This week we welcome back Latvian activist Austra Muizniece, fearless fighter against the fake 'cancer treatment’ Rigvir.Shamelessly and corruptibly approved in Latvia just two days before Latvia joined the EU, Rigvir is claimed to be a cure at first for melanoma, and later for virtually any kind of cancer. Austra, herself a cancer survivor, has together with fellow skeptics lobbied for years to get Rigvir off the market as there has never been any evidence presented to support its efficacy. Lit...
May 23, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode we talk about ‘kwakzalverij’, the Pope’s new Olympic ambitions (and female football team) and other papal adventures. There are steep fines coming for German vaccination dodgers and a study finds that absence of evidence is evidence on non-sense.MedWatch gets the Carl Sagan award, there is another example of vegan parents that jeopardize the lives of their children and French authorities are stepping up the fight against homeopathy (Boiron Is not happy).We also look into w...
May 18, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode we announce the winner of our SkepKon raffle! We also invite you to take GapMinder's test to see how well you know the state of the world before we catch up with Alice and Laurie from the Merseyside Skeptics who tell us all about their upcoming 10 year celebration: MSSX on 6 July. You should go!This week 36 years ago, Stern Magazine had to admit that the Hitler diaries they had spent 19 million marks on were fake.Pope Francis is being accused of heresy by Catholic priests ...
May 09, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we first discuss the scientific method and remember Louis Pasteur, plus we anticipate Pope Francis’ upcoming Vatican revolution.Then in the news we talk about Ukraine election results, a homeopathic remedy that got “The Mom’s Choice Award” and how 170 million children lack protection from measles. A Portuguese pilot project gets flu vaccinations a boost (pun intended), we welcome a new German speaking Skeptic Youtube channel, look at the trend of religiousness going down in Spain and h...
May 02, 2019•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we discuss the Notre-Dame fire before we celebrate this week’s icon, the Hungarian astronomer and skeptic Iván Almár. The Measles epidemic is getting even worse with the WHO showing a 300% global increase so far this year, Metabiota has launched a new website for tracking epidemics, Anthroposophs claim to be for vaccinations but they’re really not and the Hungarian government wants to control Facebook.Also, the “Finns party” switches to a new conspiracy theory when the old one is not a...
Apr 25, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we celebrate the first picture of a black hole, Samuel Hahnemann’s birthday and the fact that we can poke two Popes in one week. HPV vaccination is shown to really work, a Spanish Bishop sells gay ‘cure’ courses, babies cannot live on sunshine and laughter and in Hungary you better follow the vaccination schedule for your child.Also: Fines for Jehovah's Witnesses, Edzard Ernst goes to a SCAM conference, Norwegian government anonymizes job applications and NHS in the UK takes further st...
Apr 24, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we talk about some great April Fools’ pranks, we look at the Vatican’s new child abuse law, mumps outbreak in Madrid, climate change models being validated in new observations. We get a first report on why the fake cancer cure Rigvir is being banned (look out for more Rigvir news in the future), we look at how Catholic priests are burning books in Poland, how there’s a battle between Russian homeopaths and skeptics and whether the recent Swedish CAM inquiry is good news or not. The Fre...
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we welcome Annika Merkelbach from Germany back to the show to talk about the upcoming skeptical convention SkepKon, GSoW and her series of interviews on Skeptical Inquirer's website.We also talk about the European Skeptics Congress to be held in Ghent the end of August, plus lots of news items and topics to mention include:The Cancer Act 1939 of the UK, the latest wrongdoings of the Vatican, an Italian politician who's been opposing mandatory vaccination being hospitalised with chicken...
Apr 01, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we bring you topics and news about SkepKon in Germany and the 38th Anniversary of the premier of Quark, Italy's most famous science show hosted by Piero Angela.Plus we talk about abuse in Poland by catholic priests and Pius XII being referred to as Hitler's pope, how the supplement market is full of bogus claims, the Swedish National Library publishing the cost of accessing scientific studies, how the rise of both vaccine hesitancy and populism might be connected, an update on the stat...
