Shows / Skeptoid
Skeptoid
The true science behind our most popular urban legends. Historical mysteries, paranormal claims, popular science myths, aliens and UFO reports, conspiracy theories, and worthless alternative medicine schemes... Skeptoid has you covered. From the sublime to the startling, no topic is sacred. Weekly since 2006.
Episodes
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #425: Albinism Facts and Fiction
Even in developed countries, myths persist about people who have albinism. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #424: The Santa Barbara Simoom of 1859
Stories of a lethally hot storm wind in Santa Barbara in 1859 persist to this day. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #423: 12 Step Programs
Religious-based twelve step programs are no better at stopping addiction than other programs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #422: Lie Detection
Polygraphs are no better than a roll of the dice at determining whether you're lying. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Listeners Have a Say
Giving the Skeptoid listeners a chance to have their say. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #421: Student Questions: Internet Tracking and Plasma Cosmology
Skeptoid answers another round of questions sent in by students all around the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #420: Hillary vs. Mallory: The First to Everest
From the evidence we have, it seems clear there's no way Mallory could have beaten Hillary to the summit of Everest. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #419: Slacktivism: Raising Awareness
Clicking a "Like" button on a web site is not only useless, it may actually be counterproductive. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #418: Left Brained, Right Brained, or Hare Brained?
Pop psychology tells us we're all either left brain or right brain dominant, a concept with no scientific support. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #417: The Riddle of Flight 19
The 1945 disappearance of five fighter planes in the Bermuda Triangle was real, but hardly how it's portrayed. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #416: 5 Conspiracy Theories that Turned Out to Be True... Maybe?
Skeptoid listeners are always asking for conspiracy theories that turned out to be true. Here are the best I found. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #415: In Which I Am the Very Picture of Error Personified
Skeptoid corrects another round of mistakes made in previous episodes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #414: Killing Princess Diana
Some say the death of Princess Diana in 1997 was actually a murder plotted by her government. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #413: 3-7-77: The Montana Vigilance Code
This mysterious code representing vigilante justice has a history steeped in mystery. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #412: Animal Predictors: Psychic, Sensitive, or Silly?
Despite many examples being promoted in the press, animals do not have psychic powers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #411: Your Body's Alleged Energy Fields
There is no such thing as your body's energy field. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #410: The Black Eyed Kids
An urban legend says that children with completely black eyes go around trying to be allowed inside. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #409: Oil Pulling
This New Age alternative health fad is not, in fact, based on ayurveda. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid Media is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity
Donations to Skeptoid Media are now fully tax deductible. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #408: 15 Phreaky Phobias
Phobias are irrational, yet the brain surprisingly has a good reason for creating them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #407: The Death of Mad King Ludwig
What we do and do not know about the mysterious death of Bavaria's Mad King who built castles like Neuschwanstein. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #406: The Disappearance of Glenn Miller
This popular bandleader disappeared over the English Channel during World War II, and here's what happened. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #405: Aromatherapy: Sniffing Essential Oils
If you're expecting the pleasant aroma of certain flowers and herbs to be a medical treatment, you may be disappointed. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #404: The Boggy Creek Monster
The Boggy Creek Monster captured our imaginations, but its true story is even more fascinating. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #403: Out of Place Artifacts
Some objects found around the world seem to defy rational explanation. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #402: Listener Feedback: Ancient Mysteries
I respond to questions and feedback sent in by listeners around the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #401: Hemp, Hearst, and Prohibition
A popular urban legend claims that William Randolph Hearst conspired to make cannabis illegal in the United States. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #400: It's Just Science
Some pseudoscience promoters attack the messenger rather than the evidence. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #399: The Moving Coffins of Barbados
An old tale tells of coffins that jumbled themselves up in a crypt in Barbados. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #398: Solving the Lead Masks of Vintem Hill
Two dead bodies were found in Brazil in 1966 with mysterious masks made of lead. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #397: Fukushima vs Chernobyl vs Three Mile Island
Years after the disaster, some claim that Fukushima radiation is still going to cause widespread death. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #396: The Biggest, the Oldest, and the Baddest
A tour of the Earth's biggest, oldest, and most lethal living creatures. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #395: Student Questions: Food Woo, Food Woo, and More Food Woo
Skeptoid answers questions sent in by students, all of them this week pertaining to popular food pseudoscience. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #394: Finding Butch and Sundance
Stories that outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid might have made it back from South America don't hold up. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #393: The Hair of Samson
Hold onto your hats: Growing your hair long will not confer super strength or vitality upon you. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #392: Listener Feedback: Consumer Ripoffs
Skeptoid responds to comments sent in by listeners who don't accept that they've been ripped off. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #391: 8 Secret Bases: Real or Fictional?
Guess which of these secret military bases around the world are real. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #390: The Red Haired Giants of Lovelock Cave
Some say that an early Native American tribe were giant cannibals. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #389: The JFK Assassination
After so many decades, the number of incompatible conspiracy theories about the death of JFK continues to grow. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #388: 6 Problems with Wind Turbine Syndrome
Despite activist claims, wind turbines are not making anybody sick. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #387: Who Discovered the New World?
Of all the many claims of Europeans being first to the New World, only one is true. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #386: Tracking the Tasmanian Tiger
Some say this extinct Tasmanian marsupial may still roam the forests. The evidence is against them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #385: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich
A young pilot who disappeared in 1978 might have been having a little fun, Spielberg style. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #384: Asking the Socratic Questions
A line of reasoning named for Socrates helps us help believers in the strange re-examine their beliefs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #383: 5 False Arguments for Raw Milk
Some people who enjoy raw milk also make up false claims that regular milk is more dangerous. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #382: Into the Maelstrom (or Not)
A look into the plausibility and historicity of the ferocious maelstrom of legend. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #381: An Enthusiast's Primer on Study Types
A quick look at many of the most common scientific study types. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #380: The Riddle of the L-8 Blimp
The crew of a blimp mysteriously vanished in 1942, but their blimp came back OK... without them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #379: I Think, Therefore I Err
Skeptoid corrects a bunch of errors made in previous episodes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #378: Legendary Places: Real or Fictional?
We look at twelve legendary places that you've heard of, but may not know whether they're real or not. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #377: Student Questions: Hangovers, Manuka Honey, and Probiotics
Skeptoid answers another round of questions sent in by students all around the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #376: Salt Therapies
A new trend in spas is to let people relax in salt caves, and it's based on solid pseudoscience. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #375: The Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot Film
The true history behind the iconic Bigfoot film that launched the legend. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #374: Listener Feedback: Alternative Medicine
Skeptoid answers a raft of listener emails pertaining to alternative medicine. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #373: The Secrets of MKULTRA
The urban legend that the CIA conducted unethical mind control experiments has a grain of truth. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #372: Prove Your Supernatural Power and Get Rich
If you can demonstrate a power unknown to science, there are people looking to write you a check. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #371: The Vanishing Village of Angikuni Lake
The legend of the disappearing Eskimo village of Angikuni Lake turns out to be simple pulp fiction. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #370: The Science of Muzak
Background music really can influence our buying decisions in a shopping environment. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #369: Student Questions: Magic Wristbands, Laser Danger, and ManBearPig
Skeptoid answers another round of questions sent in by students all around the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #368: Legislating Pseudoscience
Lawmakers are often pressured by ideologues to pass laws based on bad science. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices