The Skeptics Guide #1036 - May 17 2025
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How did The Skeptics Guide celebrate 20 years and episode 1036?
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 Monday, May 12th, 2025, and this is your host, Stephen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella. Hey, everybody. Cara Santamaria. Howdy. Jay Novella. Hey, guys. And Evan Bernstein.
Good evening, everyone.
So, guys, actually, I think we forgot to mention last week. What happened last week? We have now completed, fully completed, 20 years of podcasting.
Wow.
Oh my gosh.
What was the date of the very first episode? So we recorded that first episode on May 5th, 2005, which kind of fell between weeks. Um, this time, when did it air that Saturday?
So, uh, we'd have to go back to eighth, the eighth. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, so now we have officially completed 20 years, and the episode we're recording right now is episode 1036.
When I talk with people about our podcast nowadays, I have to remind them that we were podcasting in a time really before YouTube. There was no video podcast. It was an audio-only platform at the time. We primarily remain that way to this day. So when I'm talking with someone about a podcast today, the first thing they ask me if they're new to it, it's like, oh, where can I watch it? That's what they say to me.
I know. Oh, wow.
I have to remind them it's an audio. That's why I have to say audio only, audio only. Something I didn't expect to have to happen.
You can point them to the live streams.
Certainly. Of course. Of course I do. I tell them about all the social media channels, everything, everything that we do, the whole slate.
I find that strange because it's not like every podcast has a video component.
That is common now, though.
Some podcasts do have video components now, but the podcast itself is still on a feed.
And the crazy thing is when we do the live streams, most people listen to the audio only. And then they complain about the bits that are video only. You know what I mean? Oh, I fast forward past this because you can't see anything. Well, it's because it's a live video stream and you're choosing to listen to the audio, which is fine. We make it available to you. But you can't win. You cannot win.
Wow, I didn't know that. So yeah, you just have to – and that's how far we've come. That's how far the platform itself has evolved, the product has evolved in lots of different ways. But that's one of the main ways. At least I have to make that distinction regularly to people. Because there's still so many people discovering our show for the first time. Yeah.
Well, again, 20 years is long enough that an entire new generation has come up that didn't exist or were, you know, toddlers when we started podcasting.
And I think we also have to couple that with the – I don't know. It was practically 10 years of skeptical activism we did before there was even a podcast. No, we didn't just walk into it cold. We had almost 10 years of experience under our belts.
We earned our bones. Absolutely.
We were in the field.
Newsletter, four newsletters. Newsletters.
Wait, so then have I been on the show for half of the life of the show or more or less? I think half.
Right at half.
2015 you joined. Yeah. So yes.
Yeah. That's weird to think about that. I still think of you as the new girl, you know, but in a way, even though it's been a long time, it's funny to think that you've been on the show.
Yeah, half the time. Half the time. A decade. Wow.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
You know, the thing about this whole 20 years, you know, and of course it predates 20 years. You guys, you know, did a lot more than I did because I was busy playing music. But, you know, when the podcast started, I was all in. The thing that really – I just can't wrap my head around the fact that we've been doing this for 20 years and like very soon after we got our feet wet, you know what I mean? We're like, okay, we got our sea legs doing it. We haven't missed an episode. We have consistently put out an episode for 19 and a half years, say. When we hit that mark, that accomplishment really was impactful to me because this is really like the longest commitment to anything I've ever had in my life.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
How did The Skeptics Guide celebrate 20 years and episode 1036?
0:01–37:01
2
What is moxibustion and is there evidence it works?
37:01–53:34
3
How does special relativity create the Terrell–Penrose visual rotation illusion?
53:34–58:41
4
How did researchers simulate relativistic flybys to confirm the Terrell–Penrose effect?
58:41–1:06:50
5
What is brainspotting and why do experts call it pseudoscience?
1:06:50–1:21:31
6
What are the ethical arguments for using genetically modified pig hearts in human transplants?
1:21:31–1:50:16