For over 30 years Matthew Chapman, the great, great grandson of
Charles Darwin has written and directed major motion pictures, as well
as authoring notable books of his own on the topic of evolution -
"Trials of the Monkey - An Accidental Memoir",  and "40 Days and 40
Nights - Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other
Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania".

This week on Skepticality, Derek talks with Matthew Chapman about his
soon to be released independent film "The Ledge" (starring Liv Tyler
and Terrence Howard), in which a battle of philosophies between a
fundamentalist Christian and an atheist escalates into a lethal battle
of wills.

As the international skeptical community gears up for another season
of conferences presented by established groups like The Skeptics
Society's Science Symposium, The James Randi Educational Foundation's
Amazing Meeting, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's CSICon, a
new generation of skeptics are also finding the critical thinking
movement in their own back yards at local meet ups called Skepticamps,
which are community driven, informal "un-conferences" borne from the
desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.

This week on Skepticality, Derek and Swoopy report from Atlanta
Skepticamp 2011 and share one of this year's Skepticamp talks by
Skeptic History contributor Tim Farley appropriately entitled "Don't
Start a Blog or Podcast", on the topic of how to handle the vast
amount of skeptical content created by blogs and podcasts, and how to
stand out if you decide you do decide to jump into the fray.

Over the past 30 years, Skeptics Society founder Dr. Michael Shermer has questioned how and why humans believe what we do in all aspects of our lives—from our suspicions and superstitions to our politics, economics and social beliefs.

This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Dr. Shermer about his new book, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, a compendium of the research and neuroscience that reveals how our brains evolved to connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen and ultimately why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not our beliefs are based in reality.

In 1765, the author of an anonymous article in a French Enlightenment periodical spoke of "The general love of humanity ... a virtue hitherto quite nameless among us, and which we will venture to call ‘humanism’, for the time has come to create a word for such a beautiful and necessary thing."

Today on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with author and Humanist Jennifer Hancock about her book, "The Humanist Approach to Happiness", a practical guide to living an ethical, compassionate and happy life that outlines critical thinking and common sense human solutions to everyday human problems.

Skeptics are well versed in the many tools of the trade used by charlatans and hucksters to defraud their unwitting victims. Some of these same tools - elicitation, pretexting, influence and manipulation to name a few - are also used by hackers, spies and identity thieves to obtain information.

This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Christopher Hadnagy, author of "Social Engineering, The Art of Human Hacking" which not only examines the maneuvers and the science behind them that are aimed at deceiving unsuspecting victims, but also addresses ways to reduce our own susceptibility to the hackers and security threats in our every day lives.

On this special bonus episode of Skepticality, celebrating the eve before the final launch of the Space Shuttle "Endeavour", Swoopy catches up with author Mary Roach whose best-selling book "Packing For Mars" was recently released in paperback.

Each year 45 million Americans diet to lose weight, spending $33 billion on weight-loss products - and yet, 68 percent of Americans are now classified as overweight or obese. If the prescription to eat less and exercise more, or maintaining a calorie deficit is all it takes to lose or maintain a healthy weight, why are so many of us fat and getting fatter?

This week on "Skepticality", Swoopy talks with award-winning science journalist Gary Taubes about his most recent book, "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" which looks critically at the science of adiposity, the hundreds of years of scientific research and data about the best ways to avoid obesity and obesity related illness, and debunks the myth that losing weight is all about the calories.

The 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which devastated Japan on March 11th, 2011 is being reported as one of the five most powerful earthquakes since seismological records began being kept in 1900.  The awesome destructive power of our constantly changing world is highlighted by these kinds of disasters on a fairly regular basis, but does the understanding of when and how these events may happen change the way humans are choosing to live on dangerous planet earth? 

This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Dr. Donald R. Prothero, professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and a lecturer in geobiology at Caltech about his new book "Catastrophes! Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and other Earth-Shattering Disasters" which discusses not only the dangers we face from geographical challenges but also those that affect us all: overpopulation and global climate change.

What was it about iTunes that changed the way we buy music? What inspires people to donate to causes online, and what factors make the game Angry Birds so addicting?

This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Charles L. Mauro, a Certified Human Factors Engineering Professional and founder of MauroNewMedia, which has pioneered groundbreaking research on how we consume and respond to media (including television, web, mobile and virual platforms), how we engage in social networking, and even why sometimes we can't seem to stop.

"Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism - and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency." - Stephen Jay Gould 

Of the scientists who have left their mark on science, skepticism and indeed the Skeptic's Society, few are more quotable or thought-provoking than the late evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould. This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Richard York, co-author (with Brett Clark) of The Science and Humanism of Stephen Jay Gould. This new book offers a unique look at Gould not only as a paleontologist and evolutionary theorist, but also as a humanist and one of the most prolific science historians of our time.