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Dr. Michael Shermer
 Interview: Dr. Michael Shermer
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This week Derek has a conversation with Dr. Michael Shermer about his recently released book, 'The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Led Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom'. Find out more about how a shift in society which lead to the Enlightenment, abstract reasoning and skepticism have moved humanity toward a more just and moral world.
Show Notes
 

– Date – February 17th, 2015
– Send your cool ‘SCIENCE!’ shout-outs to
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Skepticism, Past and Future [2:00]
The US is having a multi-state outbreak of measles and is at a 20-year high for the disease according to the CDC.
Toronto Star eventually admitted “we failed” on their front-page HPV story after being drubbed by skeptics.
Jacobson v. Massachusetts settled that mandatory vaccinations were constitutional in the U.S.
– Many states offer religious/personal exemptions to such laws, but many states are trying to tighten them given the current outbreaks.
– Read more about the history of anti-vaccine movements at the History of Vaccines website.
– Tim blogged about the Food Babe’s attempts to thwart skeptic criticism last week.
– DoNotLink was previously discussed on Skepticality #243.
– Skeptic History facts are posted daily on social media find out where on this page at Tim’s blog.

Wikipedia [9:10]
Sherri Tenpenny Wikipedia page.
– Mark Forsyth Wikipedia page – Before & After.
http://www.SusanGerbic.com.
– Get involved with the Skeptics on Wikipedia project today!

Skeptical Humanities [18:40]
The Virtual Skeptics on Brian Williams.
Williams claims on his helicopter experience has caused a fuss.
– This should be a good time to highlight the fallibility of memory.
Check out Skepticality Humanities blog!

The Odds Must Be Crazy [29:40]
– This week's featured story is, "Clear as Glass".
– Story was submitted by Skepticality listener Bill Walker.
– Please visit the story link for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by contributing editor Mark Gouch.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Visit our new webhost, Skeptic Ink Network at Skepticink.com.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found on Twitter at @OddsMustBeCrazy, Facebook at TheOddsMustBeCrazy, and Google+ at thier profile.
– Wendy Hughes is on Twitter @Wendy91602.
– John Rael is on Twitter @skepticallyPwnd.
– Jarrett Kaufman is on Twitter @TurboFool.
– Barbara Drescher is on Twitter @badrescher.
– Brian Keith Dalton is on Twitter @MrDeity.
– Thanks to our friends Emery Emery and Heather Henderson for hospitality and support for the production of the segment. Visit them at skepticallyyours.net.

Chat With: Kyle Sanders [38:53]
– Kyle Sanders – Carbon Dating.
– As seen in Skeptic Magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and others.
– Kyle works as an instructor pilot for the Air Force.
– Skeptical thought is quite closely related to teaching people how to fly.
Air travel is MUCH safer than driving to work, in 2012 air travel had very few incents, compared to thousands on the highways just here in the USA.
If you want safer roads, you should be excited by the idea of all self driving cars.
– Kyle started his path of drawing skeptical web comics after his first skeptical conference, Skepticon and watching Joe Nickell.
Carbon Dating is making a drive to produce a new skeptical comic every day to promote critical thought.
– Kyle will be coming back to Skeptrack at Dragon Con in 2015.

Interview: Dr. Michael Shermer [52:00]
Dr. Michael Shermer.
Last time he was on Skepticality was to talk about his last book, 'The Believing Brain'.
His book, 'The Moral Arc', is named after a popular speech given my Martin Luther King Jr. the 'How Long, Not Long' speech in Selma, Alabama.
– Things are getting better, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Interracial Marriage, Gay Marriage, means more morality.
– Even Alabama now has legal Gay Marriage. Sadly, we do not in Georgia.
– However, Atlanta, GA is quite a happy place for any in the LGBT community to live in.
– In Germany they are giving up Nuclear Power and moving to all renewable energy.
– In the USA, we have tended to be behind the times, lack of renewable energy, mobile phone payments have been common in Japan for a long time
How the world reacted to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, across the planet it was seen as a terrible thing.
– People seem not to believe, or can't believe that violence has been in a free fall in a massive way.
– Even terrorism does not claim that many victims compared to many other, common, risks.
The Flynn effect is the interesting observation that since around the Industrial Revolution the average IQ in the civilized world has been going up drastically.
– There are almost as many guns as people in the United States.
– It is a well researched fact that the Death Penalty does not deter crime at all.
– Most people do not know, or haven't taken the time to read about why Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, his views and talk about Nuclear Weapons.
– You can get 'The Moral Arc' on Amazon, or more fun, you can get a signed copy from skeptic.com.
– Check out the MoralArc.com website for more information and sample chapters.

Outro Music [1:32:25]
– Outro music donated by Trent Brusky of Dropfox.



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