Pop Quiz: 19 Years of Skeptoid

by Brian Dunning
October 14, 2025

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We've just celebrated the 19th birthday of Skeptoid — 19 straight years of weekly shows, and that's pretty cool. So experienced Skeptoid listeners know what that means for today's show: it's time for a pop quiz, with one question from each of the previous 19 years. And no, you don't have to have listened to every show for that long; you just need a good solid foundation of science literacy and critical thinking. Which obviously you have — or you wouldn't be a Skeptoid listener!

Keep track of your score; we're going to give you a ranking at the end. So here we go. If you're listening with someone and find yourselves needing a moment to confer after any question, then you are encouraged to push the pause button and deliberate as long as necessary:

2006: Episode #6 - Wheatgrass Juice

Of the many pseudoscientific medical benefits professed by some sellers of wheatgrass juice is the false claim that drinking it can remove toxic heavy metals from your system. What medical procedure can actually do this?

1. Chelation therapy
2. Baclofen pump implant
3. Plasmapheresis

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, chelation therapy. A chelating agent such as EDTA is administered intravenously and bonds to the heavy metal, which can then be excreted through the urine.

2007: Episode #48 - The Bible Code: Enigmas for Dummies

American journalist Michael Drosnin shocked the world in 1994 with the publication of The Bible Code, in which he announced that he'd found many historic events foretold in the Bible using a previously undiscovered hidden code. What relatively simple encoding method did he claim was used?

1. Letter substitution
2. Pigpen cipher
3. Equidistant letter spacing

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, Equidistant Letter Spacing. Pick a number, say 25, then take every 25th letter from a text. Those letters spell out your messages. Using computer programs, it's been found that virtually any short message you want can be found in virtually any long book-length text using this technique.

2008: Episode #109 - Will the Large Hadron Collider Destroy the Earth?

Before this world's largest scientific instrument came online in 2010, crackpots everywhere were predicting that it would destroy the Earth, by either creating microscopic black holes, strangelets, or magnetic monopoles. It did not do any of those things — but it did help us discover the Higgs boson. Where is the collider located?

1. CERN
2. Fermilab
3. Brookhaven National Laboratory

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, CERN, just outside of Geneva. Fears among the scientifically illiterate became so widespread that lawsuits seeking court orders to stop CERN were filed worldwide. All failed, as none of the plaintiffs were knowledgeable enough to demonstrate any credible threat.

2009: Episode #172 - Daylight Saving Time Myths

Everyone in the country hates changing our clocks twice a year. So what is, in fact, the real reason that we torment ourselves with Daylight Saving Time?

1. It balances seasonal energy usage, and conserves power
2. It provides more sunlight for moving dangerous heavy agricultural equipment on roads early in the mornings
3. It provides longer, more profitable shopping time after working hours

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, shopping. In much of the country, it's cold for half the year so nobody goes out shopping in the evening anyway; but they do in the summer. Giving them one extra hour before the retailers' closing times means more sales are made and more tax revenue generated. Half of you are going to argue with me on this and say it's one of the others, but the official reasons can be found in my references. In 1966, the Department of Transportation (which is in charge of this for some reason) created the Uniform Time Act of 1966 which stated this as "Convenience of commerce."

2010: Episode #234 - The South Atlantic Anomaly

This region of high radiation, where the inner Van Allen radiation belt dips closest to Earth, got some publicity in 2009 when some blamed its effects for causing the crash of Air France flight 447. Which of the following is true about the South Atlantic Anomaly?

1. Astronauts about the International Space Station must take shelter whenever they fly through it
2. Aircraft occasionally do experience minor computer glitches when they fly through it
3. Aircraft do not ever fly through it

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C. The closest the Anomaly dips to the Earth is about 200 km, at which point it's very small; and the highest flying airliners might get as high as 15 km.

2011: Episode #284 - The Fate of Fletcher Christian

About 19 years after the Bounty mutineers settled on Pitcairn Island, the island was visited by the crew of an American whaling ship. How many of the British sailors still survived?

1. None
2. Twelve
3. One

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, one: John Adams. Of the nine British sailors, six Tahitian men, eleven Tahitian women, and one baby who had landed there, only Adams and nine of the women still remained (plus nineteen children) —  the others having been killed in fierce infighting.

2012: Episode #328 - Secrets of the Stradivarius

In 2008, a large double-blinded study was done with 21 contestants from the Eighth International Violin Competition using nine top quality violins, ranging from brand new instruments to multimillion-dollar classics including two Strads and a Guarneri (another Italian classic, contemporary to the Strads). The musicians tested exhaustively according to strict protocols in which they could neither clearly see nor smell the instruments they played. Which was the most preferred instrument?

