Point of Inquiry
649 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 758 ratingsPoint of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry's flagship podcast, where the brightest minds of our time sound off on all the things you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table: science, religion, and politics.
Guests have included Brian Greene, Susan Jacoby, Richard Dawkins, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugenie Scott, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, and Francis Collins.
Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y.
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Episodes
Chris Mooney - Science, Politics, and the Midterm Election
November 04, 2006 03:45 - 32 minutes - 11.3 MBChris Mooney is an acclaimed writer about subjects at intersection of science and politics. His writing has appeared in Wired, New Scientist, Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Slate, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The Boston Globe, and he has appeared widely in the media, on programs such as The Daily Show with John Stewart, NPR's Science Friday, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. His blog, called "The Intersection," was a recipient of Scientific American's 2005 Science and...
The CFI 10th Annual Houdini Seance - Halloween 2006
November 01, 2006 00:26 - 18 minutes - 6.26 MBHarry Houdini, the world-famous magician and escape artist, earnestly explored the religion of spiritualism and communication with the dead after his beloved mother's death in 1913. He eventually crusaded vigorously against those whom he believed were fraudulent mediums, debunking and exposing those whom he argued preyed on the mourning of the grieving. He was renowned for his ability to seem to escape from almost any bonds. As such, he made a pact with his wife Bess, that if anyone could esc...
Salman Rushdie - Secular Values, Human Rights and Islamism
October 28, 2006 06:10 - 1 hour - 23 MBSalman Rushdie is a British-Indian essayist and novelist widely acclaimed for his narrative style that blends myth and fantasy with real life. He has won many awards for his fiction, including the Booker Prize. He is best known for The Satanic Verses which provoked violent reaction from the Muslim community and a fatwa by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and was banned in India and througout the Islamic world. In recent years, Rushdie has been more visible publicly, and speaks out against Islamic extr...
Jill Tarter - Are We Alone?
October 21, 2006 00:17 - 42 minutes - 14.6 MBJill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA where she also serves as director of the Center for SETI Research. She served as Project Scientist for NASA’s SETI program, and has conducted a number of observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since funding for NASA’s SETI program was cut in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the the explorat...
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion
October 16, 2006 21:47 - 49 minutes - 17 MBRichard Dawkins, considered one of the world's most influential scientists, is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi professorship of the public understanding of science at Oxford University and the recipient of a number of awards for his writings and for his science, including the International Cosmos Prize, the Kistler Prize, and the Shakespeare Prize. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society. In a recent poll in the United Kingdom, he was named Britain's leading public intellectual. He ...
Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation
October 07, 2006 02:56 - 51 minutes - 17.8 MBSam Harris is the author of the New York Times best-seller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason. He is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. He's now completing a doctorate in neuroscience. His work has been featured widely in the media, in such newspapers as the New York Times, LA Times, The Economist, The Guardian, The Toronto...
Robert M. Price - The Reason Driven Life
September 29, 2006 21:59 - 50 minutes - 17.4 MBRobert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He's a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books such as Deconstructing Jesus, Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, and The Da Vinci Fraud. He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured in the movie The God Who Wasn't There. In th...
Michael Shermer - Why Darwin Matters
September 22, 2006 22:56 - 42 minutes - 14.7 MBMichael Shermer is one of the most well-known skeptics in America. He is a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Scientific American, and is the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech. He is also the co-host and producer of the Fox Family TV show, Exploring the Unknown. He is the author of many books, including Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, and Why People Believe Weird Things. Since founding the Skeptics Society in Southern California and S...
Ann Druyan - Science, Wonder, and Spirituality
September 15, 2006 20:36 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBAnn Druyan is a renowned author, lecturer, and television and motion picture writer/producer whose work mostly explores the implications of science and technology for our society. She is the widow of the great Carl Sagan with whom she was a co-writer of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning television series Cosmos. She served as Creative Director for the NASA Voyager Interstellar Record Project that included music and images on the Voyager Spacecrafts that serve as a greeting to possible alien ...
Paul Kurtz - World War and World Religions
September 08, 2006 23:52 - 30 minutes - 14.2 MBPaul Kurtz is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry and a number of other organizations. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books. He is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. He is the author or editor of over forty five books, i...
Amy-Jill Levine - Who Was Jesus of Nazareth
September 01, 2006 21:43 - 33 minutes - 15.5 MBAmy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she also holds the position of Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality. Her many books, articles, and essays address topics like Christian origins, Jewish-Christian relations, and women in the Bible. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and has held office ...
Joe Nickell - Ancient Astronauts and the Nazca Lines
August 26, 2006 00:27 - 45 minutes - 20.6 MBJoe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he has used his varied background to investigate myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called "the modern Sherlock Holmes," "the original ghost buster," and "the real-life Scully" (after the character in The X-Files). A veteran of hundreds of TV and radio appearances, he is the author of over 20 book...
Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Sky Is Not the Limit
August 18, 2006 04:31 - 1 hour - 27.7 MBNeil deGrasse Tyson, one of America's superstars of science, focuses his research on star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to dozens of scholarly publications, Dr. Tyson is one of America's most eloquent and popular science writers. He has a monthly column for Natural History magazine simply titled the "Universe." Among his seven books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and ...
Eugene Straus, M.D. - Medical Marvels, Compassion, and Skepticism
August 11, 2006 22:48 - 38 minutes - 17.8 MBEugene Straus, M.D., is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York Downstate College of Medicine. He's also served as a senior faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In these positions, he directed research, teaching, and clinical activities for thirty-five years. He has published over 150 scientific papers and text book chapters. He has also traveled very widely to observe health care in...
Bill Cooke - Is Scientific Humanism Anti-Religious?
August 04, 2006 20:51 - 33 minutes - 15.6 MBBill Cooke, former international director for the Center for Inquiry, is a senior lecturer at the School of Visual Arts at University of Auckland at Manukau. He is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and now serves as CFI's Asia/Pacific coordinator. He is an acknowledged expert on the history of humanism and has written widely on the subject. He is author of the Dictionary Of Atheism, Skepticism, & Humanism, The Gathering of Infidels: A Hundred Years of the Ra...
Derek Araujo - A Decade of Campus Freethought Activism
July 28, 2006 21:12 - 50 minutes - 23.1 MBDerek Araujo was one of the founders and the first student president of the Campus Freethought Alliance in 1996. At the time he was attending Harvard College where he also founded the Harvard Secular Society before graduating magna cum laude in 1999. Mr. Araujo has since received a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School where he was a senior editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and is now an attorney based in the New York City. On July 15th 2006 Derek Araujo addressed a c...
Barry Beyerstein - The Sins of Big Pharma
July 22, 2006 01:14 - 32 minutes - 14.8 MBBarry Beyerstein is Professor of Psychology and a member of the Brain Behaviour Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. His research has involved many areas related to his primary scholarly interests: brain mechanisms of perception and consciousness and the effects of drugs on the brain and mind. His work in these areas and his interest in the philosophy and history of science have also led him to be skeptical of many occult and New Age claims. This has prompted him to investigate the scientif...
Thomas Kida - Dont Believe Everything You Think
July 15, 2006 02:31 - 38 minutes - 17.6 MBThomas Kida is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of many articles on decision-making. For the last 25 years he has been researching and teaching how we form our beliefs and make decisions. His new book, Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking, presents this research. The book is about the ways our beliefs and decision making skills can go wrong. Do we all fall prey to problems in t...
Paul Kurtz - The Courage to Become
July 08, 2006 03:54 - 30 minutes - 14.1 MBPaul Kurtz, considered the father of the secular humanist movement and a founder of the worldwide skeptic movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry magazine, he has advanced a critical, skeptical inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of societ...
James Randi - Science, Magic, and Future of Skepticism
June 30, 2006 15:39 - 45 minutes - 21 MBJames "The Amazing" Randi is a world-renowned magician, skeptic and investigator of paranormal claims. He has been a central figure in the development of the world-wide skeptical movement. He's perhaps most known for the One Million Dollar Challenge, in which his Foundation will award One Million Dollars to anyone who is able to show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Randi has appeared very widely in the media, ...
Tom Flynn - The Rise of the Non-Religious
June 23, 2006 23:35 - 31 minutes - 14.4 MBTom Flynn is the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry magazine, many addressing church-state issues, as well as The Trouble With Christmas, and has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novel, Galactic Rapture. His lastest work, the New Encyclope...
Jerry Coyne - The Case Against Intelligent Design
June 16, 2006 20:57 - 37 minutes - 17 MBJerry Coyne is a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, where he works on diverse areas of evolutionary genetics. The main focus of his laboratory is on the original problem raised by Darwin - the origin of species - and on understanding this process through the genetic patterns it produces. His writings have appeared in a number of journals, magazines and other publications including Science, Nature, The Guardian and The New Republic. He is the aut...
Cathleen Falsani - The God Factor
June 09, 2006 23:48 - 33 minutes - 15.4 MBCathleen Falsani is the religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, where she has covered spirituality and popular culture from Vatican City, Ireland, the White House, the Playboy Mansion and the dugout at Wrigley Field. In her first book, The God Factor, she recounts her discussions about God and morality with more than 30 prominent figures who hold various religious and nonreligious worldviews. Her "subjects" include such diverse personalities as Sen. Barack Obama, Melissa Etheridge, Hugh ...
Joe Nickell - Psychic Detectives
June 03, 2006 03:33 - 36 minutes - 16.5 MBJoe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he has used his varied background to investigate myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called the modern Sherlock Holmes, the original ghost buster, and the real-life Scully (after the character in The X-Files ). A veteran of hundreds of TV and radio appearances, he is the author of over 20 books, in...
