International Skeptics United

Bruce Hood is currently the Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol. He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard. The author of Supersense, and most recently The Self Illusion, Bruce also presented [...]

It all ends here, folks. I have given up the ghost after trudging my way through 12 chapters of the oddly-named “What Is Truth?” by Kirk Hastings. In this episode we cover the recent bannings of 99% of the members posting on Kirk’s “Question Irreligiosophy Project,” as well as my now-deleted review of his Superman [...]

Skeptoid takes a look at 24 women well known from history. But which of them are actual historical figures, and which are from the realm of fiction?

Darren McKee asks whether it is better to walk or run in the rain. Adam Gardner looks into the Global Consciousness Project and Elan Dubrofsky explains what winning a year or lifetime supply of something actually means.

Quackcast 99: Guiding Lights

Quackcast 98: Low Level Lasers.

Ted Cantle is Professor at the Institute of Community Cohesion. His report into the northern riots of 2001 drew attention to the “segregated” ethnic and religious communities living ‘parallel’ lives. His new book confronts the failures of multiculturalism head on and establishes a new concept — interculturalism — for managing community relations in a world defined by globalization and super-diversity.

Peter Tatchell has been campaigning for human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice since 1967. Through the Peter Tatchell Foundation, he campaigns for human rights in Britain and internationally. In 2012 Peter was awarded the Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year.

Pragna Patel is a secular campaigner, founding member of Southall Black Sisters and co-founder of Women Against Fundamentalism. In 2010 Pragna received the Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year on behalf of Southall Black Sisters.

Nick Cohen is a journalist, author, political commentator and eloquent supporter of secularism. He is a critic of the increasing role of religion in state education and of the Left’s tendency to pander to religious fundamentalists. His latest work,You Can’t Read This Book, is on freedom of expression.

Nia Griffith is Member of Parliament for Llanelli, Shadow Minister for Wales and a campaigner for Lords reform. She is a firm believer in the need for the separation of church and state.

Maryam Namazie is a secular campaigner and commentator, spokesperson for the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In 2005 she was awarded the Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year.

0:00:00     Introduction Richard Saunders 0:05:20     Maynard's Spooky Action.. at TAM 2012 Benjamin Radford is a writer, investigator, and deputy editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer. He is also a co-host of the MonsterTalk podcast, which critically examines the science and folklore behind cryptozoological (and legendary) creatures such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and werewolves 0:47:20     A chat with Sketpical Teacher, Adam Vanlangenberg Why would a teacher put buckets on the heads of students? Well... why not? But we find out it was all in the name of science.

Can spiders weave webs in microgravity? Can shampooing cause hair loss? How much brain do we use at once? Can a person survive on raw food alone? This week we're answering your science questions, plus news of the IgNobel prize for research into 'hairodynamics' and a way to wipe out bad memories...

This Day in Skepticism: Golden Tablets and Hobbit Day; News Items: Warp Drive, Bad Science Reporting, Dark Energy Camera, Crowdsourcing Science, Spheres on Mars, CSICon 2012; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Blue Moon and Frances; Science or Fiction