November 29, 2014 10:43 am

This Sunday: Science Deniers, Creationists and Trolls

Screen Capture of Miles O'Brien as CNN's Chief Environmental Correspondent

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Elise Andrew of “I F***ing Love Science,” and veteran science reporter Miles O’Brien: they’ve each faced their share of science deniers, on a variety of topics.

But sometimes that resistance can come from surprising places. In this Sunday’s extended episode of StarTalk Radio, Miles tells Neil about his difficulties convincing CNN that the climate change debate was over, or at least that there was no equivalency between both sides in the debate.

And in our new, added interview with Elise Andrew, she tells Neil, Bill and Chuck Nice about her own experiences with science deniers, creationists and trolls on her 19-million follower strong Facebook page – experiences that include being threatened with violence.

Bill Nye famously sparred with Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis and The Creation Museum, and has gone so far as to write a new book, Undeniable, to help convince creationists of the science supporting the Theory of Evolution.

Even here at StarTalk, when we share articles or put up photos showing astronauts on the Moon, there is invariably someone who comments that the moon landing was a hoax. There are similar conspiracy theories about the Mars Rovers and even Rosetta and Philae.

Science reporting has changed since CNN fired its entire science and technology division, which Miles talks about this Sunday. But just because the mainstream news organizations aren’t covering it with the same zeal they did in the early days of the space program, that doesn’t mean science communication is being relegated to hushed whispers in dark alleys.

It is alive in the Twitter feeds of astrophysicists, physicists and astronauts, in publications like Universe Today and on the Facebook pages and websites of organizations like NASA and the ESA. It’s flourishing on podcasts like Science Friday, Radio Lab, Astronomy Cast, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, and yes, even StarTalk Radio.

Speaking of StarTalk Radio, just like last week, this week’s show includes 10 minutes of new content we’ve added to the end of a show from earlier this season. It’s an excellent episode, and well worth hearing again if you haven’t heard it. But the new interview we’ve added, where Neil, Chuck, Bill and Elise discuss sparring with science deniers is worth tuning in for even if you have heard the rest of the show before.

Join us for Reporting on Science (Part 2) – extended with Elise Andrew of IFLS and Bill Nye at 7:00 PM ET on our website, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

One more thing: if you haven’t already voted in our Season 5 Fan Favorite Poll, please vote now here. We use your votes to help us decide what we put into our Time Capsule episodes. The poll ends at 11:59 PM Tuesday, so don’t put it off too much longer.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons

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