WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:04.080
<v Speaker 1>You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

2
00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:07.360
<v Speaker 2>A quick note, this week's episode of Monster Talk was

3
00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:09.919
<v Speaker 2>put together rather quickly and did not get my usual

4
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:12.919
<v Speaker 2>level of editorial cleanup. There's going to be a little

5
00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:14.880
<v Speaker 2>bit of cussing in it, as we say in the South.

6
00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:16.800
<v Speaker 2>In fact, you'll hear a cuss word in just a

7
00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:18.719
<v Speaker 2>few moments now that I think about it, because I'm

8
00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.160
<v Speaker 2>going to quote Martin Luther. Technically his cussing would have

9
00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.600
<v Speaker 2>been in German, but I'm reading a translation. I love monsters,

10
00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.600
<v Speaker 2>That's why I created Monster Talk. Hopefully that comes across

11
00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:31.559
<v Speaker 2>in the episodes. But I'm also a skeptic, and sometimes

12
00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:35.000
<v Speaker 2>I hear skeptics say disparaging things about monsters, like why

13
00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.719
<v Speaker 2>do they matter? They're not real, or yeah, but only

14
00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:39.880
<v Speaker 2>an idiot or a crazy person who believe that, and

15
00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.200
<v Speaker 2>so on. But really that's not true. It doesn't take

16
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.119
<v Speaker 2>much to get people, rational, normal run of the mill

17
00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:48.840
<v Speaker 2>people to believe in a monster. They just have to

18
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:52.960
<v Speaker 2>see something they don't understand, or experience something odd or unusual,

19
00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:56.119
<v Speaker 2>and then their mind will do the rest. Take change links,

20
00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:58.399
<v Speaker 2>for example, I used to think they were a silly

21
00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.759
<v Speaker 2>idea you put your kid to and overnight fairies come

22
00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:04.280
<v Speaker 2>and leave one of their children for you to raise. Instead,

23
00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.519
<v Speaker 2>they take away your child. I figured it was based

24
00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:09.519
<v Speaker 2>on the behavior of the cuckoo bird, which is a

25
00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:11.640
<v Speaker 2>real animal that puts its eggs into the nest of

26
00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.599
<v Speaker 2>other species in a behavior called brood parasitism. But then

27
00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.799
<v Speaker 2>I read that the founder of the Protestant Reformation, none

28
00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:21.959
<v Speaker 2>other than Martin Luther himself, had seen a changeling. I'll

29
00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.480
<v Speaker 2>let you hear his description. Eight years ago at Dassao,

30
00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:29.159
<v Speaker 2>I Martin Luther saw and touched the changeling. It was

31
00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:31.519
<v Speaker 2>twelve years old, and from its eyes and the fact

32
00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:33.959
<v Speaker 2>that it had all of its senses, one could have

33
00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.680
<v Speaker 2>thought that it was a real child. It did nothing

34
00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:39.239
<v Speaker 2>but eat. In fact, it ate enough for any four

35
00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:43.359
<v Speaker 2>peasants or threshers. It ate shit and pissed, and whenever

36
00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.480
<v Speaker 2>someone touched it it cried. When bad things happened in

37
00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:48.879
<v Speaker 2>the house, it laughed and was happy, and when things

38
00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:52.319
<v Speaker 2>went well, it cried. It had these two virtues. I

39
00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.200
<v Speaker 2>said to the Prince of Anhalt, if I were the

40
00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:56.359
<v Speaker 2>prince or ruler here, I would throw this child into

41
00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:58.959
<v Speaker 2>the water into the molda that flows by the Dessau

42
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:04.280
<v Speaker 2>commit homicidium on him. But the Elector of Saxony, who

43
00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:07.000
<v Speaker 2>was with me at Dessau, and the Princess of Annhal

44
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.599
<v Speaker 2>did not want to follow my advice. Therefore, I said,

45
00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.840
<v Speaker 2>then you should have all Christians repeat the Lord's prayer

46
00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:15.639
<v Speaker 2>in church that God may exercise the devil. They did

47
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:18.719
<v Speaker 2>this daily at Dessau, and the changeling child died in

48
00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:22.199
<v Speaker 2>the following year. Such a changeling child is only a

49
00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:26.319
<v Speaker 2>piece of flesh, a masa carnas, because it has no soul.

50
00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.360
<v Speaker 2>After reading this account, I suddenly realized that I had

51
00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.639
<v Speaker 2>misunderstood the changeling legend completely. It wasn't some crazy fairy

52
00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:36.960
<v Speaker 2>tale made up by people based on a cuckoo bird.

