Host: Karen Stollznow Indre Viskontas is a neuroscientist, a soprano, and a skeptic. She is a host of the television show The Miracle Detectives that recently aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Indre appeared as the scientific investigator pitted against "believer" Randall Sullivan, author of the book The Miracle Detective . The show investigates claims of "miracles"; from supposedly miraculous dirt believed to cure cancer, through to a beam of light in a hospital alleged to be an angel of merc...
Oct 04, 2011•48 min
Host: Chris Mooney This coming October, in Kabul, Afghanistan—on a date, and in a location, that remain undisclosed—there will be a rock concert that's billed as the world's " first stealth music festival ." It will feature rock, heavy metal, and funk from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Iran. Why "stealth"? In some of these countries, music is equivalent to political and religious subversion. Which is precisely why those of us who care about liberal democracy and secularism n...
Sep 27, 2011•32 min
Host: Robert Price Lee Salisbury was at one time an up-and-coming Charismatic Christian pastor, even a healer! Then how did he wind up actively involved in the ranks of Minnesota Atheists? Often successful Christian activists simply cannot allow themselves to entertain doubts as to the worthiness of their enterprise, but Lee had a dangerous yearning for critical thought. It caused him to look back on all he had said and done and to wonder if perhaps he had been kidding himself and others. He lef...
Sep 20, 2011•29 min
Host: Chris Mooney We've heard a lot in the news lately about Dominionists—Christians who believe, basically, that they ought to be running this country. Dominionism has different strains. But one is embodied in a group called the New Apostolic Reformation, which helped organize a recent prayer rally for Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry. How seriously should we take this group, and its goals? To answer that question, Point of Inquiry turned to Rachel Tabachnik, a researcher a...
Sep 12, 2011•39 min
Host: Karen Stollznow John Dodes is a dentist with a special interest in dentistry and pseudoscience. He is one of the founding fellows of the Institute for Science in Medicine, a former President and Chairperson of the National Council Against Health Fraud, and a member of the Health Fraud Advisory Council. He is also a member of the American Council on Science and Health, and the Dental Consultant to Quackwatch.org . John has written about alternative therapies and myths about dentistry for Sk...
Sep 07, 2011•45 min
Host: Chris Mooney In less than two weeks, the ten year anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil—9/11—will be upon us. In the past decade, there has been much debate and discussion about the root causes of terrorism and violent extremism. There has also been considerable scientific study of the matter. Fortunately, Point of Inquiry recently caught up with the anthropologist Scott Atran, a world leader in this research. Atran has met with terrorists face to face. He has interviewed...
Aug 30, 2011•47 min
Host: Robert Price Host Robert M. Price felt uncannily as if he were talking to himself when he interviewed Dan Barker, the two share so much in common. But then their story is not so unusual, come to think of it. The same sort of thing seems to be happening to more and more Evangelicals these days! For you see, Dan used to be an Evangelical preacher and a Christian musician. One day he started having second thoughts about the path he once imagined God had chosen for him. Whoever had urged him t...
Aug 23, 2011•35 min
Host: Chris Mooney Why are human beings simultaneously capable of reasoning, and yet so bad at it? Why do we have such faulty mechanisms as the "confirmation bias" embedded in our brains, and yet at the same time, find ourselves capable of brilliant rhetoric and complex mathematical calculations? According to Hugo Mercier, we've been reasoning about reason all wrong. Reasoning is very good at what it probably evolved to let us do—argue in favor of what we believe and try to convince others that ...
Aug 15, 2011•33 min
My guest this week is Donald Prothero, Professor of Geology at Occidental College, and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. Don is a distinguished academic; a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society, he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Don contributes to the SkepticBlog and he has been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of Prehistoric Monsters...
Aug 08, 2011•38 min
Host: Chris Mooney When it comes to the U.S. political right, it often appears that the opposition to science-and reason in general-is everywhere. From climate change denial to anti-evolutionism; from debt ceiling denial to, that's right, incandescent light bulb availability denial ; conservatives today have plenty to answer for. Fortunately, some conservatives know it. And given how much he has blasted the "Republican War on Science" in the past, on this show Chris Mooney wanted to hear their t...
