October 4, 2014 1:36 pm

This Sunday, Neil deGrasse Tyson Explores Pseudoscience

Scientifically speaking, how do we know what we know, and, more importantly, how do we know that we don’t know something?

That’s the central theme of this Sunday’s podcast, Cosmic Queries: Pseudoscience.

StarTalk Radio host Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Leighann Lord dive into questions our fans have submitted (mostly from Facebook this time!) on subjects as diverse as crystals and creationism.

Frequently, our Cosmic Queries episodes consist of lots of your questions, but in this episode, Neil takes his time debunking the debunkable. That means there’s no lighting round, just good, solid, rational discussion about Bigfoot and Ouija Boards.

For instance, Neil and Leighann take an in-depth look at the difference between imagination and magical thinking, and how kids are enriched by one, but adults are deluded by the other.

Neil talks about the human susceptibility to fool ourselves into thinking that one thing is true, when actually something else is – and how science invents methods and tools to reduce or protect against this tendency.

Another topic Neil takes on is alternative medicine, which he considers the most dangerous example of pseudoscience.

If you’re somebody who believes that scientific literacy is a vaccine against pseudoscience, then this Sunday it’s time for your booster shot.

Join us for Cosmic Queries: Pseudoscience Sunday, October 5 at 7:00 PM ET on our website, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up.

–Jeffrey Simons