My friend, Brian Dunning (from the excellent Skeptoid podcast), is in the process of creating a new TV show called The Skeptologists. They’ve just finished the pilot episode. Hopefully it gets picked up and we get more of this awesomeness!
From the Skeptologists site:
We’re not willing to just accept stories of the paranormal or supernatural. We want proof. Each week, we’ll take on a handful of wild claims — from the Bermuda Triangle to Bigfoot sightings to haunted houses — and apply accepted scientific practices and experiments to see if these ideas really hold up. Whether in the field or in the lab, we’ll literally put these subjects to the test in the hopes that one day we may find something that can’t be explained. Each episode will investigate one or more popular paranormal, supernatural, or other type of phenomena, in favor of evidence-based science.
The cast includes:
- Yau-Man Chan, 4th place contestant on Survivor: Fiji and Cheif Technology Officer for UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry
- Mark Edward, a professional mentalist specializing in magic of the mind.
- Dr. Steven Novella, a academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine, president of the New England Skeptical Society, writer of the Neurologica blog, and host of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast.
- Dr. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, writer of the Bad Astronomy blog, and a renowned astronomer, author, lecturer, and blogger.
- Dr. Kirsten Sanford, holds a PhD in physiology from UC Davis and is known more for her Sexy Geek nomination from a Wired magazine contest than for her intelligence.
- Dr. Michael Shermer, historian, author, monthly columnist for Scientific American, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and Executive Director of the Skeptics Society.
- Brian Dunning, host and executive producer of The Skeptologists and producer of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomenon podcast and book of the same title.
They have a one minute sneak peak trailer out on Youtube. Here it is:
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You can HELP the Skeptologist by sending an e-mail of support to skeptologists@newrule.com. Write-in in support of this show idea and let them know why you would watch a show about critical thinking, science and skepticism. The e-mails will be collected and used to help with the show getting picked up. (They won’t use your e-mail for anything other than this purpose by the way.)
Let’s hope we see this on the air soon!