The Rationable Podcast

Dr Haryax Pathak, MBBS, practising in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, has been busting myths about COVID-19, its treatments and the vaccines on Twitter. He was kind enough to join Rationable to dispel myths about the vaccines and help us understand which one to choose, what the dosage interval should be, and lots more. Here are a the updates: 1) Immunocompromised people should also get the vaccine 2) Th...

I’ve investigated the claims of Evocus and other alkaline water and found they aren’t true. Evocus Black Alkaline water is just a dodgy product that will only be a very expensive, rather ineffective antacid and nothing more. I will get to each of these claims and a few other generic claims I’ve found about alkaline water in this episode, so you can understand why I say this.  Intro and outro...

There are a lot of questions we have about the COVID-19 vaccines that have been released by Moderna, Pfizer and others. Dr Paul Offit is here to answer them! He is a paediatrician with expertise in virology and vaccines. Dr Offit has written several books on the topic of vaccines, alternative medicine and medical science. Get in touch with Dr Offit: https://twitter.com/DrPaulOffit Or visit his web...

Rationable speaks to Anant Bhan and Dr Sumaiya Shaikh about the recent proposal by the Indian Government to allow Ayurvedic practitioners to perform certain types of surgery. We dig into the pros and cons and find a lot of nuance in the topic that feels like it's black and white.

Your body's pH balance is a fascinating mechanism but it's often misunderstood or miscommunicated to sell ideas like the alkaline diet. In this episode, we get a basic insight into how your body handles its acid-alkaline levels through the kidneys and the lungs and what happens when it goes wrong. I also get into why it’s so hard to change the pH of your blood or any other part of your body, espec...

It’s a special honour to have a Rationable Interview with Leonard Tramiel. He a good friend of Rationable, of course. You might have seen him in the Rationable Conversations group on Facebook if you’re a part of it. Join in if you’re not. He’s also an accomplished sceptic in his own right. He’s a member of the board of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). This is an organisation of sceptics that publishe...

Richard Saunders, a life member of Australian Skeptics and a CSI fellow, is a world-famous sceptic from Australia who has been doing activism, speaking, podcasting and promoting sceptics from around the world for decades. Other than that, he is just a fun, chilled out guy who loves origami and cats. In this interview, we chat about UFOs and ancient aliens, psychics, astrology, Power Balance bands...

In the final part of my interview with Dr Sumaiya Shaikh, we discuss her work as a science communicator. She founded Altnews Science to challenge pseudoscience in India. She has noticed how much alternative medicines like Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Naturopathy, Siddh and Unani have grown in our country and the dangers they pose to us and the ones we love. So she founded Altnews Science to debunk misin...

Here’s the second edition of my interview with the fantabulous Dr Sumaiya Shaikh. In this episode, we discuss the dark yet fascinating world of violent behaviour and the science behind it. It all starts when I ask about Philip Zimbardo’s controversial Stanford Prison Experiment that demonstrated how dehumanising people can enable the most heinous abusive behaviour. I had initially dipped into this...

Dr Sumaiya Shaikh and I had a fantastic interview where we talked about a variety of topics. The interview has been split into three parts so that you can take it in one bite at a time. In the first part, we open the conversation with her work in the study of the neurophysiology of pain. There’s a lot more to pain than you may think, and we get a fascinating glimpse of that today. Find out more ab...

To celebrate Doctor's Day India 2020, I speak to Dr Shantanu Abhyankar, MD, MBBS, Gynaecology, and Dr Anand Khare, MD Psychiatry. We discuss Coronil, Patanjali's so-called coronavirus cure, Sushant Singh Rajput's passing and its effects on mental health awareness along with Ayurveda, alternative medicine, boosting immunity and how to survive the pandemic and lots more. References & Links Dr Sh...

Patanjali has courted controversy by releasing their “Corona Kit” consisting of Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Giloy, Shwasari Juice and Anu Tel. They claim to have done a clinical trial and found it 100% effective. But there's still no sign of the study and its results. Rationable examines their claims more closely. Links RCTs: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/6/11/what-is-evidence-part-1-r...

Can you boost your immune system? In a way, yes, but not in the way the promoters of alternative medicine want you to think. But there are ways to keep your immune system healthy and functioning optimally. Let’s dig a little deeper into how the immune system works, how to keep it healthy and whether or not it can protect you from infections like COVID-19. Home workouts Paid: ATHLEAN-X | Six Pack A...

Welcome to the first interview of The Rationable Podcast! I’m calling it Rationable Interviews, for what it’s worth. This episode features an interview with Dr Shantanu Abhyankar, a gynaecologist by profession and a sceptic activist based in Wai, Maharashtra. I met the good doctor and his wonderful family during the CSICON 2018 in Las Vegas where he presented a white paper on the accomplishments o...

Another episode of fact-checking coronavirus forwards on social media. Today, we find out why COVID-19 cannot be prevented by homoeopathy, raw onions, vitamin C, vitamin Bs and blowdryers through science and critical thinking. Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips have been used with their permission. For the f...

Today, we dive into one of the longest standing claims about losing weight. No matter which new fad diet pops up, you’ll always have someone say, “Just start having several small meals a day. Trust me, it works!” And it does sound plausible. The “logic” people usually put behind it is that it’s easier for your body to digest small portions, plus it boosts your metabolism every time you eat. In thi...

A forward has been appearing on WhatsApp and Facebook claiming you can self-check for COVID-19 infection and drinking water and keeping garlic in your mouth can offer coronavirus protection. Of course, all this information is completely false. No evidence has been found to confirm any of these claims. Let’s fact-check each claim one by one and see why these claims are wrong. In the end, I’ll also...

Meet Doh Driver. She grew up believing in a whole slew of pseudoscience, including the idea that vaccines were harmful. Through her journey, she began to think more critically of her beliefs until she finally shed them. Now, she talks to anti-vaxxers online to change their minds. This is her story. Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell O...

In this episode, I set the way back machine to stun and remember the times I had serious smh moments. My beliefs about the ketogenic diet, evolution, aliens and fitness were all thrown into the fire, and rising from those ashes rose a more skeptical me. Here’s the story. Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips ha...

To me, this is one of the scariest questions we could possibly ask. We know the answer too, and we don’t have to go back 20 or 30 years to find it. It’s happening right now. I’m sure you’ve heard of the horrifying measles outbreak in Samoa that still rages on. That’s what happens when antivax wishes come true. So how did this happen? And how can we stop it from happening again? Donate to: https://...

Another day, another Whatsapp forward. I recently got one from several people since the pollution in Delhi has been making headlines across the world. It describes the foods and nutrients you should eat to fight the effects of the pollution shrouding Delhi and North India. It’s immediately appealing because we are all so scared of what all the smog is doing to our lungs and our overall health. Peo...

Let me explain why I’m so anti-vape. I’ve been a smoker for 20 years of my life, and quit just 4 years ago. I have a grudge against harmful addictions and the companies that sell them to kids. It’s infuriating because what happened to me is now happening again to a whole new generation of youth through this shiny new thing called an e-cigarette – the perfect way to snag the young and tech obsessed...

Alternative medicine quacks like Dr Oz and Junger, celebrities, and your lunch table buddies, have claimed that our bodies gather up toxins from our food, drinks and air we breathe. No one ever specifies what these so-called toxins really are, so there’s no way these claims can be tested explicitly for a particular chemical. So are these toxins real? We dive into the toxic pond to figure out what'...

There is clear evidence showing that vaccines save lives and mostly safe. But I’ve found a few groups that promote the idea that they are harmful. If you see information coming from these sources saying vaccines are bad, report the post or share it with me. But first, let me introduce you to the seven worst sources for vaccine information (and most other health advice too). References and Further...

Anecdotes are all around us, and we encounter them every day. It’s the way we humans share information. But there's a problem when it’s presented as evidence for a scientific claim. Then it’s called anecdotal evidence or argument from personal experience, which is also a logical fallacy called...you guessed it...the Anecdote Fallacy. This is the weakest form of evidence anyone can present for any...