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PODCAST

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Physicist Dr. Al Scott addresses politically and socially divisive issues with insightful evidence-based analysis of the facts. Learn to apply the tools of science to discover the most rational path to an optimistic vision of the future. https://www.therationalview.ca

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

14:53

Why we need a Rational View

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2023/01/14

In this episode I am bringing you my 2022 Rational View year in review, followed by a cool Pecha Kucha presentation that I made last year to a group of football alumni, put on by my public school friend Andy Vasily host of the Run Your Life podcast. The presentation is called ‘Why we need a Rational View’, and it defines much of what I have learned about communicating science, and the need for a rational discussion in a polarized world. Pecha Kucha is, I believe, a Japanese term meaning chit-chat.

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51:16

Alexander Wong on the new AI ChatGPT

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2023/01/07

Dr. Alexander Wong rejoins the Rational View to review the new and exciting advance in Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a variant of GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer 3) that is specifically designed to be used in chat applications. It is a large language model that has been trained on a huge amount of text data in order to generate human-like responses to various types of inputs. Some key features of ChatGPT include its ability to generate responses in a conversational style,

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49:32

Consuming rationally with Dr. Marko Kovic

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/12/17

In this episode I’m continuing to provide a free public service to educate the world about cognitive bias. You’re welcome. Today we’ll be exploring how the multi-billion dollar global marketing industry is implicitly given moral licence to exploit our cognitive biases, and how to prevent falling victim to this ethically questionable practice. Marko Kovic, PhD, has a background in political science and communication science. He's a lecturer, researcher, author and activist in the areas of

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26:59

Rationality requires managing your cognitive biases

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/12/10

In this episode I describe several cognitive biases that we commonly fall victim to. Can you identify any of these from your own experiences? If you have been following the controversy over social media you are aware of the problems with confirmation bias that leads us to believe dodgy sources when they agree with our preconceived opinions, but to hold other opinions to a much higher standard of evidence. In this episode I’m going to explore a few lesser-known types of cognitive bias that could be

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58:52

Valerie Alexander on how to outsmart our unconscious...

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/12/03

In this episode I’m continuing my investigation of cognitive bias by interviewing an expert who has thought about this topic a lot. Committed to expanding happiness and inclusion in all communities, Valerie Alexander is a globally-recognized speaker on the topics of happiness in the workplace, the advancement of women, and unconscious bias. Her TED Talk, “How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias” has been viewed over half a million times and is used in boardrooms and classrooms around the world to

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26:20

Dr. Daniel Kahneman on how we think

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/11/26

In this episode I have the honour to interview a Nobel Laureate who has devoted his life to understanding the way we think. His work has interesting links, not only to my new research topic of cognitive biases, but also on humanity’s continuing self examination of consciousness and the mysteries of the mind. Berkely-trained psychologist Daniel Kahneman was corecipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002 for his integration of psychological research into economic science. His pioneering work

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01:00:49

Dr. Andrew Budson has a new theory of consciousness

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/11/19

In this episode I am interviewing the lead author of a recent paper describing a new theory of how consciousness works. It is based on evolutionary principles, and it posits that we mostly go about our lives unconsciously acting and reacting with no free will in the present moment. Their theory is that the conscious mind has evolved to enable reasoning and goal-driven behaviour through manipulation of memories. In this theory, we have no direct control over our actions in the present, as our

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24:43

Will fusion save us? A summary

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/11/12

I’ve had several good interviews on the topics of hot and cold fusion. Omar Hurricane and Alex Zylstra from NIF in the US, Fulvio Millitelo of MAST-U in the UK, Edmund Storms LANL and Lutz Jaitner on cold fusion & LENR. What have we learned? Cold Fusion has not yet been reliably harnessed despite decades of study, but I don’t think we should shame them for this—hot fusion has been working for much longer and they haven’t commercialized yet either. Fusion is not coming to our rescue in the next

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32:55

We need a rational assessment of nuclear energy

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/11/05

In this episode I want to address what I’ve come to realize is an asymmetry in society’s approach to energy technologies, and most specifically nuclear energy, after decades of mostly unopposed anti-nuclear lobbying. Nuclear energy must struggle on an uneven playing field with other energy technologies. This asymmetry is one of the leading reasons that new nuclear reactors have struggled to be built in regions that have been dominated by anti-nuclear ideologies for the past several decades and it

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01:02:50

Dr. Mark Winfield discusses hydrogen, carbon and...

