The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

In this episode I am returning to a topic that has become a favourite for pundits and trolls, and that is carbon dioxide. The near doubling of the atmospheric concentration of this colourless odourless gas has been identified by scientists as contributing to an accelerating heating of the biosphere that has significantly affected the climate.  As a by-product of one of our most lucrative industries, the burning of fossil fuels, CO2 has gained a lot of friends.  And because of that it is the subject of a targeted disinformation campaign, becoming headline political news.  This is a job for The Rational View.
Bärbel Hönisch grew up in Germany and studied at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, as well as the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. She received her Diploma in Biology in 1999 and her PhD in Natural Sciences in 2002. After moving to the US, she held academic positions at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, the City University of New York at Queens College, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, and Bremen University. She joined the faculty of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University in 2007.
She is interested in the effect of global carbon cycle perturbations on climate and the oceans, in particular past variations of seawater acidity and its relation to atmospheric CO2. As she was originally trained as a marine biologist, her research includes culture experiments with living marine calcifiers to validate proxies for past environmental conditions. She applies the resulting calibrations to reconstructing seawater carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2 variations through Earth history. Over the past 7 years she has led a consortium of paleo-CO2 proxy experts to compile, vet and modernize published paleo-CO2 estimates over the Cenozoic.
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In this episode I am starting on a new interest—I want to talk about the emerging field of human enhancement.  Technology is allowing us to modify our bodies in ways that people only dreamed of in the past. We’ve discussed genetic enhancements in previous episodes, but in this thread I want to dig into the state of the art of and ethics of alterations, additions, and modifications.
Giulia Dominijanni is a Ph.D. student at the Neuro-X-Institute and School of Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Neutouch International Training Network alumna. Her research focuses on developing bidirectional Human-Machine Interfaces for augmenting physical abilities, particularly through control strategies and sensory feedback approaches for extra robotic limbs aimed at human augmentation.
Her doctoral studies included a visiting period at University College London and the University of Cambridge, where she studied the impact of a feet-controlled extra thumb on body representation and biological lower limbs abilities. 
She holds a Master of Science in Bionics Engineering from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, and a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome.
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This episode is a re-release of a much earlier episode (#11). While I'm busy moving houses I wanted to follow on the theme of my last episode on preserving an inspiring and beautiful natural resource for future generations: the vista of the universe. Please enjoy my discussion with friend, amateur astronomer and dark sky enthusiast Rob Dick.
Amateur astronomer and long-time RASC member Rob Dick is CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group, and CTO of EcoLights and a lecturer at the University of Ottawa.
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”: Vincent Van Gogh.
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In this episode I’m returning to the insidious advance of light pollution and what we can all do to bring back the night sky. I’m now in Guelph Ontario and the municipality is considering introducing a light pollution by-law. If you also would like to see the stars at night from a population centre, this episode will help you to understand the issues and the best approaches to combatting the tragedy of the commons that is unabated artificial light at night.
My guest today is Mr. Jim Goetz, a retired soldier with an interest in astronomy. He is the Vice President of the Kitchener-Waterloo Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. His current interest is the promotion of the coming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8 next year.
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On this episode I chat with a long time friend and host of the Run Your Life podcast, Mr. Andy Vasily. Andy has been exploring learning methods and works professionally on coaching athletes to achieve peak performance. I have been exploring the science of consciousness and the technology of Artificial Intelligence. In this episode we explore the nexus where these interests all meet. What does artificial intelligence teach us about how human brains learn? What lessons can we take from sports psychology to help us understand minds and consciousness? Come and have a listen as we discuss the science of brain training.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #learning #artificialintelligence #sportspsychology #consciousness #neurology #neuroscience #brains #neuralnetworks

