Hunting Humbug 101

A weekly podcast on fallacies in thinking: Hunting Humbug 101 – a crash course in shooting down bad arguments

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Episodes

Episode 0019: Unfounded generalisation

In this episode we look at Unfounded Generalisation The clips for this episode come from QANDA episode Monday 10 November, 2014 This is your Brain on Climate Change Some further reading: A review of Susan Greenfield’s book: http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/bell_10_14.php A Ben Goldacre post from 2011: http://www.badscience.net/2011/11/why-wont-professor-greenfield-publish-this-theory-in-a-scientific-journal/ Direct download: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0019.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edi...

Jan 31, 2015

Episode 0018: False cause; correlation error (original episode)

In this podcast we discuss the False Cause; Correlation Error . It’s the 1st pod in a series we did on the air head actress Jenny McCarthy and her fallacious views on autism . The "cut down" video podcast version: Here's the youtube link from where I obtained the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36PLQIMW69c Stop Jenny McCarthy Direct download of the podcast: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0018.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazo...

Jan 17, 2015

Episode 0017: Ad hominem (original episode)

This is an original episode on Ad Hominem . Show notes (stuff we mentioned that you might want to follow up, or not, whatever… totally up to you): Reading from the book (Ad Hominem) The master of vitriolic Ad Hominem and Browbeating - Gordon Ramsay - from Kitchen Nightmares (I think...) Reductio Ad Hitlerum and Goodwin’s Law An example of likening a contemporary political leader to Hitler from people who’d been to see a talk by Al Gore organised by moveon.org (no points for guessing the leader o...

Jan 02, 2015

Episode 0016: Immunised hypothesis

In this episode Ben and I discuss Immunised Hypotheses: http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2013/01/immunised-hypothesis.html Clips from: Derren Brown investigates: Ghost Hunter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hfDIveFQHg The Refining Reason Debate: Special Pleading fallacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJApqf0xaAA Phony Karate Master - No Touch KO Debunked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z0_n7tGnK0 Also discussed, Kiai Master vs MMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I Direct download:...

Dec 19, 2014

Episode 0015: Gibberish (original episode)

This podcast is an original episode on Gibberish: http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2012/12/gibberish.html One example we use is from Yes Prime Minister - The Smoke Screen . The other examples are from Richard Dawkins' Tanner Lectures . (The gibberish comes in the form of questions asked to Richard Dawkins.) Richard Dawkins - The Religion of Science - Part 2 - at about 31 minutes into the audio if you want to hear the original. Richard Dawkins - The Science of Religion - Part 2 - at about 11 min...

Dec 05, 2014

Episode 0014: Bad faith

Bad faith http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2013/01/bad-faith.html Dr Oz Dr Oz was forced to face a senate hearing into dietary supplements. Audio from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and somewhere else on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA0wKeokWUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS-Qpp5asSE Defending Jo Hockey (sort of, not really) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-13/shorten-seizes-on-hockeys-poor-people-dont-have-cars-comment/5668468 A careful and better analysis is looking at f...

Nov 21, 2014

Episode 0013: Non sequitur (original episode)

This is an original episode on non-sequiturs Direct download: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0013.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play Apple iBooks LULU (DRM free ePub)...

Nov 08, 2014

Episode 0012: False dichotomy and false dilemma (original episode)

This is a combination of two original episodes. False dichotomy and dilemma, and then some feedback. These are the three examples we specifically speak about on the podcast: A super False Dilemma with the LHC Cyclonic Dilemma Left Wing and Right Wing - a False Dichotomy Direct download of the MP3 here: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0012.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play Apple iBooks LULU (DRM free ePub)...

Oct 25, 2014

Episode 0011: Feedback

Not a full episode. A response to feedback as a test for recording via google hangouts on air. Back with a full episode next week. Direct download: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0011.mp3

Oct 10, 2014

Episode 0010: The naturalistic fallacy

In this episode we look a the naturalistic fallacy, both the “is-ought” problem and the appeal to nature. Direct link: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0010.mp3 Section 1: Reading from the book Section 2: Appeal to nature The “Food Babe” Wikipedia entry: Vani Hari, also known on her blog as the Food Babe, is an American blogger, known for her criticism of the food industry. She has gathered over 350,000 signatures via petitions pressuring food companies to remove ingredients from their p...