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/10/29

In this episode I am interviewing someone deeply involved with advising Canadian institutions on the energy policy, especially sustainable energy transitions. As this has also been a focus of the podcast, I’m looking forward to discussing the best approaches for the country. Mark Winfield is a Professor of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. He is also Co-Chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative, and Coordinator of the Joint Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor

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01:07:35

D.J. LeClear-The Rad Guy discusses nuclear radiation

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/10/22

This episode is the digitally enhanced re-release of 'Nuclear Power-is it rational to worry?' episodes 21 and 22 from October 2020 where I interviewed D.J. LeClear, 'The Rad Guy', before he started his successful YouTube channel dealing out short educational videos on nuclear radiation, and before he grew that magnificent handlebar moustache. If you've been with me since 2020, please enjoy this blast from the past. If you are new to The Rational View, you will love this coherent and incisive

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41:44

Stéphane Germain on GHGSat methane leak discoveries

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/10/15

In this episode I am interviewing a new-space entrepreneur who is using optical remote sensing to provide important data on localized greenhouse gas emissions. The NordStream fossil gas pipelines ruptured a few days before this podcast was taped. My guest’s company has the hardware in place to measure these emissions from space and determine the impacts of this apparent sabotage on the climate. Stéphane Germain is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GHGSat whose technology provides

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51:54

Dr. Fulvio Militello discusses the MAST-U fusion program

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/10/08

In this episode I am continuing my exploration of the state of nuclear fusion research. I will be interviewing a leader in the MAST fusion experiment. MAST is an acronym for Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak. A Tokamak is a device that typically uses extremely strong magnetic fields to confine an energetic plasma and ram hydrogen nuclei together at high energies, essentially trying to replicate the processes occurring at the core of the sun, to create fusion energy. This process takes tremendous

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29:25

Online convenience vs. customer service

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/10/01

Over the past couple weeks the COVID virus has gone through my household, and I’ve been too busy to put together a well researched podcast. But I wanted to share a story with you that I think some of you might be able to relate to. It is a story about where all of our time has gone. In the modern era we’ve traded customer service for convenience. This is my saga. We think that we're saving time by online shopping, but sometimes that turns out to be the opposite of the truth. Join me while I take

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01:00:11

Lutz Jaitner proposes a scientific basis for Cold Fusion

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/09/24

In this episode I am continuing my investigation into cold fusion, looking into potential scientific explanations of the excess heat and fusion products hinted at by Dr. Edmund Storms in my last podcast. There seems to be a dedicated research group that is working on these theories and I am eager to find out whether or not their hypothesis about condensed plasmoids can stand up to skepticism. Lutz Jaitner from Hamburg Germany is the father of three adult daughters. He holds a Master of Science

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01:01:56

A review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (Cold...

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/09/17

In this episode I start my investigation into the Cold Fusion controversy. In 1989 Pons & Fleischmann announced in a hastily convened press conference, the discovery of a new clean energy source that would revolutionize power grids and save humanity from climate change. They had measured the production of excess heat and neutrons in a room temperature electrolytic reaction using heavy water and a palladium cathode. It shortly became evident that their claims were not entirely correct. After many

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32:49

Is Cold Fusion pathological science?

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/09/10

In this episode I’m reviewing the fine line between science, pathological science, and pseudo-science. In most cases the line is not fine at all. There are, of course, many pseudo-scientific practices that are clearly not based on the principles of honest scientific investigations including things like Creationism, Homeopathy, Astrology, and Flat-Earthism. Some of these pretend to be scientific, but it is pretty clear in all cases that they exist not because of evidence, but instead are based on

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46:56

Laser Fusion Ignition with Drs. Hurricane and Zylstra

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/09/03

In this episode I’m starting to explore another interesting scientific topic that has recently made a big media splash—nuclear fusion. For decades the promise of nuclear fusion has been held out as the ultimate in clean energy sources—the same energy as the sun, with no transuranic radioactive waste stream. Just fusing hydrogen together to make helium and boundless energy. The problem is that it is very difficult to simulate the sun. Even in the core of the sun where temperatures are measured in

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50:09

Dr. Larry Katz on why we are too competitive

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/08/27

I’ve recently begun to suspect that we, as a society, favour competition over cooperation to our detriment. As children we are trained to compete. We play competitive board games like Sorry, and Monopoly where you win by sabotaging the other players. We fetishize competitive sports, spending 100’s of billions of dollars watching athletes violently punish each other. It would seem that these attitudes carry over into the political arena. States and religions and corporations all compete for power,

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01:04:43

Dr. Marc Wortman discusses Admiral Rickover of the...

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott ·

2022/08/20

In this episode I’m exploring the story of the father of atomic power, Admiral Hyman Rickover. This was based on a suggestion from a listener. Thanks Loki! Rickover is best known for his role in developing the US nuclear submarine program in the 1950’s. His ground-breaking work demonstrates that Small Modular Reactors are a safe and effective method of generating clean carbon-free energy. Today I will be interviewing an author who has recently published a biography of Rickover. Marc Wortman

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255 results

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