You may have noticed that I’m not blogging. In fact, the images to text ratio on my pages are distinctly skewed towards “I don’t have any spare time“!

But, sir, I do have a note, sir – this is because when I’m not:

* Completing 3000-4000 word assignments on topics like Psychosocial Factors contributing to Eating Disorders or statistical analysis of sports scores to ascertain what it tells me about Reactance Theory and Learned Helplessness Theory;
* Digging through what’s left of my Global Atheist Convention luggage to find my favourite ballet flats to take with me on an international flight next week;
* Working on other writing tasks and collating examination sales, drafting new questions and resources, finishing my powerpoint slides and editing and finding time to eat let alone breathe…

When I’m not doing all of that? I podcast interviews with people I find fascinating and challenging at the Token Skeptic – and once a month I take what I consider to be the most interesting and vital elements of those investigations and submit them to CSICOP – at a column called Curiouser and Curiouser.

Generally these interviews are conducted at very odd hours of the morning or night.

But I have a surprise! Here’s two treats for you today:

Episode One Hundred And Eighteen – On The Self Illusion – Interview With Bruce M Hood. I really enjoyed this book and I hope to use it when teaching Philosophy in the future. Plus, Professor Hood is one of the most engaging and entertaining science communicators I’ve ever had the great fortune to interview, let alone see present at QEDCon – those of you attending any of the forthcoming events like The Amazing Meeting will be equally engrossed by his presentations and should definitely check out his earlier work as well.

Those of you who listened to (and there were quite a few people who listened and were supportive of this show – big thanks to SkepReview and to Sara Mayhew in particular, for her reflective post called Skepticism and Beauty!) an earlier episode on Mythbusting Makeup: Skepticism and Cosmetic Claims (#115) – there’s now a transcript of one of the interviews featured at the Curiouser and Curiouser website:

Just look at any of the millions of products on supermarket shelves worldwide touting legally defensible scientific-sounding advertising gibberish (with no explicit claims as to what exactly the “life-enhancing collagen” will do for your dead hair follicles). Skepticism and questioning the pseudoscience in cosmetics should go together like the products’ endless promises of long-life and perfect skin. With that in mind, I set off to conduct a series of interviews over several months on this topic, hoping to get some sensible advice as to what to do when making up my mind about makeup.

Please enjoy those episodes, and I’ll get back to working hard and posting on the blog as often as I can… once everything is a lot less hectic. Oh, did I mention international travel next week? Exams at the start of next month? Additional work in between and a new niece? Everything else? Oh my…

Help out by passing on the links to Curiouser and Curiouser via Facebook, Twitter – and consider popping in a review on iTunes or comment on the Token Skeptic site with a suggested topic for future investigation!