The QED conference is coming up in Manchester, and I will be attending this year.
The program looks frustrating and amazing – frustrating because I want to several things at the same time, amazing because of the sheer quality of the speakers.
I haven’t decided what I am going to see yet, except that I am definitely wants to see the Z List Dead List session.
If you are at the conference, feel free to say hi
As part of my series of posts recommending podcasts, the turn has come to recommend Skeptics with a K, a podcast by the Merseyside Skeptic Society. The Merseyside Skeptic Society is of course an important skeptical organization, which is well known for having come up with the 10:23 campaign and for co-organizing the QED conference.
The podcast started out in 2009, and is thus a quite long-running podcast, coming up on its 200th episode (as I am writing this, episode 198 was released two days ago).
The podcast has had 3 hosts from the start, with the current hosts being Mike Hall, Michael “Marsh” Marshall, and Alice Howarth. Mike and Marsh has been hosts from the start, while Alice joined in 2014, taking over from Collin Harris.
The shows style is basically that the three hosts sit together, talk about their daily life, and then talk about a skeptic or science subject that they find relevant for the show. The show is relaxed, often silly, but despite what the hosts (especially Mike) would say, very informative. From the science talk by Alice, over Marsh’s work for the Good Thinking Society, to Mike’s addressing misconceptions and misuse of the placebo concept.
In recent years, it has become easy to be cynical about organized skepticism, but podcasts like Skeptics with a K helps fight that cynicism, showing the good side of organized skepticism, demonstrating that it can make a difference, and that it is not just about people promoting themselves, but it is also about people like the 3 hosts who actively work to promote critical thinking, both through their podcast, and through their work fighting against things like homeopathy.
Note: if you have a problem with swearing, this is probably not the podcast for you.
Also, you probably would want to avoid the Christmas special as the first episode to listen to, as it is a drunk episode, and not very representative of the rest of the podcast.
I am always looking for great skeptic and scientific podcasts, and since I am sure that many other are doing the same, I’ll occasionally recommend podcasts that I have come across, and think are worth listening to (some times with a caveat or two).
This time, I will recommend the Oh No Ross and Carrie podcast, which is a podcast series where the hosts and Ross and Carrie investigates different health or supernatural claims, and cults.
In the past they have investigated things like Scientology, Christian Science, Laughter Yoga, and Reiki.
The only caveat I will make about the show is that they sometimes try too hard to build the suspense during the introduction, and drag it out needlessly. This becomes annoying if you listen to several shows in a row. Thankfully this can be skipped through fairly easily.
This post is an attempt to a new series of blogposts, recommending good podcasts I’ve come across.
First on the list, is The Z List Dead List, a podcast by Iszi Lawrence, based on her comedy show of the same name.
The basic concept of the show is that Iszi Lawrence invites comedians (and others) to come and talk about a person who is a) dead, and b) should be more widely known.
This concept allows for a great series of podcasts, where you get introduced to some interesting people from history. There is a British bias in the selection, but even so, we get introduced to a pretty widespread selection of people through the 7 series, that exists so far.
Given that Iszi Lawrence is a feminist and a skeptic, the podcast is great in these areas, and several of the episodes includes people from these areas.
If you have any comments to the podcast, or have any suggestions for podcasts that I should check out please let me know in the comments,