In this episode I’m going to go on a bit of a Rational Rant. It’s a pet peeve of mine, and probably of yours too, but today I’m jousting at the windmill of excessive banking fees and lack of customer service.
So be prepared to let off some steam for a cathartic ride through the wonderful world of our banking system as I get back a little of what they take from us all.
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In this episode I have a returning guest to discuss the fall.  No not the weather. The fall of civilization. Our previous interview released September 12, 2020, was titled ‘This is how liberty dies’, where we discussed the frightening parallels between the evolving political situation in the US and events in multiple failed democracies. Despite these fears, my guest was quite upbeat about the prognosis for US to avoid an authoritarian uprising, noting that Trump was not as smart nor as popular as the leaders of successful revolutions. This was only a few months before the unsuccessful January 6th 2021 coup attempt, and it seems that for the moment anyway, he was right.  I thought it might be fun for us to touch base and see if he might be interested in revising his opinion.
Dr. Steven Levitsky is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. His research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, mostly in Latin America. He is co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018), which was a New York Times Best-Seller and has been published in 22 languages. He is also author many books regarding politics and authoritarianism in Latin America. His most recent book, also with Daniel Ziblatt is titled ‘The Tyranny of the Minority’.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #democracy #collapse #government #tyranny

In this episode I will be taking a look at the ugly side of unrestricted capitalism, and how lobbying has skewed the public debate and shifted the Overton window to the right. Some would argue that unrestricted capitalism has been a great boon lifting society into an age of plenty. Others would argue that it has done this by maintaining an economic class hierarchy that enables the rich to enslave the poor. Are workers entering into employment agreements between equals for a mutually beneficial exchange of labour for wages, or are people forced into degrading wage slavery under duress by withholding the essentials of life like food, housing, and healthcare? My guest today will help us grapple with these issues.
Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University and the author of nearly 200 scholarly papers and popular articles and numerous books including Merchants of Doubt and The Big Myth, both co-authored with Erik M. Conway. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Times (London), and many others. Her TED talk, "Why We Should Trust Scientists" was viewed more than a million times. She is an active participant in the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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#TheRationalView #podcast #neoliberalism #economics #marketing #propaganda #thebigmyth #Reaganomics

In this episode I'm revisiting the topic of being an effective advocate of evidence-based and Rational Policy. To do this properly one must understand the science of how to influence people. I've found in the past that countering anti-science opinion with ridicule, although very cathartic, is not helpful. I've learned that just spouting reams of evidence is not helpful for those who have already made up their minds. Although this might be sufficient for neutral parties it's not going to change minds in a polarized debate. My guest today is an expert on what it takes to change peoples' minds.
David McRaney is a journalist and lecturer fascinated with brains, minds, and culture. He created the blog, book, and ongoing podcast You Are Not So Smart, which he calls a "celebration of self delusion." His most recent book is How Minds Change, all about the science behind how and why people do and do not change their minds and the intricacies and nuances of persuasion. After finishing How Minds Change, he wrote, produced, and recorded a six-hour audio documentary exploring the history of the idea and the word – genius – which is the subject of his next book.
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In this episode I’m revisiting the topic of cold fusion with an MIT-affiliated researcher who is looking into the case for cold fusion. As you may recall, my review found that there are many anomalous results in the field that point to the potential for new physical phenomena. Pons and Fleischman’s premature announcement of cold fusion led to a fury of failed replication attempts and a lot of damaged egos. The way it was handled in the news and in scientific circles left a lingering stigma preventing further investigations through normal academic means. Only now, decades after the initial event has it become possible for career scientists to re-examine the evidence and retain their positions, albeit with the sanitized name of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR).
Jonah Messinger is an interdisciplinary physicist, technologist, clean energy enthusiast, and ecomodernist. He is a doctoral candidate at the Cavendish Laboratory of Physics at the University of Cambridge and a researcher at MIT working on quantum coherent nuclear science in the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E low-energy nuclear reaction research program. Jonah’s research seeks to leverage quantum condensed matter physics to develop novel technologies that harness the energy of the nucleus.
He is a non-resident Senior Energy Analyst at the Breakthrough Institute, a consultant with the Anthropocene Institute, and a One Young World Ambassador. A Udall Scholar, Jonah earned his Master’s in Energy and Bachelor’s in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He published a review of Cold Fusion here: https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/fusion-runs-hot-and-cold
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