• Buy The Geek Manifesto here
• Listen to our interview with Mark on episode 134 of The Pod Delusion

• Rothamsted Research
• Sense About Science’s Rothamsted Appeal

And do stick around to the end to hear Blake Hutchings’ amazing song!

You can hear a full recording of the event below:

In this first podcast, philosopher Richard Norman gave a fascinating critique of Alain de Botton’s latest book, Religion for Atheists.

And in this second podcast, lawyer David Allen Green spoke about the role of religion in the legal system – and why it should become more secular.

Professor Carol Sanger is a leading international scholar in the regulation of abortion, motherhood, and family. She is the Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law at Columbia Law School in New York and a Senior Research Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford.

In this 6th podcast, Simon Frantz discusses Christopher Nolan’s 2000 film Memento. He is joined by Guardian neuroscience blogger Mo Costandi and Hugo Spiers, who researches spatial cognition, memory and goal-directed behaviour at UCL.

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

You can also hear an interview with Adam about the lecture on Pod Delusion episode 120.

You can hear a short interview with Julian on episode 120 of the Pod Delusion’s regular weekly programme.

It was organised and introduced by Dr Stephen Law of Heythrop College, University of London and Editor of Think (Royal Institute Philosophy) Provost of Centre for Inquiry UK.

We have three of the talks available here. We hope to add the other two – pending permission from the speakers.

Andrew Copson – Blasphemy laws by the back door

Andrew Copson has been chief executive of the British Humanist Association since 2010 before which he spent five years coordinating the association’s campaigns work including on blasphemy and free speech issues.

After decades of campaigning the criminal offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel have been abolished but censorship of blasphemous content and even threatened prosecution of blaspheme’s continues in the UK. Andrew explores how corporate interests, opaque advertising regulations and new criminal laws continue to stifle free expression, free criticism and mockery of gods and religions.

Austin Dacey – The Future of Blasphemy

Austin Dacey, Ph.D., is a representative to the United Nations for the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the author of The Future of Blasphemy:

If blasphemy is an affront to values that are held sacred, then it is too important to be left to the traditionally religious. In the public contestation of the sacred, each of us—secular and religious alike—has equal right and authority to speak on its behalf and equal claim to redress for its violation. Laws against blasphemy and “religious hatred” are inherently discriminatory because they give traditional faith communities a legal remedy that is not available to religious minorities and secularists when their sense of the sacred is violated.

Maryam Namazie – Blasphemy, Offence, and Islamophobia limiting Citizen Rights

Maryam will be speaking on how accusations of blasphemy, offensive speech and ‘Islamophobia’ censor and restrict free speech, limit citizen rights, and aid and abet Islamism. Maryam Namazie is Spokesperson of the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Equal Rights Now – Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran. She is also National Secular Society Honorary Associate and the NSS’ 2005 Secularist of the Year award winner and was selected one of the top 45 women of the year 2007 by Elle magazine Quebec.

In this 5th podcast, Simon Frantz discussed the 1987 film Robocop with roboticist Dr Peter Bentley from the Department of Computer Science, University College London, and a contributing editor to Wired UK. In March Peter is releasing a book called Digitized: The science of computers and how it shapes our world and you can already pre-order it!

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

In this edition Simon Frantz speaks to Justin Hancock, trainer and consultant at Bish Training, a sex and relationships website for teenagers, about the 1985 film Weird Science.

Justin has blogged about the event and put up some related notes (including a picture of the infamous masculinity donut here).

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

You can hear the play here: (And go see the play, it’s ace!)

This recording includes talks from a variety of women on a variety of topics. It was hosted by Kate Smurthwaite and included talks from: Maggie Philbin, Sara Pascoe, Sue Black, Gia Milinovich, Helen Arney and the person who started it all Suw Charman-Anderson. Helen Keen and Maggie Alderin-Pocock also gave talks at the event but they are not included in this recording.

In this third podcast, Simon Frantz discussed the 2009 film Moon with astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell and Moon’s Concept Artist & VFX supervisor Gavin Rothery. You can hear it below or subscribe to the special CineSci6 podcast.

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

The Conway Memorial Lecture is organised by South Place Ethical Society, and this podcast was recorded on the 26th October 2011. They’ll be an interview with Professor Schofield on Pod Delusion episode 108.

A prophet is usually understood to be a person who, inspired by supernatural agency, speaks on behalf of that agent and predicts the future. But Bentham himself pointed out that the original Greek meaning of the term referred simply to a person who ‘speaks out’, and in a more limited extent to a person who ‘foretells’.

