Is the virus metaphor for spreading misinformation really as good as we have been led to think? Some psychologists disagree. We again ask everyone to show support their support for the Naked Scientists podcast and then in TWISH we hear about George Orwell whose dark visions of society seems ever relevant. Then, we go to the news:

• ENGLAND / WALES: Assisted dying set to become law in England and Wales after MPs pass bill
• ISRAEL / IRAN: Disinformation to look out for
• INTERNATIONAL: Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe, report says
• SWITZERLAND: Government tries to hide expert report on the carbon footprint of electric vehicles
• AUSTRALIA / EUROPE / USA: Australian SCAM promoter Barbara O’Neill is planning a European tour

Statins is the subject for both the Really Wrong and Really Right Awards this week. One goes to Aseem Malhotra and the other to Full Fact. Can you guess who gets which?

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-485.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:51 Greetings

0:09:52 TWISH

0:17:12 News

0:41:10 Really Wrong / Really Right

0:45:01 Quote

0:46:14 Outro

0:47:36 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

URGENT! The great podcast the Naked Scientists is in great danger of being cancelled by Cambridge University and we urge everyone to protest this! Information about how to do that is here: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/sos. In other news Pontus will be in Lithuania 29-30 August to participate in the Būtent festival. If you happen to be there too, let us know! In TWISH we hear about a mysterious moon observation from 1178, and then it’s time for the news:

• SWEDEN / FINLAND / NORWAY: ‘Life’ files for bankruptcy
• INTERNATIONAL: New toolkit makes post-publication peer-review available for everyone
• USA / SWEDEN: RFK jr. appoints Swedish vaccine advisor
• UK: Levels of cheating using AI in academic programs on the rise

Instead of a Really Wrong Award this week we have a Who’s Quacking? segment about Swedish ‘psychic’, Benny Rosenqvist.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-484.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:53 Greetings

0:12:16 TWISH

0:21:23 News

0:43:29 Who's Quacking?

0:50:35 Quote

0:52:19 Outro

0:53:42 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Eggman sits in for András, we look forward to SkeptiCamp at QED and Mike Hall’s Skeptics in the Pub Online talk and are happy to note that not only do we follow the ECDC, but they follow us back. In TWISH we hear about one of the forgotten(?) super villains of the Theosophy movement, Alice Bailey, and then we take a look at this week’s news:

• SWEDEN: Crystals sold to help fertility
• ISRAEL: Uri Geller says he used his psychic powers to break the navigation tools on Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla ship, the Madleen, and warned that he would stop her if she comes to harm Israel.
• INTERNATIONAL: Teenage girls’ TikTok skincare regimes offer little to no benefit, research shows
• INTERNATIONAL: Are CO2 measurements reliable?
• UK: Is positive thinking a factor for heart patients?
• INTERNATIONAL: ‘After seeing the chiropractor, I was seeing things and blacking out’

A Swedish politician flat-out denies anthropogenic climate change and is handed this week’s Really Wrong Award.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-483.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:58 Greetings

0:07:42 TWISH

0:13:19 News

0:45:16 Really Wrong

0:47:42 Quote

0:52:07 Outro

0:53:30 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have some listener feedback about the name of ‘Grok’ and a tip to sign a very important petition regarding NASA. In TWISH we hear how a timely letter kicked Darwin into action and made him finally publish ‘that book’. We then dig into the news:

• UK: ‘Notable increase’ in scammers tricking people into sending money abroad
• INTERNATIONAL: Retraction Watch’s ‘Sleuths in Residence’
• INTERNATIONAL: More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation
• EU: Gene editing should be allowed in the EU for sustainability
• DENMARK: Paper on ‘wokeness’ and mental health retracted
• GERMANY: Google’s wrong information reeks havoc on the Autobahns
• 
  

The NHS will make a new gonorrhoea vaccine available in England and Wales and for that they are Really Right.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-482.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:51 Greetings

0:07:47 TWISH

0:17:53 News

0:52:05 Really Right

0:54:23 Quote

0:58:38 Outro

1:00:01 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deborah Hyde joins us this week, it’s been far too long. We recommend her Youtube series ‘The Green Children of Woolpit‘! The Romanian presidential election is still contentious, and we congratulate Ian Dunt to his position as editor for the New Humanist. In TWISH we learn about the first observational evidences for Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and then it’s time for the news:

• INTERNATIONAL: Is it OK to use AI in scientific papers?
• UK: Are prosecutions for blasphemy coming back to England and Wales?
• UK: Humanists UK Convention 2025 – Deborah among the speakers
• FRANCE / INTERNATIONAL: June 16: World EHS Day – World Day of Intolerance to Electromagnetic Pollution
• EU: ECDC 20 years on
• EUROPE: Measles update
• EUROPE: Research: how did SCAM use change between 2014 and 2023?

Edzard Ernst uses Grok to help us find out who to appoint as the worst proponents of homeopathy. They receive this week’s award for being Really Wrong and they are: Joette Calabrese, Homeopathy Plus and the Indian AYUSH ministry.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-481.html

Segments: 

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:54 Greetings

0:21:12 TWISH

0:30:42 News

0:57:59 Really Wrong

1:01:59 Quote

1:03:57 Outro

1:05:20 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Viktor Orbán is coming down hard on free speech and Romania seems to (maybe) avoid chaos after their second attempt on presidential elections. In TWISH we get into classical skepticism and have a look at the Plauen UFO incident. Then it’s time for the news, with a little bit of Word of the Week:

• INTERNATIONAL: Overshooting 1.5°C: even temporary warming above globally agreed temperature limit could have permanent consequences
• EU: Petition against conversion therapy meets threshold!
• INTERNATIONAL: Retraction Watch inquiry results in Elsevier removing a whole journal from Scopus
• GERMANY: Research identifying subgroups of homeopathy users based on their attitudes towards science
• NORWAY: Putin’s billionaire funds new political party
• EU: TikTok in trouble with the European Commission for not adhering to Digital Services Act
• IRELAND: Psychics are repeatedly insisting on ‘helping’ the police
• UK / INTERNATIONAL: The largest ever profiling effort of susceptibility to misinformation

Elon Musk gets his second Really Wrong Award after his AI machine Grok goes both racist conspiracy theorist and antisemitic last week.

Enjoy!

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:50 Greetings

0:16:07 TWISH

0:24:06 News

0:51:09 Word of the Week

1:01:10 Really Wrong

1:05:47 Quote

1:07:48 Outro

1:09:11 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, the conclave elected ‘Papa Bob’ a.k.a. Leo XIV – who is he, and will that bring back the ‘Pontus Pokes the Pope’ segment? Time will tell! In other news, If you catch this episode in time, please consider signing the European petition to ban conversion therapy, last day is May 17th.

Inge Lehmann is one of forgotten heroes of science, hear more about her in TWISH. Then we go for the news:

• INTERNATIONAL: Aspartame – risk vs. hazard
• AUSTRIA: Michael Frass’ controversial study just lost all validity – and yet, it’s still not retracted
• BELGIUM: Special report from Josef! The winners of the awards from the Belgian skeptics (SKEPP)
• FRANCE: An open letter by healthcare professionals to stop the funding of SCAM therapies that lack scientific evidence
• GERMANY: King of the Reichsbürger movement arrested
• EUROPE: Fact-checking chatbot The Check has passed experimental development phase

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-479.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:51 Greetings

0:13:56 TWISH

0:22:50 News

0:53:59 Really Wrong

0:59:08 Quote

1:00:57 Outro

1:02:19 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

QED tickets are available everyone, so we start our count-down to October in Manchester! The papal conclave is currently on-going and we bring you the latest news. In TWISH we hear about John Strachey, the almost forgotten pioneer in the field of basic geology. Then of course, we have the news:

• INTERNATIONAL / EUROPE: Measles update
• EU: Press freedom under threat by foreign disinformation
• SWEDEN: Swedish climate study stopped due to Trump policies
• NETHERLANDS: A PhD position to research paper mills
• ROMANIA: First round of presidential election goes to leader of pro-Putin conspiracy theorist
• UK: Reform UK wins election, if by six votes only

The American war on science is starting to reach Europe and for that Donald Trump receives this week’s award for being Really Wrong.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-478.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:52 Greetings

0:08:24 TWISH

0:16:18 News

0:46:49 Really Wrong

0:51:34 Quote

0:52:40 Outro

0:54:02 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We start out with a few things from the world of skepticism – in Belgium, SKEPP turns 35 next week with special appearance by Chris French (don’t miss it!), and we link to an article about skeptic history in Hungary. Speaking of Hungary, in TWISH we talk about the prominent Hungarian skeptic and science communicator Aurél Ponori Thewrewk, who was born this week in 1921. Then we head for the news:

• VATICAN: The conclave begins on 7 May
• GERMANY: Prominent antivaxxer admits that covid vaccines had few side-effects, but he’s still completely wrong
• EU: European Commission launching new initiatives to tackle vaccine related mis- and disinformation
• SWEDEN: HPV vaccinations close to eliminate virus in Sweden
• UK: Unproven mushroom supplement – a report by Marsh

We then hand out no less than 1047 Really Right Awards to the Swedish scientists who fights back against politicians who keep dismissing their research as “opinion”.

Enjoy!

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:52 Greetings

0:09:22 TWISH

0:18:05 News

0:49:18 Really Right

0:55:12 Quote

0:56:27 Outro

0:57:50 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s time for the last Poking of Francis but before we get into that and the other news, we go to TWISH to hear about this week’s birthday boy, Guglielmo Marconi, the pioneer of radio transmissions and his wireless telegraph system.

The news list contains the following:

• INTERNATIONAL: Medical cannabis shows potential to fight cancer, largest-ever study finds – or does it…?
• HUNGARY: Antivaxx nutjob gets Flat Earth Award
• VATICAN: So Frankie died… one last chance to poke the pope (at least this one)
• EUROPE: RFK Jr having a devastating effect on Europe’s vaccine acceptance

The Dutch ultra-Christian Civitas Christiania foundation gets this week’s Really Wrong Award for taking their bigoted anti-LGBTQ stance to unacceptable levels.

Enjoy!

https://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-476.html

Segments:

0:00:27 Intro

0:00:53 Greetings

0:03:24 TWISH

0:15:18 News

0:48:19 Really Wrong

0:54:48 Quote

0:56:01 Outro

0:57:23 Outtakes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.