Pat puppeteers a delicious intro. Finally, what took us so long? We had a chat with Canadian podcast pioneer and author Karl Mamer. Karl has a new book out called “The Skeptics Book of Lists”. He’s a fascinating character with many stories to tell. We hope you enjoy!

TRC #667: Special Intro + A Chat With Karl Mamer

Canada's weekly podcast that explores a wide range of controversies and curiosities using science and critical thinking.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Natural Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

What were the first mammals like? Darren examines what characterizes a mammal and explores the world of early mammals, who coexisted with the dinosaurs. Adam investigates the discourse around a viral question which asks “Would you rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear?”, using some simple statistics to inform the issue.

TRC #690: Early Mammals + Would You Rather Encounter a Man or a Bear in the Woods?

Could the huge Sandworms in Frank Herbert's Dune really exist?  Adam looks at how scientifically plausible these odd creatures might be.  In light of recent news about Open AI's GPT-4o and Google's Project Astra, Darren look at the latest advances in AI personal assistants, speculates where this could be leading and shares a passage from his book Uncontrollable on the topic.

TRC #689: The Science of Dune's Sandworms + AI Personal Assistants

Spencer Greenberg is the founder Clearer Thinking, a web site which provides tools for critical thinking, as well as Transparent Replications, which does rapid replications of papers in psychology and behavioural studies. In this interview he discusses the replication crisis in scientific studies, what’s causing it and what can be done to reduce these problems.

TRC #688: Interview with Spencer Greenberg

This past Friday, April 19th, philosopher Daniel Dennett passed away at the age of 82.  Throughout his life he has impacted many people through his work.  On this week's show Darren shares some of his thoughts on this great man and gives an overview of a few of his books.  Thank you Daniel Dennett.

TRC #687: Remembering Daniel Dennett

Adam looks at evidence that the popular Stanford Prison Experiment was not as well run as we've heard which raises concerns about the conclusions we make from it.  Darren considers some recent events in the world of AI and wonders whether or not AI could soon be taking over some creative jobs.

TRC #667: Special Intro + A Chat With Karl Mamer

Download our free app to listen on your phone