In opposition to the prevailing mores of his day, Bentham proposed that all sexual activity that was consensual—whether with oneself, whether with partners of the same or the opposite sex, whether with partners of different species—should be made free from legislative interference. In the post-Malthusian age, non-prolific modes of sexual activity were rather to be welcomed than condemned. In short, Bentham saw sexual morality as a key battleground in the fight to divorce morality and legislation from the influence of religion. The thousands of manuscripts on homosexuality, Christian teachings and the influence of the church on the state that Bentham was reluctant to publish during his lifetime reveal that his thoughts were certainly well ahead of his time, and seemingly foretell the development of secular attitudes to sexual morality.

This is a remarkable opportunity to hear a world renowned expert discuss one of Britain’s greatest thinkers and will fascinate those interested in secularism, liberalism and the history of ideas.

Philip Schofield is Professor of the History of Legal and Political Thought, Director of the Bentham Project and General Editor of the Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. Chairing the lecture will be Dr Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat MP, Honorary Associate of the NSS and Vice-President of the BHA.

Increasingly, it is assumed that human beings are best understood in biological terms; that, notwithstanding the apparent differences between humans and their nearest animal kin, people are, at bottom, organisms.

Presented by Professor Ray Tallis, author of Michelangelo’s Finger: An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence and Aping Mankind. Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity, this year’s Holyoake Lecture will explore arguments against biologism. Tallis will argue that “the degrading image of man as just another animal is not only inaccurate but contrary to the spirit of humanism.”

Chaired by Professor John Harris, philosopher, bio-ethicist and distinguished supporter of Humanism. Professor Harris is the author or editor of fifteen books and over two hundred papers, and has written extensively on bio- and medical ethics, including The Value of Life, Introduction to Medical Ethics, On Cloning, a forceful defence of human cloning, and Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People.

More Secular Europe shenanigans:

• Audio from the March & Rally For A Secular Europe
• Pod Delusion Episode 103

If you can’t get enough David Willetts, we’ll have a (very) brief interview with him on Pod Delusion episode 107, along with some of the people who attended the lecture. We had another brief interview with him on episode 86. You can also hear him participate in a panel debate on science careers organised by Science is Vital here.

In this second podcast, Simon Frantz discussed the 1956 film Forbidden Planet with science writer Oliver Morton. You can hear it below or subscribe to the special CineSci6 podcast.

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

Dr Edward Presswood is a hospital doctor in North London. Throughout his medical practice he has been alarmed by the persistent intrusion of superstition and religion into the National Health Service. Increasingly aware of the harm caused by irrational beliefs, Edward calls for a rational NHS and a society that appreciates science.

The irrational practices in the NHS are well-intentioned but Edward suggests that they undermine the foundations upon which medicine stands. What superstitions does the NHS pander to? Should the NHS respect all of your beliefs? Should the hospital do everything it can to make you feel better? Should your taxes continue to fund irrational beliefs? Would you rather an expensive medication, or would having the cash actually make you feel better? All these questions will be discussed as Edward reveals how even numbering the hospital beds isn’t free from superstition.

The event was organised by the British Humanist Association and recorded on the 12th October 2011.

The emergence of gender variant people, practices and identities following the publication of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Transvestites (1909) and the inter-war invention of sex reassignment technologies posed considerable challenges to conservative, socialist, feminist and gay/lesbian politics: if ‘male’ and ‘female’ were no longer true, then what was?

Consequently, transgender people became an object of fascination, and plenty was written about them – by the mainstream media, feminists and the medical establishment whose management of transsexualism has proved especially controversial – with transgender people themselves frequently excluded from the conversation, with their identities erased or discounted, or having their experiences framed by people or outlets with no lived experience of being transgender.

Juliet Jacques author of the Guardian’s Transgender Journey series which documents the gender reassignment process from a first-person perspective, critically examines some of the ideas and myths that grew around transgender people, and the gulf between mainstream political and media discussions of transgender issues and the autonomous transgender theory and identities that developed in response.

Baroness Turner
Barnoness Turner of Camden was created a Life Peer in 1985. She was a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1982-88, the Occupational Pensions Board 1977-93; Council Member OPAS (Pension Advisory Service) 1989-2007; and Chair, PIA Ombudsman Council 1994-97. She has spoken out in the House of Lords about faith schools, collective worship and RE and is a firm supporter of gay rights.

Anthony Lempert (Part 2!)
Dr Lempert’s second talk to the assembled conference, this time telling a horrifying story about his experiences when withdrawing his daughter from her school’s curriculum mandated ‘compulsory daily worship’. A must listen for any parents!

Keith Porteous-Wood
Keith is the Executive Director of the National Secular Society. He lobbies in Westminster, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, working with sympathetic lords and MPs. He led the NSS campaign to end the blasphemy laws and is currently behind their intervention at the European Court of Human Rights to defend the UK’s equality laws from religious attacks.

