Interview

Interview with Kirill Alferov, founder of the Russian Skeptic Society, host of the Skeptic podcast and chief organiser of the first Skeptic Society Conference in Moscow in 2014.
 
Segments:
Intro; Listener feedback; On this day; What’s on in Europe?; What’s new in Europe?; Interview with Kirill Alferov; Logical Fallacies; Interview with Melissa Highton; Really Wrong; Quote
 
Show notes and segment details:
00:00:00
INTRO music

00:00:24
Introduction and greetings

00:00:54
Listener feedback, etc.

• Edzard Ernst: Medical emergencies over Christmas: yet again, homeopaths prevent the worst
• The Stats Guy: Detox: it’s all a con

00:15:40
Overview of the podcast

00:17:48
On This Day – Died on 30th Dec: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

• Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin on Wikipedia

00:25:04
What’s on in Europe:

PAST

1. ComCept 2ndSolstice Conference – Freemasonry (Lisbon, Portugal, 19/12/2015) Conference website (in Portuguese)

FUTURE

1. Czech Skeptics’ Club (Sisyfos) announces 13th Skepticon in Příbram, Czech Republic (20-22 May 2016) 
   • Announcement on the organisation’s website (in Czech)
2. QED – Question, Explore, Discover to be held in Manchester, UK (14-16 October 2016)
   • Conference website
   • About QED on Wikipedia

00:29:08
What’s new in Europe?

1. Supplement VitaePro (Norway) exposed as unnecessary, expensive and potentially dangerous
   • Article in Expressen (in Swedish)
2. Stephen Hawking launches award for Science Communication bearing his name
   • TechTimes: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/117762/20151218/stephen-hawking-launches-award-for-science-communication-bearing-his-name.htm
3. Spanish scientists condemn pseudoscience in medicine
   • El País: Opinión – Contra las pseudociencias y las artes mágicas (in Spanish)
   • Change.org: Petition – Contra Las Pseudosciencias Y Las Terapias Mágicas (in Spanish)
   • Queryonline.it: Il comunicato degli scienziati spagnoli contro le pseudoscienze mediche (in Italian)
4. Swedish Government decides to give Antroposophical “remedies” another six months exception from regulation
   • Dagens Medicin (in Swedish)
5. Holiday Feasts across Europe: Poppy seeds and drug tests
   • Snopes.com: Seeded Results
   • Todayifoundout.com: Can Eating Poppy Seeds Really Cause You to Fail a Drug Test?
   • MythBusters: Poppy Seed Drug Test MiniMyth
   • Poppy seed on Wikipedia

00:40:25
Interview with Kirill Alferov, founder of the Russian Skeptic Society, host of the Skeptic podcast and chief organiser of the first Skeptic Society Conference in Moscow in 2014.

• Skeptic Society on Wikipedia
• Kirill Alferov on LinkedIn

01:13:50
Logical Fallacies: Argument from authority

• Argumentum ad verecundiam on Wikipedia
• Appeal to authority on YourLogicalFallacyIs.com
• Appeal to authority on LogicallyFallacious.com

01:17:59
Interview with Melissa Highton, Director of the Learning, Teaching and Web services division at the University of Edinburgh

• Melissa Highton’s page at the University of Edinburgh’s website

01:30:48
Really Wrong: Pope Francis announces that Mother Teresa is to be canonized.

• Slate: Mommie Dearest
• Mother Teresa on Wikipedia
• Criticism of Mother Teresa on Wikipedia

01:35:17
Quote
“William James used to preach the “will to believe”. For my part, I should wish to preach the “will to doubt” […] what is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.”
 
/Bertrand Russell: Skeptical Essays, 1928/

01:36:19
Outro

01:37:48
Out-takes