Archive

- also be prepared for next year's Christmas! We start by reflecting on Putin's "war" against Ukraine now that he (by accident?) admitted that that is what it is. In TWISH we hear ...

- however, the other 1063 predictions failed This week all the hosts are back from their adventures in foreign lands to record just before Christmas. We revisit the topic of Twitter and we ...

- with an interview with Ralf Neugebauer! This week in Pontus' absence we lament overt the possible future of Twitter and the stupidity behind the Reichsbürger movement before being joint by Ralf Neugebauer ...

- with the Bent Spoon Award & a happy birthday to VoF! We start by exploring the anthroposophic connections of the Griffins, the founders of Canberra, then move on to celebrate the 40th ...

- Brisbane Skeptics in the Pub! Our two-week long tour to Australia is soon coming to an end, but we have been lucky enough to be welcomed by lovely people in Sydney, Melbourne, ...

- Sydney Skeptics in the Pub!
Our two-week long tour to Australia has begun, the main event of which will be the Australian Skeptics National Convention (SkeptiCon) in Canberra between 3rd and 4th ...

- plus, the Princess who will never be Queen - and why that's a good thing
Should we all abandon Twitter and move to Mastodon? Call us contrarians, but we'll wait and see! ...

- Czech / Slovak Skeptical TV-series 'Investigátori' renewed for second season!
The gang is reunited and there's so much to talk about - memories of QED, the Ockham Award, the Rusty Razor and ...

- Claire and Brian joins us, while Luna fills in for András
As we are joined by Claire Kroulik-Klingenberg and Brian Eggo, Luna steps up to fill the shoes of András who to ...

- and BTW, Elvis really has left the building - no matter what psychic mediums say
This week we first chat about a "psychic medium" who is friendly with Elvis and touch on ...

- and get your flu shot, people!
This week the full crew is back and we urge you to take the flu seriously. We recommend a video of a presentation by Germany skeptic ...

- Lauterbach takes on pseudoscience
Brian Eggo steps in to save the day as he covers for both András and Annika this week. We talk about listener reactions to last week's episode and ...

- we're back in the Dark Ages
We start this week with commenting on the winners of the two first Nobel Prizes this year - Svante Pääbo who won the prize in Medicine ...

- don't listen to the fish and chips physician
This week we have several things to get through before the actual show - the Swedish Skeptics at the international book fair in Gothenburg, ...

- Frankie has found his own 007!
This week we reveal further plans about our travels and about Skepticamp at QED. We also have listener feedback about air quality in planes regarding last ...

With Eggman at the helm, we close the year
We hear about Brian's adventures at "Scotland's most haunted hotel", hear about the passing of biologist EO Wilson and rejoice at the (so far) ...

Who was that Jesus-guy anyway?
We get into the holiday season even as Sweden, Italy and other countries implement new covid measures. In TWISH we try to sort out if and when Jesus ...

Also, Santa is not real and Annika pokes Christmas trees
The Ockham Awards have been announced, ESA helps a Chinese rover and the Belgian Skeptics, SKEPP, finally wins against a SLAPP*) suit filed ...

Also, Pope Francis is a heretic
It's farewell to Jens Spahn and welcome to the new German health minister Karl Lauterbach - will he be the one to defund homeopathy? Let's hope so! ...

Conspiracy theories are hazardous to your health
In this episode we first reflect a little over the new governments in Germany and Sweden. Pontus had Richard Saunders (of the Skeptic Zone fame) at ...

We're back in the saddle for another 300!
Before we start today we reflect on the COP26 fiasco, celebrate the recent golden thin-foil hat award and the Russians' latest adventures in space. Also ...

And if you didn't know, Luna can be a bit of a Drongo
For six years and 300 episodes we've been doing this, and we won't stop anytime soon! In this week's special ...

“If it looks like medicine, but it has ‘supplement’ written on it, it’s fraud!”
In the episode we interview Petra Schling who is a biochemist and a teacher at the “Biochemie Zentrum” of ...

Also, it's time for some #Metoo in the Vatican...
This week we catch up with the fabulous Susan Gerbic whose Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia has hit a fantastic milestone. But we also have ...

Which pill would you take?
We start this week with handing Pontus a Really Wrong award for something he said last week. András is back and among other things he describes his experience ...

How hard can it be to get people to do the right thing?
We start out with some exiting news about Annika's upcoming online talk, a huge milestone for Susan Gerbic and Guerrilla ...

