Cara Santa Maria

Cara Santa Maria reflects on two decades of debunking health pseudoscience as a cohost of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (SGU). From bleach-based "cures" like Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) to enduring myths such as homeopathy, chiropractic, detoxes, and anti-vaccine rhetoric, she tracks the dangerous persistence and evolution of medical quackery. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/06/twenty-years-of-health-scams-and-wellness-trends/ About the Author: Cara Santa Maria, PhD, is a clinical health psychologist, science communicator, podcaster, and Emmy Award–winning journalist. She is the host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria and cohost of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe . She also coedited the book Pseudoscience in Therapy: A Skeptical Field Guide . Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer: https://skepticalinquirer.org/subscribe/ Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition is a production of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Center for Inquiry.

Starting off our next 400 episodes, we interview the amazing Cara Santa Maria of Talk Nerdy and Skeptic Guide to the Universe fame. We get into things about her that you may not be aware of – how she rebelled against her Mormon upbringing, her passion for social injustices, and why she cannot always be allowed to speak her mind on the Skeptics Guide.A brilliant science communicator with a background in television, podcasting, and more, Cara is also a clinical psychologist and recently received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Social Justice and Diversity.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Interview; Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starting off our next 400 episodes, we interview the amazing Cara Santa Maria of Talk Nerdy and Skeptic Guide to the Universe fame. We get into things about her that you may not be aware of – how she rebelled against her Mormon upbringing, her passion for social injustices, and why she cannot always be allowed to speak her mind on the Skeptics Guide.A brilliant science communicator with a background in television, podcasting, and more, Cara is also a clinical psychologist and recently received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Social Justice and Diversity.Enjoy!Segments: Intro; Greetings; Interview; Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cara Santa Maria is the science correspondent on National Geographic's popular television series Brain Games and she hosts the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria . In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara invited me to talk about my new book, "Selfless: The Social Creation of "You." Hope you enjoy our conversation and be sure to check out the other episodes of Talk Nerdy, wherever you get your podcasts.

Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster. Cara is the science correspondent on National Geographic’s popular television series Brain Games as well as the creator and host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In addition to co-hosting the long-standing Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, she also coauthored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book. Cara is the spokesperson for National Geographic’s Almanac 2019 and Almanac 2020, a founding member of the Nerd Brigade, and cofounded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp. Previously, Cara was a correspondent on National Geographic’s Explorer, Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, TechKnow on Al Jazeera America, and Real Future on Fusion. She also cohosted TakePart Live on Pivot TV, America’s Greatest Makers on TBS, Brain Surgery Live on National Geographic Channel, and FabLab on Fox. Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters on The Weather Channel. Prior to her career in media, Cara was the laboratory manager and chief cell culture technician at the Center for Network Neuroscience. She also taught biology and psychology courses at the high school and undergraduate level. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of North Texas in 2004 followed by a Master of Science in Neurobiology in 2007. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Social Justice and Diversity from Fielding Graduate University. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster. Cara is the science correspondent on National Geographic's popular television series Brain Games as well as the creator and host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In addition to co-hosting the long-standing Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, she also coauthored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book. Cara was also raised Mormon. This is her story. *Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicidal ideation. If you need help, reach out: National Suicide Prevention Hotline (800) 273-8255 Trevor Project Hotline for LGBTQ+ Youth (866) 488-73876 Show Notes: National Geographic's Brain Games Talk Nerdy podcast with Cara Santa Maria Talk Nerdy The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake by Steven Novella, et. al. Bill Maher "unbaptizes" Mitt Romney's dead father-in-law Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl "Existentialism is a Humanism," lecture by Jean-Paul Satre in 1946 Cara's Instragram Cara's Facebook Cara's Twitter Godawful Movies ————— We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming! Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50 ————— MSP on Spotify MSP on Apple Podcasts <a href="https://www.mormonstories.org/episodes/" target= "_blank" rel

Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster. Cara is the science correspondent on National Geographic's popular television series Brain Games as well as the creator and host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In addition to co-hosting the long-standing Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, she also coauthored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book. Cara was also raised Mormon. This is her story. *Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicidal ideation. If you need help, reach out: National Suicide Prevention Hotline (800) 273-8255 Trevor Project Hotline for LGBTQ+ Youth (866) 488-73876 Show Notes: National Geographic's Brain Games Talk Nerdy podcast with Cara Santa Maria Talk Nerdy The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake by Steven Novella, et. al. Bill Maher "unbaptizes" Mitt Romney's dead father-in-law Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl "Existentialism is a Humanism," lecture by Jean-Paul Satre in 1946 Cara's Instragram Cara's Facebook Cara's Twitter Godawful Movies ————— We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming! Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50 ————— MSP on Spotify MSP on Apple Podcasts MSP Blog Instagram Patreon TikTok Discord Contact Us! * MormonStories@gmail.com *PO Box 171085 Salt Lake City, UT 84117

The wonderful Cara Santa Maria joined us this week to chat all things skeptical, how she got her start in science and of course she faces off against Catz in the Scientist game. You can find Cara here on twitter: @CaraSantaMaria And of course on The Skeptics Guide to the Universe too: https://www.theskepticsguide.org/ And here is her Talk Nerdy Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talk-nerdy-with-cara-santa-maria/id832350989 Thank you all so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

Cara Santa Maria ( @carasantamaria ) is well-known in the science community. You might know her from Explorer, Brain Games, Bill Nye Saves The World, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast, or her own podcast, Talk Nerdy. She knows her stuff, and she's currently getting a PhD in Clinical Psychology. We talk about that, Thanatology, the state of the world, how to manage during a pandemic, and lots more. Music at the end from Sales with White Jeans.

Send us Fan Mail This episode has a great news item about who American's trust MOST to act in the interest of the public. Dog Science is sticking around due to popular demand and we take a quick look at why puppy Bunsen appeared to lose him mind when presented with a lemon. Our guest is the Amazing Cara Santa Maria, a podcaster herself and pHD student, Cara has been a whole host of TV shows, including Bill Nye Saves the World! Cara also talks about her Science Dog too! The mailbag is back this week, but due to the length of the pawdcast, Woo or Wow takes a break. Bunsen Merch! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/bunsen-berner Bunsen on Twitter! https://twitter.com/bunsenbernerbmd Support the show For Science, Empathy, and Cuteness! Being Kind is a Superpower. All our social links are here!

Today it’s great to have Cara Santa Maria on the podcast. Cara is an Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster. She is a correspondent on National Geographic’s flagship television series Explorer , and she is the creator and host of a weekly science podcast called Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria . Cara also co-hosts the popular Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, and hosts the new podcast Fixed That for You . Additionally, she co-authored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book with her podcast co-hosts and is the spokesperson for National Geographic’s Almanac 2019 . Cara is a founding member of the Nerd Brigade and cofounded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp . In this episode we discuss: The importance of studying the good death from a multidisciplinary perspective The challenges working with at-risk adolescent youth What it was like for Cara to shift focus from public science communicator to graduate school Cara’s focus on social justice and diversity within her clinical psychology research How depression and anxiety look different in different cultures and among different languages Barriers to accessibility to studying psychology through a social justice lens Cara’s personal hurdles as a woman in science Cara’s personal experience with Neil deGrasse Tyson The real meaning of free speech How #BelieveAllWomen and due process are not diametrically opposed to each other The importance of taking into account base rates when reasoning about the prevalence of sexual abuse The importance of being as unbiased as possible when encountering individuals Balancing #BelieveAllWomen with #NotAllMen The need for a multi-pronged approach to making social change What to do when social justice narratives conflict with the data The importance of existential-humanistic psychology Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Coming to you from Namibia, this is a swapcast with Cara Santa Maria, on her podcast - Talk Nerdy. She interviewed Byron a few weeks back about hunting and its role in conservation, and we wanted to share that with you here as well. We also encourage you to go and check out the other guests on her excellent science based podcast. Importantly, we have an announcement about of our new partnership with Modern Huntsman, who have come on board to support us. Modern Huntsman: www.modernhuntsman.com Talk Nerdy & Cara Santa Maria: www.carasantamaria.com/podcast Support the show on patreon: www.patreon.com/pacebrothers