Europe is a country. Six justices sit on the Supreme Court. The Vietnamese attacked Pearl Harbor. If ignorance is bliss, this is one happy-go-lucky country. The average American’s grasp of history, current events, and geography is so poor, according to one journalist, we’ve become a nation of dunces, seriously undermining our own future.
Keeping ourselves in the dark.
Find out why “F” stands for American intellect and what’s behind the national trend of dumbing down. Also, the story of the brilliant Russian geneticist who paid the ultimate price during Stalin’s Terror in the 1930s.
Plus, Brains on Vacation assesses the doomsday threat of the Large Hadron Collider. And, hunting for ghosts in Hollywood.
It’s Skeptical Sunday… but don’t take our word for it.
Guests:
- Susan Jacoby – Author of The Age of American Unreason (Vintage)
- Peter Pringle – Journalist and author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin’s Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century
- Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
- James Underdown – Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
