International Skeptics United

When Darren’s away, the panel will play! On this week’s show, guest host Dina reflects on claims surrounding Meditation, Pat tests our knowledge of Anatomy with another edition of Name That, and Cristina blows off steam regarding the recent controversial blog post on Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle blog Goop. But first...a parody in Ms. Paltrow’s honour.  Enjoy!

The χ2 (Chi-Squared) test is a methodology for hypothesis testing. When one has categorical data, in the form of frequency counts or observations (e.g. Vegetarian, Pescetarian, and Omnivore), split into two or more categories (e.g. Male, Female), a question may arrise such as "Are women more likely than men to be vegetarian?" or put more accurately, "Is any observed difference in the frequency with which women report being vegetarian differ in a statistically significant way from the frequency men report that?"

David Stubbs joined the music magazine Melody Maker in 1986, where he worked for 12 years. His most famous creation, Mr Agreeable periodically reawakens over at The Quietus. He has also written for The Guardian, NME, The Wire, When Saturday Comes and Uncut, and was a presenter of the Resonance FM football show Café Calcio. […]

This round of Skepticality features a Skeptic Society sponsored talk which was given by the well known science communicator Bill Nye. Nye talks about the topics covered in his latest book, 'Undeniable', then afterwards sits down with Dr. Michael Shermer to talk one on one about how Nye got into science communication and the interesting journey he took on his way to become 'The Science Guy' most know him as today.

This week, why we're passengers in our own bodies, outnumbered by our resident bacteria. We explore how these bugs can alter your brain and behaviour, and "trans-poo-sion": the poo-transplant process that might save your life! Plus, why the chances of ET existing have rocketed this week, and signs that birds count the same way we do...

Noelle George is a secular activist interested in making a tangible difference in the world, rather than simply arguing about religion behind a keyboard. She founded the SECULAR Center in Houston and is the Director of Special Projects for Foundation Beyond Belief (a group I work with). But her latest endeavor is aimed at helping those people who most need it. It’s called Secular Avenue. The website is SecularAvenue.org. And the group will assist those who are unsafe at home because they are no longer religious, living under religious extremism, victims of domestic abuse, or coming out as LGBTQ. Secular Avenue will offer those people financial help, counseling, and legal assistance, among other things. We spoke with Noelle about how people in need can get help, what we can do to pitch in, and why it's so important for atheists to find a way to volunteer.

  On this week’s fun and fact-filled show, Darren kicks things off swearing Blasphemy is alive and well in Canada. Cristina breaks out in a segment about why debunked allergy myths continue to persist. Lastly, Adam mixes it up by asking if adding an egg to boxed cake mixes is a marketing ploy.  

Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Jocelyn Bell Burnel; News Items: Green Coffee Bean Hoax, Disneyland Measles Outbreak, Galaxy-Sized Wormhole, Fail-Safe for Artificial Life; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Comparing DNA; Name That Logical Fallacy; Crazy Stuff I Heard this Week; Science or Fiction

My quest this week is noteworthy a.i. researcher Randy Olson who joins me to share his work creating the Reddit World Map - a visualization that illuminates clusters in the reddit community based on user behavior. Randy's blog post on created the reddit world map is well complimented by a more detailed write up titled Navigating the massive world of reddit: using backbone networks to map user interests in social media. Last but not least, an interactive version of the results (which leverages Gephi) can be found here. For a benevolent recommendation, Randy suggetss people check out Seaborn - a python library for statistical data visualization. For a self serving recommendation, Randy recommends listeners visit the Data is beautiful subreddit where he's a moderator.

0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 0:03:27 Evidence Please... with Jo Alabaster Update on the Tenpenny tour of Australia... Cancelled! 0:14:10 The National Center for Science Education Richard Saunders visits the NCSE and chats to Eugenie Scott and new executive director Ann Reid. 0:41:14 A Week in Science The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people to science. 0:44:40 Maynard's Spooky Action... Maynard chats to Dr Grant Hill-Cawthorne a medical microbiologist and lecturer in communicable disease epidemiology at the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity and School of Public Health, University of Sydney.

Oxidative stress, topical urine, imprinted silica, and free radicals. Plus crashed vans, cloning, growing cress, and spoilers. Lots of spoilers. Really, spoiler alert. There are spoilers. Probably not using more than 10% of our brains, it’s Skeptics with a K.

Edward Slingerland is an internationally recognized expert in both early Chinese thought and the links between cognitive science and the humanities. He is Professor of Asian Studies, Associate Member in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied Cognition at the University of British Columbia. He […]

One of the most common fears in the world is the fear of spiders. But what does a rationalist do when gripped by an irrational fear? MonsterTalk interviews author Lynne Kelly about her transition from arachnophobia to spider enthusiast. Note: This episode deals with spider sexual reproduction which includes masturbation and cannibalism. Read the episode notes

Last year, 100 million tonnes of plastic were produced by industry. At the same time sufficient waste plastic was found floating in the world's oceans to make a string of bottles long enough to make it to the Moon. This week we find out what plastic is, how it is made, how to recycle it and why, in the future, it might literally grow on trees. Plus, reading Roman scrolls buried 2000 years by a volcano, how the magnetic history of a meteorite sheds light on the early Solar system, and an antidote to radiation...

Katherine Stewart is an investigative journalist who has written for Rolling Stone, The Nation, The New York Times, and the Guardian. She may be best known as the author of The Good News Club, about an organization bringing religious fundamentalism to elementary schools across the country. We spoke with her about the evil genius behind the "4/14 Window," whether a "Better News Club" for children of atheist parents is a good idea, and how writing about religious fundamentalism is like going back to a bad boyfriend.