Skeptoid: Here Be Dragons
If you've never heard of Brian Dunning or the Skeptoid podcast, now's the time! Jump on the bandwagon before Brian gets so famous he won't answer our emails anymore.Skeptoid bills itself this way:
"Skeptoid is a weekly podcast dedicated to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture.
"Each weekly episode focuses on a single phenomenon — paranormal, spiritual, alternative, or just plain stupid — that you've heard of, and that you probably believe in. Skeptoid attempts to expose the folly of belief in such phenomena, and more importantly, explains the factual scientific reality.
"From the sublime to the startling, no topic is sacred, politically incorrect though that may be."
Skeptoid is one of those podcasts I look forward to all week and listen to right away when it comes out. Each episode is clear and well-written, and the reasoning is usually spot on. Plus, Brian himself is truly a mensch I've never heard an ad hominem attack pass his lips when dissecting the irrational. How many of us possess this kind of restraint?
But now there's something new, and guess what—it even involves The Fool himself!
Brian has produced a 40-minute movie about skepticism and critical thinking entitled, "Here Be Dragons." The movie is being distributed for free (donations gratefully accepted) online. I have watched it three times now, and my capsule review is, it is excellent! Right now, only a low-bandwidth version is available, but soon you'll be able to download the whole thing in all its fabulous widescreen DVD-quality glory! I'll post the link when it's available.
And how is The Fool involved, you ask? Well, in real life, I do a bit of video production myself, and all the little interview clips of non-skeptical people that you see in the beginning of the film were shot by yours truly. This was a fun project to work on, and I hope I get to do more of this kind of thing—beats the hell out of corporate and industrial videos.
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