LUEE Episode 125: Revenge of the Quiz Show Show!

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, recorded live at SkeptiCamp, Ashlyn, Lauren, Laura, and Gem test their knowledge (and that of the audience) in a variety of scientific and pseudoscientific domains.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

Colour Quiz (Ashlyn): Impossible color (Wikipedia) | Rayleigh scattering (Wikipedia) | Indigo dye (Wikipedia) | Verdigris (Wikipedia) | Orpiment (Wikipedia) | Red hair (Wikipedia)

Discarded Scientific Theories (Gem): Superseded scientific theories (Wikipedia)

The Magic of Crystals (Lauren): Crystal Healing: Stone-Cold Facts About Gemstone Treatments | Crystal Guide (Crystal Vaults) | A to Z Crystal Meanings (CrystalsandJewelry.com) | The 8 Essential Crystals (Goop)

Historical Food Guides (Laura): Government Health Posters: A History of Nutrition Guidelines (PlenteousVeg) | Food and Nutrition through the 20th Century (LibGuides) | Canada's Food Guides from 1942 to 1992 (Canada.ca) | How WWI Food Propaganda Forever Changed the Way America Eats (The A.V. Club) | Food for Young Children (Digital Library) | Dietary Recommendations and How They Have Changed Over Time (USDA) | The History of USDA Nutrition Guides (FoodManufacturing.com) | How to Select Foods, by Caroline L. Hunt and Helen W. Atwater (Archive.org)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 122: UFOs

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem discusses UFO sightings and claims of otherworldly visitation with Ashlyn, Lauren, and Laura.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

SkeptiCamp: If you'd like to present at SkeptiCamp, send an email to skepticamp@winnipegskeptics.com or skepticamp2017@gmail.com. Visit winnipegskeptics.com/skepticamp for more information!

Links: Episode 112: Did Aliens Build the Pyramids? (LUEE) | The First Canadian National Inquiry into UFOs (Newswire) | Unidentified flying object (Wikipedia) | Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting (Wikipedia) | Close encounter (Wikipedia) | What is the Roswell Incident? (RoswellIncident.com) | Roswell: Facts & Summary (History.com) | Roswell UFO incident (Wikipedia) | Joe Nickell (Wikipedia) | Majestic 12 (Wikipedia) | Roswell Daily Record, July 9, 1947 (Ufologie.net, via Internet Archive) | Roswell, New Mexico (Wikipedia) | Corona, New Mexico (Wikipedia) | Stanton T. Friedman (Wikipedia) | Project Mogul (Wikipedia) | The Roswell UFO crash really happened, 'witness' claims (Newshub) | Maurice Ewing (Wikipedia) | How an Alien Autopsy Hoax Captured the World's Imagination for a Decade (Time) | Operation High Dive (Wikipedia) | Stefan Michalak's Ridiculous Story (The Iron Skeptic) | Falcon Lake incident is Canada's 'best-documented UFO case,' even 50 years later (CBC News) | Falcon Lake Police Reports (Library and Archives Canada) | The Falcon Lake Incident (HowStuffWorks) | Felix Moncla (Wikipedia) | Briefing Points (Disclosure Project) | Special Briefing for President Obama (Disclosure Project) | cseti.org | Steven M. Greer (Wikipedia) | If We Call Them, Will They Come? (Yoga Journal)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 120: Fad Diets

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, and Gem discuss fad diets with host Laura Creek Newman, our resident Registered Dietitian. Topics covered in detail include the Paleo Diet, the Sweet Potato Diet, the Blood Type Diet, and The China Study.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

News: The Public Schools Act | Healthy hearts: Gluten-free diets don't help people without celiac disease, study finds (CBC News) | Effect of Alternate-Day Fasting on Weight Loss, Weight Maintenance, and Cardioprotection Among Metabolically Healthy Obese Adults (JAMA Internal Medicine)

