Dan Engber

Okay, the setup is she starts by, this is kind of her entree into this world. She hears a woman named Diane Hennessey Powell. This is a psychiatrist based in the Pacific Northwest who's written a book about ESP. and is very interested herself in the topic of people with autism who, in Powell's view, have kind of a savant skill for reading minds or ESP or psi phenomena.

So Dickens hears Powell on a podcast and gets the idea that she wants to pursue this, and so she starts working with Powell to... get some of these people and to design, you know, experiments, ways to test them. And then she's going to film it and record audio from it and talk about it. And so that's where the podcast starts.

So Dickens hears Powell on a podcast and gets the idea that she wants to pursue this, and so she starts working with Powell to... get some of these people and to design, you know, experiments, ways to test them. And then she's going to film it and record audio from it and talk about it. And so that's where the podcast starts.

So Dickens hears Powell on a podcast and gets the idea that she wants to pursue this, and so she starts working with Powell to... get some of these people and to design, you know, experiments, ways to test them. And then she's going to film it and record audio from it and talk about it. And so that's where the podcast starts.

So they set up in a rented house in Glendale and they fly in a family from Mexico. All the spellers are, you know, only go by their first name.

So they set up in a rented house in Glendale and they fly in a family from Mexico. All the spellers are, you know, only go by their first name.

So they set up in a rented house in Glendale and they fly in a family from Mexico. All the spellers are, you know, only go by their first name.

So it's this girl, Mia. I think she's a teenager. And they start running these experiments.

So it's this girl, Mia. I think she's a teenager. And they start running these experiments.

So it's this girl, Mia. I think she's a teenager. And they start running these experiments.

Powell will generate a random number on an iPad app.

Powell will generate a random number on an iPad app.

Powell will generate a random number on an iPad app.

Powell's the scientist.

Powell's the scientist.

Powell's the scientist.

Then she'll show that number to Mia's mom behind a screen. Mia has a blindfold on. They've taken extra care to make sure, you know, they've covered up any mirrors in the room, even a TV screen. Parents. That's a reflective surface there, the TV, so we need to cover that.

Then she'll show that number to Mia's mom behind a screen. Mia has a blindfold on. They've taken extra care to make sure, you know, they've covered up any mirrors in the room, even a TV screen. Parents. That's a reflective surface there, the TV, so we need to cover that.

Then she'll show that number to Mia's mom behind a screen. Mia has a blindfold on. They've taken extra care to make sure, you know, they've covered up any mirrors in the room, even a TV screen. Parents. That's a reflective surface there, the TV, so we need to cover that.

So they're taking a lot of care to make sure only Mia's mom is seeing this number. And then Mia's mom, who is the facilitator, sits next to Mia, and Mia spells out, using, you know, her letter board, what her mom has just seen, or she says what the number is.