53
00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:41.080
<v Speaker 2>It was a genuine, but non scientific response to discovering

54
00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:43.360
<v Speaker 2>that the child you've had had raised so far, which

55
00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:46.879
<v Speaker 2>had seemed normal, had suddenly turned into a stranger, unable

56
00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:50.479
<v Speaker 2>to communicate, afraid of touch. Well, let's just say that

57
00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.199
<v Speaker 2>as the parent of a child with autism, it was

58
00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.800
<v Speaker 2>a chilling revelation, especially if you read how the so

59
00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:59.560
<v Speaker 2>called legends recommended treatment of such children. This episode's not

60
00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.080
<v Speaker 2>about change links or autism, but I did want to

61
00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:04.240
<v Speaker 2>take a moment to point out that these monsters are

62
00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:08.159
<v Speaker 2>sometimes much more serious business than people realize. You probably

63
00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:10.400
<v Speaker 2>know that already, after all, you're listening to the show,

64
00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:12.319
<v Speaker 2>but I want to thank you for listening and for

65
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.439
<v Speaker 2>making monsters and science a part of your experience. It's

66
00:03:16.439 --> 00:03:21.719
<v Speaker 2>actually quite unlike anything we've ever seen before. A giant,

67
00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:27.039
<v Speaker 2>very creature, part ape, part Matt in Luckness, a twenty

68
00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:29.960
<v Speaker 2>four a mile long bottomless lake in the Highlands of Scotland.

69
00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:32.439
<v Speaker 3>It's a creature known as the Luckness Monster.

70
00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:55.639
<v Speaker 4>Monstertal.

71
00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.639
<v Speaker 2>Welcome to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters. I'm

72
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.759
<v Speaker 2>your host, Blake Smith, together with Ben Radford and Karen Stalls.

73
00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:04.879
<v Speaker 2>Now we bring you the interviews and commentary about the

74
00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:08.719
<v Speaker 2>intersection between myth and reality. Now, this episode's way more

75
00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:10.439
<v Speaker 2>casual than normal, and I just wanted to give you

76
00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.199
<v Speaker 2>a quick update on why that is. And this also

77
00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:16.040
<v Speaker 2>has to do with the recent lag in episodes. I've

78
00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.879
<v Speaker 2>started a new job and I'm working very long hours

79
00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.319
<v Speaker 2>as we get ready to launch our website. I like

80
00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:23.800
<v Speaker 2>to keep Monster Talking non commercial project, but if you're

81
00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:25.720
<v Speaker 2>curious about my day job, I'll be posting a little

82
00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.959
<v Speaker 2>bit about it on my Twitter feed. That's doctor Atlantis

83
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.800
<v Speaker 2>at Twitter. We have a lot of awesome topics to

84
00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.319
<v Speaker 2>cover in the future, and there's no shortage of monsters.

85
00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.560
<v Speaker 2>So as soon as my time becomes free again, we'll

86
00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.160
<v Speaker 2>pop back with more regularity. So thanks for bearing with

87
00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:41.839
<v Speaker 2>me on this because I am really excited about it.

88
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:42.959
<v Speaker 4>More obstrutal.

89
00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:47.759
<v Speaker 2>So today we're talking with Brian Thompson of the James

90
00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:50.920
<v Speaker 2>or in the Educational Foundation, and Brian, you're the field

91
00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:52.399
<v Speaker 2>coordinator for the j REF.

92
00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.040
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, that is a term that means nothing to most people,

93
00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:00.639
<v Speaker 5>so I'll briefly explain it. Its outreach. I'm in charge

94
00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:03.839
<v Speaker 5>of reaching out to the skeptical community, so I talked

95
00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:07.199
<v Speaker 5>to local group leaders from all over the world about

96
00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:11.160
<v Speaker 5>how they can help educate people about skepticism and do

97
00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:14.839
<v Speaker 5>activism in their community and get together and have fun.

98
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:16.399
<v Speaker 4>And that's cool.

99
00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:17.800
<v Speaker 2>I bet.

100
00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:22.000
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, Well, you know it's pretty good. I could be

101
00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:26.839
<v Speaker 5>working in construction walking beams and skyscrapers and stuff putting

102
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.040
<v Speaker 5>those together, which would be a terrible job for me

103
00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:31.959
<v Speaker 5>because I'm afraid of heights and I'm also afraid of

104
00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:33.680
<v Speaker 5>carrying my lunch.

105
00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.639
<v Speaker 4>In a pale.

106
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.079
<v Speaker 5>Do they still do that like to sit side by

107
00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:40.959
<v Speaker 5>side on girders eating their lunch.

108
00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:49.480
<v Speaker 2>According to the photos at my pizzeria, Then yes, that's

109
00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:51.680
<v Speaker 2>really where I get a lot of my information.

110
00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:54.399
<v Speaker 5>Right, yeah, well that's how I get around New York

111
00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.439
<v Speaker 5>City is by the wallpaper subway.

