This week Jelena and Andras explore the world of skeptical conferences like CICAPFest, the European Skeptics Congress and Skeptics on the Fringe in Edinburgh.The Loch Ness Monster, the death of Ryke Geerd Hamer (NGM) are also talked about, as well as another country joining the compulsory vaccination club, cancer quack in action again in Hungary, the Familiarity Backfire Effect revised and evolution forced out of Turkey schools.Also, don't forget that nominations for the Maddox Prize 2017 are st...
Jul 11, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode our guest was Diego Fontanive, who's the founder of the EOF Project (End of Fear) that aims to understand our epistemic acceptances and apply meta-cognition in order to achieve a better understanding of our flaws, memetic choices and ways of getting it all wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 03, 2017•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we talk about Swedish Skeptics treating their members to 15 tickets to the European Skeptics Congress and how we were interviewed by Skeptical Inquiry before we talk about the famous Oxford Evolution debate. Then we dive into skeptical news around Europe talking about homeopathy being debunked (which does not impress the Homeopathic World Congress), The Good Thinking Society, antivax-sentiments in Italy and Switzerland, mistletoe therapy in Austria, Chinese medicine in Hungary, 30 year...
Jun 25, 2017•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode is dedicated to our interview with Italian chemist, skeptic and paranormal investigator Luigi Garlaschelli.Andras also announces a road trip between the 17th European Skeptics Congress in Wroclaw, Poland and CICAPfest2017 in Cesena, Italy in September 2017. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 19, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are coming back with our regular segments featuring topics like the 17th European Skeptics Congress, CICAPfest2017, James Randi's appearances in Europe, the BMJ being infiltrated by quackery, the harm in using homeopathy (for encephalitis), the latest in the fight against the anti-vaccination movement in Germany and Italy, Spanish skeptics launching a course on how to tackle pseudoscience in the information age, Portuguese skeptics launching a book on how not to be fooled, parents k...
Jun 11, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode is dedicated to our latest interview with Susan Gerbic, the Wikipediatrician, who's the leader of the international project called Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia. We talked about what's new, how people can join and help the movement and what public engagements Susan has in the coming months. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 04, 2017•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode brings you a lot of news and interesting topics from the world of skepticism across Europe.Firstly, please, consider helping Hayley Stevens raise money to help others attend QED 2017. Then listen to what we have to say about the Charity Commissions consultations, Evidence Matters EU, Pontus being acquainted to someone with the potential to become pope one day, a fishy vaccine study that circulates widely, Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales fighting fake news in his own way, All Tr...
May 27, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Episode 74 we interview Teddy Winroth, Swedish psychologist and criminologist, concerning a legal scandal regarding several murder cases in Sweden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 20, 2017•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week brings you a segment on Florence Nightingale, events across Europe and skeptical news including the latest success story of the Good Thinking Society with getting eBay to remove a dangerous product (Black Salve) from their listings, climate targets not being taken seriously, annual prizes awarded by ARP-SAPC in Spain, Spanish skeptical events mounting to 600 since 2010, the UK foreign secretary making false claims, German podcast award for Schlaulicht and a new skeptical podcast on the...
May 14, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Episode 72 we interview Alan Henness, co-director of The Nightingale Collaboration, a UK-based group focusing on questionable claims in healthcare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 06, 2017•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week brings you March for Science, a correction from Bethania Palma regarding last week's interview, Catherine of Siena, more bad measles news in Europe, BBC and homeopathy and new fact checking tools on Google. On top of that you will also be shocked to find that The Daily Fail is spreading that deliberate tape worm infections can treat autism… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 29, 2017•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode is entirely dedicated to our interview with Snopes.com fact checker and journalist, Bethania Palma. We also talked about March for Science across Europe. Please, check out our calendar for more information on those and other events. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 21, 2017•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are bringing you an episode packed with news, important events and topics from all over Europe:- Autism Acceptance Month- World Homeopathy Awareness Week- Poppy seeds causing false positive drug tests- Public opinion and vaccination- The latest on the screenings of the movie Vaxxed in Germany and Ireland- ComCept’s Flying Unicorn Awards- Nominations open for the John Maddox Prize- QED - Question. Explore. Discover. announced- Nominations open for the British Podcast Awards- Call for...
Apr 13, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast The episode was almost entirely dedicated to our interview with the Director of Sense about Science EU, Sofie Vanthournout. We talked about their upcoming project, Evidence Matters EU, the expansion of the Ask For Evidence campaign to European countries, how to elevate public debate about scientific issues to influence legislation, building a European network and a lot more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 04, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we talked about how fake news are a bit more complicated than that, Vaxxed still growing its audience, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy and schools, Massimo Polidoro having a new book out, ComCept's Flying Unicorn Award, the Carl Sagan Journalism Prize offered by GWUP, the UK's Charity Commission's consultations about the charitable status of organisations promoting pseudoscience, the death of the last patient of Paolo Macchiarini's.Finally, the British Chiropractic Association win...
