Our guest this week is Greta Christina, a leading atheist blogger, speaker, and commentator, and a regular contributor to AlterNet.org . Christina is author of the new ebook Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that Piss Off the Godless , which grows out of a 2007 blog post on the same topic. The book will also be out in print in June. Greta Christina blogs at FreeThoughtBlogs.com , and her writing has appeared, among other places, in Ms. , Penthouse , Chicago Sun-Times , On Our Backs , and...
May 15, 2012•38 min
Host: Indre Viskontas In developed countries at least, the status of women has improved considerably in the last century. But in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), they remain underrepresented in all but one field, according to a recent study conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Often, femininity can seem incompatible with STEM and other male-dominated careers—but can young women today find an unlikely role model in Elizabeth Taylor, an actress dogged by the Cat...
Apr 30, 2012•37 min
Host: Chris Mooney This week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a conference convened entitled "Science Writing in the Age of Denial." The keynote speaker was a former Point of Inquiry guest and a very popular one—Naomi Oreskes, co-author of the influential book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming . Point of Inquiry caught up with Dr. Oreskes at the conference and interviewed her about her lecture there, entitled ...
Apr 24, 2012•35 min
Host: Chris Mooney This week, our guest is a return one: Austin Dacey . He's a philosopher, a writer, and a human rights activist, and the creator of the Impossible Music Sessions , which we featured in a past show . Austin's books include The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life and, just out, The Future of Blasphemy: Speaking of the Sacred in an Age of Human Rights . This show focused on Austin's new book on blasphemy. But he helped enhance the discussion with a few pieces of ...
Apr 16, 2012•42 min
Guest Host: John Shook In this special episode of Point of Inquiry , we interview our host himself—about his new book, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality . From climate change to evolution, the rejection of mainstream science among Republicans is growing, as is the denial of expert consensus on the economy, American history, foreign policy and much more. Why won't Republicans accept things that most experts agree on? Why are they constantly fighting against th...
Apr 10, 2012•50 min
Host: Chris Mooney This week, Point of Inquiry is thrilled to welcome back one of our most popular guests: Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famed astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Last time we had him on, Dr. Tyson engaged in a wide ranging discussion about science communication and the place of science in America. This time, we focus in on his new book— Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier— and his call for revitalizing NASA and letting ...
Apr 02, 2012•38 min
Host: Indre Viskontas The end is nigh. 2012 is a banner year for doomsday prophecies, though there still seems to be debate concerning precisely how life as we know it will be snuffed out. Hollywood seems to prefer the 'death from the skies' scenario, with Lars von Trier's latest film Melancholia exploring the psychological consequences of believing that another planet is on a collision course with ours. But would we know? How much warning would we receive if such a catastrophe were to occur? Th...
Mar 26, 2012•36 min
Host: Chris Mooney Why is it that some of us are religious, some of us not... some of us liberal, some of us not? If you've been paying attention, then by now you might have noticed that this doesn't really have a lot to do with the intellectual validity of religious, or irreligious, or liberal, or conservative ideas. So what causes it? And why can't we all get along? To get at this, Point of Inquiry invited on a scholar and thinker who has become famous for his scientific approach to this quest...
Mar 19, 2012•39 min
Host: Chris Mooney If there's one thing Point of Inquiry is concerned about, it's ensuring a rational, sensible conversation in politics, in public life. And you simply can't have such a conversation if the culture is awash in political, and politicized, misinformation. What do we mean by "misinformation"? The denial of global warming. Claims about "death panels." Assertions that the President of the United States wasn't actually born here. One thing all these falsehoods have in common is that i...
Mar 12, 2012•31 min
Host: Chris Mooney A common goal of freethinkers, humanists, skeptics, and atheists is to preserve Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation" between church and state. But we haven't always been successful in this area—help from the courts notwithstanding—or at beating back the steady advances of the religious right. How can we do better? Our guest this week has a new book on the topic, and just as important, a new way of thinking. His name is Sean Faircloth , the director of strategy and policy fo...
Mar 06, 2012•35 min
Host: Indre Viskontas One of the costs of being conscious is that, once in a while, we are forced to contemplate the fact that we are mortal. Ironically, a close brush with the grim reaper leaves many people more convinced than ever that our minds are not tethered to our bodies, and therefore can survive physical death. What can these near-death experiences tell us about how well we understand our own consciousness? To explore this topic, we first talked to anesthesiologist Gerald Woerlee , auth...
Feb 28, 2012•41 min
Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Michael Mann, the prominent climatologist and, above all, leading defender of his field—and himself—against political attacks. Mann is out with a new book this month, which details his ten year battle against political attacks and misrepresentations. It's called The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines . And already, people are attacking it on Amazon.com without having even read it. Michael Mann is an American climatologist ...
Feb 20, 2012•34 min
Host: Chris Mooney So who's right , factually, about politics and science? Who speaks truth, and who's just spinning? It's kind of the million dollar question. If we could actually answer it, we'd have turned political debate itself into a... well, a science. And is such an answer possible? What does the scientific evidence suggest? In this episode of Point of Inquiry , Chris Mooney brought back a popular guest from last year, Yale's Dan Kahan , to discuss this very question-one that they've bee...
Feb 14, 2012•59 min
Host: Chris Mooney We had Lawrence Krauss on Point of Inquiry less than a year ago, to discuss his recent book on the scientific works of Richard Feynman. But in order to keep up with him, we had to have him on again. Already. You see, Krauss has a new book out that's causing quite a stir right now— A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing . Here's a hint as to why: Krauss's answer to this age-old question isn't God. In fact, as discussed on the program, Krauss has arg...
Feb 07, 2012•32 min
Host: Chris Mooney Earlier this month, Point of Inquiry host Chris Mooney attended Science Online, the premiere science blogging conference, in the research triangle area. There were many science aficionados, communicators, and wonks present, but Chris found himself hanging out a lot with Brian Malow—aka, the Science Comedian . And get this—Malow lived up to his name. He was pretty funny. Chris decided he had to get him on air. Now, obviously, we couldn't have Malow do stand up for this program....
Jan 30, 2012•32 min
Host: Chris Mooney Eugenie Scott is no stranger to Point of Inquiry , or to the secular community. Her endless travails to defend the teaching of evolution have won her immense respect. And that's why, when Scott and her National Center for Science Education take on a new initiative, everybody listens. So for this Point of Inquiry episode, we invited Eugenie to break some news about why she is venturing into a very new and very challenging area—defending the teaching of accurate climate change s...
Jan 17, 2012•31 min
Host: Chris Mooney It's the beginning of a new year here at Point of Inquiry , and we've got a pretty good guest to kick it off. He needs no introduction. He's Brian Greene—celebrity physicist, bestselling author, television star and all around science communication maestro. Officially: Greene is co-founder and director of Columbia University's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, author of the bestselling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos , and co-f...
Jan 03, 2012•34 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Dr. Stuart Robbins is a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His work focuses on planetary geophysics, and he’s currently researching craters on Mars, and on the moon. Stuart received his PhD in Astrophysics through the Geophysics program from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Stuart has a special interest in astronomy education, especially correcting myths and misconceptions about astronomy. To that end, he has a blog entitled E...
Dec 27, 2011•43 min
Host: Chris Mooney How do you successfully debunk misinformation? The question is a deceptively simple one—which is precisely the problem. Debunking is easy—just refute false claims, and provide corrective information. Debunking successfully is something else again-you have to change minds, and make the corrective information stick. And how does that work? Well, as it turns out, we actually don't know very much about the process. But what we do know was recently compiled into a brilliant short d...
Dec 20, 2011•29 min
Guest Host: John Shook Recently, the Center for Inquiry held a conference titled "Daniel Dennett and the Scientific Study of Religion: A Celebration of the Fifth Anniversary of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon ". During that conference, John Shook, CFI's Director of Education, sat down with Dennett for this interview.