112
00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:02.600
<v Speaker 2>It probably is. All right, So you're going around saying

113
00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.079
<v Speaker 2>words about this amazing meeting.

114
00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:08.560
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, yeah, pretty much everywhere I go, I say some

115
00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:10.360
<v Speaker 5>words about the amazing meeting.

116
00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:12.639
<v Speaker 4>You've been before, right.

117
00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:15.439
<v Speaker 2>I've been a couple of times, and I have to

118
00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:18.680
<v Speaker 2>admit it lived up to his name. It's a fantastic experience.

119
00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.040
<v Speaker 2>But before I go off from.

120
00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:22.439
<v Speaker 5>No, wait, wait, wait, wait a second, wait a second,

121
00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:24.439
<v Speaker 5>it's an amazing experience.

122
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:25.360
<v Speaker 2>What did I say?

123
00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:30.160
<v Speaker 5>You said fantastic, and legally if you say fantastic meeting,

124
00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:30.800
<v Speaker 5>we will sue.

125
00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:32.199
<v Speaker 2>I don't want that.

126
00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:34.519
<v Speaker 4>I don't want that, and it's just fair warning.

127
00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:36.759
<v Speaker 2>I guess I could go back and fix it and post.

128
00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.720
<v Speaker 2>Could I just sort of issue a retraction now and

129
00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:44.040
<v Speaker 2>then say that I retract my statement fantastic and would

130
00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:48.240
<v Speaker 2>like to replace that with an adjective that's more appropriate

131
00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:49.360
<v Speaker 2>and legally sound.

132
00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:52.680
<v Speaker 5>That being asked along to our attorneys and be sure

133
00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:55.920
<v Speaker 5>when you say amazing, make sure to pronounce the exclamation

134
00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:58.160
<v Speaker 5>point where the eye is supposed to be.

135
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:02.120
<v Speaker 2>Is it the amazing meeting exclamation point TM?

136
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:02.639
<v Speaker 1>No?

137
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.120
<v Speaker 5>No, no, no, it's just it's the exclamation point is

138
00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:06.120
<v Speaker 5>more just emphasis.

139
00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.279
<v Speaker 4>So it's like amazing meeting.

140
00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:09.480
<v Speaker 2>Is it? But is it? Do either?

141
00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:09.560
<v Speaker 1>Do?

142
00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:11.240
<v Speaker 2>Is there a TM or an R at the end

143
00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:12.079
<v Speaker 2>or anything like that?

144
00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.040
<v Speaker 4>And you don't have to say that, but yes there is.

145
00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:15.160
<v Speaker 2>So it's silent.

146
00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:18.519
<v Speaker 4>It's a silent trademark symbols.

147
00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:24.399
<v Speaker 2>Silent but really really binding legally. Okay, yeah, so no,

148
00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:28.360
<v Speaker 2>I don't recall as much rules lawyer in when I

149
00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:31.360
<v Speaker 2>was there, but yeah, it was a really amazing time

150
00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:31.920
<v Speaker 2>that I had.

151
00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:35.720
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and when I say that, oh sorry.

152
00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:42.160
<v Speaker 2>Seriously, though, it really I feel a little bit stupid

153
00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:46.160
<v Speaker 2>saying it. It is amazing, it really is. It's not

154
00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:50.839
<v Speaker 2>just the incredible speakers and the sort of camaraderie of

155
00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:57.680
<v Speaker 2>meeting all these like minded people. It's also just the

156
00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:03.639
<v Speaker 2>conversations in the the panels and no, it is those things,

157
00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:06.000
<v Speaker 2>all those things. I'm just going to redo that whole bit.

158
00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:09.199
<v Speaker 4>No, no, no, wait, wait wait, I don't think so. I

159
00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.079
<v Speaker 4>don't think I think I get where you're going with this.

160
00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:13.759
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's more than just what's on the car. Let

161
00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:15.959
<v Speaker 2>me say that, right, yeah, or what's on the car.

162
00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:17.800
<v Speaker 2>You get the piece of paper saying here's what the

163
00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:20.160
<v Speaker 2>events are, here's what people here's what people are talking,

164
00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.639
<v Speaker 2>here's what they're talking about, here's the workshops. But beyond that,

165
00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.839
<v Speaker 2>you're going to meet so many people from just uh

166
00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:30.959
<v Speaker 2>what's the word for, lots and lots of.

167
00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:33.120
<v Speaker 4>Different uh, diverse.

168
00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:35.440
<v Speaker 2>You're going to meet a diverse group of people.

169
00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:37.360
<v Speaker 4>That's true.

170
00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:39.039
<v Speaker 2>It's smartest people I've ever met.

171
00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:43.600
<v Speaker 5>It's the largest or one of the largest, certainly skeptics

172
00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:47.159
<v Speaker 5>events in the entire world. And and despite that, it

173
00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:49.759
<v Speaker 5>still feels very intimate.

