Interview with Marsh on The Skeptical Review

Never one for self-promotion (*cough cough cough cough*), I have to admit to being flattered when, last week, I got an interview request from charming podcaster-type Karl Mamer, of the Conspiracy Skeptic podcast. Karl, alongside being an experience podcaster and generally dapper individual, is also something called a ‘Canadian’.

Now, being from this sceptred, splendid, God’s-own isle I’d previously never spoken to a Canadian – let alone ever been to Canadia – but seeing as outreach is one the stated goals in the MSS constitution (it’s amendment #3 right after the rule stating everyone has to have bare right arms, and right before the allowance of members to search for people having seizures), so I figured I’d give it a whirl. Still, forewarned is forearmed, so I thought it worth finding out a little more about this ‘Canadia’ place, before I allowed myself to be thrown to the mooses.

• The archaic name of the country originally started with a silent ‘o’, however the land is only ever referred to as ‘Ocanada’ during the singing of the national anthem
• The country has a fine heritage of cultural exports, including puppet ‘Ed The Sock‘, health activist Jim Carrey, and long-established comedy duo Terrence and Philip – who are often likened to our very own venerable Morecambe and Wise
• We used to frickin’ own it! When the global economy crashed in 1931, the mortgage payments got too high, and Britain officially pawned Canada to some local lumberjacks. To this very day, the Queen’s name remains on the deeds, forcing proud Canadians to accept her as their great and glorious leader
• Uber-skeptic James Randi was once Canadian, until an incident involving Alice Cooper and some Mounties while touring. Sometimes what happens on tour, doesn’t stay on tour, I guess
• Current Prime Minister of Canada is Steve Harper, who supplements his wage by also playing goalkeeper for Newcastle United FC
• Canadians don’t understand football, and they call it soccer, or soccerball, or goalsphere
• It is the law that everything in Canada is written in both English AND in French / C’est la loi que chaque phrase ecrit en Canada est ecrit en Anglaise ET en Francais

Thus is the fruits of my Googling, and armed thus I ‘met’ with said Mr Mamer to thrash out an interview. Stylishly attired in a lumberjack shirt and matching hockey blades, Karl and I chatted about all things Skeptics-with-a-K-sy, while enjoying lashings of maple syrup and partaking in some customary transatlantic stereotyping.

Should you so wish, you can read the interview in full on The Skeptical Review website.