May 17, 2019
This episode is an on-the-road recording, with the welcome addition of an old friend. We discuss a favorite topic of Ben's, fabled creatures we Westerners know as genies and many Muslim believers call djinn. Are the original djinn really lamp-dwelling, wish-granting, half-smoke floating torsos with wicked senses...
May 3, 2019
This week we look at a few things going on, from Ben's recent jaunt to Puerto Rico to a new Conjuring movie to beards vs. dogs to chocolate milk and brown cows. Then we dig into our main topic, the so-called science behind the online matchmaking giant eHarmony. Some years ago Ben went through a bit of trouble to learn...
Apr 19, 2019
First Ben and Celestia talk about a disturbing modern case of false abduction rumors. Then we get into doppelgangers, a topic with (not surprisingly) multiple angles. What are the odds of randomly finding someone who looks remarkably like you, and what sort of factors increase those odds? Then we look into the...
Apr 5, 2019
First Ben and Celestia look at a couple concoctions that have their skeptical senses buzzing this week. Then we pick three personality assessment tests from psychology's past and present, doing a deep dive into their origins, what drove their popularity, and consumer's reluctance to give them up even after serious...
Mar 21, 2019
We take a long walk through a dozen or so arguments put forth by cryptid advocates, and see which ones (if any) make reasonable points. If you want a primer on how squatchers and lake-monster-hunters think, this is the episode. But beyond that, these ideas can be a jumping point into many other realms where skepticism...