174
00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:50.720
<v Speaker 4>Maybe is the word.

175
00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:52.600
<v Speaker 2>It's definitely the word.

176
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:57.559
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, more uptimate for some people than others. But we're

177
00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:00.320
<v Speaker 5>sort of it's last year, we had sixteen hundred people

178
00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:04.320
<v Speaker 5>I believe roughly sixteen hundred people packed into the South

179
00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.600
<v Speaker 5>Point Hotel and Casino, which is a very large building.

180
00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:10.399
<v Speaker 5>But still when you have sixteen hundred people all staying

181
00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:12.559
<v Speaker 5>in the same place, and pretty much everybody that goes

182
00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.000
<v Speaker 5>to TAM is staying in the South Point or very

183
00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:19.200
<v Speaker 5>close by, and a lot of people never really see

184
00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.679
<v Speaker 5>any sunlight because there's really no reason to. You can

185
00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.480
<v Speaker 5>go outside into the hot Las Vegas air. You notice

186
00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:29.279
<v Speaker 5>that Las Vegas, it always feels like someone's breathing right

187
00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.559
<v Speaker 5>in your face when you go outside and they spend

188
00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:33.159
<v Speaker 5>their bread. Smells like a delicious buffet.

189
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:35.039
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, a little bit. It's nice.

190
00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:39.600
<v Speaker 5>It's like a warm, savory wind always blowing in your face.

191
00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:43.279
<v Speaker 5>And some people don't like that, so they like being

192
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.000
<v Speaker 5>able to stay inside the South Point. You got a

193
00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:47.639
<v Speaker 5>bar there, you've got.

194
00:09:47.799 --> 00:09:50.840
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, you've got everything at the South Point. There

195
00:09:50.919 --> 00:09:53.919
<v Speaker 2>is absolutely no reason to leave the hotel if you

196
00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:56.559
<v Speaker 2>don't want to do anything. So like last year when

197
00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:58.320
<v Speaker 2>I went, I took my wife and we did go

198
00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:03.120
<v Speaker 2>catch a show, but that was because she was with me.

199
00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:05.080
<v Speaker 2>Otherwise I would have just stayed in the hotel. And

200
00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.279
<v Speaker 2>there's plenty to do. You could go bowling, you could

201
00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:09.360
<v Speaker 2>last year, you could go see a Harry Potter movie.

202
00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.120
<v Speaker 2>It's amazing, it's really, really quite amazing.

203
00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:14.840
<v Speaker 5>You can do that this year if you brought a

204
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.919
<v Speaker 5>maybe a DVD player and right to a red box

205
00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:18.320
<v Speaker 5>or something.

206
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:19.720
<v Speaker 4>But I don't know why you would do that. You

207
00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:20.679
<v Speaker 4>certainly have time.

208
00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.360
<v Speaker 5>There's time in the evenings to go do things that

209
00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:25.919
<v Speaker 5>Las Vegas has to offer, like go see maybe a

210
00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:29.120
<v Speaker 5>Pennant teller show or something like that. But if you

211
00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:31.639
<v Speaker 5>choose to stay in the South Point, you can you

212
00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.360
<v Speaker 5>can always find someone to talk to and something to do.

213
00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:37.120
<v Speaker 5>Like you said, it's a very diverse group of people

214
00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:39.320
<v Speaker 5>that show up for TAM, people from all over the world,

215
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.759
<v Speaker 5>with all sorts of crazy accents and weird manners of dress.

216
00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:46.039
<v Speaker 5>But everybody's able to put aside any differences they might

217
00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:48.559
<v Speaker 5>have and talk about all the things that they have

218
00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:52.039
<v Speaker 5>in common, which at TAM, if you're a skeptic, is a.

219
00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:52.840
<v Speaker 4>Ton of things.

220
00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:57.440
<v Speaker 5>It's just nothing but NonStop, wonderful conversation with wonderful, friendly people,

221
00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:02.399
<v Speaker 5>whether you're down in the Elmar Bar in the South Point,

222
00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.919
<v Speaker 5>or people sort of pack into different corners around the

223
00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.759
<v Speaker 5>conference area and are always chit chatting and talking. It's

224
00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:11.240
<v Speaker 5>it's just a it's a great community experience, and that's

225
00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:14.639
<v Speaker 5>outside of or I guess it's not outside of but

226
00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:18.720
<v Speaker 5>it's in addition to the official programming schedule, which is

227
00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:22.399
<v Speaker 5>also extremely significant and maybe the main draw.

228
00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:26.799
<v Speaker 2>Maybe I guess you could tell me who's yeah, well, yeah,

229
00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:27.759
<v Speaker 2>who's coming this year?

230
00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:31.559
<v Speaker 4>This year, We've got all sorts of folks.