In this episode we interview the German astronomer and climate activist, Dr. Leonard (Leo) Burtscher. Leo is a staff scientist at the observatory of Leiden University as well as active in the German ...

Sixty years later, Captain Kirk is finally taking off
We're happy to report that a special meeting of ESP hosts took place in Frankfurt this week. In other news, the film industry is ...

Put it up your bum!
Are people losing their wits as covid restrictions are lifted? Elections and referendums are happening and András goes beyond spacetime in an upcoming book and this week marked ...

Radicalized anti-covid activists
After recent events in Germany and Italy we worry that anti-maskers now may be a terrorist threat. In This Week in Skepticism we hear about Jacob Grimm and the possibility ...

We are extremely happy to welcome the first ever ESP Skepti-baby! Annika and her newborn girl are doing very well and they send their regards to the listeners. Whoohoo! We spend the episode ...

This week we start by recommending a German Podcast Christmas Special, we report that Sucharit Bhaktdi won the Goldene Brett award and talk about the Saturn / Jupiter planetary conjunction. Pontus reports the ...

This week we talk about that alt-med and antivaxxers have been visible on TV and how a town in Austria had to change its rather unfortunate name. We celebrate the anniversary of the ...

This week we talk to Nikil Mukerji, a German author, philosopher and skeptic. He has a position at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and academic director of philosophy, politics and economy. He ...

This week we reflect a on the new vaccines that are coming. Annika sings(!) to celebrate the quiz performance of Pontus, Brian and Claire last week and then she tells us about ...

This week we celebrate 250 episodes and five years on the road with the ESP. We invited all guest hosts who ever have sat in for a show and they all joined us ...

This week Pontus is a bit under the weather so András and Annika send him their "thoughts and prayers" (don't worry, he is fine). Then we mention an interesting documentary about SCAM ...

This week we first chat a bit about Trump, having covid in your family and an opportunity to talk to Swedish MPs. We also mention the Vienna terror attacks and the Hay ...

This week we talk to Stephan Lewandowsky, professor of cognitive psychology and one of the drivers behind the Debunking Handbook 2020, the recently published follow-up to the previous debunking handbook from 2011. A ...

This week we remember James "the Amazing" Randi, a great skeptic and generous person who like no one else influenced the skeptic movement. His legacy lives on. We also reflect a bit ...

This week we notice the new I am Greta movie strangely so far is only in theaters and not online. Covid number are going up, especially in Germany where conspiracy theories are ...

This week we start by celebrating that several women received the Nobel Prize this year. Well deserved and a good trend! We also look at the latest Global warming news delivered by ...

This week we start by urging you to register nominations for the Ockham Awards, handled by The Skeptic. The deadline is 31 October. That's the same date that Skepsis in the Netherlands ...

This week we interview veterinarian Dr. Stefanie Handl from Vienna, Austria. Her special fields are nutrition and diets for pets. She is a member of the “Gesellschaft für kritisches Denken” (“Society for Critical ...

This week we first chat about András lending his voice acting skills to a sketch in the Skeptic Zone, Pontus teases the coming release of his sci-fi novel the Dooma and ...

This week we wrap up the year and wish all our listeners a Happy Holiday. We revisit something we got wrong about Das Goldene Brett last week and celebrate the birthday of Johannes ...

This week we start our journey towards episode 300 and first reflect on climate change with Greta Thunberg as Time Magazine's person of the year and Australia heading for a sever heatwave just ...

This week we celebrate our 200th episode and that we continue our journey into our fifth year! We re-unite with our first ever guest, Gábor Hraskó (president of the Hungarian Skeptics) to philosophize ...

This week Claire Kroulik-Klingenberg joins Jelena and Pontus for the 199th episode – we’re into our fifth year, folks! In This week in Skepticism, Jelena tells the story of how a young pre-Sherlock-Holmes ...

This week we have a very interesting interview with Lydia Finch, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness turned skeptic. As a sort of a follow-up from two weeks ago, we felt we wanted to dive a ...

This week we welcome Brian back for an unprecedented two-weeks-in-a-row appearance and then we dive into how the Piltdown Man hoax went undetected for many years, but was revealed this week 66 years ...

This week it’s the return of Brian(!) as we have sent András on a field trip to Malaysia. We celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Glasgow Skeptics and then explore signs that some ...

This week pope Francis is all talk and no show, there was a secret love affaire between a Cardinal and a Queen of Sweden in 1654 and Massimo Polidoro’s book Il Mondo Sottosopra ...

