Here are my favorite skeptical (critical thinking and science) podcast episodes from the past few weeks!

The Eco Well podcast recently had an informative episode for parents: "The "Sephora Kids" Phenomenon - what parents AND brands need to know. Roundtable with Aegean Chan MD and Claire Bing"
https://www.theecowell.com/podcast 


Clarity Labs came out with a short, but sweet episode looking at toxicity with a professional toxicologist: "The World Is... Toxic?"
https://youtu.be/dkwBIeNx_-Y?si=fZXGuS8ijWokUoYI


GLP Science Facts & Fallacies has been on repeat lately, with their tiresome diatribes about how they feel experts handled the pandemic, but there is still some interesting discussion about RFK, Jr. in their latest episode. I don't consider this a must-listen though: "GLP podcast: Will RFK, Jr. restore or destroy public trust in science and medicine?"
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/02/19/glp-podcast-will-rfk-jr-restore-or-destroy-public-trust-in-science-and-medicine/

In the news: Microsoft creates a new state of matter for their quantum computer! Dr. Scott Aaronson, the world famous theoretical computer scientist, wrote an FAQ about this news item on his blog:
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8669

In the news: scientists create light that exists in 37 dimensions simultaneously!  The scientists studied light that had 37 dimensions in the mathematical abstraction of Hilbert Space, which is not physical space (which only has three physical dimensions). Remember Popular Mechanics? They got this dead wrong in their lazy write up: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a63626808/37-dimensions-quantum-mechanics/  On top of that, in 2014 scientists studied light that had 27 dimensions and LiveScience has an article about it that got this correct: https://www.livescience.com/42899-physicists-measure-photons-quantum-states.html  Shame on Popular Science!

In the news: the New York Times published an article on February 19 with the headline "Is This Common Herbicide Harming Your Health?" In the article, the journalist claims that the "science is not settled" on glyphosate and ends the article with an in-depth look at ways to "reduce your exposure", including buying organic produce instead of non-organic:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/well/glyphosate-health-cancer.html  That sounds scary, but the journalist doesn't mention that organic produce uses all sorts of organic herb/pesticides (some of which are most definitely harmful to humans). The journalist doesn't bother to compare them to glyphosate. In fact, she doesn't mention it at all so we have no idea if switching to organic produce, ostensibly to avoid what the journalist herself admits is a low risk, would entail a higher risk of harm from the organic herb/pesticides. The most damning thing, however, is that the science on glyphosate is as close to settled as settled gets in science. To quote a scientist in the field, "After 40 years of massive scrutiny there is no strong epidemiological, mechanistic or cellular/molecular evidence that this safe herbicide causes cancer, and every major independent regulatory or chemical assessment organization agrees". How can the New York Times still be peddling this kind of fear mongering after 40 years? I don't get it. Or rather, I do get it, because people are still taken in by the likes of RFK, Jr. and other deniers who seriously (and very erroneously) claim that the science isn't settled. I like to think of this technique as the "science of the gaps" technique. No matter how broad and deep scientists get in their explanation of physical phenomenon, a denier can always say, but you didn't study X. Regardless of how unlikely X is to change the conclusion of the analysis of accumulated evidence. The denier will always say, see the science is not settled because you didn't study X yet. It's disingenuous and it's very sad to see these arguments being made over and over again in places like the New York Times. Anyway, the quote about how glyphosate has been studied for the past 40 years comes from Dr. Kevin Folta's blog post from 2022 here: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2022/07/12/glyphosate-detected-in-80-of-urine-reason-for-alarm-or-deceptive-data-distortion/