This week and from now on, you can now listen to us on Spotify too!If you do, this episode will tell you about how Lamarck, born today 275 years ago, got it wrong about evolution but also was somewhat on the right track, more than 60 years before Darwin.Pope Francis is starting to sound more and more like this week’s quote supplier, George Orwell, and in EU the fight may be forming against the bad rules about CRISPR.Facebook and Twitter want to fight bogus medical cures, but it seems that some quacks are already using that fact to their advantage. In Italy, new numbers tell us that they do not seem to be able to get to grips with their low vaccination rates.Finally, there’s a tragic story in progress concerning the current miss Europe who is promoting made-up treatments for her cancer. She is claiming that it works, which of course is bound to mislead lots of others to make the same mistake.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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

This week Andras interviewed Sander van der Linden, who is a social psychologist and has done extensive research into how we should approach the fight against fake news and the spreading of misinformation about climate change, vaccinations and all sorts of popular social issues by applying prebunking instead of debunking. He and his team at Cambridge have developed a tool that can be used to inoculate people against psychological manipulations and it goes by the name 'Bad News'.

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

This week we celebrate Britt Hermes’ lawsuit victory and that Annika got married (yay!) and urge everyone top make plans for ESC in Belgium – there’s still time to get your tickets! We hear about celebrated scientist and skeptic David Colquhoun and we get into how the term ‘Religious Liberty’ is so misunderstood and misused by the church.András gives us a special interview with Heather and Mark Pentler of the Edinburgh Skeptics who reveal all about the upcoming Skeptics in the Fringe in August.In the news it is formally confirmed that France is stopping public funding for homeopathy and there are signs that Germany may go the same way. HPV vaccinations get included also for boys in the UK, same sex marriages and abortions get allowed in Northern Ireland (upon time). The WHO releases a report that shows that we have not improved global vaccination rates in the last 8 years, but we learn in other news at least that measles vaccinations will now become mandatory in Germany. Finally, ‘psychic healer’ Jeanette Wilson gets a Really Wrong award for her current tour of the UK and for her stupid nonsense in general.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Interview; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

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

This week while Pontus is away, we talk to Andreas Kyriacou from Switzerland about Camp Quest Switzerland before moving on to other events, IQ testing and a lot more, including a German petition to hold CAM practices to the same standards as real medicine, how the Hungarian Academy of Science is being killed off by Viktor Orban's government, legal action against a science writer in Ireland, the situation of SCAM in Switzerland and Facebook trying to tackle the ever-growing issue of deep fake videos.

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

This week Jelena discloses the location of her new place to live - and it's far away! Then we hear about how Pasteur would not have been even close to pass today’s ethical guidelines when he tested his rabies vaccine, that the Catholic Church will discuss marriage for priests but rather walk out of the game than play football against pro-choice opponents.A huge meta-analysis covering 60 million people clearly shows the benefits of HPV vaccinations, the Good Thinking Society needs our help in challenging the PSA over homeopathy accreditation and France will stop funding homeopathy which directly hits the finances of Boiron.A much-publicized study is very premature in claiming that there is a link between microbiomes and autism, Iceland recognizes the need to allow for gender neutral names and absurdly under the legal system in Sweden, your man gets a milder sentence for beating you, if it turns out you have "provoked him" by being unfaithful.Finally, apropos Prince Charles’ latest endorsement of homeopathy, Pontus goes on a rant against monarchy and hands him a Really Wrong award.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; GSOW Radio Spot; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeTo listen and see show notes go to: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-177.html

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

This week we clarify the difference between a ‘skeptic’ and a ‘denier’ when it comes to climate change and plug the Rationalist International Conference (Cambridge, 27-28 July) before Jelena debunks the myth that an American businessman once got tricked into buying Tower Bridge in London.In a special interview we talk to Fernando Cervera, one of the founders behind the European manifesto against pseudo-therapies.Pontus pokes the pope for the way the Catholic Church keep screwing (pun intended) their congregations.Then we get a new segment, ‘Annika Reports!’, where she interviews speaker and archaeologist Mirko Gutjahr at Cologne Skeptics in the Pub.In the news this week, we have the results from the world’s biggest study of vaccine attitudes, UK holidaymakers are warned to get vaccinated before visiting Europe and a Spanish doctor is suspended for promoting the old myth that vaccines cause autism.Finally, we hand out over a million Really Wrong awards(!) to everyone that have signed Boiron’s desperate petition to keep public funding in France for useless homeopathy.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Interview with Fernando Cervera; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Annika Reports!; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-176.html

