This week we welcome Brian back for an unprecedented two-weeks-in-a-row appearance and then we dive into how the Piltdown-man hoax went undetected for many years, but was revealed this week 66 years ago. Then we poke the pope for trying to put the blame for his sex abuse scandals on Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, while Cardinal Pell, believe in or not, may get one more day in court.In the news we find we still have to explain why you should NOT go to a chiropractor because not only is chiropractic total pseudoscience, it’s also occasionally deadly. In happier news an Ebola vaccine is finally here and has been approved in the EU, where coincidentally, being it due to vaccinations or not, the measles epidemic finally shows signs to be receding. Nevertheless, the measles vaccine is now mandatory in Germany.In Venice the recent floods are devastating but is it climate change or is it just that building a city out in the water is a bad idea? Speaking of water, did holy water from Lourdes save Shakira’s voice? And will Golden Rice finally be approved in Bangladesh? So many questions, and only the ESP experience to sort it all out!Finally, the State Government of Bavaria is taking stupid to a new level when trying to fight multi-resistant bacteria with homeopathy and that earns them a place in the Really Wrong hall of fame.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 it’s the return of Brian as we have sent András on a field trip to Malaysia. We celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Glasgow Skeptics and then explore signs that some bishops in the Catholic Church at least seem to be trying do the right thing regarding the abuse scandals, however without much help from Francis. He may instead worry that he has opened Pandora’s box by allowing discussions about married priests and female deacons.In the news ‘Trick or Treatment’, the book by Edzard Ernst and Simon Sing, has received an award and a study indicates that organic farming may actually be worse for the environment in some cases, something that leads to protests from organic defenders filled with logical fallacies.WHO is getting hard criticism for its inclusion of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the ICD, the International Classification of Diseases, which is also illustrated by a study the shows that TCM is causing a growing number of cases of fatal liver failure.A French study shows that MD’s who receives gifts from pharmaceutical companies prescribe too much of the wrong drugs, the 500 not-so-qualified ‘experts’ who denied the climate change emergency are challenged by over 11,000 real scientists and Lidl has a silly solution to too much sugar in your coffee.Finally, the Swedish government gets a Really Wrong award for their decision to subsidize the abusive Jehovah’s Witnesses.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 pope Francis is all talk and no show, there was a secret love affaire between a Cardinal and a Queen of Sweden in 1654 and Massimo Polidoro’s book Il Mondo Sottosopra is now in the shops.New study finds that measles resets your whole immune system in a very bad way, homeopathic nonsense should absolutely not have a Royal warrant of appointment and Swedish CAM proponents claim CAM is safe despite obvious examples that it is not.Facebook and Twitter have totally opposite views in political ads on their platforms and Facebook employees points out to Mark Zuckerberg that he is wrong.Finally, we demonstrate how the EU rules on GMO and CRISPR are totally bananas.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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First: A big shout-out to fellow skeptics Claire and Jakub who are getting married on the day of the release of this episode!This week we learn about William Benjamin Carpenter, an early skeptic and describer of the Ideomotor effect, back in 1870s. Then we ponder the results of the Synod for the Amazon and what decisions Pope Francis will have to make of those. Also, the renewal of the Pact of the Catacombs sounds perfect for the week of Halloween...In the news we look at a study regarding mandatory vs. voluntary vaccinations, we note that even if you are a Shaman and married to a Princess you may not publish dangerous health advice and we have a look at the latest unfortunate victim of German cancer quackery.We celebrate that two out of three polio strains are now eradicated and take a look at a new example of how to battle conspiracy theories, and are happy to see the Good Think Society help the chief of the NHS put homeopathy awareness on the agenda (and on the front page of the Daily Mail!)We close the show by handing a Really Wrong Award to Adriano Panzironi, self-proclaimed diet and supplement peddler who promise to help you live to 120 (at a steep fee, of course...)Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takes

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This week we have a very interesting catch up with Ovidiu Covaciu who attended the International Global Vaccination Summit organised by the European Commission and the WHO. But before that we celebrate that Jelena singlehandedly (not really) made sure that the new Center for Population Health in her home city of Seattle was dedicated to Dr. Hans Rosling, the Swedish professor and science communicator. We also talk about how Pope John Paul II this week in 1996 admitted that evolution probably has some merits to it after all. That doesn’t necessarily mean he liked it much.After the interview we poke the pope with some more Amazon news and the hilarious innovations of the Vatican to make use of modern technology. Yes, it’s the eRosary™, that nifty device we’ve all been waiting for! It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and send those Hail Marys to the heavens above at the flick of the wrist (literally).In the news we find another win for the Good Thinking Society against Peter Popoff, we anticipate the yearly ComceptCon skeptical event in Portugal and go through how the Swedish Skeptics was invited by the government to give their opinion on the coming CAM-regulations. Then we go to Spain where the Spanish Skeptics at ARP-SAPC join others to fight the dangerous idea of Bio-Neuro Emotion.We finish off with handing out a Really Wrong award to the Polish ‘Law and Justice’ party that has passed a law that says sex education for kids is a form of paedophilia. Really, they said that.Oh, and there’s a surprise coming for our most faithful patrons – you can join them if you want to!Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week; Interview; 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 first have a look to see if it was really the President of Finland who said he preferred reindeer to Trump before we congratulate the Spanish Skeptics for ceasing the opportunity of the Nobel week to point out what the ‘Nobel decease’ is in the mainstream media. We also remember the mockumentary ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ that premiered this week 17 years ago.Social media is tough to handle, as pope Francis discovered when accidentally tagging an NFL football team on Twitter, much to the delight of all the fans. Meanwhile his synod on the Amazon is fully underway, and we report on the latest developments.In the news, we report on the Global Vaccination Summit on-line, discuss the anti-gay sentiments in France, Flat Earthers in the Netherlands and the rising homeopathy resistance in Germany. We also discuss illegal circumcisions in Sweden, a new skeptical book from CICAP in Italy and the start of a huge medical lawsuit in France.We end by handing yet another Really Wrong for covering up sex abuse in the Catholic Church, this time to Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius.Give it a listen!Segments:Intro; Greetings; 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 declare that we’re fans of Brian Cox and we deliberate some more on the book ‘Shoot for the Moon’ by Richard Wiseman (see ep. 190) and how we can apply the lessons learned from Apollo in our skeptical endeavors.We then look into the soap opera that is the currently ongoing Synod in Rome that has created a big controversy for Francis, even before it has begun (and in addition he insists you need a dick to vote on the outcome). That is a developing story that we absolutely will come back to in the upcoming weeks.Massimo Polidoro (see ep. 189) has yet another new book out AND has launched a new YouTube channel. Does the man never sleep? We take a look at why Greta Thunberg is constantly attacked, and our message is that if she gets on your nerves you should listen to what she says, not how she may make you feel.The Swedish liberal Centre Party takes a very controversial stand against male circumcision and the World Health Organization has issued new recommendations regarding flu vaccinations.We end the show with a deep dive into the climate change debate, handing out both a Really Wrong Award to the Climate Intelligence Foundation and a Really Right to the site Climatefeedback.org.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong and Really Right; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we first have a brief follow-up on German Health Minister Jens Spahn’s failure do defund bogus homeopathy and how the IHN (Informationsnetzwerk Homöopathie) has published an open letter to the minister explaining why he is wrong not to chance the rules. You can all go sign it! We also mention the Swedish Skeptics’ (VoF) successful participation in the Gothenburg International Book Fair.The main segment of this episode is an interview with the marvelous Richard Wiseman, where he tells all about his latest book Shoot for the Moon. András was fortunate enough to catch up with him in Edinburgh and the book tells the fascinating story about how a very young, but passionate team, came together under Apollo 11 and were instrumental in putting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Richard has coined the phrase ‘Apollo Mindset’ to describe how the team spirit they developed was key in making sure that Apollo 11 was the fantastic success it was. The book also discusses how we may all learn from the Apollo program to apply a little #ApolloMindset of our own, more down-to-earth projects.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview; Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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This week we first hear from the fantastic Massimo Polidoro who tells all about CICAP Fest from two weeks ago.We look forward to a new film which is a fictional tale about the relationship between pope Benedict and Francis and there is a new book is out which brings attention to the brewing schism within the Catholic church (this makes Francis rather unhappy).In the news, Russia is not very successfully trying to cover up the fire in the smallpox lab (ouch!), Sweden extends the HPV vaccinations to ALL kids (not just girls) and the Hungarian Skeptics scores a win for kicking out alt med quackery from a medical university.Russian bot farms spreads both anti and pro vaccination memes in order to undermine people’s trust in information in general and we again get confirmation that the climate change is escalating. The ‘fake’ city of Bielefeld did not manage to find anyone to prove its non-existence and Swedish politicians try to score populist points with crime fighting proposals that will be totally ineffective or even counterproductive.We end the episode by being deeply disappointed in the German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who totally failed to end homeopathy funding. For that, he receives this week’s Really Wrong award.Enjoy!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview; 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 the team is all together at last! András us tells a bit about his adventures at the incredibly exiting CICAP Fest in Padua, more on this to follow next week.In the main part of the episode we release the next set of interviews recorded at the European Skeptics Congress 2019! This time you will hear from participants and activists as well as get a sneak peek behind curtain from some of the organizers and volunteers.Oh, and we have a new logo, thanks to Matt Kemp (@kemp_matt)! Thank you so much!Enjoy!Interviews in this episode: Jozef van Giel, Dieter Byttebier, Élisabeth Feytit, Paul de BelderSegments:Intro; Greetings; Interviews; Farewell; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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