The Paleo Diet: The Paleo Diet Premise | What is the Paleo Diet? (Primal Palate) | What Paleo diet experts think – and why they're wrong (The Guardian) | Study: Paleo Dieters Should Be Eating More Carbs (Outside Online) | Paleo Diet Review, Foods List, and More (WebMD) | It's a part of my paleo fantasy, it's a part of my paleo dream (Science-Based Medicine) | How to Really Eat Like a Hunter-Gatherer: Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked (Scientific American) | The Paleo Diet: Everything You Need to Know (Health.com)

The China Study: Episode 82: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? (LUEE) | China–Cornell–Oxford Project (Wikipedia) | The China Study (Wikipedia) | The China Study (Science-Based Medicine) | The China Study Revisited: New Analysis of Raw Data Doesn’t Support Vegetarian Ideology (Science-Based Medicine) | China Study author Colin Campbell slaps down critic (VegSource.com) | While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales (NYT) | Consumption of red meat and processed meat (IARC) | Vegetarian Diets Linked to Lower Mortality (NIH) | Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: a systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies (NCBI) | Recommended Supplements for Vegans (The Vegan RD) | Vegan & Vegetarian Nutrition (Toronto Vegetarian Association) | Vegetarian Diets (Dietitians of Canada)

The Sweet Potato Diet: The Sweet Potato Diet | All About Carb Cycling (Precision Nutrition) | Calories in Chocolate Primal Body Morellifit Whey Protein Isolate (MyFitnessPal.com) | 4 Ways To Lose Five Pounds In ONE WEEK! (YouTube) | Is Carb Cycling Really the Best Fat Loss Diet? (Nutrition WOD)

The Blood Type Diet: Blood type diet (Wikipedia) | Lectin (Wikipedia) | Blood Types Chart (American Red Cross) | Rh blood group system (Wikipedia) | Blood Type Diet: Eating for Types O, A, B, (AB) | The Blood Type Diet | 3 Reasons to Avoid the Blood Type Diet | Blood type diets lack supporting evidence: a systematic review (AJCN) | The Blood Type Diet: An Evidence-Based Review (Authority Nutrition)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 119: Chiropractic

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Laura, Gem, and Lauren talk about the history and practice of chiropractic medicine, then Ashlyn hosts a game of -ology A–Z!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Chiropractic (Wikipedia) | Vertebral subluxation (Wikipedia) | Daniel David Palmer (Wikipedia) | History of chiropractic (Wikipedia) | Chiropractic controversy and criticism (Wikipedia) | Osteopathy (Wikipedia) | Chiropractic (RationalWiki) | Chiropractic (The Skeptic's Dictionary) | Chiropractic care for reducing body weight (Edzard Ernst) | Advertising by some Manitoba chiropractors undermines public health (CBC Manitoba) | Patient Care (Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College) | Efficacy of spinal manipulation and mobilization for low back pain and neck pain (The Spine Journal) | Chiropractic Controversies (Pain Science) | Spinal manipulative therapy for acute low-back pain (Wiley Online Library) | Twenty Things Most Chiropractors Won't Tell You (Edzard Ernst) | Chiropractic Care: Attempting a Risk–Benefit Analysis (American Journal of Public Health) | Chiropractic Manipulation and Stroke (American Health Association) | Craniocervical arterial dissections as sequelae of chiropractic manipulation: patterns of injury and management (Journal of Neurosurgery) | Chiropractic treatment of the neck can be a risk factor for stroke (UC San Francisco) | When a chiropractor teaches us about homeopathy, we are in for comedy gold (Edzard Ernst) | List of unproven and disproven cancer treatments (Wikipedia)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 117: Trump

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Laura, Lauren, and Brendan discuss a few of the many myths and conspiracy theories endorsed by Donald Trump, and Brendan points out that a simple fact check isn't enough.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: For further context on Trump, fact-checking, border control, and claims of journalistic objectivity, Gem recommends these excellent episodes of On the Media: The Game Has Changed (On the Media) | The Ties That Bind (On the Media) | What We Know About the Border (On the Media)

