Also, Pope Francis is a hereticIt’s farewell to Jens Spahn and welcome to the new German health minister Karl Lauterbach – will he be the one to defund homeopathy? Let’s hope so! The a new European space telescope Ariel will help us look for other planets (if we grow tired of this one), but before we go we should learn how to pronounce the name of the Polish Health Minister – listener Przemek show...

Conspiracy theories are hazardous to your healthIn this episode we first reflect a little over the new governments in Germany and Sweden. Pontus had Richard Saunders (of the Skeptic Zone fame) at a Swedish Skeptics in the Pub Online event this week and the talk is available on Youtube. In the newly renamed TWISH (This Week in Skeptical History) we celebrate the birth of Dutch atmospheric chemist P...

We’re back in the saddle for another 300!Before we start today we reflect on the COP26 fiasco, celebrate the recent golden thin-foil hat award and the Russians’ latest adventures in space. Also don’t miss next week’s SiTP Online with Richards Saunders! (Pontus to moderate). This week marks the 162nd anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origins of Species and Joe Biden can still it the holy crackers. The...

And if you didn’t know, Luna can be a bit of a DrongoFor six years and 300 episodes we’ve been doing this, and we won’t stop anytime soon! In this week’s special Listener Q/A episode you will learn all you need to know about us and about skepticism in general. From serious to silly, we do our best to tell you everything you ever wanted to know, and then some. Thanks to everyone who sent in their q...

“If it looks like medicine, but it has ‘supplement’ written on it, it’s fraud!”In the episode we interview Petra Schling who is a biochemist and a teacher at the “Biochemie Zentrum” of the University of Heidelberg. We talk about how so-called “natural plants” are actually out to hurt us, how food supplements are normally a waste of money, the misconceptions about “superfoods”, and how important it...

Also, it's time for some #Metoo in the Vatican…This week we catch up with the fabulous Susan Gerbic whose Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia has hit a fantastic milestone. But we also have a full episode, so we start out by mentioning the Australian and New Zealand Skeptics joint annual convention and then look back at what happen this week in 1459 and Pontus pokes the Poke and his meeting with Joe...

Which pill would you take? We start this week with handing Pontus a Really Wrong award for something he said last week. András is back and among other things he describes his experience with the green pass in Italy. QED has been moved to October next year, but what hasn’t moved is our determination to be there. And please send us your questions for episode 300!This week’s interview with Iris Hinne...

How hard can it be to get people to do the right thing? We start out with some exiting news about Annika’s upcoming online talk, a huge milestone for Susan Gerbic and Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia and a good legal ruling for Snopes. And our friend Holm Hümmler doesn’t only have a new book out, he also one of the select guests at FerngesprächCon last week, together with Martin Moder and many ot...

In this episode we interview the German astronomer and climate activist, Dr. Leonard (Leo) Burtscher. Leo is a staff scientist at the observatory of Leiden University as well as active in the German skeptics, GWUP. He studies active galactic nuclei in Leiden since 2017 and communicates his research to younger and older audiences. He is also informing the public about the climate crisis in his spar...

Sixty years later, Captain Kirk is finally taking offWe’re happy to report that a special meeting of ESP hosts took place in Frankfurt this week. In other news, the film industry is heading for the final frontier with Russian actors going to ISS and William Shatner going where no nonagenarian has gone before. Looking back at this week in history Niels Bohr was born in 1885, and apart from describi...

Put it up your bum! Are people losing their wits as covid restriction are lifted? Elections and referendums are happening and András goes beyond spacetime in an upcoming book and this week marked 20 years since the Estonia disaster. Pope Francis may be losing it too, since the Vatican Secretary of State has to publicly contradict him. Then we dive into the news: • DENMARK: The trend of sticking ni...

Radicalized anti-covid activists. After recent events in Germany and Italy we worry that anti-maskers now may be a terrorist threat. In This Week in Skepticism we hear about Jacob Grimm and the possibility that some of the Grimm stories are based on real events(?) Pope Francis seems to have totally lost it regarding the facts about pregnancies, but science has never been the strong side of the Cat...

