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Help Launching New Show

by Steven Novella, Nov 22 2010

You may remember The Skeptologists – a TV pilot featuring a group of skeptical investigators taking on a range of pseudoscientific claims. Well – that project is not over, although it has morphed a bit. The working title of the show is now The Edge. And, rather than try to get a commercial TV executive to bite on the idea, the producers (Brian Dunning and Ryan Johnson) are trying to get a grant to produce a season for public television. It's still an uphill battle, but they are making progress. Phil Plait has moved on with his Discovery Channel contract, including Phil Plait's Bad Universe. So, Pamela Gay has stepped in to fill his role on the show.

Pamela is also helping with the grant – and she has asked for help. She needs to show that there is demand for the kind of content we aim to produce, and this is where you (potentially) come in.

So, if you are a teacher and you would use content like The Edge – essentially scientists exploring critical thinking and the evidence as it pertains to specific claims – then send an e-mail to Pamela Gay (starstryder@gmail.com) with a letter, addressed to her and Brian Dunning, that says you would use the content in your class. Here is a sample letter:

I eagerly look forward to the production of “The Edge” and plan to use this show to teach critical thinking, the process of science an other incorporated national standards in my [insert grade level] classroom. The material this show will produce fills a content gap that I currently fill [using my own content / using non-standards aligned blogs and podcasts such as NAME HERE / SOMETHING ELSE]. This content will make my job easier, and I feel it will excite and engage my students.

Anyone with a science/skeptical student's group or other organization can also e-mail a letter saying they would use the content.

There is a good chance we can get some hard hitting skepticism in the mainstream media, but we have to use the strength of our community to make it happy. So thanks ahead of time for your help.

25 Responses to “Help Launching New Show”

  1. David H. says:

    Of course there are thousands of us who would (metaphorically) give an arm and a leg to see this happen. But there are millions upon millions of Americans who will simply ignore such an offering, if not actively work to derail it. Now, if the proposal were for a program that debated whether or not Jesus rode dinosaurs…

    • The Midwesterner says:

      Why would anyone want to debate that? He did, didn’t he?

    • If this show contained pseudoskeptical libertarianism, like Dunning had about DDT on a recent podcast, or like Shermer had in the post immediately below this, it too would be the “garbage” that steelsheen sees on SciFi. So, no, I wouldn’t watch it. I and a number of skeptical blogging friends wonder about even using the word “skeptic” to describe ourselves at times.

      • steelsheen11b says:

        So things like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Fact or Faked and Destination Truth aren’t garbage? I would disagree.

      • Didn’t say those things WEREN’T garbage. Just that pseudoskepticism of the types I mentioned, if on this new show, would fall into the same range of garbage, IMO.

      • steelsheen11b says:

        Could you please define what “pseudoskepticism” is. I am unfamiliar with your definition. I think it has has something to do with Michael Shermer right?

      • Max says:

        Pseudoskepticism is something that falsely passes itself off as skepticism, like pseudoscience is something that falsely passes itself off as science.

      • @Steel – like Max said. Brian Dunning, on his DDT podcast, is another good example.

        I now ask, semi-rhetorically — do all skeptics of libertarian political bent assume that it is the “logical” thing for a “thoroughgoing” skeptic to also be a libertarian?

        It sure seems that way, and that’s hugely wooly-headed thinking, if so.

      • steelsheen11b says:

        Who gets to define what a “real” skeptic is?

      • Meanwhile, per an actual skeptic friend of mine, an update on Dunning’s DDT podcast:

        >>I don’t believe a thing he says here. He never heard of Steven Milloy while researching the episode? Seriously? And then he blames criticisms of his research and presentation on ideological politics. Those damn liberals! Man, I seriously hope he never gets a TV show on the air. I can’t imagine the damage that might be done. I’m sorry I ever recommended him to people.<<

        Yep, now we're into what appears to be full-blown intellectual dishonesty. (Read: "lying.)

  2. MadScientist says:

    That’s awesome – I hope you folks get the grant. I think such a show would be much better on PBS anyway. I’m not a teacher though, so I won’t be able to help by writing a letter.

  3. Beelzebud says:

    Whatever you do, do not allow Shermer to inject his libertarian beliefs in to any aspect of the show.

  4. Chris Howard says:

    Could you also include “in the classroom” supplemental material? Text, workbook, online resources. I would love to teach a class for the general public, via the San Marcos community center, does that count?

  5. steelsheen11b says:

    Good luck to you, I hope you succeed, there needs to be some sort of counter point to the garbage that Sci Fi Network and the like air.

  6. I believe a program that promotes critical thinking and lay out the process of science will be welcome in any classroom. However, such program will not be objective teaching materials if such a program promotes solely naturalism, i.e. nature is the ultimate reality and therefore, nothing transcends nature and supernatural agency does not exist. Critical thinking is to examine all arguments and examine all claims and then to decide on the best solution or outcome. Therefore, it is important for students to examine the claims of the existence of God and creationism. Why would anyone be afraid to present the case for God?

  7. Michael Kingsford Gray says:

    Perhaps the inclusion of the theist Dr. Gay might encourage scientifically ignorant Christians to actually take a peek?
    Let’s hope!

  8. Dan Kennan says:

    —Perhaps the inclusion of the theist Dr. Gay might encourage scientifically ignorant Christians to actually take a peek?—

    It will only encourage them to think that their Sky God is compatible with science. Between her and Brian “I only look to corporate shill sites for research” and Michael “Libertarianism is the Way” Shermer, it promises to be a fatally flawed enterprise. I will not support it and in fact may email PBS NOT to accept it.

  9. Joe says:

    Just don’t say anything bad about global warming (or is it climate change now?)or they will cut the series in an instant.

  10. Sid says:

    Glad you changed the name. Skeptologists sucked big balls. Hopefully this will charge the imagination enough to get somewhere.

  11. James says:

    I’d be willing to support the show, even financially. But only if there was an open pledge to not inject the Libertarian and Austrian school of economics beliefs into the show.

    Austrian economics reject empiricism and asserts it is unfalsifiable. Right Libertarianism is more of a belief system of what should be rather than any sort of cogent, empirically provable economic or social system.

    Discussions of such topics certainly have their time and place, but they are just as certainly _not_ in line with skeptical thinking. (How can you have skepticism when you reject empiricism and falsifiability?)