231
00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.720
<v Speaker 5>You know, we've got the tam regulars like Steven Novella

232
00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.320
<v Speaker 5>and the other Novellas and they probably hate it when

233
00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:41.440
<v Speaker 5>people call them the other Novellas.

234
00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:44.919
<v Speaker 4>Right, and the rest Stephen Novella and the rest.

235
00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.759
<v Speaker 5>You have your Eugenie Scott's from the National Center for

236
00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:52.279
<v Speaker 5>Science Education will be there, Michael Schrmer will be there.

237
00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:56.360
<v Speaker 5>Your Monster Talk co host, doctor Karen stolesnow.

238
00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:56.360
<v Speaker 4>We'll be there.

239
00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.080
<v Speaker 5>We've got Penn and Teller. I think this is the

240
00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.480
<v Speaker 5>only skeptics conference. Well, you'll be able to see Penn

241
00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:06.240
<v Speaker 5>and Teller. We've got Jamie Ian Swiss, the wonderful mentalist.

242
00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.159
<v Speaker 5>We've got Paul Pravenza, the wonderful comedian doing a stand

243
00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:16.200
<v Speaker 5>up show. I'm going to be hosting a comedic game

244
00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:17.759
<v Speaker 5>show that does not at all a rip off of

245
00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:20.559
<v Speaker 5>Wait wait, don't tell me you called Weightwaight, don't fool

246
00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:24.360
<v Speaker 5>me that you were on at Dragon Con this past year.

247
00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.080
<v Speaker 5>Maybe on again. Paul Prevenza will certainly be on it.

248
00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:31.919
<v Speaker 5>You've got your Brian Dunning from skeptoid dot Com. You've

249
00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:35.519
<v Speaker 5>got your Pamela Gay. You've got all sorts of people.

250
00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:38.519
<v Speaker 5>List goes on and on and on, Max Mayven, Lawrence Krauss,

251
00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:44.279
<v Speaker 5>Richard Saunders, and of course James Randy himself, which everyone

252
00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.440
<v Speaker 5>loves singing Randy and he loves seeing everybody. He's constantly

253
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.600
<v Speaker 5>shaking hands and hugging people and doing magic tricks. And

254
00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:52.639
<v Speaker 5>if you come to TAM you'll be able to take

255
00:12:52.679 --> 00:12:53.120
<v Speaker 5>part in that.

256
00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.240
<v Speaker 2>And he's actually nice to everyone, not just the good

257
00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:57.440
<v Speaker 2>little boys and girls.

258
00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.360
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, no, he's nice to everyone. It's a myth that

259
00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:02.480
<v Speaker 5>he's only nice to the good little poison girls. It's

260
00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:04.559
<v Speaker 5>as the myth that he just leaves Cole and the

261
00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.120
<v Speaker 5>stockings of the ones that are bad. He doesn't make

262
00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:10.679
<v Speaker 5>any distinction one way or the other. He will give

263
00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:12.759
<v Speaker 5>you presents on Christmas Eve.

264
00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:15.399
<v Speaker 4>Right here are we talking about again?

265
00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:18.000
<v Speaker 2>Well? I forget, but I just feel I feel warm.

266
00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:22.240
<v Speaker 5>Right, Charles Darwin will be there. One of the things

267
00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:25.559
<v Speaker 5>I'm particularly excited about is a newcomer to TAM. I

268
00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.480
<v Speaker 5>believe she maybe have been to TAM before, but she

269
00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:31.320
<v Speaker 5>hasn't been doing her show. Kelly Carlin, daughter of George Carlin.

270
00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.080
<v Speaker 5>She's going to be doing her show A Carlin Home Companion,

271
00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:39.200
<v Speaker 5>which is about her life growing up as George Carlin's daughter.

272
00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:43.120
<v Speaker 5>It's a great show. And she's doing that at TAM

273
00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:44.960
<v Speaker 5>there's a ton of Does she have a.

274
00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:48.840
<v Speaker 2>Bit on seven words? My dad yelled at me a lot.

275
00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:52.080
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I was sure that I'll print it on a

276
00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:55.320
<v Speaker 5>T shirt or something. Yeah, it's it's amazing, like I would.

277
00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:58.879
<v Speaker 5>I was at she she put on a birthday celebration

278
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:01.279
<v Speaker 5>for George car then he would have been seventy five

279
00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:04.679
<v Speaker 5>last week as of this recording. And I went to

280
00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.440
<v Speaker 5>that event and she was trying out all this stuff

281
00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:10.679
<v Speaker 5>that her dad had had stored over the years. He

282
00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:13.519
<v Speaker 5>just kept everything, every piece of history he was ever

283
00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:17.679
<v Speaker 5>a part of his clothes, everything, So she has all

284
00:14:17.720 --> 00:14:21.399
<v Speaker 5>sorts of weird stories and visual aids and it's just

285
00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:22.399
<v Speaker 5>it's a wonderful show.