Sue Cox
Sue is co-founder of Survivors Voice Europe and Director of the addiction specialists SMART UK. Survivors Voice Europe is an international community of men and women, all of whom have been sexually abused by catholic clergy. Along with her colleagues Ton Leerschool from Holland and Tomasso Dellora from Rome, Survivors Voice Europe has made connections in many countries, and made real headway in connecting isolated survivors to each other and to empowerment.

Listen to the other talks from the conference here!

In this first podcast, Simon Frantz discussed the classic Fritz Lang film Metropolis with author Simon Ings. You can hear it below or subscribe to the special CineSci6 podcast.

CineSci6 is organised by James Robson and Paolo Viscardi, and facilitated by Kate Coventry. The discussion is led by Simon Frantz.

Nick Cohen
Nick is an Observer columnist and author of Cruel Britannia, Pretty Straight Guys: The Strange Death Of Labour England, among others. Nick Cohen is an eloquent supporter of secularism and regularly takes a swipe at the growing number of church-run schools and the Left’s tendency to pander to religious fundamentalists. The Orwell Prize for political writing shortlisted What’s Left? in 2008. His latest book, in 2009, is Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England. Fourth Estate will publish You Can’t Read This Book, his history of modern censorship in January 2012.

Dr Anthony Lempert (Part 1 – on secularism in medicine)
Dr Lempert was at the conference representing the Secular Medical Forum, which campaigns to a secular approach to major health issues such as abortion.

Baroness Mary Warnock
Baroness Warnock was created a life peer in 1985. She is by professional training a philosopher. She has also been a prominent figure in education, a fellow and tutor in Philosophy at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, Head Mistress of Oxford High School and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge. She is author of a number of books, most recently Dishonest to God: On Keeping Religion Out of Politics.

Baroness Warnock was a member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) from 1973 to 1981. She was chair of the UK committee of inquiry into special education (1974–78), and from 1979 to 1985, she advised the UK committee on animal experiments. From 1982 to 1984 she chaired an inquiry into human fertilisation, the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology, whose final report is often called the Warnock report.

Anne Marie Waters
Anne Marie is spokesperson for the One Law for All Campaign which works to end sharia courts and tribunals in Britain on the grounds that they work against human rights and equality before the law. She is a lawyer with a strong interest in family law and human rights, and the interaction of the two.

Paul Blanchard
Paul has been an active secularist and humanist for over twenty years. Paul is Chair of the Labour Party Humanists and runs Right Angles, a PR and Social Media consultancy. He recently was involved in organising last years “Protest the Pope” rally and has been very active in the campaign to remove bishops from the House of Lords. He frequently appears in the media putting forward the atheist/secular position, and is a regular on BBC’s The Big Questions and The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.

We’ll be posting more soon!

Topics tackled include churnalism, linking to papers, and the changes in the landscape of science journalism over the last couple of years.

03:09 – 13:27 Discussion about the background of the Guardian’s Science Weekly Podcast
13:28 – 17:44 How much science literacy can you assume in your audience when reporting on science?
17:55 – 32:07 Churnalism.What is it and how common is it in terms of Journalism and Blogging?
32:10 – 36:10 Including links to Science Manuscripts in online news articles
36:11 – 42:15 George Monbiot’s Guardian article “Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist”
42:16 – 52:01 The change in the landscape/ecosystem of science blogging over the last 12 months or so
52:07 – 52:44 The use of social media during the recent riots in London and elsewhere
52:50 – 58:37 World’s first clinical trial of stem cells to treat strokes is set to move to its next phase

They very kindly asked us to host a live podcast recording – so we did something daring. We hosted essentially an ‘open mic’ night where the attendees could tell an interesting story, make an interesting point – or generally be interesting. And tremendous fun it was too!

So tune in and hear what everyone had to say!

(Thanks to Richy and Andrew for inviting us along!)

• Buy Geek Nation: How Indian Science Is Taking Over The World
• Angela will be on Pod Delusion episode 98 to speak briefly about the book
• Listen to the excellent Little Atoms podcast who interviewed her a few months ago

Mark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us – and came back believing we still have everything to play for. His voyage of discovery took him to Boston to visit a robot with mood swings, to an underwater cabinet meeting in the Indian Ocean, and Australia to question the Outback’s smartest farmer, had his genome profiled, and glimpsed the next stage of human evolution … then he tried to make sense of what’s in store.

The result was An Optimist’s Tour of the Future, which is finding fans from schoolchildren through to Nobel Peace Prize winners. Mark will talk of the future of humanity and how technology will help remedy some of these problems.

Mark combines two careers – one as a successful writer and comedian and as co-founder and director of the cultural learning agency Flow Associates and the science communication agency ReAgency, Roving Learner at The Age of Smart, a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and Nibmaster General for the Ministry of Stories.

