Articles tagged with "interview"

On Near Death Experiences

25 September 2023

There was a recent RNZ interview done as part of their Expert Feature series, which runs on Monday afternoons with host Jesse Mulligan.

This Friday, Bronwyn and I will be setting off on a road trip to Hamilton to visit the Mormon temple there, as it's recently been renovated and is currently open to visitors for the first time in 64 years. I'm really looking forward to getting to see the lavish interior before it's “dedicated” and becomes inaccessible to us heathens again. Given that we'll be near Auckland, Craig has organised a Skeptics in the Pub event for this Friday night. Details are below, and we'd love to see you there!

The Human Condition

5 September 2022

Popping up on my various social media feeds over the past year or so have been ads for “THE Interview”. I'm going to take a look at this and the movement behind it.

Liz Gunn

7 March 2022

I've written about Liz Gunn before. She used to be a respected broadcaster on TVNZ's One News, but has now gone well down the rabbit hole. Last year she claimed that an earthquake was Mother Nature's response to Jacinda Adern's Covid-19 response . She announced her FreeNZ movement, which appears to have political aspirations.

An unusual vaccine endorsement

3 January 2022

A surprising endorsement of COVID vaccines came out recently - from none other than Donald Trump. Trump has a spotty history when it comes to supporting good science, and he's well known to skeptics for touting several unproven cures (including that particularly confusing press conference where he talked about bleach and an internal UV light).

ETs and Penguins

29 March 2021

A couple of weeks ago, I spent an enjoyable weekend away with some friends up in Russell, in the Bay of Islands. A couple of points from a skeptical perspective; firstly, one of my friends told me about an interview he heard with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand, which I've since listened to (detailed below), and the second was a conversation I overheard which illustrated to me how “fake news” and misinformation is innocently spread.

Near death experiences

22 March 2021

NDEs were in the media this week. Radio New Zealand did an interview with Professor Bruce Greyson who has a book out After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond.

Realisations

25 January 2021

This week has been pretty interesting in the arena of skepticism. As you'll no doubt be aware, this week saw the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the US and the beginning of his administration. We've seen various pro-science, evidence-based actions taken in just the first couple of days - for example, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, rejoining the World Health Organisation, and halting the Keystone XL pipeline, which I personally celebrate.

The Joys of Cold Reading - You Win Some and Lose Some

1 May 1996

When Brian Edwards interviewed Uri Geller some years ago, Dr David Marks of Otago University used the printed transcript to demonstrate that Brian had been the victim of highly skilled "cold reading", rather than the witness to remarkable extra-sensory powers as he appeared to believe at the time.