TheESP – Ep. #461 – Orbán to go Barefoot?

Quite a few things to dive into this week: the Medici popes, some listener feedback, cool dinosaur tracks and some sad news from France. In TWISH we we have an epiphany and then we go through the news:

• NORWAY / UK: Who Believes in Alternative Medicine?
• RUSSIA: Cancer vaccine announced, with no published evidence
• UK: Over 40% of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medications while receiving anticancer treatment
• INTERNATIONAL: Another year of Retraction Watch being awesome! Want to work for and with them?
• INTERNATIONAL: Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo
• HUNGARY: Viktor Orbán travels to India, posts photo with Ayurvedic guru

Several Hungarian organizations close to the government signs up with IFTCC who claims that banning conversion therapy is a threat to human rights – can you be more Really Wrong?

Enjoy!

Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Outtakes
 
0:00:27 INTRO

0:00:51 GREETINGS

• Those Medici popes…
• Listener feedback
  • Sage Journals: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0957926521992156
• Cool science: Biggest trackway of dinosaur footprints found in Oxfordshire quarry
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/02/large-dinosaur-footprints-oxfordshire-quarry-cetiosaurus-megalosaurus
• Prominent French skeptic Marcel-Francis Kahn dies at age 95
  • AFIS: https://www.afis.org/Marcel-Francis-Kahn-1929-2024

0:17:18 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 6 January: Epiphany and the Italian tradition of Befana
  • Catholic News Agency: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/35171/the-history-of-the-epiphany-heres-what-you-need-to-know

0:27:54 NEWS

• NORWAY / UK: Who Believes in Alternative Medicine?
  • Scientific Research Publishing: https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=138360
• RUSSIA: Cancer vaccine announced, with no published evidence
  • Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/12/23/cancer-vaccine-russia-results/
• UK: Over 40% of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medications while receiving anticancer treatment
  • BMJ: https://ejhp.bmj.com/content/early/2024/12/30/ejhpharm-2024-004264
• INTERNATIONAL: Another year of Retraction Watch being awesome! Want to work for and with them?
  • Retraction Watch: https://retractionwatch.com/2024/12/26/a-look-back-at-2024-at-retraction-watch-and-forward-to-2025/
  • Retraction Watch: https://retractionwatch.com/2025/01/02/introducing-the-retraction-watch-sleuth-in-residence-program/
• INTERNATIONAL: Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo
  • Science Magazine: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq7280
  • Omni: https://tt.omni.se/forsvunna-moln-kan-ligga-bakom-mystisk-varme/a/LMqWlJ
• HUNGARY: Viktor Orbán travels to India, posts photo with Ayurvedic guru
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hadhazyakos/posts/pfbid053JueNfrGyiZChHhtM61xqnakPNkeEbzKK7JkNoZSQnG5pzVdqxwfP6yAina6pbol
  • Hungary Today: https://hungarytoday.hu/viktor-orban-travels-to-an-exotic-country-during-annual-holidays/

0:57:21 REALLY WRONG

• Really Wrong: Hungarian government-affiliated organizations support the IFTCC who claims that banning ‘conversion therapy’ would infringe human rights and freedoms
  • IFTCC: https://iftcc.org/
  • Lakmusz: https://www.lakmusz.hu/ok-hirdetik-magyarorszagon-hogy-a-melegseg-gyogyithato/

1:04:59 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.”
/ Sherlock Holmes, fictional character, allegedly born on 6 Jan 1854. The quote is from the book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called A Scandal in Bohemia. /

1:06:37 OUTRO

1:07:52 OUT-TAKES