Podcast

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.

Failure & Redemption: How Science Saves Science – Dr Megan Crawford

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Skeptics in the Pub Online Podcast
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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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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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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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 – 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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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.

Beyond the Hype: The Inside Story of Science’s Biggest Media Controversies – Fiona Fox

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Beyond the Hype: The Inside Story of Science’s Biggest Media Controversies – Fiona Fox
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The Director of The Science Media Centre, Fiona Fox, examines some of the stories that hit the headlines for the wrong reasons – Frankenfoods, Climategate and more – but tells a positive story of how over the last two decades more scientists have engaged openly with the press and how this has helped transform the way science is reported.

But Fox argues that not everything has moved in the right direction and highlights the way the government is exerting ever more control over the communication activities of publicly funded scientists – resulting in a worrying blurring of lines between scientific data and government ‘messaging’.

As founding director of the Science Media Centre, Britain’s independent science press office, Fiona Fox works closely with scientists, press officers and science journalists alike in order to improve the public’s access to and understanding of science. Fiona has received many accolades for her services to science, including an OBE, honorary fellowships of the Academy of Medical Science, the Royal Society of Biology and the British Pharmacology Society, and a special award for promoting openness in animal research. She has a blog on science and the media and writes for science publications and other media.

The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

RETRO: How the UK can get to zero carbon – Chris Goodall

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RETRO: How the UK can get to zero carbon – Chris Goodall
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The UK has declared a ‘climate emergency’ and pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. So how do we get there? Drawing on actions, policies and technologies already emerging around the world, Chris Goodall sets out the ways to achieve this. His proposals include:

-Building a huge over-capacity of wind and solar energy, storing the excess as hydrogen.
-Using hydrogen to fuel our trains, shipping, boilers and heavy industry, while electrifying buses, trucks and cars.
-Building a huge over-capacity of wind and solar energy, storing the excess as hydrogen.
-Using technical solutions to capture CO2 from the air, and biochar to lock carbon in the soil.

This episode also includes a bonus Q&A that we recorded afterwards due to having so many excellent questions from our audience.

Chris Goodall is a businessman, author and expert on new energy technologies. His expertise lies in low carbon energy generation, low carbon heat, electric cars, storage and geoengineering.

His début book “How to Live a Low-Carbon Life” won the 2007 Clarion award for non-fiction. His second book, “Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate” (2008), was one of the Financial Times’ Books of the Year. His other works include “The Green Guide for Business” (2010), “Sustainability: All That Matters” (2012) and “Switch” (2016).

His latest book, “What We Need to Do Now For a Zero Carbon Future” was published in February 2020.

Goodall operates the website Carbon Commentary. He has also written for The Guardian, The Independent, Abundance and the Ecologist. He has spoken at literary festivals around the UK, at the British Library, the Science Museum and many universities.

He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School (MBA).

The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

RETRO: How to name your element – Kit Chapman

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RETRO: How to name your element – Kit Chapman
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Join journalist and science historian Kit Chapman on an adventure across chemistry as he shares the bizarre stories behind the names of the building blocks of science. Which element got its name thanks to a D&D monster? Why couldn’t a German team call the discovery after the nearby town? And how did Lemmy from Motorhead almost end up on the periodic table?

Kit Chapman is an award-winning science journalist with bylines in the Daily Telegraph, Nature, New Scientist and Chemistry World, among others. His first popular science book, Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table, was shortlisted for the AAAS SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Kit is currently completing a PhD in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Sunderland.

The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

RETRO: The age of antibiotic resistance – Sian Williams

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RETRO: The age of antibiotic resistance – Sian Williams
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Cornerstones of modern medicine are at risk due to drug-resistant infections, with routine surgery, common illnesses and minor injuries becoming potentially life-threatening. People are already dying from drug-resistant infections, and as more drugs stop working, more lives will be put in danger. Everyone is at risk. Sian Williams will discuss the causes behind this major public health issue and how organizations such as the Wellcome Trust are helping to address the challenge.

Sian will also explore why we’re not seeing new antibiotics entering the market, the ethical dilemmas involved in the decision to prescribe new drugs, and how we could help GPs stop over-prescription of antibiotics.

Sian Williams is a Policy Officer with the Wellcome Trust’s Drug-Resistant Infections priority programme, a team with a £175m commitment to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. The programme works with scientists and policy makers to advocate for and support evidence-based decision making globally. She earned a 1st class honours degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London.

The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.