SGU (not to be confused with SG-U)

I’ve started listening to a podcast called the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. So far it’s the only podcast I’ve found to challenge The 404 for the right to be the first podcast played on the morning commute.

Commuter podcasts have to have a certain conversational quality to them, and they also have to be funny. The 404 and SGU are perfect examples. Of the two, SGU is considerably more substantive. :)

So basically these people are what they call “skeptics,” which is apparently a term that describes a group of people who try to debunk anything and everything, from UFOs to conspiracy theories to mediums to homeopathy to ghost hunters, and anything in between. I think their stated mission is to promote critical thinking and science, and expose fraudulant snake oil remedies, or something like that.

So anyway, it’s pretty cool. Go critical thinking. Yay for pointing out logical fallacies. They talk about cool stuff that makes you think, and like I said, it’s usually pretty funny. (Sometimes they are not so funny, like for instance when they are joking about people who think that X, Y, or Z are true, and you happen to be one of them.)

It’s kind of the exact opposite of a show I used to listen to called No Agenda, which also promoted critical thinking but they _embrace_ all the conspiracy theories in the world. Well, one of them did, anyway. (I stopped listening because it stopped being funny and the conversations went on waaaay too long.)