R. Joseph Hoffmann - Examining The Da Vinci Code
May 26, 2006 23:03 - 34 minutes - 15.8 MBJoe Hoffmann is Campbell Professor of Religion and Human Values at Wells College, New York and chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) at the Center for Inquiry. He is formerly Professor of Civilization Studies at American University of Beirut and Senior Research Scholar of St. Cross College, Oxford. Dr. Hoffmann is a specialist in the social and cultural history of early Christianity, and the author of Jesus Outside the Gospels, coeditor of Biblical versus Se...
Matt Nisbet - Framing Science
May 20, 2006 02:22 - 36 minutes - 16.6 MBMatt Nisbet is assistant professor in the school of communication at the Ohio State University. He focuses on the intersections between science, media, and politics, tracking how political strategists, scientists, and the news media selectively define science in ways that shape policy decisions, public opinion, and political culture. His writing has appeared in a number of scholarly journals such as the Columbia Journalism Review, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Harvard International Journal of...
Paul Kurtz - Science and Planetary Ethics
May 12, 2006 04:04 - 30 minutes - 14 MBPaul Kurtz, considered the father of the secular humanist movement and a founder of the worldwide skeptic movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, skeptical inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of societ...
Edward Tabash - True Meaning of Church/State Separation
May 05, 2006 04:53 - 39 minutes - 17.9 MBEdward Tabash is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. Graduating magna cum laude from UCLA in 1973, he graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles three years later and was admitted to the California Bar that same year. He has chaired the National Legal Committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1995. He has been the most publicly-active man in the abortion rights movement in California since 1981. He has argued and won before ...
Eugenie Scott - Evolution vs. Religious Belief?
April 29, 2006 01:02 - 44 minutes - 17.7 MBEugenie Scott, a physical anthropologist, has been the director of the National Center for Science Education for nearly 20 years. A former president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she is one of the nation's leading defenders of the theory of evolution, and a vocal critic of creationism and Intelligent Design theory. She is the author of the widely used and comprehensive textbook Evolution Vs. Cr...
Bill Nye - Changing The World With Science Education
April 21, 2006 18:22 - 31 minutes - 12.4 MBBill Nye is one of America's leading popularizers of the scientific outlook. As a scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, he hosted Bill Nye The Science Guy, which earned 28 Emmys during its six year run. He is the author of a number of children's books about science and regularly lectures at Cornell University as part of the Frank H.T. Rhodes Visiting Professorship. He is also a Fellow of CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. His a...
Sam Harris - The Mortal Dangers of Religion
April 14, 2006 21:53 - 38 minutes - 15.2 MBSam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Mr. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. His work has been discussed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, The Globe a...
Sam Harris - The End of Faith
April 07, 2006 16:21 - 29 minutes - 11.9 MBSam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Mr. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. His work has been discussed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, The Globe a...
Herbert Hauptman - The Joy of Science
March 31, 2006 23:46 - 25 minutes - 10.4 MBHerbert Hauptman is winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering a mathematical model for determining the molecular structures of crystallized materials. This work has proved to be of the greatest importance because it relates molecular structure to biological activity, and allows for a better understanding of life processes and making possible the development of many new disease-fighting drugs. Dr. Hauptman is president of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, research p...
Jamy Ian Swiss - Psychics, Science, and Magic
March 24, 2006 23:43 - 32 minutes - 13.2 MBJamy Ian Swiss is universally considered one of the world's top sleight of hand performers, famous to magicians for his subtlety, skill and depth of understanding of magic's history. He has made numerous television appearances in the United States, Europe, and Japan, including on The Today Show, CBS's 48 Hours, Comedy Central, CNN, PBS Nova and the PBS documentary, The Art of Magic. He's performed internationally for corporate clients, lectured to magicians in over a dozen countries, and is a...
Susan Jacoby - American Freethought Heritage
March 17, 2006 22:31 - 33 minutes - 13.3 MBSusan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an "ardent and insightful work that seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity." Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Times...
Paul Kurtz - Skepticism of the Third Kind
March 11, 2006 02:33 - 32 minutes - 12.9 MBPaul Kurtz, considered the father of the secular humanist movement and a founder of the worldwide skeptic movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, skeptical inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of societ...
Daniel Dennett - Breaking the Spell
March 03, 2006 21:13 - 1 hour - 26 MBDaniel Dennett, the author of such groundbreaking and influential books as Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize), is famous for being a philosophical gadfly, challenging unexamined orthodoxies in our society. He has made considerable contributions to the study of consciousness, the understanding of the development of the child's mind, artificial intelligence and evolutio...