Links: Episode 110: Science & Race (LUEE) | Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America (Global Research) | New Research Shows That More Immigration Means Higher Wages for All Workers in Cities (CityLab) | 3 Ways to Immigrate to USA (uscitizenship) | Immigration and the Economic Status of African-American Men (SSRN) | Unskilled Workers Lose Out to Immigrants (NYTimes.com) | An Aging U.S. is Revitalized by Immigrants (NYTimes.com) | Immigrants Are Replacing, Not Displacing, Workers (NYTimes.com) | Immigration Doesn't Hurt Native Jobs or Wages in the U.S., Report Finds (Time) | Immigrant Employment by State and Industry (Pew) | Does Illegal Immigration Disadvantage American Workers? (ProCon.org) | Immigrants Aren't Stealing American Jobs (The Atlantic) | Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories (Wikipedia) | Central Park jogger case (Wikipedia) | COINTELPRO (Wikipedia) | What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals (The New York Times) | Episode 101: "Trace Amounts" (LUEE) | 10 facts on immunization (WHO) | About Vaccines (Manitoba Health) | The GOP's dangerous "debate" on vaccines and autism (The Washington Post) | Trump team denies skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was asked to head vaccine commission (CNNPolitics.com) | Gregg Phillips: Trump's Favorite Voter-Fraud Activist (The Atlantic) | 25% of Voters Believe President Trump's Unfounded Voter Fraud Claim (Time) | President Trump's Voter-Fraud Expert Was Registered to Vote in Three States (Time) | President Trump Vowed to Investigate Voter Fraud. Then Lawmakers Voted to Eliminate an Election Commission (Time) | Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics and what the science really says (Skeptical Science) | Fact Check: Trump's Cabinet Picks on Human-Caused Global Warming | Ice-albedo feedback (Wikipedia) | Yes, Donald Trump did call climate change a Chinese hoax (PolitiFact) | 2012 Benghazi attack (Wikipedia) | A Comprehensive Guide To Benghazi Myths And Facts | Hillary Clinton emails - what's it all about? (BBC News) | Essays: To Profile or Not to Profile? (Schneier on Security) | Protestors call on mayor to make Winnipeg a sanctuary city (Winnipeg Free Press)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 114: Ray Comfort's "Atheist Delusion"

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Gem, and Laura review Ray Comfort's new "documentary" with special guests Ash Burkowski and David Bonwick, and the panel bids farewell to evangelical cartoonist Jack Chick with a game of Jack or Fiction.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Bad Science Watch | NHP Monograph Consultations (Bad Science Watch) | TRC #420: Origin of 420 + Gem Newman of Bad Science Watch + History Of Halloween (The Reality Check) | The Atheist Delusion (YouTube) | Checkmate, Atheists! (YouTube) | Jack Chick (RationalWiki) | Leonard Nimoy Gallery (NSFW)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 113: "Unsealed: Conspiracy Files"

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, we're trying something completely different! Are rich people harvesting organs from clones? Did Hitler fake his own death (six times)? Are CIA remote viewers peering inside your mind? Join Ashlyn and Lauren as they watch "Unsealed: Conspiracy Files" to find out!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Correction: While it has been widely reported that the Mars Curiosity Rover sings itself “Happy Birthday” every year, and this did indeed occur in 2013, it seems to have been a one-time event (but this has been frustratingly difficult to verify).

Links: Unsealed: Conspiracy Files (IMDb)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 112: Did Aliens Build the Pyramids?

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, we discuss ancient astronauts and the space-alien pseudohistories of Erich von Däniken, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Raëlians.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Correction: The Garden of Eden wasn’t near Jacksonville, MO, as Gem asserted. It was actually (according to Brigham Young) in Jackson County, MO. We apologise for this error.

