This is the podcast version of the Skeptics in the Pub Online live-streamed talks. We take the audio and give it to you in a nice easy podcast feed for you to listen at your pleasure. All of the talks are still available on our YouTube channel if you want to see any visuals/slides/etc. We release the live shows as we do them on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month and on weeks when there isn't a live show, we release an episode from the archive.
Podcast
RETRO: Mormonism and Eugenics: An Experiment in Racial and Religious Purity – Bryce Blankenagel
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) was founded in 1830 by New Englander Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon, the foundational scripture authored by Smith, claims to be a history of Christian Israelites who settled the American continents from 2500 BCE – 420 CE. Within a decade of creation, Mormonism established extensive missionary efforts in Europe, eventually forming the Perpetual Immigration Fund, a program for funnelling European converts to the faith to America en masse. After Smith’s assassination, one successor named Brigham Young organized a mass exodus to Mexico where the Mormons settled, running from United States law enforcement. This area became the “State of Deseret” until the Compromise of 1850 created Utah Territory. This Mormon settlement grew as tens of thousands of European converts immigrated into the territory over decades and Native American tribes were forced onto reservations and often outright murdered. As a result of these demographic trends, today’s Utah population is ~89% white compared with the national average of ~60% white and is one of the most religiously homogenous states in the nation. Utah Mormonism is the result of a large-scale eugenics experiment within recent history.
Bryce Blankenagel hosts Naked Mormonism and Glass Box podcasts as a full-time Mormon history researcher. He has presented and published on “Life of Frederick G. Williams,” “Mormon Satan, Brother of Jesus,” “By His Own Hand, the Best-Worst Mormon Scripture,” “Sidney Rigdon, Forgotten Hero of Mormonism,” and “Revelation Through Hallucination: A Treatise on the Smith-Entheogen Theory,” and produced the “Proper Channels” documentary. He has been an invited guest speaker on dozens of podcasts totalling hundreds of thousands of listeners telling the outside world how interesting Mormon history is. He has attended or presented at Sunstone, ReasonCon, John Whitmer Historical Association, and QED as an independent researcher and is a current member of the John Whitmer Historical Association article awards committee.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: What the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Can Teach Skeptics About White Supremacy – Kavin Senapathy
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Perhaps now more than ever, the skeptics’ movement can’t afford to ignore racism and race pseudoscience. Kavin Senapathy learned this firsthand during her stint with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and its parent organization the Center for Inquiry (CFI) speaking at its conferences, writing a column, and hosting the Point of Inquiry podcast. As one of the most visible skeptical organizations in the world, CSI owes a heightened duty to uphold skeptical ideals. Kavin will cover race, and, more broadly, diversity, equity, and inclusion as it pertains to the skeptics’ community, with examples from her time working with CFI. Grab your beverage of choice and join Kavin as she takes you through crucial lessons for all skeptics and skeptical organizations— yes, even you, the one who doesn’t get involved in politics.
Kavin Senapathy is a writer, journalist, and speaker covering science, health, food, and parenting at outlets like SELF Magazine, Slate, The Daily Beast, Forbes, SciShow, Undark Magazine, and more. She’s also co-founder and contributing editor at SciMoms.com. She’s based in the midwestern United States (ope!) where she is currently quarantine co-parenting a 3rd grader, a 1st grader, a puggle, and an Italian Greyhuahua. Find Kavin on Twitter @ksenapathy. Read Kavin’s article on this topic here: https://undark.org/2020/02/20/center-for-inquiry-race-pseudoscience/
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
The Sunny Sides and Dark Sides of Being a Skeptic – Claire Klingenberg
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The talk will be split into two parts
Part 1
Using Paranormal Phenomena to Explain the Workings of ScienceHoroscopes, ghosts, dowsing, psychics, tarot readers, the research of paranormal ability is so last century… for skeptics.
To the people to whom we try to communicate science, these topics have a kernel of truth. No one wakes up one day believing the Earth is flat or that BigPharma is putting chips in vaccines. The building of irrational beliefs and anti-science beliefs is a process.
