Our guest this week is Cara Santa Maria, contributor to Al Jazeera America's science show TechKnow, and the host of the podcast Talk Nerdy. This neuroscientist, science educator, producer, writer, and television personality has brought her intelligence and insights to the Huffington Post as its former senior science editor, was the co-host and producer of TakePart Live on Pivot TV, and has appeared countless times on CNN, FOX, BBC, among many others.

Point of Inquiry’s Josh Zepps sat down with Santa Maria for a conversation about growing up Mormon in Texas (and the associated postmortem planetary inheritance), the scourge of false equivalency in modern journalism, and the appeal of “woo” from the metaphysical to the pseudoscientific. And just what are our prospects for scientific advancement, and who will benefit most? This is an episode full of fun and eye-opening insights.