Links: Episode 105: Mental Health & Stigma (LUEE) | Episode 110: Science & Race (LUEE) | Episode 106: Parapsychology (LUEE) | Ancient astronauts (Wikipedia) | Chariots of the Gods? (Wikipedia) | Iron pillar of Delhi (Wikipedia) | On the corrosion resistance of the Delhi iron pillar (R. Balasubramaniam) | Comparison of Babylonian and Noahic Flood Stories (ReligiousTolerance.org) | Interpretations of Genesis 1:1 (ReligiousTolerance.org) | PZ Myers Helps Us Plunder the Riches of L. Ron Hubbard's Book of Scientology Evolution (Underground Bunker) | Hubbard and the Occult (Jon Atack) | Lawrence Wollersheim (Wikipedia) | Up the Bridge: Our step-by-step series on Scientology's 'Bridge to Total Freedom' (Underground Bunker) | Let's Sell These People A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology, by Jon Atack | Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, by Russell Miller | Going Clear (Wikipedia) | Nation of Islam (Wikipedia) | Heaven's Gate (Wikipedia) | Raëlism (Wikipedia)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 111: Insect Repellents

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Lauren, Laura, and Gem discuss insect repellents, natural and artificial, historical and modern, and ask the question: "Do any of these natural bug sprays actually work?" The answer might surprise you! (Yes. The answer is "yes".)

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Plant-based insect repellents: a review of their efficacy, development and testing (NIH) | The Efficacy of Some Commercially Available Insect Repellents for Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Journal of Insect Science) | The Mosquito Patch | Thiamin Health Professional Fact Sheet (NIH) | Repellent efficacy of DEET, MyggA, neem oil and chinaberry oil against Anopheles arabiensis (Malaria Journal) | Neem oil (Wikipedia) | Neem Oil Fact Sheet (National Pesticide Information Center) | Vitamin B1 as a Mosquito Repellent (Livestrong) | The Effect of Exercise and Heat on Vitamin Requirements (NCBI Bookshelf) | The Excretion of Ascorbic Acid, Thiamine, Riboflavin, and Pantothenic Acid in Sweat (Journal of Biological Chemistry) | Citronella oil (Wikipedia) | Toxicological evaluation of neem oil: acute and subacute toxicity (PubMed) | Stink Bugs and Cedar Spray (Orkin) | Homemade Bug Repellent with Essential Oils | Mozi-Q Fools the Dragons (Science-Based Pharmacy) | Homeopathic Insect Repellent: Is there anything the Natural Health Products Directorate won't approve? (Skeptic North) | Avon Skin So Soft Bath Oil as Bug Spray Review (Consumer Reports) | Apple Cider Vinegar: 13+ Health Benefits (Reader's Digest) | How to Make a Natural Flea and Tick Remedy with Apple Cider Vinegar (WikiHow) | Mosquito repellent effectiveness: A placebo controlled trial comparing 95% DEET, Avon Skin So Soft, and a "special mixture" (BC Medical Journal) | Lethal dose (Wikipedia) | Nicotine (PIM) | Is glyphosate, used with some GM crops, dangerously toxic to humans? (Genetic Literacy Project) | The Four Best Bug Repellents: DEET, IR3535, Picaridin, Oil Of Lemon Eucalyptus Most Effective, Says EWG (MedicalDaily) | DEET (Wikipedia) | Deet (Extension Toxicology Network) | IR3535 (Wikipedia) | Ethyl Bytulacetylaminopropionate IR3535 (WHO) | Icaridin (Wikipedia) | Icaridin (WHO) | 2-Undecanone (Wikipedia) | Mosquitoes Repelled by Tomato-Based Substance; Safer, More Effective Than DEET (ScienceDaily) | 2-Undecanone Safety Data Sheet (Fisher Science) | Mosquito coil (Wikipedia) | Pyrethrins (Extension Toxicology Network) | Mosquito Coil Emissions and Health Implications (NIH) | DIY Mosquito Trap: How Mosquito Magnets Work (HowStuffWorks) | Mosquito Magnet Test Studies

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 110: Science & Race

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Lauren, Ashlyn, and Laura discuss science's rocky history with issues of race and talk about some racist pseudosciences that continue to masquerade as science today.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: If you notice an improvement in our audio quality, that's thanks to Pat Roach from The Reality Check who introduced us to a great auto-levelling tool. Thanks, Pat!

