Episode 221 - What Giant Penguins Can Teach Us, with Daniel Loxton
Release Date: 02/23/2024
Episode 247 - Love Lies and Potions
Squaring the Strange
First Ben and Celestia discuss the unending slew of bad news for skeptics, and our hopes that science and public health can survive this onslaught. And, do we all have a spoonful of plastic in our brains? Then we tackle love fortune telling, love languages, and aphrodisiacs. From apple peels to blood type, people just love prognosticating about love. And what is the allure of an aphrodisiac? The notion of a forbidden (or just expensive) food or spice that puts people in the mood is so common that just about everything, at some time or in some place, has been said to have this power.
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Episode 246 - Pop psych, superstitions, and luck with Stuart Vyse
Squaring the Strange
We start with some observations (ok, rants) about the press conference on the recent aircraft collision in D.C., the hearings to confirm RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the silencing of vital science and health institutions. Then we talk to eminent psychologist Stuart Vyse about his career and a handful of pop psychology topics. He weighs in on the Telepathy Tapes podcast and facilitated communication, the notorious Milgram experiment, and why baseball is rife with luck rituals. What is luck? It's an ever-present paranormal concept that most people don't associate with...
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Episode 245 - Maligning the BMI: What is Body Mass Index for?
Squaring the Strange
First Ben and Celestia discuss the LA fires (and a few of the many, many conspiracy theories already cropping up), and remember Jimmy Carter's clear-headed skepticism and humanitarianism. Then, since it's January and we're all trying to work on self-improvement, we talk about BMI -- which happens to be in the news this week for what turns out to be not really news. The Body Mass Index began almost two hundred years ago as a pet project by a Belgian statistician, but has evolved into one of the most accessible health metrics around. The average American can assess their BMI at home, for free,...
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Episode 244 - New Year's Day rituals, our yearly wrap-up, and some minor castration confusion
Squaring the Strange
For the first show of 2025, Ben and Celestia go over some of their favorite shows, the highlights and lowlights of the past year, and some stories we never got a chance to tell. Ben discusses the men who recently lost their lives on a Bigfoot hunt, and Celestia goes down a rabbit hole about children supposedly getting sex change operations and how different outlets report on that issue. But first, we kick off with a tour of new year rituals--most of which have to do with food (and we don't mean eating healthy).
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Episode 243 - Drones and Christmas Folklore
Squaring the Strange
We recap some news items, including Kreskin passing away, a witchcraft-motivated massacre in Haiti, and of course the Drone panic (?) over the Eastern U.S. Then Ben and Celestia dive into tales and urban legends with a Christmas theme. From playful punisher characters who will gleefully slit open German children's bellies to more modern urban legends about Nativity plays gone wrong or a deadly Dad prank. How did the storied Christmas truce of 1914 really play out? And what mysterious things do cows start doing on Christmas night? Would you bet your life to find out? Oh yeah, and Christmas...
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Episode 242 - FAIKs and Faiklore with Perry Carpenter
Squaring the Strange
Ben recounts his adventures in Australia at Skepticon, and then Celestia brings up bird flu-infected raw milk, a closing Bigfoot museum, and ghosts that pay rent. Our main guest is esteemed cybersecurity expert, deceptionologist, folklorist, magician, and author Perry Carpenter. He discusses topics from his new book FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation and AI-Generated Deceptions. We talk deepfakes versus cheapfakes and how AI is similar to cold reading. We learn the three H's programmers aim for (helpful, honest, harmless) and how they don't always hit the...
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Episode 241 - Wildfire Conspiracies with Gail de Vos
Squaring the Strange
This week Pascual is back, talking to Celestia about the Onion's purchase of Info Wars, shady testosterone offers, and a list of things we maybe should be worried about as Trump rounds out cabinet picks. Then Ben welcomes Gail de Vos, author of the just-released Watkins Book of Urban Legends, to talk about wildfire conspiracy theories in Canada. The politically charged stories that spring up in her home of Alberta, Canada resemble conspiracies that have followed wildfires everywhere -- Texas, California, Hawaii, and even ancient Rome! Why does fire often make people think something more...
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Episode 240 - A second Trump term has skeptics worried
Squaring the Strange
This is sort of a rush episode, in the wake of this week's election results. While we don't like mixing our skepticism with partisan politics, Trump has been such a unique outlier in the realm of science denial, conspiracy theories, folklore, panics and rumor-mongering that it warrants an episode. Early indications that Robert Kennedy Jr. might be in charge of public health could mean an unthinkable turn against vaccinations and other clearly proven, routine measures. Ben and Celestia give their immediate thoughts and reactions, and Ben reminds us that Trump is more a hollow man than a...
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Episode 239: Halloween sadists with Joel Best & zombie evolution with Mikel Koven
Squaring the Strange
Happy Halloween! If we sound like we're on a submarine, apologies--we recorded part of this on a submarine. I mean a small hotel room. After a recap of Skeptoid's Death Valley adventure and CSI Con 2024, Ben and Celestia discuss "pink slime journalism" and phony Catholic newspapers. Then sociologist Joel Best discusses the Halloween sadism urban legend and how the idea that children are being poisoned with candy has stuck around through the ages. Folklorist and film buff Mikel Koven takes us on a tour of zombie films, from "White Zombie" to "Get Out," and all points in between. Zombies have...
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Episode 238 - Electric vehicle mayhem with Brian Dunning
Squaring the Strange
Fair warning: this episode contains too much Elon Musk, as Ben and Celestia discuss the Optimus mechanical Turk -- er, autonomous robot -- as well as the awesome chop-stick catch performed by SpaceX this past week. Ben also ruminates on eye-witness testimony and a wacky, weedy case being decided by the Supreme Court right now. Then Brian Dunning of Skeptoid fame joins us to talk electric vehicle myths and reality. Have you heard that EVs are bad for the environment, or that they will crash the grid? There are facts to discuss as well as rumors, disinformation, anecdotes and opinions, and we...
info_outlineFirst, Ben and Celestia have several tidbits to discuss, from Micheal Mann's court win to chemtrails popping up in social media. Ben is watching another cult docuseries, and we get into the unfortunate trend of obituary pirating. For our main segment, we are joined by the delightful Daniel Loxton, illustrator, author, editor and longtime skeptic luminary. He takes us on a tour of the long-debunked story about a 15-foot penguin in Florida. But a simple debunking is only the surface of this tale, which has much to teach us about modern popular paranormal culture, the mixing of sci-comm with mystery-mongering, and the different levels of investigation. This leads us into a conversation on the nature of skepticism itself, and where our future lies.