This week we first get the record straight and correct our position on Ocean Cleanup - while we appreciate the sentiment, the whole idea is both damaging and unscientific. Two great Skeptical events are coming up this spring Skepkon 2020 in Berlin 21 - 23 May and the 4th Conference on Science and Pseudoscience 13 -1 4 March in Alicante.In this week in history we hear about Russia’s own Roswell incident, the Height 611 UFO crash. Pontus Pokes the Pope and gives us the latest on the celibacy controversy, the first female high-ranking appointment in the Vatican and how Father Robert, aka the Digital Jesuit, invited Francis for a D&D session in the crypt.All news sources are full of Coronavirus stories at the moment, but how does one separate the facts from fiction? Swedish Schools keeps patronizing known Scientology organisations and the Spanish Manifesto against Pseudotherapies gets momentum abroad.Greenpeace wants a piece of the action on the Green party’s recent success in the Hungarian election, but they are more ideologically driven than they should be. Can we afford to mitigate climate change effects? In fact, it is uneconomical NOT to do so, according to a new study and again we point out that homeopathy of course cannot replace antibiotics.We end by shaming Corriere Della Sera for promoting pseudoscience and hand them a Really Wrong Award.Enjoy!

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This week we note that the Swedish Skeptics’ article from last week concerning Thomas Erikson’s nonsense personality book “Surrounded by Idiots” has gotten some attention from other skeptics, among other things Pontus was a guest on the last episode of the Skeptic Zone podcast to talk about it.In history this week we talk about Desmond Morris and his role in the Aquatic Ape hypothesis and then Pontus Pokes the Pope about the fact that the two living popes are at odds regarding celibacy and also that the charity money from Peter’s Pence goes straight into the coffers of the Vatican.In the news this week: Contrary to what you may have heard, Finland does not plan to go to a four-day working week, in Russia 800 science papers have been retracted and the Eurobarometer shows that EU citizens are concerned about climate change. Andrew Wakefield will screen the new film Vaxxed II at a public venue in Notting Hill, the Goop Lab will feature the Dutch “Iceman” Wim Hof, an Italian court has against scientific consensus ruled that mobile phones cause brain tumours and John Cook is publishing a comic book about climate change denial. We hope Skeptics will help translate it!We end by handing a Really Wrong Award to the UK Home Office and the Ministry of Justice for believing in lie detectors.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we note that at the time of recording, American-Swedish astronaut Jessica Meir is busy preparing and conducting the second ever all-female spacewalk.In history this week in 1964, Italian philosopher, author and skeptic Massimo Pigliucci was born, and we discuss some of his contributions and influences.Pontus Pokes the Pontus to note that old Benedict comes out of retirement to fight for celibacy, potentially creating a headache for poor Francis, who is supposed to say the final word on the matter shortly. In other papal news, disgraced former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick goes missing to avoid the wrath of the Holy See.In the news, the Spanish Catholic Church inexplicably thinks that celibate priests constitute the best expertise in preparing young couples for marriage while Uri Geller reminds us that he’s no more crazy than the UK Government and so, applies for a job there.Gwyneth Paltrow’s The Goop Lab is soon coming to a Netflix near you, trying to convince us that spending a fortune on utter bullshit is the way to female empowerment. Luckily the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project (GSOW) with Susan Gerbic has already launched an excellent Wikipedia page pointing out the stupidity of that.A Swedish MP spreads conspiracy theories on the Australian wildfires and we try to set the record straight. A Danish study shows what the harm really is with HPV anti-vaccination propaganda and the Swedish Skeptics (VoF) wants to alert the world about bogus personality tests that’s makes the rounds internationally. Beware of the book ‘Surrounded by Idiots’!We end by handing a Really Wrong award to the College of Medicine that, backed by Prince Charles, wants to teach GPs and alt med quacks Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), despite that it clearly is pseudoscientific nonsense.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week András is back and we start by philosophizing a bit about what a new decade really means and look forward to a few nice skeptics meetings coming up. We also talk about the future for Golden Rice and why it is so important despite what Greenpeace and EU politicians think.From history we hear about the so-called ‘psychic’ Doris Stokes who was born this week in 1920 and Pontus Pokes the Pope for telling others to show restraint while he himself lost his temper just a few days ago. Should he be the one who negotiate peace in the Middle East? We think not.In the News this week: MedWatch.de turns into full online magazine, the people behind the Manifesto Against Pseudotherapies are getting sued by homeopaths and Prince William starts the ‘Earthshot Prize’ to fight the climate crisis. We look back on a decade of Edzard Ernst, praise Hayley Stevens for continuing to spread light over ghost hunting and look forward to Natalie Grams new book coming out in February. Also, the ‘El Esceptico’ magazine has recently examined the pharmaceutical industry in an excellent way.We end by handing another Really Right to the Daily Mail(!), this time for taking a critical look at the New Year’s diet recommendations.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Right; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week Brian is back again and we look forward to the new year. One thing to note about 2020 is the Ratio conference in Sofia in Bulgaria in June and that the super early bird tickets already are released. Chris French is going, so why don’t you? Then Jelena tells us a ghost story from this week in 1762 that took place in Cock Lane, believe it or not.In Pontus Pokes the Pope we hear about shady monetary shenanigans involving two sitting popes and how the Catholic church is now struggling to live up to the recent changes regarding so-called Papal Secrecy.In the news we talk about the resignation of the Italian education minister, how the NHS in the UK is trying out ‘prehab’ for cancer patients and we check back on the Samoan measles emergency.Further news takes us to Russia who has appealed the sanctions imposed because of doping scandals, and we go to Spain where homeopaths are trying to sue the government and then we are happy to hear that the charlatan John of God has been sentenced to 19 years in jail, albeit for rape rather than quackery.We close the show by handing out a Really Wrong Award to the archbishop of Krakow who believes that Greta Thunberg is the antichrist since she will not let him subdue the Earth.