Download or Stream This Episode In this episode, Todd Pedlar leads a discussion with Dan Dawson and Charles Hackney concerning the erstwhile planet, Pluto, an episode topic sparked by the fascinating recent…

Is being a good person necessary to do good science? Can doing good science make one a good person? Can doing good science make one a good Christian? Charles Hackney…

In his 2014 book, God’s Planet, published by Harvard University Press, Dr. Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and the History of Science at Harvard University, and senior astronomer emeritus at…

Episode 5: Dystopias In this episode, Todd Pedlar hosts a discussion of dystopian literature and film, asking why the dystopian is so attractive to us and probing the interface between dystopian worlds and…

I see the formulation all the time,  but I rarely give it much thought. “Teaching isn’t a science.  It’s an art.” “Teaching isn’t a science.  It’s a craft.” “Teaching isn’t…

General Introduction – The perils of Vacation Bible School – Introducing our guest – Listener feedback – Grubbsy’s new job The Topic at Hand – Indiana Jones, of course –…

BLOOPBLEEPBLURGH General Introduction – What’s on the blog? – The feud continues – Polymathery Cybernetics as Governance – Not a portmanteau! – Getting organized as a spiritual gift – Rudder-steerer…

Let’s get this straight: Public sector employees are not overpaid. More to ponder on inflammatory public rhetoric and risks of violence I’ll take an order of Skinner with some Darwin…

Theoretical Breakthrough: Generating Matter and Antimatter from Nothing “Under just the right conditions — which involve an ultra-high-intensity laser beam and a two-mile-long particle accelerator — it could be possible…

Chris Heard makes a useful distinction between media of academic publication and the review process. O’Nora O’Neill reflects upon the fiftieth anniversary of C.P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures.” Roger Olson…

Every now and then, I come across an author whose work is radically different from what I’ve always thought. Whether the fault of the misunderstanding lies with my teachers or…

Gain some perspective on the sizes of things in the universe. Gain some perspective on the relative volumes of communications traffic. The Kindlings Muse has another great lecture from one…

Here’s a headline designed to set off the irony sirens: “Expert on Morality Is on Leave after Research Inquiry”. Turns out the story’s more about confirmation bias than about hypocrisy:…

Our outro music this week comes from Michael Knott’s 1994 record Rocket and a Bomb. The song’s called “Jan the Weatherman.” Hey, “Jan” rhymes with “Dan,” and our special guest…

I do not recall when I first encountered the notion of a pathetic fallacy: a literature course, doubtless, but I’ve had many of those. I was almost certainly an undergraduate,…