The Skeptics Guide #859 - Dec 25 2021
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Who is on the live show in Fort Collins and how do they introduce the episode?
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 Saturday, November 20th, 2021, and this is your host, Stephen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella. Hey, everybody. Tara Santamaria.
Howdy.
Jay Novella. Hey, guys. Evan Bernstein. I love Fort Collins. And we have a special guest on this episode, George Robb. George, welcome back. Hi, John Collins.
Am I still in the special guest zone? Am I special guest zoned? I keep sending flowers. I keep going on dates with you guys, and I'm still in the special guest zone.
So what's between in every episode and the special guest?
I don't know. He's an honorary rogue. I don't know if I'm that, but maybe, yeah.
A regular guest?
Maybe a regular guest. A regular guest? A regular guest. A regular contributor? Or unlighted guest, maybe. Uninvited guest? Uninvited guest. Crasher? The most accurate. The most accurate.
So, yeah, George is frequently on the show and more recently because we're doing the extravaganza together and we're on these trips. So, you know, obviously he's here. And I wanted to say that we are live from Fort Collins, Colorado. So we're still in Colorado in podcast time. We're still out of breath. We haven't acclimated yet to the altitude, but we're getting there. How are you guys liking Colorado? I haven't seen a lot of it. Oh, you're asking us.
I'm asking you guys.
I love it. It's beautiful.
Yeah, it's gorgeous.
This is your first time here.
It's my first time in Colorado. Not mine.
I used to live here. I lived here for one year when I was about 12 years old. So yeah, I've gotten to see much of Colorado in my one year here. We went practically everywhere, which was great. It's good to be back.
I'm itchy when I'm here. What do you mean? Is anybody that lives here itchy because it's so dry? Oh, like physically itchy? Yes. I'm scratching.
George, have you ever been to Colorado before? I've never been to Colorado before, but it's lovely. And I think Fort Collins is so much nicer than Denver. It's no contest. So on the way here, we somehow missed like three exits. What happened, Jay? We haven't even talked about what happened. Jay was driving the van, and what happened?
Steve and I were in a heated discussion. For 50 miles?
Yeah, for the entire ride. There was no heat in that van. I don't know what the heating was.
I was cold.
But, yeah, it's so funny because, like, I'm, like, freakishly, like, looking at my phone to make sure we're on track. Right. And then, like, right at this, the inflection point when, you know, it was a straight shot all the way up from Denver. Yeah. Steve and I got to a point where it got a little, like, we were, like, this, you know. Yeah. We were fighting. It's okay. And I missed it, man.
Because we all of a sudden run a highway, we pull U-turn, right? Yeah. You know. Now, normally when you pull a U-turn on a highway, you go back to the previous exit because that's the one you've missed. So we go back to the previous exit. We keep driving. We go, we pass another exit. We keep driving. We pass a third exit. I'm like, how many exits did you miss? That was some discussion. It was the fourth exit we finally turned off. What happened?
That's weird because there were more exits, I guess, on that side. Uh-huh. Oh, sure.
That's how roads work. That's how highways work. It's just, sorry, you can't go to that side of the state.
No, it's just... It was awesome.
So we were talking on the last show we recorded, the one before Thanksgiving, about... Russia blowing up a satellite and the implications of that, you know, the Kessler syndrome where it might flood low Earth orbit with debris. So we lose basically the ability to have satellites. So this morning we're chatting. What would that really do? What would it do? What would the effect on our lives be if we had no satellites?
Like all of a sudden, like within a week.
Within a relatively short period of time.
How much would that affect us?
Yeah. And the answer is a lot. It would affect us a lot. But we expanded the conversation to, we thought we always like to start our live shows with a light and funny conversation.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who is on the live show in Fort Collins and how do they introduce the episode?
0:00–9:39
2
How fragile is modern civilization if satellites or the power grid fail?
9:39–42:27
3
Why do outspoken people seem to be wrong more often?
42:27–47:27
4
How are vaccine 'detox' claims spreading on TikTok and why are they dangerous?
47:27–54:31
5
What do experts say about whether assholish behavior is innate or situational?
54:31–1:15:01
6
Which local cryptid stories fooled the panel during Science or Fiction?
1:15:01–1:26:58