The European Skeptics Podcast

This week Jelena discloses the location of her new place to live - and it's far away! Then we hear about how Pasteur would not have been even close to pass today’s ethical guidelines when he tested his rabies vaccine, that the Catholic Church will discuss marriage for priests but rather walk out of the game than play football against pro-choice opponents.A huge meta-analysis covering 60 million people clearly shows the benefits of HPV vaccinations, the Good Thinking Society needs our help in challenging the PSA over homeopathy accreditation and France will stop funding homeopathy which directly hits the finances of Boiron.A much-publicized study is very premature in claiming that there is a link between microbiomes and autism, Iceland recognizes the need to allow for gender neutral names and absurdly under the legal system in Sweden, your man gets a milder sentence for beating you, if it turns out you have "provoked him" by being unfaithful.Finally, apropos Prince Charles’ latest endorsement of homeopathy, Po

This week we clarify the difference between a ‘skeptic’ and a ‘denier’ when it comes to climate change and plug the Rationalist International Conference (Cambridge, 27-28 July) before Jelena debunks the myth that an American businessman once got tricked into buying Tower Bridge in London.In a special interview we talk to Fernando Cervera, one of the founders behind the European manifesto against pseudo-therapies.Pontus pokes the pope for the way the Catholic Church keep screwing (pun intended) their congregations.Then we get a new segment, ‘Annika Reports!’, where she interviews speaker and archaeologist Mirko Gutjahr at Cologne Skeptics in the Pub.In the news this week, we have the results from the world’s biggest study of vaccine attitudes, UK holidaymakers are warned to get vaccinated before visiting Europe and a Spanish doctor is suspended for promoting the old myth that vaccines cause autism.Finally, we hand out over a million Really Wrong awards(!) to everyone that have signed Boiron’s desperate petitio

This week we remember Willem (‘Wim’) Betz, the iconic Belgian physician, researcher and skeptic, co-founder of SKEPP (Belgian Skeptic Organisation) and CSICOP fellow, who sadly passed away on 8 June.Pontus reports his experiences at the big political event in Stockholm last week (Järvaveckan) and then Jelena talks about the life and times of William Crookes, who was a brilliant scientist, but also a believer in paranormal phenomena.When Pontus pokes the Pope, we find that Pride month is not for the Vatican, who felt the need to issue a 31-page document to say that trans people ‘annihilate the concept of nature’. We then enjoy the three remaining SkepKon interviews by Annika Merkelbach.In the news this week, the German minister of health takes a stand against ‘gay conversion therapy’; we urge scientists, researchers and medical practitioners to sign the manifesto against pseudotherapies and a Swedish on-line casino gets its license revoked for taking unfair advantage of their customers. Zotaro teams up with Re

This week András sticks his neck out, announcing that he will give a talk at the upcoming CICAP Fest in Padua in September - in Italian!We then learn about Margherita Hack who was a formidable Italian astronomer, skeptic and co-founder CICAP, we hear more interviews from SkepKon, curtesy of special correspondent Annika Merkelbach and hear how Cardinal Pell is trying to get out of his legal problem while Francis are creating new ones. Meanwhile the Vatican has spent a fortune to stop legal protection of child abuse victims in the US.Britt Hermes has won her court case (yay!), Sweden has a big public debate regarding the future of religious free-schools and there is a promising Hungarian initiative to get critical thinking into the education system.Several UK papers foolishly repeat nonsense from social media about a young woman’s death in the Netherlands, we push for the Fight-the-Fake campaign and celebrate that a fellow skeptic has been elected into the Danish parliament (‘Folketinget’).Finally, the Polish m

This week we catch up a bit regarding VoF (the Swedish skeptics) and talk about a new Manifesto against pseudoscientific treatments. We also get a bit nostalgic about a UK referendum about Europe - in 1975.Then we get two interviews from SkepKon by our special correspondent on the ground, Annika Merkelbach. We check in with Francis who has been in Romania and also apparently is happy to cultivate his future legacy as the ‘tender’ pope.Sense About Science calls for volunteers for their Evidence Week, Amazon, Facebook and Youtube take a stance against MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution) and other dangerous nonsense, and University of Vienna makes an effort to repair its past endorsement of homeopathy. More news about Natalie Grams and the (totally bogus) legal threat she is facing and also that her organisation, Information Network on Homeopathy, has launched a repository of excellent information in English.The fake cancer drug Rigvir has now been de-registered by the State Agency of Medicines (ZVA), but some forces

In this week’s episode we have some remarks about the EU Elections, before we hear about the Beringer hoax and his lying stones. The pope has outrageous views on abortions and thinks that women and unborn foetuses must suffer for God.The measles situation is getting even worse than we could imagine with cases more than tripling in the EU. The EU elections predictably brought a new high to fake news on social media and we find yet another example that proves that religious schools is a really bad idea. We have an update on last week’s Rigvir interview with Austra, Natalie Grams is threatened by legal attack and yes, we were right – the Voynich manuscript is still a mystery.When end with more abortion news when we give a Really Wrong award to Swedish Christian Democrats.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takesEvents Calendar: http://theesp.eu/events_in_europeShow notes at: http://theesp.eu/podcast_archive/theesp-ep-172.html Hosted on

This week we welcome back Latvian activist Austra Muizniece, fearless fighter against the fake 'cancer treatment’ Rigvir.Shamelessly and corruptibly approved in Latvia just two days before Latvia joined the EU, Rigvir is claimed to be a cure at first for melanoma, and later for virtually any kind of cancer. Austra, herself a cancer survivor, has together with fellow skeptics lobbied for years to get Rigvir off the market as there has never been any evidence presented to support its efficacy. Litigation and harassment have been their reward, but finally now, it seems like this fraudulent substance is being withdrawn from the market after 15 years of providing nothing but false hope to cancer patients.Segments:Intro; Greetings; Interview; Farewell; Outro; Out-takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode we talk about ‘kwakzalverij’, the Pope’s new Olympic ambitions (and female football team) and other papal adventures. There are steep fines coming for German vaccination dodgers and a study finds that absence of evidence is evidence on non-sense.MedWatch gets the Carl Sagan award, there is another example of vegan parents that jeopardize the lives of their children and French authorities are stepping up the fight against homeopathy (Boiron Is not happy).We also look into whether the code of the Voynich manuscript really has been broken and how another populist right wing party tries to score points by questioning climate change.We end with awarding a Really Right to a football player for not wanting to take advantage of how hard it really is to understand the odds of gambling.Segments:Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Right; Quote; Outro; Out-takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.