The Skeptics Guide #993 - Jul 20 2024
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What discussions kick off The Skeptics Guide episode and who’s on the panel?
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, July 17th, 2024, and this is your host, Stephen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella. Hey, everybody. Cara Santamaria. Howdy. And Evan Bernstein.
Hey, everybody. Where is Jay?
Jay is off this week.
Oh. No, he's just on vacation. He's just off.
Jay is both off and on vacation.
He just goes off. That's all.
Wherever you are, Jay, I hope you're having an excellent time.
Jay is in Maine, actually.
Uh-huh. Horseback riding.
We're all like, huh, all right.
Hmm, Maine, you say?
So, have either of you guys watched either The Bear or Shogun? I've watched The Bear.
I did not watch The Bear. I've watched Cocaine Bear. I watched Shogun when it was a series back in the, what, 1980s? Early 80s?
Kara, what did you think of this season of The Bear?
I can't do any spoilers yet, right? Because it's still pretty... Yeah, you can just give an overview with no spoilers. All right. Let me think about how to say the impression with that. I really like how atmospheric it is. I think the writing is really good. I think that it's really visually interesting. I think that I am really annoyed with the main character. I don't think he's complex. I think he needs to get over himself.
Is that the... That's the way the character is designed?
100% he's designed to be complex. But he's not. Yeah, well, he's damaged. Yeah, which is fine.
And they explore that a little bit in the episode.
But he's not complex. He's just selfish and privileged and all the things that many women deal with in the dating world right now.
Yeah, I mean, my overall take, I mean, this season wasn't as good as the last two seasons. I had the feeling they were trying too hard. You know, like a lot of episodes like, yeah, okay, I could see like artistically where they were going with it. It just wasn't that enjoyable in episodes.
Yeah, not a lot happens this season. I think it's fair to say that. There's not a whole lot of activity going on this season.
It's classic. They forgot to have shit happen. Yeah.
Whoops. Shogun, on the other hand, was excellent. Really awesome. Good to hear. Leading in Emmy nominations and deserves it. Would I like it? It's very, very good. Yeah, I think you would love it.
Wow.
Really? I would love it. I'm not a big fan of like fighty shows.
It's not really a fighting show. I mean, there's fighting that happens, but that's not what the show's about.
There's fighting, but it's not fighty. Okay. Cool. Okay. Good to know.
I mean, but it takes place, what, in the 1600s, right? And so what wasn't fighting in the 1600s, right? It's sort of – it's the background. It's the environment. Yeah.
Yeah, it's more that, like, I'm just not, like, entertained by action sequences. You know what I mean? That's not enough to hold my attention.
It's very much driven by, like, excellent characters, and the best character, in my opinion, is the lead female. She's awesome.
That's good.
Well, we haven't spoken yet about the big thing that happened since the last episode, the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The thing. Well, I'm not going to talk about it politically, but the political aspect of it. What I want to talk about is the fact that instantly, within seconds, minutes of this event happening, the internet was abuzz with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Like, that's the go-to explanation of it. It's a conspiracy.
It was impressive in its own right, how fast it took on a life of its own.
But I also got to ask, before Steve, you get into the brass tacks of it all, I mean... Did you have a moment? No, I really didn't. No, really, not even a single moment.
No, because again, it's conspiracy theory. I had sort of an immediate skeptical reaction, although a lot of people in my social circle had that immediate conspiracy theory instinct.
I think the difficulty was, yes, how could the Secret Service have failed so miserably? I think that was – and like people are trying to answer that question and they're looking for an explanation.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What discussions kick off The Skeptics Guide episode and who’s on the panel?
0:00–9:18
2
How did conspiracies surface after the attempted assassination and why are they implausible?
9:18–29:49
3
What new evidence suggests the Moon has accessible lava tubes and why do they matter?
29:49–33:29
4
How could lunar caves solve the biggest hazards of living on the Moon?
33:29–1:35:56