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Oct. 14, 2025 - Skeptoid
30:51
Skeptoid #1010: Pop Quiz: 19 Years of Skeptoid

A pop quiz of trivia from the previous 19 years of Skeptoid shows! Can you beat the masters? 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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Time Text
Skeptoid Pop Quiz Surprise 00:04:55
I hope you've been paying close attention all these years because today I'm springing a surprise pop quiz on you.
It's time to put your knowledge of skeptoid-y topics to the test and impress your friends.
That is assuming you listen to podcasts with friends.
That's coming up right now on Skeptoid.
A quick reminder for everyone.
You're listening to Skeptoid, revealing the true science and true history behind urban legends every week since 2006.
With over a thousand episodes, we're celebrating 20 years of keeping it focused and keeping it brief.
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You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Pop Quiz, 19 years of Skeptoid.
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.
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.
From 2006, episode number 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?
A. Chelation therapy.
B. Baclofen pump implant.
Or C. Plasmaphoresis.
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.
From 2007, episode number 48, the Bible Code, Enigmas for Dummies.
American journalist Michael Drosnan shocked the world in 1994 with the publication of The Bible Code, in which he announced 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?
A. Letter substitution B. Pigpin cipher or C. Equidistant letter spacing 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.
From 2008, episode number 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.
South Atlantic Anomaly Mystery 00:03:22
It did not do any of those things, but it did help us discover the Higgs boson.
Where is the collider located?
A. CERN.
B. Fermilab.
C. Brookhaven National Laboratory 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.
From 2009, episode number 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?
A.
It balances seasonal energy usage and conserves power.
B.
It provides more sunlight for moving dangerous heavy agricultural equipment on roads early in the mornings.
Or C.
It provides longer, more profitable shopping time after working hours.
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 retailer's 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.
From 2010, episode number 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 No. 447.
Which of the following is true about the South Atlantic anomaly?
A. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station must take shelter whenever they fly through it.
B. Aircraft occasionally do experience minor computer glitches when they fly through it.
Or C. Aircraft do not ever fly through it.
The correct answer is C.
The closest the anomaly dips to the earth is about 200 kilometers, at which point it's very small, and the highest flying airliners might get as high as 15 kilometers.
From 2011, episode number 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.
New Violins Beat Strads 00:02:06
How many of the British sailors still survived?
A. None.
B. 12.
C. 1.
The correct answer is C. 1.
John Adams.
Of the nine British sailors, six Tahitian men, 11 Tahitian women, and one baby who had landed there, only Adams and nine of the women still remained, plus 19 children, the others having been killed in fierce infighting.
From 2012, episode number 328, Secrets of the Stradivarius.
In 2008, a large double-blinded study was done with 21 contestants from the 8th International Violin Competition using nine top-quality violins, ranging from brand new instruments to multi-million 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?
A.
A brand new violin.
B.
A Stradivarius.
Or C.
The Guarneri.
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.
From 2013, episode number 348, Gansfeld Experiments Gansfeld experiments are one type of test for psychic powers.
How does this one work?
Nibiru Fictional Planet X 00:15:36
A.
A person is shown a card and they have to guess what's printed on the other side.
B.
The person being tested tries to influence the output of a random number generator.
Or C. One person concentrates on an object and another person at a remote location has to guess what the object is.
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.
From 2014, episode number 420, The First to Everest When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount 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?
A. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.
B Andrew Irvine and Eric Shipton or C. Eric Shipton and George Mallory 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.
From 2015, episode number 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?
A. King George Island, Antarctica.
B. Beachy Island in the Canadian Arctic.
Or C. Wrangell Island in the Russian Arctic.
The correct answer is B. Beachy 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 around the world to traverse Cape Horn.
So islands in the Canadian Arctic were the only possible correct answer.
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From 2016, episode number 520, Solving the Haunted Hoya Basiu Forest This small forested grove in Romania is only about three square kilometers.
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 five-year-old girl who went missing in the forest once.
Which of the following is true?
A.
The girl, who disappeared in the forest for a full five years, was finally found unaware that any time had elapsed.
B.
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.
Or C. There are no records of any children ever going missing for a long time in the forest.
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.
From 2017, episode number 566, The Mercury Rivers of Emperor Chin 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 Terracotta 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?
A.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu.
B.
The Central Pyramid in the Mausoleum of Chin Shi Huang.
Or C. Monk's Mound at Cahokia in Illinois?
The correct answer is B. Chin Shi Huang's pyramid was indeed the biggest of these three by volume.
At 3.1 million cubic meters, it was about 20% bigger than the Great Pyramid of Khufu at 2.6 million cubic meters.
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 cubic meters.
From 2018, episode number 640, Draining the Baghdad Battery The so-called Baghdad Battery is a small terracotta 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?
A.
A wine purification vessel.
B.
A scroll container.
Or C.
A votive offering container?
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.
From 2019, episode number 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?
A.
It was destroyed in a fire.
B. Its sections are in the hands of unknown private collectors worldwide.
Or C. Its fate remains a mystery to this day.
The correct answer is A.
It was destroyed when the advancing Red Army raised Koenigsberg 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.
From 2020, episode number 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 Percival make his first appearance, so far as we've been able to find?
A. In 1485, The Death of Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory.
B. In 1136, History of the Kings in Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Or C. From 1190, The Story of the Grail by Chrétin de Trois.
The correct answer is C.
The Story of the Grail from 1190.
Following Geoffrey of Monmouth's book, the 1100s were full of pulp fan fiction about King Arthur.
And it does appear that this poem is where Percival and the Grail both made their debuts.
Interestingly, it is incomplete, as its author literally died mid-sentence.
And okay, yeah, this is probably too hard of a question.
Sorry.
From 2021, episode number 809, The Avro Arrow Conspiracies In 1959, Canada's magnificent Avro F-105 Arrow was inexplicably cancelled.
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 cancelled at about the same time.
What was it?
A.
The XF-108 Rapier.
B.
The XB-70 Valkyrie.
Or C.
The X-20 Dinosaur.
The correct answer is A.
The XF-108 Rapier from North American.
Now 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 Dinosaur was a proposed space plane, a follow-up 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.
From 2022, episode number 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?
A. L. Ron Hubbard.
B. Charles Manson.
C. Jim Jones The correct answer is A. L. Ron Hubbard, who went on to found the Church of Scientology.
Hubbard and Parsons' girlfriend, Sarah Betty Northrop, ran off together with $10,000 of Parsons' money.
From 2023, episode number 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?
A. Nibiru is purely fictional, but Planet X is theoretical.
B. Nibiru is theoretical, and Planet X is purely fictional.
Or C. Nibiru and Planet X are both purely fictional, though still distinct.
The correct answer is A. Nibiru is fictional and Planet X is hypothetical.
Nibiru was the brainchild of broad-spectrum Wuist and alternative historian Zechariah 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.
Listener Supported Skepticism 00:04:47
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.
From 2024, episode number 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.
A. Tasers.
B. Pepper Spray.
C. Batons 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.
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