The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Cool Stuff: The James Webb Space Telescope with Prof. René Doyon

This episode is full of Cool Science. The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship observatory, is now scheduled for launch on December 18th of 2021. This infrared observatory with a 6.5 metre segmented deployable primary telescope will rocket off to a distant Lagrange point where it will deploy a tennis-court-sized multi-layer foil sunshield to allow it to cool to -223 degrees Celsius. The mission cost over $10 Billion to put together.
René Doyon obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medecine in 1990. He is a full professor at the physics Department of the Université de Montréal, Director of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets and the Mont-Mégantic Observatory. His research activities focus on the search and study of exoplanets, young stars and the development of state-of-the-art astronomical instruments for ground- and spaced-based observatories.
He is principal investigator of the Canadian-built instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2021. His research team led the development of novel imaging techniques that contributed, in 2008, to obtain the first images of a multiple planetary system outside the Solar system. His distinctions includes the 2009 Polanyi award, and prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and more recently the 2018 Killam Research Fellowship.
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#therationalview #podcast #science #JWST #spacetelescope #astronomy #astrophysics #exoplanets #SETI #spectroscopy #firstlight

The inexorable advance of Security Theater

In this episode Dr. Scott discusses society's apparent need to spend wads of money performing security theater.
Security theater is an insidious phenomenon whereby people are pressured into pointless and irrational acts of theater in the name of security. This inevitably happens as a result of a seemingly preventable tragedy, followed by a politician or security official who feels pressured to act. Society spends billions of dollars on out-of-proportion security theater every year. The entire US TSA is one example of a security theater that makes people feel safe to fly. Another common example is the driving need to cycle through arcane passwords that nobody can remember every couple months. How about the hygiene theater of scrubbing down everything with disinfectant to supposedly prevent the spread of COVID-19?
How does one fight security theater when it is so easy to cast opponents as monsters who don't care about the safety of children? The answer is that we all need to ask our elected representatives to engage in a rational public policy discussion before we give away our money and our freedoms in pointless acts that are unlikely to provide the desired results.
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#therationalview #podcast #securitytheater #TSA #COVID #freedom #rational #sciencebased 

Inequity and the Pandemic with Edgardo Sepulveda

The Rational View welcomes Edgardo Sepulveda back to discuss the interactions between social inequality and COVID-19. Edgardo has co-authored a paper on the topic providing evidence that societies with higher inequity also suffer higher COVID-19 mortality rates.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321001798?dgcid=rss_sd_all
It is not immediately clear why this might be the case, and it is difficult to tease out a correlation amidst all of the other confounding factors. This discussion is an interesting exploration of the application of statistics and the scientific method.
Edgardo Sepulveda has been a telecommunications economist for 25 years, the last 15 with his consulting firm in Toronto, Canada. He was born in Chile and has an MA in Economics. As part of his civic policy-related engagement, he also writes about electricity, inequality, COVID-19 and other issues, including at the Progressive Economics Forum, where he wrote the blog that we’ll be discussing on this episode. Edgardo has been the guest on a number of other energy-related podcasts. His Twitter handle is @E_R_Sepulveda.
“The Spirit Level” by UK social epidemiologists Picket and Wilkinson is the book that came out in 2009 and popularized the idea that social and economic inequality negatively affects individual and population health.  It has its own Wikipedia entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_Level_(book and is highlighted in the Equality Trust (a social NGO set up by them) here: 
https://equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/the-spirit-level
The Economist covered some of the COVID-inequality work in an article in its July 31, 2021 edition in the Finance section titled: “Why have some places suffered more covid-19 deaths than others? Income inequality is a big part of the answer”. 
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/07/31/why-have-some-places-suffered-more-covid-19-deaths-than-others
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#therationalview #podcast #covid #inequity #inequality #pandemic #science #evidencebased #statistics 

‘What about the waste?‘ with Sheila Whytock

As part of my series leading up to the Stand Up for Nuclear events coming up in September I'm interviewing another Canadian organizer and a nuclear industry professional. We discuss the controversy over Canada's Deep Geological Repository. One of the leading options for long-term mitigation of nuclear waste hazards.
Sheila Whytock is a nuclear operator at Bruce Power, in Ontario Canada. Sheila got her BA at Laurentian University, her Bachelor of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University, and completed a power operator apprenticeship while working for Bruce Power. She was raised on a beef farm in Orillia, and now resides in Teeswater, one of the potential host sites for Canada’s deep geological repository.

Sheila is co-founder of “Willing to Listen”, a grassroots group interested in pursuing the facts and benefits associated with potentially hosting a DGR in their community. Along with this, she is also host of the podcast “Willing to Listen”, board member of Canadians for Nuclear Energy, local contact for Mothers for Nuclear Canada and local organizer of Stand Up for Nuclear events within Ontario.
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#therationalview #podcast #nuclearenergy #greenenergy #atomicenergy #nuclearreactor #nuclearwaste #netzeroneedsnuclear #cleanenergy #chernobyl #radiation #atomic

Electrification and Climate with Edgardo Sepulveda

In this episode I am excited to interview an economist to investigate the market dynamics associated with energy transitions and provide insights on what is needed to electrify our economy and get us to net zero carbon.
Edgardo Sepulveda has been a telecommunications economist for 25 years, the last 15 with his consulting firm in Toronto, Canada. He was born in Chile and has an MA in Economics. As part of his civic policy-related engagement, he also writes about electricity, inequality, COVID-19 and other issues, including at the Progressive Economics Forum, where he wrote the blog that we discuss on this episode (https://t.co/oLW4gBeD7Y?amp=1). Edgardo has been the guest on a number of other energy-related podcasts; his Twitter handle is @E_R_Sepulveda.
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#therationalview #podcast #climate #energy #greenenergy #netzero #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #netzeroneedsnuclear