Mar 29, 2017•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we interviewed award-winning blogger and paranormal investigator Hayley Stevens. We talked about becoming a skeptic after believing, how applying the right way of thinking and the best methods can help us understand how people think, what she thinks of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia and what the nicest approach to debating people might be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 21, 2017•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This week we're back with the regular segments discussing lots of different topics ranging from Chickenpox, SpaceX, Newton and Fake News to what happened #LastNightInSweden after all, how Bild is fighting falsehoods, March for Science across the world, Global Warming denial, Paleo diet, Metro in Sweden, What Doctor's Don't Tell You and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 15, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we interviewed Florent Martin, who's one of the founders of the French organisation Observatoire Zététique that investigates unusual claims in Grenoble and all over France. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 08, 2017•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this week's episode we talk about the antivax movement and what we can do about it, then move on to talking about Derren Brown's work, whether fortune tellers will be out of Hungarian mainstream TV any time soon, what the problem is with the simplification of science, how Natural News got removed from Google's indexes, what happened #LastNightInSweden, how some of the reportings of rape attacks in Germany turned out to be fake and a Hungarian quack that finally got convicted.Our logical falla...
Mar 01, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is entirely dedicated to one topic, which is the latest wrongdoings of the antivaccination campaign, namely the screenings of the pseudo-documentary "Vaxxed - From Cover-up to Catastrophy".Our guests, with whom we discussed this issue were Michael Marshall, project director at the Good Thinking Society and activist Fiona O'Leary, founder of Autistic Rights Together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 21, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are talking about Andrew Wakefield and his campaign promoting Vaxxed, a pseudo-documentary, Galileo Galilei and his achievements, Hungarian fitness guru talking rubbish again about nutrition, the a Swedish politician loosing his mind over carbon-dioxide, the 'pH Miracle' quack finally charged, the Russian Academy of Sciences denouncing Homeopathy, Wikipedia banning The Daily Mail from being used as source and how different countries fight against fake news.The posthumous Really Righ...
Feb 14, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode we talk about the rise of the antivaccination movement in Europe and interview Polish psychologist, science writer and science educator, Tomasz Witkowski, who's the author of two very important skeptical books on psychology: 'Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy' and 'Psychology Led Astray: Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy'. He is also one of the founders of the Polish Skeptic Club and a member of the organising committee of the 17th European Skeptics Con...
Feb 06, 2017•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are talking about whether Nutella contains a known carcinogen, how the number of autism cases is not on the rise, vaccination against chicken pox called to be made mandatory in Hungary, An interview with Prof. Edzard Ernst on the website of CSI, EvoKids making their brilliant video on evolution available in German, English and Turkish and the Good Thinking Society's next take on acupuncture.This week's Logical Fallacy was the Red Hering and Pontus is really optimistic about recent d...
Jan 30, 2017•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we interviewed Michael Motskin, who's the co-founder and Managing Director of the international science festival, Pint of Science. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 23, 2017•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast With minor changes having taken effect in the segments of our podcast, here we are with a new episode on which we talked about an Italian psychic, Facebook taking on fake news, Science Busters releasing the video featuring James Randi, Wikipedia vs Acupuncturist, Swedish skeptical awards announced and Retraction Watch having had a great year!If you're interested in the events happening across Europe, please visit our calendar page at http://theesp.eu/Events_in_EuropeThis week's logical fallacy i...
Jan 15, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we interview Richard Saunders, international podcaster and skeptical activist from Australia. We also present some changes to the format of the show based on the listener survey.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; Interview with Richard Saunders; Goodbye; Outtakes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 09, 2017•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jelena and Pontus take over while András is off to Italy for the week. We talk about a planet that was not there, access to scientific journals, religion in the Netherlands, the new Ebola vaccine, IT power consumption and how it is the season for detox scams. Plus the Sunk-cost fallacy and why Greenpeace is really wrong about GMO.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What’s on in Europe?; What’s hot in Europe?;Logical Fallacy; Really Wrong; Quote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...
Jan 02, 2017•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a Christmas-themed episode with even a few events to talk about. Check it out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 26, 2016•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast This time we talk events, quacks, Christmas, the PISA test, how skeptics sometimes get it wrong, how widespread the belief in alternative medicine is in Hungary and so much more.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What's on in Europe?; What's hot in Europe?; Really Wrong; Quote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 19, 2016•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a shorter episode with no long interview, but 3 shorter ones, along with the usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week.The last run of QED reports is featured on this episode (with Lukasz Sobala, Catherine de Jong and Ralf Neugebauer) and Pontus recorded a short interview with Louise Hansare at Malmö Skeptics in the Pub, talking about sniffer dogs and how much their abilities are exaggerated.Segments:Introduction and greetings; Events in Europe; Short inte...
Dec 12, 2016•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
