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Skepticality

The Official Podcast of Skeptic Magazine

The concept of race continues to affect our world in undeniable ways. Sociologists tell us that people derive their attitudes about race from their family, culture, and education, with vast and persistent differences between the popular notions of race and the scientific view of human diversity. Even among scientists, who understand the current evidence, there is controversy about the definition of "race" — and about the usefulness of thinking in terms of race at all. This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Guy P. Harrison, a part-time science and history lecturer and journalist about his latest book Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity. Harrison discusses scientific evidence that the human species has no races, and explores how that evidence could unite humankind. Also featured is Atlanta Skeptic Taylor Proctor, on making this year's Atlanta Skepticamp a celebration of "Critical Thinking for Everyone".
Show Notes
 

Date – April 13th, 2010 read by Derek.

Very full show today featuring Guy P. Harrison, and Taylor Proctor.
First some feedback about our last program with Dr. Marc Bekoff.
Football player Michael Vick was prosecuted by law, and served his time.
There are requirements for the humane treatment of lab animals.
The expense of using chimpanzees for medical study is still being debated.
Sometimes critical thinking provokes an emotional response.
Tim Farley has our Skeptic History for this week.
Samples were cut from the Shroud of Turin to be radiocarbon dated on April 21, 1988
The Kinderhook Plates were unearthed on April 16, 1843 
and are generally regarded a hoax attempted to embarrass the Mormon church.
The Aurora, Texas UFO hoax is one of the earliest known American UFO stories,
allegedly began on April 17, 1897. 
You can read daily Skeptic History facts on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.
Taylor Proctor is one of the organizers of Atlanta Skepticamp 2010.
You can find out more about the Atlanta Skeptics here.
You can also find lots of Skeptic groups on Meetup.com.
You can sign up to speak at Atlanta Skepticamp or volunteer here. 
Today's guest is author Guy P. Harrison.
His latest book is Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity
Race is a social construct, but there is no scientific evidence to support the idea of "races". 
This does not mean that race has no impact. 
We are all Africans is a simple way of explaining where all humans came from. 
Jared Diamond discusses how some groups were able to dominate others, in his book
Guns, Germs and Steel.
There is no proof that any one group is more intelligent because of their skin color.
There is diversity among physiques, no one skin color is better at certain sports.
John Derbyshire of the National Review recently stuck his foot in his mouth. 
You can find out more about Guy Harrison at his website 
You can find out all about Skepticamp Here.



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