Mar 24, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast No shortage of interesting topics after two interview episodes in a row!In this episode: ‘canali’ on Mars (or rather not), we catch up on the Pope and especially Cardinal Pell, a huge study that disproves the link between vaccines and autism, Amazon and Facebook take a stand against anti-vaccers, successful Swedish fights against colloidal silver and anthroposophy, the Hungarian government stabs science in the back, Elsevier gets further pushback on their outrageous pricing models and Hungarian ...
Mar 14, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast We catch up with Pixie Turner who has just released "The No Need to Diet Book". She tells us all about the book, how most people has an unhealthy view on food and how we can become a little more relaxed about this. The book explains the reasons why diets and over exercising don't work; the problems with eating for aesthetic goals; the science behind orthorexia, food anxieties and emotional eating, and other unhealthy habits formed by misinformation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...
Mar 10, 2019•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we're joined by Jay Novella for an interview in which we talk about his new position as a full-time employee of SGU Productions, what it means for the movement and The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe project, how to approach podcasting and other ventures, stuff about writing a skeptical book that hits best-seller lists and a lot of other things including Star Trek and the crew's fun-filled side project, Alpha Quadrant 6. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 04, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the abscence of Pontus, Jelena and Andras are joined by Brian Eggo to bring you a new show full of news and interesting topics including two events coming up (SkepKon 2019 in Germany and the 3rd Symposium on Science and Pseudoscience in Elche).We also talk about the British Parliament's Science and Technology Committee's milestone Evidence Check documents that is now part of skeptical history, then we move on to discussing Hungary's PM Viktor Orban and how EU leaders now simply call his anti-...
Feb 24, 2019•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast We bring you news and stories from the world of skepticism again this week, including:Rosalind Franklin's namesake rover to go to Mars to look for traces of life, Philippe de Cherisey and the Priory of Sion hoax, a lying pope, a German court rejecting a claim for CAM to be offered as part of a benefit system, Goop to come to Netflix, causing outrage among skeptics, "Vaxxed II - The People's Truth" on its way to make things even worse, while the measles epidemic goes truly global. Meanwhile, Germ...
Feb 17, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast The band is back together for a new week of skeptical reports.On this week: Oliver Lodge did not manage to prove psychics right, Pope Francis still believes in celibacy (although his priests do not seem to), Natalie Grams is awarded Die Goldenen Blogger Prize, PSIRAM starts a skeptical blog series, Merseyside Skeptics celebrates 10 years in July and Spanish researchers (nobody expects the Spanish researchers!) tries to convince us about homeopathy.Meanwhile, nobody has noticed(!) that the Macchi...
Feb 08, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we bring you lots news and topics from across Europe including Annika Merkelbach's interview on Skeptical Inquirer's website with Natalie Grams, whose book has just been published in English, Edzard Ersnt' birthday, a praying application issued by the Vatican called "Click to Pray", the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to deal with reported non-reportings of clinical trials, a great achievement by Ben Goldacre and the AllTrials campaign (one of the great projects of Se...
Jan 31, 2019•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we're back to bring you news and info about a wide range of topics including Francis Bacon and his importance in the development of science, how the 'good pope' John Paul II was a misogynist, why we admire the works of Sense about Science so much and how they came up with yet another campaign that deserves much attention ('Evidence Hunter Activity Pack'), how facilitated communication is a thing in Sweden despite all the evidence that suggests it does not work at all, why we should be ...
Jan 24, 2019•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast We interview Turi Munthe, the creator of a new web site aiming to "map the World's opinions".In 2008, Turi launched Demotix - born as a global free-speech platform, it became the largest network of photojournalists in the world and exited to Bill Gates’ Corbis. He now runs a Venture Capital with a focus on media and media tech, and sits on the boards of Index on Censorship, OpenDemocracy and The Signals Network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 17, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the first episode of the year 2019, with the team together again, we are bringing you topics related to the New Year, including resolutions and hangovers, plus some science history and how James Ussher determined the age of the world (incorrectly), how Pope Francis tries to talk about families when the church is in turmoil over sex abuse scandals, a design company standing up for science in Italy, where the resigning head of the National Institute of Health slams the anti-science government, ...
