Skeptoid is a weekly science podcast dedicated to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture, and replacing them with way cooler reality.

Each weekly episode focuses on a single phenomenon — an urban legend, a paranormal claim, alternative therapy, or something just plain stupid — that you've heard of, and that you probably believe in. Skeptoid attempts to expose the folly of belief in non-evidence based phenomena, and more importantly, explains the factual scientific reality.

From the sublime to the startling, no topic is sacred, politically incorrect though that may be. 180,000 weekly downloads. Read what people are saying.

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Skeptoid Wins the 2012 Stitcher Award for Best Science Podcast

On December 4, Stitcher announced the results of their first annual Podcast Awards in San Francisco. I'm pleased to announce that Skeptoid was the winner in the Best Science Podcast category, beating out competing shows from the BBC, National Public Radio, Scientific American, and others. Many thanks to all the listeners who nominated and voted for Skeptoid, and cheers to independent podcasts beating out the major media outlets!

Latest Skeptoid Episodes...

May 14, 2013 - Polybius: Video Game of Death - An urban legend says that a 1981 video arcade game called Polybius sickened players, or even drove them to suicide, while government agents collected the data.

May 7, 2013 - The 16 Personalities of Sybil - The book and movie "Sybil" told the story of a woman purported to have Multiple Personality Syndrome. But how much of it, if any, was true?

Apr 30, 2013 - Lincoln Kennedy Myths - An old story claims a long list of astonishing similarities between the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy. Are they true, false, taken out of context, or something else?

Apr 23, 2013 - Cupping for the Cure - Cupping, the practice of putting suction cups on the skin to create bruises, has been around for at least 2000 years. Does its antiquity mean that it has healthful benefits?

Apr 16, 2013 - Listener Feedback: Aliens and UFOs - Skeptoid dips into the feedback mailbag and answers questions written in response to episodes about aliens, UFOs, and other scary things from space.

Apr 9, 2013 - The Aquatic Ape Theory - One popular fringe theory about human evolution states that we went through an aquatic phase, thus we are hairless, blubbery, and otherwise adapted for life in the water.

Apr 2, 2013 - John Titor, Time Traveler - An Internet legend claims that a man named John Titor is a visitor from the year 2036. Do we have any reason to take this story at face value, or to dismiss it at face value?

Mar 26, 2013 - The Airplane that Wasn't There - A B-25 bomber ditched in a Pennsylvania river in broad daylight 1956. Many witnesses saw it and the survivors are still here. But, incredibly, the big bomber has never been found in the small river.

Mar 19, 2013 - The Pentagon and the Missile - The list of 9/11 conspiracy theories is a long one. Today we look at a few of the claims surrounding the idea that it wasn't an airliner that struck the Pentagon on 9/11, but a missile.

Mar 12, 2013 - Pope Joan - Legend holds that a Middle Ages pope was revealed to be a woman when she unexpectedly gave birth. Is there any truth to this tale?

Mar 5, 2013 - Facts and Fiction of the Schumann Resonance - This cavity in our atmosphere resonates radio frequency at 7.83 Hz. But is that all it does? Many proponents of alternative medicine and New Age advocates say it does much more.

Feb 26, 2013 - Men in Black - Some say the mysterious black-clad agents who visit UFO witnesses to threaten and intimidate them are from the US Government; others say they come from much farther away.

Feb 19, 2013 - Trinity: Interview with Dr. Oz, Alex Jones, and Deepak Chopra - Skeptoid interviews three of the most popular and controversial figures in modern pseudoscience: TV doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and New Age guru Deepak Chopra.

Feb 12, 2013 - Top 10 Best Pro-Science Celebrities - A list of ten Hollywood celebrities who have leveraged their fame to proactively create new resources promoting good science and critical thinking.

Feb 5, 2013 - Ganzfeld Experiments - The ganzfeld experiments are often claimed to be the strongest evidence yet for telepathic abilities, and yet the history of their analyses reveals that they are anything but.

Jan 29, 2013 - The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine - The Lost Dutchman is said to be the greatest of all the "lost mines" in the history of the American west, but a closer examination reveals a history that fails to stand up to skeptical scrutiny.

Jan 22, 2013 - Listener Feedback: Me and My Terrible Arguments - Skeptoid responds to another round of listener feedback, focusing on criticism of argument techniques.

Jan 15, 2013 - The Cult of Nikola Tesla - The name of Nikola Tesla is associated with crazy conspiracy claims at least as much as with the real man and his real accomplishments. In this episode we try to separate what he really did from the pop-culture version.

Jan 8, 2013 - Olgoi-Khorkhoi: The Mongolian Death Worm - Mongolian tradition holds that a strange and deadly worm lives beneath the sands of the Gobi desert. How this local belief became a fixture in Western cryptozoology is an even more interesting tale.

Jan 1, 2013 - The Hollow Earth Theory - Throughout history, different sects have held different beliefs about the Earth being hollow. These have included honest scientific inquiry, occult mysticism, and conspiracy mongering.

Dec 25, 2012 - Was the Wow! Signal Alien? - In 1977 a radio telescope received a signal from deep space so closely matching what we'd expect an alien transmission to look like, that the astronomer on duty circled it and wrote "Wow!"

Dec 18, 2012 - Free Energy Machines - For centuries, mankind has been striving for magically easy solutions to difficult problems, best illustrated by perpetual motion machines that promise limitless free energy.

Dec 11, 2012 - Listener Feedback: A Cacophony of Conspiracies - Skeptoid answers another round of listener feedback emails, this time focusing on conspiracy theories. We look at how you can convince your conspiratorial friends that their theories are nonsensical.

Dec 4, 2012 - Setting the Bloop Straight - The solution to the Bloop mystery sound is finally revealed, and Skeptoid corrects some errors from other episodes.

Nov 27, 2012 - The Flat Earth Theory - Everyone knows the Earth is a globe, and we've known it since the ancient Greeks measured it. So why are there stories of a Flat Earth Society, and related legends?

© 2013 Skeptoid.com

 

Skeptoid is hosted
and produced by
Brian Dunning

Polybius: Video Game of Death

Skeptoid #362, May 14 2013
Read | Listen (11:27)
 

The 16 Personalities of Sybil

Skeptoid #361, May 7 2013
Read | Listen (11:50)
 

Lincoln Kennedy Myths

Skeptoid #360, Apr 30 2013
Read | Listen (11:07)
 

Cupping for the Cure

Skeptoid #359, Apr 23 2013
Read | Listen (10:38)
 

Listener Feedback: Aliens and UFOs

Skeptoid #358, Apr 16 2013
Read | Listen (10:02)
 

#1 -	8 Spooky Places, and Why They're Like That Read | Listen
#2 -	Skinwalkers Read | Listen
#3 -	The Suicide Dogs of Overtoun Bridge Read | Listen
#4 -	Student Questions: Food Woo and Iron Man at the Airport Read | Listen
#5 -	Negative Calorie Food Myths Read | Listen
#6 -	Listener Feedback: That Darned Science Read | Listen
#7 -	The Loch Ness Monster Read | Listen
#8 -	Area 51 Facts and Fiction Read | Listen

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