#11: Comedy, Critical Thinking, and Debunking Disinformation

In this episode, I'm speaking with Daniel Betts about comedy, critical thinking, and being a scientifically trained individual in a world that has become increasingly anti-science.

We discuss:

•How Dan and I became friends and the genesis of his interest in science as well as comedy.
•The importance of education and how a good teacher can change your life.
•How to encourage people to go into science or, at the very least, to communicate science in such a way that they learn to appreciate it.
•That Dan is from Bakersfield, which is the same city that the two Doctor's that went viral for presenting their “statistics” to argue for reopening the economy are from.
•Debunking COVID-19 disinformation and other anti-science nonsense that he encounters regularly on social media.
•As a Geologist who ended up in the fossil fuel industry himself, how dis-heartening it is to see other scientists in this area argue against or severely downplay the global warming consensus.
•And other topics.

A Chicago native, Daniel Betts was winning comedy competitions within a few short months of ever taking the stage. By his one-year anniversary of ever stepping up to the mic, he was featuring at The World Famous Comedy Store in LA, and performing alongside some of the greats like Howie Mandel and David Koechner. By year two, he was opening for killers like Joey Diaz and even asked to perform for our forward deployed troops in Afghanistan. Daniel runs a very successful open mic every Thursday night, along with monthly showcases in the Central Valley and you can find him performing all over California, most recently with comedians such as Theo Von, Ian Edwards and Joel McHale.

You can find his website here:

https://sites.google.com/view/danbetts/home?authuser=0

You can find him on social media here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielBettsComedy/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielbettscomedy/?hl=en

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/VQQW7yHi5fM

This podcast is supported and produced by Grips Visual Marketing. Grips believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that GRIPS your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/getagrip.vm/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getagrip.vm/