When it comes to the U.S. political right, it often appears that the opposition to science-and reason in general-is everywhere. From climate change denial to anti-evolutionism; from debt ceiling denial to, that’s right, incandescent light bulb availability denial; conservatives today have plenty to answer for. Fortunately, some conservatives know it. And given how much he has …
Our guest this week is Rebecca Watson, the founder of the Skepchick blog. Recently, she’s been at the center of an explosive controversy over the relationship between feminism and the skeptic/atheist movement. It all started when Watson made a relatively casual remark in a video to her followers. She was discussing her travels and a talk she’d …
It’s not often that Hollywood takes up the subject of atheism directly—much less sympathetically. Even rarer is finding this in a film starring major names like Liv Tyler and Terence Howard. But that’s what Matthew Chapman has achieved in The Ledge—which also stars Patrick Wilson and Charlie Hunnan. Besides being a screenwriter and author, Chapman …
Recently, we’ve seen a spate of news stories—and news incidents—involving conservative politicians and activists getting details wrong about American history. There was, most infamously, Sarah Palin saying that Paul Revere, on his famous midnight ride, rang bells and “warned the British.” There was Michele Bachman, claiming that the founding fathers “worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in …
Our guest this week is Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and head of the Skeptics Society, and a longtime commentator on issues relating to science, critical thinking, and the paranormal. Chris asked Michael on to discuss his new book, which is entitled The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, …
From Birthers, to Truthers, to Deathers—to occasional Liars—America seems to be crawling right now with fevered conspiracy mongers. What’s up with that? To find out, Point of Inquiry turns in this episode to Jonathan Kay, author of the new book Among the Truthers: A Journey into America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground. In it, Kay provides a …
George Lakoff is a cognitive linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. But unlike many of his scientific peers, he’s known as much for his work on politics as for his research. Lakoff the famed author of many books on why the left and right disagree about politics, including Moral Politics, Don’t Think of …
Physicist Lawrence Krauss has written numerous popular books about science, including the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek. But now he’s tried something different—penning a scientific biography of the famed Nobel Prize winning physicist (and infamous bon vivant) Richard Feynman. The resulting book, Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science, is a fascinating look at …
Recently, it has come to light that many scientists—scientists who don’t believe in God—nevertheless claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” Some in the secular movement have responded favorably to this new trend-one unfolding against the backdrop of an increasingly secular America, and a millennial generation that is also discarding traditional religion while extolling spiritual …
Our guest this week needs little introduction—he may be our most famous public communicator of science. He’s Neil DeGrasse Tyson, renowned American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and the host of PBS’s NOVA ScienceNow, which just completed a new six part season. Tyson is also the author …