286
00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.039
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, you can. You can. You can go to

287
00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:27.080
<v Speaker 4>Amazing Meeting dot com.

288
00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:29.240
<v Speaker 5>And see the list of all of our wonderful speakers

289
00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:33.039
<v Speaker 5>and our workshop schedule. It's just it's a it's a

290
00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.399
<v Speaker 5>great time. It's going to be July twelfth through the fifteenth,

291
00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:39.960
<v Speaker 5>and you'd really if you think you might want to go,

292
00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.279
<v Speaker 5>you might want to go. Get your registration now because

293
00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:47.320
<v Speaker 5>it could sell out. And also if it doesn't sell out,

294
00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:49.360
<v Speaker 5>if you wait too long, the price will go up

295
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.159
<v Speaker 5>like any other conference. So get in early and you

296
00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:55.279
<v Speaker 5>can seal a deal for yourself.

297
00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.000
<v Speaker 4>More obstrutle.

298
00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:02.320
<v Speaker 2>You know this was so casual. I forgot to put

299
00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:03.440
<v Speaker 2>together a byo for you.

300
00:15:05.320 --> 00:15:08.360
<v Speaker 6>Well, the first question will be sort of you know,

301
00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:09.320
<v Speaker 6>were you.

302
00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:10.879
<v Speaker 1>Are you?

303
00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:12.879
<v Speaker 2>How did you get on our podcast?

304
00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:13.600
<v Speaker 4>What's happening?

305
00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:14.639
<v Speaker 6>At least?

306
00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:16.840
<v Speaker 3>We're all a bit rusty on this right now.

307
00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:19.840
<v Speaker 2>I think that's my fault. I've just been I've been

308
00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:21.919
<v Speaker 2>working so hard on money job, I haven't had time

309
00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:27.120
<v Speaker 2>to do any recording or anything. So Tonight's guest. You

310
00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:29.759
<v Speaker 2>know I always say tonight, I'm still doing that. People

311
00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:31.679
<v Speaker 2>could be listening to this at nine am.

312
00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:34.000
<v Speaker 6>But they don't. They don't. They always listen to it tonight.

313
00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:35.320
<v Speaker 6>You know, come on this week.

314
00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:38.399
<v Speaker 2>I mons your talk this week, not me in.

315
00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.559
<v Speaker 1>The morning, do you Yeah, Well, I'm doing my hair

316
00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:43.120
<v Speaker 1>and stuff getting ready for work.

317
00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:48.559
<v Speaker 6>So Blake just say for everybody except Sharen ah Man, awake.

318
00:15:55.559 --> 00:16:00.360
<v Speaker 4>Morebstrtal day.

319
00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:02.679
<v Speaker 2>This morning, as Sharon gets ready for work, we're talking

320
00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:07.080
<v Speaker 2>to her live. I would be doing my hair, but

321
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.960
<v Speaker 2>I don't have any left I need. It has been

322
00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:12.440
<v Speaker 2>so it we're like a fifty to fifty hair mix here.

323
00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.919
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, that's good, it's even.

324
00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:16.039
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

325
00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.559
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, so today we're talking with Sharon Hill. Sharon has

326
00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:22.440
<v Speaker 2>done a lot of things with skepticism, but right now

327
00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:27.639
<v Speaker 2>we're talking to her because of her new website, Doubtful News. Now,

328
00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:30.600
<v Speaker 2>many skeptics already know who you are, but for those

329
00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:32.720
<v Speaker 2>listeners who don't, what's your background?

330
00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:37.320
<v Speaker 1>Oh, jezus, I've been with this involved in the skeptical

331
00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.320
<v Speaker 1>topics and subjects. This is probably about nineteen ninety three.

332
00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:45.000
<v Speaker 1>I was always interested in the paranormal and monsters, and

333
00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:47.759
<v Speaker 1>about that time I was out of college and I

334
00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:52.960
<v Speaker 1>had some time to start reading more involved literature about it.

335
00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:55.759
<v Speaker 1>And I found that the skeptical literature that I'd never

336
00:16:55.799 --> 00:17:00.919
<v Speaker 1>seen before was way more interesting than the credulous stuff

337
00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:03.559
<v Speaker 1>that you would find in the public libraries or on

338
00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:09.119
<v Speaker 1>the popular books and magazines. So I really got into it.

