Podcast for Inquiry S02E24: Gretchen Morgenson on her book These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs -- and Wrecks -- America

What is Private Equity, and how does it work? Gretchen Morgenson (@gmorgenson) is a Pulitzer-winning journalist whose latest book is These are the Plunderers. Gretchen exposes the bad and often illegal activities of Private Equity firms, and tries to explain why they have been allowed to get away with it for so long. She describes how Private Equity firms operate behind the scenes to ensure the loopholes that substantially reduce their tax bills are never closed, and details recent events that might give cause for hope. 

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E23: Solomon, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Gandalf: All fictional! With David Fitzgerald

After years of research, David Fitzgerald has come to a surprising conclusion: that all the main characters in the world’s major religions are entirely the product of human imagination. While many have long doubted the supernatural feats that religious figures are purported to have done, the assumption that these are grounded in at least a kernel of historical fact is widely held. David explains how the stories we are familiar with today accreted over time, and the utter lack of evidence that any of the major figures of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, or Buddhism ever actually existed. 

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E22: Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff: Do cities listen to the Supreme Court?

Is secularism church-state separation or government neutrality in matters of religion? What does state religious neutrality look like? When the Supreme Court of Canada issues a ruling, is that the final word? What is the difference between a welcome, a traditional greeting, a cultural practice, and a prayer, especially in the context of indigenous nations and reconciliation?

Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff (@TealePB), research coordinator at the British Columbia Humanist Association, answers all these questions and more. His team at the BCHA contacted every municipality in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario to determine whether they are in compliance with the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2015 Saguenay ruling, which unambiguously decreed that opening municipal council sessions with a prayer was unlawful. He describes how some municipalities try to sneak in religious content with “stealth prayer”, and why ecumenical prayers, non-denominational prayers, or rotating prayers from different religious groups, are bound to fail if the goal is to have an inclusive democracy.

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E21: Dr. Evelyn Forget believes Canadians need Basic Income

 Dr. Evelyn Forget is Canada’s foremost expert on Basic Income, and the author of Basic Income for Canadians: From the COVID-19 Emergency to Financial Security for all. Dr. Forget describes what Basic Income is, and how it differs from UBI (Universal Basic Income). She talks about the results of a Basic Income pilot conducted in Canada, and answers the question: If Basic Income is such a great idea, why aren’t we doing it already? Finally, Dr. Forget explains what a Canadian Basic Income program would look like. 

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E20: Seth Andrews, host of The Thinking Atheist, on Christians acting in un-Christian ways

Seth Andrews (@SethAndrewsTTA) is the host of The Thinking Atheist, a very popular podcast and online resource for nonbelievers. Seth talks about his life as an evangelical Christian and what led him to leave his faith. We talk about how many Christians embrace seemingly un-Christian beliefs and policies, and what Humanists need to do to make the world a better place.

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E19: “Don’t be Evil” no longer applies, with Paris Marx

Paris Marx (@parismarx) is a critic of Silicon Valley business practices and the impact they have on workers and society at large. Paris writes the Disconnect newsletter and hosts Tech Won’t Save Us, an award-winning critical technology podcast.

In today’s episode, Paris explains the flaws in each category of the tech sector, including:

• Blockchain and crypto currencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Tether
• Asset-light service firms - AirBnB, Uber, Lyft
• Amazon
• Fully digital free services - Google, Facebook / Instagram, Twitter / X

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E18: SciComm in the time of Covid, with Tara Moriarty

Dr. Tara Moriarty (@MoriartyLab) was happy being a research scientist, studying how Lyme disease bacteria travel to different parts of our body using the bloodstream. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and she saw a vast need for disseminating accurate information to the public. So she founded COVID-19 Resources Canada and learned on the fly to become a science communicator. Dr. Moriarty describes the reaction from the scientific community and the public, and shares some surprising statistics about the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E17: How Minds Change with David McRaney

On this week's Podcast for Inquiry, I speak with David McRaney (@davidmcraney) about his book, “How Minds Change”. We explore how social context is critical when people form their opinions. People don’t change their minds in a vacuum, and David describes how network effects lead to social cascades, such as how widespread resistance to equal marriage flipped to widespread acceptance in an astonishingly short period. David quizzes me about the most recent movie I watched as a demonstration of how to get people to think differently. We discuss the role of truth in persuasion, and the utter failure of the “information deficit hypothesis”. You can learn more from David via his podcast You Are Not So Smart and on his website at davidmcraney.com. 

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E16: Catherine Dunphy on Humanist activism and the Kimberley project

Catherine is a humanist activist, and believes the two go hand in hand. Catherine talks about the inherent tension within the Catholic Social Justice Movement, and her own journey out of Catholicism. She describes the link between Christofascism and Incels (see her article in Free Inquiry). Catherine’s activism today is focused on The Kimberley Project, a Canadian charity dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. 

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Podcast for Inquiry S02E15: Escaping North Korea with Eunju Kim

How does one survive in an authoritarian regime, where you are sent away for education if the frame holding a picture of the Dear Leader gets dirty? When no one has enough to eat? Eunju Kim is the author of A Thousand Miles to Freedom, which describes her harrowing escape from North Korea to Seoul. She discusses how the Kim dynasty is worshiped in North Korea, much like a God. Eunju details how escaping from North Korea is much harder today than it was when she fled. Today Eunju works for Freedom Speakers International, helping North Korean refugees settle into their new lives in South Korea. 

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