The debate was chaired by Lord Warner, and arguing for the bishops was Christina Rees (a member of the General Synod, though attending in a personal capacity) and Paul Bickley (from the thinktank Theos). Arguing against the bishops was Shadow Constitutional Reform Minister Chris Bryant and BHA Chief Exec Andrew Copson.

On being: The limitless power of science : Peter Atkins

Humanity should be proud of the fact that, through its collective endeavour, it has stumbled on to a way of discovering reliable knowledge about the nature, composition, and functioning of the universe. The question remains, however, whether its contribution to human understanding is boundless. I shall identify the great questions of existence that have been the focus of myth-making since mankind first sought to make sense of nature, and argue that the scientific method is capable of answering them all. Of course, it is necessary to distinguish the empty questions from the real, and it is important not to be distracted by questions that have simply been invented by philosophers and theologians. The essential point is that science is driven by optimism, and its current success encourages us to believe that it will resolve the question of the origin of the universe and the emergence of that most extraordinary property of matter, consciousness, just as it has revealed the process by which the biosphere has emerged and as it has illuminated the processes of birth and death. I shall argue that its power is limitless and that, through displacing poetic and vivid myths, it succeeds in deepening our wonder.

We will have interviews with some of the participants, including David Willetts on our main programme on Friday.

Hear the debate in full below:

We have also interviewed Sam Harris on our regular weekly programme. You subscribe to our regular weekly podcast here or find out more and stream it here..

Follow The Pod Delusion on Facebook and Twitter to find podcasts of more lectures, talks and debates on similar themes and more!

Previous appearances by Richard Dawkins on the Pod Delusion: Episode 71, Episode 21, Darwin Day 2011

Part 1 features Lord Warner, NSS Vice Pres Gerard Phillips and BHA Chief Exec Andrew Copson

Part 2 features Independent columnist Johann Hari and Philosopher AC Grayling

You can listen to them in the players above or by subscribing to the Pod Delusion Extra feed in your podcast client.

(We may also have audio from one more speaker, pending clearance of the rights to broadcast)

You can hear a brief interview with John Denham on Pod Delusion Episode 75, or in the player below:

Recorded 9th February 2011.

Do Cubans live longer than Americans? Are Scandinavians happier than the British? Does capitalism cause mental illness? Does inequality lead to murder? Would higher taxes make us slimmer, more trusting and more charitable? Christopher Snowdon will be challenging the theory made in the best-selling book The Spirit Level that ‘more equal societies almost always do better’. By fact-checking the book’s statistics and reviewing the scientific literature, he will argue that there is no correlation between income inequality and a country’s health, happiness and well-being. The hypothesis in The Spirit Level is, he says, based on selective evidence and flawed reasoning.

Janet Radcliffe Richards is Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Oxford, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and Senior Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, UCL. Her first book, The Sceptical Feminist, was critical of much existing feminist theory, offering a new approach which sacrifices neither rationality nor radicalism

This was a version of a talk originally given to Westminster Skeptics in the Pub – you can hear the original here.

The blurb:

“Is the skeptic movement trapped in an echo chamber? Science writer Frank Swain asks if the behaviour of skeptics has created an exclusive club that increasingly communicates only to its own troops, and invites suggestions on how better to reach out to the public”

In this year’s Conway Memorial address, Professor Jonathan Glover will explore the ethics of scientific research and aim to understand if it is necessary to decide what the responsibilities of individual scientists are, or ought to be with regard to the moral consequences of their work. Given that we live in a world in which nation states and other groups develop weapons with appalling possibilities, should scientists never take part, or can the defensive development of such weapons sometimes be the lesser evil? The uses of science for dark purposes: for torture, and for atrocities, either in war or as acts of terrorism can be seen in many cases throughout history, notably with regard to atomic and biological weapons. After medicine and medical research was used in atrocities by the Nazis, the medical world drew up codes of ethics governing research, and developed a whole culture of ethical discussion and debate. Should something similar be developed for the community of research scientists and technologists? If so what should it be like?

Jonathan Glover is the Director of the Centre for Medical Law & Ethics at King’s College London and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. He has written several books, including Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century and Causing Death and Saving Lives. He chaired a European Commission Working Party on Assisted Reproduction and gave the inaugural Uehiro Lecture series in 2004, published as Choosing Children: Genes, Disability, and Design. For more information on Professor Glover and his research interests please visit personal website.

Don’t forget to check out the Pod Delusion 1023 special – including interviews with Dave Gorman, Simon Singh, Evan Harris and many more, as well as the speeches and overdose itself!

Homeopathy Undercover by Crispian Jago
Is conventional medicine all it’s cracked up to be? by Simon Howard
Homeopathy at the Select Committee by Martin Robbins
An Open Letter to Boots by Andy Wilson