339
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.319
<v Speaker 1>And at that point, the Internet was becoming more of

340
00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:14.920
<v Speaker 1>a thing, so I got on there and I remember,

341
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.640
<v Speaker 1>you know, the first browser was text only, and I

342
00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:21.480
<v Speaker 1>would just search for sit all day and search for

343
00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:24.680
<v Speaker 1>ghosts and bigfoot and lackness sponsor and find out all

344
00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:28.039
<v Speaker 1>these cool things that I didn't know before. And so

345
00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:31.279
<v Speaker 1>that was sort of my introduction there was the Internet

346
00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:37.160
<v Speaker 1>was definitely a gateway to finding better information on these topics.

347
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.519
<v Speaker 1>And after that, you know, I just was interested in

348
00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:44.000
<v Speaker 1>it for a long long time. And I don't know

349
00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:46.839
<v Speaker 1>if if Ben remembers the first time we met. It

350
00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:49.920
<v Speaker 1>was it was in a it was Philadelphia meeting. You

351
00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:52.079
<v Speaker 1>were talking about lake monsters. Do you remember that?

352
00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.200
<v Speaker 6>I do, In fact, I remember I remember that, and

353
00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.680
<v Speaker 6>then you and I think we went to like an

354
00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:00.240
<v Speaker 6>Applebee's or something that had a beer. If I'm not mistaken, No.

355
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.759
<v Speaker 1>You're mistaken because I had to leave early.

356
00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:05.599
<v Speaker 6>And you and I had a beer somewhere where that was.

357
00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:08.519
<v Speaker 6>But tell me more about I apparently have a bad memory.

358
00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.319
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking that remember that time you talked about lake monsters.

359
00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:15.039
<v Speaker 6>Oh yeah, yeah, this.

360
00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:17.759
<v Speaker 1>Is before your your your book had come out. I'm

361
00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:20.079
<v Speaker 1>like monsters, I'm pretty sure. And it was in a

362
00:18:20.359 --> 00:18:23.799
<v Speaker 1>it was Philadelphia. It was a skeptical group meeting, and

363
00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.519
<v Speaker 1>you talked about you had two talks one about uh,

364
00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:30.640
<v Speaker 1>I don't know Myths probably, and then the second one

365
00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:33.599
<v Speaker 1>was Lake Monsters, and I had to leave because I

366
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:35.440
<v Speaker 1>had just had a baby a couple months before, so

367
00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:37.599
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't stay very long, and Philadelphia was a far

368
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:40.000
<v Speaker 1>trip from where I lived, so I didn't get to

369
00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:42.119
<v Speaker 1>see it, but I eventually did get the book, and

370
00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:47.160
<v Speaker 1>then I started going to skeptical conferences. I got involved

371
00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.920
<v Speaker 1>with the websites. I volunteered to help write a couple

372
00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:53.599
<v Speaker 1>of things on what was called the Young Skeptics at

373
00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.640
<v Speaker 1>the time became Inquiring Mine, so it's basically for kids,

374
00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:59.440
<v Speaker 1>and I was always interested in writing them about monsters

375
00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.440
<v Speaker 1>for kids because I know that that's a very interesting

376
00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:05.559
<v Speaker 1>subject to them, and it was fun to write for

377
00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.559
<v Speaker 1>an age group like that. So I got into that,

378
00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:13.359
<v Speaker 1>and after that I wrote a couple of pieces. This

379
00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:17.519
<v Speaker 1>pirded skeptical briefs and things like that about ghosts, and

380
00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:20.799
<v Speaker 1>I went back and got a master's degree in science

381
00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:25.480
<v Speaker 1>and the public It's and education and started writing my thesis,

382
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:30.160
<v Speaker 1>which was about research and do paranormal groups in the

383
00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:34.000
<v Speaker 1>United States, and that includes the ghost hunters and the

384
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.319
<v Speaker 1>cryptozoology groups as well as general paranormal groups that investigate

385
00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.200
<v Speaker 1>anma lies and forty and type things. So I really

386
00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:44.680
<v Speaker 1>got into it then. And then I started writing articles

387
00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:47.480
<v Speaker 1>and started a blog, started a website, So yeah, I'm

388
00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:48.640
<v Speaker 1>doing a lot of different.

389
00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:54.000
<v Speaker 3>Things and masters then what questions were you looking at

390
00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:56.519
<v Speaker 3>concerning these groups in the States.

391
00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:01.000
<v Speaker 1>I was interested in how they used science, if they

392
00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:04.279
<v Speaker 1>used it in a very casual way, if they had

393
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:08.559
<v Speaker 1>scientists as part of their investigation groups, if they understood

394
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:12.960
<v Speaker 1>what it meant to set up a research plan, and

395
00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:16.680
<v Speaker 1>how they were conducting their investigations. So I looked at

396
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.799
<v Speaker 1>a thousand different websites. I just went totally from what

397
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:23.319
<v Speaker 1>was on the web, and the majority of those are

398
00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:27.759
<v Speaker 1>ghost hunting groups. But there were a growing number of

399
00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:32.839
<v Speaker 1>bigfoot groups, mostly Bigfoot. They did other crypti investigations as well,

400
00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:36.039
<v Speaker 1>but mostly was Bigfoot. And there's a declining number of

401
00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:40.680
<v Speaker 1>UFO investigation groups and a couple that sort of did everything.