Aug 01, 2011•34 min
Host: Robert Price A couple of student hecklers once reproved Marlowe's Dr. Faustus: "Faustus! Plumb the depths of that which you profess!" Many evangelical Christians have buckled down to study apologetics or biblical studies in just that spirit—and wound up not professing any more! Their stories are often eerily similar yet always fascinating! And such a delver was Jaco Gericke. First he read the "safe" stuff, then the books they warned him not to read, and then everything else! Today Dr. Geri...
Jul 25, 2011•43 min
Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Rebecca Watson, the founder of the Skepchick blog. Recently, she's been at the center of an explosive controversy over the relationship between feminism and the skeptic/atheist movement. It all started when Watson made a relatively casual remark in a video to her followers. She was discussing her travels and a talk she'd given in Ireland about sexism in the atheist/skeptic community. Overall, Watson said, the response to her remarks had been great—but th...
Jul 19, 2011•37 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in England. Richard began his career as a professional magician before pursuing a career in psychology, and developing a reputation for research into luck, deception, the paranormal, humor, and the science of self-help. Richard is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Skeptical Inquirer consulting editor. He is the author of many books, including The Luc...
Jul 11, 2011•34 min
Host: Chris Mooney It's not often that Hollywood takes up the subject of atheism directly—much less sympathetically. Even rarer is finding this in a film starring major names like Liv Tyler and Terence Howard. But that's what Matthew Chapman has achieved in The Ledge— which also stars Patrick Wilson and Charlie Hunnan. Besides being a screenwriter and author, Chapman himself is an atheist, freethinker, science advocate, and great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. Without giving away the plot of ...
Jul 05, 2011•32 min
Host: Robert Price D.M. Murdock, who also goes by the pen name "Acharya S.," is the author of The Christ Conspiracy , the most controversial of modern treatments of the Christ Myth theory. She has had to field flack from both apologists and atheists. An independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology, Murdock was educated in Classics and Greek Civilization, at Franklin & Marshall College and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. She has traveled extensively ar...
Jun 28, 2011•1 hr 3 min
Host: Chris Mooney Recently, we've seen a spate of news stories—and news incidents—involving conservative politicians and activists getting details wrong about American history. There was, most infamously, Sarah Palin saying that Paul Revere , on his famous midnight ride, rang bells and "warned the British." There was Michele Bachman, claiming that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." Actually, the constitution explicitly treated slaves as thre...
Jun 20, 2011•32 min
Host: Karen Stollznow This week’s guest is Jean Mercer, a Developmental Psychologist and Professor Emerita at Richard Stockton College. She is the author of the new book Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings . Jean writes the blog "Child Myths", and along with Penn Jillette and Richard Dawkins, she is a co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion . Jean is also a contributor and Consulting Editor to the Center for Inquiry’s journal, the Scienti...
Jun 14, 2011•48 min
Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and head of the Skeptics Society, and a longtime commentator on issues relating to science, critical thinking, and the paranormal. Chris asked Michael on to discuss his new book, which is entitled The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them As Truths . Clearly, much of what Shermer has to say here will be of great relevance to skepti...
Jun 06, 2011•42 min
Host: Robert Price Do you often wish you lived in the far future? Or on a different planet? Do your friends and family think you belong there, too? Cheer up! This may not be just because you're a science fiction nerd! It may be because you espouse a worldview that is in the distinct minority in our time and place—Secular Humanism! It is a vision of a better future. And that is no doubt why many of us feel such an affinity for SF, and of course for Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek . It is a vision of...
May 31, 2011•41 min
Host: Chris Mooney From Birthers, to Truthers, to Deathers—to occasional Liars—America seems to be crawling right now with fevered conspiracy mongers. What's up with that? To find out, Point of Inquiry turns in this episode to Jonathan Kay, author of the new book Among the Truthers: A Journey into America's Growing Conspiracist Underground . In it, Kay provides a fascinating look at some of our indigenous kooks, and why they seem to be thriving right now. Jonathan Kay is the managing editor of C...