First: A big shout-out to fellow skeptics Claire and Jakub who are getting married on the day of the release of this episode! This week we learn about William Benjamin Carpenter, an early ...

This week we have a very interesting catch up with Ovidiu Covaciu who attended the International Global Vaccination Summit organised by the European Commission and the WHO. But before that we celebrate that ...

This week we first have a look to see if it was really the President of Finland who said he preferred reindeer to Trump before we congratulate the Spanish Skeptics for ceasing the ...

This week we declare that we’re fans of Brian Cox and we deliberate some more on the book ‘Shoot for the Moon’ by Richard Wiseman (see ep. 190) and how we can apply ...

This week we first have a brief follow-up on German Health Minister Jens Spahn’s failure do defund bogus homeopathy and how the IHN (Informationsnetzwerk Homöopathie) has published an open letter to the minister ...

This week we first hear from the fantastic Massimo Polidoro who tells all about CICAP Fest from two weeks ago. We then look forward to a new film which is a fictional tale ...

This week the team is all together at last! András us tells a bit about his adventures at the incredibly exiting CICAP Fest in Padua, more on this to follow next week. In ...

A bit of a different episode this week, released on the last day of the year to remind our listeners (and ourselves) of the most important things that happened in 2018. Lots of ...

Pontus and Andras host this slightly Christmas-themed episode with the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton and the New Style Calendar, Pope Francis promising no more sexual abuse cases covered up by the catholic ...

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On this Episode: This week Pontus and Jelena talks to German Science Communicator and Skeptic Julia Offe. Julia Offe has a PhD in molecular biology and is active within GWUP, the German Skeptics ...

Segments: Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Interview with Antonia de Oñate; News; Really Wrong; Farewell and Quote; Outro; Out-takes Show Notes: 00:00:55 Greetings 00:05:14 This Week in ...

This week our three hosts discuss a great number of things including how a delusional German physician got away with killing people, and how Pope Francis thinks right to tackle poverty. Loads of ...

On this Episode: On this week's episode Jelena and Andras interviews British biochemist, nutritionist, blogger, author and public speaker Pixie Turner, to talk about the science-based approach to healthy eating, dietary and lifestyle ...

András and Pontus join ranks to talk about Massimo Polidoro, Elsevier vs. open access and a film that drives Polish disapproval of the Catholic Church. Plus why people don't trust science and other ...

Join us to hear about Pope Francis' failing October synod, Galileo and how homeopathy is getting a really hard beating in Spain. In other news the Good Thinking Society fights Goop, EU tries ...

Segments: Intro; Greetings; Clash of the Candies; This Week in Skepticism; News; Pontus Pokes the Pope; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takes This episode is the first of its kind as it is ...

On this Episode: On this week's episode Jelena interviews Aron Ra - atheist activist, former president of Atheist Alliance of America, host of Ra-Men podcast. He is a current regional director of the ...

Segments: Intro; GreetingsThis Week in Skepticism; ; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takes This week we look at the history of the Ig Nobel Prize, try to find out (Spoiler alert: ...

On this Episode: This week we welcome Massimo Polidoro back to our show. This time he tells us about how the latest edition of CICAPFest went (it was a great success in Padova, ...

Segments: Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; News; Really Right; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Out-takes Claire Klingenberg sits in for András on this episode where the Pope blames the devil for revealing all ...

On this Episode: This week's episode features an interview that Andras recorded in Budapest with Canadian skeptic and host of The Reality Check podcast Darren McKee, who talks about Effective altruism and why ...

In our final episode for 2017 we look back at a skeptical year in Europe. We talk about smallpox, how measles continues to spread and how a prominent skeptic becomes head of the ...

On this episode: Segments Intro; Greetings; Interviews; Farewell; Song; Outro Show notes: 00:00:00 INTRO music 00:00:27 Greetings 00:07:12 Interview with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky about the Pro-Truth Pledge and why it is important ...

On this episode: We start with some corrections this week before we turn towards things like Nostradamus, vaccination rates in Romania, Peter Boghossian touring Europe, German Minister of Agriculture getting threats over glyphosate, ...

On this episode: Segments Intro; Greetings & Feedback; Interviews; Outro Show notes: 00:00:00 INTRO music 00:00:27 Greetings and Feedback Check out the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project at https://www.facebook.com/GSoWproject/ 00:09:12 Interview with Andreas ...

On this episode: The brilliant Brian Eggo ("Eggman") joins us from Glasgow as guest host and tells all about the Skeptics in the Pub movement in the world. Then we dig into Belgian ...

On this episode: Segments Intro; Greetings & Feedback; Interviews; Outro Show notes: 00:00:00 INTRO music 00:00:34 Greetings and Feedback We jump right into the interviews 00:03:52 Interview with Gábor Hraskó 00:13:43 Interview ...

On this episode: This week we talk about Massimo Polidoro’s new book, the latest Heinz Oberhummer Award and the origins of the Spanish skeptic movement, then move on to discuss Prince Charles who ...

On this episode: We check out Skepticism in Latvia with an interview with Austra Muizniece who talks about the Rigvir scam. We also get two shorter interviews from the Ratio Conference in Bulgaria: ...

On this episode: This week, while DenkFest and Ratio are both on, we release two interviews that Andras recorded in Zürich when they stopped there during the About Time Tour 2017 with Susan ...

A massive shout-out to Richard Saunders for dedicating such a great chunk of the latest episode of The Skeptic Zone Podcast to us winning the Ockham Awards 2017. Then you can listen to ...

This episode is a post QED show that features interviews with Rüdiger Ludwig from GWUP (German Skeptics), James Williams, Natalie Newell and Geoff Whelan. Segments Intro; Greetings & Feedback; Interviews from QED Show notes: ...

This episode is a post European Skeptics Congress show that features interviews with Eran Segev, president of Australian Skeptics Inc. and Martin Mahner, who runs the office of the German skeptical organisation, gwup | ...

On this episode: On this episode we have a guest: Claire Klingenberg, who was the chief organiser of ECS 2017 and is the newly elected chair of ECSO. Than we talk about Marie Stopes ...

We are checking in from Wroclaw, where we attended the 17th European Skeptics Congress and recorded a show sitting in a hotel room together. You can listen to a couple of our short interviews ...

On this episode: Before we head out to the 17th European Skeptics Congress, we bring you news from Germany, Denmark, Italy and the UK, talk about Sigmun Freud and his weird theories. We try ...

This is a Christmas-themed episode with even a few events to talk about. Check it out! Segments: Intro; Greetings & Feedback; What’s On In Europe?; Really Wrong; True or False?; Quote: Outro; Out-takes Show ...

This time we talk events, quacks, Christmas, the PISA test, how skeptics sometimes get it wrong, how widespread the belief in alternative medicine is in Hungary and so much more. Segments Intro; Greetings & ...

This is a shorter episode with no long interview, but 3 shorter ones, along with the usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week. The last run of QED reports ...

This time our team is joined by foreign liaison of the Czech Skeptics Club Sisyfos, Claire Klingenberg who talks about the 17th European Skeptics Congress. Then we talk events, quacks, UFOs, OpenTrialsFDA, Santa and much ...

Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our interview with former naturopath Britt Hermes who recently received the 2016 Ockham's Award ...

On this episode, you'll find news, events and interesting topics, including Skepsis, the Norwegian skeptical organisation revitalised, the status of homeopathy in the Czech Republic, AllTrials starts TrialsTracker, an automated tool to find unpublished ...

Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our interview with parapsychology professor Chris French. You can also listen to three short interviews ...

On this episode, you'll find news, events and interesting topics, including 1023 in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany, Edzard Ernst's new book, The Golden Board 2016 Awards in Germany, unlicensed blood drug for ...

Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our interview with science educator, author, journalist and founder of the Good Thinking Society, ...

This show is a special QED & Skepticamp report combined with some of the usual segments featured on odd-numbered episodes. We talked about the highlights of this wonderful festival of rationalism in Manchester, as ...

We recorded this show at QED - Question. Explore. Discover. in Manchester, UK. Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our ...

On this episode, you'll find news, events and interesting topics, including QED, Rosetta, ComCept officially instituted, ECSO website launched, The Good Thinking Society winning another battle, Spanish pharmacists taking action against selling homeopathy, Swedish ...

Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our interview with ex homeopath Dr Natalie Grams, who's the founder and leader of ...

On this episode, you'll find news, events and interesting topics, including Nessie, Bayer buying Monsanto, the European Skeptics Congress Facebook page launched, as well as Paul VI’s legacy, the Good Thinking Society pushing the ...

Along with a usual run-through of feedback and events across Europe in the coming week, this episode is dedicated to our interview with skeptical blogger, podcaster and science educator Isil Arican, who's the founder ...