The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

In this episode I’m looking into a particular issue of government waste. Specifically I’d like to dig into the funding of religious schools in Ontario. Is this a good investment for society, or a ruinous subsidy to a single religious minority? This is a polarizing issue in Ontario that has been too hot to handle for politicians.  The last time a political party in Ontario sought to propose a change to the system (John Tory’s conservative party proposed in the 2007 election to fund all religious schools) their party was hung out to dry by the voters.  Proponents of the special status for Catholic schools note that funding of their particular religion is enshrined in Canada’s constitution. Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867, protects the Catholic school system. Opponents note that Ontario is the only province that funds just one type of religious school.  Let’s get the facts. My guest today has published articles calling for the Abolition of publicly funded Catholic school system in Ontario. David Moscrop is a columnist and the author of Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones. He is a political commentator for television, radio, and print media. He is also the host of Open To Debate, a current affairs podcast, and Left Looking In with CUPE Local 416. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView

In this episode I continue my investigation into the pros and cons of Universal Basic Income as a potential solution to the ongoing increases in automation from robotics and Artificial Intelligence and subsequent job losses. In one of my earlier podcasts ‘Income Inequality: We’ve botched it” I showed how the benefits of significant automation and productivity increases afforded by robotics have been funneled into the hands of the top 1% of society, leaving the rest of us in a declining standard of living with most families having to go to dual incomes with less free time just to make ends meet. In the last episode I interviewed Karl Widerquist to discuss the likely economic impacts of the ongoing AI revolution, and the feasibility of introducing UBI. In the past I’ve also interviewed Mr. Floyd Marinescu, CEO and founder of UBI Works on the feasibility of this concept.  Today I’m interviewing a recognized authority on UBI and I’ll be challenging him on some of the more controversial aspects. Scott Santens has been researching and advocating for the concept of unconditional universal basic income (or UBI) since 2013. He is the Founder and President of the Income To Support All Foundation (ITSA Foundation) and also serves on the board of directors of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity and as the editor of Basic Income Today — a daily UBI news hub. Scott was acknowledged by former U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang as one of those who helped shape his thinking. He has recently published a book entitled 'Let there be money', about UBI and how to pay for it. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Send me your opinions on this episode on Facebook @TheRationalView

In this episode I am discussing the economic impacts of the AI revolution, and whether or not it is time for UBI. AI will take over jobs and increase productivity per remaining worker to compensate. We are bound for a situation where owners will be able to squeeze more profits from a declining workforce, while the working class continues on the path to extinction and increasing hardship. Corporate profits need to keep increasing to pay shareholders, and corporations have been able to use the threat of offshoring jobs, while having to compete with more unscrupulous companies to hold wages down. I am a proponent of some sort of UBI but I recognize that the path from here to there is not obvious. I fear that if we don’t find a peaceful means to distribute the increasingly concentrated wealth created by robotics, and AI, that the uprising is coming. People are getting restless. Despite being significantly more productive than our parents generation, we have less real wealth. Less purchasing power. Less free time. Less leisure. AI and robotics were supposed to free us from the grind. Make life easier. Instead we have to compete with robots in a dwindling job market to make ends meet. It doesn’t have to be this way. Is there an equitable and peaceful path to more widely share the benefits of automation or are we rushing headlong into upheaval? Dr. Karl Widerquist has a Ph.D. in economics from the City University of New York. For several years Widerquist pursued both music and economics. He played in several indie bands in New York in the 1990s. He was a Hoover Fellow at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Widerquist received a second doctorate in Political Theory at the University of Oxford and then worked as a Fellow at the Murphy Institute at Tulane University and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar specializing in distributive justice. Widerquist has been the co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) since 2008. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Support the discussion on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational

I recently ran a pair of episodes investigating claims of the health effects of deuterium, a stable heavy isotope of hydrogen. The first interview was with a Naturopath, and the second was with a real medical doctor publishing peer reviewed papers on the topic. And my focus in this effort is on drilling through the BS to get to what the evidence says.  This takes sustained skepticism, and it doesn’t always make friends. Many people are turned off by the methods of science. It reminds me of why I never liked the TV series X-files. The scientist was always being appropriately skeptical of phenomena that have, at best, only breathless anecdotal support. But she was constantly being shamed by the male character for not ‘believing’ that the truth is out there.  But believing extraordinary claims without sufficient evidence makes you gullible. You have the choice of being a friendly fool in believing that astrology or alternative medicine, homeopathy, or other superstitions should be given equal standing with experimentally tested scientific knowledge. So in this episode I want to give you some tools to identify bafflegab, gobbledygook, and pseudo-science, while reviewing some of the reactions I received.  Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView Twittter @AlScottRational

In this episode I’m digging deeper into the purported health effects of deuterium, a stable isotope of hydrogen. Deuterium has twice the mass of hydrogen, and it exists naturally in water.  A hydrogen atom in H2O is replaced by deuterium in about 150 out of 1 million atoms. This trace compound interacts chemically as hydrogen, but because of its weight it has different dynamics. Why is this an issue? Excess deuterium has been found to impact cell division.. When it gets incorporated into proteins in the body it can mess with their functionality. Yet at such low concentrations it seems like it wouldn’t be a significant issue. Let’s get to the bottom of this. Dr. Laszlo Boros is a retired Professor of Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine, the Co-Director of the Stable Isotope Research Laboratory at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovations and Investigator at the Clinical and Translational Research Institute at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is the inventor of the Human Deutenome Project in order to map the distribution of deuterium in the human body with structural and functional interpretations as it relates to disease and health. Born and educated in Hungary, his medical background includes a focus on pancreatic cancer and stable isotope technologies to study diabetes and cancer cell growth in vitro. He researches the influence of metabolic processes and disorders on aggressive cancers and vitamin transport. He is an internationally recognized expert of metabolic water biochemistry as well as deuterium mediated kinetic isotopic effects in health and disease. His most recent studies target 'deupletion' and 'deuposition' related mechanisms as the result of intra-cellular hydrophobic lipid membrane nanoconfinements via the Quantum Destabilization of Protons in metabolic water. https://www.laszlogboros.com/_files/ugd/aeaa87_81191bea9f9643a7b40ed99f0052394d.pdf Support The Rational View at https://patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView This was an interesting discussion. What did you think? Let me know @TheRationalView on Facebook.

This episode is based on feedback from a listener who suggested I investigate the science of Deutenomics. The impact of heavy water on health.  Apparently it’s a thing. Is it snake oil or is it real? Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that is twice as heavy. It has a neutron plus a proton.  Chemically it should be identical, but the reaction dynamics can be different due to the mass. I’ve found an expert on the subject to chat with. This is a job for The Rational View Petra Davelaar is a naturopathic doctor who specializes in Deutenomics. Deutenomics is a new area in science that explores how hydrogen moves through water and other intermediates inside our body. Essentially, humans are electric Beings of water fueled by light. Deutenomics seeks to uncover the biochemical and quantum physics of these processes. She completed her naturopathic medical training at Bastyr University and is certified in functional medicine and nutrition. She is an invited reviewer for several scientific periodicals, including Scientific Reports, a Nature group research journal, as well as Medical Oncology, a Springer journal. https://drpetrad.com/about Let me hear your opinion on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational Insta @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #deutenomics #heavywater #health #cancer #mitochondria

In this episode I am welcoming a returning guest, Zion Lights, to the podcast to discuss the growing influence of degrowth. This philosophy encompasses a wide range of thinking from return to nature Luddites to  mild anti-capitalist zeitgeist. Zion Lights is a Science Communicator who is known for her environmental advocacy work. She is founder of the evidence-based climate activism group Emergency Reactor and author of The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting. Zion has become a world-leading speaker on clean energy, specifically nuclear energy, and also lectures on effective science communication, tackling misinformation, and climate action. Zion is also a keen astronomer who has given a TED talk on the importance of stargazing. She is the former Editor of The Hourglass, Extinction Rebellion's print newspaper, and was also a spokesperson for the group for two years.

In this episode I’m continuing my series on human enhancement. I’ve previously interviewed Guilia Dominijanni on her experiments on how people adapt successfully to adding a third robotic arm. Technology continues to advance in robotics, computing, and brain-machine interfaces opening a huge pandora’s box on the potential for future enhancements. To explore this I’m going to chat with a distinguished author who has explored the issue in depth. Joel Garreau is an explorer of culture, values, and change. He has published several books, including The Nine Nations of North America. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, and Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. A long-time reporter and editor at The Washington Post, Joel is now Professor of Culture, Values and Emerging Technologies Emeritus at Arizona State University. Joel has served as a Future Tense Fellow at New America in Washington, D.C., and a fellow at Cambridge University, Oxford, the University of California at Berkeley and George Mason University and a Science Journalism Laureate at Purdue. He was a long-time member of Global Business Network, the pioneering scenario-planning organization, and is the troll of a small forest in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge.

