Tag Archives: Science

Why did I defend the geocentric model?

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In this eighth episode of the second season, I defend my defense of the Ptolemaic geocentric system of crystal spheres! I hadn’t even realized till I started recording that this is our 50th ever episode. I really should be so blown away that I’ve kept things going this long, but I’m not, somehow? Perhaps it’s just become a habit, and I stopped noticing milestones! But anyway, 50 episodes, I think that’s pretty amazing and I’m very proud to have made … Continue reading →

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Interview with Dr Jarita Holbrook

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In Episode 7 of the second season of the Urban Astronomer Podcast, I chat with Dr Jarita Holbrook of the University of the Western Cape about her interest in cultural astronomy. This was one of the longer and more interesting interviews of my career, and our conversation continued for some time after the microphones were turned off! Unfortunately, the audio quality isn’t as good as I’d hoped. There’s a terrible echo on my voice which comes and goes as the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Dr Daniel Cunnama

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Welcome to the 3rd episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast, season 2, featuring Dr Daniel Cunnama. We almost didn’t make it this week, thanks to a major technical hitch, but we worked around it and here we are. If you listened to the last episode, then you’re probably expecting this to be an interview episode, featuring Dr Rosalind Skelton of the South African Astronomical Observatory. I spoke to her in June last year and we recorded an interview specifically for … Continue reading →

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Why are planets always round?

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Welcome to the second episode of this second season of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! Two of Two, sounds like it should be special… and it kinda sort of is, because this week we’re presenting the first of our unique patented Science Explainy Bits! Now to be clear, it’s the name that’s new, not the science explaining, because I’ve done explainy stuff for science concepts before on this show, back in our super-extended 42 episode long first season. I got quite … Continue reading →

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Picking fights with a flat-earther

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They tell us we’re living in a post-truth world, whatever that’s supposed to mean.  All I know is that there’s a growing number of people who look at the vast store of human knowledge, and reject it.  People who hear experts speak on science, politics, medicine, and say “Nope! I saw a YouTube about this, and I know better!”.  And there’s no starker demonstration of this than the modern flat-earther. How does this happen? What makes sane adults, with an education … Continue reading →