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: The Blinding Light of Sophisticated Pseudoscience – Jonathan Jarry
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Alternative medicine proponents have become really good at building a body of research that looks more and more like good science to the casual observer. In the face of positive randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the skeptic’s approach has to become more sophisticated to crack this façade of believability. We will go through three cases that illustrate how convincing the evidence for pseudoscience looks and what’s actually happening under the bonnet.
Jonathan Jarry is a science communicator in Montreal, Canada with the McGill Office for Science and Society, dedicated to separating sense from nonsense on the scientific stage. He brings his experience in cancer research, human genetics, rehabilitation research, and forensic biology to the work he does for the public. With cardiologist Dr. Christopher Labos, he co-hosts the award-winning medical podcast The Body of Evidence, which aims to contextualize findings in the realm of health research and answer the public’s most pressing questions about the biomedical sciences while also being funny and entertaining.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
Off The Edge: Flat earthers, conspiracy culture, and why people will believe anything – Kelly Weill
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Since 2015, the long-running conspiracy theory of a flat Earth – that we live on a flat plane, under a flat dome, or on a planet circled by a ring of ice – has increasingly gained a foothold in the mainstream. What was once a concept on the fringes of society, seen as a long-running joke and kept to niche message boards, pamphlets, and blogs, is now a widespread idea held by millions of people, including politicians, media personalities, athletes, and celebrities. Where did this theory come from and why is it suddenly everywhere? Daily Beast extremism and internet journalist – and leading voice on online conspiracy theories –Kelly Weill will give a definitive and compelling history of the Flat Earth movement, from its origins in an 1800s English commune to its spread in the early 2000s with the rise of Facebook and YouTube to the recent disinformation campaign of the 2020 presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic.
Kelly Weill is a journalist at the Daily Beast, where she covers extremism, disinformation, and the internet. As a leading media voice on the role of online conspiracy theories in current affairs, she has discussed Flat Earth and other digital fringes on ABC’s Nightline, CNN, Al Jazeera, and other national and international news outlets. She lives in New York.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
RETRO: The World According to Physics – Jim Al-Khalili
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Where does theoretical physics stand at the end of the second decade of the 21st century? Are we finally approaching the end of physics, when the rich tapestry of the universe will be revealed to us and we will finally understand the true nature of reality? If we are honest then we must admit that, while what we do know is dazzlingly impressive, there is much we have yet to grasp, from the nature of space and time to the meaning quantum mechanics. This whistle-stop tour of modern physics is an appraisal of what we know and what we have yet to figure out.
Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is a quantum physicist, author and broadcaster and one of the best-known science communicators in Britain. He holds a Distinguished Chair in Physics at the University of Surrey where he teaches and conducts his research. He received a PhD in nuclear theory in 1989 and has since published over 100 research papers. He has written twelve books on popular science, between them translated into over twenty-six languages, as well as his first novel. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries and the long-running Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. He is a recipient of the Royal Society Faraday medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal. His latest book, on which this talk is based, is The World According to Physics, published by Princeton University Press.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
Racing Green: How Motorsport Science Can Save the World – Kit Chapman
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Racing Green is a fascinating exploration of how science in motorsport extends its reach far beyond the track. The efforts of engineers to go a hundredth of a second faster ripples into our daily lives. We use the aerodynamics of a Formula 1 car to keep our food cool in the supermarket and stop skyscrapers wreaking havoc; we can thank crash helmets and rear view mirrors to keep us safe; and the cutting edge of our future – from electric and autonomous vehicles, 3D printing and virtual reality – began on the track. Motorsport is a testbed, the world’s fastest R&D lab. Including stories from Formula 1, Formula E, land speed racing and NASCAR, and interviews with an incredible cast of characters, from aerodynamicists to Formula E racing drivers, Racing Green is your insider’s guide to how the sport of today could save the world of tomorrow. With an emphasis on green technology, Kit Chapman explores incredible breakthroughs in electric batteries, graphene, hydrogen power, and biofuels. Despite its gas-guzzling past, the constant striving for efficiency and speed from the motorsport industry is driving green innovation. With the stratospheric rise of Formula E and Extreme E, will the drive to produce ever faster electric vehicles help to save our planet? A mix of travelogue and historical retrospective, Racing Green takes us around the world to explore the future of car development, from Silverstone to the Amazon jungle, and from Monaco to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is a truly electrifying read.
Kit Chapman is an award-winning journalist and adventurer. He is a lifelong motorsports fan who has previously worked with Virgin Racing’s Formula E team to cover the chemistry and material science of their racing cars. With more than a decade of experience writing for titles such as Nature, New Scientist, Chemistry World, Physics World and the Daily Telegraph, his work has taken him to more than 60 countries as he seeks amazing tales from the cutting edge of science. He has interviewed more than a dozen Nobel prize winners, been inside the world’s fastest computer and once convinced an Oscar-winning actress he was a cyborg. Kit’s first book, Superheavy, was shortlisted for the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science books.
The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.