In this episode I want to return to the theme of critical thinking. How can we teach people to immunize their minds? In the past I’ve interviewed two of the co-founders of the Mental Immunity Project, Andy Norman and Lee McIntyre to get their feedback on how to fight the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that we are fed on social media. The Mental Immunity Project is an effort to vaccinate the minds of the public against viral misinformation. Today I’m interviewing the third co-founder of the project to learn about her work in fighting for a Rational View. Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power, an online critical thinking resource. She is an Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches a general-education science course designed to teach critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy.  As a speaker and consultant, she promotes her "teach skills, not facts" approach to fellow science educators, and assists organizations in achieving their goals through better thinking. The enthusiastic support of my listeners is what keeps me pumping out new and interesting content. Please consider becoming a patron at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Add your inputs on Facebook @TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #criticalthinking #mentalimmunity #bias #disinformation

2023 was a big year for the perception and advancement of nuclear power not only in Canada, but globally. In this episode I am interviewing friend of The Rational View and fellow podcaster Dr. Chris Keefer to reminisce about the work his group, Canadians for Nuclear Energy has accomplished in the past year. Chris Keefer is an emergency physician, medical simulation educator, nuclear energy advocate and podcaster. He is the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and the Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy and the host of the Decouple Podcast. Support the podcast at https://patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #nuclearenergy #candu #greenenergy #atomicenergy   

This episode is a Rational View review of 2023, and an outlook for 2024. Happy New Year! 2023 was a big year for yours truly in that I uprooted my family and moved to a new city, and I apologize for the interruptions that this entailed. I’ve finally gotten settled in my new home and it’s time to take stock and make new plans. If you are interested learning about The Rational View and are in need of a quick overview of last year's podcasts to decide where to start in then you've come to the right place. If you are a long-time listener, then I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me about the past year and are looking forward to a new year filled with more learning and evidence-based exploration of important issues. #TheRationalView #podcast #2023 #overview

In this episode I am returning to a topic that has become a favourite for pundits and trolls, and that is carbon dioxide. The near doubling of the atmospheric concentration of this colourless odourless gas has been identified by scientists as contributing to an accelerating heating of the biosphere that has significantly affected the climate.  As a by-product of one of our most lucrative industries, the burning of fossil fuels, CO2 has gained a lot of friends.  And because of that it is the subject of a targeted disinformation campaign, becoming headline political news.  This is a job for The Rational View. Bärbel Hönisch grew up in Germany and studied at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, as well as the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. She received her Diploma in Biology in 1999 and her PhD in Natural Sciences in 2002. After moving to the US, she held academic positions at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, the City University of New York at Queens College, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, and Bremen University. She joined the faculty of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University in 2007. She is interested in the effect of global carbon cycle perturbations on climate and the oceans, in particular past variations of seawater acidity and its relation to atmospheric CO2. As she was originally trained as a marine biologist, her research includes culture experiments with living marine calcifiers to validate proxies for past environmental conditions. She applies the resulting calibrations to reconstructing seawater carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2 variations through Earth history. Over the past 7 years she has led a consortium of paleo-CO2 proxy experts to compile, vet and modernize published paleo-CO2 estimates over the Cenozoic. Support the podcast at https://Patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Facebook @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational

In this episode I am starting on a new interest—I want to talk about the emerging field of human enhancement.  Technology is allowing us to modify our bodies in ways that people only dreamed of in the past. We’ve discussed genetic enhancements in previous episodes, but in this thread I want to dig into the state of the art of and ethics of alterations, additions, and modifications. Giulia Dominijanni is a Ph.D. student at the Neuro-X-Institute and School of Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Neutouch International Training Network alumna. Her research focuses on developing bidirectional Human-Machine Interfaces for augmenting physical abilities, particularly through control strategies and sensory feedback approaches for extra robotic limbs aimed at human augmentation. Her doctoral studies included a visiting period at University College London and the University of Cambridge, where she studied the impact of a feet-controlled extra thumb on body representation and biological lower limbs abilities.  She holds a Master of Science in Bionics Engineering from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, and a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Let's discuss bionic enhancements on facebook @TheRationalView Insta @The_Rational_View Twix @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #bionics #humanenhancement #prostheses #ethics

This episode is a re-release of a much earlier episode (#11). While I'm busy moving houses I wanted to follow on the theme of my last episode on preserving an inspiring and beautiful natural resource for future generations: the vista of the universe. Please enjoy my discussion with friend, amateur astronomer and dark sky enthusiast Rob Dick. Amateur astronomer and long-time RASC member Rob Dick is CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group, and CTO of EcoLights and a lecturer at the University of Ottawa. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”: Vincent Van Gogh. Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #darkskies #scotobiology #Astronomy #lightpollution 