We, as skeptics, have to deal with many more pressing issues, such as climate change, the need for nuclear power, and the safety of new vaccines. Can you explain that anthropomorphic climate change is happening, and we know it based on the scientific consensus when the person you speak to doesn’t understand the concept? Can you explain how we know that new vaccines are effective and safe to someone who’s never heard of double-blinded studies?
That’s where the skeptic-starter-kit topics come into play. They are a great way of grabbing attention and creating rapport with the person with whom you are speaking. The mistakes made while researching these paranormal topics are lovely teaching tools to explain crucial ways how and why science works and is done these days.
Part 2
TW: Due to recent events, Claire will also be speaking about the various types of hate we, as skeptics, face, including threats of bodily harm and death threats.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: How science denialism is fuelling the covid-19 crisis in Brazil – Dr -Natália Pasternak
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Brazil has surpassed the UK in the number of confirmed cases and deaths of Covid19. Still, the federal government refuses to acknowledge reality and relies on magical thinking and denialism, promoting miracle cures, withholding information, spreading lies and inciting riots.
Join Natalia Pasternak for a look at the Brazilian response to the pandemic, and what happens when a government embraces pseudoscience in the face of an international health crisis.
Natalia Pasternak is a biologist, with a PhD and post-doctorate in Microbiology, in the field of Molecular Genetics of Bacteria at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is the former director in Brazil of the international festival of scientific communication “Pint of Science”, invited columnist for the Brazilian national newspaper “O Globo”, Brazilian “Health” magazine, and for the UK Skeptic magazine. She is currently a research fellow at the University of São Paulo, publisher of Question of Science magazine and president of Question of Science Institute, the first Brazilian Institute for the promotion of skepticism and rational thinking.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
Failure & Redemption: How Science Saves Science – Dr Megan Crawford
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In the pursuit of knowledge, efforts in science have brought about some of the most disastrous, shocking, and even hilarious results. But how do we know!? Because… SCIENCE!
Megan Crawford, PhD, will take on the role as Resident Scientist Shocker and present how it’s possible that the very system responsible for humanity’s biggest failures, shockingest shockers, and cheekiest surprises, is oddly still the best system for exposing these very conundrums.
Megan Crawford is a Lecturer in Data Science and Director of the Futures & Analytics Research (FAR) Hub at Edinburgh Napier University. She earned her PhD at Strathclyde University, a MSc in Behavioural and Economic Sciences from Warwick University, and BAs in Cognitive Psychology and Philosophy from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: Talking Nerdy, with Cara Santa Maria
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Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster.
Cara is the science correspondent on National Geographic’s popular television series Brain Games as well as the creator and host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In addition to co-hosting the long-standing Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, she also coauthored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book. Cara is the spokesperson for National Geographic’s Almanac 2019 and Almanac 2020, a founding member of the Nerd Brigade, and cofounded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp.
Previously, Cara was a correspondent on National Geographic’s Explorer, Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, TechKnow on Al Jazeera America, and Real Future on Fusion. She also cohosted TakePart Live on Pivot TV, America’s Greatest Makers on TBS, Brain Surgery Live on National Geographic Channel, and FabLab on Fox. Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters on The Weather Channel.
Prior to her career in media, Cara was the laboratory manager and chief cell culture technician at the Center for Network Neuroscience. She also taught biology and psychology courses at the high school and undergraduate level. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of North Texas in 2004 followed by a Master of Science in Neurobiology in 2007. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Social Justice and Diversity from Fielding Graduate University.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: 30 Second Universe – Karen Masters
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The universe literally encompasses everything we were, are and will be, everything we knew, know and can know. When we decide to understand the universe as a whole, new truths come to light, and unexpected perspectives illuminate our take on life. 30-Second Universe explains all the tantalising concepts, principles and theories that make up our knowledge and it explains these astrophysical answers succinctly, each entry taking only a short time to read, with further exploration flagged, and key scientists noted. This one small book sheds light on the biggest ideas, concepts and discoveries in life, in the universe, in everything. One of the Co-authors, Prof. Karen Masters from Haverford College will discuss some of the topics in the book and the process of writing it.