1. A brand new violin
2. A Stradivarius
3. The Guarneri

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, one of the new violins. The Stradivarius in the test that had the most illustrious history was the least preferred. For that most preferred new one, seven couldn't tell if it was old or new, seven wrongly guessed that it was old, and only three correctly guessed that it was new.

2013: Episode #348 - Ganzfeld Experiments

Ganzfeld experiments are one type of test for psychic powers. How does this one work?

1. A person is shown a card and they have to guess what's printed on the other side.
2. The person being tested tries to influence the output of a random number generator.
3. One person concentrates on an object, and another person at a remote location has to guess what the object is.

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, one person tries to visualize an object the other person is concentrating on. Proponents consistently claim a better-than-random-chance success rate; skeptics always find methodological errors like inadequate blinding and sensory leakage.

2014: Episode #420 - The First to Everest

When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mt. Everest for the first time in 1953, it was to some controversy; as many have long maintained that two other British men had succeeded first in 1924, yet died on their return. Who were they?

1. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
2. Andrew Irvine and Eric Shipton
3. Eric Shipton and George Mallory

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. If you guessed Eric Shipton, you were close; Shipton was a last-minute cut from Hillary and Norgay's famous 1953 expedition, but he'd been on most of the expeditions since the 1930s. He's best known for being the guy who faked a famous photo of a "yeti footprint" next to an ice axe for scale, which he did in 1951.

2015: Episode #482 - Franklin's Cannibals

In 1854, Sir John Franklin embarked upon his fourth and final polar voyage. Unfortunately it ended in disaster: both ships sank, nobody survived, and evidence remained that a few of the survivors may have resorted to cannibalism. Much of this evidence was discovered on what island?

1. King George Island, Antarctica
2. Beechey Island, Canadian Arctic
3. Wrangel Island, Russian Arctic

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is B, Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic. This voyage was to find a fabled Northwest Passage, a way to sail between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via an ice-free route through the Arctic Ocean across the top of North America, rather than having to go halfway round the world to traverse Cape Horn. So islands in the Canadian Arctic were the only possible correct answer.

2016: Episode #520 - Solving the Haunted Hoia-Baciu Forest

This small forested grove in Romania is only about 3 km². It was made famous to Americans in 2014 when a team of TV ghost hunters drove into it. One pretended to have an unprovoked panic attack. They brought along a commercially sold ghost hunting detector device, which detected nothing. They panicked and fled.

While their contribution to the mythology was essentially meritless, they did bring up one case of a 5-year-old girl who went missing in the forest once. Which of the following is true?

1. The girl, who disappeared in the forest for a full five years, was finally found unaware that any time had elapsed
2. The girl was found five years later with an opposite personality: Previously loving, happy, and playful; she was now dark, moody, and prone to speaking in foreign tongues
3. There are no records of any children ever going missing for a long time in the forest.

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, the area of the park is so small that it would be virtually impossible for anyone to go missing within it. Consequently there are no records of it ever having happened.

2017: Episode #566 - The Mercury Rivers of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

The first emperor of a unified China left a lot to remember him by, not just the original Great Wall of China, but also his vast mausoleum complex, home to the Terra Cotta warriors, a vast map of the world in miniature complete with liquid mercury representing its oceans, and a massive central pyramid. Which of these three pyramids is the largest, by volume?

1. The Great Pyramid of Khufu
2. The central pyramid in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
3. Monk's Mound at Cahokia, in Illinois

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is B, Qin Shi Huang's pyramid was indeed the biggest of these three, by volume. At 3.1 million m³, it was about 20% bigger than the Great Pyramid of Khufu at 2.6 million m³. Although Monk's Mound has about the same footprint as the Great Pyramid, it's only about a quarter the volume. The world's biggest is the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico, at 4.5 million m³.

2018: Episode #640 - Draining the Baghdad Battery

The so-called Baghdad Battery is a small terra cotta pot discovered in 1936, probably between 1300 and 2200 years old. Its designation as a battery (which is obviously false) has come from alternative historians and ancient advanced culture theorists. What is it really?

1. A wine purification vessel
2. A scroll container
3. A votive offering container

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is B. It's essentially identical to many other scroll containers, many of which have been found with their scrolls intact. The giveaway is the residue of asphalt around its lip, which was used to seal such containers and preserve the scrolls within.

2019: Episode #680 - The Amber Room

If you visit the Catherine Palace south of St. Petersburg, you can go and visit a faithful replica of the fabulous Amber Room, gifted to Peter the Great in 1716 by King Frederick William I. The original was initially lost in World War II, during the scuffle to hide artworks and other treasures from the invading Nazis in 1941. What was ultimately its fate?

