Not too long ago James Randi was on the German TV show "Welt der Wunder" (roughly, "World of Wonder"), debunking paranormal stuff including spoon bending. TheFriendlySkeptic has put up the show on YouTube in five parts. Here is Part 1, and you can get the other four parts by clicking on the menu labeled "More from: TheFriendlySkeptic" on the YouTube page.
Oh, did I mention the show is auf Deutsch? Well, if you speak German, enjoy. If you don’t, you can probably skip a few parts. 
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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March 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
There is an English-subtitled version of part 1 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBF43JTLlMI
The viewer should note that the “About this video” section has some corrections of the translation.
As yet the gentleman who posted this has not posted subtitled versions of the other parts–he does comment that the translation process was more time-consuming than he expected so it might be some time before he can make them.
I found this link in the comments of this week’s SWIFT:
http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/169/27/
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The reason James came to Germany to record this program for a rather skeptical pop science show on a bizarre minor TV station (RTL II is simultaneously running Big Brother and Heroes and did carry 24 …) was that the German incarnation of Uri Geller’s “Sucessor” show was on a competing channel in January and February. I’m happy to report that the general media ripped Geller apart this time, with not one positive article coming to my attention. (See many articles linked in my skeptical links page, esp. around Jan. 8 when the show premiered.)
What a difference to Geller’s first German appearances in the 1970’s when skeptical voices were practically absent! Hmm, have we won already …? The same Welt der Wunder show today debunked homoeopathy, for example, though some ‘mystery’ remained. Randi’s debunking of Geller’s tricks, by the way, didn’t reveal anything beyond what lengthy newspaper articles had already described in January. I would have preferred a frame-by-frame review of classic Geller TV clips, pointing out precisely when and how he does it.
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
> BA: Well, if you speak German, enjoy.
I do, and I did…
Thanx for providing that link, especially as I missed the show on TV.
> Daniel Fischer: The reason [...] was that the German incarnation of Uri Geller’s “Sucessor” show was on a competing channel in January and February.
Yup. And I generally distrust those channels. This competing channel also featured a show some time ago where, superficially but consequently, they debunked the moon hoax. Very good, one might think. But then, just a week before the Geller attack started, they featured a show about paranormal activities. Everything was debunked, but for the last phenomenon they invited an “expert for the paranormal”: Uri Geller! And suddenly they came to the conclusion that there was evidence that could not be explained by science… Sigh.
I would expect the same thing to happen on “World Of Wonders” next time, if they had the idea first … X-(=(
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Vielen Dank fuer das Link!! Oh, sorry: thanks for the link. Being in the USA I can’t watch German TV anymore, except for some news shows and things like that.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
“Welt der Wunder”
Sounds more like a show about stigmata.
I hate to be a party pooper, but this is the sort of thing that drives me nuts about the skeptical community.
We have a presidential candidate about to be swept into office on a personality cult. We have a country divided by deep ideological blindness on all sides. There’s a rising tide of religious extremism all over the globe.
So what is Randi going all the way over on German TV to be skeptical about?
Spoon bending.
Great. :-\
Christopher Hitchens needs to go bitch slap him.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 am
@Lars Bruchmann
Try this: http://www.onlinetvrecorder.com/
Haven’t tried it myself yet since I live near Germany, so I can watch the shows directly, but it might be an option for you.
(I know this is offtopic, sorry about that)
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:13 am
Even people who don´t speak German can understand a lot of it. You can still hear what Randi says quite clearly most of the time… at least you could on TV.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Thanks for the link! I’m german myself, but I don’t watch that much TV, and I usually dislike shows like “Welt der Wunder”, as they tend to dumb things down a lot, and concentrate on flashy effects. Nevertheless, this episode seems to be firmly grounded in skepticism, which is allways good. Also: Yay, The Amazing Randi!
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I agree with your line of thought ‘Quiet Desperation’ regarding the seeming unimportance of debunking small issues when there are clearly bigger issues worth debunking, but I would argue a couple of points.
First being: The world is not the USA, and most people in the world don’t really care about all the religion and politics that goes on there. (no offense intended), but I do note you mentioned religious extremism around the globe. ( I live in Australia where religious superstition and extremism seems to be a minor issue for most people)
Second : For less skeptically minded people, debunking big issues is too much information to process. Small issues however can lead to debunking bigger issues. The same way in which learning small things in science will lead to understanding bigger things. EG: spoon bending in some religious belief systems comes under ‘demonic influence’. If a person discovers spoon bending to be nothing but a trick, and not due to some sort of demonic influence, it may lead to higher thinking in which case many other more complicated facets about his/her religious superstition, often akin to religious extremism, will be that much easier to uncover and understand. (I am not for debunking religion, just religious superstition)
I truly believe that it is not very important ‘what’ or ‘where’ James Randi is debunking falsehoods, but that he IS debunking falsehoods. I am really just glad to see him still actively involved in skepticism. Debunking ’spoon bending’ may seem small and unimportant in the big picture, as there are far bigger things worth debunking, but if you look at it from the point of view of the common person that really doesn’t give these issues too much thought, it’s very appropriate.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hey, thank you for posting my link here!
As an update, part two is on its way and so is a fixed and improved version of part one!
I will let you know when they are up!
March 6th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Alright, here is part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1IjO6hrU0
And here is the fixed and improved version of part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYFYZ0KuJQ
Have fun!