Channel Title: Center for Inquiry Channel Description: The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a society where humanism, science, and reason are what informs public policy. CFI provides speakers and thinkers the chance to speak and audiences the chance to learn. <video> Sex and Race: Handling the Ideological Hot Potatoes | Jerry Coyne Description: Ideology has been creeping into evolutionary biology and distorting facts. In this talk, Jerry Coyne explores two of the many ways this ideological erosion of biology has infected the field. The first is the increasingly widespread claim that biological sex is a “spectrum”: that there are not just two sexes, male and female, but a large number of them. This may be true of gender but not of biological sex itself, which is always binary, with just two sexes in all animals and vascular plants. Why has this distortion occurred? Probably to buttress the felt identities of people who are transsexual or non-binary. But this conflates sex and gender, and the sex binary, which has led to big advances in understanding evolution, should not be distorted in the service of ideology. A similar phenomenon has occurred in biological discussions of race, though the term is fraught. The popular argument that there are no meaningful genetic differences between human populations has led the American Medical Association, for instance, to state that “Race and ethnicity are social constructs without biological meaning.” This is in fact false: human populations over the globe have sufficient genetic differences that we can infer our ancestry with high accuracy—and even deduce one’s crude self-identified “race”—from a sample of DNA. These genetic differences evolved when early human populations lived in physical isolation, and have implications not just for deducing ancestry, but also tracing the history of human migration and for mitigating disparities in health and education. Jerry A. Coyne is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. Coyne’s work has been largely concerned with the genetics of species differences, aimed at understanding the evolutionary processes that produce new species. He has written 125 refereed scientific papers and over 180 popular articles, book reviews, and columns, as well as a scholarly book about his research area—Speciation, coauthored with H. Allen Orr—and a trade book about the evidence for evolution—Why Evolution is True, a New York Times bestseller. His second book, Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (Viking/Penguin Random House) appeared in May 2015. Coyne is a contributor to The New York Times, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, The Nation, USA Today, and other popular periodicals. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the 2011 “Emperor Has No Clothes” Award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation as well as the 2015 Richard Dawkins Award from the Atheist Alliance of America. This talk took place on October 26, 2024 </video> <video> When Skeptics Disagree | Steve Novella Description: Skeptics should largely agree about what science says, but that's not always the case. Exploring when and why skeptics disagree may be illuminating. In this talk, Steven Novella dives into a series of topics where skeptics disagree amongst each other. Steven Novella is the host and producer of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, a popular and award-winning weekly science podcast. He is an internationally known author of three books on science and critical thinking and science communicator with multiple TV appearances and two popular blogs (NeuroLogica and Science-Based Medicine). This talk took place on October 25, 2024 </video> <video> Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry | Jonathan Stea Description: The world of mental healthcare is very much caveat emptor: buyer beware. Today, people looking to care for their mental health face a market with at least 600 “brands” of psychotherapy—and counting. Most are ineffective, and many could be harmful. The $5.6 trillion dollar wellness industry includes countless unregulated providers of mental health services looking to exploit people’s financial and emotional vulnerabilities. Jonathan Stea, a clinical psychologist who regularly deals with some of society’s most vulnerable people. Having seen so many of his patients hurt by pseudoscience, Stea is on a mission to expose its harm and protect the public from mental health misinformation. He’ll discuss and debunk the predatory pseudoscience and grift of the multi-trillion-dollar wellness industry and point us toward a better way to take care of our mental health. </video> <video> Anticipating CSICon 2024 - Everything THEY Don't Want You to Know Description: In this final entry of my series of video interviews with the speakers scheduled to appear at this year’s CSICon, I called upon Susan Gerbic to help me with making a full disclosure of the valuable, hard-to find, inside information about all things CSICon. </video> <video> The Christmas Drone Invasion: What Is Going On? - pt 1 Description: Whether or not you are worried about the ongoing wave of drone reports, this conversation by a panel of three skeptical investigators will shed much-needed light on the murky situation. </video> <video> A Visit To The Grafton Monster Festival Description: In this episode, Kenny heads down to West Virgina to join Daniel Reed (Skeptical Inquirer writer and founder of the West Virginia Skeptics Society) to attend the Grafton Monster festival. Join us for a slightly different episode style – where we visit the spot where the alleged monster sighting took place, then interview several people associated with the legend – from festival organizers to an author of paranormal books, and even the daughter of the first (and only) witness to the monster…Robert Cockrell, way back in 1964. Be sure to stay until the end when Daniel Reed reveals an obscure confession that solves the mystery of the Grafton Monster once and for all. I hope you enjoy this look inside the minds of festival attendees. </video> <video> The Elections and the Supreme Court On the Brink of the Total Collapse of Science and Secularism Description: Today's religious right wing and their enablers on the Supreme Court are not just poised to abolish the separation of church and state; they seem determined to repeal all modern progress made by humanity in the past 300 years by repealing the very Enlightenment itself. </video> <video> Dowsing for Hidden Objects | A Paranormal Challenge Description: In this episode, the Center for Inquiry staff are gathered at the Buffalo, NY headquarters for a staff retreat. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Jim Underdown, our CFIIG Director, scheduled a dowser for our $500K Paranormal Challenge. Norbert, who drove two hours to take the test, claimed that he could find any object just by using his dowsing rods. We set up a test area of twenty-five red solo cups (spaced one meter apart) in a five-by-five grid, went over the protocols, and observed Norbert while he attempted to find a “Beetlejuice Lighter” hidden under one of the cups. Check it out as we go through his tests, see the results, and discuss with Norbert what led him to believe he has a dowsing ability. </video> <video> Anticipating CSICon 2024 - A Video Interview with Banachek Description: This is part of my series of video interviews with the speakers appearing at CSICon 2024, the conference that will take place this October in Las Vegas. This episode features mentalist Banachek, who will be educating and entertaining the attendees over all three days of the conference. </video> <video> 2024 International Online Secular Day of the Dead Description: We’re just days away from a powerful day of remembrance, where we honor the lives of those we’ve lost—without religious rituals, but with love, meaning, and community. Whether through storytelling, music, art, or lighting a candle, let's cherish the memories and keep the stories of our loved ones alive. Join us THIS FRIDAY at 7PM ET for the 2024 International Online Secular Day of the Dead: https://ow.ly/hZ2i50TVr5r #DayOfTheDead #DiaDeLosMuertos #SecularDayOfTheDead #CelebrateLife #HonorTheDeparted #Secularism #AtheistCommunity #HumanistCelebration #Freethought #RememberTheDead #LifeAndDeath #CommunityMatters #InMemoriam #EndOfLifeReflections #CriticalThinking #CelebrateDiversity #Skepticism #FreethinkersUnite #HumanistsWorldwide #ReasonAndScience </video> <video> Anticipating CSICon 2024: A Video Interview with Daniel Simons Description: This is part of my series of video interviews with the speakers scheduled to appear at CSICon 2024. This conference is run by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and will take place in Las Vegas from October 24–27. (You can find all the details and register right here.)  For this episode, my guest was Dr. Daniel Simons (pronounced Sy-muns), who is an author, cognitive scientist, experimental psychologist, and professor in the Department of Psychology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois. He is also an Ig Nobel Prize winner for a study called the Invisible Gorilla Test, which demonstrates inattentional blindness; you may have even seen a version of this test when it went viral on the internet. (Were you fooled?) Simons’s upcoming CSICon presentation is titled “Out of Focus,” and here is a summary:  Simons will talk about how the cognitive abilities that usually serve us well can make us vulnerable to mistaken beliefs, misinformation, self-deception, and outright fraud. Even our abilities to focus intently and think critically can be turned against us when we fail to think about what falls outside our focus. His presentation will draw on topics ranging from visual attention and magic to science fraud and the exhilarating world of management consulting to show how easily we can be deceived—both by ourselves and by others—and what we can do about it. In the interview, Simons and I discussed a wide range of topics in addition to his upcoming presentation,  including the genesis and details of the Invisible Gorilla Test and the implications of this experiment regarding our mistaken beliefs about how our minds work. We also discussed his latest book, Nobody’s Fool, which covers topics such as describing why one’s likelihood of being scammed is affected by false familiarity with people such as celebrities, combined with our tendency toward wanting “efficiency” in our decision-making processes. We talked about the difference between change blindness and inattentional blindness and the importance of understanding these concepts regarding the inaccurate perception of our surroundings. This led to a discussion of the increasing recognition of the fallibility of memory and eyewitness testimony in the U.S. legal system. Simons also revealed the private experiment he did regarding the September 11, 2001, attacks to assess his own recall of what he personally experienced during that day. He failed, demonstrating the “illusion of memory.” When conspiratorial thinking came up, Simons said it’s not necessarily true that people who believe conspiracies, or who are in cults, are irrational. Sometimes it is because they start with a flawed premise and follow that to its logical conclusion. For believers in the Mandela Effect for example. the flawed premise is that one’s memory is infallible. Therefore, if you come across a fact that is not how you remember it, the explanation must be that the universe (somehow) changed. We also talked about the problem of laws not following psychological science. One example is that following the law and having hands-free mobile phone conversations while driving does not remove the problem of cognitive distraction due to the conversation, which is what actually causes the danger. I hope you enjoy this interview. Perhaps it will even make you consider attending this year’s CSICon where you can meet and mingle with Simons and the other speakers in person. If you do come, make sure to stay for the Sunday Morning Papers session, which I will be cohosting and will feature six short presentations on a wide variety of interesting skeptical topics! (If you are unfamiliar with the Sunday Morning Papers, you can learn all about this in an article I published on the topic, right here.) Also, be aware that next year will be a year off for CSICon, so keep that in mind when contemplating travel plans! You can find my other interviews with this year’s CSICon speakers, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, in my online