The Griffith Observatory is the most visited public observatory in the world, and a science icon that overlooks the Los Angeles basin. Since 1935, the facility has hosted astronauts, WWII pilots and celebrities, and continues to promote science and wonder in a world full of misinformation. In this episode, Jim chats with Griffith Observatory Director Dr. Ed Krupp, who has been at the helm of this venerated institution for almost 50 years. They chat about Ed's journey, the evolution of the observ...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 5 min
A century and a half ago, one out of every five Americans lived on a farm. Today, it’s closer to one out of every fifty, even though the population has increased more than tenfold. The industrial-scale farm and livestock business that we depend on today feeds hundreds of millions every day, but at what cost? In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim speaks with investigative journalist and author Will Potter, whose book Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth from Farm to Fable uncovers some disturbin...
Jun 23, 2025•53 min
The ancient Greeks had a profound influence not only on their own world, but also on what would become Western culture as a whole. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim chats with Evaggelos Villianatos, a Greek scholar who sheds an interesting light on how his ancestors helped shape the science, arts, language and governments of the modern world.
Mar 07, 2025•49 min
The art of cold reading has convinced millions of people that gimmicks like crystal balls, palm reading, tarot cards, and other alleged paranormal abilities are real. People walk away from astrologers, mediums, and psychics saying "there's no way he could have known that" or other exclamations of amazement. But are these skills really paranormal, or can they be explained by a series of techniques just about anyone can master with practice? Longtime investigator Jim Underdown teams up with psycho...
Feb 05, 2025•38 min
For most of human history, infectious diseases have wreaked havoc on humans. But beginning in the late 18th century, more and more of us beat back illness by getting immunized with vaccines. Today, vaccines are -- or should be – a part of every thinking person’s health regimen. But exactly what are vaccines and how do they work? How are they tested? Joining Jim in this episode of Point of Inquiry is immunologist David Miles. David teaches at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and is...
Nov 27, 2024•55 min
When a business owner, ex-marine, and retired peace office is questioned and later arrested for what appear to be bigoted reasons, there should be recourse in our system of justice to right such a wrong. But Steve Hill is having a hell of a time finding help with his well-documented struggles. Should the fact that he is a black man and a member of the Satanic Temple enter into whether he is treated fairly or not – or even represented in court? Not if justice is blind and secular. Jim chats with ...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Jun 04, 2024•55 min
May 15, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Mar 27, 2024•54 min
Almost 30 percent of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated, but only a fraction of those so-called "Nones" identify as atheist or agnostic. Fewer still feel comfortable revealing to the people in their lives that they don't believe in God. Kate Cohen was one of those people. Though she had determined that God was a human-made fiction from a young age, the challenges of navigating social pressures and familial expectations led her to "play along" with God and religion well into adulthoo...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr
Members of Gen X and older grew up in an America in which being religious was the default and atheism was, as best, on the fringes. A lot has changed in the last couple of decades, and for many Millennials and members of Gen Z, being nonreligious is really no big deal. Folks in younger generations are accustomed to living among people of various religious and ethnic backgrounds, and as the percentage of Nones (the religiously unaffiliated) has risen, relatively few young Americans feel the need ...
Jan 05, 2024•38 min
In 2019, Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Scott Kennedy was working on a film about the years-long anti-vaxxer movement. Filming with top public health officials–including Tony Fauci–as well as rare interviews with anti-vaccine activists who were persuading parents by the millions to refuse vaccines for their children. And then COVID hit, and further fueled immunization fears that would kill countless people. Scott chronicled the subsequent events from day one in his film, Shot in t...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Nov 22, 2023•33 min
The U.S. Supreme Court -- that over sixty years ago ruled against state-led prayer in public schools -- has swung back the other way with a vengeance. The ultra-conservative majority on the current court has reversed 60 years of progress and put the rights of non-believers in jeopardy. In this episode, Jim Underdown speaks to Nick Little, former Director of CFI's Legal department, and Eddie Tabash, Chair of the CFI Board of Directors. The two lawyers talk about the state of the court, recent dec...
Oct 23, 2023•1 hr 2 min
The Nones are on the rise! When asked about their religious affiliation, year after year, more and more Americans are choosing “none of the above.” The number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, which includes atheists and agnostics, has been rocketing up over the past couple of decades, and today these Nones make up about one-third of the American population. But they’re not matching their religious counterparts in terms of political organization or cultivating tightly bonded communities, so...
Oct 18, 2023•54 min
Of the 535 Members of Congress, only one is an out-of-the-closet atheist. His name is Jared Huffman, and he is a U.S. Representative from Northern California. He is also the co-chair (with Rep. Jamie Raskin) of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a group all secular Americans should know about and support. In this episode, Jim Underdown chats with the congressman about a number of different issues, including the religiosity of his fellow representatives.
Aug 09, 2023•37 min
What happens when a group of skeptics from across the globe keeps score of over twenty years of psychic predictions? Any guesses? In this episode of Point of Inquiry, host Jim Underdown speaks to Rob Palmer and Richard Saunders of the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project about this ambitious effort to track the accuracy of those who claim to see the future. How did the prognosticators do? Listen to this week's episode to find out!...
Jul 19, 2023•58 min
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California may be the world's premiere space exploration facility. From the earliest days of rocketry, JPL has been at the vanguard of designing and building rockets and spaceships. But the lab has a colorful history, and some of its founders broke the stereotypes of what a rocket scientist might be. Satanism? Friendships with L. Ron Hubbard? The Red Scare? Those only scratch the surface of this fascinating place. And who better to talk about all ...
May 10, 2023•51 min
“Many of us who are happy to live outside religion still suffer from a lack of things religion gives its members,” writes historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht. “It seems to me the remedy to this suffering is a shift in the way we think about ritual and the poetry of our lives.” Hecht is our guest on this episode of Point of Inquiry. She’s the author of books such as Doubt: A History, The Happiness Myth, and Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It. Her most recent book is ...
Apr 14, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Graham Cooks and his team at Purdue University have discovered a chemical process that has exciting implications for people who believe that life could have emerged spontaneously and through natural means. The idea that the building blocks of life started in a primordial ocean now has a competitor: airborne tiny water droplets . In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim Underdown speaks to chemistry professor and researcher Graham Cooks about his work in mass spectrometry and his discovery that a...
Nov 28, 2022•45 min
Oct 27, 2022•50 min
Realizing the faith you've had your entire life is wrong can be devastating for some people. The process of deconversion can lead to panic attacks, depression, and more. What does it take for someone to get through that complicated process? Our guest is Alice Greczyn, author of the memoir Wayward: A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity . She's an actress, author, and founder of Dare to Doubt , which provides resources like mental health professionals, aid organizations, and peer support...
Sep 15, 2022•46 min
What do we do when television shows dealing with extraordinary events focus on the ridiculous to bolster views? In today's episode, we take a behind-the-scenes look at two people with experience in the industry and what they've done to create a more focused skeptical point of view on the air. Our first guest, whose name has changed to protect their identity, currently works on magazine/news shows, where he works on booking more balanced guests, skeptic-wise, to speak about UFOs/UAPs. Jim Underdo...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 19 min
This special episode of Point of Inquiry is brought to you by our friends at CFI Canada from their new podcast, Podcast for Inquiry . They recently spoke with author Steven Pinker and we wanted to make this special conversation available to everyone. Even as a young teenager, Dr. Steven Pinker ( @sapinker ) prized rationality as a virtue, and considered himself an anarchist. He changed that belief, however, when evidence indicated that anarchy was not a path to human flourishing. In this special...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 5 min
This week's episode is a bit different. Please enjoy a talk from Timothy Caulfield that originally aired on Skeptical Inquirer Presents. SIP is a live online series of talks from some of the brightest minds in the reality based community and is just one of the many great shows that the Center for Inquiry produces. This recent episode of the series featured Timothy Caulfield where he was presented with the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking. Afterwards, Caulfield gave an informati...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 5 min
In this week's episode, we are diving into the flat-earth conspiracy theory and why people could believe such a thing with guest Kelly Weill and her new book, Off the Edge . In 2019 Jim Underdown and the CFI Investigations Group produced a video where they designed a series of experiments to show that the earth is indeed not flat. CFIIG's conducted their experiment in front of over a dozen flat-earthers. Even in the face of conflicting evidence to their own beliefs, the flat-earthers held firm i...
Feb 28, 2022•50 min
What does it mean to be alive? Does life have a clear definition? On this week's episode, Carl Zimmer joins host Jim Underdown to discuss his new book, Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive to help answer those questions. Can we clearly define what it means to be alive? Scientists have been struggling with this question for centuries. For every rule or idea that's brought to the table, it seems a new species of plant or animal comes along that turns the whole thing on its head. F...
Dec 22, 2021•59 min
Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God who walked the Earth as a human being. Some Atheists believe none of the God bits but that there was a man named Jesus who did exist. There is also an ever growing community who believe Jesus did not exist at all. Not as the son of God nor as a man. On today's episode we speak to someone with evidence to support the claim of Jesus never existing. Duke Mertz joins host Jim Underdown to speak about his work on the subject of Jesus namely his Free In...
Dec 02, 2021•53 min
On today's episode we introduce the show's new guest host, Julia Sweeney and her interview with author David G. McAfee on his new book, Hi, I'm an Atheist!: What That Means and How to Talk About It with Others. McAfee and Sweeney speak about the new book, how it helped Sweeney get back in touch with her atheism roots, his journey being raised in a religious household and becoming a non-believer, his challenges as an atheist in a Religious Studies program, what he sees in the bible from a literar...
Nov 08, 2021•51 min
Throughout the modern world trust in science has continued to erode at dangerous speeds. From anti-vaxxers to climate change deniers, there is an ever growing movement of people that deny science at the peril of us all. The shift towards a public with increasing lack of scientific literacy and critical-thinking skills combined with the proliferation of online misinformation and disinformation and social media algorithms that reinforce ingrained worldviews has caused a situation that is out of co...
Sep 28, 2021•1 hr
