The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

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 po…

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 h…

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 ru…

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 To…

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…

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 podc…

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…

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 practic…

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 …

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 Mon…

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 dev…

This is a fun joint podcast with co-host Andy Vasily of the successful ‘Run your life’ podcast.  Andy is a friend from way back. We went to public school together. Andy helped me set up my podcast a …

In this episode I book-end my two episode investigation on the impacts of bullying with someone who has interviewed victims of bullying to attempt to characterize the impacts.  I recently did a podca…

In this episode I want to share something personal about my life. This episode is about bullying and its lifelong effects. My bully made me who I am today. I hope if you are experiencing bullying tha…

In this episode I summarize my investigation of consciousness. I’ve been interviewing several experts and there is a huge diversity of thought on the topic of thought. It is called ‘the hard problem …

In this episode I am interviewing a fellow supporter of nuclear energy who, although not a Canadian, she posted an article on Canada Day singing the praises of the CANDU reactor.  I think CANDU is an…

In this episode I return to my investigation of the physical and philosophical bases of consciousness. Today I will be taking on a new perspective from a leading expert in both philosophy and artific…

In this episode I am returning to one of my favourite topics—the clean energy transition.  Today I wanted to explore the life cycle greenhouse gas footprint of the shift to electric vehicles.  Many g…

On my episode today I will be exploring a fun topic—science fiction, with a friend an colleague who is also an up and coming science fiction author. We will discuss themes of communicating science an…

In this episode I am continuing my investigation into the so-called hard problem of consciousness. I’ve spoken to several people who believe that consciousness arose in single celled organisms and is…