The European Skeptics Podcast

In this week's episode we announce the winner of our SkepKon raffle! We also invite you to take GapMinder's test to see how well you know the state of the world before we catch up with Alice and Laurie from the Merseyside Skeptics who tell us all about their upcoming 10 year celebration: MSSX on 6 July. You should go!This week 36 years ago, Stern Magazine had to admit that the Hitler diaries they had spent 19 million marks on were fake.Pope Francis is being accused of heresy by Catholic priests and Pontus is trying to see the papal future.In the news we report that GWUP's skeptical Heinz Oberhummer award goes to "No Such Thing as a Fish", that Sweden has NOT banned mandatory vaccinations and that you can already now start nominating candidates for the Flying Unicorn Awards in Portugal.We also learn from a study by Glasgow University just how bad it is to take diet and health advice for Twitter (just don't!).Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wron

This week we first discuss the scientific method and remember Louis Pasteur, plus we anticipate Pope Francis’ upcoming Vatican revolution.Then in the news we talk about Ukraine election results, a homeopathic remedy that got “The Mom’s Choice Award” and how 170 million children lack protection from measles. A Portuguese pilot project gets flu vaccinations a boost (pun intended), we welcome a new German speaking Skeptic Youtube channel, look at the trend of religiousness going down in Spain and how electric cars are the future even though some people want you to believe otherwise.We close by shaming old people who get their knickers in a knot because of Greta Thunberg.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; 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 we discuss the Notre-Dame fire before we celebrate this week’s icon, the Hungarian astronomer and skeptic Iván Almár. The Measles epidemic is getting even worse with the WHO showing a 300% global increase so far this year, Metabiota has launched a new website for tracking epidemics, Anthroposophs claim to be for vaccinations but they’re really not and the Hungarian government wants to control Facebook.Also, the “Finns party” switches to a new conspiracy theory when the old one is not attractive enough, MMR vaccine does NOT cause diabetes and Brussels thinks 5G testing is using people as Guinea pigs. We learn (again) that stop eating sugar does not cure cancer and we give a shout out to Portuguese skeptics ComCept that are now on Patreon.We close the show by saluting one of the champions of keeping the Internet a little bit saner: Snopes.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we celebrate the first picture of a black hole, Samuel Hahnemann’s birthday and the fact that we can poke two Popes in one week. HPV vaccination is shown to really work, a Spanish Bishop sells gay ‘cure’ courses, babies cannot live on sunshine and laughter and in Hungary you better follow the vaccination schedule for your child.Also: Fines for Jehovah's Witnesses, Edzard Ernst goes to a SCAM conference, Norwegian government anonymizes job applications and NHS in the UK takes further steps against homeopathy.Finally, it turns out that Scotland has some strange rules that give the church a bypass on democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we talk about some great April Fools’ pranks, we look at the Vatican’s new child abuse law, mumps outbreak in Madrid, climate change models being validated in new observations. We get a first report on why the fake cancer cure Rigvir is being banned (look out for more Rigvir news in the future), we look at how Catholic priests are burning books in Poland, how there’s a battle between Russian homeopaths and skeptics and whether the recent Swedish CAM inquiry is good news or not. The French academies of Medicine and Pharmacy have suddenly discovered that homeopathy is not a thing, Portuguese Skeptics COMCEPT has presented this year’s Unicorn Awards and the new Italian government again demonstrates that they are anti-science. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we welcome Annika Merkelbach from Germany back to the show to talk about the upcoming skeptical convention SkepKon, GSoW and her series of interviews on Skeptical Inquirer's website.We also talk about the European Skeptics Congress to be held in Ghent the end of August, plus lots of news items and topics to mention include:The Cancer Act 1939 of the UK, the latest wrongdoings of the Vatican, an Italian politician who's been opposing mandatory vaccination being hospitalised with chicken pox, the death of HPV vaccine campaigner Laura Brennen and how her campaign must have saved a lot of lives, plagiarism made illegal in Montenegro after a long and interesting battle with the problem, an email by a listener bringing hope in the fight against bogus claims asking for support on Indiegogo, students in Oxford petitioning for climate change to be made a core part of the national curriculum in the UK, Holm Gero Hümmler's new book on conspiracy theories and Jehova's witnesses being under attack by authorities