Dr. Wallace Sampson - Science Meets Alternative Medicine
February 25, 2006 03:14 - 57 minutes - 33.1 MBDr. Wallace Sampson serves as editor of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council Against Health Fraud. He has served as Chief of Medical Oncology at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and is clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Sampson is an expert on unscientific medical systems and alternative medicine claims, and teaches the critical analysis of Complementary and Alt...
Joe Nickell - Aliens and Abductions
February 18, 2006 03:35 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBJoe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he has used his varied background to investigate myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called "the modern Sherlock Holmes," "the original ghost buster," and "the real-life Scully" (after the character in The X-Files ). A veteran of hundreds of TV and radio appearances, he is the author of over 20 boo...
Richard Dawkins - The Root of All Evil?
February 11, 2006 00:59 - 1 hour - 57.9 MBRichard Dawkins is professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University. The recipient of a number of awards for his writing on science, including the Royal Society of Literature Award and the LA Times Literary Prize, he has also been awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Award for the furtherance of the public understanding of science. In a recent poll in the United Kingdom, he was named Britain's leading public intellectual. He is the author of a number of critically ac...
Marci Hamilton - Religion and the Rule of Law
February 04, 2006 02:36 - 59 minutes - 41.2 MBMarci Hamilton is a distinguished constitutional law professor at Cordozo School of Law and is the author of the critically acclaimed book God vs. The Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law. She has appeared widely in the media, on shows such as The O'Reilly Factor and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In this interview, she explores the harms that are done to society by religion and how these harms are enabled by the courts and law enforcement because of an inaccurate understanding and applicati...
Chris Mooney - The Republican War on Science
January 28, 2006 02:52 - 57 minutes - 39.2 MBChris Mooney, a Washington correspondent for Seed magazine, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, and a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, focuses on issues at the intersection of science and politics in his reporting. He has contributed to a number of other publications over the last few years including Wired, New Scientist, Slate, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The Boston Globe, in addition to appearing widely in the media, on shows such as The Dail...
Eugenie Scott - The Dover Trial: Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
January 20, 2006 22:54 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBEugenie Scott, a physical anthropologist, has been the director of the National Center for Science Education for nearly 20 years. A former president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she is one of the nation's leading defenders of the theory of evolution, and a vocal critic of creationism and Intelligent Design theory. She is the author of the widely used and comprehensive textbook Evolution Vs. Cr...
Max Maven - Magic and Skepticism
January 13, 2006 12:14 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MBThe great movie director Orson Welles wrote that Max Maven has "the most creative mind in magic." The New York Times observed that his "category-defying mind-reading veers into conceptual art." The Los Angeles Times stated that his "improvisational skill is enhanced by a charismatic animal magnetism." He has hosted eight TV specials in Japan (performing in Japanese) and starred in TV series in Taiwan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, England, the United States and Canada. Behind the scenes, Max Mave...
Ibn Warraq - Why I Am Not a Muslim
January 06, 2006 23:53 - 48 minutes - 33.5 MBIbn Warraq is the author of a number of books, including Why I Am Not A Muslim, considered among the most important critical looks at the negative aspects of Islam today. He is an outspoken critic of Islam who has written extensively on what he views as the oppressive nature of Islam and religion in general. Since the publication of Why I Am Not A Muslim, Ibn Warraq has appeared often in the media, including C-SPAN, National Public Radio, Canadian radio, the Washington Post, and the New York...
Susan Jacoby - The History of American Secularism
December 31, 2005 01:36 - 55 minutes - 38.2 MBSusan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an "ardent and insightful work" that "seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity." Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Tim...
Andrew Skolnick - The Dangers of Alternative Medicine
December 23, 2005 23:23 - 50 minutes - 34.8 MBAndrew Skolnick, Executive Director of the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, is a nationally renowned science journalist who has won numerous national awards and honors for his reporting in biology, medicine, and human rights. Among those honors are Amnesty International USA's Spotlight on Media Award; World Hunger Year's Harry Chapin Award for Impact on Hunger and Poverty; the John P. McGovern Medal from the American Medical Writers Association; and a Rosalynn Carter Fell...
Joe Nickell - Skeptical Inquiry vs. Debunking
December 16, 2005 22:51 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBJoe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow for CSICOP, is considered the world's leading paranormal investigator. A former professional stage magician and private investigator, he taught at the University of Kentucky before joining CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Using his varied background, Nickell has become widely known as an investigator of myths and mysteries, frauds, forgeries, and hoaxes. He has been called "the modern Sherlock Holmes," "th...
Paul Kurtz - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?
December 11, 2005 23:54 - 51 minutes - 70.7 MBPaul Kurtz, considered the father of the modern secular humanist movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As chair of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and Prometheus Books, and as editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine, he has advanced a critical, humanistic inquiry into many of the most cherished beliefs of society for the last forty years. He is a Fell...