Point of Inquiry - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Listen online for free at: http://www.pointofinquiry.org
Thomas Donnelly and D.J. Grothe recording the show.

Hello, I am Thomas Donnelly, and I produce this show. Here is some information on it:

Point of Inquiry is the premiere podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI's relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned magicians and other entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features and commentary focusing on CFI's issues: religion, human values and the borderlands of science. Point of Inquiry explores CFI's three research areas:

1. Pseudoscience and the paranormal (Bigfoot, UFOs, psychics, communication with the dead, cryptozoology, etc.)

2. Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, "healing touch," the efficacy of prayer, etc.)

3. Religion and secularism (church-state separation, the effects and proper role of religion in society, the future of secularism and nonbelief, etc.)
Lauren Becker reads a commentary. Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. CFI, a think-tank collaborating with the State University of New York on the new Science and the Public Masters Program, is devoted to promoting science, reason, and freedom of inquiry in every field of human interest. CFI also maintains additional branches in Manhattan, Tampa, Hollywood, Washington D.C., and in eleven other cities around the world.

D.J. Grothe hosts Point of Inquiry. An associate editor of Free Inquiry magazine, he has lectured widely on topics at the intersection of education, secularism and science at universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and dozens of others. Formerly a professional magician, he has special interests in the psychology of belief and processes of deception and self-deception. More information about Grothe can be found at http://www.djgrothe.com .

Thomas Donnelly produces Point of Inquiry. He also serves as director of web and digital media services for the Center for Inquiry. A 2004 graduate in media study from the State University of New York at Buffalo, he explores how the media treats topics such as religion and nonbelief, science, and skepticism and the paranormal.

Contributors to Point of Inquiry include Lauren Becker, Paul Kurtz, Benjamin Radford, Sarah Jordan, Debbie Goddard, Joe Nickell, Barry Karr, Tom Flynn, David Koepsell, and Austin Dacey.
Some of the Point of Inquiry team: Lauren Becker, Tom Flynn, D.J. Grothe, Ben Radford, Thomas Donnelly, and Debbie Goddard.

I hope you enjoy the show! â€” Thomas

My Interests

Critical Thinking, Skepticism, Science, Art, Philosophy, Religion, Astronomy, Podcasting, Politics, Sex, Atheism, Freethought, Painting, Poetry, Humanism, America's Secular Roots, Magic, Enlightenment Ideals, Culture Wars, Gaming, Filmmaking, etc.

I'd like to meet:

Skeptics, Magicians, Mentalists, Freethinkers, Transhumanists, Humanists, Rationalists, Nonbelievers, Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, Philosophers, Thinkers, Theologians, Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Scientologists, Deists, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Investigators, Alternative Medicine Practitioners, Homeopathic Doctors, Comedians, Magicians, Artists, Writers and anyone with an interest in critical thinking, atheism, religion, the paranormal, homeopathy or alternative medicine.

Movies:

The God Who Wasn't There

Television:

Cosmos, Bullshit!, Critical Eye, Humanist Perspective, Mythbusters, NOVA Science Now, Bill Nye The Science Guy, Eyes of Nye

Books:

The God Delusion, The Selfish Gene, The Ancestor's Tale, Unweaving the Rainbow, Letter to a Christian Nation, The End of Faith, The Reason Driven Life, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, The Da Vinci Fraud, Why Darwin Matters, Why People Believe Weird Things, Science Friction, Demon-Haunted World, Cosmos, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, Pale Blue Dot, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Science and Religion, The Just War and Jihad, The Historical Jesus in Context, The New Testament, Real Life X-Files, The UFO Invasion, Origins, The Sky is Not The Limit, Medical Marvels, Don,t Believe Everything You Think, Atheism, Skepticism, Humanism, The Gathering of Infidels, The Courage to Become, A Secular Humanist Declaration, The Faith Healers, Flim-Flim, The Truth About Uri Geller, An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, Galactic Rapture, One Nation Under God, Intelligent Thought, What Evolution Is, Finding Darwin's God, The God Factor, Psychic Sleuths, Crime Science, The Secret Gospels, The Jesus Dynasty, Affirmations, Humanist Manifesto 2000, Consider the Following, Freethinkers, The New Skepticism, Skepticism and Humanism, Breaking the Spell, Science meets Alternative Medicine, Entities, A Devil's Chaplain, Leaving Islam, God vs. The Gavel, The Republican War on Science, Evolution vs. Creationism, Max Maven's Book of Fortunetelling, Forbidden Fruit, Why I am Not a Muslim, What The Koran Really Says, Media Mythmakers, Secrets of the Sideshows, The Trouble With Christmas

Heroes:

Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Paul Kurtz, Sam Harris, Martin Gardner, Bob Price, Michael Shermer, Ann Druyan, Amy-Jill Levine, Joe Nickell, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugene Straus, Bill Cooke, Derek Araujo, Barry Beyerstein, Thomas Kida, James Randi, Tom Flynn, Jerry Coyne, Cathleen Falsani, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Matt Nisbet, Edward Tabash, Eugenie Scott, Bill Nye, Herbert Hauptman, Jamy Ian Swiss, Susan Jacoby, Daniel Dennett, Wallace Sampson, Marci Hamilton, Chris Mooney, Max Maven, Ibn Warraq, Andrew Skolnick

My Blog

David Triggle - Science and the Public

David Triggle is distinguished professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and president of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is the author and editor of several books dealing wi...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:11:00 PST

Jennifer Michael Hecht - The Happiness Myth

Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry. Her Doubt: A History (HarperCollins, 2003) demonstrates a long, strong history of religious doubt from ...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Fri, 25 May 2007 02:57:00 PST

Tawfik Hamid - My Life as a Muslim Terrorist

Tawfik Hamid, an expert on Islamic terrorism, joined the Islamic group Muslim GI in Egypt, while in medical school. His colleagues in the terror movement included Al Zawaherri, then a friend wi...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:07:00 PST

Robert M. Price - Jesus: The Failed Hypothesis

This episode of Point of Inquiry features Robert M. Price, professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry I...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 10 Mar 2007 06:41:00 PST

Peter Singer - The Way We Eat

Peter Singer has been called "the world's most influential living philosopher," by The New Yorker and Time Magazine listed him in "The Time 100," their annual listing of the world's 100 most in...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:39:00 PST

Eugene Burger - Magic and Mystery

Eugene Burger, "universally recognized as perhaps the finest close-up magician in the world," (Stagebill magazine) has written fifteen best-selling books for magicians, starred in a number of in...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:39:00 PST

Ann Druyan - Carl Sagan and The Varieties of Scientific Experience

Ann Druyan is an author, public lecturer, and TV and movie writer and producer whose work focuses on the worldview of science. She is the widow of Carl Sagan, the great astronomer and public adv...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 06:13:00 PST

R. Joseph Hoffmann - The Scientific Study of Religion

Joe Hoffmann, formally at Oxford, is director of Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). He has appeared widely in the media and at venues across the United States speaking on Ch...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:19:00 PST

Tom Flynn - The Real War on Christmas

Tom Flynn is the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry magazine, many addressing church-...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 02:02:00 PST

Susan Blackmore - In Search of the Light

Sue Blackmore is a psychologist and writer whose research on consciousness, memes, and the paranormal has been published in over sixty academic papers, as well as book chapters, reviews and popu...
Posted by Point of Inquiry on Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:21:00 PST