The Skeptics Guide #1016 - Dec 28 2024
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Who is on this episode and what is the show’s year-end format?
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You're listening to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
Hello and welcome to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday, December 18th, 2024, and this is your host, Stephen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella.
Hey, everybody.
Cara Santamaria. Howdy. Jay Novella. Hey, guys. Evan Bernstein.
Good evening, everyone.
And Ian Callinan. Ian, welcome back on the show, man.
Oh, hey, sorry. I didn't hear you. I'm flying my drones back and forth between New Jersey and Connecticut.
Who are you?
It's you.
Anyone with half a brain knows it's you, Ian.
Yeah, I knew it.
Certainly this audience knows it.
They love it. The people love it in New Jersey.
There's a bunch of fun stuff happening right at the last end of the year. Oh, my gosh. We're not really doing new news items, but we have to say the drone thing is just so silly. I know. I mean, it's basically like people are wondering what these mysterious drones are in the sky. They're freaking drones. What is mysterious about it?
And other things that are misidentified as drones.
Yeah. What do you think these drones are? I think they're drones. But they're drones at night. People can't possibly fly.
And there's a lot of them. Where would people get so many drones?
They always come out at night.
Definitely not Amazon.
Unless it's the day.
i got mine i did order one on cyber monday yes yes i i did a search for the best deal on a drone and i got one like at 85 off and i bought it yeah have you got it yet i have yes no i haven't i have to wait until the holidays are over until you know is there a brand associated with it that you're willing to say Well, I don't have the box right in front of me. I would have to go get it. But I believe the designation is called X-29. I don't know if that means anything.
Okay.
No.
No.
Okay.
I'll look it up. Maybe I can look that up real quick while you guys keep droning. You knew that awful pun was coming. Thank you. Is the year over yet? Thanks, Kara. Thought bubble.
It's called the ultimate beginner's drone apparently. So that's good. That's smart. Good for you.
Hey, nice. Thank you, Ian. You're the ultimate beginner. Hey, I am a neophyte when it comes to drones.
So how has everyone been for 2024? How did the year go for you guys? What a year. Survived? Is that the way to describe it? I think so, yeah. This is our year-end show. This is our 20th year-end show that we've done.
That's right. Yeah.
Wow.
Oh, boy.
We look back at the SGU and science and skepticism and things and stuff over the last year. Yeah, this has been an interesting year. There's a lot of subtext, I think, happening here. Not necessarily in a good way.
Well, mixed bag, certainly, like most years. But certainly there were a lot of milestones in 2024 for SGU in a lot of different ways.
Yeah, we passed our 1,000th episode in 2024. We had two great live events this year. Everything we did was – all the live events were really good. But we had two sort of outstanding ones. We had the eclipse and we had our 1,000th episode. Yeah, they were standouts. Yeah, they were the largest audiences. Unreal.
Yeah. I know. Feels like it was so long ago. I know, it does seem like a long time ago, but yeah. It was this year. Oh boy, the eclipse in Dallas was just... That was awesome. I was especially happy for everyone there, you fellas, for whom this was their first total solar eclipse.
Oh man, it was so unbelievable. And it was all the more dramatic. It was like a TV show because like we had, it was cloud cover. You know, right.
We didn't know if it would happen.
Really like the last minute, the clouds part, the sky is clear and then the eclipse happens and it was just incredible.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who is on this episode and what is the show’s year-end format?
0:00–12:49
2
What is the realistic timeline and debate around commercial fusion power?
12:49–47:37
3
Who is named Skeptical Hero and why was Steve honored at the 1000th show?
47:37–49:29
4
How did Steve’s PsyCon talk address biological sex and humility in skepticism?
49:29–52:14
5
Which figures were chosen as Skeptical Jackass of the Year and why (RFK Jr., Trump, Elon)?
52:14–56:42
6
What were the Science or Fiction finalists and which stories were true or false?
56:42–1:40:56