This week Europe has lost a star in the sky and we hear about how Louis Pasteur managed to create a rabies vaccine back in 1885 (he wasn’t even a medical doctor). Pope Francis seizes even more control about the Vatican’s finances and appoints an “extraordinary commissioner” to raid the entity looking after St Peter’s Basilica. Apparently, someone has been cooking the books. In the news this week:–...

This week we can't help but mention the Polish presidential elections and Susan Gerbic's latest interview with Pontus. We commemorate Ignaz Semmelweis on his birthday before moving on to deliberating over the future of the papacy. In the news:- Was the Tönnies incident with COVID19 due to a church service- Didier Raoult doubles down on hydroxychloroquine- Hungary's new curriculum and history textb...

This week Pontus and András bring you the latest from all over Europe mixed with some history and a little bit of Poking the Pope(s).This week marks the 646th anniversary of the onset of the Aachen Dancing Plague. After exploring that phenomenon, we move on to how Pope Francis regards women and weather Palpatine is up to no good on his visit to his homeland Germany. Then, in the news:- COVID-19 su...

This week we first learn about how the 1854 cholera outbreak led to advances in the knowledge about diseases and outbreaks thanks to the clever and rigorous work by the physician John Snow, now regarded as one of the founders of modern epidemiology. Pope Francis is getting closer to his vision of “a poor church for the poor”, perhaps just a little bit faster than he bargained for as the pandemic i...

A bit less COVID-19-heavy episode this week with the news that May 2020 saw the highest concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere ever recorded and it was also the hottest May ever.6 years ago, creationism as science in schools was banned in the UK and hallelujah, the Vatican is launching their new channel 'VatiVision' and a documentary series 'The Great Popes'.In the news this week:- Nicotine replac...

On this week's episode we celebrate the new era of commercial space flight brought about by SpaceX, then a bit of skeptical history, talking about Gérard Sède and the Priory of Sion hoax. After poking the Pope we bring you an update on the latest issues with COVID-19, including vaccine hesitancy on the rise, the fear from the second wave versus those who deny the existence of the pandemic, survail...

This week Pontus and Andras try their best to keep your spirit up while talking about the saddening advent of conspiracy theories and an ever growing antivaccination sentiment. We talk about the great and controversial scientist, the father of glaciology, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, try to make sense of the Pope's latest actions as part of the Vatican's financial reform, bring you a bit of the la...

On this week's episode we start by the funny PA of Deutsche Bahn then turn towards the story of psychic Peter Hurkos who was born on this day. The latest from the Catholic Church reveals conspiracy theories and Pope Benedict XVI. trying to influence current affairs. We talk about how grounded aeroplanes mean less reliable weather forecasts, the Czech government trying to outrun COVID-19 by themsel...

This week our team welcomes Susan Gerbic back to the show to talk about her and Mark Edward's sting operations to reveal psychics and their techniques in conning people and why Wikipedia is probably the most important asset in the hands of skeptics in the never-ending fight against pseudoscienc and quackery. And this is also a call for new editors from around the world to join the international te...

The three of us are back to bring you the latest from Europe. We're saddened by the (not so surprising) news that QED 2020 is now postponed to 2021, but whenever it is, we are looking forward to it. In the meantime check out Christian Lehmann's series of guest posts on Edzard Ernst's blog about the hydroxychloroquine controversy. Jelena tells us the story of an alleged alien abduction in Poland mo...

This week, in the absence of Jelena, Annika Harrison joins us to bring you news and curiousities from all over Europe. We start by mentioning Pontus guest-hosting The Skeptic Zone with Richard Saunders, then move on to discuss what an idiot Trump is and how Satanic Ritual Abuse is on the rise in Germany. Annika then investigates whether women are indeed better leaders with special regards to how t...

This week Deborah Hyde joins us to bring you news and interesting topics to cover with us. We start by mentioning how VoF (Sweden), the GWUP (Germany), ComCept (Portugal) and ARP-SAPC (Spain) make efforts to provide their readers with accurate and reliable information in the times of COVID-19.Then Deborah gives us a brief overview of the history of quarantines, before we turn into discussing Cardi...

This week we bring you news and topics from all over Europe again. We start by talking about the unfortunate death (probably of Covid-19) of a board member of VoF.After that we're looking back at the history of LSD and how 19 April marks a special day in it, before we discuss how Cardinal Pell walks freely after the High Court of Australia overturns the previous verdict on his child abuse case. In...

