Skepticality; The official radio show and podcast of Skeptic Magazine and the Skeptics Society, is a top-rated audio talk show dedicated to the promotion of critical thinking and science. Each episode is an audio magazine featuring regular segments by contributors who are specialized in specific areas of critical thought followed by featured content which is, usually, in the form of an interview with a researcher, author, or individual who is helping promote skeptical thought and/or science in an effective way. Previous episodes have included such names as James Randi, Phil Plait, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Michael Shermer, Seth Shostak, Benjamin Radford, Ann Druyan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss and Vegas headliner, Penn Jillette.
About the Hosts
Derek Colanduno
Your skeptical host, grew up in Las Vegas. That explains just about everything. Too close to Area 51 and nothing he could do about it.
Raised by his New Jersey parents to question the world around him, Derek has been seeking truth in every day things, for as long as he can remember.
In his day job, Derek, (personal website), works for an Environmental Engineering firm as a IT Consultant. For fun and sometimes profit, he’s a 3d graphics developer, audio engineer, and HD video editor. (batpig studios)
Derek has contributed to several other podcasts including The Pickle Round-Up for podcastpickle.com and AMP’d the weekly music review show for the Association of Independent Music Podcasters. He is currently one of the co-hosts of the Dragon-Pod podcast, The Official Podcast of Dragon*Con.
Derek is currently spending his time rebuilding his super-genius brain following his 09/08/05 brain overload and subsequent inner-cranial explosion. Derek 2.5 is in final beta testing.
Derek is the Director of Skeptrack, a programming track devoted to skepticism at Dragon Con (the world’s largest culture convention) which is held in Atlanta, Georgia every Labor Day weekend.
E-Mail Derek: derek@skepticality.com Follow Derek on Twitter
Robynn “Swoopy” McCarthy
Co-host Swoopy is skeptical of many things, but mostly Derek. Previously her Skepticality contributions included the fun stuff like Whimsicality, and all of the music that is featured on the show. After her accomplished coup d’ état of 2006, Swoopy became a one woman podcasting machine and now does all the writing, most of the research and all of the editing and post-production on the program.
Swoopy is the Co-Director of Skeptrack, a programming track devoted to skepticism at Dragon*Con (the world’s largest culture convention) which is held in Atlanta, Georgia every Labor Day weekend.
A previous podcast Projekt Podkast for the Projekt darkwave music label was discontinued after one season due to personal time constraints.
For fun and profit, she works in audio editing, graphic design, digital composition, cinematography, still photography, fine arts including oils, acrylics, charcoal, and pen & ink drawing. She has been, rarely, heard on the show lately due to her going to medical school full-time.
In her spare time, when she had spare time, Swoopy enjoyed ballet, composing spooky electronic music and staring longingly at her collection of Howard Dean campaign posters.
E-Mail Swoopy: swoopy@skepticality.com Follow Swoopy on Twitter
About the Contributors
TIM FARLEY
Tim Farley is a computer security analyst who is best known for his skeptic website What’s the Harm? He blogs on skeptic use of technology at skeptools.com, and his posts there have inspired others to create skeptic projects such as GSoW and Skeptunes. He also regularly contributes to Skepticality, Virtual Skeptics, INSIGHT blog and Skeptical Inquirer, and is a former JREF Fellow.
E-Mail Tim: tim@skepticality.com Follow Tim on Twitter
SUSAN GERBIC
Susan “The Weird One” Gerbic, keeper of all things magnificent and magical. Was born a poor maidservant who spent her early years scrubbing fireplaces and lighting kitchen sinks. Until one day her fairy Godfather, Timothy “Some Call Him Tim” Farley whisked her away from her household duties and showed her this amazing invention called Wikipedia. And now she sits, back hunched not over a pail of water and ashes but over her laptop keyboard. Her home is full of cobwebs, dust kangaroos and pizza boxes, but she doesn’t care or even notice as her vision is only for editing and recording segments on Skepticality.
E-Mail Susan: susan@skepticality.net Follow Susan on Twitter
BobBlaskiewicz
Bob Blaskiewicz is Assistant Professor of Critical Thinking and First-Year Studies at Stockton Univeristy, where he teaches writing and communication classes. He blogs at Skeptical Humanities, is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s “Conspiracy Guy” web columnist, contributes a monthly essay to the Skepticality podcast, and is a weekly panelist on the live web show The Virtual Skeptics, which is like Meet the Press, but with chupacabras. He is the editor of Magic in the Classroom: Using Extraordinary Claims to Teach Critical Thinking, which was published in 2015 by the James Randi Educational Foundation. He is a founding member of the Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients, and writes for bothe The OTHER Burzynski Patient Group and thehoustoncancerquack.com. All of this is very strange since he wrote his dissertation on WWII combat veterans’ memoirs. Go figure.
E-Mail Bob: bob@skepticality.com Follow Bob on Twitter
Eve Siebert
Eve Siebert has a Ph.D. in English literature from Saint Louis University and has taught college writing and literature for many years. Her primary area of study is Old and Middle English literature, with secondary concentrations in Old Norse and Shakespeare. She contributed several posts to the Education and Skepticism blog series for the James Randi Educational Foundation and has participated in workshops on Skepticism and Rhetoric, Skepticism across the Curriculum, and Skepticism and the Humanities at The Amazing Meeting. She blogs at Skepticalhumanities and Insight, and is a panelist on the Virtual Skeptics webcast.
E-Mail Eve: eve@skepticality.net Follow Eve on Twitter
Wendy Hughes
Wendy Hughes has been a grassroots skepticism activist for over ten years, as a member and officer of one local grassroots group, and co founder of another. She is the Editor of the Healthy Skepticism channel of Skeptic Ink Network. Wendy discovered skepticism by reading The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan, then later Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer, and by coincidence had taken a night school class at the local community college in the speech department that was an early version of critical thinking.
Introduced to organized skepticism by attending events at the Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles, it replaced grassroots politics and many other volunteer activities as an identity and passion. Wendy is the co founder of The Odds Must Be Crazy, a blog about coincidences that, with the generous help of friends, colleagues and advisors from the skepticism community, explains probability and psychology to help defeat superstition. Coincidences are experiences that almost everyone has had; they can be a gateway into superstition. Wendy hopes that The Odds Must Be Crazy is helping people find the way out.
E-Mail Wendy: wendy@skepticality.net Follow Wendy on Twitter
John Rael
John Rael is the director and lead kicker of the webseries SkepticallyPwnd (Youtube.com/SkepticallyPwnd). He divides his time between filmmaking, volunteering with organizations like the Skeptic Society and the Investigation Network, and serving alcohol at the Dolby Theatre. If he sounds familiar you are probably just confusing his voice with Zach Braff or Ray Romano.
E-Mail John: john@skepticality.net Follow John on Twitter