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Aug. 20, 2024 - Skeptoid
08:23
Skeptoid #950: A Modern Skeptic Podcast Host

If I were to summarize how and why I do what I do, I might put it this way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Why Skepticism Still Resonates 00:05:22
How do I find myself still hosting a skeptical podcast after all these years?
Seriously, it's been almost 18 years, and I'm still doing this exact same thing.
The reason is the show resonates with a lot of listeners.
People just like you.
However, if it was an unskeptical podcast, retelling old ghost stories or conspiracy theories or paranormal claims as if they're all true, it would probably appeal to a lot more people.
So why do I keep doing it?
We're going to look into that in an introspective kind of way today on Skeptoid.
Hi, I'm Alex Goldman.
You may know me as the host of Reply All, but I'm done with that.
I'm doing something else now.
I've started a new podcast called Hyperfixed.
On every episode of Hyperfixed, listeners write in with their problems and I try to solve them.
Some massive and life-altering, and some so minuscule it'll boggle your mind.
No matter the problem, no matter the size, I'm here for you.
That's HyperFixed, the new podcast from Radiotopia.
Find it wherever you listen to podcasts or at hyperfixedpod.com.
You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com, a modern skeptic podcast host.
Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience, real history from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions by knowing what's real and what's not.
People don't want to get bad news, unless it's happening to someone else.
People want to get good news, or exciting news, or juicy news.
When it comes to the kind of topics we cover on Skeptoid, fewer people are interested in the skeptical perspective than they would be in the credulous version.
It would be much more exciting for me to say the moon landing was fake and the government covers it up and here's how we managed to get this secret knowledge.
That turns heads, including the heads of normally fact-based people who may not have heard the story before.
But the skeptical version, where we basically say that no juicy cover-up happened, whose curiosity is piqued by that and gets excited to hear more?
The answer is you.
And much of the reason is that you know we do so much more than offer, quote, the boring perspective here on Skeptoid.
If it's the moon landing, we talk about the history of the mythology and why it happened.
If it's the why the latest supplement won't make you skinny and longer-lived, we look at how we know that and how we can use those same tools to find the truth about other claims we might come across.
The skeptical perspective is the useful one, and it's the one where all the real fun is.
You just have to get past that initial boring old skeptic barrier to entry.
So I'd like to say a little bit about how I personally view that conundrum and at the same time color that perspective with one of the most popular of recent listener topic requests, AI, or artificial intelligence.
Generative AI is able to do things like create or expand a piece of artwork or even create or change a human voice.
With all of that in mind, here is the way I feel I can best articulate how and why I do what I do.
I am the very model of a modern skeptic podcast host who ruins all your fantasies and takes away your favorite ghosts.
Tell you nothing's true in all your lifetime has been a lie and been the crowning moment when I challenge you to falsify all around the pseudoscience epics and conspiracy combined to leave our intellect impaired with deep deficiency.
Some modern skeptic podcasts is your friends at these intensify.
To keep your brains from falling out with else it might just liquefy.
Keep your brains from falling out with else it might just liquefy.
To keep your brains from falling out with else it might just liquefy.
To keep your brains from falling out with else it might just liquefy.
Hey, Word of Bigfoot doesn't get you, then it will be Magdalon at Messi doesn't eat what's left the Civil War pteranodon.
Will carry your remains and feed them to a scary alien or a mormon or a Scientologist or alien.
Oh, would Dr. Oz and Alex Jones and Deepak Shopa supplicate for you to buy their supplements and magically self-medicate?
The skeptic podcast warns you not to do your own lobotomy with Reiki homeopathy and rhino horn and CBD.
They say that 9-11 was a globalist conspiracy.
Even though the notion lacks both logic and consistency, COVID truthers, JFK, and QAnon are standing by.
Within Peyoto Mena Black the Repoys and their battle cry.
Within Peyota Mena Black the Repoys and their battle cry.
Within Peyoto Mina Black the Repoys and their battle cry.
Within Feyota Mena Black the Repoys and their battle cry.
Listener-Supported Skeptoid Intro 00:02:56
Separating what is real from what is not is what we do for listeners everywhere to see by Tipper Rish and Bollyhew.
And so for every aspect of your life and those you love the most, I am the very model of a modern skeptic podcast host.
A great big Skeptoid shout out to our premium supporters, including Rick Hodge, Nancy Alexi, David, who is walking his dog listening to this, and of course, Damo from Dalby in Queensland.
Come and join me for our live super science trivia on the last Tuesday of every month if you happen to swing through Bend, Oregon.
And I'm giving my talk, The United States of Misinformation, at two locations, also in Central Oregon, coming up this November.
To see my complete appearance calendar or to book your own event, come to skeptoid.com/slash events and pick up an autographed skeptoid book, mug, t-shirt, hoodie, and more in our online store.
We've got all the skeptoid swag at skeptoid.com/slash store.
Skeptoid is a production of Skeptoid Media.
Director of Operations and Tinfoil Hat Counter is Kathy Reitmeyer.
Marketing guru and Illuminati liaison is Jake Young.
Production management and all things audio by Will McCandless.
Music is by Lee Sanders.
Researched and written by me, Brian Dunning.
You're listening to Skeptoid, a listener-supported program.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Hello, everyone.
This is Adrian Hill from Skookam Studios in Calgary, Canada, the land of maple syrup and moose.
And I'm here to ask you to consider becoming a premium member of Skeptoid for as little as $5 per month.
And that's only the cost of a couple of Tim Horton's double doubles.
And that's Canadian for coffee with double cream and sugar.
Why support Skeptoid?
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Remember that skepticism is the best medicine.
Next to giggling, of course.
Until next time, this is Adrienne Hill.
From PRX.
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