Stand Up For Nuclear with Paris Ortiz Wines

On this episode I’m interviewing Paris Ortiz Wines: Global Director of Stand Up For Nuclear  As the Global Director of Stand Up, Paris oversees all of the organization’s outreach and engagement efforts. She has spearheaded in-person demonstrations and social media campaigns around the world, growing Stand Up from a single event to 67 events across 28 countries.  
`Paris began her career at Environmental Progress, an environmental non-profit organization that fights to protect nuclear plants around the world from premature closure. In 2 years she went from being an Executive Assistant to a Junior Analyst, revising energy analysis reports, leading research groups, and organizing international conferences. It was during her time at EP that she fell in love with nuclear and committed herself to fight for the development of sustainable energy. Wanting to concentrate on growing a grassroots movement for nuclear power, she left EP and transitioned into her role at Stand Up for Nuclear. Paris continues to mobilize and assist allies around the world in building their network and developing their strategy. 
Paris graduated from the University of California-Santa Cruz with a degree in Environmental Studies.
Standupfornuclear.org
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#therationalview #podcast #nuclear #greenenergy #cleanenergy #standupfornuclear #netzeroneedsnuclear #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy  

The Rational View podcast retrospective

Welcome to summer vacation 2021! This podcast is a short retrospective on the last year and a bit of my foray into podcasting. I hope you have enjoyed it, and thank you for listening!
Remember to come out this September to support your local Stand Up for Nuclear event. I'll be helping to organize one in Ottawa on Parliament Hill on Saturday September 25th from 2-4pm. Come on out and show your support for Canada's nuclear heroes!
Also please support the Tax the Gas and Save Pickering petition. Let's make sure Ontario doesn't regress in 2024. Check it out at taxthegas.org.
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#therationalview #podcast #NetZeroNeedsNuclear #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #greenenergy #cleanenergy #energytransition

Tax the Gas and Save Pickering with Dr. Chris Keefer

One of our most important issues in society today is the transition from fossil fuels to zero carbon emission sources. One of the keys of this transformation is to significantly increase the fraction of nuclear energy in our energy portfolio.
Dr. Chris Keefer is an emergency physician, medical simulation educator, nuclear energy advocate and a popular podcaster. He is the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and the Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy and the host of the Decouple Podcast. He also has another honour –the first repeat guest on The Rational View!
Since our first interview I’ve gotten to know Chris a lot better through Canadians for Nuclear Energy and he constantly amazes me with his energy and focus on nuclear advocacy. In this episode we discuss a new advocacy campaign called 'Tax the Gas'.  Go to https://taxthegas.org to join this movement and ask the government to reverse the carbon tax exemptions for fossil fuel natural gas, and also to refurbish the Pickering nuclear plant which we will need to power our electric cars with negligible CO2 emissions.
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#therationalview #podcast #netzeroneedsnuclear #taxthegas #greenenergy #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #nuclearreactor #cleanenergy

Gender equity in STEM fields with Dr. Merryn McKinnon

This podcast continues my focus on communication of science and gender issues in STEM. In the previous podcast on this topic I surveyed women going into the field of science, and a professional female engineer to get their opinions. In this episode I interview a researcher who is studying these issues.
Dr Merryn McKinnon's original degree was in marine science where, after the novelty of moving intertidal snails with a paint scraper wore off, she discovered that talking about her research to other people brought her far closer to her conservation goals than her actual project ever could.
This led her to the field of science communication where she has stayed ever since, working in a range of roles and countries. Merryn enjoys the diverse issues science communication allows her to explore, applying her innovative thinking and problem solving skills.
Merryn has worked and conducted qualitative and quantitative research nationally and internationally, in both non-academic and academic roles. She regularly contributes to ABC Radio on ABC Sydney's Nightlife and Radio National's Research Filter, talking about interesting science from around the world. Merryn designs and delivers science communication workshops, as well as workshops specifically for women in STEM.
Merryn's research contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between science, media and the public. She conducts research which explores why publics react and respond to scientific issues the way they do in a variety of different disciplines including public health and conservation science. She is actively building a research program exploring the influence of equity, inclusion and intersectionality in STEM, especially STEM communication.
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#therationalview #podcast #science #STEM #genderissues #genderequity #womeninSTEM #womeninscience #scicomm #womenempowerment #steminist #womeninengeineering #sciencecommunication

Dr. Charles Hall on sustainable energy sources

Energy Return on Investment (EROI) is an important figure of merit for energy sources that tells us whether we get out more energy than we put in, and if so, how much effort it takes to run a vibrant society. I ask 'the father of EROI', Professor Charlie Hall, whether renewable energy is actually a sustainable resource able to power society's transition from fossil energy. In this interview, Prof. Hall describes how renewable energy sources are only sustainable when they form a small fraction of our electrical grid.  
World-renowned Professor Emeritus Charles Hall has been a research scientist since 1970, and started teaching in 1972. His work has focused mainly on energy sources. As cheap high return energy sources start to decline his analysis of the impacts of energy return on investment on society have gained prominence. He is interested in understanding the effects of peak oil and declining EROI on economic growth and possibilities, and how that might play out in the developing world. Many of these issues come full circle to the limits to growth arguments that emerged in the 60’s and 70’s.
He is an AAAS Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow (Argentina) and was named one of the 100 Outstanding World Scientists of 2004. He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Creative Research, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for BioPhysical Economics. His work with Murphy and Balogh, “What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have?”, was featured as the 10th Anniversary Best Paper published in the Journal Energies for Hall, Murphy and Balogh.
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#therationalview #podcast #science #evidencebased #EROI #greenenergy #renewableenergy #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #sustainability