"Golden Board 2025" Goes to Podcast "Hoss & Hopf"

With the "award," the aim is to bring people and organizations to the forefront "who seek money, fame, or influence with scientifically disproven theses, even though they should have known better long ago." A total of 170 nominations were received by the Vienna Skeptics (Society for Critical Thinking, GkD), who present the award on behalf of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP). Based on this, a "shortlist" of three names was created by a jury.

Satire Award "Golden Board" for Podcast "Hoss & Hopf"

In addition to the podcast by the two financial influencers Philip Hopf and Kiarash Hossainpour, the industrialist Christian Beer with his association "Einheit.at" founded during Corona times, and the self-proclaimed "shaman" named Mariana M. alias "Amela," who is currently being sought, were on the list. The nine-member jury included the board of the GkD, organizer Michael Horak, as well as the four laudators of the year - the German psychologist Maria-Christina Nimmerfroh (University of Bonn), Verena Mischitz (Network Climate Journalism Austria), Mikhail Lemeshko (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), and Herbert Lackner (journalist and author).

With a "Penchant for Anti-Scientific Statements"

The podcasters Hossainpour and Hopf, who have already come under criticism several times, "like many 'finfluencers,' started their social media careers with crypto tips and controversial advertising partners. However, the joint podcast quickly developed from the topic of economy and money to socio-political topics," said a release from the award's initiators: "In particular, in their penchant for crude conspiracy theories and their fondness for anti-scientific statements, they meet the criteria for the awarding of the Golden Board in Front of the Head."

The podcasters were selected "because they advertise giving action recommendations based on scientific findings. In their podcasts, they blatantly violate the fundamentals of scientific work and come to false conclusions, which they piece together into a consistent worldview that undermines trust in public institutions and society," said laudator Nimmerfroh. For their decision, the jury also evaluated selected podcast episodes, including "Robert F. Kennedy wants to expose vaccinations!", "Brainrot: How ChatGPT measurably weakens your thinking ability!" or "This is how you can effectively prevent Alzheimer's & dementia!".

"Hardly any other candidate for the Golden Board has met so many criteria," it was said to the APA. With 430,000 subscribers on YouTube, they have a high reach, they present one-sided sources as scientific research work, there is a multitude of conspiracy narratives covered, "furthermore, they have already proven resistance to criticism several times and can be considered a dangerous multiplier from the conspiracy theory and pseudoscience area, especially among younger audiences due to their reach."

Lifetime Achievement Award to Michael Frass

The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to the retired doctor and homeopath Michael Frass "for his long-standing and incorrigible commitment to the ineffective pseudo-medicine homeopathy. His work over the past decades has given homeopathy a seemingly scientific veneer in the domestic public." Around Frass, once among others, course director of the elective "Homeopathy" then canceled by the Medical University of Vienna, as well as former head of the homeopathic outpatient clinic for malignant diseases at the AKH Vienna (later "Special Outpatient Clinic for Complementary Medicine in Oncology"), there was recently an intense academic controversy over a publication in the journal "The Oncologist".

(APA/Red)

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