Links: Scientific racism (Wikipedia) | New Analysis Challenges Study Suggesting Racial Bias at NIH (Science) | The Amazing Atheist’s Racism (Martin Hughes) | If you speak out against hate, the atheist community has your back (Martin Hughes) | Race (Wikipedia) | Shovel-shaped incisors (Wikipedia) | Forensics 101: Race Determination Based on the Skull (Skeleton Keys) | The Social Construction of Race (Jacobin) | Phrenology (Wikipedia) | History of Phrenology on the Web | History of eugenics (Wikipedia) | Immigration Act of 1924 (Wikipedia) | Introduction to Eugenics (Genetics Generation) | Human Testing, the Eugenics Movement, and IRBs (Learn Science at Scitable) | Feeble-minded (Wikipedia) | The Kallikak Family (Wikipedia) | Alberta Eugenics Board (Wikipedia) | Eugenics (Wikipedia) | Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta (Wikipedia) | Canada's Human Rights History: Eugenics | The Scared White People Who Love Donald Trump (VICE Canada) | The anthropologists really are buzzing (Pharyngula) | ‘A Troublesome Inheritance’ and ‘Inheritance’ (The New York Times) | Letters: "A Troublesome Inheritance" (Stanford Center for Computational, Evolutionary, and Human Genomics) | The hbd delusion (Pharyngula) | Race and intelligence (Wikipedia) | Satoshi Kanazawa (Wikipedia) | Academic racism has a K=N problem (Noahpinion) | The Creepy Internet Movement You'd Better Take Seriously (Vocativ) | Curtis Yarvin (Wikipedia)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 109: The Quiz Show Show!

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Laura, Gem, and Lauren each prepare a quiz to test their fellow panelists' knowledge in a variety of scientific and pseudoscientific domains.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Pregnancy Quiz (Laura): 6 Bizarre Childbirth Myths From Ancient History | 15 Ancient Childbirth Myths | In Search of Human Placentophagy: A Cross-Cultural Survey of Human Placenta Consumption, Disposal Practices, and Cultural Beliefs | Against all odds | Miracle child | Vanishing Twin Syndrome | The effect of late pregnancy consumption of date fruit on labour and delivery

Cat Genetics Quiz (Ashlyn): Genetic Anomalies of Cats | Sphynx Cat | Tortoiseshell cat | Manx cat | Basic Feline Genetics | Basic Genetics as Revealed by Cats | Cat coat genetics | Cat body-type mutation | Strange but True: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets | Inherited deafness in white cats

You Have a Degree in Baloney! (Gem): Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Curriculum Guide | Canadian School for Natural Nutrition: Natural Nutrition Courses | Canadian School for Natural Nutrition: Advanced Holistic Nutritionist Workshops | Toronto School of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Courses | Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine Post-Graduate Program Outline | Pacific Rim College Community Herbalist Certificate

Peril! (Lauren): Can We Trust Crime Forensics? | Pseudoscience in the Witness Box | The Criminal Profiling Deception | CSI effect | How to Interrogate Suspects | Turkic mythology | List of flood myths | List of Māori deities | Leviathan | Viracocha | Curiosity Sings 'Happy Birthday' to Itself On Mars: Video | Planets & Their Moons | Jupiter's Great Red Spot is Shrinking | Islets of Langerhands | J! Archive

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 108: Cryptozoology & Mythical Creatures