In this episode I’m returning to the insidious advance of light pollution and what we can all do to bring back the night sky. I’m now in Guelph Ontario and the municipality is considering introducing a light pollution by-law. If you also would like to see the stars at night from a population centre, this episode will help you to understand the issues and the best approaches to combatting the tragedy of the commons that is unabated artificial light at night. My guest today is Mr. Jim Goetz, a retired soldier with an interest in astronomy. He is the Vice President of the Kitchener-Waterloo Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. His current interest is the promotion of the coming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8 next year. Support The Rational View at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Share your opinions on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #darkskies #lightpollution #bylaws 

On this episode I chat with a long time friend and host of the Run Your Life podcast, Mr. Andy Vasily. Andy has been exploring learning methods and works professionally on coaching athletes to achieve peak performance. I have been exploring the science of consciousness and the technology of Artificial Intelligence. In this episode we explore the nexus where these interests all meet. What does artificial intelligence teach us about how human brains learn? What lessons can we take from sports psychology to help us understand minds and consciousness? Come and have a listen as we discuss the science of brain training. Please give me your inputs on Facebook @TheRationalView Patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #learning #artificialintelligence #sportspsychology #consciousness #neurology #neuroscience #brains #neuralnetworks

In this episode I’m going to go on a bit of a Rational Rant. It’s a pet peeve of mine, and probably of yours too, but today I’m jousting at the windmill of excessive banking fees and lack of customer service. So be prepared to let off some steam for a cathartic ride through the wonderful world of our banking system as I get back a little of what they take from us all. #TheRationalView #podcast #banking #gouging #justice #customerservice #service 

In this episode I have a returning guest to discuss the fall.  No not the weather. The fall of civilization. Our previous interview released September 12, 2020, was titled ‘This is how liberty dies’, where we discussed the frightening parallels between the evolving political situation in the US and events in multiple failed democracies. Despite these fears, my guest was quite upbeat about the prognosis for US to avoid an authoritarian uprising, noting that Trump was not as smart nor as popular as the leaders of successful revolutions. This was only a few months before the unsuccessful January 6th 2021 coup attempt, and it seems that for the moment anyway, he was right.  I thought it might be fun for us to touch base and see if he might be interested in revising his opinion. Dr. Steven Levitsky is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. His research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, mostly in Latin America. He is co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018), which was a New York Times Best-Seller and has been published in 22 languages. He is also author many books regarding politics and authoritarianism in Latin America. His most recent book, also with Daniel Ziblatt is titled ‘The Tyranny of the Minority’. Help spread The Rational View at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Share your opinions with me on Facebook @TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #democracy #collapse #government #tyranny

In this episode I will be taking a look at the ugly side of unrestricted capitalism, and how lobbying has skewed the public debate and shifted the Overton window to the right. Some would argue that unrestricted capitalism has been a great boon lifting society into an age of plenty. Others would argue that it has done this by maintaining an economic class hierarchy that enables the rich to enslave the poor. Are workers entering into employment agreements between equals for a mutually beneficial exchange of labour for wages, or are people forced into degrading wage slavery under duress by withholding the essentials of life like food, housing, and healthcare? My guest today will help us grapple with these issues. Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University and the author of nearly 200 scholarly papers and popular articles and numerous books including Merchants of Doubt and The Big Myth, both co-authored with Erik M. Conway. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Times (London), and many others. Her TED talk, "Why We Should Trust Scientists" was viewed more than a million times. She is an active participant in the World Economic Forum in Davos. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Tell me what you think on Facebook @TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #neoliberalism #economics #marketing #propaganda #thebigmyth #Reaganomics

In this episode I'm revisiting the topic of being an effective advocate of evidence-based and Rational Policy. To do this properly one must understand the science of how to influence people. I've found in the past that countering anti-science opinion with ridicule, although very cathartic, is not helpful. I've learned that just spouting reams of evidence is not helpful for those who have already made up their minds. Although this might be sufficient for neutral parties it's not going to change minds in a polarized debate. My guest today is an expert on what it takes to change peoples' minds. David McRaney is a journalist and lecturer fascinated with brains, minds, and culture. He created the blog, book, and ongoing podcast You Are Not So Smart, which he calls a "celebration of self delusion." His most recent book is How Minds Change, all about the science behind how and why people do and do not change their minds and the intricacies and nuances of persuasion. After finishing How Minds Change, he wrote, produced, and recorded a six-hour audio documentary exploring the history of the idea and the word – genius – which is the subject of his next book. Support The Rational View at Patron.Podbean.com/TheRationalView Tell me your opinion on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #influence #changingminds #evidence #science