Blogs and Podcasts

I became interested in the rationalist movement during my senior year of high school. That fall, Richard Dawkins (peace be upon him) published The God Delusion. It wasn't until the publication of that wonderful book that I saw other people attacking religion just as I always wanted to. Previously I was somewhat conflicted. I wanted to challenge these beliefs and almost always did, but I had been told that religion wasn't something that you should confront people on. Obviously, I decided to go with my first instinct.

That spring, I started listening to podcasts, which introduced me to the world of skepticism. I already knew about the Center for Inquiry (CFI) so I naturally chose Point of Inquiry as one of the first podcasts to which I subscribed. If it weren't for listening to that podcast, Brown Freethought might not exist. CFI - On Campus was often mentioned during episodes so I tried finding a rationalist group at Brown but had no luck. So naturally I decided to start one.

Here's are a list of the blogs, podcasts, and comics that I regularly (or at one point regularly) read, listen to, and view. Many of them are great resources for keeping up to date on atheism, skepticism, and science.

Blogs

• Pharyngula: The best blog out there. It's a science blog by the biologist PZ Myers, who does not suffer fools well.
• Cosmic Variance: This physics blog normally sticks to physics but occasionally there will be some rationalist topic discussed by one of the bloggers. It's worth reading for the physics alone.
• Bad Astronomy: An excellent blog on astronomy and skepticism.
• Skeptical Software Tools: The author doesn't post regularly but the content is invaluable. As the name suggests, it's a great resource for useful technologies for skepticism.
• The Rogues Gallery: The blog of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe<.
• Skepticblog: The blog of the "Skeptologists", a prospective show on skepticism. A number of the authors are well-known skeptics.
• Christopher Hitchens articles: This is a compilation of Hitchens's articles from Slate, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Newsweek that I made with Yahoo pipes. Please tell me if Hitchens write regular articles on other sites so I can include them.
• RichardDawkins.net: Need I say more?
• Quantum Diaries: A particle physics blog. It's been very exciting to read recently with the LHC colliding particles for the first time.
• The Physics arXiv Blog: This highlights some articles on the arXiv, the main physics preprint server.
• Why Evolution is True: Another biology blog. Jerry Coyne did a wonderful job this summer criticizing accommodationists
• FiveThirtyEight: The best political site. I can always count of a good statistical analysis of what's going on. They correctly predicted the results in 49 states for the 2008 presidential election.
• The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman's blog on economics and policy.

Comics

• xkcd: Fabulous.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: Irreverent.
• Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD Comics): What I have to look forward to in a couple years.

Podcasts

• The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: This is my favorite podcast. It's what brought me into the skeptical movement.
• Quackcast: All of your answers to pseudoscientific medical questions delivered with "evidence based ridicule." My only complaint is that new episodes don't come out often enough.
• Skeptoid: A short, 10ish minute podcast that give overviews of different pseudoscientific phenomena.
• Point of Inquiry: The podcast of the Center for Inquiry. The host, DJ Grothe, was the head of CFI - On Campus, which Brown Freethought is a member of.
• Astronomy Cast: A facts based journey through the Universe.
• Are We Alone?: The podcast of the SETI Institute. They have regular shows on skeptical topics.