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 #68: More Wet and Wild Listener Feedback
Another round of listener feedback from the past several months. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #67: Do Your Body Features Measure Up?
An examination of phrenology, physiognomy, palmistry, and iridology. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #66: The Greatest Secret of Nostradamus
Virtually nothing that pop culture tells us about Nostradamus is true. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #65: How to Debate a Young Earth Creationist
Learn the basic arguments against science made by Young Earthers, and how to rebut them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #64: The Attack of Spring Heeled Jack
A look at the theories surrounding Spring Heeled Jack, the scourge of England in the early 1800s. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #63: Subliminal Seduction
Wilson Key's magnum opus textbook about subliminal advertising was almost pure fiction. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #62: Crop Circle Jerks
Crop circles are commonly known to be man made, yet some still insist they must be of alien origin. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #61: Irradiation: Is Your Food Toxic?
Food that has been sterilized with irradiation is not radioactive and will not hurt you. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #60: Will Drinking from Plastic Bottles Kill You?
A popular fad holds that plastic water bottles leach toxic chemicals into your water. Don't believe it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #59: Who Are the Raelians, and Why Are They Naked?
The Raelians are naked and they worship space aliens. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #58: All About Fluoridation
A few fringe activists claim that fluoridation of water carries more danger than benefit. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #57: Email Myths
A look at some of those persistent hoax emails that you receive almost every day. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #56: Bizarre Places I'd Like to Go
California is home to a wealth of places rich with mystery and intrigue. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #55: Autism and Chelation: A Recipe for Risk
An examination of the lethal pop-culture fad of chelating autistic children. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #54: The Twin Towers: Fire Melting Steel
The Oakland freeway collapse was not a government ploy to prove that the Twin Towers collapsed from fire. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #53: Borley Rectory: the World's Most Haunted House?
This "world's most haunted house" was the invention of an imaginative showman and author. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #52: Science Magazines Violating Their Own Missions
Science magazines continue to undermine themselves by publishing ads for pseudoscientific products. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #51: Ethanol: Miracle Fuel, or Not?
Ethanol as a fuel may be carbon neutral, but offers few other benefits. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #50: How to Identify a "Good" Scientific Journal
Here is how to tell whose "scientific journal" article is actually more reputable. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #49: Unconscious Research of Global Consciousness
Some say that the collective emotions of humans can influence electronic hardware. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #48: The Bible Code: Enigmas for Dummies
Despite claims of divine origin, "Bible Codes" are found in every long manuscript, even random text. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #47: Free Range Chicken and Farm Raised Fish
Free range chickens and farm raised fish probably have almost none of the benefits you think they do. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #46: Support Your Local Reptoid
The conspiracy theory that reptilian beings control our governments has a fascinating history. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #45: The Importance of Teaching Critical Thinking
Teaching critical thinking to students needs to be much more than simply asking the Socratic questions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #44: The Truth About Remote Viewing
The psychic technique of remote viewing is consistent with simple, well known magic tricks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #43: A Mormon History of the Americas
The Book of Mormon's history of the Americas is full of irreconcilable errors and false archaeology. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #42: Whacking, Cracking, and Chiropracting
Defined in 1895, chiropractic treats imaginary conditions with dangerous manipulations. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #41: The Alien Invasion of Phoenix, Arizona
Despite what many UFOlogists want, the famous Phoenix Lights were not alien spacecraft. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #40: Neanderthals in Present Day Asia
Some claim that a legendary wildman, the Almas, is a population of relict Neanderthals. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #39: Heating Up to Global Warming
Why everyone needs to start taking global warming more seriously. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #38: The Marfa Lights: A Real American Mystery
No matter how much we want these Texas ghost lights to be mysterious, it turns out they're all too mundane. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #37: How to Spot Pseudoscience
This 15-point checklist will help you tell science from pseudoscience. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #36: Mercury Fillings
Mercury amalgam fillings do not release toxic levels of mercury into the body, and are harmless. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #35: Revisionist Darwinism: The Theory That Couldn't Sit Still
Some creationists claim that evolutionary theory is invalid because it improves as our knowledge increases. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #34: Homeopathy: Pure Water or Pure Nonsense?
Contrary to what many supporters think, homeopathy is neither an herbal nor a natural remedy. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #33: Best of Listener Feedback
The best of listener feedback from the first 32 Skeptoid episodes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #32: Blood for Oil
The claim that the wars in the Middle East were about oil don't stand up to economic scrutiny. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #31: The Devil Walked in Devon
This 100-mile track of footprints in 1855 probably was not laid by the devil. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #30: Raw Food - Raw Deal?
Some claim that cooking your food ruins its nutrients or makes it poisonous, in a misguided effort to promote raw food. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #29: Orbs: The Ghost in the Camera
Spirit orbs in photographs are not ghosts, but a common artifact of flash photography. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #28: Natural Hygiene: Health Without Medicine (or Wisdom)
Natural Hygiene is a misguided, prescientific notion that nature provides everything to heal anyone of anything. Learn about your ad choices…
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Skeptoid #27: Chemtrails: Real or Not?
Some believe that airplane contrails are really dangerous chemicals being sprayed by the government. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #26: Biodynamic Agriculture
Biodynamic agriculture is not a modern innovation, but rather a throwback to the Dark Ages. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #25: Scientists Are Not Created Equal
The word "scientist" can mean just about anything you want it to mean. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #24: Reflexology: Only Dangerous If You Use It
Reflexology is really no more than a foot massage, but potentially deadly to those hoping for medical benefits. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #23: Paganism: A Naked Rebellion
A look at paganism, its affinity for nudity, and how it differs from mainstream religions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Skeptoid #22: Skepticism and Flight 93
Flight 93, which crashed in a field on September 11, was not shot down by the military. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #21: Living Stones of Death Valley
An examination of the mysterious stones that move by themselves across the desert floor. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #20: The Real Amityville Horror
America's most popular true ghost story was a hoax. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #19: Organic Food Myths
It's marketed as a revolution in health and the environment, but it's better described as a counterproductive fad. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #18: The "New" Bill of Rights
An amended Bill of Rights to better reflect modern American values. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #17: Internet Paranoia
A look at the true threat level from Internet attacks in the mid 2000s. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #16: The Real Philadelphia Experiment
The US Navy did not make a warship completely disappear in 1943. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #15: SUV Phobia
Some believe SUVs should be categorized by their cosmetic appearance, rather than by their size or fuel efficiency. Learn about your ad choices…
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #14: Cell Phones on Airplanes
Cell phones are perfectly safe on airplanes, despite continued claims of danger. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #13: A Primer on Scientific Testing
Understand the basics of scientific testing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #12: Killing Faith: Deconstructionist Christians
Proving the literal truth of the Bible is counterproductive to Christianity. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #11: Killing Bigfoot with Bad Science
Sometimes the skeptics' perspective on Bigfoot is just as unscientific as that of the believers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #10: An Evolution Primer for Young Earth Creationists
Evolution 101 for Young Earth Creationists who want to know better. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
- Skeptoid
Skeptoid #9: Sin: What's It Good For?
There seems to be very little point to classifying some wrong actions as sins. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices