[BLOG]: Inject This! Episode One of the Drunken Skeptics Pod

[abourque]

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Our first episode of the Drunken Skeptics Podcast is finally ready!
[display_podcast]

In this episode we speak with Mary Tocco, head of Michigan Opposing Mandatory Vaccines.

We dedicated the entire episode to the interview.

Plus there's our Whiskey & Shenanigans segment where we bring attention to the good things that happened (the Whiskey) and call out the bad things (the Shenanigans).

We'll post the show notes tomorrow.

Feel free to comment and let us know what you think. But be gentle, it's our first time...

[SkyGuide]

"...be gentle, it’s our first time..."

First time, or 100th time - it was a great show! Thanks!

I wrote to you last week offering my help (I've been in broadcasting for 30 years), but I see that you have the show well in hand.

Presentation is tight, editing is tight, focus on topic is (yes, again) tight. Broadcast quality.

And speaking of broadcasting (did you like my smooth segue?), as per my e-mail from last week, we are still interested in carrying The Drunken Skeptics on AFM*Radio (science programming from Astronomy.FM Radio). I noticed that the podcast includes a Creative Commons license, so I don't need to ask for permission - but still, asking for your blessing seems to be (at the least) polite.

Thanks! I look forward to Episode #2!


~Dr. Michael Foerster, Program Director
AFM*Radio / Astronomy.FM
(http://astronomy.fm/rad)

[abourque]

Sorry I haven't had time to respond to your email. We were very busy with getting this first episode out. I will respond to your request in email.

Thank you for the response! I am excited to hear that people are receiving it well!

[MerrieMelodyxx]

Adam, can I be privy to that e-mail?

Also, Nick says it sounds great. I will encourage him to give his suggestions to the class instead of just me.

[GShelley]

Only a couple of months late, but better late than never.
Mary Tocco sounded to be very much like Meryl Dorey of the AVN. I was half expecting her to say that she isn't anti-vaccine, but pro choice and just wanted to make sure people had both sides of the story. A few other thoughts
She mentioned her son had pertussis. She also said earlier that her children have all been healthy since birth and hadn't even had strep throat (this when she was apparently trying to argue that as god designed the immune system, illness is not possible in a well balanced body). Those two claims seem to be hard to reconcile.
There have been many studies comparing vaccinated vs unvaccinated children, such as for autism rates that show no difference, though as one of you said there are no randomised blinded studies as that would be unethical
You slightly covered the word Allopathy, which is pretty much the hallmark of a crank. It's original meaning was a treatment that was to suppress/oppose symptoms (as opposed to homeopathy, which was supposed to induce similar symptoms) and no longer applies to modern medicine. I'd have been interested to hear what she actually means by the term.

I also,quite frankly didn't believe her that most children who come down with measles, pertussis etc are the vaccinated and the unvaccinated are less likely to succumb. This could be purely statistical - if 90% of the population are vaccinated, and vaccinated individuals are not completely protected (say they get infected at 1/3rd of the rate of the non vaccinated), there would be more vaccinated children with the disease than non vaccinated, but that certainly wasn't the argument she was making