Skeptics in the Pub Online Podcast

Skeptics in the Pub Online

This is the podcast version of the Skeptics in the Pub Online live-streamed talks. We take the audio and give it to you in a nice easy podcast feed for you to listen at your pleasure. All of the talks are still available on our YouTube channel if you want to see any visuals/slides/etc. We will release the live shows as we do them on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month and on weeks when there isn't a live show, we will release an episode from the archive. read less

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The Voynich Manuscript: The World’s most Enigmatic Book from a Skeptical Perspective – Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh

The Voynich Manuscript: The World’s most Enigmatic Book from a Skeptical Perspective – Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh

The Voynich Manuscript is a handwritten book that probably dates back to the late Middle Ages. It is written in a script that no one can read. The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both the First and Second World Wars. Still, the manuscript has never been demonstrably deciphered, and the mystery of its meaning and origin has excited the popular imagination, making it the subject of speculation and pseudoscience. This presentation explores the background behind the manuscript and its cryptic features. The most important scientific and pseudoscientific theories are covered. Elonka Dunin is an author, cryptographer, game developer, and management consultant. She is a lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association, Chairperson Emerita and a founding member of the IGDA's Online Games SIG, and a co-Director of the Global Game Jam from 2011–2014. Elonka's lifelong interest

Episodes

The Voynich Manuscript: The World’s most Enigmatic Book from a Skeptical Perspective – Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh

The Voynich Manuscript: The World’s most Enigmatic Book from a Skeptical Perspective – Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh

The Voynich Manuscript is a handwritten book that probably dates back to the late Middle Ages. It is written in a script that no one can read. The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both the First and Second World Wars. Still, the manuscript has never been demonstrably deciphered, and the mystery of its meaning and origin has excited the popular imagination, making it the subject of speculation and pseudoscience. This presentation explores the background behind the manuscript and its cryptic features. The most important scientific and pseudoscientific theories are covered. Elonka Dunin is an author, cryptographer, game developer, and management consultant. She is a lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association, Chairperson Emerita and a founding member of the IGDA's Online Games SIG, and a co-Director of the Global Game Jam from 2011–2014. Elonka's lifelong interest

2000 mules and one big lie: A stubborn conspiracy theory – Jim Cliff

2000 mules and one big lie: A stubborn conspiracy theory – Jim Cliff

In May 2022, conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza released 2000 Mules, a film which attempts to show that the 2020 US election was stolen by Democrats, and to provide a mechanism by which this took place – a coordinated effort to ‘harvest’ ballots and distribute them around ballot drop boxes in battleground states using paid ‘mules’. The film is based largely on assumptions, anomaly hunting, assertions without evidence and previously debunked claims. Where evidence is presented it has frequently been misinterpreted or taken out of context, or simply doesn’t support the conclusions the filmmakers claim. This talk provides a brief window into Jim’s obsession with debunking the film’s fractal wrongness. Jim Cliff is an author, video editor, and former BBFC examiner who’s always been fascinated in why people believe crazy things. He’s the producer and host of the podcast Fallacious Trump, where he and other host Mark explain logical fallacies using examples from Trump, pop culture and

God and ETI: The Future of Human Religion – Dr Aaron Adair

God and ETI: The Future of Human Religion – Dr Aaron Adair

In 1543, Copernicus made us no longer the center of the universe. Science today shows we are one planet of billions in just one galaxy of billions, so can we be all alone? And if we are not alone, what does that make us is in relation to God? There are significant issues for parochial earthly religions if we have cosmic neighbors, including thorny problems such as: Are the aliens closer to God than us? Do aliens need salvation? Did Jesus visit just us or does he visit every planet with a civilization on it? Does the problem of evil become worse now that there can be cosmic-levels of suffering? How does the end of the world work if there are billions of worlds? These questions and more emerge when one wonders, what will the Pope say to Mr Spock? Dr. Aaron Adair (Physics PhD., The Ohio State University 2013) is a scholar of science education, popular culture, and especially science and religion–having published multiple books and articles on the topic, especially the rationalizations

Controlled Human Malaria Infections: Infecting people in the name of health – Katharina Grabowski, Matteo Putra, and Jo Salkeld

Controlled Human Malaria Infections: Infecting people in the name of health – Katharina Grabowski, Matteo Putra, and Jo Salkeld

What is a Controlled Human Malaria Infection, and why are researchers at the University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh leaning on it to advance public health? Come along to a talk hosted by Katharina Grabowski and Matteo Putra to learn more about the ins and outs of this research approach, how it will be used to break new ground in understanding one of the most complex immune responses to an infectious disease, and how it could help save hundreds of thousands of lives by developing novel public health interventions alongside vaccines. Katharina Grabowski (BSc, MSc) is a Research Assistant and Matteo Putra (BSc, MRes, MScR) a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh who are working with the Oxford Vaccine Group and Department of Biochemistry on an upcoming Controlled Human Malaria Infection clinical trial. This study aims to understand how people become immune to malaria so that we can learn how to protect the most vulnerable from disease. And as bizarre as this may sound

