Glenn Beck as Irrationality's Icon and Embodiment

It has been a while since I recorded a Point of Inquiry show--there were a lot of them in the can, I had a big backlog. But I'm about to speak with Alexander Zaitchik, the author of Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. I've been reading it and I must say, it is quite an indictment of the radically low standards of our modern media industry, and our national discourse--that this guy can be such a dominant force today. I also think it is important for those of us who count ourselves skeptics, and critical thinkers, to examine people like Beck, and not just standard anti-science nonsense. His conspiracy mongering, his appeals to fear, his irrational nostalgia for a bygone era that never was--these, too, are pathologies of poor thinking. So I'm looking forward to talking with Zaitchik about what we can learn from "Glenn Beck Nation"...and ...