In this episode we catch up on last weekend with Hungaro Con and SkepKon. We also mention last week’s Ig Nobel Prizes and how the ISS do not seem to agree with the Russians any more. The upcoming German election gets a mention and in This Week in Skepticism we discuss the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano and then we briefly discuss the Pope’s latest adventures. After that we dig int...

In this episode we first mention that Sweden just announced an end to Corona restrictions as per the end of this month and we question if that’s that really wise. This week marks twenty years since 9/11 and the repercussions are still with us. The pope has been saying some strange things lately, and is he really well? Then we get into the news: - UK: Four Met Police officers injured in anti-vaccin...

In this episode we first have a few events to plug: The launching of the book Fake! in Budapest, Congreso Esceptico in Spain, Skeptics in the Pub Online about 9/11 and the upcoming Ig Nobel ceremony. In This Week we discuss Mary Shelley who was born this week in 1797 and then we skip the pope and instead plunge into the news:Continued demonstrations against the vaccine passportsResearchers in UK:...

In this episode we interview Dutch writer, science populariser and educator Annemarie Bon, who’s many works focus on helping children understand the world around us. Having started her career as a biochemical engineer, she later turned towards writing for children and she was editor-in-chief of the children’s magazine Taptoe until 2001. The Hungarian translation of her latest book Fake! is just ab...

In this episode we first plug the upcoming Skeptics in the Pub Online about 9/11, Luc Montagnier is the topic This Week in Skepticism and the Pope gets poked for nepotism and corruption. Then we dig into the news:- Grandma directed healthcare fraud through Black Magic- Sixth IPCC report on climate change – we’re screwed- July warmest month on record – ever- Increasing covid cases in Iceland despit...

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In this episode we first chat about the Pegasus project and what implications it might have. We also note that the Russian Nauka module was a little trigger happy when joining with the ISS, turning it around 45 degrees for no good reason. In This Week we salute Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, the excellent science communicator before we have a well-needed Covid-19 update. Then we dig into the news:- Measles f...

In this episode we note that skeptics in Germany has raised a lot of money to support victims of the floods. Formidable Dutch skeptic Frits van Dam passed away on 26 July and we want to honor his memory. Listener Marcel-Jan has written a great blog post about his experience with growing up in a woo-family and eventually finding skepticism, and then we get a Polish lesson from listener Max. In This...

In this episode we open up by discussing the terrible floods in Germany, the claims made by esoterics and how you can help. We also note that covid misinformation numbskull Sucharit Bhakdi has lost his publisher for being an anti-Semite. In the This Week we talk about Gregor Mendel and then we hear that Pope Francis is now openly challenging his predecessor Benedict. The we go through the news: -...

In this week’s episode we start with an update on the successful Virgin Galactic flight and congratulate Natalie Grams for getting married(!), and also comment on the Euro 2020 final won by Italy. We then have a chat with Czech GSOW member Pavel Šmejkal, a prolific member of Susan Gerbic‘s Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project. In This Week in Skepticism, Angela Merkel was born 17 July 1954. Th...

This week Annika is back making sure we don’t run out of dad-jokes, András’ travel guide work is resuming while Pontus is just playing golf (and not very well). We discuss the new development in space tourism before we get into this week in skepticism with Nicola Tesla. We hear how the pope is coming after Cardinal Becciu, how he still won’t apologies for the Canadian school scandals and how he ne...

This week we’re joined by Brian Eggo who sits in for Annika. We talk about the Edinburgh Science Festival, skeptical events and the recent ESA astronaut recruitments. In This Week we “celebrate” the birthday of debunked fraudster Peter Popoff and then we are horrified by the discoveries of even more graves at the Canadian Catholic Schools. We then go into this week’s news: - Alternative medicine i...

This week we chat a bit about Madeira, covid scares and rainbow flags in Germany. In this week we highlight Karl Landsteiner who discovered the human blood groups and Pope Francis asks Italy if his schools could please be allowed to bully anyone who does not fit in to the binary man – woman template. We then head for the news: - Attacks against journalists calls for special measures - Did the WHO...