Myths and Mindsets in a Decade of Electric Transport – Robert Llewellyn

Myths and Mindsets in a Decade of Electric Transport – Robert Llewellyn

In the last 10 years consumer production models of EVs have become more readily available. In spite of data which shows EVs are more efficient than fossil fuel vehicles, with reduced CO2, emissions and particulates, in a recent policy U-turn, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak kicked back the date for full transition to EVs to 2035, eliciting heavy criticism from the world’s major car manufacturers, who had already invested billions to meet the original deadline. There’s also been a significant uptick in anti-EV media headlines. Pervasive stories about EVs have returned. Aren’t they too expensive? Too heavy? With dangerously flawed batteries? Can our energy infrastructure even cope with the demand? Are they really ‘greener’ anyway? With 2023 global fossil fuel subsidies at a mind-blowing $7 trillion (IMF data) it’s no surprise there’s been pushback. In this talk, Robert Llewellyn aims to get us up to speed on progress during the last 10 years of electric vehicle production. They’ll aim to dem

How cholesterol skepticism became a pseudoscience – Dr Christopher Labos

How cholesterol skepticism became a pseudoscience – Dr Christopher Labos

There was a time when you could be skeptical about cholesterol’s role in cardiovascular prevention. There was uncertainty about causality, diet seemed to have little impact and the drugs were either ineffective or potentially dangerous. But then things changed. Medications improved, genetic causes of high cholesterol became clear, and the cardiovascular benefits of cholesterol reduction were demonstrated in multiple trials. So how did cholesterol denialism become a thing and why has it become the latest pseudoscience? By reviewing the history of the “cholesterol controversy,” Dr Christopher Labos will show how this scientific debate played out in a real time over the span of the 20th century and why the best description of the cholesterol controversy now is that there isn’t one. Dr. Christopher Labos is a cardiologist with a master’s degree in Epidemiology. He is a columnist with the Montreal Gazette and Medscape, featured on the Sunday Morning House Call on CJAD radio, and has a r

First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time – Dr Emma Chapman

First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time – Dr Emma Chapman

Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe’s history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There’s a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe. This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe’s history, known to astrophysicists as the ‘Epoch of Reionisation’, represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to c

Tourette Syndrome: Sounds, movements and myths. – Adrienne Hill

Tourette Syndrome: Sounds, movements and myths. – Adrienne Hill

During her presentation, Adrienne will delve into the myriad myths surrounding Tourette Syndrome, the intriguing TikTok Tics phenomenon that started during the pandemic, and the pseudoscientific “cures” targeting vulnerable parents who seek to support their children. Be ready with pencil and paper to experience what it is like to live with TS+. Adrienne, a retired high school mathematics teacher, has been a volunteer educating teachers, students and community members about Tourette Syndrome and its comorbid disorders (TS+) since 2005. She is a board member and educational consultant for the Tourette OCD Alberta Network. Her personal journey as a mother of three children includes two who have been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome +. Beyond her involvement with the network, Adrienne actively contributes as a board member to Susan Gerbic’s nonprofit organization, “About Time.” She also volunteers as a Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia editor and is a regular reporter for “The Skeptic

The science of mental health; how it goes wrong, how it’s treated, and the many misunderstandings in between – Dr Dean Burnett

The science of mental health; how it goes wrong, how it’s treated, and the many misunderstandings in between – Dr Dean Burnett

Mental health awareness is a very big concern in 2021, particularly with the impact of the pandemic and lockdown. But while being aware that mental health can and does go wrong is important, very little attention is paid to how and why this happens. In his new book, Psycho Logical, neuroscientist, author, and former Psychiatry lecturer Dr Dean Burnett explores all that and more, using the latest science to explain what happens in the brain when mental health goes awry, how these problems and treated and why they work (or often don’t), and why the whole issue is so slippery and uncertain, and why stigma still endures despite everything. Dean will also be answering questions and challenging misconceptions about mental health flagged up by the SITP community, making this talk very unique. Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, lecturer, author, blogger, podcaster, pundit, science communicator, comedian and numerous other things, depending on who’s asking and what they need. Previously

