"Skeletons In The Science Closet – Real Sexism & Fake Skepticism" with Craig Weiler – Ep. 04 out now

The fourth episode of the Worthful Woman podcast just dropped!

🎧 EP. #4 CRAIG WEILER: SKELETONS IN THE SCIENCE CLOSET – REAL SEXISM & FAKE SKEPTICISM 🎧

Craig Weiler is the science editor for Paranormal Daily News, a parapsychology journalist, author and blogger. Craig covers controversies in parapsychology (and occasionally other topics) as well as interesting studies, various researchers and projects and the occasional topical subject related to parapsychology – the scientific exploration of what appear to be paranormal phenomena, such as telepathy, precognition, telekinesis and remote viewing. Craig Weiler is also the author of “Psi Wars: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet”, where he covers issues around censorship and dogma in science. 

In this episode, Craig joined us to discuss one particular aspect of this censorship and dogma – sexism in science, and specifically the presence of sexism in communities that self-identify as skeptical, but which in fact, as Craig explained, engage in fake skepticism (pseudoskepticism) when it comes to scientific evidence that challenges their worldview, such as in the case of parapsychology.

Craig and I also talked about the difference between pseudoskepticism and real skepticism, the links between pseudoskepticism, authoritarian traits and sexism, the history of sexism in science, both subtle and overt – for example how the Society for Psychical Research, the first organisation in the world to scientifically investigate claims of psychic and paranormal phenomena, was criticised in its early days for not actually being scientific because many of its members and participants were women –, how this history of sexism still affects science and society to this day, and much more!

Before you tune in, please be mindful that this could be an emotionally heavy episode to listen to, including mentions of sexual violence. Links to resources that offer support for victims of sexual violence and abuse can be found here and here, as well as in the video description on Youtube / show notes on Spotify and other podcasting platforms.

PS: While listening, you might notice a few times throughout the recording that my mic had some issues – these should be minimally noticeable, but I wanted to give you a heads up so you know it’s not coming from your device. 

▶️ You can tune into this episode on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and most other podcasting platforms – find the link in the bio / comments, or just search for “Worthful Woman” on either platform. 💚