 Welcome to The Randy Show. I am the J.R.E.F.'s Field Coordinator, Brian Thompson, and with me, as always, is James Randy himself. How are you doing today? Hanging in there is the only way I can put it. The weather outside here in Florida is just ideal, but I didn't do anything to reserve that, so maybe I shouldn't presume to enjoy it. Yeah, down here in the south it seems like we should always feel guilty when we have good weather because it means someone else has a terrible weather a little further north. Well, it may be true. I don't know about these things. Meteorology is none of my business whatsoever. I think it's an exact science at best. Well, it's also a little boring. Who wants to talk about the weather? We've got real science to talk about. Okay, very good. So let's talk about this story about Nina Federoff. She's the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and at a conference recently she made some news by saying that she thinks that science may be headed toward some kind of new dark age. And her primary point was that there seem to be more people these days who are organizing in a way that's anti-science. Politicians, businesses, people like that that are banding together and trying to promote an anti-science message when science goes against whatever their special interests are. So I thought you've been around for a long time. Do you think it's getting worse? I think it's a result of the fact that people are generally afraid of science because they don't understand it, and they think that it's going to interfere with their freedom to believe in some creature in the sky or under the earth, whichever is your preference or your future. I think that they think that science is anti-religion. It's not anti-religion because it doesn't deal with religion at all. Religion is a separate thing. To me it's a set of separate superstitions much different from anything that is logical or rational or appropriate to be considered truthful. Do you think that this might have something to do with the fact that there are fewer science communicators these days? Do you think that there's a way to encourage the public to fight against the anti- science forces? Well, we don't have Martin Gardner, we don't have Isaac Asimov anymore, but we've got Richard Dawkins. There's a very powerful person on our side, a person who to me is almost a God, almost. I've said this before, but almost a God. He knows he's not unflawed, and we've had a few disagreements on subtle points, but nonetheless, and that doesn't mean that I'm right and he's wrong. Not at all, but Richard is an absolute boon to the skeptical and rational movement. I am so happy to have him aboard, have him around, to try to keep us straightened out. Everything he writes and everything he says to me makes perfectly good sense. I think we should appreciate Richard much more than perhaps some of us do and make sure that he knows how much we appreciate his efforts by buying his books and by showing up at his talks. What do you think makes for a good science communicator? Is it all personality? Is it the truth of the message? It's all those things, of course. Yes, the personality. Look at Neil deGrasse Tyson. What a character and a half. He's wonderful the way he speaks, what he says when he does speak, and how he relates to his audience. Every interview I've ever seen the man do, and both of the amazing meetings that he has attended in the past, really impressed me. A great personality, a great personality, and he's in a wonderful position on television now, and I just hope that he maintains that position and is able to keep telling us what the world is really all about. Well, that's interesting. You should say that he has a unique position on television. It seems these days that media is so fractured between, you know, there's the Internet, there's podcasts, there's YouTube, there's TV. There was a time not too long ago when if you were on TV, you were guaranteed an audience of millions. And I've read articles about certain shows on cable channels back in the 500s or 600s or whatever those channels are that they get maybe a couple dozen thousands. Is that a word? Dozen thousand? I just made that up. 12,000? Yeah, I would abandon it if I read it. I'm going to say a dozen thousand. But we're talking less than, you know, 20,000, 30,000 people tuning into a show on television. Do you think that there's a way to bridge that gap? Do you think there's anybody that can appeal to all different kinds of media these days? The basic problem is education of the American public. Unfortunately, as the greatest nation on earth, and I believe that that's a true assessment as well. We have such poor educational standards and we have failed in mathematics and science all across the world. I don't want to get into the facts and figures, but it's just graceful that we don't have better standards in this country. I'm afraid that we're dumbing down our kids. Well, we at the James Randy Educational Foundation are doing our best to fight against that by providing as many scientific educational resources as possible, and helping the skeptics all over the world fight against the anti science activists. And if you want to find out more, you can always visit randy.org. Well, thank you so much, Brian. Always good to speak to you. And now I'm back to proofreading a magician in the laboratory. My next book, which I'm sure every person listening to us today will rush out and buy several copies as soon as it materializes. It will probably come up computer wise. That is something that's downloadable before it's printed even. We don't quite know yet because we haven't talked to the publisher that will actually handle it. But we'll see about that. We're trying to spare forests. I'm hoping a publication date will be announced soon so I can mark it on my Mayan calendar. Oh, yes, I'm pleased to. I've got a calendar, a Vishnu calendar that doesn't agree with the Mayan one on chocolate. The Randy show is a production of the James Randy Educational Foundation. To learn more about how we promote science and critical thinking, go to randy.org.