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem hunts cryptids with Laura, Ashlyn, and Lauren. Also on this episode: dubious advice, bad jokes, worse segues, and one very annoying pronunciation of the word "cryptozoology"!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Cryptozoology (Wikipedia) | List of cryptids (Wikipedia) | Modern Folklore, by Robert B. Durham (Google Books) | Thylacine (Wikipedia) | Maltese tiger (Wikipedia) | Mutant Big Cats | Loch Ness Monster (Wikipedia) | The Surgeon's Photo | Second Loch Ness monster video swimming in the Thames (Daily Mail Online) | Patterson–Gimlin film (Wikipedia) | Mange (Wikipedia) | Tom Biscardi (Wikipedia) | "Finding Bigfoot" a Howler (Center for Inquiry) | Kting voar (Wikipedia) | Cambodia's Mystery, the Horns That Never Were (NYTimes.com) | Pseudonovibos spiralis (Artiodactyla: Bovidae): new information on this enigmatic South-east Asian ox (Wiley Online Library) | Debate on the authenticity of Pseudonovibos spiralis as a new species of wild bovid from Vietnam and Cambodia (Wiley Online Library) | Rod (optics) (Wikipedia) | Man-eating tree (Wikipedia) | Manchineel (Wikipedia) | Raskovnik (Wikipedia) | Silphium (Wikipedia) | Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Wikipedia) | Barnacle goose (Wikipedia) | Jackalope (Wikipedia) | Wolpertinger (Wikipedia) | Skvader (Wikipedia) | The world's scariest rabbit lurks within the Smithsonian’s collection (Smithsonian Insider) | Shope papilloma virus (Wikipedia) | Tourist dies on search for Pope Lick monster

Correction: In this episode Gem mentioned that some crytpozoology enthusiasts claim that Lake Manitoba is home to the Winnipogo Monster. While it's true that some believe that a monster swims the depths of Lake Manitoba, cryptozoologists actually claim that there are (at least) two separate lake monsters in Manitoba (although some sources treat them interchangeably). Lake Manitoba's monster is of course the Manipogo, with the Winnipogo Monster apparently confined to Lake Winnipegosis.

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 106: Parapsychology

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Lauren, Ashlyn, and Laura discuss the Ganzfeld Experiments, the Global Consciousness Project, Rupert Sheldrake, Daryl Bem, and a psychic dog, and then we finally find out exactly how psychic the panel is with a game of Psychic Fact or Psychic Fiction!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Parapsychology (Wikipedia) | Ganzfeld experiment (Wikipedia) | Global Consciousness Project (Wikipedia) | Global Consciousness (The Skeptic's Dictionary) | Rupert Sheldrake (Wikipedia) | Scientific Heretic Rupert Sheldrake on Morphic Fields, Psychic Dogs and Other Mysteries (Scientific American Blog Network) | Why science needs to publish negative results (Elsevier) | Daryl Bem (Wikipedia) | Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect (Daryl Bem) | Back from the Future: Parapsychology and the Bem Affair (CSI) | How much is that doggy in the window? (Richard Wiseman) | Methods of divination (Wikipedia)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 105: Mental Health & Stigma

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Lauren discusses mental health with Ashlyn, Gem, and Laura, with a focus on treatments and associated stigmas, current and historical.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: History of mental disorders (Wikipedia) | Trepanning (Wikipedia) | Psychiatry in Ancient Egypt (BJPsych Bulletin) | Humorism (Wikipedia) | Dosha (Wikipedia) | Bedlam revisited: A history of Bethlem hospital 1634-1770. | Electroconvulsive therapy (Wikipedia) | TRC #366: Accent Bias + Electroshock Therapy + Did A Cat Take A Bullet For A Kid? (The Reality Check) | Lobotomy (Wikipedia) | The History of Mental Illness: From "Skull Drills" to "Happy Pills" (Student Pulse) | Fighting Stigma: A Closer Look at Mental Illness Throughout History (YouTube) | The hidden medical logic of mental health stigma (Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry) | Initiatives: Opening Minds (Mental Health Commission of Canada) | The Stigma Associated with Mental Illness (Canadian Mental Health Association) | Exposing Canada’s ugly mental-health secret (The Globe and Mail) | Your Mental Health (Canadian Mental Health Association) | What to do about the antidepressants, antibiotics and other drugs in our water (Ensia) | Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (Wikipedia) | Addressing Mental Health Treatment Barriers (Psychology Today) | Let's Talk About How My Job at Bell Gave Me Mental Health Issues and No Benefits (CANADALAND) | Ten Days in a Mad-House (Nellie Bly) | Reasonable Vegan | Episode 82: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? (LUEE)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 101: "Trace Amounts"