This week we bring you topics and news about SkepKon in Germany and the 38th Anniversary of the premier of Quark, Italy's most famous science show hosted by Piero Angela.Plus we talk about abuse in Poland by catholic priests and Pius XII being referred to as Hitler's pope, how the supplement market is full of bogus claims, the Swedish National Library publishing the cost of accessing scientific studies, how the rise of both vaccine hesitancy and populism might be connected, an update on the state of the measles epidemic in Europe, the UK government promising a national strategy to tackle the lack of clinical trial reporting.Plus, blasphemy laws accross Europe discussed after Femen protesters' case hits the news in Spain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No shortage of interesting topics after two interview episodes in a row!In this episode: ‘canali’ on Mars (or rather not), we catch up on the Pope and especially Cardinal Pell, a huge study that disproves the link between vaccines and autism, Amazon and Facebook take a stand against anti-vaccers, successful Swedish fights against colloidal silver and anthroposophy, the Hungarian government stabs science in the back, Elsevier gets further pushback on their outrageous pricing models and Hungarian pharmacies will inform all customers that homeopathic preparations have not effect.Plus, by mistake or divine intervention, The Daily Mail publishes a scientifically correct article!Leonardo da Vinci sends us off by reminding us that even 500 years ago, some people realised how necessary it is to conduct experiments.Segments: Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Right; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva

We catch up with Pixie Turner who has just released "The No Need to Diet Book". She tells us all about the book, how most people has an unhealthy view on food and how we can become a little more relaxed about this. The book explains the reasons why diets and over exercising don't work; the problems with eating for aesthetic goals; the science behind orthorexia, food anxieties and emotional eating, and other unhealthy habits formed by misinformation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're joined by Jay Novella for an interview in which we talk about his new position as a full-time employee of SGU Productions, what it means for the movement and The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe project, how to approach podcasting and other ventures, stuff about writing a skeptical book that hits best-seller lists and a lot of other things including Star Trek and the crew's fun-filled side project, Alpha Quadrant 6. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the abscence of Pontus, Jelena and Andras are joined by Brian Eggo to bring you a new show full of news and interesting topics including two events coming up (SkepKon 2019 in Germany and the 3rd Symposium on Science and Pseudoscience in Elche).We also talk about the British Parliament's Science and Technology Committee's milestone Evidence Check documents that is now part of skeptical history, then we move on to discussing Hungary's PM Viktor Orban and how EU leaders now simply call his anti-migration and anti-Soros propaganda "Fake News" while he continues to break down the institutions of science in the country. We also chat about Edzard Ernst's recommendation for a skeptical analysis in general and then bring the good news of a German court ruling against a SCAM practitioner for using false claims in their advertisements.The Really Wrong price goes to the Catholic Church for being sloppy in their investigations regarding miracles performed by their saints. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

We bring you news and stories from the world of skepticism again this week, including:Rosalind Franklin's namesake rover to go to Mars to look for traces of life, Philippe de Cherisey and the Priory of Sion hoax, a lying pope, a German court rejecting a claim for CAM to be offered as part of a benefit system, Goop to come to Netflix, causing outrage among skeptics, "Vaxxed II - The People's Truth" on its way to make things even worse, while the measles epidemic goes truly global. Meanwhile, German researchers prove that it doesn't matter whether you drink wine or beer first, the result is the same (if you drink enough). And finally, fanatically religious Spanish citizens stopping the setup of a statue of the devil... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The band is back together for a new week of skeptical reports.On this week: Oliver Lodge did not manage to prove psychics right, Pope Francis still believes in celibacy (although his priests do not seem to), Natalie Grams is awarded Die Goldenen Blogger Prize, PSIRAM starts a skeptical blog series, Merseyside Skeptics celebrates 10 years in July and Spanish researchers (nobody expects the Spanish researchers!) tries to convince us about homeopathy.Meanwhile, nobody has noticed(!) that the Macchiarini investigation has gone missing.Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we bring you lots news and topics from across Europe including Annika Merkelbach's interview on Skeptical Inquirer's website with Natalie Grams, whose book has just been published in English, Edzard Ersnt' birthday, a praying application issued by the Vatican called "Click to Pray", the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to deal with reported non-reportings of clinical trials, a great achievement by Ben Goldacre and the AllTrials campaign (one of the great projects of Sense about Science), how 1 on 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust actually happened, a Spanish report estimating deaths by pseudotherapies, BARF - special food for your pets as part of the raw food movement, a dangerous book just published with the title 'Healing Cancer: A Homeopathic Approach', the Ministry of Health in Ukraine finally taking action to tackle the measles epidemic in the country and the Swedish government deciding to finally include Chicken pox vaccinations in the national program. Hosted

