I hope everyone enjoyed Australia’s Science Week! Hello to all the new subscribers and I hope you enjoy earlier episodes as well – all available at Token Skeptic and on iTunes!

This episode features Deb Hodgkin of Science-at-home.org!

Deb studied Human Biology and Archaeology in her Bachelor of Science, then did Honours in Anatomy.  With her Post-Graduate Diploma in Education, she taught in remote communities and towns for nine years before she had children – which led to the creation of her website, Science At Home! Deb has taught all sorts of things in addition to Secondary Science and Maths and with her Masters in Education, she applies her experiences and insights when promoting science activities for parents.

As she says on her site, ‘Science@Home‘:

Children are natural scientists.  Take advantage of their questioning with fun activities to share and develop their love of science and critical thinking.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Visit www.tokenskeptic.org – I’d love to hear your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com. Theme songs are ‘P&P’ by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com and ‘365′ by Milton Mermikides, at www.miltonmermikides.com.

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It is a great honor to celebrate Australia’s National Science Week for 2010, by interviewing science blogger Bec Crew, who writes the informative and hilarious Save Your Breath For Running Ponies! She’s a twenty-six year old Archeology graduate and journalist, who won the Big Blog Theory Competition by popular vote, earning it the title of Best Australian Science Blog. Bec works at Australia’s Cosmos Magazine as an editorial assistant.

As part of the prize, starting from August the 13th to the 29th she is attending various events for National Science Week around Australia and acting as the “official Science Week blogger”. Don’t forget, if you’re in Melbourne, to go to the Brains Matter live show on the 15th of August – she’ll be attending that too!

Both of our cats feature in the background of this particular episode, in case you’re wondering.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Visit www.tokenskeptic.org – I’d love to hear your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com. Theme songs are ‘P&P’ by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com and ‘365′ by Milton Mermikides, at www.miltonmermikides.com.

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A very special episode for number thirty-three – this is thanks to Warren Bonett of the Embiggen Books bookstore!

Over the past ten years, Craig Reid has been working on coral reefs as a diver, educator, researcher and underwater photographer. Coral Reefs and Climate Change, his first publication as principle author, is the culmination of more than five years of work with the Coral Watch team at the University of Queensland. He spoke at the Embiggen Bookstore (http://embiggenbooks.com) on Saturday, 3rd July, and this is an exclusive interview he gave to Warren afterwards.

The book, Coral Reefs and Climate Change: the guide for education and awareness by Craig Reid, Justin Marshall, Dave Logan and Diana Kleine for Coralwatch at the University of Queensland, is available via this link.

Don’t forget that Australia’s Science Week is coming up very soon – Embiggen Books in conjunction with The Queensland Brain Institute is bringing cutting edge neuroscience to the people of the Sunshine Coast from the 13-14 August, 2010. More details about that event and much more, at the Embiggen Books blog!

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Visit www.tokenskeptic.org – I’d love to hear your feedback at  tokenskeptic@gmail.com. Theme songs are ‘P&P’ by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com and ‘365′ by Milton Mermikides, at  www.miltonmermikides.com.

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Mp3 Download Here – or via Token Skeptic iTunes.

This episode would not be possible if it were not for the opportunity given to me by Christ Church Grammar School – particularly the Centre for Ethics and Reverend Canon Frank Sheehan and Teresa Scott – and St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls.

This is an interview conducted on August 2nd, 2010 at Christ Church Grammar School, of Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Reverend Cannon Frank Sheehan.

Somali-born writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, sees her journey from tribal community to membership of modern democratic society in terms of enlightenment.

After spending time as a parliamentarian in the Netherlands, Ayaan moved to a conservative Washington think tank. As both an activist and an academic, she writes and speaks about the problematic relationship between some forms of Islam and freedom of thought and expression as it has come to be accepted and treasured in the West. This has naturally led to hurt and bewilderment on both sides of the discussion.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali continues to pay a high price for her readiness to embrace liberty of thought as is evidenced by her need for protection. She gained enormous fame for her book Infidel (2007) and her most recent work Nomad. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and has been named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Visit www.tokenskeptic.org – I’d love to hear your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com. Theme songs are ‘P&P’ by Derek K Miller at www.penmachine.com and ‘365′ by Milton Mermikides, at www.miltonmermikides.com.

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SORRY FOR THE DELAY – Libsyn upload was completely unhelpful and I did a ‘work-around’. MP3 of the episode is here!

Welcome to Episode Thirty-One! This week, after attending a workshop on evaluation, I had the chance to talk to the President of the Australian Science Communicators, Dr Jesse Shore!

He is the brain behind the science communication consultancy company Prismatic Sciences (based in NSW). His experience includes working at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, coordinating public events, and science festivals. Dr Shore has served or is serving on state coordinating committees for National Science Week. He is also on working groups relating to the recent Inspiring Australia Report, which we discuss briefly during this interview.

Additional News: August 15, 2010, starting from 11am, at the Monash Science Centre, Clayton, Victoria – the Brains Matter Live show! Check out the Brains Matter podcast site for more at www.brainsmatter.com. Congratulations to the Science Bloggers Bec Crew of Running Ponies blog and the microblogger cbsquared_ – winners of the Big Blog Theory! Check out Bec reporting nationwide for Science Week in August. In addition, check your local science news for the national tour by Daniel Keogh, called “Why We’re the Stupid Species”.

This show is available on Zune, mp3 via Libsyn or iTunes. Speaking of  iTunes, you can find and rate all of the shows there, or  you can visit www.tokenskeptic.org – I’d love to hear your feedback at tokenskeptic@gmail.com. Theme songs are ‘P&P’ by Derek K Miller of www.penmachine.com and ‘365′ by Milton Mermikides, at www.miltonmermikides.com.

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Last Chance – To Vote For Best Australian Science Blog!

22 July 2010

Daniel Keogh, who was interviewed in Token Skeptic episode #30, gives some suggestions as to what makes a good science blogger!

Oh – and vote vote vote – head to Science Week’s The Big Blog Theory, found at this link – notice that there’s a microblogging category as well as [...]

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Libsyn 3 And ‘Where Did All These Episodes Come From??’

18 July 2010

Multiple eps on iTunes explained! I‘ve upgraded to Libsyn 3 and the same thing happened to the Geologic podcast and Skeptic Zone – suddenly there’s a whole bunch of older eps that you’ll find in your podcatcher! :/ I think the only thing that can be done is just delete them.
I’m tempted to [...]

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Episode Thirty – On Science Communication, Hungry Beasts And Professor Funk – An Interview With Daniel Keogh

18 July 2010

This is episode thirty! Work starts for me again this week, so to save some time, I’m putting this episode online a little earlier than usual. Since this interview focuses on a favourite topic of mine, Science Communication – I thought I’d plug an event by a fellow podcaster who will be doing something special [...]

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Episode Twenty-Nine – On The Invisible Gorilla – An Interview With Daniel Simons And Christopher Chabris

17 July 2010

For many listening to this podcast – the phrase ‘Did you see the gorilla?’ might remind you of a group of people throwing a basketball to each other. For those who have no idea – before you go any further, check out the award-winning video that will feature in the show notes!

Finished watching it? What [...]

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Episode Twenty-Eight – On Secular Ethics Classes – An Interview With Dr Phillip Cam

12 July 2010

‘Did you know that children whose parents make a conscientious decision to have them opt out of Special Religious Education (SRE) are prohibited from any form of instruction during this period? NSW Department of Education policy provides for the supervision of these children but specifies they are not to have access [...]

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