- with the Bent Spoon Award & a happy birthday to VoF!We start by exploring the anthroposophic connections of the Griffins, the founders of Canberra, then move on to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Swedish skeptical organisation Vetenskap och Folkbildning.Then Pontus Pokes the Pope for all the mess his minions like Becciu have caused in the Vatican Bank before we turn to the news:GERMANY: Court prohibits homeopathic manufacturer from advertising product with false health claimsRUSSIA: The Duma passes law banning ‘LGBT propaganda’ among adultsINTERNATIONAL: Witchcraft beliefs in Europe (and around the world) surprisingly highUK: Graham Hancock rages war against the whole field of archaeologyINTERNATIONAL: With Twitter's end of enforcing policy against misinformation, EU raises prospect of big fines or banINTERNATIONAL:Measles is ‘imminent threat’ globally, WHO and CDC warnThis week's Really Wrong prize goes to the NHS in the UK for supporting quackery in midwifery.Finally, you can listen to two of the interviews conducted at the convention with Executive Officer of Australian Skeptics In. Tim Mendham and chief organiser of SkeptiCon 2022 Kevin Davis.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Interviews; Farewell; Outro

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– Brisbane Skeptics in the Pub!Our two-week long tour to Australia is soon coming to an end, but we have been lucky enough to be welcomed by lovely people in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast.On this week’s episode we are releasing a recording we made before a lovely audience in Brisbane, where we had a panel discussion about our thoughts on the present and future of the skeptic movement, based on our experiences and actives as skeptics in our respective countries.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Brisbane Skeptics; Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– Sydney Skeptics in the Pub!Our two-week long tour to Australia has begun, the main event of which will be the Australian Skeptics National Convention (SkeptiCon) in Canberra between 3rd and 4th December. But beforehand, we will have a few stops along the way where local branches organised events for us that we can’t wait to attend.The first event of our tour has now concluded. It was a Skeptics in the Pub event in Sydney, with short talks as well as an interview with Australia’s most popular science communicator, Dr Karl, and host of The Skeptic Zone, Richard Saunders. This week, instead of a regular show, we are releasing a special recording of the whole evening.Enjoy!

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– plus, the Princess who will never be Queen – and why that’s a good thingShould we all abandon Twitter and move to Mastodon? Call us contrarians, but we’ll wait and see! Preparing for our Australian trip to Skepticon we may need an umbrella or two due to the severe weather, but if you are based in Europe and like to go to a great conference, why not head down to Leiria in Portugal for ComceptCon 2022 that opens this weekend! In TWISH we hear about another great Hungarian skeptic, Mihály Beck, born this week in 1929. Pope Frankie is worried about those porn watching nuns, while we just move on to take a look at the news:INTERNATIONAL: How screwed are we – any results on COP27?GERMANY: The Golden Aluminium Hat awards ceremony now onlineNORWAY: The Shaman’s Princess leaves all her royal commitmentsLISTENBURG: How a fictive country was born and became viralSWITZERLAND: Nathalie wasn’t a victim of ritual satanic abuseSWEDEN: Pontus Pokes the Politicians: Environment budget a disasterThe Russian TV host Andrei Norkin shows how to protest without saying anything and for that he is Really Right.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Really Right; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– Czech / Slovak Skeptical TV-series ‘Investigátori’ renewed for second season!The gang is reunited and there’s so much to talk about – memories of QED, the Ockham Award, the Rusty Razor and our upcoming Australian Tour. With sadness we note the passing of Kendrick Frazier and then we talk to Claire Klingenberg and Peter Pokorný regarding the second season(!) of their skeptical TV series ‘Investigátori‘ (‘The Investogators’). In TWISH we remember the Hungarian scientific communicator and TV personality József Öveges and then Frankie gets a poking for the latest Cardinal scandal.Then it’s time for the news:INTERNATIONAL: COP27 now on!UK: Earthshot Prize announcedINTERNATIONAL: Is Google funding climate change disinformation?INTERNATIONAL: Public more likely to support climate action if other countries commit as wellEUROPE: Europe’s unvaccinated childrenGERMANY: INH press ReleaseSWEDEN: New book out by Greta ThunbergFINLAND: Change to abortion laws in FinlandPOLAND: Tomasz Witkowski’s new bookQueen Consort Camilla goes to India to cleanse her chakras and for that she is Really Wrong.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Interview; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– Claire and Brian joins us, while Luna fills in for AndrásAs we are joined by Claire Kroulik-Klingenberg and Brian Eggo, Luna steps up to fill the shoes of András who to everyone’s deep disappointment had to cancel at the last minute. To celebrate our 350th show and enjoy our live recording at QED in Manchester, we take some liberty with the normal format.So, brace yourself for mythical tales of papal pasts as well as the long awaited Eurovision WRONG Contest:GERMANY: Annika – ‘Riceburger lady’, 75, plots to kidnap Karl LauterbachSCOTLAND: Brian – Scottish archbishop: Euthanasia pushes message that some lives ‘aren’t worth living’RUSSIA: Pontus – Patriarch Kirill: Love for the Fatherland is what keeps the global apocalypse at bayCZECH REPUBLIC: Claire – Charter 2020 – National propaganda hijacking Charter 77HUNGARY: Luna – All good things done by Orbán this weekA big thank you to all who came to see us and said hello at QED!Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Pontus Pokes The Pope; TWICH; Eurovision Wrong Contest; Quote And Farewell; Outro;