Karen is an astronomer/astrophysicist researching galaxies in the Universe. She is particularly interested in investigating how the internal structures we see in some galaxies (the spiral arms, galactic bars and rings) affect and reveal the cosmic history of their host galaxy.
Karen works with many large collaborations to do this – most recently the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which is a collaboration of hundreds of astronomers across almost all continents working together to map the Universe. She is particularly involved in the MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) part of SDSS, but as the SDSS-IV Spokesperson she works with all areas of the survey and the scientists to facilitate scientific collaboration and communication.
Karen is also the Project Scientist of the Galaxy Zoo project (which is part of the Zooniverse group of Citizen Science Projects). Check out our Galaxy Zoo affiliated projects, Galaxy Zoo: 3D and Galaxy Builder.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: Talk Data to Me: The neuroscience of sexual arousal and desire – Angel Russell
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Two of the most pervasive myths that I spend my time deconstructing are (1) that humans have a specific part of their brains devoted to sex and (2) that humans have an innate “drive” to be sexual. Neither of these things are true, and it’s important that people understand that. When folks believe these misconceptions, it can make it feel like there’s something wrong with them or their relationship when they experience extreme highs or lows in sexual desire (libido) or when their bodies don’t sexually perform (arousal) the way they expect them to. This talk will focus on the neuroscience behind sexual arousal and libido. We will do some myth busting and discuss how to effectively approach “spicing up” your sex life – even if you’re single or stuck in quarantine.
Angel Russell aka: Professor Sex, (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, ACS Certified Sex Educator, research sexologist, certified sexual assault victims advocate, and author. Their research interests focus on the intersections between social and personality psychology, particularly as they relate to sexual identity, orientation, and behavior. In 2019 their research on Individual Differences in Coming Out as LGBT+ received a professional paper award nomination from Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA). Angel is a member of the Community Sexual Health Education and Research Initiative (CSHERI), a sexuality education provider for the Jacksonville Center for Sexual Health, and a member of the editorial board for Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education. Additionally, Angel is the “A” in Sex from A to Z™, a sex science podcast co-hosted with Dr. Rob Zeglin. To learn more and find them online head to ProfessorSex.com.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
The Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit – Tom Curry & Cecil Cicirello
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The Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit suggests that no matter where it’s from, all bullshit smells the same. From Alternative Medicine to the insurrection in Washington, the underlying cognitive biases that make us all susceptible to grifters and bad actors are similar. No matter how silly or harmless bad ideas may seem at first, because they all reinforce and rely on bad thinking, they are all actually dangerous and harmful. In their new book “The Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit”, Cecil and Tom describe not only the harms of a variety of commonly held forms of grift and bullshit, but also offer a plan on what steps need to be taken in real terms to reduce your susceptibility to bullshit.
Tom Curry and Cecil Cicirello began the Cognitive Dissonance podcast in 2011 to cover news and current affairs from a skeptical, secular and political perspective. In 2022, they distilled what they’d learned from over 600 shows into their first book: The Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit, which they’ll be discussing in conversation with Michael Marshall.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
Spotting science that just doesn’t add up – Dr Nick Brown
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The skeptical movement rightly suggests that people should place more faith in peer-reviewed scientific articles than in YouTube videos or written claims made by random people on the Internet. However, science is not always particularly reliable either. In this talk, I will give some examples of how peer-reviewed scientific work that may attract a lot of public attention and even influence public policy decisions can contain remarkably elementary errors (not all of which are necessarily accidental). Some of these errors can be detected even by readers with relatively little mathematical or statistical expertise.
Ten years ago, Nick Brown was a British IT manager living in France. Now he is an Irish psychologist living in Spain. He received his PhD from the University of Groningen in 2019, with his thesis being entitled “Can Positive Emotions Improve Physical Health?” (spoiler: there’s no good evidence). His work on debunking bad science has been featured in The Observer and Science, but nobody has paid him any money for it yet.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.