column. And, if you are interested in watching any of my interviews with speakers from previous CSICons, including Bill Nye, Eugenie Scott, Richard Wiseman, Susan Gerbic, Melanie Trecek-King, and Penn & Teller, you can find those there as well. </video> <video> The Christmas Drone Invasion: What Is Going On? - pt 2 Description: Whether or not you are worried about the ongoing wave of drone reports, this conversation by a panel of three skeptical investigators will shed much-needed light on the murky situation. </video> <video> Anticipating CSICon 2024: A Video Interview with Timothy Caulfield Description: This is part of my series of video interviews with the speakers scheduled to appear at CSICon 2024. This conference is run by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and will take place in Las Vegas from October 24–27. (You can find all the details and register right here.) For this episode, my guest was a CSI fellow, the 2020 Balles Prize for Critical Thinking recipient, and Member of the Order of Canada, professor Timothy Caulfield. He is a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health and research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. Caulfield’s interdisciplinary research on topics such as stem cells, genetics, research ethics, the public representations of science, and public health policy has allowed him to publish almost 400 academic articles. He is the author of two national bestsellers: The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything? His most recent book is Relax, Dammit!: A User’s Guide to the Age of Anxiety. Caulfield is also the host of the 2017 Netflix documentary series A User’s Guide to Cheating Death. Caulfield’s upcoming CSICon presentation is titled “The New Wellness BS? Manly, Optimizing, Science-y-ish, Longevity Woo!” and here is a summary: Will the stream of science-free wellness nonsense ever stop? A recent and ubiquitous trend: the rising “longevity” industry, which includes everything from consumption of hundreds of supplements to “young blood” infusions to testicle tanning. Influencers in this space, who often have impressive credentials, often use the language of real science—a tactic I call “scienceploitation”—to give their claims legitimacy. And many lean into the growing “manosphere,” that growing and ideologically charged echo chamber where traditional masculine norms are celebrated and framed as a required element to a healthy lifestyle. These characteristics of the longevity business can make it more difficult to debunk. But debunk we must! In the interview, Caulfield and I discussed a wide range of topics in addition to his upcoming presentation, including his latest book Relax, how he utilizes both his legal and scientific training in his work and public outreach, and how he stays motivated despite the ongoing uphill battle to bring reality to the public. We also discussed the unexpected correlation apparent in certain populations regarding non-mainstream beliefs (if you're anti-vax in the United States, you're also likely to back Russia in its invasion of Ukraine), and he revealed what he thinks is currently the most dangerous conspiracy belief. I also followed up on some of the topics we covered two years ago (the 2020 interview is available here), including the ongoing problem that is Gwyneth Paltrow, her Goop company, and the overabundance of others hawking ineffective products and treatments of all types to unwary consumers. I hope you enjoy this interview. Perhaps it will even make you consider attending this year’s CSICon where you can meet and mingle with Caulfield and the other speakers in person. If you do come, make sure to stay for the Sunday Morning Papers session, which I will be cohosting and will feature six short presentations on a wide variety of interesting skeptical topics! (If you are unfamiliar with the Sunday Morning Papers, you can learn all about this in an article I published on the topic, right here.) Also, be aware that next year will be a year off for CSICon, so keep that in mind when contemplating travel plans! You can find my other interviews with this year’s CSICon speakers, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, in my online column. And, if you are interested in watching any of my interviews with speakers from previous CSICons, including Bill Nye, Eugenie Scott, Richard Wiseman, Susan Gerbic, Melanie Trecek-King, and Penn & Teller, you can find those there as well. </video> <video> Anticipating CSICon 2024 - A Video Interview with Forrest Valkai Description: This is part of my series of video interviews with the speakers appearing at CSICon 2024, which will take place this October in Las Vegas. This episode features biologist and science communicator Forrest Valkai, attending his very first CSICon to share his infectious enthusiasm about science. </video> <video> A Skeptic Gets a Pendulum Reading Description: In this episode, I visit a metaphysical craft show in Buffalo, NY and sit down for a reading by Kayla, a self-proclaimed psychic and animal medium, offering pendulum board & tarot readings. After introducing myself and inviting her to apply for the CFIIG $500k Paranormal Challenge, she proposed I get a reading to see how accurate she was. I accepted (at the cost of $20). If you’ve never had a psychic reading before, here’s your chance to watch one unfold (with a front-row seat, no less), and experience the interaction through the perspective of a skeptical investigator. During the video, I’ll be cutting in, offering commentary on what transpired. I hope you enjoy it! Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer – Print Edition: https://skepticalinquirer.org/product/skeptical-inquirer-print-subscription/ Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer – Digital Edition: https://skepticalinquirer.org/product/skeptical-inquirer-digital-subscription/ Donate to Skeptical Inquirer to help continue our work: https://skepticalinquirer.org/donate/ </video>

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The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a society where humanism, science, and reason are what informs public policy. CFI provides speakers and thinkers the chance to speak and audiences the chance to learn.

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