Jan 13, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast A bit of a different episode this week, released on the last day of the year to remind the listeners (and ourselves) of the most important things that happened in 2018. Lots of interesting stuff and also what to look forward to in 2019.We wish you all a really Happy New Year, and we’ll be seeing you!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Checking in with András; Woo in 2018; Skeptical initiatives 2018; Skeptical Awards 2018; QED; The ESP highlights of 2018; Outro; Out-takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...
Dec 31, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pontus and Andras host this slightly Christmas-themed episode with the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton and the New Style Calendar, Pope Francis promising no more sexual abuse cases covered up by the catholic church, CICAP launching a new chapter in Pordenone, although reality somewhat better than previous estimates, measles still being on the rise in Europe, Spanish chiropractors reacting to new government plan to tackle pseudoscience and how there is no need to fear for Christmas being renamed in ...
Dec 26, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast This time Claire Klingenberg sits in for Jelena again, who's out travelling. We bring you updates on the European Skeptics Congress 2019 in Ghent plus the good news that CICAP Fest will be held again in Padova in 2019.We then talk about the Apollo program, Cardinal Pell finally getting in the hands of the judicial system, while Pope Francis is acting like nothing's wrong.Plus some news about the new Italian government's support for dubious health claims, a Russian homeopathic product under the n...
Dec 20, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Pontus and Jelena talks to German Science Communicator and Skeptic Julia Offe. Julia Offe has a PhD in molecular biology and is active within GWUP, the German Skeptics. We talk about the recently announced "Das Goldenes Bretts"-awards and other GWUP activities, as well as the Science Slam events that Julia is promoting in many different places with huge turnouts.Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview with Julia Offe; Closing remarks; Wikipedia spot; Farewell; Outro; Out-takes Hosted on A...
Dec 12, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we first hear about John Tyndall who understood climate change over a 100 years ago and talk about how Francis get things wrong while in Poland.We then have a short catch up with Spanish skeptical activist Antonia de Oñate, before we dig into the regular news. In here we lean about homeopathy getting a beating in both Hungary and Austria, about a Swedish quack who is also a sex offender, a pro-vaccine campaign in Italy and a rather depressing measles update.At the end the Daily Mail ge...
Dec 05, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week our three hosts discuss a great number of things including how a delusional German physician got away with killing people, and how Pope Francis thinks right to tackle poverty.Loads of good news this week:The John Maddox Prize goes to Britt Hermes and Terry Hughes this year, ARP-SAPC reaches 20 years of activity, the Spanish government moves against pseudo-therapies in health care, the BBC upholds the Good Thinking Society's complaint about a homeopathy-related phone-in and ComCept awar...
Nov 27, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this week's episode Jelena and Andras interviews British biochemist, nutritionist, blogger, author and public speaker Pixie Turner, to talk about the science-based approach to healthy eating, dietary and lifestyle choices and how she turned from a person suffering from orthorexia to a public figure educating people into following the science instead of falling for popular, but absolutely useless diets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 21, 2018•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andras and Pontus join ranks to talk about Massimo Polidoro, Elsevier vs. open access and a film that drives Polish disapproval of the Catholic Church. Plus why people don't trust science and other news and tidbits from across Europe and the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 11, 2018•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Join us to hear about Pope Francis' failing October synod, Galileo and how homeopathy is getting a really hard beating in Spain. In other news the Good Thinking Society fights Goop, EU tries (but fail) to get statistics about the anti-vaxx movement and how science is hard: Contrary to what you have heard humans have not wiped out 60% of all vertebrates and an organic diet has not been proved to prevent cancer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 04, 2018•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is the first of its kind as it is the live recording from QED 2018 that happened in Manchester in the middle of October. In the unfortunate abscence of Jelena, Pontus and András are joined by Claire Klingenberg, Brian Eggo and Jay Novella to discuss local confectionery, booze and topics like the Shroud of Turin, Leukemia and how a new finding can lead to sensational but untrue headlines, a Danish cancer quack that sites his long deceased patients as his success stories, a couple of ...
Oct 28, 2018•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this week's episode Jelena interviews Aron Ra - atheist activist, former president of Atheist Alliance of America, host of Ra-Men podcast. He is a current regional director of the American Atheists and founder of the phylogeny explorer project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 19, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
