Space Cases

The Skeptoid podcast is a usually interesting take on various skeptical subjects, and when it's not so interesting...well, it's short! And if you aren't a podcast listener, each show has a full transcript on the site.

The latest episode, on the Missing Cosmonauts particularly caught my attention.

Unlike many skeptical topics, where you just discover that yet another popular myth is not true, this story is likely to provide some fascinating additions on a subject you may be unfamiliar with, along with some very interesting recordings taken of broadcasts caught from early Soviet space flights.

I also suggest checking out his coverage of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The experiment itself is very interesting (perhaps you saw the documentary about it), but what I like here is that Mr. Dunning is the first person I've heard apply critical thinking to the matter, and his conclusion is not necessarily a debunking, but simply a call for considering all the factors and making up your own mind on something with no definitive answer.

If you prefer the more cut and dried, then listen up on the topic of Homeopathy. Would you like some water with your water?

Comments

[Guy T.]

[from Wikipedia] Zimbardo concluded the experiment early when Christina Maslach, a graduate student he was then dating (and later married), objected to the appalling conditions of the prison

-- I didn't listen to the podcast, but I suspect that snippet tells me all I need to know about the scientific value of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

[Ronald Hayden]

I hope you listened to the Cosmonauts episode! Too cool to miss.

Anyway, yeah, there were numerous questionable and unscientific aspects to the Zimbardo experiment. Thing is, maybe it did have some interesting things to say about human nature...unfortunately, as executed, we'll never know. And no academic institution would allow a psychological test of this nature today.

The disturbing thing is that he continues to lecture and testify on the basis of that experiment, and (that I'm aware of) he does not do so in the context of all the flaws of the test.