Xavier and I got together again and recorded another episode of our podcast. This week we talked about sexy sexy teenagers and flat Earthers on the internet. The video is below the fold.
Also below the fold is a plea for help with naming this damn thing. We don’t have a clue what to call it, so we’re throwing it open to the internet.
Relevant links:
– Some background on (and a link to) the HPV study
– Wikipedia article on the Van Allen radiation belts
– A debunking of moon landing conspiracy theories, including the Van Allen belt one
– The book Ian held up
As mentioned above, we need some help naming this podcast. We’re three episodes in and haven’t really come up with anything snappy. My placeholder title has been “Getting Skeptical” but come on, that’s a terrible title. So we’re throwing ourselves at the mercy of you fine folks: help us come up with a name.
I’m also still interested in suggestions on how we can make the program better (yes, the audio thing. I’m working on it, I swear – it’s apparently much more complicated than I thought). Is there any format change you’d like to see us make? Did you like seeing Jamila on the show – should we have guests as a regular feature? How does the “let’s riff on one/two news items” theme work? Would you like to see more audience participation?
Anyway, leave your thoughts in the comments section!
Crommunist 
“Skepticism laid bare”? “The Naked Skeptic”? *Hey, it worked for Peter Worthington and Ben Wicks when they called their cookbook “The Naked Gourmet”!
I actually rather like “Where the Sidewalk Ends” because you are now taking a leap into space or facing the wilderness, or at least the country. I realize there’s a kids’ book of the same name. You can’t copyright a title but it could lead to confusion.
Anything but “Skepticism: _a worthwhile Canadian initiative_” (voted the most boring phrase in the English language by Americans.
I actually like the title ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’. A nod to taking things off the officially recognized path into territory less travelled and less familiar to a lot of people.
Where everything that is conventionally accepted is challenged, where things haven’t yet been smoothed over, etc. Too bad it’s already the title of a book.
Where the snide talk ends.
‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ was easily my favorite book as a child. It’s also one of the most popular children’s books of all time, and won a Grammy for the spoken version in 1984. As appropriate a title as it may be, I think it can be safely considered ‘taken’. (You wouldn’t name it, say, Where the Wild Things Are, would you?)
Howabout:
The Crommune
The Weekly Crommunique
Rev. Xavier and the Crommunist Strike Back (???)
Skeptical Crommunication
I dunno. Sometimes coming up with names is easy, and sometimes it’s really hard, and I’ve never heard or read Xavier before this series so I don’t know much about him.
Also I really lolled at ‘Big Pharma and Big Condom working together!’
I also loved “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” but following on the topic of sidewalks, how about “A Crack In The Pavement.” All sorts of interesting things sprout up in the cracks in the pavement. Also, I loved seeing Jamila. I think having the occasional guest is a great idea. Whatever you call the enterprise, please keep doing it.
Not an idea, but a compulsion, given your terrible working title:
Let’s get skeptical, skeptical
I wanna get skeptical
Let’s get into skeptical
*ducks*
Reverend Xavier and the Uncanucky Skep-Men.
Got nothing for you on the title, but you should get Sikivu on this thing. It would make me squee.