This week we're back to bring you news and info about a wide range of topics including Francis Bacon and his importance in the development of science, how the 'good pope' John Paul II was a misogynist, why we admire the works of Sense about Science so much and how they came up with yet another campaign that deserves much attention ('Evidence Hunter Activity Pack'), how facilitated communication is a thing in Sweden despite all the evidence that suggests it does not work at all, why we should be cautious with consuming probiotics, plus SkepKon, the German annual conference for skeptics is coming up, while a Swedish acupuncturist is on trial for almost killing two patients and the county of Killarney in Ireland calls to remove fluoride from drinking water, despite the lack of any indications that it could be harmful (while its benefits are many). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We interview Turi Munthe, the creator of a new web site aiming to "map the World's opinions".In 2008, Turi launched Demotix - born as a global free-speech platform, it became the largest network of photojournalists in the world and exited to Bill Gates’ Corbis. He now runs a Venture Capital with a focus on media and media tech, and sits on the boards of Index on Censorship, OpenDemocracy and The Signals Network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the first episode of the year 2019, with the team together again, we are bringing you topics related to the New Year, including resolutions and hangovers, plus some science history and how James Ussher determined the age of the world (incorrectly), how Pope Francis tries to talk about families when the church is in turmoil over sex abuse scandals, a design company standing up for science in Italy, where the resigning head of the National Institute of Health slams the anti-science government, organ donation becoming opt-out in Ireland, Natalie Grams getting a nomination for the Golden Blogger award with her Twitter account, a new petition to sue French government over inaction on Climate change, Edzard Ernst's new book SCAM coming out in German, a new Spanish award for standing up for Science, an update on Measles and VoF announcing winners of the Enlightener and Bewilderer of the Year awards. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A bit of a different episode this week, released on the last day of the year to remind the listeners (and ourselves) of the most important things that happened in 2018. Lots of interesting stuff and also what to look forward to in 2019.We wish you all a really Happy New Year, and we’ll be seeing you!Segments:Intro; Greetings; Checking in with András; Woo in 2018; Skeptical initiatives 2018; Skeptical Awards 2018; QED; The ESP highlights of 2018; Outro; Out-takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 church, CICAP launching a new chapter in Pordenone, although reality somewhat better than previous estimates, measles still being on the rise in Europe, Spanish chiropractors reacting to new government plan to tackle pseudoscience and how there is no need to fear for Christmas being renamed in Sweden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time Claire Klingenberg sits in for Jelena again, who's out travelling. We bring you updates on the European Skeptics Congress 2019 in Ghent plus the good news that CICAP Fest will be held again in Padova in 2019.We then talk about the Apollo program, Cardinal Pell finally getting in the hands of the judicial system, while Pope Francis is acting like nothing's wrong.Plus some news about the new Italian government's support for dubious health claims, a Russian homeopathic product under the name Release Active Drug, Paolo Macchiarini in court, the UK's Charity Commission publishing guidelines for operating CAM charities, one of Spain's skeptical organisations, Circulo Esceptico handing out awards for standing up for science, acupuncture applied to babies suffering from colic, and the case of an autistic person euthanised in Belgium now under police investigation. And a big shout-out to Ovidiu Covaciu in Romania for educating tens of thousands of people into the necessity of vaccinations. Hosted on Acast. S