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

This week we remember Willem (‘Wim’) Betz, the iconic Belgian physician, researcher and skeptic, co-founder of SKEPP (Belgian Skeptic Organisation) and CSICOP fellow, who sadly passed away on 8 June.Pontus reports his experiences at the big political event in Stockholm last week (Järvaveckan) and then Jelena talks about the life and times of William Crookes, who was a brilliant scientist, but also a believer in paranormal phenomena.When Pontus pokes the Pope, we find that Pride month is not for the Vatican, who felt the need to issue a 31-page document to say that trans people ‘annihilate the concept of nature’. We then enjoy the three remaining SkepKon interviews by Annika Merkelbach.In the news this week, the German minister of health takes a stand against ‘gay conversion therapy’; we urge scientists, researchers and medical practitioners to sign the manifesto against pseudotherapies and a Swedish on-line casino gets its license revoked for taking unfair advantage of their customers. Zotaro teams up with Retraction Watch to alert people about retracted studies, homeopathy seems about to be losing funding in France, and Snopes debunks the claim that Facebook’s Shake-and-Report function leads to people being banned on Facebook. Anti-abortion sentiments are spreading to Europe from the US and the Italian parents who treated their boy with homeopathy get convicted in court.To rap it all up, we strongly disagree with the ‘Brilliant Minds’ Foundation that apparently believes that Gwyneth Paltrow has one…Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Interviews from SkepKon; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-175.html

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

This week András sticks his neck out, announcing that he will give a talk at the upcoming CICAP Fest in Padua in September - in Italian!We then learn about Margherita Hack who was a formidable Italian astronomer, skeptic and co-founder CICAP, we hear more interviews from SkepKon, curtesy of special correspondent Annika Merkelbach and hear how Cardinal Pell is trying to get out of his legal problem while Francis are creating new ones. Meanwhile the Vatican has spent a fortune to stop legal protection of child abuse victims in the US.Britt Hermes has won her court case (yay!), Sweden has a big public debate regarding the future of religious free-schools and there is a promising Hungarian initiative to get critical thinking into the education system.Several UK papers foolishly repeat nonsense from social media about a young woman’s death in the Netherlands, we push for the Fight-the-Fake campaign and celebrate that a fellow skeptic has been elected into the Danish parliament (‘Folketinget’).Finally, the Polish minister of Agriculture promotes eating beaver, which sounds so much better than it is…Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Interviews from SkepKon; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-174.html

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

This week we catch up a bit regarding VoF (the Swedish skeptics) and talk about a new Manifesto against pseudoscientific treatments. We also get a bit nostalgic about a UK referendum about Europe - in 1975.Then we get two interviews from SkepKon by our special correspondent on the ground, Annika Merkelbach. We check in with Francis who has been in Romania and also apparently is happy to cultivate his future legacy as the ‘tender’ pope.Sense About Science calls for volunteers for their Evidence Week, Amazon, Facebook and Youtube take a stance against MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution) and other dangerous nonsense, and University of Vienna makes an effort to repair its past endorsement of homeopathy. More news about Natalie Grams and the (totally bogus) legal threat she is facing and also that her organisation, Information Network on Homeopathy, has launched a repository of excellent information in English.The fake cancer drug Rigvir has now been de-registered by the State Agency of Medicines (ZVA), but some forces are still pushing for future distribution. In Belgium a consumer protection organisation speaks up against homeopathy, before we end by giving a Really Wrong award to Keele University for keeping a an anti-vaxxer and bad researcher on their payroll.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Interviews from SkepKon; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-173.html

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

In this week’s episode we have some remarks about the EU Elections, before we hear about the Beringer hoax and his lying stones. The pope has outrageous views on abortions and thinks that women and unborn foetuses must suffer for God.The measles situation is getting even worse than we could imagine with cases more than tripling in the EU. The EU elections predictably brought a new high to fake news on social media and we find yet another example that proves that religious schools is a really bad idea. We have an update on last week’s Rigvir interview with Austra, Natalie Grams is threatened by legal attack and yes, we were right – the Voynich manuscript is still a mystery.When end with more abortion news when we give a Really Wrong award to Swedish Christian Democrats.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-172.html

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