SGU Episode 33

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SGU Episode 33
March 9th 2006
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 32                      SGU 34
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
P: Perry DeAngelis
Guest
R: Rebecca Watson
Links
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Show Notes
SGU Forum

Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

Hello and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Today is Thursday March 9, 2006. This is your host, Steven Novella, president of the New England Skeptical Society. With me today, as always, is Perry DeAngelis...

P: Yes. I'm here.

S: Evan Bernstein...

E: Hello, everyone.

S: And Bob Novella.

B: Good evening.

S: Well, for those of you out here who maybe have not listened to our podcast before, just a little bit about the Skeptics' Guide. We are a discussion—a weekly podcast that we discuss science items, skeptical items, paranormal, pseudo-science, controversial claims. The kinds of news items that get missed by the mainstream media. And we discuss everything from a very hard-nosed scientific point of view.

P: We are both riveting and entertaining.

S: Absolutely. And we have fun doing it.

P: (chuckles) Yes.

S: Coming on our show in just a little bit is Rebecca Watson. Rebecca is the founder of the Skepchicks organization; we'll be talking to her in just a moment. But first, we'll start, as usual, with some news items; things that have caught our attention over the last week.

News Items

Magnet Therapy (1:27)

S: The British national health service recently decided to pay for magnet therapy to help prevent chronic ulcers. Now, England—Britain,as you may or may not know, has a national health service. They have socialized medicine, although what they have is a two-tiered health system. There's a private health system for people who have money and there's a national health service for everybody else. So, this is basically a government-run health care system. And they decide, from the top down, at a bureaucratic level, what they're going to pay for and what they're not going to pay for. And they decided—this is the first time they're deciding to pay for magnet therapy for anything. Which was, you know, quite a bit of news. Of course, the alternative medicine proponents are hailing this as a victory.

P: (chuckles) (English accent) Bunch of bloody rot.

Science or Fiction (43:10)

S: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a production of the New England Skeptical Society. For information on this and other episodes, please visit our website at www.theness.com. You can send us questions, comments, and suggestions to podcast@theness.com. 'Theorem' is performed by Kineto and is used with permission.

References