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn subjects Gem, Laura, Ian, and Dave to a viewing of "Trace Amounts", a prominent anti-vaccine "documentary". It is... not good.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: After we recorded this episode, news broke that prominent anti-vaccine group "SafeMinds" funded a $250,000 study in an attempt to demonstrate that thimerosal causes autism. The study was published at the end of September, and actually found no evidence that the thimerosal in vaccines has any link to autism or autism-like changes in the brain. And they killed 79 macaques to do it. Links discussing the study are provided below.

Links: Review of Trace Amounts (Skeptical Raptor) | Do vaccines contain toxic ingredients? (Public Health Agency of Canada) | The Alleged Autism Epidemic (Science-Based Medicine) | Chelation therapy (Wikipedia) | The CDC Whistleblower William Thompson Appears to Have Gone Full Antivaccine (Respectful Insolence) | Antivaxxers Still Flogging Thimerosal (NeuroLogica) | Has the Government Conceded Vaccines Cause Autism? (NeuroLogica) | Autism Court Ruling: Vaccines Didn't Cause Autism (NeuroLogica) | Legal Courts and Science (NeuroLogica) | Spurious Correlations | Anti-Vaxxer Group Pays $250,000 for Study Showing That Vaccines Don't Cause Autism (Raw Story) | Killing Monkeys to Prove Vaccines STILL Don't Cause Autism (Rebecca Watson) | TRC #370: Antibacterial Soap + Maple Water + Anti-Vaxxers Funding Fail + Top CO2 Emitters (The Reality Check) | PilesOfEvidence.com

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 100: Silly Pseudoscience Special!

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem discusses silly pseudosciences and conspiracy theories with Ashlyn, Laura, Ian, and Lauren, then caps off the episode by interviewing panelists past and present about their favourite episodes, the future technologies they're most excited about, and whether they'd rather live next door to Ray Comfort or Deepak Chopra.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: List of topics characterized as pseudoscience (Wikipedia) | Biodynamic agriculture (Wikipedia) | Pyramid power (Wikipedia) | SECRET POWER of PYRAMIDS | Pyramid Power | Organic/Biodynamic (Summerhill Pyramid Winery) | The Pyramid (Summerhill Pyramid Winery) | Paul is dead (Wikipedia) | Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison (IMDb) | Nazi UFOs (Wikipedia) | Space Nazis (Wikipedia) | Did the middle ages not really happen? (The Straight Dope) | Phantom time hypothesis (Wikipedia) | New Chronology (Wikipedia) | Dietitian at Home

Favourite Episodes: Episode 29: Zombies, Part 1 | Episode 32: Zombies, Part 2 | Episode 40: Skepticon 5, Part 1 | Episode 42: Skepticon 5, Part 2 | Episode 59: Organic Agriculture | Episode 60: "Frankenfoods" | Episode 72: The War on Christmas: A Brief History | Episode 74: Nutritional Supplements | Episode 77: Coffee & Tea | Episode 79: The Historicity of Jesus | Episode 88: Experimenting on Your Thoughts | Episode 90: "Resonance: Beings of Frequency" | Episode 91: Straight, White Christmas | Episode 97: Labels

