Paul A. Offit M.D. is a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases; Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; and Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is a Board Member of Every Child by Two and is a founding member of the Autism Science Foundation.  He is an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology. The co-inventor of RotoTeq, a rotavirus vaccine, Dr. Offit is credited with saving hundreds of lives every day. He has appeared on The Colbert Report, CBS This Morning, The Daily Show with John Stewart, 60 Minutes, Inside Edition, the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and Democracy Now, among others.  He is the author of hundreds of publications, and 10 books, including:  Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine;  Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine; Pandora’sLab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong; several books on vaccines; and Bad Advice: or, Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of Health Information. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

A discussion about belief and knowledge; "knowledge of" versus "knowledge debt"; expertise and authority; deduction vs. induction vs. intuition vs. revelation; and more. I should point out that when relating my previous conversation about knowledge with Dr. James Alcock, in addition to the comment about content and the degree of conviction, Dr. Alcock did speak of Plato's justified, true, belief rubric.   Massimo Pigliucci PhD., (patreon.com/PlatoFootnotes) has a doctorate in Genetics from the University of Ferrara, a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from UConn, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee.  He is currently the K. D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of NY.   He has published in the New York Times, Philosophy Now, and The Philosopher’s Magazine, among others. He has 142 technical papers in science and philosophy, and is the author or editor of 10 technical and public outreach books including:  Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk; and How to be a Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern Life. He has several free downloads available on such topics as philosophy, science, and skepticism at platofootnote.wordpress.com  This episode may also be viewed at youtube.com.

Comedian, writer, producer, actor, monologist, voracious reader, atheist, and Center for Inquiry board of director Julia Sweeney. Some of Julia’s TV credits include Brooklyn Nine- Nine, Fraiser, Family Guy, Mad About You, and of course her multi-season stint as a cast member on SNL. She has appeared in films such as Pulp Fiction, Vegas Vacation, and Stuart Little. Julia is also a playwright and has created several one person shows, among them God Said Ha;  Letting Go of God, which chronicles her personal journey from Catholicism to atheism;  and Julia Sweeney: Older and Wider. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

Described as “the cream of the crop” of entertainers, Banachek is the world’s leading Mentalist. His talents are so incredible that he is the only mentalist ever to fool scientists into believing he possessed “Psychic powers”, only to later reveal he was fooling them. He’s astounded audiences around the world, and has been featured on CNN Live, NBC’s Today Show, Inside Edition, ABC’s Nightline, the BBC, and numerous network TV specials, as well as in print in the New York Times, USA Today, Scientific American, and countless other publications. Banachek is also a professional skeptic, is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and has overseen several James Randi Educational Foundation challenges. This episode may be viewed on youtube.

Brian Kerby Q&A's with Consulting Occultist and author Mark Edward. Mark discusses his book "Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium", his work on the Psychic Friends Network, being named a "Psychic Superstar", and the "World's Greatest Psychic" and more...much more. Mark Edward has been involved in skeptic activism since circa 1989, and was on the editorial board of Skeptic Magazine. He spent almost 10 years embedded with psychics of all types, all the while collecting information and doing research for his book "Psychic Blues."  This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

Dr. James Alcock has a PhD in psychology and teaches at York University in Toronto. His research interests are focused on belief and in particular, on why people believe in things that have no scientific basis. A noted critic of parapsychology, he is a fellow of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and also on the editorial board. He has received CSI’s highest award, the In Praise of Reason award. He is also a fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

A Q&A with Dr. Harriet Hall of skepdoc.info regarding acupuncture, statistics, quackery, chiropractors, homeopathy, naturopathy and more.  Dr. Hall is a retired family physician and former Air Force flight surgeon. She writes about medicine, so-called complementary and alternative medicine, science, quackery, and critical thinking.  She is an editor and one of the five MD founders of the Science-Based Medicine blog. She writes the SkepDoc column in Skeptic magazine, is a contributing editor to Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer,  and a medical advisor and author of articles on the Quackwatch website. Dr. Hall is the author of Women Aren't Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon and co-author of the textbook Consumer Health: a Guide to Intelligent Decisions. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

A conversation about how we are fooled, belief, why and how we believe; shut eyes and cold readers; cognitive psychology; making sense of the world; magic, mentalism, and trickery; and more, with: Ray Hyman, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Oregon; James Alcock, Professor Of Psychology, Glendon College, York University; and James The Amazing Randi, Magician and Escape Artist, Demystifier of the Pseudoscientific. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.

Recorded at CSICON 2016, Brian Kerby Q&A's with Dr. Paul Offit about vaccines, measles outbreaks, the false link between MMR and autism, how much damage the Lancet publication of the Wakefield paper did, the history of the anti-vaccination movement, vaccine religious exemptions and child neglect, and more. Dr. Offit is a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine that has been credited with saving hundreds of lives every day. This episode may also be viewed on youtube.