May 24, 2011•37 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Robert Sheaffer is a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow and author of the "Psychic Vibrations" column for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He writes the "Bad UFO" blog and "The Debunker's Domain" website, and is the author of The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence, UFO Sightings - The Evidence and The Making of the Messiah: Christianity and Resentment . A prolific researcher of supernatural claims, Robert specializes in UFOs and conspiracy theories. Many favor the term "in...
May 18, 2011•33 min
Special Guest Host: Ronald A. Lindsay In this special episode, Chris Mooney changes places and becomes the interviewee—and then finds himself facing some probing questions from CFI President and CEO Ronald A. Lindsay. This frank interview is all substance and no fluff as Mooney is asked to defend accommodationism and his Templeton Foundation fellowship. The tough questions elicit vigorous replies as Mooney restates his belief that some of the New Atheists are adopting the wrong tactics in critic...
May 11, 2011•53 min
Host: Robert Price Robert "Bo" Bennett wears many hats (author, motivational speaker, black belt Karate master, businessman, etc.) but manages not to have a swelled head to accommodate them! His latest book is called The Concept: Introduction to Christian Nontheism , an accessible and engaging presentation of the case for maintaining one's Christian identity once one has outgrown belief in biblical inspiration, miracles, even God. True, if anyone else in your church found out, they might kick yo...
May 03, 2011•46 min
Host: Chris Mooney George Lakoff is a cognitive linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. But unlike many of his scientific peers, he's known as much for his work on politics as for his research. Lakoff the famed author of many books on why the left and right disagree about politics, including Moral Politics, Don't Think of an Elephant , Thinking Points , and most recently, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain . Throughout thes...
Apr 25, 2011•55 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Our guest this week is Josh Rosenau, the Programs and Policy Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), and writer of the blog "Thoughts from Kansas" at ScienceBlogs. Josh has pursued a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, studying the ways ecological competition shapes the ecological niche and geographical ranges of species. In his role at the NCSE, he works with grassroots groups, testifies before school boards, meets with legislators, works ...
Apr 20, 2011•46 min
Host: Chris Mooney When the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last month, it left behind not only mass destruction, but also a nuclear crisis that was covered 24-7 by the international media. Since then, we've been embroiled in a huge debate about nuclear policy—should there be a "Nuclear Renaissance" in the United States, or should we put it on hold? A central issue underlying all this is the scientific question of risk. How dangerous is radiation, anyway? Do we overreact to react...
Apr 11, 2011•47 min
Host: Robert Price One of the outstanding leaders of organized atheism in our day is a man named August Berkshire. He is a non-believer of broad sympathies, having served as an officer and/or board member of organizations as diverse as Minnesota Atheists, Atheist Alliance International, Humanists of Minnesota, Freedom from Religion Foundation, and others. He is also a community activist at the forefront of church-state separation issues. August brings a winning charm and personal openness to num...
Apr 05, 2011•46 min
Host: Chris Mooney Physicist Lawrence Krauss has written numerous popular books about science, including the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek . But now he's tried something different—penning a scientific biography of the famed Nobel Prize winning physicist (and infamous bon vivant) Richard Feynman. The resulting book, Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science , is a fascinating look at the scientific innovations of this larger-than-life figure—a man who also revolutionized physics teach...
Mar 28, 2011•39 min
Host: Karen Stollznow My guest this week is Cheryl Russell, a recognized authority on statistics and demographics. Cheryl is the editorial director of New Strategist Publications and the former editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine. She is the author of the "Demo Memo" blog and the books The Master Trend , 100 Predictions for the Baby Boom and Bet You Didn't Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts about Living in the USA . In this interview with Karen Stollznow, Cheryl reveals that demogr...
Mar 21, 2011•39 min
Host: Chris Mooney Recently, it has come to light that many scientists—scientists who don't believe in God--nevertheless claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Some in the secular movement have responded favorably to this new trend-one unfolding against the backdrop of an increasingly secular America, and a millennial generation that is also discarding traditional religion while extolling spiritual meaning. Yet others are sharply opposed, calling secular "spirituality" little more than a sem...
Mar 15, 2011•55 min
