The European Skeptics Podcast

This week we are bringing you an episode packed with news, important events and topics from all over Europe:- Autism Acceptance Month- World Homeopathy Awareness Week- Poppy seeds causing false positive drug tests- Public opinion and vaccination- The latest on the screenings of the movie Vaxxed in Germany and Ireland- ComCept’s Flying Unicorn Awards- Nominations open for the John Maddox Prize- QED - Question. Explore. Discover. announced- Nominations open for the British Podcast Awards- Call for speakers at the 17th European Skeptics Congress in Poland- Our calendar of skeptic events- An update on the NHS vs homeopathy- Prince Anne backing GM crops- BBC to uphold the Good Thinking Society’s complaint against the Look North report on chiropractic for animals- An update on the UK Charity Commission’s latest actions- A researcher banned from seeking funding after misconduct in Germany- The German government passes legislation about punishing social media firms for not removing hate speech- New fronts in the war

The episode was almost entirely dedicated to our interview with the Director of Sense about Science EU, Sofie Vanthournout. We talked about their upcoming project, Evidence Matters EU, the expansion of the Ask For Evidence campaign to European countries, how to elevate public debate about scientific issues to influence legislation, building a European network and a lot more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we talked about how fake news are a bit more complicated than that, Vaxxed still growing its audience, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy and schools, Massimo Polidoro having a new book out, ComCept's Flying Unicorn Award, the Carl Sagan Journalism Prize offered by GWUP, the UK's Charity Commission's consultations about the charitable status of organisations promoting pseudoscience, the death of the last patient of Paolo Macchiarini's.Finally, the British Chiropractic Association wins the Really Wrong price for still "happily promoting bogus treatments". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we interviewed award-winning blogger and paranormal investigator Hayley Stevens. We talked about becoming a skeptic after believing, how applying the right way of thinking and the best methods can help us understand how people think, what she thinks of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia and what the nicest approach to debating people might be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're back with the regular segments discussing lots of different topics ranging from Chickenpox, SpaceX, Newton and Fake News to what happened #LastNightInSweden after all, how Bild is fighting falsehoods, March for Science across the world, Global Warming denial, Paleo diet, Metro in Sweden, What Doctor's Don't Tell You and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we interviewed Florent Martin, who's one of the founders of the French organisation Observatoire Zététique that investigates unusual claims in Grenoble and all over France. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode we talk about the antivax movement and what we can do about it, then move on to talking about Derren Brown's work, whether fortune tellers will be out of Hungarian mainstream TV any time soon, what the problem is with the simplification of science, how Natural News got removed from Google's indexes, what happened #LastNightInSweden, how some of the reportings of rape attacks in Germany turned out to be fake and a Hungarian quack that finally got convicted.Our logical fallacy of the week is 'Appeal to the stone' and the Really Wrong price goes to Polish Minister of Health Konstanty Radziwill for claiming that fighting smog is not a priority health issue in Poland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is entirely dedicated to one topic, which is the latest wrongdoings of the antivaccination campaign, namely the screenings of the pseudo-documentary "Vaxxed - From Cover-up to Catastrophy".Our guests, with whom we discussed this issue were Michael Marshall, project director at the Good Thinking Society and activist Fiona O'Leary, founder of Autistic Rights Together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are talking about Andrew Wakefield and his campaign promoting Vaxxed, a pseudo-documentary, Galileo Galilei and his achievements, Hungarian fitness guru talking rubbish again about nutrition, the a Swedish politician loosing his mind over carbon-dioxide, the 'pH Miracle' quack finally charged, the Russian Academy of Sciences denouncing Homeopathy, Wikipedia banning The Daily Mail from being used as source and how different countries fight against fake news.The posthumous Really Right 'award' goes to Professor Hans Rosling for teaching a world about itself through the presentation of data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode we talk about the rise of the antivaccination movement in Europe and interview Polish psychologist, science writer and science educator, Tomasz Witkowski, who's the author of two very important skeptical books on psychology: 'Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy' and 'Psychology Led Astray: Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy'. He is also one of the founders of the Polish Skeptic Club and a member of the organising committee of the 17th European Skeptics Congress that will be held in Wroclaw, Poland in September 2017. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are talking about whether Nutella contains a known carcinogen, how the number of autism cases is not on the rise, vaccination against chicken pox called to be made mandatory in Hungary, An interview with Prof. Edzard Ernst on the website of CSI, EvoKids making their brilliant video on evolution available in German, English and Turkish and the Good Thinking Society's next take on acupuncture.This week's Logical Fallacy was the Red Hering and Pontus is really optimistic about recent developments in tackling fake news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we interviewed Michael Motskin, who's the co-founder and Managing Director of the international science festival, Pint of Science. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With minor changes having taken effect in the segments of our podcast, here we are with a new episode on which we talked about an Italian psychic, Facebook taking on fake news, Science Busters releasing the video featuring James Randi, Wikipedia vs Acupuncturist, Swedish skeptical awards announced and Retraction Watch having had a great year!If you're interested in the events happening across Europe, please visit our calendar page at http://theesp.eu/Events_in_EuropeThis week's logical fallacy is Tokenism and it was the Swedish Democrats who've been really wrong this time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we interview Richard Saunders, international podcaster and skeptical activist from Australia. We also present some changes to the format of the show based on the listener survey.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; Interview with Richard Saunders; Goodbye; Outtakes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jelena and Pontus take over while András is off to Italy for the week. We talk about a planet that was not there, access to scientific journals, religion in the Netherlands, the new Ebola vaccine, IT power consumption and how it is the season for detox scams. Plus the Sunk-cost fallacy and why Greenpeace is really wrong about GMO.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What’s on in Europe?; What’s hot in Europe?;Logical Fallacy; Really Wrong; Quote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a Christmas-themed episode with even a few events to talk about. Check it out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What's on in Europe?; What's hot in Europe?; Really Wrong; Quote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 is featured on this episode (with Lukasz Sobala, Catherine de Jong and Ralf Neugebauer) and Pontus recorded a short interview with Louise Hansare at Malmö Skeptics in the Pub, talking about sniffer dogs and how much their abilities are exaggerated.Segments:Introduction and greetings; Events in Europe; Short interviews from QED; Short interview with Louise Hansare; Outro Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 more. Also, our next QED-report features science educator and host of Talk Nerdy and the SGU, Cara Santa Maria.SegmentsIntro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What's on in Europe?; What's hot in Europe?; QED report; Really Wrong; Quote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 in the best blog category. You can also listen to two short interviews (with Bruno Van de Casteele from Belgium and two guys from Finland) recorded at QED - Question. Explore. Discover. in the middle of October.Segments:Introduction and greetings; Events in Europe; Short interviews from QED; Interview with Britt Hermes; Outro Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.