Dec 13, 2011•49 min
Host: Chris Mooney Over the last decade, there have been many calls in the secular community for increased criticism of religion, and increased activism to help loosen its grip on the public. But what if the human brain itself is aligned against that endeavor? That's the argument made by cognitive scientist Robert McCauley in his new book, Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not . In it, he lays out a cognitive theory about why our minds, from a very early state of development, seem predispos...
Dec 05, 2011•37 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Scott Gavura is a registered pharmacist in Ontario with a personal and professional interest in improving the way we use medication. Scott started the Science-Based Pharmacy blog in 2009 to scrutinize pharmacy practices, and to begin a discussion within the industry about its obligations as a health profession. Scott has a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Toronto, and has completed an Accredited Canadian ...
Nov 29, 2011•38 min
Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Jonathan Weiler, a political scientist and director of global studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Weiler is co-author, with Marc Hetherington of Vanderbilt, of the book Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics . In it, they describes this strange and troubling creature called an authoritarian—usually conservative, usually a religious fundamentalist, and very closed minded. Authoritarians are identified in surveys by as...
Nov 21, 2011•34 min
Host: Robert Price Ebenezer Scrooge once called Christmas "a false and commercial holiday." Is it? Should Humanists refuse to observe it? Should they wage war on it? Should they celebrate "Sanka" versions of it like Solstice and "HumanLight"? Christians complain that the holiday has become secularized—so should Secular Humanists just say "Thanks!" and enjoy listening to "Let It Snow" and "Winter Wonderland"? As always, Tom Flynn brings new and well-informed perspectives to a difficult issue! Tom...
Nov 17, 2011•34 min
Host: Chris Mooney Recently in New Orleans, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry held the very first CSICON—the conference dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical thinking. The main honoree: Bill Nye the Science Guy, who was given CSI's premiere "In Praise of Reason" award. The next day, Point of Inquiry caught up with Nye, a guest who really needs no introduction... at least not to the thousands upon thousands of kids who saw a little show called Bill Nye the Science Guy . Since then, Nye h...
Nov 08, 2011•37 min
Host: Karen Stollznow Dr. Seth Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI). Seth is the author of Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence , and is well known as one of the hosts of the popular radio show Big Picture Science . (Formerly known as Are We Alone? ) Seth is a science communicator who performs public outreach; especially to young people, about science in general, and astrobiology in par...
Nov 01, 2011•33 min
Host: Chris Mooney Human cloning. Synthetic biology. Mood (and mind) altering drugs. Personalized medicine. Such topics are rarely at the top of the political agenda. Yet the changes they're causing, often below the radar, are monumental. Issues of personhood, identity, ethics, are at play. The human future may be very different from the human past as these changes are negotiated and assimilated. And so may human politics. To help us prepare for this radical future is Jonathan Moreno, author of ...
Oct 24, 2011•37 min
Host: Robert Price Richard C. Johnson Ph.D. is a retired chemist and serves as Treasurer for Freethought Arizona. For some 25 years, the company he founded worked with scientists and researchers in chemical analysis. Through family ties, Richard had long been a kind of participant observer of religion and learned well its social bonding functions, though always remaining suspicious of its metaphysical claims. He observed just too many contradictions in theory and practice to take the beliefs ser...
Oct 19, 2011•41 min
Host: Chris Mooney In recent months, political attacks on science have been back in the news. Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman even famously tweeted , "To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." So it's very timely that Shawn Lawrence Otto, co-founder of a nonpartisan organization called Science Debate , has got a new book out about this very problem. It's called Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America , and it cove...
Oct 11, 2011•43 min
Host: Adam Isaak This October-on Halloween weekend-the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is holding a conference: CSICon . It's the latest in a line of CSI skeptics' conferences going back to what is likely the first skeptics' conference ever held, a CSICOP (CSI) conference back in 1983. This episode of Point of Inquiry revolves around CSICon. It features interviews with Barry Karr, Jim Underdown, and Debbie Goddard. Barry Karr is the Executive Director of CSI and Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He w...
Oct 06, 2011•34 min