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– and BTW, Elvis really has left the building – no matter what psychic mediums sayThis week we first chat about a “psychic medium” who is friendly with Elvis and touch on the Tories in the UK who apparently is friendly with no one, not even themselves. Then Kevin Davies of the Canberra Skeptics joins us and tells all about the Australian Skeptics National Convention 2022 where we will be in December! In TWISH we hear about Tycho Brahe and his achievements and Pope Frankie is still infallible and does not take kindly to criticism. Then it’s time for the news:INTERNATIONAL: Edzard Ernst‘s blog just turned 10 years oldGERMANY: Cybersecurity chief turns out to have Russian tiesSWEDEN: Pontus Pokes the Politicians:– What the experts say would solve the murder cases– Danish warning about prison places abroad: Don’t!Swedish MD Elsa Widding of the Sweden Democrats is an antivaxxer (and not a little stupid) so she gets the prize for being Really Wrong.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Interview; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– and get your flu shot, people!This week the full crew is back and we urge you to take the flu seriously. We recommend a video of a presentation by Germany skeptic Amardeo Sarma about critical thinking, find out how to pronounce ‘that town’ in the Netherlands and feel sad that Robbie ‘Hagrid’ Coltrane passed away. In TWISH we celebrate 100 years with the BBC, and then it’s time for the news:RUSSIA: The online guide Russians use to escape Putin’s warGERMANY: 75-year-old conspiracy theorist woman planned to kidnap LauterbachSWEDEN: Pontus pokes the politicians – New Government lets Sweden Democrats dictate immigrationSWEDEN: Study of media use and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic shows consistency of messages is keyINTERNATIONAL: Survey shows even thought threat is getting worse, concern about climate change is shrinkingRUSSIA / SWEDEN: Chamber of commerce bombarded with fake Russian mailsTo round off, Dutch MP Thierry Baudet gets a Really Wrong Award.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Wrong; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– Lauterbach takes on pseudoscienceBrian Eggo steps in to save the day as he covers for both András and Annika this week. We talk about listener reactions to last week’s episode and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the last of this year’s Nobel prizes in the natural sciences. In TWISH we reminisce about QED 2018 as we prepare attending the next one. Pontus Pokes the Pope for his failure to handle the relations to Russia but give’s him a broken clock award for taking a stand for refugees. Then it is time to look at the news:EUROPE: ECDC gets extended mandate to tackle emerging future epidemicsNETHERLANDS: Court rules that Twitter has done enough to stop conspiracy theory about satanic paedophilesSPAIN: No matter what social media giants promised, Spanish disinformation is rampantRUSSIA: Russia’s financial monitoring agency adds Meta to list ‘terrorists and extremists’GERMANY: Münster Circle issues Memorandum Integrative MedicineGerman Health Minister Karl Lauterbach gets a Really Right Award together with Edzard Ernst and Nikil Mukerji for taking a stand against homeopathy.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Really Right; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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– we’re back in the Dark AgesWe start this week with commenting on the winners of the two first Nobel Prizes this year – Svante Pääbo who won the prize in Medicine or Physiology and the trio of Aspect, Clauser and Zeilinger who shares the Physics prize. We also celebrate the first ever female European commander of the ISS, Samantha Cristoforetti, before we travel back in time with our TWISH-machine and acknowledge this week’s birthday bay, Denis Diderot. Then we dig into the news:UK: The dark side of social media? The Molly Russell caseUK: Children’s digital resilience to be approached as a collective effort to prepare young people for the futureSWEDEN: MD who assisted man to die loses his licenseGERMANY: Voting now open for the ‘Heroes of Facts Awards‘UKRAINE: Four regions of the country annexed by Russia following sham referendumPOLAND: New-born babies are handed over through a hole in the wallThe Prize for being Really Wrong goes to Jacob Rees-Mogg, British minister of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy who has no clue about the physics of energy.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Wrong; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;

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