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 99: Forensic Science

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn discusses the scientific (and sometimes pseudoscientific) underpinnings of several forensic investigation techniques with Laura, Gem, Ian, and Lauren.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: The CSI effect (National Post) | FBI Testimony on Microscopic Hair Analysis Contained Errors in at Least 90 Percent of Cases in Ongoing Review (FBI.gov) | Thirty years in jail for a single hair: the FBI's 'mass disaster' of false conviction (The Guardian) | FBI admits it fudged forensic hair matches in nearly all criminal trials for decades (National Post) | Hair analysis (Wikipedia) | Comparative bullet-lead analysis (Wikipedia) | Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis: A Case Study in Flawed Forensics | Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis: A Retrospective by Paul C. Giannelli (SSRN) | Ballistic fingerprinting (Wikipedia) | Forensic entomology (Wikipedia) | Forensic science is biased and inaccurate, but juries believe it and convict the innocent (Slate) | Flawed Journalism on Flawed Forensics in Slate Magazine (Forensic Science, Statistics & the Law) | More on the Mistakes in "Forensic Science Isn't Science" (Forensic Science, Statistics & the Law) | Fix the Flaws in Forensic Science (The New York Times) | Pseudoscience in the Witness Box (Slate) | John Schneeberger (Wikipedia)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 96: The Moon Landing Conspiracy

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Ian, and Laura discuss the conspiracy claim that the Apollo moon landings were faked by NASA.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Moon landing conspiracy theories (Wikipedia) | Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy: Bad TV | The Great Moon Hoax (NASA Science) | Apollo 11 missing tapes (Wikipedia) | Van Allen radiation belt (Wikipedia) | The Conspiracy Theory Detector (Scientific American) | Conspiracy Theory Poll Results (Public Policy Polling) | The Apollo 15 Hammer and Feather Drop on the moon (The Kid Should See This) | Bad Astronomy (Slate) | Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, by Phil Plait (Amazon.ca) | The Moon is Not Real: David Icke (YouTube) | The Fallaway Slam Podcast (The only podcast that matters!) | Dietitian at Home

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Stitcher | RSS Feed

LUEE Episode 95: Common Misconceptions

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn is joined by Lauren, Laura, and Gem to discuss some common misconceptions (and maybe some that aren't so common).

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Misconceptions (xkcd) | List of common misconceptions (Wikipedia) | Horned helmet (Wikipedia) | List of common false etymologies of English words (Wikipedia) | Anglo-Saxon runes (Wikipedia) | Thorn (Wikipedia) | What Are Paper Towns? (John Green) | Fictitious entry (Wikipedia) | Argleton (Wikipedia) | Not a Word (The New Yorker) | Heat death of the universe (Wikipedia) | Hyperactivity and sugar (MedlinePlus) | Busting the Sugar-Hyperactivity Myth | Episode 77: Coffee & Tea (LUEE) | Not Enough Evidence the Internet of Things Botnet Actually Exists | New toolkit seeks routers, Internet of Things for DDoS botnet | Hunting the Elements | Is Glass a Solid or a Liquid (IFLScience)

Contact Us: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Listen: Direct Link | iTunes | Stitcher | RSS Feed

WiFi and Cell Phones: Should You Really Be Worried?

Until recently, several of the talks presented at SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2013 were missing from the SkeptiCamp Winnipeg archives. Although I have previously posted a transcript of my 2013 talk, which discussed electromagnetic hypersensitivity and other fears linked to WiFi and mobile phones, audio of the talk is now available on the Winnipeg Skeptics site. It's also available right here!

SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2013: WiFi and Cell Phones: Should You Really Be Worried?

SkeptiCamp Winnipeg is a conference for the sharing of ideas. It is free and open to the public: anyone can attend and participate! Presentations and discussions focus on science and free inquiry, and the audience is encouraged to challenge presenters to defend their ideas. You can visit the Winnipeg Skeptics' SkeptiCamp page for information about upcoming events and links to past SkeptiCamp talks.