Sep 26, 2014

Episode 0009: Moving the goalposts and red herring (original episode)

This is an episode from the original run of the podcast. It looks at Moving the goalposts and Red herrings . Direct download: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0009.mp3

Sep 12, 2014

Episode 0008: Misuse of statistics, and misunderstanding of randomness and probability

Misuse of statistics _________________ Clip from original episode A bit from the classic British show, Yes Prime Minister. _________________ Apple WWDC keynote Apple CEO Tim Cook at this year’s World Wide Developers Conference Keynote. He points out that Apple has an install base of 80 Million Macs. Based on NetMarketShare data, as of May 2014, Windows 8 can be found on about 14 percent of all PCs currently running Windows. But with an overall market share of about 1.5 billion, Windows PCs repre...

Aug 29, 2014

Episode 0007: Misuse of Information (Original Episode)

This is an original episode, however I have cut some of it out to add to the next episode. This episode is going to focus on the misuse of science information . The next episode will be on the misuse and misunderstanding of statistics. It will be a new one with Ben, but include some of the original episode on misuse of information - about statistics. Direct download of the episode: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0007.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3...

Aug 15, 2014

Episode 0006: Brain gym and the argument from imagination

As with the previous episode, this is partially based on my presentation at Brisbane SkeptiCamp 2014 Clips and information from this episode can be found here: http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2011/11/three-ways-of-examining-brain-or-any_26.html A focus of this podcast was on the argument from imagination . The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play Apple iBooks LULU (DRM free ePub)...

Aug 01, 2014

Episode 0005: Factoid propagation - brain claims

This episode is partially based on my presentation at Brisbane SkeptiCamp 2014 Clips and information from this episode can be found here: http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2011/11/three-ways-of-examining-brain-or-any.html http://www.skepticsfieldguide.net/2011/12/three-ways-of-examining-brain-claims.html Direct download of the episode: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0005.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play Apple iBo...

Jul 19, 2014

Episode 0004: False Analogy (Original Episode with a new bit)

This episode looks false analogy . This is an episode from the original run of the podcast. It also includes a newly recorded part looking at the Australian Prime Minister's recent trouble when trying to explain the tough new federal budget cuts using an analogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMbfdW3HVRE Direct download of the episode: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0004.mp3 The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play Apple i...

Jul 05, 2014

Episode 0003: False balance

Show notes In this episode we look at false balance . We discussed the Dunning-Kruger effect with some Dunning-Kruger like accuracy (we got the vibe of it right). Check out the original paper here: https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~suh/metacognition.pdf Clips looked at: Anti-immunisation false balance - GWN7 News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3lai8RUQ3k John Oliver Last Week Tonight on climate change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg I was interviewed on The Skeptic Zone : http://skep...

Jun 20, 2014

Episode 0002: What is Humbug! (Original Episode)

This was the first episode in the original run of Hunting Humbug 101. In it we (my Father Jef and I) discuss the general idea of fallacies and critical thinking and why we were moved to write a book on fallacies. Here's the link to the post most of this discussion is based around - Fallacy . The Second (eBook) Edition of Humbug! is available for about US$3.99 from: Amazon (Kindle) Google Play LULU (DRM free ePub) Direct download of the episode: https://archive.org/download/HH101/HH101e0002.mp3...

Jun 08, 2014

Episode 0001: Homeopathy - appealing to tradition

This episode looks at the fallacy of appealing to tradition . Reading from the book: www.skepticsfieldguide.net/p/ebook NHMRC draft Information Paper: Evidence on the effectiveness of homeopathy for treating health conditions: http://consultations.nhmrc.gov.au/public_consultations/homeopathy_health Australian Homeopath Anna Lamaro on The Project . Audio courtesy of the Skeptic Zone podcast: http://skepticzone.libsyn.com/webpage/2014/04 Anna on ABC Breakfast: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-09...

May 27, 2014

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