicians in conducting psychic research. | 4 6 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSusan Sackett - The Secular Humanism of Star Trek | Susan Sackett began an association with Gene Roddenberry, creator of the television legend “Star Trek,” serving as his personal executive assistant for over 17 years until his death in October 1991. She also served as his production assistant on the first Star Trek film and worked closely with him on the next five Star Trek movies. In addition, she served as Production Associate during the first five seasons of the television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” She is the author of 10 books about the film and television industry. In 1994, Susan left California and relocated to Arizona, where she got involved with the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, for which she has been president since 2000. Since 2005, she has been on the Board of Directors of the American Humanist Association, and currently serves on the Executive Committee as Secretary. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Susan Sackett recounts her history with Gene Roddenberry and the influence he had on her, especially regarding the development of her secular humanist worldview. She talks about Roddenberry's unshakable optimism about humanity's future, and how that was expressed in his creative efforts. She discusses social justice and political messages written into the original 1960's Star Trek series, such as racial and gender equality, and allegories about the United States' involvement in Vietnam. She talks about explicitly secular humanist themes throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically in episodes like Who Watches the Watchers. She debates other topics addressed within the various Star Trek series, such as distribution of wealth, overpopulation, and the end of the nation-state, and whether or not there was a Marxist bias in the shows. And she reveals her favorite Star Trek episode, and why it is her favorite. | 29 5 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Shermer - Science, Skepticism and Libertarianism | Michael Shermer is one of the most well-known skeptics in America, working for decades to advance the scientific outlook in society. He is a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Scientific American, and is the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech. Since his founding of the Skeptics Society in Southern California and Skeptic magazine, he has appeared widely on TV and radio on shows such as 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Oprah, Unsolved Mysteries, and many more. He is the author of many books, including Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, and Why People Believe Weird Things. His most recent book is The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Michael Shermer discusses skepticism and its possible relationship to libertarianism. He argues that what some organizations define as "humanism" are actually positions that have nothing to do with humanism, but with Marxism and social democracy. He talks about why he has begun speaking out more about libertarianism as a leader in the skeptical movement. He admits that he may be more of a moderate libertarian than some others who defend that political and economic perspective. He talks about tensions within libertarianism as regards national defense, and what he sees as the need for national armies after 9-11. He explains which came first for him: libertarianism or skepticism, and talks about the influence of Ayn Rand on his intellectual development. He argues that Ayn Rand is still relevant even if her view of human nature (that people are basically selfish and that there is no such thing as altruism) upon which her economic theories are based is not born out by recent developments in cognitive and evolutionary psychology. He talks about Adam Smith, and how this year is the 250th anniversary of his first book, A Theory of Moral Sentiments, which presents his views regarding people's natural propensity for empathy and sympathy. He defends free market capitalism despite what some consider recent wholesale failures of the market, and criticizes Alan Greenspan's betrayal of free market ideals. He attacks the current economic system which engages in corporate welfare and "economic tribalism" for being "capitalist in profits but socialist in losses." Other topics he touches on include the gold standard, tax revolt anarchism, income redistribution, and how he would prefer religion and the private sector to help the poor as opposed the government providing for the welfare of the economically disadvantaged. He defends the growing disparity between the super rich and the very poor, and the position that most poor people in the West deserve their lot in life due to their own bad decisions. He talks about his book The Mind of the Market and why people believe weird things about money. He explores the implications of the burgeoning fields of behavioral economics and neuroeconomics for his libertarian position. He describes the basic elements of evolutionary economics, a field he has pioneered. And he defends the position that skepticism should not remain apolitical — instead, he argues that skeptics should apply their skepticism to religion and God, pseudoscience and the paranormal, and also economics and politics. | 22 5 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDale McGowan - Raising Freethinkers | Dale McGowan has edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents. He writes the secular parenting blog The Meming of Life, teaches nonreligious parenting seminars across the United States, and serves as executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a 501(c)(3) humanist charitable and educational foundation based in Atlanta. In September 2008 he was named Harvard Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Dale McGowan talks about raising freethinking children who are steeped in the values of science and humanism. He confronts some of reasons why some nonreligious parents may continue to raise their children in a religion, including moral education, identity and community. He describes trends within the scientific rationalist and humanist movements to provide secular community, which he argues are being driven by freethinking families. He talks about ways that church is increasingly becoming replaced by secular communities, and how churches are increasingly becoming more like secular community centers, as opposed to worship centers. He argues that raising freethinkers is the opposite of indoctrinating children in atheism, secular humanism or skepticism, emphasizing that "freethinking" is an approach to knowledge as opposed to a worldview. He also argues that parenting should not be focused on the value of inquiry and scientific skepticism, but on wonder, mystery and awe. He talks about the dangers of inculcating elitism among freethinking children. He explains why teaching about religion to freethinking children is important. He addresses ways of confronting death and the meaning of life with freethinking children, including how highly unlikely it is that any of us even exist. He talks about alternatives to lying to children about heaven, including facts from physics about the atoms in our bodies having existed since the beginning of the universe, and how such scientific truths may take on mystical pantheistic meanings. He talks about new social science research on happiness, and how it relates to and informs secular parenting. And he cautions that applying the best social science to parenting shouldn't mean that we make our children our next science project. Also in this episode, Michael Blanford, founder of the Skeptical Society of St. Louis and coordinator for the Life Science Lab for the St. Louis Science Center, shares an audio essay about the awe of science for children and why freethinkers should be more emotionally engaged when celebrating evolution as the story of life. | 14 5 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid Koepsell - Who Owns You? | David Koepsell is an author, philosopher, and attorney whose recent research focuses on the nexus of science, technology, ethics, and public policy. He is Assistant Professor, Philosophy Section, Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management at the Technology University of Delft, in The Netherlands, andSenior Fellow, 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology, The Netherlands. He is also the author of The Ontology of Cyberspace: Philosophy, Law, and the Future of Intellectual Property, as well as numerous scholarly articles on law, philosophy, science, and ethics. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, David Koepsell discusses the implications of corporations patenting parts of the human genome, and how current patent practices negatively impact basic scientific research in genetics. He reviews the history of the practice of patenting genes and contrasts private ownership of gene sequences found in nature with that of the public ownership of the work of the Human Genome Project. He contrasts discovery with invention, and argues that patents should apply only to the latter. He details the relationship of human genes being patented with the practices of big agribusiness owning engineered crops, such as Monsanto's "terminator corn." He discusses the ACLU's recent lawsuit against Myriad Genetics on behalf of scientists and cancer patients, and how it may lead to one of the most important legal battles in the history of biotechnology. He talks about "upstream" and "downstream" patents, and how this impacts genetic research. And he discusses various solutions currently proposed for the problems resulting from private ownership of naturally occurring gene sequences. | 8 5 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJeff Schweitzer - Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life in a Random World | Dr. Jeffrey Schweitzer is an author, scientist and public speaker who has traveled widely speaking to varied groups about the application of the scientific worldview to public policy and ethical questions. He has published more than one hundred articles in an eclectic range of fields, including neurobiology, marine science, international development, environmental protection, and even aviation. He formerly served as assistant director for international affairs in the Clinton White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a featured blogger on Huffington Post. His new book is Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life in a Random World. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Jeffrey Schweitzer argues that adopting the scientific view of human origins has implications for understanding that morality is a consequence of our biology. He argues that religion puts humanity on a pedestal, and why that is dangerous. He contends that religion has failed to morally guide humanity, and he attacks religion for impeding the moral development of humanity and for causing much human suffering. He explains that religion results from fear of death, an attempt to understand the universe, achieve social cohesion and political power, and an attempt to control our fate by appealing to gods. But he argues that in the age of science, these reasons are no longer compelling. He denies that science has become a religion in itself. He explores if and how religion and science ask different questions, and if science can answer the existential questions that religion attempts to answer. He argues that life has no ultimate meaning, and that he derives this fact from science, while denying that this leads to nihilism. He discusses existentialism and contrasts it with his scientific worldview. He argues against the concept of free will as a false concept of religion, and discusses the implications this has for moral responsibility. He talks about the biological component to human morality, and defends his position from the charge of moral relativism, while admitting a kind of cultural relativism. He discusses Social Darwinism, and distinguishes core values from social values that progress over time. He explains components of his moral view, and compares his view with scientific or secular humanism. And he suggests that humanity is at a crossroads where our continued survival is uncertain, and describes the kind of behaviors consistent with a natural ethic that may be key to humanity's surviving the future. | 30 4 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - Science and the Limits of the New Skepticism | Paul Kurtz is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry and a number of other organizations. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for the Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is the author or editor of almost fifty books, including The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge. Throughout the last four decades, Kurtz has been a leading defender of science and reason against the prevailing cults of irrationality in our society, and has been interviewed widely in the media on subjects ranging from alternative medicine and communication with the dead, to the historicity of Jesus and parapsychology. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz discusses the rationale for changing the name of CSICOP to the Committee of Skeptical Inquiry. He argues that the organized skeptical movement should apply the methods of scientific and skeptical inquiry to religion, and not just to paranormal claims, and he contrasts this approach with a direct atheistic assault on belief in God. He argues that while skepticism is essential to science, that the skeptical movement should promote the application of the methods of scientific inquiry into politics and economics, and talks about how divisive this may be within the skeptical movement. He considers whether political and economic questions are as amenable to critical thinking and skeptical inquiry as are paranormal claims. He talks about global warming and the extent to which the scientific community should be attentive to "global warming skeptics." He explains why he is cautious of certainty, contrasting certain knowledge with reliable knowledge, and recounts examples in the history of science when widely believed scientific theories were overturned by a small minority of new theorists. He talks about political and economic views he once held that he no longer holds. He contrasts skeptical inquiry with the classical skepticism of ancient Greece and Rome. And he argues that the new skepticism is not negative nor nay-saying, but rather is an affirmative and constructive philosophical worldview. | 23 4 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBruce M. Hood - Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable | Bruce M. Hood is chair of the Cognitive Development Center in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol. He was a research fellow at Cambridge and has been a visiting scientist at MIT and professor at Harvard. Hood has received many awards for his work in child development and cognitive neuroscience. His newest book is Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Bruce M. Hood explains how his agenda is different than the common skeptical agenda to disprove supernatural claims, and instead is an attempt to explain why people believe hold such beliefs in the first place. He argues that everyone is born with a "supersense," an instinct to believe in unseen forces and to recognize patterns and infer their causation, citing examples such as seeing Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, or the case of the "haunted scrotum." He explains how this supersense is universal, and that even skeptics and rationalists often exhibit it in their lives through rituals and the owning certain valued possessions, such as Richard Dawkins' prizing of objects once owned by Charles Darwin or MIT growing saplings from the tree under which Newton first discovered the laws of gravity. He details how rituals give a perceived sense of control to believers, and how they may actually affect a believer's performance. He talks about the "secular supernatural," contrasting it with the "religious supernatural." He argues against Daniel Dennett's and Richard Dawkins's thesis that religious belief results primarily from indoctrination in childhood. And he defends the position that unbelievable beliefs serve important social functions. | 16 4 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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ExplicitMary Roach - Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex | Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Her writing has appeared in Salon, Wired, National Geographic, New Scientist, and the New York Times Magazine. Her latest book is Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Mary Roach reveals why she looks to science rather than to religion for answers about death and sex, and why she is interested in such topics in the first place. She talks about the history of sex research, including Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomical explorations of coitus, as well as 19th century sex research connected to fertility and STDs. She talks about religious opposition to scientific research of human sexuality, and how it affects funding. She describes some on Alfred Kinsey's research that showed the diversity of sexual activity in the United States. She details various scientific attempts to improve human sexuality, including grafting additional testicles on men, or surgically relocating women's clitorises. She explores the role of the placebo effect in certain sexual cures, such as for impotence or increased arousal. And she talks about the link between sexual satisfaction and overall happiness. | 9 4 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDacher Keltner - Born to Be Good | Dacher Keltner is professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, director of the Greater Good Science Center, and coeditor of Greater Good magazine. His research focuses on the prosocial emotions, such as love, sympathy and gratitude, and processes such as teasing and flirtation that enhance bonds. He has conducted empirical studies in three areas of inquiry: the determinants and effects of power, hierarchy and social class; the morality of everyday life, and how we negotiate moral truths in teasing, gossip, and other reputational matters; and the biological and evolutionary basis of the benevolent affects, including compassion, awe, love, gratitude, and laughter and modesty. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Dacher Keltner explores the evolutionary origins of human goodness, challenging the view that humans are hardwired to pursue self-interest and to compete. Based on his studies of human emotion, he argues instead that survival is not a matter of who is the fittest, but perhaps who is the kindest -- that people may have compassion built into their brains, nervous systems, and genes. He talks about the influence of Charles Darwin on his work studying human emotions. He elaborates on Darwin's position that sympathy is our strongest evolved instinct, and what everyday behaviors such as smiling, shrugging, and hand-shakes tell us about the conditions of our deep evolution as primates. He talks about how he is taking the Darwinian approach of looking at moment by moment expressions of emotion and asking how these emotions shape a meaningful life. He explains why he looks to science, as well as to secular Eastern philosophy such as Confucianism, for answers about a meaningful life, rather than to Western religions. He describes his concept of the Jen ratio, and how it relates to the neuroscience of happiness. And he explains what the scientific study of positive emotions and activities such as smiling, laughter, teasing, touching, love, gratitude and awe may suggest about happy marriages, well-adapted children, and healthy communities. | 3 4 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAustin Dacey - The U.N. and Defamation of Religions | Austin Dacey serves as a respresentative to the United Nations for CFI, and is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times and USA Today. His new book is The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Austin Dacey details his trip to Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of the Center for Inquiry's UN mission. He describes the UN lobbying efforts of the Center and its response to the United Nations Human Rights Council's resolution "Combatting the Defamation of Religions." He explains that despite legitimate concerns about stereotyping Muslims or racial profiling, this resolution equates any criticism or satire of religious beliefs with bigotry. He contrasts Europe's position on free speech with the United States' and how it is used by Islamic countries to justify their blasphemy laws, which often carry mandatory sentences of death or life in prison. He talks about how the Organization of the Islamic Conference at the United Nations aims to build into international human rights such legal standards that actually outlaw offensive speech against religions. And he argues that what should be protected under international human rights laws are individuals, and not ideas — that persons should be protected from harm and discrimination, as opposed to ideologies being protected from being criticized or satirized. | 27 3 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - The Pluto Files | Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, director of the world-famous Hayden Planetarium, a monthly columnist for Natural History, and an award-winning author. Tyson is also the host of NOVA ScienceNOW and a frequent guest on The Daily Show and Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and television documentaries on the universe. His latest book is The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Neil deGrasse Tyson recounts recent discoveries in astronomy, including methane on Mars and its possible implications, and questions regarding dark matter and dark energy. He explains how ignorance is seductive for the scientist. He details his involvement in the controversy regarding the status of Pluto, and the role of the Hayden Planetarium in the international debate over solar system nomenclature. He describes wether teaching the controversy over Pluto's status is helpful in teaching astronomy, and how this compares to the "teaching the controversy" argument regarding evolution versus intelligent design creationism. And he shares his views about the best ways to teach the solar system to students, by comparing and contrasting objects in the solar system and how they relate to each other. | 20 3 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAngie McQuaig - Camp Inquiry | Angie McQuaig is a distinguished educator whose PhD is in educational leadership. Dr. McQuaig has served for nineteen years in public education as a teacher and administrator both in the US and abroad. She is currently chief academic officer in a professional development company that trains teachers on exemplary pedagogy. Dr. McQuaig is the education advisor on the steering committee of Science Debate Inc. and Director of Camp Inquiry, an educational program for youth emphasizing humanistic, scientific, and critical thinking. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Angie McQuaig talks about Camp Inquiry, the Center for Inquiry's summer youth camp. She explains the camp's mission, and how it aims to encourage humanistic, scientific and critical thinking among young people. She contrasts the mission of Camp Inquiry with religious summer camps like Jesus Camp. She explains the process of critical inquiry that is emphasized at Camp Inquiry, and argues against "secularist indoctrination." She recounts how campers at Camp Inquiry come from many different backgrounds, including religious backgrounds. And she details the various kinds of activities teacher-counselors and children engage in at Camp Inquiry, including magic, games, science experiments, workshops, skeptical investigations and secular ethical inquiry. | 13 3 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEric Maisel - The Atheists Way | Eric Maisel, PhD, is the author of more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction. His nonfiction titles include Coaching the Artist Within, Fearless Creating, The Van Gogh Blues, The Creativity Book, Performance Anxiety, Ten Zen Seconds, A Writer’s San Francisco, and A Writer’s Paris. A columnist for Art Calendar magazine, Maisel is a creativity coach and creativity coach trainer who presents keynote addresses and workshops nationally and internationally. His new book is The Atheist's Way: Living Well Without Gods. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Eric Maisel addresses atheists who don't always find it easy to live as atheists, as well as religious believers who have doubts. He describes how the atheistic scientific worldview offers more advantages than the religious perspective. He encourages an understanding of the "tradition of atheism," and explains how to derive inspiration from it. He talks about how new atheists may cope with the loss of their church communities, even when they satisfy important human needs. He details the "main problem" for atheists, which he argues is making meaning in an indifferent universe. He talks about the importance of the atheist actively self-creating, being the hero of her own story, defending a radical individualism. He talks about existential depression that atheists may experience, and ways to respond to this nihilism and ultimate meaninglessness in the universe. And he defends the position that each atheist should be an "active moral philosopher," and "make his own ethics." | 6 3 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJerry A. Coyne - Why Evolution Is True | Jerry A. Coyne has been a professor at the University of Chicago in the department of ecology and evolution for twenty years. He specializes in evolutionary genetics and works predominantly on the origin of new species. He is a regular contributor to The New Republic, the Times Literary Supplement, and other publications. His most recent book is Why Evolution Is True. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Jerry Coyne talks about extent and breadth of the evidence for evolution and how the reasons for believing in evolution are not as clearly argued in today's textbooks as they were fifty years ago. He contends that professional evolutionists may take evolution on faith, or on the authority of their intellectual forerunners. He explains how evolution is both a theory and a fact. He details the various kinds of evidence for evolution, including evidence from the fossil record, molecular biology, embryology, the existence of vestigial organs, biogeography, and from bad design. He explores how Darwin discovered evolution by natural selection without the evidence from the fossil record. He explains how sexual reproduction is the key to evolution, and talks about sexual selection. He discusses the Intelligent Design movement and exactly how many scientists are actually proponents of ID. He lists some genuine controversies within evolution, and states that they are indeed taught in the schools. He discusses the relationship of belief in evolution to disbelief in God. And he explains why he feels the need, as a scientist, to publicly speak out in defense of Darwinism. | 26 2 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNorm Allen - Skepticism and Black History | Norm Allen is executive director of African Americans for Humanism, an educational organization primarily concerned with fostering critical thinking, ethical conduct, church-state separation, and skepticism toward untested claims to knowledge among African Americans. He is the editor of the ground-breaking book African-American Humanism: An Anthology, AAH Examiner, and Deputy Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has traveled and lectured widely throughout North America, Europe, and Africa and his writings have been published in scores of newspapers throughout the U.S. He has spoken on numerous radio and television programs and his writings have appeared in such books as Culture Wars and the National Center for Science Education’s Voices for Evolution. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Norm Allen discusses black history in the context of science and secularism. He talks about the Senegalese physicist Cheikh Anta Diop, and his humanistic views which were coupled with his science advocacy. He talks about Charles Drew, and his influence on setting up the first blood banks, as well as urban legends that have developed around him. He talks about the pseudoscience of supposed alternative medicine cures for AIDS, and their prominence in the black community. He talks about other black scientists and freethought figures, and defends the argument for the need for a "Black History Month." He describes the need for skepticism in the black community, focusing on how the black media covers psychics and belief in prophecy, citing examples of Tony Brown and Montel Williams. He also details some of the current black leaders in the skeptical movement, recounting the first African skeptical conference that he attended last year in Senegal. | 19 2 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRonald A. Lindsay - The Future of The Center for Inquiry | Ronald A. Lindsay is a bioethicist, lawyer, and chief executive officer and senior research fellow of the Center for Inquiry. For many years he practiced law in Washington, DC, and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and American University, where he taught jurisprudence and philosophy courses. His new book is Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Ron Lindsay recounts his nearly thirty year history with the organization, including his role in a landmark legal case in Alabama regarding the question of whether or not secular humanism is a religion, elaborating on how the argument has been used since by the religious right. He describes the relationship of the "family of organizations" at the Center for Inquiry, including the Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP), giving their histories. He talks about Paul Kurtz' inspiring and foundational role in all of these organizations and in the worldwide movements that they support. And he talks about why it is more important now than ever to get involved at the grassroots to advance the scientific and secular values of the Center for Inquiry, even with President Obama in the White House, highlighting concerns he has with Obama's positions on a number of issues. | 12 2 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid J Linden - The Accidental Mind | David J. Linden, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage in the brain, among other topics. He has a longstanding interest in scientific communication and serves as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. In this broad discussion with D.J. Grothe, David Linden challenges widespread beliefs about the brain, such as that people only use ten percent of it and that it is amazingly designed, arguing instead that the brain is "accidental." He talks about why, as a brain scientist, he writes about topics such as love, God and sexual orientation. He describes the downsides of how the brain has evolved by including systems from previous brain "models," and how this has given rise to those qualities that most profoundly shape our human experience. He discusses the neuron, and how it is a "lousy processor of information," describing how evolution has nonetheless used it to build "clever us." He talks about how our brains have constrained us, and may have physically led to the necessity of marriage, family and long childhoods. He surveys various claims regarding the enhancement of our cognitive capacities, such as playing Mozart to babies in utero, vitamins, smart drugs, mental exercises, and physical exercise. He talks about the brain science of homosexuality. And he argues that the brain has evolved to make everyone a "believer," describing the similarities between belief in science and in religion, that both are similar "branches of the same cognitive stream." | 6 2 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn W. Loftus - Why I Became an Atheist | John W. Loftus earned M.A. and M.Div. degrees in theology and philosophy from Lincoln Christian Seminary under the guidance of Dr. James D. Strauss. He then attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he studied under Dr. William Lane Craig and received a Th.M. degree in philosophy of religion. Before leaving the church, he had ministries in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, and taught at several Christian colleges. Today he still teaches as an adjunct instructor in philosophy at Kellogg Community College and has an online blog devoted to "debunking Christianity." His new book is Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, John Loftus discusses his background as an Evangelical Christian preacher and apologist and what led to his rejection of the faith, including both emotional loss and "lovelessness in the church," and also philosophical arguments and historical evidence that caused him to doubt. He critiques the Christian illusion of moral superiority. He challenges religion with what he calls the "outsider test." He explores whether logic and reason led to his atheism, or followed only after he adopted an atheistic point of view for emotional reasons. And he explains what he does believe in now that he no longer believes in Christianity or God, and the benefits he thinks this new worldview brings him. | 30 1 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanKendrick Frazier - The Skeptical Inquirer | Kendrick Frazier has been the editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine for over 30 years. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the American Geophysical Union. In 2005, Frazier was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for "distinguished contributions to the public understanding of science through writing for and editing popular science magazines that emphasize science news and scientific reasoning and methods." He is the author of a number of books, including The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, Encounters With the Paranormal: Science, Knowledge, and Belief, and Paranormal Borderlands of Science. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Kendrick Frazier discusses his long association with CSI (formerly CSICOP) and with Skeptical Inquirer magazine and explores the meanings of skeptical inquiry, both as ordinary common sense and as being continuous with science. He contrasts the paranormal with science, and explains why the paranormal was the initial focus of CSICOP. He explores debates within the skeptical community, such as whether or not belief in the paranormal is diminishing, and to what extent the movement has been successful. He talks about the breadth of claims currently dealt with at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, including both popular paranormal claims and more controversial scientific and scholarly subjects. He talks about three recent issues of Skeptical Inquirer focused on "deniers" and explains how deniers are different than skeptics. He explains paranormal or pseudoscientific claims that he has changed his mind about over the years, such as extraordinary human perception, and the mind-body connection as it relates to healing. He talks about how the magazine has dealt with religion over the years. And he talks about the future of skepticism and the need for new ways of outreach, especially to younger skeptics. | 22 1 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChristopher Burns- Deadly Decisions | Christopher Burns is one of the country's leading minds on modern information management. He has been a news executive and consultant to government and the private sector for thirty years, advising clients on emerging information management technologies and the evolution of the information economy. His previous positions include vice president of the Washington Post Company, senior vice president of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, and executive editor of United Press International. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Christopher Burns talks about the biology of the brain, the behavior of groups, and the structure of organizations and how each can lead to people making bad decisions. He discusses the paradox that in the age of information, it may be more difficult to make good decisions. He describes "false knowledge" and how to choose the right information to pay attention to. He emphasizes the value of skepticism in making good decisions, and of trusting ambiguity and uncertainty. He uses the example of the sinking of the Titanic to explain the concept of "information errors." He discusses how groups naturally discourage dissent, and how this harms the information system, citing examples from operating room and airline cockpit. He details ways of organizing that lead to better decision-making. And he talks about the political domain, and how to address challenges to good collective decision-making in a democracy, contrasting the Bush and Obama administrations. | 15 1 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGinger Campbell - Podcasting Neuroscience | Ginger Campbell, M.D., is an emergency physician whose long-standing interest in philosophy and science motivated her to begin podcasting in 2006. While her Brain Science Podcast focuses on neuroscience, her other show, Books and Ideas, often explores the intersection between science and religion. She is also the founder of sciencepodcasters.org, which is a site devoted to promoting science through podcasting. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Ginger Campbell recounts how she first got involved in science podcasting, and why she focuses on neuroscience as her topic. She discusses the impact of Jennifer Michael Hecht's work on both her intellectual pursuits and her views about atheism and religion. She talks about the trends in neuroscience that may suggest the brain can be "trained" with products such as Brain Age on Nintendo's DS Lite, or that one's diet can increase one's intelligence. She describes "neuroplasticity," and how new brain imaging technologies, such as advanced fMRIs, show that our daily actions can impact specific parts of the brain. She explores the implications of neuroscience for religious belief, and why she has at times resisted the idea of atheism. She shares her reactions to the "New Atheists." And she discusses the increasing attacks on neuroscience from Creationist activists because of what it implies about consciousness, free-will and the existence of the soul. | 8 1 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSimon Singh - Trick or Treatment | Simon Singh is an author focusing on science and mathematics for the general public. His books include Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem, The Code Book, and Big Bang. He has produced a number of documentaries for television on science topics, and is a trustee of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and the National Museum of Science and Industry, both in the United Kingdom. He is currently being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association for comments he wrote in a column in The Guardian. His newest book, co-authored with Dr. Edzard Ernst, is Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Simon Singh talks about being an open-minded skeptic regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). He discusses the efficacy of various CAM treatments, such as detox programs, homeopathy, and acupuncture. He examines the origins and claims of chiropractic, whether it works, and how it may be dangerous. He talks about the limits of scientific inquiry, and when a CAM claim might justifiably be dismissed. He discusses the funding of research into CAM versus the funding of its marketing. He explores the reasons why people continue using such treatments despite the lack of scientific data showing that it works. He explains the placebo effect and its legitimate therapeutic uses, and details the harm that some CAM treatments can cause even if they do work. He shares his opinions about why passions among skeptics and believers regarding CAM are so heated, giving advice to both the CAM and scientific communities. And he gives reasons for speaking out regarding CAM despite the possible negative repercussions from various quarters of the CAM community. | 2 1 09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - Science Fiction and Atheism | Tom Flynn is the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry, many addressing church-state issues, as well as the best-selling The Trouble With Christmas, about which he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly “anti-Claus.” He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novels, Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred. His latest work, The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America’s fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Tom Flynn discusses the trouble he has with Christmas. He also explores the relationship of atheism and skepticism with science fiction. He talks about the connection that many of the leading figures in science fiction have had with the Center for Inquiry over the years. He surveys influential atheist and humanistic writers in science fiction including H.G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Phillip Pullman, and Kurt Vonnegut, among many others. He discusses the secular humanism in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise, and an interesting connection an episode had with Scientology. He details Orson Scott Card's relationship with secular humanism. He talks about the influence of Robert Heinlein's earlier works on the development of his own religious skepticism. He discusses the similarities of Scientology and Mormonism with science fiction. He examines the intersection of sci fi and religious satire, as in the works of James Morrow and Bo Fowler. And he explains his own foray into science fiction, with his critically acclaimed books Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred. | 26 12 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - Forbidden Fruit | Paul Kurtz is the leading figure in the humanist and skeptical movements over the last four decades. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, humanistic inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for decades. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been featured widely in the media on topics as diverse as reincarnation, UFO abduction, secular versus religious ethics, communication with the dead, and the historicity of Jesus. During this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz discusses the importance of creativity in terms of outreach for the skeptical and secular humanist movements. He talks about the his book Forbidden Fruit, which focuses on the application of science and reason to the Good Life and to normative ethics. He argues that ethics need not have religious foundations, and that ethics should instead have purely secular and humanist sources. He explores the secular meanings of stories about the mythical Garden of Eden, and actually celebrates the eating of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and of the fruit of the Tree of Life. He argues that the universalistic ethics within the world's religions in fact stem from secular humanism. He details what it is to live a life of excellence and defends against the charge that his ethics is self-centered and self-absorbed, arguing for good will in a secular context, and that the common good is not alien to enlightened self-interest. He touches on the secular position on controversial social issues, such as abortion and sexual ethics, including gay rights and gay marriage. He expounds on what he calls the "common moral decencies," which he argues are a product of evolution. He finishes by discussing the myth of Sisyphus and what it portends for the scientific secularist today, arguing against nihilistic atheism. | 19 12 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSolomon Schimmel - Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth | Solomon Schimmel is professor of Jewish education and psychology at Hebrew College. He is the author of a number of books, including The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology, and numerous articles and book chapters on Jewish thought, psychology of religion and Jewish education. His newest book is The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Solomon Schimmel reveals whether he is an atheist and explains why he lives an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle without theism. He explores differences between his religiosity and that of fundamentalists, especially in terms of truth claims, and the values of honesty and knowledge. He describes the response he has received in the Orthodox Jewish community as a result of his views. He describes the psychology of the fundamentalist, and mechanisms such as confirmation bias, selective interpretation, and ad hominem attacks of critics. He explores various views of truth, including that the value of religion is not necessarily in the truth value of its claims. And he debates the value of reason versus emotion, and the role of authority when evaluating truth claims. He explores ways that rationalists can challenge fundamentalism, both in terms of argumentation and community, and in terms of focusing on the harms of fundamentalism. | 12 12 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSolomon Schimmel - The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs | Solomon Schimmel is professor of Jewish education and psychology at Hebrew College. He is the author of a number of books, including The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology, and numerous articles and book chapters on Jewish thought, psychology of religion and Jewish education. His newest book is The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Schimmel discusses how and why, even as a complete skeptic of theological claims, he still practices Orthodox Judaism. He talks about the benefits that religion, including fundamentalism, may bring a believer, such as caring and supportive communities, ethical codes, means of coping with stress and loss, celebrations of rites of passage, and a hope for life after death. He explores ways that people can experience these benefits while rejecting the unreasonable claims of religion, which he argues are especially pronounced in fundamentalism. He challenges Sam Harris's view regarding moderate religionists making room for fundamentalism. He examines many of the ways that Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism harms society, and argues that it should be challenged in public and in private, for the sake of democracy, scientific progress and the welfare of society. And he details some strategies to encourage people to give up their harmful and false beliefs and fundamentalist commitments. | 4 12 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJennifer Michael Hecht - Doubt | Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry, including The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology; Doubt: A History; The Happiness Myth, and her book of poetry, Funny, which Publisher’s Weekly called one of the most original and entertaining books of the year. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Hecht talks about the relationship of her book Doubt: A History to the books of the New Atheists, if media reception of the New Atheists was "gendered," and in what sense her book is "less evangelical" than theirs. She explains what she means by the kind of doubt she believes in, how it is broader and deeper than mere disbelief, and the ways in which doubt can feed belief. She explores the implications of doubt for scientific inquiry, and how doubt should be applied to the questions and the certitude that some scientists and skeptics express. She talks about the importance of art, poetry and psychoanalysis for doubting, and how such forms of introspection and expression increase the benefits of doubt. And she reveals some her favorite doubters in history, and what she learns from them. | 28 11 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJames McGaha - Lights in the Sky | James McGaha is a retired USAF pilot, astronomer and director of the Grasslands Observatory. He held a TOP SECRET compartmented security clearance and was involved in numerous classified operations including operations in the so-called "Area 51." His current work includes astrometry and photometry of asteroids and supernovae. He has discovered 15 Asteroids and 52 Comets and has over 1700 M.P.E.C. publications on Near Earth Asteroids. He is the winner of the 2002 Shoemaker NEO Grant. He has appeared widely in the media, having actively promoted science and debunked pseudoscience for over 35 years, focusing on belief in UFOs and astrology. He is the founder and chairman of the Tucson Skeptics and a Scientific Consultant to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, James McGaha talks about his astronomer- beginnings as a skeptic of UFOs, and the limitations of the term "UFO." He answers how open-minded he is about the possibility that extraterrestrial beings are visiting the earth today. He talks about the origins of UFO belief with the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, along with Fate, a magazine promoting paranormal belief. He talks about the history of Project Bluebook and the Condon Report. He details qualities of human perception that may explain UFO accounts, and explores some of the reasons people may adhere to UFO belief. He explains the famous Phoenix Lights sightings. He explores how to respond to those who have unshakable belief in unsupportable UFO claims. He compares qualities of contemporary UFO mythology with certain aspects of religious belief, including views of apocalypticism and salvation. And he talks about the dangers that belief in UFOs pose to a civil society. | 21 11 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter Singer - Vegetarianism and the Scientific Outlook | One of the most controversial and influential philosophers alive today, Peter Singer is DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne. He writes a regular column for Free Inquiry magazine, and is the author of dozens of books, including Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, Animal Liberation, and Writings on an Ethical Life. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Peter Singer defends vegetarianism, arguing that we should give equal consideration to all "beings who have interests." He draws ethical distinctions between human fetuses and animals, such as dogs and cats. He argues against "dominionism," which is the idea that humanity is special, and that other animals were made by God for humanity's benefit. He attacks "speciesism," and explains why he did not sign the Humanist Manifesto 2000. He describes factory farming, and the commercial imperatives that he says cause animals to be treated as mere property. He talks about the decision to become a vegetarian, and what keeps secularists and scientists from making the decision, in terms of the question he posed to Richard Dawkins at a recent Center for Inquiry conference. And he considers how working with the religious may advance vegetarianism in society. | 14 11 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter Singer - Ethics in an Age of Darwin | One of the most controversial and influential philosophers alive today, Peter Singer is DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne. He writes a regular column for Free Inquiry magazine, and is the author of dozens of books, including Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, Animal Liberation, and Writings on an Ethical Life. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Peter Singer explores how controversial or compatible his views are with religious thought and in what sense his ethics is informed by a naturalistic or Darwinian understanding of the origins of life. He discusses the value of human life as regards end-of-life questions such as doctor-assisted suicide, and offers justification for the involuntary euthanasia of severely disabled infants. He details what it means to be genuinely "pro-life." And he shares his views on stem cell research and abortion, arguing how that even though abortion is killing a human life, it is not unethical. He also explains what qualities of life would make killing it unethical. | 7 11 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe 12th Annual CFI Houdini Seance | Harry Houdini, the world-famous magician and skeptic, sincerely explored the religion of spiritualism and communication with the dead after his beloved mother’s death in 1913. In this episode for Halloween 2008, Joe Nickell, the world’s leading paranormal investigator and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s senior research fellow, and D.J. Grothe (both of whom are former professional magicians) conduct the Center for Inquiry’s 12th Annual Houdini Seance, using artifacts of the magician's art to entice Houdini's spirit to appear. They recount the history of the original Houdini Seance, and explore Houdini's views on the spirit world, and to what extent he was a "debunker," as opposed to an investigator. They talk about his skeptical methods, such as going undercover, and how he used his background in magic to aid his investigations. And as commemoration, Joe Nickell reads from Houdini's famous book on skeptical investigations, A Magician Among the Spirits. | 31 10 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTodd C. Riniolo - When Good Thinking Goes Bad | Todd C. Riniolo is an associate professor of psychology at Medaille College. He has written many peer-reviewed articles in the psychological literature. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Todd Riniolo discusses his book When Good Thinking Goes Bad: How Your Brain Can Have a Mind of Its Own, exploring ways that critical thinking should be applied to people's cherished and most certainly felt convictions. He discusses common cognitive, social and emotional biases people have when arriving at conclusions about the supernatural and paranormal, politics and economics, and how critical thinking is often applied inconsistently in these areas. He also focuses his skepticism on issues such as global warming and multiculturalism. | 24 10 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEdward Tabash - The U.S. Presidential Election and Secular Values Voters | Edward Tabash is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. He has chaired the National Legal Committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1995, and has argued and won before the California Supreme Court. He also sits as a part-time judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court system. He has successfully represented the scientific outlook and secular humanism in public debates against the leading Christian philosophers around the world. In addition to serving on the Board of the Center for Inquiry and chairing the Council for Secular Humanism’s First Amendment Task Force, he chairs the Center for Inquiry's Los Angeles branch. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Edward Tabash explores issues valued by secularists and why they hang in the balance in this U.S. Presidential Election. He talks about gay marriage and abortion, and how both of these rights depend on a government neutrality in matters of religion. He details ways that pseudoscience and junk science are used to advance religiously derived public policy arguments against gay marriage and abortion. And he talks about global warming skepticism, and the need for scientific integrity in public policy. He emphasizes how the next U.S. President will reshape the Supreme Court, and what that portends for science and secular values. He also explains his role in gay rights victory with the Supreme Court of California earlier in 2008, and why he opposes Proposition 8, a proposed ballot measure in California that would amend the State Constitution to deny marriage rights to homosexuals. | 17 10 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLawrence M. Krauss - The Fear of Physics | Lawrence M. Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Director of the new Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. He is an internationally famous theoretical physicist who focuses on the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. He has investigated questions ranging from the nature of exploding stars to issues of the origin of all mass in the universe. He is the author of seven best-selling books, including the international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek and Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions from Plato to String Theory and Beyond. Dr. Krauss is one of North America's leading activists for the public understanding of science and has been particularly involved in issues at the intersection of science and society, leading efforts by scientists to defend the teaching of science in public schools, and he has been a strong proponent of scientific integrity in government. His essay in the New York Times about evolution and Intelligent Design in May 2005 helped spur a controversy that ultimately caused the Catholic Church to refine its position on Darwinian evolution. Most recently he has led the call for a Presidential Debate on Science and Technology as a member of the steering committee for ScienceDebate2008.org. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Lawrence Krauss explores the fear of physics, noting that some of it stems from the fact that physics contradicts basic beliefs that many people have about their place in the universe. He also addresses how others are afraid of physics because of its potential to destroy civilization, such as with atomic and nuclear weapons, and the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. He explains some of the science behind the LHC. And he talks about the misuse of quantum physics in the New Age movement, and Rhonda Byrne's The Secret and the documentary What The Bleep Do We Know. | 9 10 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Lackey - Science, Postmodernism, and the Varieties of Black Humanism | Michael Lackey teaches courses in twentieth-century American and African American literature at the University of Minnesota, Morris. A recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, he has published articles in many journals, including Philosophy and Literature, Journal of the History of Ideas, and the Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History. University Press of Florida has recently published his book, African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Faith, which was named a “Choice Outstanding Academic Title” for 2007. He is currently working on his second book, which is tentatively titled: Modernist God States: A Literary Study of the Theological Origins of Totalitarianism. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Michael Lackey talks about black liberation atheism, and the view among certain black intellectuals that belief in God results in racial inequality. He explores the black intellectual critique of the Enlightenment and of humanism, and how this has played out in post-modernist skepticism of science and reason in the academy. Focusing on Richard Wright, he explains the view that the real value of science is how it is democratic, not necessarily that it leads to "the truth". And he talks about the correspondence theory of truth and why he rejects it. | 3 10 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGreg Long - The Making of Bigfoot | Greg Long is a professional writer, investigative journalist, and editor who lives in Washington state. He has been researching and writing about "mysteries" and unexplained phenomena of the Pacific Northwest for twenty-five years. His work has been featured on radio and television, including the Discovery Channel. His most recent book is The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Greg Long discusses the famous Roger Patterson Bigfoot film from 1967, and why he says it is a hoax. He details his argument about Patterson's motivations, evidence from the costumer's perspective on why the creature in the film is almost certainly a man dressed in an ape suit, and the confession obtained from the person who wore it. He offers theories about why belief in the creature is so widely held, and what role the media plays in the public's belief in Bigfoot. He examines the recent reports of Bigfoot in the Atlanta area. And he explores the psychological reasons people may believe in Bigfoot, including how it may symbolize certain truths about humanity's evolutionary origins. He also argues why such skeptical inquiry into possibly trivial matters like Bigfoot is so important in our society. | 26 9 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJustin Trottier - The Fight for Science and Reason on the Campuses | Justin Trottier is Executive Director of the Centre for Inquiry in Ontario, the first venue dedicated to secular humanists and freethinkers in Canada, and helps oversees CFI Communities in Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver. A former freethought campus activist, Justin co-hosts the student oriented Course of Reason podcast and supports over 30 campus groups across Canada. He has had appeared on numerous television networks, including CBC, CTS, OMNI, CH and CityTV, as well as dozens of radio appearances and coverage in campus, city and national newspapers. He is also a regular panelist for the Globe and Mail and the Michael Coren Show and has contributed to Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer and Humanist Perspectives magazines. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Justin Trottier talks about how he got involved with science and secularist activism while in college, and why he focuses much of his attention as an organizer now on colleges and universities. He also explains why the Center for Inquiry devotes so many resources to reaching the college students. He details current threats to the university from both the Right and the Left, and what CFI is doing to counter these trends of unreason, sharing ways that listeners can get involved in this effort. | 19 9 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAndrew Fraknoi - The Cosmic History of Your Body | Andrew Fraknoi is the Chair of the Astronomy Program at Foothill College near San Francisco. In 2007, he was selected as Professor of the Year for the state of California by the Carnegie Endowment for Higher Education. For 14 years, Fraknoi served as the Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and was editor of its popular level magazine, Mercury, and its newsletter for teachers, The Universe in the Classroom. He has edited two collections of science articles and science fiction stories for Bantam Books, and is the lead author of Voyages through the Universe, one of the leading astronomy textbooks in the world, and also the children's book Disney's Wonderful World of Space. Fraknoi serves on the Board of Trustees of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, and is also a Fellow of the Committee for the Skeptical Inquiry, specializing in debunking astrology. He has received the Annenberg Foundation Prize of the American Astronomical Society (the highest honor in the field of astronomy education), as well as the Klumpke-Roberts Prize of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (given for a lifetime of contributions to popularizing astronomy) and the Gemant Prize of the American Institute of Physics. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Andrew Fraknoi explains the history of the atoms in our bodies, and how we are literally made of "star stuff." He details how scientists know the history of these atoms, and explores the implications of this "simple but profound fact," and how some people derive mystical meaning from it, while others find it humbling. He talks about the compatibility of religion with astronomy, and the proper role of skepticism in the science classroom. He describes current threats to science education. And he makes a case for popularizing science and astronomy, and how this benefits society. | 12 9 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarbara Oakley - Social Psychology, Genes and Human Evil | Barbara Oakley, PhD, has been dubbed a female Indiana Jones — her writing combines worldwide adventure with solid research expertise. Among other adventures, she has worked as a Russian translator on Soviet trawlers in the Bering Sea, served as radio operator at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and risen from private to regular army captain in the U.S. Army. Currently an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan, Oakley is a recent vice president of the world’s largest bioengineering society and holds a doctorate in the integrative discipline of systems engineering. Her new book is Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hilter Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Barbara Oakley shares her criticisms of the research of influential social scientists such as Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram, and explains why the biological sciences should be brought to bear on research about human evil. She addresses how her thesis in Evil Genes might be used as an excuse by some people in our society to do bad things, and details specifics from the life of her sister that serve as a window into her exploration of human evil. She also addresses the implications of her thesis for organized religion, arguing contra Christopher Hitchens that religion is not evil per se but that it might attract evil people to its institutions. | 5 9 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRonald A. Lindsay - Future Bioethics | Ronald A. Lindsay is a bioethicist, lawyer, and chief executive officer and senior research fellow of the Center for Inquiry. He is also executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism. For many years he practiced law in Washington, DC, and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and American University, where he taught jurisprudence and philosophy courses. His new book is Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Ronald Lindsay reframes the debates surrounding current controversies in bioethics. Carefully examining and dissecting claims made by many policy makers and ethicists on topics such as assistance in dying, genetic engineering, and embryonic stem cell research, bioethicist, Lindsay shows that all too often these claims are based on instinctive reactions, beliefs that lack factual support, and religious or ideological dogma. Through his insightful analysis, Lindsay demonstrates how to achieve pragmatic, progressive solutions to these controversies. | 29 8 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRev. Michael Dowd - The Marriage of Science and Religion | The Reverend Michael Dowd, along with his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have lived permanently on the road for years, sharing a "sacred view of evolution" with religious and secular audiences of all ages. His new book is Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Michael Dowd reveals how his kind of Christianity is different from most others who would call themselves Christian, and argues that all religions are evolving in the direction of naturalism. He argues that evolution must be mythologized in order to save our species. He explains how he reinterprets orthodox Christian doctrines such as "personal salvation," "the centrality of the cross," and "original sin" in ways that are compatible with scientific ways of thinking, and recounts how understanding evolutionary brain science helps reinterpret certain notions of sexual "sin." He addresses the criticism that that there is no good reason to use religious language to speak about science and evolution. And he expresses why his evolution evangelism is so important: that evolution be embraced and that it would be able to "do its magic," listing the seven reasons how evolution can transform lives and change the world. | 22 8 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRev. Michael Dowd - Thank God For Evolution | The Reverend Michael Dowd, along with his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have lived permanently on the road for years, sharing a "sacred view of evolution" with religious and secular audiences of all ages. His new book is Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Michael Dowd discusses his new book Thank God for Evolution, which is a religious defense of the central organizing theory of modern biology. He reveals the agenda of the book, and the reception it has received from both the scientific and the religious communities. He explains his religious background, and how he has adopted a thoroughly "naturalized" religion that he calls "Religion 2.0," compatible with and integrated with evolution, and which rejects the supernatural or the "unnatural." He details why he has become an "evangelist for evolution" and why the "gospel of evolution" has been so popular for both the religious and the secular audiences he has spoken to over the last six and a half years. He expounds his "evolution theology," and how the traditionally religious can embrace the facts of evolution, which he considers the most important religious act they can commit. | 15 8 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAllan Mazur - Implausible Beliefs | Allan Mazur, a sociologist and an engineer, is professor of public affairs in the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Previously a member of the social science faculties of MIT and Stanford University, he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published over 150 articles in the social science literature and is especially interested in biosociology; research methods; and in controversies over science, technology, and the environment. Among his books are Biosociology of Dominance & Deference, True Warnings and False Alarms about Technology, 1948-1971, and Global Social Problems. His new book is Implausible Beliefs: In the Bible, Astrology, and UFOs. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Allan Mazur discusses his interest in skepticism, and lists various criteria for disbelief, defending "closed-mindedness" about various implausibilities. He explores similarities in the credulity throughout the United States versus Europe and Asia. He details the implausibility of various beliefs about the inerrancy of the Bible, UFOs, and astrology, and explains how there is nothing unique about religious beliefs that make them more implausible than other unsupportable claims. He examines the origins of implausible beliefs, including social influence, and how one's social milieu may be a stronger factor in determining one's beliefs than evidence or one's education. He also examines personality characteristics and emotional comfort that certain implausible beliefs may bring the believer as further explanations for the roots of implausible beliefs. | 8 8 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGuy P. Harrison - 50 Reasons People Give For Believing In A God | Guy P. Harrison is a graduate of the University of South Florida with degrees in history and anthropology. he currently lives in the Cayman Islands, where he is a columnist and travel writer for a national newspaper. He has won several international awards for his writing and photography. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Guy P. Harrison talks about his new book 50 Reasons People Give For Believing In A God, and details such reasons for god-belief as the obviousness of God, "playing it safe," the fear of hell, that belief in gods brings genuine happiness and comforts, and the fact that so many people are religious. He explores similarities between the reasons people give for their belief in Western gods and Eastern gods, and also similarities between the reasons people give for belief in gods and in the paranormal. He calls for a wider understanding of religion in general as an important first step in inculcating skepticism about religion. He argues that the reasons people proffer are often very different than the reasons theologians argue that people should believe. And he offers advice for what he thinks is the best approach for engaging believers on these matters of belief. | 1 8 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLewis Wolpert - The Evolutionary Origins of Belief | Lewis Wolpert is Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology of University College, London, focusing his research on the mechanisms involved in the development of the embryo. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Literature. He has presented science on both radio and TV for years, and was Chairman of the Committee for the Public Understanding of Science in the UK. Among his books are Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression (the basis for the BBC documentary entitled 'A Living Hell") The Triumph of the Embryo, and A Passion for Science (with Alison Richards). His most recent book is Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Lewis Wolpert explores the evolutionary origins of belief, and argues that atheism is unnatural while belief in gods is not. He details the relationship between tool-making and belief in God, and shows how human primates are unique in this regard. He explains why he thinks it is so hard for people to give up their unbelievable beliefs. He shares his views on organized religion, including how it benefits believers, and examines if the same tools of science and reason can equally be applied to beliefs about the paranormal. He also debates the usefulness of argumentation with believers. | 25 7 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - Humanistic Skepticism | The world’s leading paranormal investigator, Joe Nickell is a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Looking for a Miracle, Inquest on the Shroud of Turin, and most recently The Relics of the Christ. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Joe Nickell expounds on his unique kind of paranormal investigating, which is neither "mystery mongering," nor "debunking." He emphasizes how his humanist values carry over into his skeptical work, and how his notion of "doing good" is applied to skepticism as a movement. He criticizes many in the skeptical movement who seem not to care to honor claimants with on-the-ground investigations, instead dismissing from the "armchair" that a supernatural claim is impossible. He also challenges those with the "ghost hunter" mentality, who lack effective training in investigation and instead just promote belief in unsupportable paranormal claims, even while engaging in important field investigations. Nickell ends discussing the future of the skeptical movement and the odds he thinks it has to adopt the kind of "humanistic skepticism" he promotes. | 18 7 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMaggie Jackson - Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age | Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist who writes the popular “Balancing Acts” column in the Boston Globe. Her work also has appeared in the New York Times and on National Public Radio, among other national publications. Her acclaimed first book, What’s Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age, examined the loss of home as a refuge. Her newest book is Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Maggie Jackson discusses her controversial thesis about the downsides of the information age, and how the distractions from modern technologies lead to less critical thinking and less fulfilled lives. She explores the causes and effects of the erosion of attention, including media culture, the internet and personal communication devices, and even our fast-food culture, and how these impact relationships, work and personal identity. She details some advances in "attention science," a field in cognitive neuroscience, and what they tell us about how people can overcome their distractions. And she shares what listeners can do to stop the erosion of attention in their lives. | 11 7 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBen Radford - Paranormal Investigation | Ben Radford is is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into psychics, ghosts and haunted houses, exorcisms, Bigfoot, lake monsters, UFO sightings, crop circles, and other topics. He is managing editors of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language magazine Pensar, published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The author of many books, including Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us, and Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures (with Joe Nickell), he also writes online at LiveScience.com and MediaMythmakers.com. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Radford recounts some of his experiences as a paranormal investigator, drawing a contrast between his work and that of the "ghost hunters." He talks about his attempts at "steath skepticism" and also about his new board-game, Playing Gods. Also in this episode, philosopher and Center for Inquiry founder Paul Kurtz shares a special message for rationalists on Independence Day, about the Influence of the Enlightenment on America. | 4 7 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPZ Myers - Expelled from Expelled | PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris and the author of Pharyngula, the most heavily-trafficked science blog online. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, P.Z. Myers details his expulsion from a screening of Expelled, Ben Stein's documentary which claims that the scientific community is limiting academic freedom by not allowing Intelligent Design to be taught or discussed in the schools. He explains the background of how he and other scientists were invited to appear in the film under false pretenses, and what his response has been. He addresses "focus groups"; and other marketing methods for finding the best way to communicate science to the public. Calling himself part of the "radical fringe," he elaborates on his view that leading science organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement for Science and the National Academies of Science are "playing a shell game" on the public when it comes to teaching the compatibility of science with religion, arguing that there is a direct link between science education and religious skepticism. And he also shares his thoughts about the future of the atheist and rationalist movement in the United States. | 27 6 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPZ Myers - Science and Atheism in the Blogosphere | PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris and the author of Pharyngula, the most heavily-trafficked science blog online. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, P.Z. Myers explains the purpose and impact of his blog, and whether his priority is to advance science education or atheism. He talks about what he sees as his roles in the scientific community and the atheist movement, and how related these roles are. He explores the relationship between science and atheism, and argues that the more a public learns science, the likelier it is that they will become atheistic. And he talks about where a science educator's atheism fits in the classroom. He also addresses the position of leading scientific organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academies of Science regarding evolution being compatible with religious belief, and their use of religious scientists as spokespeople, and he assesses their motivations and strategies to advance science to a largely religious American public. | 20 6 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSusan Jacoby - The Age of American Unreason | Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. A prominent public intellectual, she frequently appears in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Free Inquiry. Her latest best selling book is The Age of American Unreason. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Susan Jacoby explores recent trends that she argues have led to the "Age of American Unreason," including religious fundamentalism, mass media consumption and "video culture," and multiculturalism. She addresses how fundamentalism feeds anti-intellectualism in America, and how not only fundamentalism can be blamed for it. She details both the upside and the downside of the internet, the perils of too much TV viewing, and the effect of such over-consumtion on the cultural literacy of average Americans. She addresses criticism that she is merely "elitist" or a "luddite," and ends with specifics on how people can work to challenge the Age of American Unreason. | 13 6 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTaner Edis - Science and Nonbelief | Taner Edis, born and raised in Turkey, is associate professor of physics at Truman State University and the author of The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science and Science and Non-belief, among other publications. His latest book is An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Taner Edis explains reasons he thinks religion persists, and explores the complex relationship between science and nonbelief, detailing how the institutional interests of science may prevent some in the science community from working to diminish religion, the New Atheists excepted. He talks about how scientific theories are often misused by paranormalists or supernaturalists to advance their cultural position, focusing on the New Age movement's use of quantum physics and on the intelligent design movement. He examines differences between science and pseudoscience, arguing that often it is not possible to demarcate what is uniquely science. And he surveys various scientific approaches of examining religion, such as rational choice theory, the secularization hypothesis, and various evolutionary approaches, such as group selection theory, the byproduct theory of religion, and memetic approaches (that religion is a "virus of the mind"). | 6 6 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert M. Price - Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms | Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He’s a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books such as The Reason Driven Life, Deconstructing Jesus, Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured prominently in the movie The God Who Wasn’t There. His latest book is Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Robert Price explores the origins, doctrines and dangers of various strands of contemporary "pop mysticism," including Rhonda Byrne's The Secret and other "New Thought" proponents, the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Course in Miracles. He contends that there is some truth to many of these mystical worldviews, especially the emphasis on introspection and self-improvement, and details how to take what is of value while rejecting the unsupportable claims. He also addresses the popularity and influence of Christian televangelist Joel Olsteen, whom he argues is in fact a promoter of New Thought in Christian trappings. He also explores what the secular humanist and skeptic movements might learn from both the Christian Mega-churches and the New Age movements, and how they can work together as freethinkers against fundamentalist dogmatic religious-political movements. | 30 5 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJamy Ian Swiss - Skepticism and the Art and Philosophy of Magic | Jamy Ian Swiss is universally considered one of the world’s top sleight of hand performers, famous to magicians for his subtlety, skill and depth of understanding of magic’s history. He has appeared on a number of television programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan, including on The Today Show, CBS’s 48 Hours, Comedy Central, CNN, PBS Nova and the PBS documentary, The Art of Magic. He’s performed internationally for corporate clients, lectured to magicians in over a dozen countries, and is a co-producer of New York City’s longest-running Off-Broadway magic show, Monday Night Magic. He is also a co-founder of the National Capital Area Skeptics and the New York City Skeptics, and a long-time contributor to the skeptical movement and its magazines. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Jamy Ian Swiss talks about his skeptical beginnings, and argues that magic done well is an "entertaining form of skepticism, rather than a debased form of mysticism" (as described by Adam Gopnik in the recent profile of Jamy in "The New Yorker"). He explores some of the philosophy of why and how magic works, and examines ethical and artistic issues related to the performance of contemporary magic and mentalism, as reflected n the work of a spectrum of performers ranging from Derren Brown to Marc Salem to Uri Geller. He also wonders about the effectiveness of the skeptical movement overall, and the value of getting involved in the skeptical community. | 23 5 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - The Transnational Center for Inquiry | Paul Kurtz, considered by many the father of the secular humanist movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, humanistic inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for the last forty years. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been featured very widely in the media, on topics as diverse as reincarnation, UFO abduction, secular versus religious ethics, communication with the dead, and the historicity of Jesus. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz describes the Center for Inquiry's transnational efforts, detailing its activities to advance science and secular values in the Netherlands, Romania, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, Canada and various countries in Africa, the Middle East and South America. He shares some of the history of the worldwide skeptical and humanist movements, and shows how the recent worldwide expansion of the Center for Inquiry is a result of its commitment to what he calls "planetary humanism." | 16 5 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAustin Dacey - Moral Values After Darwin | Austin Dacey serves as a respresentative to the United Nations for CFI, and is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times and USA Today. His new book is The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Austin Dacey argues for the objectivity of morality from a nonreligious perspective. Maintaining that the conscience is prior to and independent of God and religion, he advocates an "ethics from below" that steers a middle course between an empirical "science of good and evil" and a transcendental religious ethic. While sharply criticizing what he sees as simplistic and misleading applications of evolutionary science to moral matters, Dacey defends a naturalistic understanding of the right and good. He explains the advantages of consequentialist moral theories that seek to promote individual well-being, and returns to John Stuart Mill's On Liberty to show that the belief in objective values is perfectly compatible with the social philosophy of secular liberalism. Dacey also responds to Chris Hedges' assertions that secularists do not grasp the nature of evil and that the Enlightenment notion of moral progress is a myth. | 9 5 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Hedges - I Dont Believe in Atheists | Chris Hedges is a journalist and author who focuses on American and Middle Eastern politics and society. He is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, where he spent fifteen years. He is the author of What Every Person Should Know About What and American Fascists. His newest book is I Don't Believe in Atheists. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, acclaimed foreign correspondent Christ Hedges shares his criticism of the New Atheists, calling them "fundamentalists" in their own right. He responds to their account of the origins of Islamic religious extremism, and he accuses the New Atheists of racism. He explains his view that the New Atheists are proponents of the Neo-conservative agenda and how the American Left does advance secular values in the Muslim world. He also criticizes what he calls the "utopianism" of the New Atheists, detailing his skepticism about moral progress for humanity. | 2 5 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Shook - Naturalism and the Scientific Outlook | John Shook is Vice President for Research and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, N.Y. He received his PhD in philosophy at the University at Buffalo and was a professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University for six years. Among his current responsibilities are the Center for Inquiry’s Naturalism Research Project and the expansion of the Center’s Jo Ann Boydston Library of American Philosophical Naturalism. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Shook describes the relationship of naturalism to the worldview based upon the sciences. He explores whether the sciences necessarily lead to naturalism, and to what extent the sciences can yield truth about human morality and the good life. He details a recent debate he had with the famous Christian philosopher William Lane Craig, and responds to some of Craig's challenges against naturalism and arguments in support of supernaturalism. And he examined what possible meaning (ultimate and otherwise) human life can have if there is no supernatural, "cosmic" significance. | 25 4 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Shermer - The Mind of The Market | Michael Shermer is the author of ten books, including the bestselling Why People Believe Weird Things and The Science of Good and Evil. An adjunct professor of economics at Claremont Graduate University, he is a columnist for Scientific American, the publisher of Skeptic magazine, and the founder and director of the international Skeptics Society. His latest book is The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales From Evolutionary Economics. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Michael Shermer discusses The Mind of the Market, and the new field of neuroeconomics. He explores the implications of Darwinian evolution for how people fare in market capitalism, including how we are naturally irrational when it comes to economics, due to our evolutionary heritage. He argues why market capitalism and liberal democracy are best suited to people's needs, and discusses socialized medicine and other aspects of social welfare programs, contrasting the economy of the United States with those of northern Europe. He examines how free trade may lead to world peace. He also addresses the growing political and economic diversity when it comes to the skeptical and humanist movements. | 18 4 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - Ingersoll: The Most Famous Person You Have Never Heard Of | Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry Magazine and director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. He also directs traditional video operations at the Center for Inquiry. He is editor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief and author of three books: the science-fiction novels Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred and the polemic The Trouble With Christmas. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Tom Flynn talks about the life of Robert Green Ingersoll, the 19th Century orator and freethinker. He explains Ingersoll's views on religion, and his secular progressive outlook that he advanced as an alternative. He details Ingersoll's role in GOP politics of the day, and explores his popularity on the national stage. He also discusses about the Council for Secular Humanism's museum dedicated to the life of Robert Ingersoll. Also in this episode, Ron Lindsay, the director of the Council for Secular Humanism's First Amendment Task Force, responds to various issues related to comments made recently by Rep. Monique Davis (Democrat, Chicago) against the atheist activist Rob Sherman, and reiterates his recent call for her to resign. | 11 4 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMarc Hauser - Moral Minds | Marc Hauser is an evolutionary psychologist and biologist. He is Harvard College Professor and Professor of Psychology, and Director of the Primate Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Harvard University. He is the author of a number of books, including The Evolution of Communication, Wild Minds: What Animals Think, and Moral minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Marc Hauser expounds his theory that morality has biological origins while challenging the common view that morality comes from God. He compares the human capacity for morality with Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar, arguing that there is a "morality module" in the brain. He explains how his theory accounts for differences in morality across cultures, and discusses how morality could have evolved and what genetic benefit it might have afforded. He also explores the implications of his theory for the legal system, and for cultural institutions like religion and the family. | 4 4 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSir Harold Kroto - Science Education and Freethinking | Sir Harold Kroto, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Florida State University. He is a tireless science educator who gives lectures, presentations and workshops to groups of all ages with the aim of communicating his passion for science. He's a fellow of the Royal Society, and was awarded its 2002 Michael Faraday Award for public appreciation of science. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Sir Harold Kroto relates what budded his initial interests in science, including the influence of his childhood Meccano sets, and emphasizes the importance of hands-on exploration and science learning. He recounts the discovery of the Buckminster Fullerene, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and the frustration he has with people outside the sciences who view science as only worthwhile if it is "useful." He discusses his views on religion, and how his background in science has fueled his freethinking and religious skepticism. He explores the question of whether or not science education efforts are succeeding, and details his "buckyball" workshops for children. He also explores whether or not he advances the "religion of secular humanism" when he teaches science deliberately excluding any mention of God or religion. | 28 3 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAustin Dacey - The Secular Conscience | Austin Dacey serves as a respresentative to the United Nations for CFI, and is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times. His new book is The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Austin Dacey argues that secularism has lost its sense of moral direction, ceding ground to religious positions it never should have. He explores the impact this has on the secular left's criticism of the New Atheists, and its approach to radical Islam. He discusses the reasons secular liberalism doesn't ally itself with the secularizing elements in the Islamic world, and why he thinks it should, also addressing "Islamophobia" and the "American Taliban." He explains why questions of conscience and morality, whether religious or secular in origin, should not be excluded from public discourse -- contrary to prevailing secular liberal opinion -- and also in what sense they should (and should not) merely be matters of private belief and freedom of conscience. | 21 3 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNorm Allen - African American Religiosity, Humanism, and Politics | Norm Allen is executive director of African Americans for Humanism, an educational organization primarily concerned with fostering critical thinking, ethical conduct, church-state separation, and skepticism toward untested claims to knowledge among African Americans. He is the editor of the ground-breaking book African-American Humanism: An Anthology, AAH Examiner, and Deputy Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has traveled and lectured widely throughout North America, Europe, and Africa and his writings have been published in scores of newspapers throughout the U.S. He has spoken on numerous radio and television programs and his writings have appeared in such books as Culture Wars and the National Center for Science Education’s Voices for Evolution. In this wide-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Norm Allen explores some of the challenges advancing science and secularism within the African American community. He examines the pressure to conform to the religious ideal among various black skeptics and atheists, including many historical African American figures such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, and Faye Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood of America. He debates whether religion is a liberating or oppressive force for African Americans. He also details many anti-science trends in the Black community, including those coming from Black entertainment outlets promoting anti-science such as psychic 900 lines, televangelists and belief in prophecy. He ties all of this discussion to an exploration of religion and secularism as they relate to political activism, including the influence of such high-profile Black preachers such as Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Barack Obama's spiritual advisor. | 14 3 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert M. Price - The Paperback Apocalypse | Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He’s a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books such as The Reason Driven Life, Deconstructing Jesus, Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured prominently in the movie The God Who Wasn’t There. His latest book is The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Bob Price discusses his new book The Paperback Apocalypse, detailing both the origins of the belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the influence of this belief in fiction. He touches upon the wide array of apocalyptic novels, including The Omen, Stephen King's The Stand, and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series, offering both literary and theological criticism. He also explores the psychological appeal of such apocalyptic novels. | 7 3 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMatthew C. Nisbet - Communicating about Science and Religion | Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Communication at American University. His research tracks scientific and environmental controversies, examining the interactions between experts, journalists, and various publics. In this area, Nisbet has published numerous peer-reviewed studies, has written for several leading popular outlets including the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, and The Scientist, and has been frequently called upon as a commentator by major news organizations. He also contributes the semi-regular “Science and the Media? column for Skeptical Inquirer online, and he tracks current events related to strategic communication at his popular blog Framing Science.. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Nisbet highlights the recent AAAS panel he organized titled “Communicating Science in a Religious America.? He details his ideas for the most effective strategies to engage the public about science issues, and debates whether the warfare metaphor of science versus religion undermines science education, and contrasts the approaches of leading scientists like Richard Dawkins and EO Wilsion. Nisbet also explores why it might be advantageous for secularist activists to re-prioritize when it comes to working in coalition with the religious around certain issues of concern to the science-education community. | 29 2 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - The Science vs. Religion Warfare Thesis | Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry Magazine and director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. He also directs traditional video operations at the Center for Inquiry. He is editor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief and author of three books: the science-fiction novels Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred and the polemic The Trouble With Christmas. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Flynn details the history of the idea of science and religion being at war, including details about the founding exponents of the idea, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White. He explains the unintended growth of the idea, and its consequences. He explores Stephen Jay Gould's response to the Warfare Thesis, Gould's NOMA theory, and reaction to it. Flynn also explains his own views on the conflict between science and religion, and how science may be continuous with social progress. | 22 2 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLynne Kelly - The Skeptics Guide to the Paranormal | Lynne Kelly is a writer and science educator in Australia, and a founding member of Australian Skeptics. An expert on the paranormal who uses aspects of the magicians art to advance skepticism, she holds degrees in education and engineering and is the author over a dozen books, including The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Lynne Kelly examines differences in paranormal beliefs between Australia and the United States, and whether such beliefs are growing. She talks about various paranormal topics from her book, including crop circles, psychic detectives, and communicating with the dead, and explains how to best convey a skeptical approach to students when addressing such topics. She addresses why she avoids overt skepticism of religion when educating her audiences, and why skepticism as a movement has often avoided religious faith claims. She also debates the perils and proper use of the magician's art, especially "cold reading," when teaching skepticism. | 15 2 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTory Christman - Anti-Science Scientology? | Tory Christman is a former member of the Church of Scientology. She left the organization in 2000, after being a member for about 30 years and is now one of its most visible and high-profile critics, having appeared on CNN, NPR and in the LA Times, and many other media outlets. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Christman recounts her experiences in Scientology, as well as her views about the church's practices with current and former members. She describes her participation in the church's anti-free-speech activities on the internet in the 1990's, and her views on the group Anonymous, a new web-based organization that seeks to respond to Scientology's activities. She explores some of the doctrines and beliefs of Scientology, including the church's views on medical science and psychiatry, auditing, Xenu, becoming a "clear," and e-meters. She also stresses the important role of science and critical thinking in confronting the challenges Scientology may bring to its detractors and adherents alike. | 8 2 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEdward Tabash - Science, Secularism, and the 2008 Presidential Election | Edward Tabash is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. Graduating magna cum laude from UCLA in 1973, he graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles three years later and was admitted to the California Bar that same year. He has chaired the National Legal Committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1995, and has argued and won before the California Supreme Court. He also sits as a part-time judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court system. He has successfully represented the scientific outlook and secular humanism in public debates against the leading Christian philosophers around the world. In addition to serving on the Board of the Center for Inquiry and chairing the Council for Secular Humanism’s First Amendment Task Force, he chairs the Center for Inquiry's Los Angeles branch. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Edward Tabash explores issues of science and secularism relating to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. He surveys the stances of the candidates of both the Republican and Democratic parties as regards church-state separation, gay rights, abortion rights, global warming and other topics important to the pro-science secularist, regardless of his or her political leanings. Tabash also emphasizes the crucial importance of this election due to the Supreme Court appointments the next President will make. Also in this episode Toni Van Pelt, CFI's Director of Government Affairs, details ways listeners can get involved with CFI's activities on Capitol Hill through its Office of Public Policy. | 1 2 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Allen Paulos - Irreligion | John Allen Paulos is Professor of Mathematics at Temple University. He has been celebrated as a writer and speaker about the importance of mathematical literacy, although he is also drawn to other related subjects, such as the mathematical basis of humor. He is the author of Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences, as well as A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market. His latest book is Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, John Allen Paulos explores some classical proof of God's existence, and why he discounts them. He criticizes some mathematical proofs for theism, including those based on statistics, and explains how free market economics might challenge Intelligent Design theory. He also details why it is important for the non-mathematician to know math, and how mathematics might be beautiful. | 25 1 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanColin McGinn - Secular Philosophy and Skepticism | Colin McGinn, educated at Oxford University, is the author of sixteen previous books, including The Making of a Philosopher. He has written for the London Review of Books, The New Republic, the New York Times Book Review, and other publications. He has taught philosophy at University College of London, Oxford, and Rutgers University, and is a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Miami. He is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind, but has published across the subjects of modern philosophy. He was featured in Bill Moyers' series Faith and Reason on PBS and also Jonathan Miller's Atheism Tapes, a BBC documentary series. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Colin McGinn explores various kinds of skepticism, giving his concerns about radical fallibilism and certain post-modern critiques of knowledge. He explains how he is certain that ghosts and Gods don't exist. He details how atheistic the profession of philosophy is, and how the tolerance shown while philosophers criticize each other serves as a model for good citizenship. He tells the reasons that led to his religious skepticism and atheism. He examines William Shakespeare as a philosopher, the problem of evil in Shakespeare's plays, and other philosophical subjects found in Shakespeare such as epistemology, ethics, life after death, happiness and the meaning of life. He also explains how getting into Shakespeare as a professional philosopher impacted his philosophy. | 18 1 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAubrey de Grey - Ending Aging | Aubrey de Grey, PhD, is a biomedical gerontologist and Chairman and Chief Science Officer of The Methuselah Foundation. His major research interests are the role and etiology of all forms of cellular and molecular damage in mammalian aging, and the design of interventions to reverse the age-related accumulation of such damage. He has published extensively on these and other areas of gerontology, and is also Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the only peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on intervention in aging. He is the organiser of an ongoing series of conferences and workshops that focus on the key biomedical research relevant to SENS, and he also oversees the Methuselah Foundation's growing sponsorship of SENS research worldwide. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Aubrey de Grey explains aging, and the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) program that seeks to reverse aging in our lifetime. He explains how his work is, and is not, continuous with "transhumanism." He addresses challenges the medical and scientific establishment have brought against his work, and how his project is different than the quackery so widespread in the anti-aging movement. He also discusses some of the social and existential problems that ending aging may create for our civilization. | 11 1 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDr. Stephen Barrett - Watching Out for Quackery | Stephen Barrett, M.D. has achieved national renown as an author, editor, and consumer advocate. In addition to heading Quackwatch, he is vice-president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health, and a Fellow of the Center for Inquiry's Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). The recipient of a number of awards, including the FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery and the Distinguished Service to Health Education Award from the American Association for Health Education, he is the author of 50 books, including The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America and seven editions of the college textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Barrett defines complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), the responsibilities of the consumer of healthcare, whether or not CAM is growing in mainstream healthcare, and the types of people who are susceptible to CAM claims. He also explores various CAM therapies including Therapeutic Touch, Chiropractic, myths about water fluoridization, and how a skeptic might most effectively confront family members who are consumers of complementary and alternative medicine. Also in this episode, Lauren Becker shares some thoughts on secular activism and science advocacy for 2008. | 4 1 08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanLawrence Krauss - Seducing for Science | Lawrence M. Krauss is Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, Prof of Astronomy, and Director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University. The author of 7 popular books including international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek, and the award winning, Atom, and his newest book, Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions from Plato to String Theory and Beyond, Krauss is also a regular radio commentator and essayist for newspapers such as the New York Times, and appears regularly on television. He is the only physicist to have been awarded the highest awards of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been particularly active leading the effort to defend the teaching of science in public schools, and to help define the proper limits of both science and religion, as well as defending scientific integrity in government. His essay in the New York Times on Evolution and Intelligent Design in May 2005 helped spur a recent controversy that has helped refine the Catholic Church's position on evolution. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Lawrence Krauss discusses the role scientists should serve in our society. He also details the sorry state of scientific literacy in America today, as well as some strategies for confronting the problem. He makes a case for why learning the methods and outlook of science is important in our democracy, even if it undermines society's basic beliefs about religion or the paranormal. And he challenges Richard Dawkins' methods of communicating the implications of science, even while applauding Dawkins for defending the place of the nonreligious in society. | 28 12 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - Ethics for the Nonreligious | Paul Kurtz, considered by many the father of the secular humanist movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, humanistic inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for the last forty years. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been featured very widely in the media, on topics as diverse as reincarnation, UFO abduction, secular versus religious ethics, communication with the dead, and the historicity of Jesus. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz talks about ethics from a nonreligious perspective, how morality develops, the moral education of children, and whether or not ethics can ever be more than just self-interestedness. He also explains how the question of God's existence should be immaterial to any discussion of human morality. Also in this episode, Free Inquiry magazine editor Tom Flynn explores the "reason for the season" as a secular humanist. | 21 12 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanStudent Freethought Leaders Speak Out | CFI supports a growing network of campus groups on about 200 campuses throughout North America and around the world. While this is a much smaller number than its "cultural competitors," with groups like Campus Crusade for Christ having an annual operating budget of $380 million, Center for Inquiry's campus groups are able to have an increasing impact through the dedication and vision of its student leaders. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, eight student leaders of CFI campus groups explore questions of mission and focus, as well as obstacles they face as they seek to advance science and secularism at the high school and college levels. They debate various strategies for outreach, and detail their successes, including events they have organized and faculty supporters they have discovered. They talk about the problem of how to present themselves to their wider learning community and how welcoming they should be of students who don't share their worldview. They also emphasize the importance of open-ended free inquiry, and how they see their goals as continuous with the university itself. | 14 12 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Dawkins - Science and the New Atheism | Richard Dawkins, considered one of the world's most influential scientists, is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi professorship of the public understanding of science at Oxford University and the recipient of a number of awards for his writings and for his science, including the International Cosmos Prize, the Kistler Prize, and the Shakespeare Prize. He is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books, such as The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Devil's Chaplain, and The Ancestor's Tale. His most recent title is the best selling The God Delusion which is now out in paperback.In this candid discussion with D.J. Grothe recorded in front of a live audience at the recent Secular Society and Its Enemies conference, Richard Dawkins discusses the impact of his book The God Delusion, whether or not his uncompromising attack on religion undermines science education, and how people can find meaning in a godless universe. He also explores strategies for advancing atheism in society and highlights what secularists may learn from the gay rights and feminist movements. Additionally, during the audience Q&A, Dawkins fields a question from the eminent ethicist Peter Singer. | 7 12 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanKeith Stanovich - Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin | Keith Stanovich holds the Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science at the Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology, University of Toronto. His research areas include the psychology of reasoning and rationality and the psychology of reading, which explores what happens in the brain and to the brain through the process of reading. Recently, he was named one of the 25 most productive educational psychologists. His many books include How to Think Straight about Psychology, Who Is Rational?: Studies of Individual Differences in Reasoning, The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Stanovich talks about his book The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in an Age of Darwin, which is about "Universal Darwinism" and its implications for widely and deeply held beliefs such as God, free-will, and the concept of the self. He explores the gene's eye view of life and also memes as self-replicating units of cuture, and how these selfish replicators use humans as vehicles for their own purposes, even as they might not be in the best interest of humans. He shows some ways that we may overcome, or rebel, against these forces to construct meaning from our existence. | 30 11 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Wiseman - Quirkology | Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist, started his working life as a professional magician. He currently holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He frequently appears in the media, and has written over 60 academic articles and several books, including the best-selling The Luck Factor. His newest book is Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Richard Wiseman discusses "Quirkology," areas of psychology where many scientists fear to tread. He explores some practical applications of social psychology, detailing how we can more effectively detect liars, the use of critical thinking in detecting patterns in our lives, and how to be more informed about the psychology behind supernatural or paranormal experiences. He mentions the youtube successes that he has had in bringing social psychology to a wider public. He also discusses the importance of magic and legerdemain in exploring social psychology, and the relationship of Quirkology to other fringe areas of study such as research into psychic phenomena and parapsychology. | 22 11 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - Communicating Science to the Public | Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of America's leading spokespersons for science. The research areas he focuses on are star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to many scholarly publications, Dr Tyson is one of America’s most respected science writers, and he writes a monthly column for Natural History magazine simply titled the “Universe.? Among his eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and also Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. His most recent book is Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. He is also the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA’s program ScienceNow, which explore the frontiers of all the science that shapes our understanding of our place in the universe. He is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, where he also teaches. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Neil deGrasse Tyson examines various approaches to informal science education, his experiences teaching science through pop-culture media outlets, and controversies regarding science popularization. He explains his views on the implications of science for religious belief, questioning the strategy of science educators who seem to equate science and atheism. He also recounts the direct influence of Carl Sagan on his professional development. | 16 11 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Behe - The Edge of Evolution | Michael J. Behe, a central figure in the Intelligent Design movement, is professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He is the author of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution and most recently The Edge of Evolution: Searching for the Limits of Darwinism. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Behe discusses his prominent role in the ID movement, and how he first got involved. He explores the differences between creationism and Intelligent Design theory, and details some of his experiences as a key witness for the defense in the Dover, Pennsylvania Intelligent Design trial. He also explains the thesis of his new book, and talks about what he considers the biases of mainstream science. | 7 11 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe 11th Annual Houdini Seance at CFI | Harry Houdini, the world-famous magician and escape artist, earnestly explored the religion of spiritualism and communication with the dead after his beloved mother’s death in 1913, even as he later crusaded against those whom he believed were fraudulent mediums. In this episode, recorded on Halloween, Joe Nickell, the world’s leading paranormal investigator and CSI's senior research fellow, and D.J. Grothe (both of whom are former professional magicians) conduct CFI’s 11th Annual Houdini Seance. They also recount episodes in the history of Spiritualism, including details from the lives of the Fox Sisters and the Davenport Brothers, and Houdini's involvement investigating the religion of Spiritualism and his relationship to the Davenports. They discuss Lilydale, the Spiritualist community in Western New York, and talk about some of the secret methods Houdini exposed when challenging the mediums of his day. They conclude by exploring what might be the best balance between skepticism and compassion when investigating paranormal and spiritualistic claims. | 2 11 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSteven Pinker - The Stuff of Thought | Steven Pinker, a renowned cognitive neuroscientist, a research psychologist, and is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His research on cognition and language won the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences and two prizes from the American Psychological Association. He has also received several honorary doctorates and many awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching, general achievement, and his critically acclaimed books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Blank Slate. He is also a Humanist Laureate of CFI’s International Academy of Humanism. His newest book is The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Pinker explores what our use of language can tell us about human nature. He discusses our use of metaphors, and what concepts may be innate, how the "language of thought" may be hard-wired in our brains. He also explains how to avoid the pitfalls of such hard-wiring, using the methods of science as the model. | 26 10 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEdward Tabash - Why There Really Is No God | Edward Tabash is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. Graduating magna cum laude from UCLA in 1973, he graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles three years later and was admitted to the California Bar that same year. He has chaired the National Legal Committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1995. He has been the most publicly-active man in the abortion rights movement in California since 1981. He has argued and won before the California Supreme Court and sits as a part-time judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court system. Since 1990, he has been a member of the First Amendment Committee of the ACLU of Southern California. In this conversation with D.J Grothe, Eddie Tabash explains why he argues there really is no God. He discusses various scientific and philosophical arguments against god-belief, including arguments from divine hiddenness, the physical mind, the problem of evil, and morality. Tabash also addresses questions of meaning in a godless universe, and what atheists should do with their atheism. | 19 10 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarbara Oakley - Evil Genes | Barbara Oakley, PhD, has been dubbed a female Indiana Jones — her writing combines worldwide adventure with solid research expertise. Among other adventures, she has worked as a Russian translator on Soviet trawlers in the Bering Sea, served as radio operator at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and risen from private to regular army captain in the U.S. Army. Currently an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan, Oakley is a recent vice president of the world's largest bioengineering society and holds a doctorate in the integrative discipline of systems engineering. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Oakley explores human evil from a scientific perspective. She recounts experiences that led her to research the topic, including episodes from her sister's life, and from her travels. She details recent advances in brain imaging and genetics that have implications for traditional views of evil, and discusses why a scientific understanding of evil is important. | 15 10 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAlan Dershowitz - Blasphemy | Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is one of the country's foremost appellate lawyers and a distinguished defender of civil liberties. More than a million people have heard him lecture around the world. His books include the New York Times bestsellers The Case for Israel and Chutzpah as well as Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights, The Vanishing American Jew, Why Terrorism Works, and America on Trial. He has been profiled and interviewed widely in the media and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Free Inquiry, and many other newspapers and periodicals. His latest book is Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dershowitz explores the question of whether America is a Christian nation, the use of the mention of God in the Declaration of Independence by the religious right to advance their aims, whether marriage and gay rights is a church-state separation issue, and separation of religion and state issues in the nation of Israel. He also discusses the secular roots of America's founding, and the secular roots of Zionism, addresses his long-time support of Israel as a secularist, and discusses the current political condition of the religious right in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Also in this episode, Justin Trottier, executive director of CFI Ontario, discusses church-state separation issues in Ontario's public school system. | 5 10 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - The New Idolatry | The world's leading paranormal investigator, Joe Nickell is a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Looking for a Miracle, Inquest on the Shroud of Turin, and most recently The Relics of the Christ. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Joe Nickell explores what he calls the "new idolatry," the term he uses to refer to weeping religious icons and statues that stream tears of blood, become animated, and weep human tears, among other supernatual claims. He recounts his investigation of a number of such cases, and defends his investigative approach. He also talks about why such investigation is important, even in a society where everyone is entitled to believe as he or she chooses. | 28 9 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMassimo Pigliucci - Making Sense of Evolution | Massimo Pigliucci is professor of Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is well known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of the public understanding and appreciation of science. A recipient of the Dobzhansky Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution, he has been awarded three times the Oak Ridge National Laboratories Science Alliance Faculty Research Award. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. His research in science focuses on genotype-environment interactions, on natural selection, and on the constraints imposed on the latter by the genetic and developmental makeup of organisms. As a philosopher, he is interested in epistemological issues in the philosophy of science and in the conceptual examination of fundamental ideas underlying evolutionary theory. Pigliucci writes regularly for Skeptical Inquirer and is the author of a number of books, including Phenotypic Integration; Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science; and Phenotypic Plasticity. His most recent book, co-authored with Jonathan Kaplan, is Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Massimo Pigliucci discusses both the methods and the concepts of evolutionary biologists and what may be wrong with them. He explores ideas in the history of evolutionary theory, such as natural selection, evolvability, and the levels at which evolution by natural selection operates (gene, individual, superorganism, or species). He also discusses why he says scientists, especially evolutionary biologists, need to do more philosophy than they are now doing. | 21 9 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - The New Atheism and Secular Humanism | Paul Kurtz, considered by many the father of the secular humanist movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, humanistic inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for the last forty years. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been featured very widely in the media, on topics as diverse as reincarnation, UFO abduction, secular versus religious ethics, communication with the dead, and the historicity of Jesus. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Paul Kurtz draws distinctions between the New Atheism and secular humanism, and explores commonalities that the nonreligious have with liberal religionists when it comes to environmentalism, gay rights, and other issues of concern. He also defines and defends certain conceptions of the good life without God. | 14 9 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMadeleine Van Hecke - Why Smart People Do Dumb Things | Madeleine Van KHecke is a licensed clinical psychologist and an adjunct faculty member at North College in Naperville, Illinois. She is a writer, and a lecturer and workshop leader for Open Arms Seminar. Her recent book is Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Van Hecke explores common missteps that even intelligent and educated people make when approaching certain topics, and how human intelligence can sometimes actually backfire. She explores how science may be brought to bear on nonscientific topics such as the quest for human meaning. She also explores certain biases that the skeptical community may have. | 7 9 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDr. Francis Collins - The Language of God | Francis Collins is one of the world's leading scientists. He has been the longtime head of the Human Genome Project, the groundbreaking international effort to map and sequence all of the human DNA and then determine its functions. The Project is widely considered the most significant scientific undertaking of our time. A devout religious believer, Dr. Collins brings a unique perspective on the compatibility of science with religion, which he explores in his recent book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Francis Collins details the potential benefits of recent advances in the field of genetics, explores the question of whether or not religious belief negatively impacts a scientist's research, and talks about his journey from atheism to devout believer. He talks about the comforts that religion brings to a believer, and how the question of the origins of morality was central to his religious conversion. He also offers challenges to recent arguments against belief in God, to "fundamentalist atheism," and to atheistic bias among the scientific community, while also offering "theistic evolution" as an alternative to both atheistic evolution and Intelligent Design creationism. | 31 8 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGarrett G. Fagan - Archaeological Fantasies | Garrett G. Fagan is Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State University. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and McMaster University Canada. His main research interests lie in the field of Roman History, about which he’s published numerous scholarly articles. He has lectured widely on topics in Roman history, and this year coedited From Augustus to Nero: An Intermediate Latin Reader. His newest book is Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Fagan explains the differences between archaeology and pseudoarchaeology, emphasizing how the science of archaeology benefits society. He explores possible motivations of pseudoarchaeologists, and challenges various pseudoarchaeological theories, such as Atlantis, the origins of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, and the theories purporting to discover great pyramids in Bosnia. He also details the various ways that pseudoarchaeology and other pseudoscientific thinking may harm society. | 24 8 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Mooney - Storm World | Chris Mooney is an acclaimed writer who focuses on subjects at the intersection of science and politics. His writing has appeared in Wired, New Scientist, Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Slate, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The Boston Globe, and he has appeared widely in the media, on programs such as The Daily Show with John Stewart, NPR’s Science Friday, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. His blog, called The Intersection, was a recipient of Scientific American’s 2005 Science and Technology web award, which noted that “science is lucky to have such a staunch ally in acclaimed journalist Chris Mooney.? The author of The Republican War on Science, his newest book is Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Mooney discusses Storm World, the science behind the controversies surrounding possible links of global warming to increased intensity of storms, and the nature of scientific debate. He also talks about the need for scientists to better frame their science for public understanding, and how the "science versus religion" frame may undercut the agenda of scientists. | 17 8 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter H. Gilmore - Science and Satanism | Peter H. Gilmore is the High Priest of the Church of Satan. He has been interviewed on numerous television and radio programs dealing with the topic of Satanism, including spots on The History Channel, BBC, The Sci-Fi Channel, and Bob Larson's Christian radio show. In 1989, he and his wife Peggy Nadramia began publishing The Black Flame; a Satanic journal, and continues to publish issues sporadically. In 2005, Gilmore provided a new introduction to LaVey's The Satanic Bible, and his essay on Satanism was published in the "Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature." On Walpurgisnacht 2007, The Satanic Scriptures was released, which is his newest collection of essays and writings on atheism and Satanism. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Peter Gilmore explores the similarities of atheism and Satanism, how science and Darwin's theory of evolution may undergird its worldview and ethics, and how Satanism is a theatrical "nonreligion." He also shares his opinions about recent strategies to popularize atheism, and contrasts Satanic ethics with other nonreligious ethical perspectives such as secular humanism and Objectivism. | 10 8 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanCarol Tavris - Mistakes Were Made | Carol Tavris is a social psychologist, lecturer, and writer whose books include Anger and The Mismeasure of Woman. She has written on psychological topics for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Scientific American, Skeptical Inquiry, and many other publications. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, and a member of the editorial board of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, she is also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Her new book is Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, co-authored with Elliot Aronson, one of the most distinguished social psychologists in the world. In this wide-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Carol Tavris explains "cognitive dissonance," and how it can lead to self-deception and self-justification. She talks about the ways that reducing dissonance leads to real-world negative effects in the areas of politics, law, criminal justice, and in interpersonal relationships. She also explores what dissonance theory says about confronting those who hold discredited beliefs, what dissonance theory may say about religious and paranormal belief, and the role of the scientific temper in avoiding the pitfalls of cognitive dissonance. | 3 8 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter Irons - God on Trial | Peter Irons is professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego. A noted constitutional scholar, historian, and lawyer, he is the author of the bestselling May It Please the Court; The Battle for the Constitution; War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution; and A People’s History of the Supreme Court. His newest book is God on Trial: Dispatches from America's Religious Battlefields. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Peter Irons discusses the legal issues involved in the church-state court cases detailed in God on Trial, the personalities involved in the various cases and their motivations, and how religion can be so divisive in society. He also explores whether or not atheism is a civil rights issue, and what secularists and religious people alike may do to help secure separation of church and state in the United States. | 27 7 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanOphelia Benson - Why Truth Matters | Ophelia Benson is the joint-author (with Jeremy Stangroom) of Why Truth Matters and The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense, and Deputy Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. In addition to maintaining the popular website butterfliesandwheels.com, she writes a monthly column for The Philosophers' Magazine Online. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, she discusses Why Truth Matters, and her attempts to "debunk fashionable nonsense," including post-modernism, creation science and intelligent design theory, among other fields. She also talks about the importance of truth for the non-philosopher, and how people can better restore truth to its rightful place. | 20 7 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPhilip Kitcher - Living with Darwin | Philip Kitcher is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. An eminent philosopher, he is the author of many books on science, literature, and music, including Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism; The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities; and Science, Truth, and Democracy. Concerning himself mostly with the philosophy of science, he has also had influence in the study of the ethical and political constraints on scientific research, the evolution of altruism and morality, and the possible conflict between science and religion. His most recent book is Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith (Oxford University Press, 2006). In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Philip Kitcher explores the implications of Darwinism for both literalist religion, and for liberal faith, and to what extent the implications of Darwin’s theory for belief in God should be taught in the public schools. He also discusses the role and benefits of religion, and explores alternatives to it, such as secular humanism, and offers ideas for how secular humanism might become more popular in society. | 13 7 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChristopher Hitchens - God Is Not Great | Christopher Hitchens, one of the most celebrated social critics of our time, has been a columnist for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Nation, Slate and Free Inquiry. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including God is Not Great (2007), A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq (2003), Why Orwell Matters (2002), The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001), and Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001). Additionally, he has written prolifically for The London Review of Books, Granta, Harper's, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, New Left Review, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek International, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Washington Post. He is also a regular television and radio commentator. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Hitchens discusses his new best-selling book God Is Not Great, which is his contribution to the recent slate of best-selling atheist titles. He also explores various strategies for challenging religiosity in our society, the immorality of the Bible, how religion is bad for one's health, his many recent public debates with believers, and what he calls the war between the West and Islamism. He also comments on the relationship between atheism and intelligence, atheism and great literature, and the need for a "New Enlightenment." | 6 7 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNatalie Angier - The Canon | Natalie Anger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist for the New York Times. Born in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York, she studied physics and English at Barnard College, where she graduated with high honors in 1978. From 1980 to 1984, Angier wrote about biology for Discover Magazine. She also worked as a science writer for Time Magazine. She is the recipient of a number of honors for her writing on science, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) prize for excellence in science journalism and the Lewis Thomas award for distinguished writing in the life sciences. The author of a number of critically accliamed books, her most recent is The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, she explores the reasons why everyone should work to become scientifically literate. She also details specific reasons why chemistry, evolutionary biology, astronomy and other fields should interest the non-scientist public. Other topics discussed include atheism and science, and the future of science writing. | 29 6 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Clark - Encountering Naturalism | Tom Clark is founder and director of the Center For Naturalism, a non profit advocacy organization in the Boston area devoted to educating the public about naturalism, policy development, and community building. He is the editor of the popular online website, Naturalism.Org, which is among the web's most comprehensive resources on scientific naturalism, its implications and its applications. He is also the author of Encountering Naturalism. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Tom Clark explores the differences between methodological naturalism and scientific / philosophical / metaphysical naturalism. He also talks about some of the implications of naturalism for society's beliefs about religion, the paranormal, and concepts like free-will. He also explores how naturalism can help foster a sense of secular spirituality among those who adopt its worldview. | 22 6 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanR. Joseph Hoffmann - The Jesus Project | Joe Hoffmann, formally at Oxford, is director of Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). He has appeared widely in the media and at venues across the United States speaking on Christian origins, the historical Jesus, the proper role of religion in society, and similar topics. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Just War and Jihad: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Hoffmann details a new project involving scholars from many disciplines that is trying to determine the likelihood of Jesus of Nazareth having ever existed. The goal of The Jesus Project, according to Dr. Hoffmann, is not to "prove" the non-existence of Jesus, but to take the theory as a "testable hypothesis" and use the best methods of critical inquiry to reach a probable conclusion. Additionally, Dr. Hoffmann addresses critics by clarifying the agenda of the project. | 15 6 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Wisnia - Dr. DeBunko | Chris Wisnia has been involved with the comics self-publishing for several years. The creator of the celebrated comic books Tabloia, and Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep, he also recently began a comic book with a decidedly skeptical theme titled Dr. DeBunko, which features a character who investigates and debunks the supernatural and paranormal beliefs in our culture. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Wisnia discusses Dr. DeBunko, the reception the book has garnered in the skeptical community, and what effect he thinks it has (or that he intends it to have) on his readers. He also explores Dr. DeBunko's methods versus other methods of investigating the paranormal, and whether there is reason to be optimistic about the long-term effects of the skeptical movement. | 8 6 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid Triggle - Science and the Public | David Triggle is distinguished professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and president of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is the author and editor of several books dealing with the autonomic nervous system and drug-receptor interactions, some two hundred and fifty research papers and some one hundred and fifty chapters and reviews. Currently, his research and teaching interests have expanded to include the philosophical basis of ethics and issues around the science-policy-public interface through the Center for Inquiry Institute. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, David Triggle explains the new Science and the Public masters degree jointly sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and the State University of New York. He also talks about various arguments for public science literacy, the difference between the need for science literacy and the need for the public's appreciation of the "ethos" of science, and various questions at the interface of science and public policy. He also treats the topic of whether science and religion are compatible. | 1 6 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJennifer Michael Hecht - The Happiness Myth | Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry. Her Doubt: A History (HarperCollins, 2003) demonstrates a long, strong history of religious doubt from the origins of written history to the present day, all over the world. Hecht's The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology (Columbia University, 2003), won the Phi Beta Kappa Society's 2004 prestigious Ralph Waldo Emerson Award for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity. Hecht's first poetry book, The Next Ancient World won the Poetry Society of America's 2002 Norma Farber First Book Award. Her most recent poetry book, Funny, won the University of Wisconsin's 2005 Felix Pollak Poetry Prize, and Publisher's Weekly called it one of the most original and entertaining books of the year. Her book reviews appear in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her newest book, The Happiness Myth, has achieved wide critical praise. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Hecht discusses the history of the idea of happiness, and various ways that people throughout history have sought happiness. She also explores how people in today's society may sometimes undermine their happiness by the ways they seek it, such as through recreational drug use, consumerism, health and fitness and religion or spirituality. She concludes by talking about how focusing on one's death may be a vital part of living happily in a universe without God. | 25 5 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDavid Koepsell - Why Secular Humanism? | David Koepsell is the Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism, North America's leading organization for nonreligious people. An author, philosopher and an attorney, David's work focuses mostly on the nexus of science, technology, ethics and public policy. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, David explores the relationship between secular humanism and religion, whether secular humanism is just a religion for the nonreligious, the "tenets" of secular humanism, and addresses many challenges to the worldview both from Christian activists and from those in the "atheist movement." He also justifies it as a viable naturalistic life-stance, competitive with supernatural ways of looking at the world. | 18 5 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - The Relics of the Christ | The world’s leading paranormal investigator, Joe Nickell is a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquiry science magazine. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1983, 1998) and most recently, The Relics of the Christ (2007). In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Nickell talks about his new book, Relics of the Christ, and various Holy Artifacts he has scientifically investigated over the years. He details current skeptical thinking on the Shroud of Turin, purported to be Jesus of Nazareth's original burial cloth, certain relics cults throughout history, and the important role that relics have played in the history of the Catholic Church. He also touches on his research on the Holy Grail, investigations of the famed James Ossuary, the burial container claimed to belong to James the brother of Jesus, and fragments of the Cross of Jesus. | 11 5 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanHemant Mehta - I Sold My Soul on Ebay | Hemant Mehta is an honors graduate from the university of Illinois, and has been involved in secularist student activism for years. Early on, he attended one of CFI's summer sessions on scholarship, becoming that year's student volunteer president of CFI's campus outreach program. He is now in graduate school at DePaul University. Mehta once held an unique auction on eBay wherein the highest bidder could send Mehta to a church of his or her choice. This led to his writing his new book, I Sold My Soul On Ebay. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Mehta discusses common misconceptions people (and especially atheists) have about Christians, his impressions of various churches he has visited in the process of researching his book, and details specific mega-churches such as Ted Haggard's in Colorado Springs, and Joel Osteen's in Houston, Texas. He also offers suggestions about how churches can be more effective at reaching out in dialogue with the skeptical community. | 4 5 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTaner Edis - Science and Religion in Islam | Taner Edis, born and raised in Turkey, is associate professor of physics at Truman State University and the author of The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science and Science and Non-belief, among other publications. His latest book is An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Taner Edis explores whether the Koran anticipates the modern scientific understanding of the world, the intelligent design creationist movement within Islam, and whether science is even compatible with the Muslim faith. He also shares his views about the future of Islam, especially in relation to the secular, more scientific West. | 27 4 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMatthew C. Nisbet - Selling Science to the Public | Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Communication at American University. His research tracks scientific and environmental controversies, examining the interactions between experts, journalists, and various publics. In this area, Nisbet has published numerous peer-reviewed studies, with his work having been cited more than 100 times over the past couple years. In addition to his research, Nisbet co-authored with Chris Mooney the much-talked-about Columbia Journalism Review cover story on intelligent design, and he has written for other popular outlets such as Foreign Policy and Geotimes magazines. He also contributes the semi-regular "Science and the Media" column for Skeptical Inquirer online, and he tracks current events related to strategic communication at his blog Framing Science, which was recently named by the NY Daily News as a "top political blog." Nisbet is a frequent invited speaker at conferences and meetings across the U.S. and Canada, and he is often called upon for his expert analysis by major news organizations. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Cornell University and an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College. From 1997 to 1999, he worked as Public Relations Director for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the Center for Inquiry-Transnational. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Nisbet explores the issue of "framing science" in the public mind, how scientists may be failing at effectively communicating the importance of the implications of science for society, and steps the science community may take to more expertly sell their science to a disinterested public. He also argues about Richard Dawkins and his effect on the public appreciation of science, and the impact of linking atheism with science for issues such as stem-cell research, teaching evolution in the public schools, and global warming. | 20 4 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPhil Plait - The Bad Astronomer | Phil Plait works in the physics and astronomy department at Sonoma State University. In the early '90's, he started Badastronomy.com, which has become a popular website focused on educating the public about astronomy and space science, especially as regards common misconceptions and pseudoscientific astronomy claims. In recent years, he has also been involved with debunking several more general pseudoscientific theories. In March 2006, Science magazine celebrated the Bad Astronomy website, praising Plait's blog, begun in March 2005. This blog was also a finalist for the 2006 Weblog Award (the "Bloggie"). The author of one book, The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait is also a regular contributor to many online publications, including The Huffington Post. In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Phil Plait discusses science education, the need for the public appreciation of science, public investment in space science, and how such investment benefits society. He also addresses the question of science's compatibility with religion, and explores social conflicts surrounding the teaching of evolution in the public schools. | 12 4 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - Debunking in Hollywood? | The world's leading paranormal investigator, Joe Nickell is a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquiry science magazine. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1983, 1998) and most recently, The Relics of the Christ (2007). In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Nickell debates "debunking" versus open-minded skepticism, and defends himself against the charge that he is a biased anti-paranormalist with an agenda. He also talks about his consulting role in the new Warner Brothers movie, The Reaping, which stars Oscar-winner Hilary Swank as a lapsed Christian dedicated to debunking claims of religious miracles and how her role depended heavily on his books, articles and investigations. Nickell also talks about the role of skepticism in Hollywood more generally. | 6 4 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNica Lalli - Nothing: Something to Believe In | Nica Lalli is an art educator working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also writes a weekly column in the Brooklyn Paper. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Nica talks about her new and acclaimed memoir of growing up nonreligious, Nothing: Something to Believe In. She also explores how to relate to devout relatives, the need to "come out" as a nonbeliever, and what she does believe in, if she doesn't believe in God. | 30 3 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSusan Haack - Defending Science -- Within Reason | Susan Haack, formerly Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge, and then professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, is presently Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law at the University of Miami. Her areas of interest include philosophy of logic and language, epistemology and metaphysics, philosophy of science, including issues of scientific testimony in court, Pragmatism, and feminism. Professor Haack is the author of several celebrated books, including Deviant Logic, Philosophy of Logics, Evidence and Inquiry: Towards Reconstruction in Epistemology, Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Beyond the Formalism, Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays, and Defending Science -- Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism as well as of numerous articles. She has been widely reviewed and cited in general interest publications such as the Times Literary Supplement, the Wilson Quarterly, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as in specialized journals. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Haack explores the values of science, and addresses its critics, both supernaturalists and post-modernists. She also defends science as being continuous with common sense, explores whether science and religion are compatible, and talks about whether or not science can ever have any relevance to ethics. | 23 3 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTawfik Hamid - My Life as a Muslim Terrorist | Tawfik Hamid, an expert on Islamic terrorism, joined the Islamic group Muslim GI in Egypt, while in medical school. His colleagues in the terror movement included Al Zawaherri, then a friend with whom Tawfik used to pray, and now the number 2 person of Al Qaeda. Eventually Dr. Hamid questioned the feelings of hatred and impulses to violence that his participation in extremist Islam was fomenting within him. He became a physician, and also a scholar of Islamic texts. When he began to preach in Mosques to promote a message of peace instead of violence and hatred, he himself became a target of the Islamic extremists who had previously been his friends. They threatened his life, forcing him and his family to flee Egypt , and then Saudi Arabia . His appearance on Fox TV in early 2006 and his testimony at the first major Intelligence Summit in Washington have further established him as a leading authority on global terror movements. He explains why extremist Islam is far more prevalent and poses a far more serious threat than most Americans appreciate to our economy, ecology, and national security. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Tawfik Hamid discusses his experiences with extremist Islam and the Al Quada affiliated organization he joined, the question of moderate Islam and moderate Muslim organizations such as the Council on Islamic American Relations. He also explores the dire need for Islam to be reformed, and the recent CFI-sponsored Secular Islam Summit in St. Petersburg, Florida. Also in this episode, Ibn Warraq reads the Declaration from the Secular Islam Summit, which has received worldwide press and grassroots attention. | 16 3 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert M. Price - Jesus: The Failed Hypothesis | Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He's a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books such as Deconstructing Jesus, Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured prominently in the movie The God Who Wasn't There. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Price discusses the uses of doubt in historical inquiry and especially in Biblical criticism, his doubts about the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth, and many of the assertions in his forthcoming book The Paperback Apocalypse, which treats current religious, political and social movements motivated by belief in the return of Jesus and fulfilled prophecies in the Jewish and Christian Bibles. | 9 3 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanVictor Stenger - God: The Failed Hypothesis | Victor Stenger is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is also founder and president of Colorado Citizens for Science. He's held visiting faculty positions at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and at Oxford in the United Kingdom, and has been a visiting researcher at Rutherford Laboratory in England, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati, Italy, and the University of Florence in Italy. Stenger's search career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics that ultimately led to the current standard model. He participated in experiments that helped establish the properties of strange particles, quarks, gluons, and neutrinos and has also helped pioneer the emerging fields of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. In his last project before retiring, Vic collaborated on the experiment in Japan which showed for the first time that the neutrino has mass. He is the author of many books, including Comprehensible Cosmos, The Unconscious Quantum, Not by Design, Has Science Found God, and the recent New York times best-seller God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist. In this talk with D.J. Grothe, Stenger explores many of the topics treated in his book, including the scientific evidence against the belief in God, where the laws of physics come from if not from a divine lawgiver, what E.S.P. research may imply about God's existence, the morality of atheism, and whether science should even be treating the topic of God in the first place. Also in this episode, Austin Dacey, director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City details the upcoming Secular Islam Summit in Florida, and the growing grassroots movement of secular muslims working to advance rationalism, science, and the separation of mosque and state in the Islamic world. | 2 3 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSteven Pinker - Evolutionary Psychology and Human Nature | Steven Pinker, a renowned research psychologist, is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His research on cognition and language won the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences and two prizes from the American Psychological Association. He has also received several honorary doctorates and many awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching, general achievement, and his critically acclaimed books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Blank Slate. He is also a Humanist Laureate of CFI's International Academy of Humanism. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Pinker explores what science tells us about human nature, explains the implications of and recent advances in evolutionary psychology, and talks about atheism and its relationship to the scientific outlook. | 23 2 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarbara Forrest - The Wedge of Intelligent Design | Barbara Forrest is a philosopher and public intellectual at Southeastern Louisiana University. Widely praised for her compelling expert testimony in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, she is a tireless defender of science education and the teaching of evolution in U.S. public schools. With Paul R. Gross, she is co-author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (Oxford University Press, 2004), which examines the goals and strategies of the intelligent design movement and its attempts to undermine the teaching of evolutionary biology. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Barbara Forrest examines the intelligent design movement, its history and its agenda, and the so-called "wedge strategy," including the ID movement's public relations efforts and other methods the movement has used to advance the widespread public acceptance of intelligent design. She also talks about the Discovery Institute and the implications of the theory of evolution for theistic belief. | 16 2 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPeter Singer - The Way We Eat | Peter Singer has been called "the world's most influential living philosopher," by The New Yorker and Time Magazine listed him in "The Time 100," their annual listing of the world's 100 most influential people. One of the most controversial philosophers alive today, he is DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne. He has been recognized as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies, and is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. He writes a regular column for Free Inquiry magazine, and is the author of dozens of books, including Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, and Animal Liberation, which has sold more than a half million copies, Writings on an Ethical Life, One World: Ethics and Globalization, The President of Good and Evil, about George Bush, and In Defense of Animals. His most recent book, which is written with Jim Mason, is The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. In this wide-ranging conversation with D.J. Grothe, Peter Singer discusses The Way We Eat and the ethics of vegetarianism, topics in bioethics such as abortion and euthanasia, and what world poverty may demand from citizens in developed nations. He addresses common challenges to his robust system of secular ethics, and explores other implications of utilitarianism. He also considers reasons why people should be moral even if there is no God. | 9 2 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSolomon Schimmel - Specious Proofs for Quranic Divinity | Solomon Schimmel is a psychologist of religion and Professor of Jewish Education and Psychology at Hebrew College. He has been a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University and has lectured widely throughout the world. An expert on the psychology of forgiveness and reconciliation among the world's religions, he is the author of The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology and Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness, both published by Oxford University Press. His forthcoming book, also to be published by Oxford University Press, is tentatively titled The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Jewish Christian and Muslim Scriptural Fundamentalists. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Professor Schimmel discusses the psychology of religion, why some believers use specious arguments for the divine authorship of their sacred texts, and the threat to civilization that certain Muslim extremists pose. He also talks about the obligation he says scholars have to undermine such anti-social and anti-democratic belief-systems. | 2 2 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of America's leading spokespersons for science. The research areas he focuses on are star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to many scholarly publications, Dr Tyson is one of America's most respected science writers, and he writes a monthly column for Natural History magazine simply titled the "Universe." Among his eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and also Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. He is the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA's program ScienceNow, which explore the frontiers of all the science that shapes our understanding of our place in the universe. He is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, where he also teaches. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Tyson explores the "popularization" of science, the ups and downs of science education, why scientists should be personally motivated to increase public science interest, whether his studies in astrophysics make him more or less religious, the "spirituality" of the scientific outlook, and other topics that he treats in his new book Death By Black Hole. He also talks about his experiences hosting PBS-NOVA's ScienceNow. | 25 1 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJohn Shook - Scientific Naturalism and its Discontents | John Shook is Vice President for Research and Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, N.Y. He received his PhD in philosophy at the University at Buffalo and was a professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University for six years. His research and writing focuses on American philosophy, philosophy of science, epistemology, and political theory. His most recent book is the Blackwell Companion to Pragmatism, edited with Joseph Margolis. He authored Dewey’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge and Reality, edited Pragmatic Naturalism and Realism, and edited the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers. He is also co-editor of the journals Contemporary Pragmatism and The Pluralist. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, John Shook discusses what Scientific Naturalism is, its history and its implications as well as its conflicts with Postmodernist, paranormal, and supernatural ideologies. | 19 1 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEugene Burger - Magic and Mystery | Eugene Burger, "universally recognized as perhaps the finest close-up magician in the world," (Stagebill magazine) has written fifteen best-selling books for magicians, starred in a number of instructional videos, lectured widely to magicians' groups in over a dozen countries, and his writings have been translated into several languages. His deep understanding of the psychology and philosophy behind magic has won him international accolades, cover stories in conjuring magazines, and four awards from the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. When the leading international trade journal Magic compiled its list of the one hundred most influential magicians of the twentieth century, Eugene Burger was included for his ability to "arouse feelings of astonishment, as well as a host of other indescribable sensations." His talk, "How Magicians Think," applies his special understanding of deception and perception to the corporate world. He has performed on numerous television shows in Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Finland and Japan, and has been featured on PBS's The Art of Magic and The Learning Channel's Mysteries of Magic. He's also been been profiled twice on CNN. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Burger discusses belief in the paranormal, "Spirit Theater," and the possible deception of the public by paranormal claimants or entertainers such as Israeli psychic Uri Geller and American psychic medium John Edward. He also explores the relationship of magic to religion and to science, what magic can teach us about how we believe, and the kinds of benefits the student of magic receives from learning the art. | 12 1 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAnn Druyan - Carl Sagan and The Varieties of Scientific Experience | Ann Druyan is an author, public lecturer, and TV and movie writer and producer whose work focuses on the worldview of science. She is the widow of Carl Sagan, the great astronomer and public advocate of science and reason. With him, she co-wrote the Emmy Award Winning and the Peabody Award Winning television series Cosmos. She served as Creative Director for NASA's Voyager Interstellar Record Project, the goldern record on the Voyager Spacecrafts that includes visual images and music and she co-created and produced the movie Contact, which is based on the novel Contact that she co-wrote with Carl Sagan. She is also the author or co-author of several other books, including A Famous Broken Heart, and Comet, which was on the New York Times best seller list for two months. She edited the recent title, Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, which is Carl Sagan's last book. In this wide-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Druyan discusses the new book The Varieties of Scientific Experience, her relationship with Carl Sagan, science as an outlook on life, what Sagan called "informed worship," the use of the word "spiritual" by nonreligious people, the humility of science, skepticism about politics and the paranormal, and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. She also explores the place of humanity in the cosmos, the relationship of science to religion, and whether they are compatible. | 5 1 07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanR. Joseph Hoffmann - The Scientific Study of Religion | Joe Hoffmann, formally at Oxford, is director of Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). He has appeared widely in the media and at venues across the United States speaking on Christian origins, the historical Jesus, the proper role of religion in society, and similar topics. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Just War and Jihad: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Hoffmann explores the implications of science for religion, and how to study religion in a scientific way, including from scientific perspectives such as cognitive neuroscience, textual criticism and philology, and through the application of the historical sciences. He also examines bias in the study of religion, from various quarters in the academy, and how the scientific approach to religious studies can help avoid such pitfalls. | 29 12 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - The Real War on Christmas | Tom Flynn is the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry, many addressing church-state issues, as well as the best-selling The Trouble With Christmas, about which he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novel, Galactic Rapture. His latest work, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America's fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. In this talk with D.J. Grothe, Flynn discusses the origins of Christmas, current public rhetoric about secular progressives' so-called anti-Christmas agenda, why he says it is important for secularists to abstain from Holiday celebrations, and the economic implications of such abstinence, and goes on to actually urge listeners to wage a "War on Christmas," in defense of America's religious diversity and the rights of nonbelievers. He also talks about alternatives to Christmas, such as HumanLight, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and Solstice. | 22 12 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSusan Blackmore - In Search of the Light | Sue Blackmore is a psychologist and writer whose research on consciousness, memes, and the paranormal has been published in over sixty academic papers, as well as book chapters, reviews and popular articles. She regularly writes in the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television in the United States and the United Kingdom. She spent two decades early in her career investigating psychic phenomena, following an out-of-body experience she had as a student at Oxford. She is the author of a number of books, including Dying to Live (on near-death experiences), In Search of the Light, and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis). The Meme Machine (1999) has been widely acclaimed, and translated into 13 other languages. Her highly praised textbook, Consciousness: An Introduction, and A Very Short Introduction to Consciousness are both published by Oxford University Press, as is her most recent Conversations on Consciousness. In this far-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Susan Blackmore talks about her research into the paranormal and near death experiences and why she left that field of study, memetics and religion as a meme, free will and the question of moral responsibility, consciousness and the illusory nature of the self, and Zen Buddhism and meditative practice, among other topics. She also explores why is it more important than ever for scientists to speak out about important issues of concern in the world today. | 15 12 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - What is the Point of Inquiry | In this special episode of Point of Inquiry, Paul Kurtz joins D.J. Grothe for an overview of CFI's mission and challenges. Kurtz is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry and many other organizations and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (previously CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine and author of over forty five books, including Science and Religion: Are They Compatible and Living Without Religion. Throughout the last thirty years, he has been a leading defender of science and reason against the prevailing cults of irrationality in our society. In this episode, and for the first time in a year of weekly episodes featuring the leading minds of the day, Paul Kurtz and D.J. Grothe discuss the various programs and projects of the Center for Inquiry, including the Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Societies, Secular Organizations for Sobreity (an atheist alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous), African Americans for Humanism, CFI's community and campus programs, its international programs, its North American branches, its magazines, its social services, and other aspects of CFI's work. Kurtz also discusses ways listeners can get involved in the Center's efforts. | 7 12 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarry Kosmin - The Scientific Study of Secularism | Barry Kosmin is a sociologist, and is research professor in public policy and law at Trinity College. He is co-author of One Nation Under God and author of Religion in a Free Market. Kosmin was also the Principal investigator of the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, the groundbreaking study on religion in America that showed the number of seculars in America has almost doubled in the ten years preceding the survey. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, he details the scientific study of religion and secularism, the "secularization hypothesis," religious diversity in contemporary America, and the rise of the nonreligious in recent years. He also explores the relationship between science and secularism. | 1 12 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNorm Allen - Science, Humanism, and the Black Community | Norm Allen is executive director of African Americans for Humanism, an educational organization primarily concerned with fostering critical thinking, ethical conduct, church-state separation, and skepticism toward untested claims to knowledge among African Americans. He is the editor of the ground-breaking book African-American Humanism: An Anthology, AAH Examiner, and Deputy Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has traveled and lectured widely throughout North America, Europe, and Africa and his writings have been published in scores of newspapers throughout the US. He has spoken on numerous radio and television programs and his writings have appeared in such books as Culture Wars and the National Center for Science Education's Voices for Evolution. In this talk with D.J. Grothe, Norm Allen explores the relationship between Christianity and American slavery, the history of freethought in the abolitionist and civil rights movements, the gullibility of the black community, the explosive growth of skepticism and humanism in Africa, the impact of religion and the paranormal on the working poor. | 23 11 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichelle Goldberg - Kingdom Coming | Michelle Goldberg is a freelance writer who has reported from all over the United States, as well as from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel and the West Bank. In her writing, she focuses on the role of ideology in politics, and has reported extensively on both sides of America's intensifying culture wars. In 2002, after a year of traveling and reporting in India and East Asia, Goldberg moved to New York City and took a job as a news and politics reporter with Salon.com, where she covered all aspects of the political right, from the neocons to the theocons. In addition to Salon, Goldberg's work has appeared in publications including Rolling Stone, The New York Observer, The New Republic online, The Guardian, The UTNE Reader, Newsday and other newspapers nationwide. She was a columnist for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and for Shift Magazine, and has taught at New York University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is a fellow at the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, which is one of the organizations here at the Center for Inquiry. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, she talks about her acclaimed book Kingdom Coming, and about religious-political extremism in America today and its anti-scientific agenda, the origins of its opposition to gay rights, the use of "secular humanism" as an Religious Right organizing principle, and about the future of "Christian Nationalism." She also talks about the recent midterm elections and the history and effects of the Religious Right in American and world politics. Also in this episode, Lauren Becker returns to offer some thoughts about Richard Dawkins, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the lure of fiction. | 17 11 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Wiseman - Theatre of Science | Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician and currently holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He frequently appears in the media, and has written over 60 academic articles and several books, including the best-selling The Luck Factor. Theatre of Science, his new show in collaboration with Dr. Simon Singh, is making its American debut with a run at the Theater for the New City in Manhattan as part of CFI's Science + Art festival, and is sponsored by Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Featuring lie detectors, bolts of lightning, backwards masking, and contortionist Delia Du Sol, this show revives a Victorian tradition in which audiences attended the theatre to see scientific demonstrations as entertainment. Theatre of Science previously played to sold-out audiences and rave reviews at the Soho Theatre, in London's West End. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Professor Wiseman discusses Theatre of Science, the intersection of science and art, and the role science plays in our society. He also explores strategies that science advocates can use to confront anti-science trends in our society. Also in this episode, Nathan Bupp explores a humanist answer to the question "Where are we going?" | 10 11 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChris Mooney - Science, Politics, and the Midterm Election | Chris Mooney is an acclaimed writer about subjects at intersection of science and politics. His writing has appeared in Wired, New Scientist, Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Slate, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The Boston Globe, and he has appeared widely in the media, on programs such as The Daily Show with John Stewart, NPR's Science Friday, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. His blog, called "The Intersection," was a recipient of Scientific American's 2005 Science and Technology web award, which noted that "science is lucky to have such a staunch ally in acclaimed journalist Chris Mooney." His book, The Republican War on Science is newly out in paperback, completely revised, and was hailed as "a landmark in contemporary political reporting" by Salon.com and a "well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right wing's assault on science and scientists" by Scientific American. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Mooney explores how important science is for deciding the political issues facing the country, and how science has been under attack by right-wingers in Republican party in a number of areas, including stem cell research, climate change, Intelligent Design, and sex education. He also discusses what listeners who value science can do in response to this assault, and discusses the midterm elections. Also in this episode, Toni Van Pelt details CFI's new Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. | 3 11 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe CFI 10th Annual Houdini Seance - Halloween 2006 | Harry Houdini, the world-famous magician and escape artist, earnestly explored the religion of spiritualism and communication with the dead after his beloved mother's death in 1913. He eventually crusaded vigorously against those whom he believed were fraudulent mediums, debunking and exposing those whom he argued preyed on the mourning of the grieving. He was renowned for his ability to seem to escape from almost any bonds. As such, he made a pact with his wife Bess, that if anyone could escape the bonds of death, he would. In this bonus episode of Point of Inquiry for Halloween night 2006, Joe Nickell, the world's leading paranormal investigator and CSICOP's senior research fellow, and D.J. Grothe (both of whom are former professional magicians) conduct CFI's 10th Annual Houdini Seance. They also explore Houdini's experiences as a "magician among the spirits," recount the ways he challenged the mediums of his day, and discuss his lasting impact on skepticism and society's beliefs about the afterlife. Also in this bonus episode is an audio clip of the last Houdini Seance of which Bess Houdini was a part. The recording, from Halloween night, 1936, was made at the historic Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. | 31 10 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSalman Rushdie - Secular Values, Human Rights and Islamism | Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian essayist and novelist widely acclaimed for his narrative style that blends myth and fantasy with real life. He has won many awards for his fiction, including the Booker Prize. He is best known for The Satanic Verses which provoked violent reaction from the Muslim community and a fatwa by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and was banned in India and througout the Islamic world. In recent years, Rushdie has been more visible publicly, and speaks out against Islamic extremism, and for secularism and the West. On October 11, 2006, Salman Rushdie addressed an audience at an event sponsored the Center for Inquiry's New York branch, held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. This special episode of Point of Inquiry features Mr. Rushdie’s remarks, in their entirety, with an introduction by Ibn Warraq. Also in this episode, D.J. Grothe discusses science, the humanities and Islam with noted ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq. | 27 10 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJill Tarter - Are We Alone? | Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA where she also serves as director of the Center for SETI Research. She served as Project Scientist for NASA’s SETI program, and has conducted a number of observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since funding for NASA’s SETI program was cut in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the the exploratory science. Her work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals from NASA, and many other awards. She was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 and a California Academy of Sciences Fellow in 2003. In 2004, Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2005 Tarter was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at Wonderfest, the San Francisco Festival of Science. Tarter is very involved in childhood science education: In addition to her leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, she has spearheaded the creation of two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA, and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created 6 science teaching guides for grades 3-9, which were published in the mid nineties. Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Jill Tarter discusses the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, why the search for it is important, the implications for religious belief of such a discovery, recent cuts in science funding, the emerging field of astrobiology, and the need for teaching evolution in the public schools, among other subjects. She also talks about the new Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, which was announced earlier in the week. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know? about the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. | 20 10 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRichard Dawkins - The God Delusion | Richard Dawkins, considered one of the world's most influential scientists, is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi professorship of the public understanding of science at Oxford University and the recipient of a number of awards for his writings and for his science, including the International Cosmos Prize, the Kistler Prize, and the Shakespeare Prize. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society. In a recent poll in the United Kingdom, he was named Britain's leading public intellectual. He is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books, such as The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Devil's Chaplain, and The Ancestor's Tale. The New York Times Book Review has hailed him as a writer who "understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too." In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dawkins talks about his new best-selling book, The God Delusion, addressing challenges to his assertions from his critics. He also addresses the question of whether science and religion are really at war. | 16 10 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation | Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times best-seller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason. He is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. He's now completing a doctorate in neuroscience. His work has been featured widely in the media, in such newspapers as the New York Times, LA Times, The Economist, The Guardian, The Toronto Star, and many others. He contributes regularly to Free Inquiry, the magazine of the Council for Secular Humanism. In this extensive discussion with D.J. Grothe, Sam Harris discusses his new best-selling book, Letter to a Christian Nation, explaining his motivations for his vigorous attacks against the Christian religion, and also explores the possible war between science and religion, the possible negative effects of religion in society, and strategies for secularists and moderates to meet the challenges that may be posed by religious fundamentalism. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know? about Christianity in America, Pat Robertson and Christian-political activism, and what group of American's have the highest divorce rate. | 6 10 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanRobert M. Price - The Reason Driven Life | Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He's a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books such as Deconstructing Jesus, Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured in the movie The God Who Wasn't There. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dr. Price discusses his new book, The Reason Driven Life, which is a rationalist response to Pastor Rick Warren's wildly best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. Also in this episode Tim Binga, Directory of CFI Libraries, talks about Banned Books Week. | 29 9 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMichael Shermer - Why Darwin Matters | Michael Shermer is one of the most well-known skeptics in America. He is a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Scientific American, and is the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech. He is also the co-host and producer of the Fox Family TV show, Exploring the Unknown. He is the author of many books, including Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, and Why People Believe Weird Things. Since founding the Skeptics Society in Southern California and Skeptic magazine, he has appeared widely on TV and radio advancing the scientific and skeptical point of view, on shows such as 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Oprah, Unsolved Mysteries, and many more. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Shermer discusses evolution and Intelligent Design theory, Darwin's impact on the world today, the conflict and the compatibility of science and religion, and the meaning of life without God. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know? about Darwin, sharing facts and trivia about one of the most influential scientists of the modern era. | 22 9 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAnn Druyan - Science, Wonder, and Spirituality | Ann Druyan is a renowned author, lecturer, and television and motion picture writer/producer whose work mostly explores the implications of science and technology for our society. She is the widow of the great Carl Sagan with whom she was a co-writer of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning television series Cosmos. She served as Creative Director for the NASA Voyager Interstellar Record Project that included music and images on the Voyager Spacecrafts that serve as a greeting to possible alien civilizations. She co-created and co-produced of the Oscar nominated movie Contact starring Jodie Foster, which is based on the novel of the same name that she co-wrote with Carl Sagan. She is also the author or co-author of several other books, including A Famous Broken Heart, and Comet, which was on the New York Times best seller list for two months. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, also written with Carl Sagan, was another New York Times best seller. Druyan has a new book out in November entitled The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, which explores hers and Sagan's views on science and religion. Druyan is co-founder and CEO of Cosmos Studios, which produces science-based entertainment across many types of media. Since 2000, Cosmos Studios has produced four documentaries, including "Cosmic Journey" which was nominated for an Emmy for the best nature/science documentary. She is a Fellow of CSICOP at the Center for Inquiry. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, she stresses the point that people can have a sense of awe and wonder about the universe without having to believe in God or the supernatural, discusses the work of Carl Sagan and his lasting impact, examines the growing need for scientific literacy in our society, and shares why, despite the current cultural war against science, she is optimistic about the future. Also in this episode, Carl Sagan's last public address for CSICOP, from its conference in Seattle in 1994, is presented in its entirety. In this keynote, entitled "Wonder and Skepticism," Sagan eloquently conveys prescient insights about the future of science and technology, argues why science is the best way of looking at the world, shares almost prophetic statements about the cultural war against science in America today, passionately calls for tempering skepticism with a humane understanding of why it is so easy in our society to not be skeptical, and encourages the listener to foster such appreciation for this kind of skepticism especially among young people. And in addition, Lauren Becker shares a moving piece entitled "The Gifts of Carl Sagan." | 15 9 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - World War and World Religions | Paul Kurtz is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry and a number of other organizations. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. He is the author or editor of over forty five books, including the recent Science and Religion: Are They Compatible. Throughout the last almost 40 years, Paul has been a leading defender of science and reason against the prevailing cults of irrationality in our society. He has been interviewed widely in the media on subjects ranging from alternative medicine and communication with the dead, to the historicity of Jesus. In this discussion with D. J. Grothe, Kurtz talks about the what he calls "creedal fascism," the connection between religion and violence, why it is so vital for humanity's future to critically examine religion, and also recounts his first published fears about Islamic extremism leading to world-wide violence over ten years ago in Free Inquiry. Also in this episode, David Koepsell, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, shares "An Open Letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." | 8 9 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanAmy-Jill Levine - Who Was Jesus of Nazareth | Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she also holds the position of Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality. Her many books, articles, and essays address topics like Christian origins, Jewish-Christian relations, and women in the Bible. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. A widely sought-after speaker and favorite at the Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, she has given hundreds of talks on biblical topics to both academic and nonacademic audiences. She is also a fellow of CSER, the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, one of the organizations at the Center for Inquiry. Her awards include grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has a book out in the next few months called The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. About this episode: Over 2 billion people worldwide live their lives to one extent or another focused around the man who is central to Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth. Even as skeptics of religion, most listeners to Point of Inquiry will agree that Jesus was one of the most important figures in history, affecting so much of the world we see today: the Christian Church is very influential in politics and society, and fundamental to Christianity is this figure of Jesus of Nazareth; millions of Americans live their lives regularly asking What would Jesus Do? In this interview with DJ Grothe, Amy-Jill Levine explores the question Who Was Jesus of Nazareth? She also touches on the role old Christianity in American politics and the possible relationship between religion and violence. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know about Christiantity in the ancient and modern world, and also discusses the Jesus-cross monument debacle on Mount Soledad in San Diego, California. | 1 9 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - Ancient Astronauts and the Nazca Lines | Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he has used his varied background to investigate myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called "the modern Sherlock Holmes," "the original ghost buster," and "the real-life Scully" (after the character in The X-Files). A veteran of hundreds of TV and radio appearances, he is the author of over 20 books, including Secrets of the Supernatural, Entities, Psychic Sleuths, Real Life X Files, and The UFO Invasion. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, Joe talks about his recent trip to Peru for CFI's second South American conference, and also about his visit to the world famous Nazca lines, which some people argue is evidence for ancient visits to earth from extra-terrestrials. He recounts his years of investigations into such "geoglyphs," and suggests some alternative scientific theories for their existence. Also in this episode, Debbie Goddard, a campus organizer with the Center for Inquiry, gives a back-to-school message. | 25 8 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNeil deGrasse Tyson - The Sky Is Not the Limit | Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of America's superstars of science, focuses his research on star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to dozens of scholarly publications, Dr. Tyson is one of America's most eloquent and popular science writers. He has a monthly column for Natural History magazine simply titled the "Universe." Among his seven books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and also Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA series of the same title, in which Dr. Tyson serves as the on-camera host. Beginning Fall 2006, he will appear as the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA's program ScienceNow, which will explore the frontiers of all the science that shapes our understanding of our place in the universe. Dr. Tyson is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid "13123 Tyson". On a lighter note, a few years ago he was voted "Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive" by People Magazine. In this wide-ranging interview with DJ Grothe, Dr. Tyson discusses new developments this week in astronomy which may increase the count of planets in the solar system, reveals why he believes it is likely that there is life elsewhere in the universe, examines Intelligent Design and what he calls "stupid design," eloquently explains how parents may foster an appreciation for science in children, and also discusses science education's real-world economic impact for America. Also in this episode, DJ and Lauren Becker discuss the new collaborative effort between the Center for Inquiry and the State University of New York called Science and the Public. | 17 8 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanEugene Straus, M.D. - Medical Marvels, Compassion, and Skepticism | Eugene Straus, M.D., is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York Downstate College of Medicine. He's also served as a senior faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In these positions, he directed research, teaching, and clinical activities for thirty-five years. He has published over 150 scientific papers and text book chapters. He has also traveled very widely to observe health care in many parts of the world, and has advised the Health Ministries of India and China. He is a member of many research and clinical societies. In this interview with DJ Grothe, he discusses his new book, Medical Marvels: The 100 Greatest Advances in Medicine. He also explores some of the problems he sees in current medicine and gives advice to consumers who are inundated with so many suggested alternatives to medical science. Also in this episode, Lauren Becker examines some of the possible reasons Alt Med attracts so many ailing our society. | 11 8 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBill Cooke - Is Scientific Humanism Anti-Religious? | Bill Cooke, former international director for the Center for Inquiry, is a senior lecturer at the School of Visual Arts at University of Auckland at Manukau. He is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and now serves as CFI's Asia/Pacific coordinator. He is an acknowledged expert on the history of humanism and has written widely on the subject. He is author of the Dictionary Of Atheism, Skepticism, & Humanism, The Gathering of Infidels: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association and Heathen in Godzone: Seventy Years of Rationalism in New Zealand among other books. In this interview with DJ Grothe, Dr. Cooke discusses the history of humanism, how it is different than religion, and whether or not humanism is anti-religious. Also in this episode, Austin Dacey reports on the state of secularism in Bangladesh. | 4 8 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDerek Araujo - A Decade of Campus Freethought Activism | Derek Araujo was one of the founders and the first student president of the Campus Freethought Alliance in 1996. At the time he was attending Harvard College where he also founded the Harvard Secular Society before graduating magna cum laude in 1999. Mr. Araujo has since received a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School where he was a senior editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and is now an attorney based in the New York City. On July 15th 2006 Derek Araujo addressed a crowd of over 70 student leaders and 35 community leaders gathered at the Center for Inquiry headquarters in Amherst NY to mark the 10th anniversary of the Campus Freethought Alliance, what is now known as Center for Inquiry On Campus. This special episode of Point of Inquiry features Mr. Araujo's remarks, in their entirety, with an introduction by Paul Kurtz. Also in this episode, student leaders Eric Toedter from the University of Florida and Adria Updike from Clemson University share their thoughts about the importance of student activism. | 28 7 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanBarry Beyerstein - The Sins of Big Pharma | Barry Beyerstein is Professor of Psychology and a member of the Brain Behaviour Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. His research has involved many areas related to his primary scholarly interests: brain mechanisms of perception and consciousness and the effects of drugs on the brain and mind. His work in these areas and his interest in the philosophy and history of science have also led him to be skeptical of many occult and New Age claims. This has prompted him to investigate the scientific status of many questionable products in the areas of medical and psychological treatment, as well as a number of dubious self-improvement techniques. Dr. Beyerstein serves as chair of the Society of B. C. Skeptics and he is a Fellow and a member of the Executive Council of CSICOP and serves on the editorial board of CSICOP's journal, The Skeptical Inquirer. He was also elected to the Council for Scientific Medicine, another organization headquartered at the Center for Inquiry; it provides critiques of unscientific and fraudulent health products. He is a founding member of Canadians for Rational Health policy and a Contributing Editor of the journal, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine. He has published in these areas himself and is a frequent commentator on such topics on TV and Radio and in the print media. In this interview with DJ Grothe, Dr. Beyerstein discusses what he calls "the sins of Big Pharma," elaborating on what he considers the negative implications of the profit motive in the pharmaceutical industry and the development of new and unnecessary drugs due to possibly biased research. Also in this episode, Lauren Becker shares a commentary on secular humanist and skeptic "non-joiners." | 21 7 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThomas Kida - Dont Believe Everything You Think | Thomas Kida is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of many articles on decision-making. For the last 25 years he has been researching and teaching how we form our beliefs and make decisions. His new book, Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking, presents this research. The book is about the ways our beliefs and decision making skills can go wrong. Do we all fall prey to problems in thinking? Why do we make these mistakes? Why do we believe the unbelievable? In the interview with DJ Grothe, Professor Kida highlights a few of the six mistakes of thinking discussed in the book, with real-world examples of how our thinking can go astray and what we can do about it. Also in this episode, Paul Kurtz and DJ discuss details of CFI's Student Leadership Conference celebrating 10 years of CFI's campus outreach. The event has attracted students from nearly 50 North American colleges and universities, in addition to universities in the Netherlands and Russia, and is being held this weekend in Amherst, NY. | 14 7 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPaul Kurtz - The Courage to Become | Paul Kurtz, considered the father of the secular humanist movement and a founder of the worldwide skeptic movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry magazine, he has advanced a critical, skeptical inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for the last forty years. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been featured very widely in the media, on topics as diverse as reincarnation, UFO abduction, secular versus religious ethics, communication with the dead, and the historicity of Jesus. In this interview with DJ Grothe, Paul Kurtz discusses the meaning of life from a scientific point of view, and expounds on the secular humanistic, stoical, skeptical perspective on questions regarding life after death and morality without belief in heaven or hell. Also in this episode DJ talks with Amanda Chesworth, educational director for CSICOP, about CFI's new summer camp promoting the scientific outlook to youngsters, Camp Inquiry. | 7 7 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJames Randi - Science, Magic, and Future of Skepticism | James "The Amazing" Randi is a world-renowned magician, skeptic and investigator of paranormal claims. He has been a central figure in the development of the world-wide skeptical movement. He's perhaps most known for the One Million Dollar Challenge, in which his Foundation will award One Million Dollars to anyone who is able to show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Randi has appeared very widely in the media, including on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show at least 22 times and he's also a regular on Penn and Teller's Showtime Series, BULLSHIT! He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a MacArthur Genius Grant, a Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 1989, the American Physical Society presented him with its Forum Award for Promoting Public Understanding of the Relation of Physics to Society. He is the author of many books, notably The Truth About Uri Geller, in which Randi aimed to use his background in magic to investigate the Israeli psychic and performer, and also The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam!, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, Randi discusses critical thinking and magic, recounts his experiences as a leading paranormal investigator investigating people like Peter Popoff and others, shares his views about skepticism and religion, and reflects on the future of the skeptical movement. Also in this episode, Lauren Becker shares some thoughts about America's Founding and the Fourth of July. | 30 6 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTom Flynn - The Rise of the Non-Religious | Tom Flynn is the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry magazine, many addressing church-state issues, as well as The Trouble With Christmas, and has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novel, Galactic Rapture. His lastest work, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America's fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. In the discussion with DJ Grothe, Flynn details numerous recent demographic surveys and new polling data showing a rise in the number of secularists, agnostics, atheists, humanists and other non-believers in the United States, especially among scientists. Also in this episode CFI summer intern Colin Koproske, from the University of Southern California, with a word about The Spiritual University. | 23 6 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJerry Coyne - The Case Against Intelligent Design | Jerry Coyne is a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, where he works on diverse areas of evolutionary genetics. The main focus of his laboratory is on the original problem raised by Darwin - the origin of species - and on understanding this process through the genetic patterns it produces. His writings have appeared in a number of journals, magazines and other publications including Science, Nature, The Guardian and The New Republic. He is the author (with H. Allen Orr) of Speciation and a contributer to the new book Intelligent Thought : Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, Professor Coyne explores the history, strategy, and motivation behind the modern Intelligent Design movement, and critiques the most widely used ID arguments. Also in this episode, Austin Dacey gives his impressions of the Darwin: His Life and Times exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History which has now been extended through August 20th, 2006. | 16 6 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanCathleen Falsani - The God Factor | Cathleen Falsani is the religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, where she has covered spirituality and popular culture from Vatican City, Ireland, the White House, the Playboy Mansion and the dugout at Wrigley Field. In her first book, The God Factor, she recounts her discussions about God and morality with more than 30 prominent figures who hold various religious and nonreligious worldviews. Her "subjects" include such diverse personalities as Sen. Barack Obama, Melissa Etheridge, Hugh Hefner and Jeffrey Sachs, the noted economist. Falsani is a graduate of Wheaton College, and holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University as well as a master's degree in theological studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, she comments on the religious or skeptical perspectives of the famous public figures profiled in her book, exploring a possible correlation between science and religious skepticism, and argues for the need for a more tolerant, open dialogue on religious issues. Also in this episode, Point of Inquiry contributor Lauren Becker shares a secular and humanist view of traditional marriage. | 9 6 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJoe Nickell - Psychic Detectives | Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he has used his varied background to investigate myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called the modern Sherlock Holmes, the original ghost buster, and the real-life Scully (after the character in The X-Files ). A veteran of hundreds of TV and radio appearances, he is the author of over 20 books, including Secrets of the Supernatural, Entities, Psychic Sleuths, Real Life X Files, and The UFO Invasion. In this discussion with DJ Grothe, Nickell assesses some well-known psychic detectives such as Allison DuBois, on whom the NBC drama Medium is based, Carla Baron, and others. He also explains some of their methods and possible motivations. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know?, detailing facts and figures about 6-6-06, the "Number of the Beast," and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind book series. | 2 6 06 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 301 Episodes |
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