ECSO President Claire Kraulik-Klingenberg joins us for this week's episode to bring you news and topics from all over the continent. Skeptics in the Pub Online is now a thing, popping up everywhere, while power grabbing by authoritarian governments seems to be the new, concerning trend. We talk about whether Alfred Nobel read his own premature obituary, prompting him to start the awards named afte...

This week an old friend of ours Brian Eggo from Glasgow Skeptics joins us to bring you a show packed with news, thoughts and curiousities. We talk about how Skeptics in the Pub events are going online, that one time Rupert Sheldrake got stabbed and how Pope Francis has nothing to offer to help with the pandemic. After the usual COVID-19 update we talk about how Sweden takes a different approach to...

We are bringing you a selection of topics this week, some Corona-related and some aren't:QED organisers ask you to hold your travel arrengements at this time...The Vatican issues a decree that makes confessions obsolete, the Good Thinking Society convinces the PSA to impose strict conditions on the Society of Homeopaths, they also team up with Richard Wiseman to support magicians with the Good Mag...

The three of us finally reunite for yet another show featuring an update on the COVID-19 situation and the GWuP cancelling SkepKon 2020. Then, after an interview with Annabel Bligh of the Anthill Podcast, we return with Pontus poking the Pope again for worsening the pandemic with his irrational approach to church-going. Our news segment covers all sorts of topics including a distant world where it...

This week we have no less than two separate interviews, both of which we’ve been looking forward to for some time. First, we talk to Šarūnas Bačiliūnas, the founder of the rather new “Lithuanian Skeptic Youth” Organisation. Started from scratch in 2018 they organize events, workshops international exchanges and educate both the public and even teachers on critical thinking. Impressively they have...

This week it cannot be helped that a lot of the episode is about different aspects on the Coronavirus and Covid-19. But we also want to remind everyone about our SkepKon raffle where we have one ticket to hand out to the conference in Berlin 21 - 23 May! Just send us an email to participate. After the greetings we hear about holocaust denier David Irving, who was declared bankrupt This Week in His...

This week we talk about the John Maddox Prize, the BBC’s new show series about Greta Thunberg and about Darren Brown, born on this day in 1971. Pontus Pokes the Pope and finally we get Francis’ take on celibacy in the Amazon (or do we?), and of course the highlights from the latest sex abuse scandals. In the news we hear the latest regarding the CoViD-19 Coronavirus, more details about dangerous m...

On this episode we interview Australian cognitive scientist and founder of the Skeptical Science website John Cook about his upcoming book 'Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change' that showcases typical climate science denial situations in a cartoon format. We also talk about other projects John has been busy with, including the Cranky Uncle app, The Debunking Handbook and a lot more. Enjoy! Segments:Intr...

This week before we get into the meat of the show, we talk Corona, Greta Thunberg and look forward to Adam Rutherford’s new book, “How to Argue with a Racist”. We also have two good news for our German friends: Natalie Grams have launched her podcast “Grams’ Sprechstunde” and we have a ticket raffle for SkepKon 2020 in Berlin. Tune in to find out how you can win a free ticket! In this week in hist...

This week we interview Finnish activist Iida Ruishalme and talk about nuclear power and green energy. Iida is a biologist specialised in biomedical research, an environmentalist, a writer and a science communicator. She also a mum, taking the future of her children very seriously. She blogs at Thoughtscapism.com. We first met her at the 2019 European Skeptics Congress in Ghent where she gave a fas...

This week we first get the record straight and correct our position on Ocean Cleanup - while we appreciate the sentiment, the whole idea is both damaging and unscientific. Two great Skeptical events are coming up this spring Skepkon 2020 in Berlin 21 - 23 May and the 4th Conference on Science and Pseudoscience 13 -1 4 March in Alicante. In this week in history we hear about Russia’s own Roswell in...

This week we note that the Swedish Skeptics’ article from last week concerning Thomas Erikson’s nonsense personality book “Surrounded by Idiots” has gotten some attention from other skeptics, among other things Pontus was a guest on the last episode of the Skeptic Zone podcast to talk about it. In history this week we talk about Desmond Morris and his role in the Aquatic Ape hypothesis and then Po...