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we wrap up the year and wish all our listeners a Happy Holiday. We revisit something we got wrong about Das Goldene Brett last week and celebrate the birthday of Johannes Kepler.For Pontus Pokes the Pope we examine what the Pontifical Secret is all about and what it may mean when Francis now has declared it cannot be used to hide sex abuse. We also deliver our first ever film review, on the rather nice but totally fictional movie ‘The Two Popes’.In the news we talk about Chemophobia, HPV vaccinations for boys and again marvel at the stupidity of the Prince of Wales. We also discuss doctors paying for positive on-line reviews, the measles situation in Turkey (it’s bad) and how anti-vaxxers and making millions from ‘natural supplements’ goes hand in hand. Also, the supreme court in the Netherlands has upheld a ruling against the government for not doing enough to fight climate change.We end the episode and the year by looking back to find that several good things happened too in 2019, even if they sometimes go unnoticed or are quickly forgotten.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we start our journey towards episode 300 and first reflect on climate change with Greta Thunberg as Time Magazine’s person of the year and Australia heading for a sever heatwave just in time for Christmas.Johan Nevil Maskelyne, skeptic, magician (and inventor of the pay toilet) was born on 22 December 180 years ago. Pontus Popes the Pope who has been very busy over the year and seems to have big plans also for 2020.Then there is some more climate change news, with the European Green Deal proposed by the European Commission, we see a trend of apps trying to tell us what to eat and then a scumbag from episode 51 back in December 2016 finally gets well deserved jail time.Das Goldene Brett (the Golden Board) has been awarded to homeopathy manufacturer Hevert by the GWUP in Austria and the CFIIG increase their paranormal challenge reward to $250,000. Will anyone ever win it?We close the show by explaining why new research into HPV vaccines show that it’s perfectly safe, but still have to issue a Really Wrong award to a Danish doctor who denies it all via some unusually creative logical fallacies.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we celebrate our 200th episode and that we continue our journey into our fifth year!We re-unite with our first ever guest, Gábor Hraskó (president of the Hungarian Skeptics) to philosophize a little about Skepticism and what has changed over time. And throughout the show we hear fantastic congratulation greetings from dear friends from across the world!We go on to bring up the eradication of Smallpox and Pontus Pokes the Pope to examine a potential $4 billion threat to the Catholic Church. And a Catholic Minecraft server sounds intriguing as well…In the news we talk about reliable climate change models, Etiopathy, the measles epidemic both globally and in Samoa. Polio is still a threat to consider and we revisit the topic of Assisted Death and the Manifesto Against Pseudoscientific Therapies.Finally, András does his very best Master Yoda impression to celebrate that we have lasted this far!Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Welcome with Gábor Hraskó; Greetings from friends 1; This Week; Greetings from friends (2); Pontus Pokes the Pope; Greetings from friends 3; News; Greetings from friends 4; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week Claire Kroulik-Klingenberg joins Jelena and Pontus for the 199th episode – we’re into our fifth year, folks!In This week in Skepticism, Jelena tells the story of how a young pre-Sherlock-Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle fictionalized the real story of a ghost ship, creating a modern legend. Pontus Pokes the Pope and goes through some of the main on-going abuse scandals, while Francis himself celebrate with lasagne.In the news we learn about good news for Skeptic Pepijn van Erp, we also hear that institutionalized sex abuse happens also in the Church of England and that an American church causes two deaths in Latvia.The Good Thinking Society scores two wins this week, both regarding ear candling and homeopathy and we again establish that the Swedish Free School system very often is a front for religious indoctrination.Measles may be on the decline in Europe, but is continuing to create disasters with thousands of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a state of emergency declared in Samoa, where 1.5% of the total population has been infected, a number that is rising exponentially (as we release this it is more like 2%).A recent Swedish court case renews the discussions about assisted deaths. Despite some serious topics in this episode we finish off with a bit lighter Really Wrong Award that we hand out to Dr Cameron Sepah, who for some reason believes we all need to make our lives more boring. It’s called Dopamine Fasting.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Radio Spot; News; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we have a very interesting interview with Lydia Finch, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness turned skeptic. As a sort of a follow-up from two weeks ago, we felt we wanted to dive a little more into what it really means to grow up as a JW and then eventually leave. Leaving voluntarily is difficult enough, but in Lydia’s case she was kicked out for “behaving badly” and for a long while she lived in fear, convinced that she had brought eternal damnation on herself.Eventually she managed to figure out that it was all BS and got in contact with the Skeptics movement. In our interview she takes us through that journey and also gives us a unique insight into how JW works and how dishonestly they try to portray themselves to the outside world.Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview; Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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