Does life know about quantum mechanics? – Professor Jim Al-Khalili

Does life know about quantum mechanics? – Professor Jim Al-Khalili

Physicists and chemists are used to dealing with quantum mechanics, but biologists have thus far got away without having to worry about this strange yet powerful theory of the subatomic world. However, times are changing. There is now solid evidence that enzymes use quantum tunnelling to accelerate chemical reactions, while plants and bacteria use a quantum trick in photosynthesis – sending lumps of sunlight energy in multiple directions at once. It even appears that some animals have the ability to use quantum entanglement – what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance” – as a compass to ‘see’ the earth’s magnetic field. In our research at Surrey we are discovering that life may even have evolved mechanisms to control genetic mutations caused by quantum tunnelling of protons between strands of DNA. Welcome to the exciting new field of quantum, biology. Jim Al-Khalili CBE FRS is a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Surrey and a well-known author, broadcast

Born to dance? The evolutionary origins of music making – Dr Jacques Launay

Born to dance? The evolutionary origins of music making – Dr Jacques Launay

What’s the point in making music? Is there a point? Although music surrounds us for a large proportion of our time it doesn’t seem to serve an obvious purpose, and this talk will explore that problem. Darwin suggested music could be involved in sexual selection, used to flaunt genetic fitness to potential partners, but there are also several alternative explanations, ranging from Pinker’s null hypothesis (it’s auditory cheesecake) to the Mozart Effect (music makes you clever). Spoiler alert – those theories are probably both wrong! This talk will primarily explore the role of music in social bonding, and whether music is best understood as the alternative to language. Dr Jacques Launay is an expert in music and social bonding, and has worked on this from a range of perspectives, including the origins of music making, the health benefits of singing in choirs, and the neuroscience of moving to sounds. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

Dangerous Products: In The Home & In Our Stomachs – David Frank and Virginia Ng

Dangerous Products: In The Home & In Our Stomachs – David Frank and Virginia Ng

The societal and scientific consensus says only irrational people fear things like WiFi, artificial sweeteners, and fluoridated water, but there have been legitimately dangerous products sold as safe in the past. Flammable, toxic, radioactive and generally bad for you, we’ll look at products throughout history that killed, injured and poisoned, and the marketing campaigns that went along with them. Plus, we’ll explore some formerly dangerous things that turned out to be fine, and things we know are bad for us that we consume anyway. Come along. It’ll be good for your health. David Frank David Frank is a marketer, a writer and a former radio show host. He is a former event organiser for Perth Skeptics in Australia, and Edinburgh Skeptics here in the UK. Pre-COVID he has toured talks across a dozen Skeptics in the Pub groups here in the UK, on such topics as “how to market yourself on online dating”, and “how big tobacco circumvents marketing restrictions” (the latter of which

Resisting Incarceration: Prisons, Activism and Abolition – Professor Phil Scraton

Resisting Incarceration: Prisons, Activism and Abolition – Professor Phil Scraton

Since Michael Howard’s pronouncement that ‘Prison Works’ the prison population in the UK has doubled with the current Government planning to build several more multi-occupancy ‘Titan’ prisons to incarcerate thousands more men and women. This reflects an ill-founded commitment to what became a cross-party mantra. In what sense does ‘prison work’? Does the claim stand scrutiny? Or, as Jonathan Simon suggests, does locking away an ever-increasing number of women, men and children amount to ‘social warehousing’? Derived in three decades of activist work and academic research Phil Scraton will address the harms of imprisonment for those locked away, their families and their communities. He will critique the reformist ‘rehabilitation’ agenda and explore the potential for prison abolition. What would decarceration look like? What are alternatives and how would harms caused to individuals and communities by ‘criminal’ and ‘anti-social’ acts be addressed without the ‘punishment’ of incarcerati

A Dog’s World – Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans – Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff

A Dog’s World – Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans – Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff

What would happen to dogs if humans simply disappeared? Would dogs be able to survive on their own without us? A Dog’s World imagines a posthuman future for dogs, revealing how dogs would survive—and possibly even thrive—and explaining how this new and revolutionary perspective can guide how we interact with dogs now. Drawing on biology, ecology, and the latest findings on the lives and behavior of dogs and their wild relatives, Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff—two of today’s most innovative thinkers about dogs—explore who dogs might become without direct human intervention into breeding, arranged playdates at the dog park, regular feedings, and veterinary care. Pierce and Bekoff show how dogs are quick learners who are highly adaptable and opportunistic, and they offer compelling evidence that dogs already do survive on their own—and could do so in a world without us. Jessica Pierce is with the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Sch

