DEEKAST

Tania Israel is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Tania's book Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide, Skills and Strategies for Conversations That Work (APA, 2020) grew out of Dr. Israel’s skill-building workshop that she developed and delivered to hundreds of participants following the 2016 election. Dr. Israel’s honors include 2019 Congressional Woman of the Year (CA 24th District), Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Award for Excellence in Mental Health from the California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, and Emerging Leader Award from the APA Committee on Women in Psychology.

Dr. Jonathan Howard is a neurologist and psychiatrist based in New York City who has been interested in vaccines since long before COVID-19. He works treating MS and on the neurology and psychiatric wards at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States.  

Scott Flansburg is from upstate New York and he is known worldwide as the Human Calculator. He holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest mental calculation after adding the same number to itself more times in 15 seconds. He is also an annual host and founder of The National Counting Bee, a fast-paced annual competition to find the fastest human counters. 

Flansburg discovered his mental calculation ability at the age of 9 when his maths teacher asked him to add four numbers. He can mentally add, subtract, divide and multiply numbers with the accuracy of the calculator naturally. In 1990, he started using his abilities in the education and entertainment industry. To date, he has published books like Math Magic and Math Magic For Your Kids. Scott has been featured in popular shows around the world like The Ellen Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, USA Today, BBC breakfast, ESPN, History Channel, and many more.

We discuss how he discovered his abilities, learning 0-9 instead of 1-10, numerology, how kids should or shouldn't learn math, democratic schools, and more!

He can be found at @HumanCalculator on social media or at www.humancalculator.com

Yuri Deigin is a Russian-Canadian biotech entrepreneur and life extension activist whose primary area of expertise lies in the field of drug discovery and development. He wrote a 16,000 word essay on Medium where he argued that the Wuhan Lab Leak theory of Covid-19's origins has strong evidence for it. Many virologists disagree with this sentiment, but Yuri doesn't think it should be dismissed.

Andre Pineda is a Scientific Advisor and Communicator, he holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences and is based in New York but originally from Hamilton, Ontario.

Andre and I discuss science communication, legal scientific advisory, scientific literacy, public trust / trust in experts, challenging beliefs and worldviews, and we tackle some Covid-19 misinformation surrounding viral load, what causes variants, and immunization records / vaccine passports.

Andre can be followed at @DreTheScientist

Lalo Dagach is the 'Chilean Palistinean', and he hosts the Lalo Dagach podcast. Lalo has appeared on shows like the Dave Rubin show and has a prominent twitter following.  We discussed Chilean history, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Chilean politics and the election in 2021, Venezuela, the Iraq War, and a bit about Covid-19 and vaccines including mandatory vaccines / vaccine passports, vaccine hesitancy and efficacy and more.  Follow him at @LaloDagach on all platforms.

Erick Galindo is a Telly Award and James Beard Foundation-winning Latino filmmaker, journalist, and culture writer who has published and produced work for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, KPCC/LAist and more. Erick is the host of “WILD,” a new podcast from LAist Studios about perseverance in the face of moments that feel too big to overcome but end up changing the trajectory of our lives forever. The first season features optimistic stories from the time spent at home the past year and a half, focusing on how that time has shaped us in the present as the world begins to reopen.

Erick and I discussed the personal side of the pandemic, the stories he explores on WILD, getting tired of data and headlines from the pandemic news cycle, living through the current 'event horizon' of the end of the pandemic, vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, american individualism, growing up as an immigrant in south-east LA, and more!

Listen to 'WILD' wherever podcasts are found.

Twitter @ErickGEEE // Instagram @erickgalindo

Mick West is a British-American science writer, skeptical investigator, and retired video game programmer. His book is Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect.  Kevin M. Folta is a professor of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida. Kevin hosts the Talking Biotech podcast.  Lalo Dagach is the Chilean Palestinian and the host of the Lalo Dagach podcast. He has appeared on the Rubin Report, and has studied film and politics.  

Lorenzo Hagerty is the host of the Psychedelic Salon podcast, he is an author and formerly an attorney, U.S. Naval officer, electrical engineer, motivational speaker, and corporate geek.

We discuss Lorenzo's past as an attorney in Texas, his first time trying MDMA, resorting to dealing MDMA to support a failing computer company being run out by IBM, psychedelics, the war on drugs and current drug laws, Terrence McKenna, Ram Dass, J. Krishnamurti and more.

@PsychedelicLozo on Twitter

Dr. Dan Wilson holds a PHD in molecular biology and hosts a YouTube channel called Debunk the Funk. His latest series called Debunking the Disinformation Dozen tackles a specific group of anti-vaxxers and covid-deniers who have been shown to produce 65% of all anti-vaccine misinformation posted online. He uses plain English and logic to examine various claims made on their videos and interviews.

We discuss conspiratorial thinking, science communication and literacy, rhetoric and debate techniques like gish galloping, the concept or defense of 'questioning things', we break down various myths and debunk specifically: the Wuhan lab leak theory, event 201, death certificates and doctors receiving extra funding to lie about death causes, co-morbidities, the 6% myth, should young healthy individuals get vaccinated and why, counter-factuals and examining consequences of taking no action against covid19, the concept of forced vaccines and vaccine passports, vaccine patents, past warnings of pandemics and warnings for future ones, among other topics.

Check out Dr. Wilson on twitter at: