Point of Inquiry

Johann Hari: The Falsehoods of Addiction and The War on Drugs

23 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Billions of dollars are funneled into federal drug programs to keep our children away from drugs and our cities safe from crime and economic turmoil...

The World Human Extinction Will Leave Behind, with Michael Tennesen

16 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

As climate change progresses and takes its toll on the planet, the life forms we share it with continue to evolve and adapt. Some species thrive w...

Eli Lake: How Islamic is 'Islamic Extremism'?

09 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Point of Inquiry, Josh Zepps talks to Eli Lake, a journalist with extensive experience covering international intelligence, diplomacy, a...

False Memories Creating False Criminals, with Dr. Julia Shaw

02 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Memory is remarkably fallible, as we often frustrate ourselves with how certain we are about where we left our car keys only to realize how entirely w...

Leighann Lord: Courageous Comedy as a Safe Space

23 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

This week on a special episode highlighting the upcoming Reason for Change conference, Point of Inquiry welcomes stand up comedian Leighann Lord. Ta...

Laci Green: Truths and Myths about Sex and Love

14 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Laci Green for a special tell-all Valentine's Day episode. Green is a popular Youtube video blogger, sex education...

Letting Go of the Soul, with Julien Musolino

09 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Intuitively, it can feel as though the essence of our thoughts and feelings exists separate from the body and brain, and that essence is what is norma...

Paul Offit, MD, on Measles in the Magic Kingdom and the Anti-Vaccine Movement

02 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Measles are the newest attraction at Disneyland this season, and unfortunately the only thing magical about them is how quickly they’ve begun to spr...

The Women Spies of the Civil War, with Karen Abbott

20 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Point of inquiry, New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott talks to Lindsay Beyerstein about her newest book, Liar, Temptress, ...

Before Charlie Hebdo: The Danish Cartoons that Shook the world, with Jytte Klausen

12 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo was a human atrocity, as well as an assault on free expression. Yet numerous prominent news publications are s...

Penalizing Pregnancy: Lynn Paltrow on the Fight for Reproductive Justice

05 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion has spiraled into challenging not only women’s right to abortion, but a women’s righ...

Christmas Extra: Tom Flynn's 30th Year of Anti-ClausingTom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism, Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, Director of Inquiry Media Productions, as well as professional anti-Christmas advocate and au

25 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism, Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, as well as professional anti-Christmas advocat...

Greta Christina on Coping with Death, No Afterlife Required

22 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our Guest this week is Greta Christina, popular atheist blogger, speaker and author of several books on atheism including her newest, “Comforting ...

Frank Schaeffer on Cynicism and Paranoia in the "War on Christmas"

16 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Fox News’ "War on Christmas" is already in full swing, as Bill O’Reilly wasted no time jumping into battle this year to defend the holiday from th...

Ronald A. Lindsay: Why God Can't Tell Us What to Do

08 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the fact that the United States was founded as a secular state, government neutrality toward religion remains a tumultuous and controversial i...

Deciphering Alan Turing, with Andrew Hodges

01 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Turing was a true visionary. Founding what we understand today as computer science, he was also a mathematician, a philosopher, and an early trai...

Getting Over Racial Anxiety, with Rachel D. Godsil

24 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

As a nation, the U.S. prides itself on at least aspiring to the ideal of equality, even if it often falls short. The educational, health care, and leg...

Surviving Saddam and Confronting Islam, with Faisal Saeed Al Mutar

19 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

As the threat posed by radical Islamists like those of ISIS grows in popular awareness, Islam itself becomes more of a target for criticism; some of i...

Steven Pinker: Using Grammar as a Tool, Not as a Weapon

10 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The English language is often treated as delicate and precious, and disagreements about what is “proper English” go back as far as the 18th centur...

Ebola in the Age of Epidemics - Special Live Episode

03 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

There’s no doubt that Ebola is an incredibly dangerous and genuinely lethal virus, but it’s also a highly manageable one, though you’d be forgiv...

Halloween Extra: 18th Annual Houdini Séance with Joe Nickell

31 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Harry Houdini, the most famous illusionist the world has ever known, spent the later part of his career fascinated with spiritualists and mediums. Thi...

Pro-Choice Without Apology, with Katha Pollitt

22 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Given the divisive nature of the debates over abortion, the subject is understandably not the best table-talk material. But despite the fact that abor...

The Human Impact of Discovering Alien Life, with Astrobiologist Steven J. Dick

14 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our universe is made up of billions of galaxies. The cosmos is so mind-bogglingly vast, that it’s hard not to suppose that we aren’t alone, that l...

The Theology of ISIS, with Dr. Adam Silverman

06 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of ISIS, the self proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has sparked debate about the role of religion — specifically Islam — in vio...

Austin Dacey

29 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Josh Zepps is off, and since this week is the 5th International Blasphemy Rights Day, we're rebroadcasting this interview by Chris Mooney with Austin...

Mark Oppenheimer on Misogyny in the Freethought Community

22 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes journalist Mark Oppenheimer. Mark writes the Beliefs column for the New York Times, and is the author of the e-boo...

Factory Farming and the Meat Racket: Christopher Leonard on our Irrational Meat Industry

17 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

It’s National Chicken Month! But rather than celebrating the consumption of fowl, Point of Inquiry is asking what exactly is going on in America's m...

Ask a Mortician: Caitlin Doughty on the Death Industry's Dirty Secrets

08 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Point of Inquiry welcomes Caitlin Doughty, creator of the cult classic web series Ask A Mortician, which gives unvarnished answers to questions about ...

Sam Harris: Seeking Transcendence Without Religion

02 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been ten years since the publication of Sam Harris’s book The End of Faith kicked off the cultural phenomenon of “new atheism,” bringin...

Dr. Adia Benton on The West African Ebola Outbreak

25 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point Of Inquiry welcomes Dr. Adia Benton, a professor of medical anthropology at Brown University. She joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to t...

Paul Offit, MD - Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine

18 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Point of Inquiry's hosts are off this week, so we're running Lindsay Beyerstein's excellent interview from earlier this year with Dr. Paul Offit. Dr. ...

Christopher Capozzola: 100 Years After the Great War, Lessons in Reason

11 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

One hundred years ago, Great Britain declared war on Germany, joining in what we now refer to as World War I, a conflict which cost more than 9 millio...

Laurel Braitman on Animals and Mental Illness

04 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Laurel Braitman, a TED fellow with a PhD in History and Anthropology of Science from MIT, and the author of Anima...

David Ropeik: Airplane Disasters and the Psychology of Risk

29 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

How do we rationally assess risk? Following a terrible series of horrifying air travel disasters, reasonable people begin to question what we consider...

Jason Horowitz: Protecting the Whales from the U.S. Navy

21 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

On March 15, 2000, over a dozen whales beached themselves in the Bahamas in one of the largest multi-species strandings in history. Suspicion turned t...

Austin Dacey - The U.N. and Defamation of Religions

14 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Point of Inquiry is taking a week off and filling in with a classic episode. After Saudi Arabia recently tried to silence the Center For Inquiry's UN ...

The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby--With Brian Leiter

07 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

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Montel Williams: Leading a Surge on the Veterans Administration

02 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Best known for his 17 years as a talk show host, Montel Williams is now bringing his name and dynamic personality to activism on behalf of U.S. servic...

Marlene Zuk: The Paleo Delusion

23 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in caves rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than wear sneakers—or did we? These, al...

Howard Fineman on Eric Cantor's Defeat and the Battle for the Soul of the GOP

16 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Few intra-party political battles have been as astonishing and unexpected as last week's primary loss by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to religiou...

Janet Mock, Redefining Realness, Biology, Sex and Gender

09 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week POI welcomes bestselling author and trans rights activist, Janet Mock. Janet is the author of the new memoir Redefining Realness: My Path t...

Negin Farsad: Red States and Muslim Comedy

03 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we welcome Negin Farsad, a groundbreaking Iranian American comedian. A TED speaker and TED Fellow, she was named one of the Huffington Pos...

Capital Punishment in Crisis with Dahlia Lithwick

27 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor and Legal Correspondent for Slate, where she writes the "Supreme Court Dispatch...

Farzana Hassan on Islamic Extremism and the Boko Haram

20 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this week is Farzana Hassan, a Pakistani-Canadian political scientist, a columnist for the Toronto Sun, whose new book is Prophecy and t...

Science Denialism with Donald Prothero

12 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this week is Donald Prothero, paleontologist, geologist, and author of the new book Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten our Future....

Talking Nerdy (And Ethically) with Cara Santa Maria

05 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this week is Cara Santa Maria, contributor to Al Jazeera America's science show TechKnow, and the host of the podcast Talk Nerdy. This neu...

Coming Out Atheist - Greta Christina

28 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes the well-known atheist blogger, speaker, and author Greta Christina to talk about her new book, Coming Out Athe...

A Trek Through Skepticism with The Amazing Randi

21 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry is excited to welcome “The Amazing” James Randi: famed magician a godfather (as it were) of the modern reason movement...

Living with a Wild God: Barbara Ehrenreich, Atheism, and Transcendence

14 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Barbara Ehrenreich, award-winning columnist and essayist, and author of 21 books. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) G...

Ann Druyan: Telling the Story of the Cosmos

07 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry is delighted to welcome Ann Druyan, co-writer and co-creator of both the original Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, starring ...

Investigating the Oldest Profession: Prostitution and Science Meet, with Meredith Dank of the Urban Institute

31 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Meredith Dank, PhD, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute. Dank is the co-principal investigator on se...

Frank Schaeffer on Escaping Fundamentalism, and the Death of Fred Phelps

24 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Following the death of the Westboro Baptist Church's Fred Phelps, Josh Zepps discusses the state of religious fundamentalism with Frank Schaeffer, th...

Cancer Quack Stanislaw Burzynski: Exposed

17 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes David Gorski, MD, PhD: cancer researcher, surgeon, and managing editor of the Science-Based Medicine blog, ak...

The Philosophy of Belief with Rebecca Goldstein

10 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Goldstein, a professor of philosophy and the author of five novels and a collection of short stories, joins us on Point of Inquiry to discu...

Daniel Loxton: Bigfoot, Nessie and Other Kinds of "Abominable Science"

03 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Daniel Loxton, longtime Editor of Junior Skeptic, the 10-page kids' science section bound within Skeptic magazine...

Gabriel Sherman - The Loudest Voice in the Room : How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News--and Divided a Country

24 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Gabriel Sherman, writer and contributing editor for New York Magazine and author of the new book The Loudest ...

Amy Tuteur, MD

17 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry looks into midwives, home births, and what they mean for a safe delivery for child and mother. Our guest is skeptic, obs...

Stanton Peele, PhD - Addiction and Recovery

10 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Stanton Peele, PhD., J.D.. Dr. Peele, an addiction expert and author of 12 books on the subject, discusses his vi...

Greg Dworkin, MD - Founding Editor of Flu Wiki

04 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Greg Dworkin, MD. Dr. Dworkin is a founding editor of Flu Wiki (http://fluwiki.info.) an international, wiki-form...

J.R. Havlan - Writer for The Daily Show

28 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry discusses satire in politics and American life with J.R. Havlan, eight-time Emmy Award winning writer on The Daily Show....

Jason Stanley - Is the United States a 'Racial Democracy?

21 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale and co-author of a provocative essay in last week’s New York T...

Arthur Caplan, PhD - Ethics of Brain Death, end of life, the State and the Right

14 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week Point of Inquiry is discussing Death. Specifically, Brain death and the efforts of some areas of the religious right and their attempts to ...

Chris Emden - Hip Hop Archivist and Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University

06 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Point of Inquiry we welcome Chris Emden, a Columbia Professor who's helped design New York City's public school policy, a leading science...

The War on Christmas

30 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

As the War on Christmas wages on, our host, Josh Zepps, interviews Rob Boston, Senior Policy Analyst for American's United for the Separation of Churc...

Kathryn Joyce - The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption

23 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Lindsay Bernstein this week is Kathryn Joyce, one of the foremost reporters chronicling the Religious Right today. She made “Quiverfull”...

P.J. O'Rourke - American Satirist, Journalist and Author

16 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Point of Inquiry, Josh Zepps welcomes P.J. O’Rourke, humorist, cultural commentator, and best selling author of sixteen books. An early...

Barry W. Lynn - Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State

10 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Point of Inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein talks with Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State...

Gadadhara Pandit Dasa - First Hindu Chaplain for Columbia University

02 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

This week's Point of Inquiry features Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, first ever Hindu Chaplain for Columbia University and New York University, the interfaith...

Paul Offit, MD - Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine

25 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

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Bill Nye The Science Guy

17 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Famed educator, engineer and "Science Guy," Bill Nye Joins our host Josh Zepps for this week's Point of Inquiry. They discuss Bill's start as an Engi...

Katherine Stewart: The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children

11 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Point of Inquiry, the flagship podcast for the Center for Inquiry, presents a special episode recorded before a live audience at the 2013 CFI Summit i...

Leonard Mlodinow: Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

05 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Point of Inquiry, the flagship podcast of the Center for Inquiry, relaunches with a special episode recorded before a live audience at the 2013 CFI S...