An Exploration of Skeptiko 3.0 and Why Science Is Wrong…About Almost Everything.

WSIWBookCoverJoin Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris as he officially announces the release of his new book Why Science Is Wrong…About Almost Everything. During this short episode, Alex outlines his plans/intentions following the book launch, as well as his future vision for further developing Skeptiko “Version 3.0”.

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Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I’m your host Alex Tsakiris, and on this short little abbreviated episode I have a couple of things to announce and talk about – the first being my book is done. Why Science Is Wrong…About Almost Everything is done, it’s out, it’s printed, it’s here on my desk. It’s available on Amazon. The printed version is available [but] it’s out of stock right now for a couple days…I just talked to my publisher by email and [it] has to do with the way Amazon orders these initial books, and all that stuff. But it’ll be back very soon; you can order it there. We hope to have the Kindle version up soon; that’s coming as well. So please do check it out there, or if you have another source where you like to get your books, please go there and check out Why Science Is Wrong…About Almost Everything.

And with the announcement of the book I of course want to thank all of you for the help and support that you’ve given me with the Skeptiko project that’s led to this book, and also for many of the ideas that have really been formulated through my interaction with you. I have to tell you, one of the things I’m most excited about with the book is using it as a vehicle to connect with more people. It’s always exciting to be able to share what I’ve learned; to share some of this new science. And I’ve already begun to do that. I’ve completed a couple of interviews on the book and they’ve been great. And it’s so fun to talk to people who have never heard about some of this stuff before, and expose them to it for the first time. Just like I said a minute ago, that’s really working out. I have several more scheduled, and I wanted to reach out to all of you.

If you know of other outlets where I can go on and talk about this book, and get these ideas out there, please let me know. I’m particularly keen to talk to groups that might not be initially super-receptive. [We] might be able to find some points of synergy where we can kind of shoehorn our way in there. I really would like to talk to skeptics about the book. I’d love to talk to mainstream science-types. [I would] love to talk to mainstream media-types…I’d love to talk to Atheists of course, Christians, and all sorts of folks. If you have any ideas along those lines, or if you’re a blogger/podcaster, or have those kinds of connections, let me know. That’s just going to be exciting [for] me, and it’s gonna be fun to get that out there. And as I do get that out there and go through that process, I want to let you know that I set up a website to more-or-less chronicle that journey…the rollout of the book [and] talking to these different groups. The website is whyscienceiswrong.com. I’ll get a link up sooner rather than later to that. And you can follow along and see who I’m talking to, and how it goes, and add your comments over there. So, I think we can have a fun time together exploring where that may lead.

Now the second announcement I wanted to make has to do with the Skeptiko show, and it more or less relates to what I was just talking about there. I feel that the Skeptiko show has gone through a couple major revisions. I always think of “Skeptiko 1.0” as being “Follow the data wherever it leads”…that was me thinking that science and skepticism was pretty much a straight-up game, and we just had to dig into the science and we’d get the answers that we need. And there’s some truth to that, but I think what it led to was a greater truth that I call “Skeptiko 2.0” – at least to myself I call it that. That was about “It’s more than the data”. It’s about the larger culture of science. It’s about deception [and] conspiracy. It’s about the way the world works and the motivations of the individuals involved. And we’ve explored that a great deal on Skeptiko, and it’s led to some interesting places. So with that, I kind of see the show moving towards “Skeptiko 3.0”, and that’s formulating in my mind right now, but I kind of see it as “The data collective”. It’s about how you and I can learn from each other and crowd-source this journey that I’ve been talking about, that I’ve been on. But really I’ve been on it with you because as you know if you’ve followed the show, especially recently, I’ve relied more and more on Skeptiko listeners to suggest guests. And recently I’ve even asked Skeptiko listeners to go ahead and book the guest…contact them, send them an email, [and] see if they want to be on the show. And you guys have done a fabulous job of that. There’s been some great emails that are really much better than I could write to entice people to join me on the show. And they’ve led to some really [amazing] interviews that I’ve grown a lot from. So I want to do that, but I want to take it one step further.

Now, if you check out the Skeptiko forum you may have noticed that I just put up a thread announcing my upcoming interview with a gentleman named Dr. Larry Malerba. He wrote a book a few years ago called Green Medicine, and he recently published a blog post on Bernardo Kastrup’s blog. That’s how I heard about him [and] Bernardo connected me with him. And I’ve opened up a thread on the Skeptiko forum so I can take advantage of this incredible collective knowledge of the Skeptiko listeners. Hopefully you can help guide me and we can work together to figure out what direction I should take this interview. I think that has two benefits. One, obviously, I can be better informed and ask better questions. But the other thing that I really want to get to is I’ve noticed so many times in the Skeptiko interviews that it’s really the second interview, or the follow up to the first interview, where some of the main meatiest issues really get resolved. It’s the “Interview 2.0”, if I can stretch the revision metaphor a little bit further. But I think that’s where all the action happens. And what I’m hoping is that by you participating in helping me formulate the ideas for these upcoming interviews, we can work together, we can maybe even collect some information, have an exchange with the guest – which I’ve offered to do with Larry, and Larry has agree to in a limited sense. So we can actually have a pre-email interview through the forum; then really get to the some meaty stuff in the show.

So I don’t know exactly how that’s going to turn out, but I think it’ll be interesting/fun, and it’s certainly a direction that I’d like to go with, because I think it’s a direction that we’re already going with [anyway]. [Now] it’s just more explicitly acknowledging your role in this whole process. So let me hear your thoughts on that. We don’t have to do it exactly the way I’m talking about. We might find a better way. I will issue a word of warning on suggestions – be careful what you suggest you may find yourself being construed as volunteering for something, but that’s OK too.

So I usually wrap up these episodes with a question, and I think the question here has already been put forth, and that is: What direction should we take Skeptiko as we evolve toward this Skeptiko 3.0 that I’m talking about? I’d love to, and need to, get your thoughts and ideas on that. The place to do it of course is through the Skeptiko website at Skeptiko.com. I usually pay most attention to the forum but I also try to get over to the questions that are posted in the “Discuss” section, the comments section of the website, and I’m pretty good at responding to email and Facebook queries – although I’ve been a little bit slow on Facebook lately, just been kind of busy.

So that’s going to do it for this short little mini episode, but I did want to get out there and tell you that this book is out there…I’m really looking forward to your ideas on how I can move these ideas forward – both in the form of the book and of course through Skeptiko and where we take that. So next week I have a great interview coming up. I forget who it’s with, but I have some really good ones in the hopper. John is helping me get those out…Oh! And before I forget I have to make sure to mention that John Maguire who is helping me produce the Skeptiko shows now is also the person who helped me edit this book; helped me a great deal in the editing process of this book. So, I want to make a special mention to John for all his help and his great ideas in working with me on the book. And he also wrote the appendix to the book that explains some of Dean Radin’s work with presentiment. So you can check that out as well.

So do stay with me for all of that. I know you will. And until next time, take care and bye for now.