Los Angeles friends: I will be playing keyboards for Hunter Hooligan at The Mint on January 12, 2016. Hunter is a very talented singer, songwriter, and musician from the East Coast and I’m excited to be performing with him.
I’m happy to announce that I’m the newest writer for the Skeptic Ink Network with my Very Cherry blog. My first post explains a little bit about me, including how I became a skeptic.
Skeptic Ink Network is on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. You can also add my feed or subscribe to email updates here.
Here is the new video for my song, “Faith is a Slippery Pig” featuring the spoken word of Peter Boghossian – philosophy professor at Portland State University – from his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists.
Check out the Skeptoid website for the podcast, blog, and more. There is also a facebook page. The 400th podcast episode and the lyrics for the song are here.
Skeptoid is currently the 13th most popular podcast on iTunes in the “Science & Medicine” category. Congrats to Brian Dunning on his 400th episode and all of his success. He has helped provide the public with essential critical thinking skills and information.
Here are some photos from the shoot:
Thanks to all the cast and crew. And check out NewRuleFx for your special effects props and equipment needs!
I’m excited to say that I have a piece on the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) Swift Blog. It’s my story about how I was scammed by Kevin Trudeau.
Kevin Trudeau spent a night in jail last month and then his living expenses were cut off by a judge the following week, so I’ve decided to share my story. This is how I fell for Kevin Trudeau’s lies, how I realized I was being deceived, what I learned from it, and how I use my experience to try to help others. It’s not fun admitting you’ve been had, but not exposing this fraudster wouldn’t be great, either.
In 2005, I started experiencing severe pain that persisted even with strong painkillers. It became so bad that I had to quit my job and band, deplete my savings, ruin my credit, and put my life on hold to figure out what was wrong and to get treatment. I had to have several surgeries over the years and I continue to take medication for it to this day.
While I was going through the worst of this ordeal, I became very frustrated with the U.S. healthcare system. It took a long time to even find out what was wrong due to referrals and approvals, among many other issues, and I had some bad doctors, improper medication, and a failed surgery that made my affliction worse. Since my condition made me unable to work, I had to go a year with no income and without a life while I waited in pain. I nearly got evicted, all while creditors were hounding me for bills I could not pay.
If you missed the live broadcast of Virtual Skeptics episode #58 which I guested on, you can check out their blog post with the video embedded in it. If you’re on a device where that doesn’t work, you can go to the direct YouTube link.
Here’s their pages, so you can stay updated on future episodes and join in on the conversation:
Thanks so much to the Virtual Skeptics for having me on and being so cool. It was great chatting with people who do great work and have a wealth of knowledge in various areas of science and critical thinking. I had a blast and learned a few things.