SGU Episode 105
|
This episode is in the middle of being transcribed by Skepticat (talk) as of {{{date}}}. To help avoid duplication, please do not transcribe this episode while this message is displayed. |
Introduction
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday, July 25th, 2007, and this is your host, Steven Novella, president of the New England Skeptical Society. Joining me this evening are Bob Novella...
B: Hey, everybody.
S: ...Rebecca Watson...
R: Hello, world.
S: ...Perry DeAngelis...
P: Hello.
S: ...Jay Novella...
J: Good evening, guys.
S: ...and Evan Bernstein.
E: Hi, everyone.
S: How is everyone this evening?
x: I'm good, Steve.
x: Very good!
x: Awesome.
x: Very, very good.
R: Couldn't be better.
P: We all went on honeymoon with Jay.
x: That's right.
x: We did.
P: All there in the hotel room. It's a little...
R: I thought, I thought it would be awkward, but you know...
x: It's kinda cool, right?
(inaudible)
R: It's kinda cozy.
P: No, his, his new bride is very cooperative.
R: Um-hm.
x: She snores.
P: And, I'd like to thank you, Jay.
S: 'S right. Jay was married five days ago. How's married life treating you, Jay?
J: I'm totally excited. I love it. Very, very happy. It's exactly what she told me to say, too, so.
S: Good. You're learning already.
(laughter)
x: Is there any difference now that you're no longer really living in sin?
J: I did feel that the air conditioning worked better. That's kinda strange, but...
(laughter)
x: That's happened before. That's common.
x: You know, as you guys...
S: If you want, if you want to meet Jay's wife, Cheryl, she's gonna be at the August 11th event that we're having in Brooklyn, New York.
R: Is she?
x: Yes, she is.
R: That, that gets me very excited because I met Cheryl at the wedding for the first time, and I found that I actually like her better than Jay.
(laughter)
x: Yeah.
S: Well, we all do.
R: Well, I'm really looking forward to that.
x: That's why they call it the "better half".
R: Yeah.
J: I don't know how to take that, Rebecca. Thanks.
R: Ma...marrying up. (laughter)
J: Oh, I'm defininely punching above my weight with this girl. Absolutely.
(snicker)
R: Jay, you know I love you.
J: Thank you. I love you too.
x: For ten dollars a minute, she'll talk in that English accent for you.
x: Oh, go.... (laughter)
x: She only charged us five.
S: In fact, Cheryl does do the sexy British voice that introduces our podcast.
J: And in other places, too.
(laughter)
R: We don't wanna hear about that, Jay.
x: I do.
S: Now we have a very special interview coming up later in the show.
x: Jimmy "Peanut Lovin'" Carter.
(laughter)
S: Yes, this is our, probably our highest profile interview to date - President Jimmy Carter. We interviewed him about his UFO sighting and other th...interesting things. So that's coming up in just a moment. But first, we'll start with some skeptical news.
News Items
"Item 1" (Ward Churchill Fired)
(00:02:26)
S: First news item is a little bit of follow-up from a previous story that we talked about. Ward Churchill, who is the professor of ethnic studies at Colorado University, was officially fired yesterday, on July, July 24th.
R: Though he claims he's not going anywhere, so I'm not really sure what that did.
(inaudible)
S: Yeah. He, well, he's saying that he's gonna sue the university for violation of his freedom of speech.
R: He's a tenured professor, though, so he gets a full year's pay.
S: Mm-hm
R: I'm wondering what he's complaining about. Just go.
S: Right. Yeah, right.
R: Go work on your wacky 9/11 theories.
x: They found him guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism.
R: Yeah, so it's not just that he has wacky theories about 9/11, which is why we're talking about him right now, in case anyone...
P: Actually, it specifically says he was not fired for that, Rebecca.
R: Ah.
S: Yeah, in fact, that wasn't considered at all. There, the quick backstory is that a couple years ago, Ward Churchill, in an essay, compared the World Trade Center 9/11 victims to little Eichmanns.
P: That's correct.
S: Who, comparing them to Adolph Eichmann, who was complicit in