1. It was destroyed in a fire
2. Its sections are in the hands of unknown private collectors worldwide
3. Its fate remains a mystery to this day

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, it was destroyed when the advancing Red Army razed Königsberg Castle in Germany, burning it completely to the ground in 1944. The room had been on display there, and the German curators disassembled it and packed it into nondescript crates for evacuation — but it was too late. Unfortunately for the Soviets, the average infantryman knew or cared little about current developments in art history.

2020: Episode #723 - Draining the Holy Grail

It's reasonably well known that the Holy Grail became a part of Christian mythology after the Bible; it came from Arthurian lore. In what publication did the principal character Perceval make his first appearance, so far as we've been able to find?

1. 1485: The Death of Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory
2. 1136: History of the Kings in Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth
3. 1190: The Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes [[ KRI-tyin de TWAH ]]

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is C, The Story of the Grail from 1190. Following Geoffery of Monmouth's book, the 1100s were full of pulp fan fiction about King Arthur, and it does appear that this poem is where Perceval and the Grail both made their debuts. Interestingly, it is incomplete, as its author literally died mid-sentence. And OK, yeah, this was probably too hard of a question.

2021: Episode #809 - The Avro Arrow Conspiracies

In 1959, Canada's magnificent Avro F-105 Arrow was inexplicably canceled. Only a few having been built, then immediately destroyed, the Arrow was the world's best and most advanced interceptor: capable of taking off, pursuing and overtaking enemy bombers, and shooting them down. The reason was that, with the advent of ICBMs, interceptors were simply no longer relevant. The conspiracy theories melt away when you note that an American interceptor concept, largely identical to the Arrow, was canceled at about the same time. What was it?

1. The XF-108 Rapier
2. The XB-70 Valkyrie
3. The X-20 Dyna-Soar

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, the XF-108 Rapier, from North American. This is kind of an unfair question if you're not an aerospace nerd. The North American XB-70 Valkyrie was a bomber, not an interceptor; and the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar was a proposed spaceplane, a followup to the record-setting X-15. Yes, it had a dumb name, because it sounded like "dinosaur", but it was Dyna (like dynamite) and Soar (like fly).

2022: Episode #830 - The Mystical Death of Jack Parsons

JPL co-founder Jack Parsons is somewhat notorious for his lifestyle outside of work, in which he led a chapter of a mysticism order from his large house in which some of the members lived, called the Parsonage. What future cult leader lived at the Parsonage for a time?

1. L. Ron Hubbard
2. Charles Manson
3. Jim Jones

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, L. Ron Hubbard, who went on to found the Church of Scientology. Hubbard and Parsons' girlfriend, Sara "Betty" Northrup, ran off together with $10,000 of Parsons' money.

2023: Episode #911 - How to Escape Nibiru

Nibiru is said to be the name of a rogue planet that could swing past Earth at some point and cause massive destruction. Other stories surround the so-called Planet X. Planet X and Nibiru are not the same thing; both have distinct backstories and predictions associated with them. They could be purely fictional, or they could be theoretical, based on actual astronomical observations. Which of the following is true?

1. Nibiru is purely fictional, but Planet X is theoretical.
2. Nibiru is theoretical, and Planet X is purely fictional.
3. Nibiru and Planet X are both purely fictional — though still distinct.

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, Nibiru is fictional and Planet X is hypothetical. Nibiru was the brainchild of broad-spectrum wooist and alternative historian Zecharia Sitchin, who published it in a fact-free book series called The Earth Chronicles, which started with The 12th Planet in 1976. Planet X, on the other hand, was the name given by famed astronomer Percival Lowell to a hypothetical body that he (and others) believed would account for perturbations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. For quite some time after his death, the subsequent discovery of Pluto was believed to account for this. That was later disproven, but only when the Voyager 2 mission made better measurements of Neptune's mass, many decades later.

2024: Episode #951 - Dying of Excited Delirium

"Excited delirium" is a cause of death sometimes attributed to people who died being arrested, usually young black men. It is not a real medical diagnosis and its origin has been traced to the manufacturer of what police equipment?

1. Tasers
2. Pepper spray
3. Batons

Reveal the answer

The correct answer is A, tasers. The condition was first described in a white paper published by the American College of Emergency Physicians, written by a task force, three of whose members were found to have been consultants paid by Taser International, since renamed Axon Enterprise. Some states are now banning "excited delirium" from being listed as a cause of death.

OK, let's see how you did! Total up the questions you got right:

• If you got 16-19 right, congratulations! You graduated Magna Cum Laude.
• If you got 12-15 right, you graduated with Honors.
• If you got 8-11 right, you Passed. Well done.
• If you got 7 or fewer right, well that means you must have cut class the day they were teaching stuff. 😉

By Brian Dunning
Follow @BrianDunning