Rationally Speaking #52 - Donald Prothero on the Holocaust-Deniers' Playbook

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2012

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Guest Donald Prothero joins us to discuss the common tactics and thinking of science deniers and the implications of this assault on science for our future. The denial of scientific realities in issues like global warming, creationism, vaccine safety, and AIDS, is growing in our society. Not only is our acceptance of scientific "inconvenient truths" under attack, but even scientists themselves have been threatened.

Donald R. Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 25 books, over 200 scientific papers and a number of popular books including, most recenly, "Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters" and "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters". He is on the editorial board of Skeptic magazine and has been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of Paleoworld (BBC), Prehistoric Monsters Revealed (History Channel), Entelodon and Hyaenodon (National Geographic Channel), and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (BBC).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.6	For more information, please visit us at NYCCEceptics.org.
0:35.8	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:41.1	I'm your host, Massimo Piliucci, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Julia Galev.
0:45.8	Julia, what are we going to talk about today?
0:47.8	Massimo, today we have a special guest with us in studio.
0:51.1	Donald Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College in L.A. and lecturer in
0:56.5	geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He's written and edited 28 books and over
1:02.0	250 scientific papers, including five top geology textbooks. And he's a major player in the
1:07.8	skeptic movement. He is on the editorial board of Skeptic Magazine and blogs regularly at Skeptic Blog.
1:12.6	Welcome, Donald.
1:13.6	Welcome.
1:14.1	Thank you.
1:15.5	This is our second attempt to have you on the podcast.
1:19.3	Our listeners may not be aware, but we were originally going to have Donald as a guest in August to talk about natural disasters and catastrophes, and that visit was prevented by the
1:31.2	arrival in one week in New York of an earthquake and a hurricane.
1:35.7	If I were superstitious, I would be staying away from you.
1:40.0	This is a good reason to change the topic in the talk to.
1:42.1	So today, he's going to talk with us about denialism.
1:47.0	So I was pleased to discover that a denialist didn't prevent your speaking in New York.
1:53.0	Just lots of Santa's in the road today.
1:55.0	Lots of Santa's, yeah.
	...

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