Jewish Space Lasers – Mike Rothschild

Jewish Space Lasers – Mike Rothschild

For more than 200 years, the name “Rothschild” has been synonymous with two things: great wealth, and conspiracy theories about what they’re “really doing” with it. Almost from the moment Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his sons emerged from the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt to revolutionize the banking world, the Rothschild family has been the target of myths, hoaxes, bizarre accusations, and constant, virulent antisemitism. Over the years, they have been blamed for everything from the sinking of the Titanic, to causing the Great Depression, and even creating the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018 Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media to share her suspicions that the California wildfires were started by ‘space solar generators’ which were funded by powerful, mysterious backers. Instantly, thousands of people rallied around her, blaming the fires on “Jewish space lasers” and, ultimately, the Rothschild family. Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy The

Pseudo-Archaeology: Fake news and new fakes – Mirko Gutjahr

Pseudo-Archaeology: Fake news and new fakes – Mirko Gutjahr

Light bulbs in antiquity? UFO landing sites in Peru? Giant pyramids in the Balkans? Authors like Erich von Däniken or TV shows like “Ancient Aliens” accuse archaeologists of hiding important discoveries and masking the truth. According to them the monumental buildings of the past were created not by our ancestors but by aliens or extradimensional beings. At first glance this appears harmless – fantasies written by science fiction authors. However, those claims are deeply rooted in creationist and racist ideas. In times when fewer and fewer people trust in science such views become more popular and thus give rise to right-wing esoteric ideologies. This talk sheds light on the problem of “pseudo-archeology” and will try to prove that real archeology is much more exciting – and true – than archaeological fantasies. Mirko Gutjahr is an archaeologist and historian working at as a scientific advisor at “Luthergedenkstätten”, a Martin Luther memorial foundation with five museums and UNESC

Too dangerous to publish? Navigating the high-stakes nature of AI research – Rosie Campbell

Too dangerous to publish? Navigating the high-stakes nature of AI research – Rosie Campbell

As AI becomes increasingly advanced, it promises many benefits but also comes with risks. How can we mitigate these risks while preserving scientific inquiry and openness? Who is responsible for anticipating the impacts of AI research, and how can they do so effectively? What changes, if any, need to be made to the peer review process? In this talk, we’ll explore these tensions and how they are playing out right now in the AI community. AI is not the first high-stakes, ‘dual-use’ field to face these questions. Taking inspiration from fields like cybersecurity and biosecurity, we’ll look at possible approaches to responsible publication, their strengths and limitations, and how they might be used in practice for AI. Rosie Campbell leads the Safety-Critical AI program at the Partnership on AI, a multistakeholder nonprofit shaping the future of responsible AI. Her main focus is on responsible publication and deployment practices for increasingly advanced AI. Previously, she was Assist

The Human Cosmos – Dr Jo Marchant

The Human Cosmos – Dr Jo Marchant

For most of human history, we have led not just an earthly existence but a cosmic one. Celestial cycles drove every aspect of our daily lives. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are – our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And that disconnect comes at a cost. In her latest book, The Human Cosmos, Jo Marchant takes us on a tour through the history of humanity’s relationship with the heavens. We travel to the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux and witness the winter solstice at a 5,000-year-old tomb at Newgrange. We visit Medieval monks grappling with the nature of time and Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars. We discover how light reveals the chemical composition of the sun, and we are with Einstein as he works out that space and time are one and the same. A four-billion-year-old meteor inspires a search for extraterrestrial life.

The Patriarchs: How men came to rule – Angela Saini

The Patriarchs: How men came to rule – Angela Saini

Award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. Travelling to the world’s earliest known human settlements, analysing the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and tracing cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, she overturns simplistic universal theories to show that what patriarchy is and how far it goes back really depends on where you are. Despite the push back against sexism and exploitation in our own time, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. Saini ends by asking what part we all play – women included – in keeping patriarchal structures alive, and why we need to look beyond the old narratives to understand why it persists in the present. Angela Saini is an award-winning journalist base

Planetary Protection: Guardians of the Galaxy or lame science-party poopers? – Dr Jennifer Wadsworth

Planetary Protection: Guardians of the Galaxy or lame science-party poopers? – Dr Jennifer Wadsworth

What is planetary protection? Is it even important? Because it sounds like it’s either an incredibly exciting space battle strategy from Independence Day or an exceedingly dull health and safety class that future generations will be subjected to. In reality it’s kind of both (except that thankfully it’s not from Independence Day). I’m a space scientist who recently finished my postdoc at NASA Ames Research Center, California, where I spent my time developing new ideas to help in the often-overlooked field of planetary protection. I’ll (hopefully) convince you of its importance for our continued exploration of the solar system and how it can even be applied to help solve some of our problems here on Earth. Jennifer Wadsworth is an astrobiologist who did her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and recently completed her postdoc at NASA Ames Research Center, California. She’s particularly interested in how microbes can survive extreme radiation environments … or not, as the case may be