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Goodbye, Dr. Dean

Beerina

Sarcastic Conqueror of Notions
Joined
Mar 3, 2004
Messages
33,731
Well, Dr. Dean Edell wrapped up his 30+ year career doing skeptical medicine. Such a shame, too. I listened to his shows via podcast, and he was an incredibly refreshing breeze countering every manner of fad, fraud, and quackery.

He regularly quoted from big studies in response to innumerate questions from people wanting to know if this or that thing "really worked". He'd also talk about the latest news stories from medicine, frequently tempering it with, "It looks good but I'd like to see more studies."

Apparently he got his start in the vitamin industry, with his dad basically spawning it via manufacturing, and he was also in other alternative medicine early on. Somehow he saw the light of the double-blind, placebo-control studies.

Perhaps his favorite modern rant speaks of the ever-increasing number of studies showing vitamins are not only largely worthless (aside from chronic deficiencies) to the general population, but in some cases are actually harmful in increasing some kinds of cancer or other problems. Multivitamins or individual letter vitamins, he was also very observant of the faddishness of particular vitamins. We went through "the 'Vitamin C' decade" then the "Vitamin E decade", now we're in the middle of the "Vitamin D decade", with books and stores pushing that one. The earlier ones petered out with little science to support it, and he doesn't have high hopes for D.

And if it wasn't vitamins, it was the anti-vaccine crowd. He was all over the problems with the original study, and trumpeted each new revelation. It's too bad this final blow directly accusing the guy of fraud didn't come out a few weeks ago, I'd've loved to've heard him talk about it.

Enjoy your retirement, but you will be sorely missed.
 
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I didn't know he had a show or a podcast, but I would hear him when he popped up periodically on the radio. I always thought he would be a good TAM speaker. Maybe some day he will.
 
Monkeypump is one of two official podcast archives. Warning, the 13th of Dec. is not his podcast, it's what would have been his radio show except it got its timeslot moved for the last few weeks of December, so this is what replaced it. I'm guessing these podcasts were recorded and placed here automatically. The Thanksgiving day podcast isn't his show either.

Neither are 9-10 Dec. The 8th and earlier are Ok.
 
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It is time for his retirement but we could still watch his recorded videos. His expertise has helped many people and that is one of the good things about him.
 
His daily radio program is where I was introduced to the MDC and this website.

Sorry missed indeed!

Thank you Dr. Dean
 
I don't know why he hasn't gotten involved in the JREF or one of the two skeptic rags. He'd also make an awesome TAM speaker.
 
Kinda disappointing. I expected another Elton John hit.

Good bye, Dr. Dean
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled

Etc. . .

I guess the problem is that Dr. Dean isn't female, blonde, or dead. :p
 
Ya, that looks right. The old one apparently dried up, thanks!

Be warned though that stuff newer than the 8th of December are auto-recordings of his time slot, but of what replaced him, stick to older.
 
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