402
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:45.200
<v Speaker 1>And I looked at them all across the country and

403
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.720
<v Speaker 1>how they used science in their investigations.

404
00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:50.279
<v Speaker 3>Do they use science little?

405
00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:52.400
<v Speaker 2>It's mostly an attitude.

406
00:20:53.599 --> 00:21:03.160
<v Speaker 1>Science means careful, and they act particulars and the conclusions

407
00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:08.960
<v Speaker 1>were they acted like they thought scientists should act. That's

408
00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:14.119
<v Speaker 1>a big difference from what science is as a process,

409
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.960
<v Speaker 1>and none of them, almost across the board, there were

410
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:21.559
<v Speaker 1>no real scientists involved. There may have been a handful

411
00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:26.519
<v Speaker 1>of wildlife biologists or computer scientists were popular, you know,

412
00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:30.880
<v Speaker 1>in these groups, but otherwise none of them had scientific training,

413
00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:34.079
<v Speaker 1>and they never when they recruited people for their groups,

414
00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:38.400
<v Speaker 1>they didn't ask for people with scientific training. All they

415
00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:41.680
<v Speaker 1>wanted was people who were interested in the topics, especially

416
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:44.759
<v Speaker 1>people who had had their own personal experiences. That the

417
00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:48.920
<v Speaker 1>personal experience was what was driving people into these amateur

418
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:54.039
<v Speaker 1>investigation groups, going out and doing their own investigations. They

419
00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:57.400
<v Speaker 1>really didn't know how to conduct them scientifically at all.

420
00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:02.079
<v Speaker 6>I should for for for listeners who wanted to read

421
00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:05.039
<v Speaker 6>more about it. Actually, we published Sharon's piece and Skeptical

422
00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:08.200
<v Speaker 6>Acquiring Magazine that was from an adaptation of for thesis

423
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.319
<v Speaker 6>and it was a great piece. So I encourage people

424
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.119
<v Speaker 6>who want to read more about it to check. I

425
00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:16.519
<v Speaker 6>think it appeared I think three or four issues back,

426
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:17.680
<v Speaker 6>but it was very good.

427
00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:19.519
<v Speaker 1>I think it was March March April.

428
00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:21.799
<v Speaker 2>What's the Where can people find that?

429
00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:26.480
<v Speaker 6>Ben Skeptical Acchoir Science Magazine. It's available in better bookstores.

430
00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:28.480
<v Speaker 6>If the bookstore you're in doesn't carry it. It's not

431
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:33.319
<v Speaker 6>a better bookstore. It's it's around and about. You can

432
00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:36.839
<v Speaker 6>get it online. You can order it. Uh, you know

433
00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:40.039
<v Speaker 6>it's a it's around psycop dot org. I think I've

434
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:43.440
<v Speaker 6>I sometimes write for it or something and you know

435
00:22:43.960 --> 00:22:44.920
<v Speaker 6>whatever cool I.

436
00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:48.440
<v Speaker 3>Mean supermarkets if we can find that. Oh that's National

437
00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:50.000
<v Speaker 3>enquire Sorry, yeah.

438
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:55.039
<v Speaker 6>It's well, I was gonna ask you for show.

439
00:22:54.839 --> 00:22:56.039
<v Speaker 2>And I'm gonna say that we're gonna put a link

440
00:22:56.039 --> 00:22:56.839
<v Speaker 2>of the show notes go ahead.

441
00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:01.960
<v Speaker 6>So did you I was curious about the follow up

442
00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:05.640
<v Speaker 6>to it? Did when you when you were inquiring these

443
00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:08.519
<v Speaker 6>groups and you know, asking them, you know, deer ghost

444
00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:11.720
<v Speaker 6>hunters of Akron, you know, what's your what's your understanding

445
00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:15.400
<v Speaker 6>of science? What sort of answers did you? Did you was?

446
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:17.720
<v Speaker 6>Were they sort of defensive about it? Did they wreck?

447
00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:20.119
<v Speaker 6>Do they realize that you were probably not going to

448
00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:23.079
<v Speaker 6>be taking a very positive view of their lack of science?

449
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:24.960
<v Speaker 6>Or were they like, oh, yeah, we do we have

450
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:26.000
<v Speaker 6>MF detectors?

451
00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:26.200
<v Speaker 2>You know?

452
00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:31.480
<v Speaker 6>They what were you know? I assume that they didn't

453
00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:32.559
<v Speaker 6>think there was anything wrong with that.

454
00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:37.160
<v Speaker 1>I was a little bit more subtle than that. I

455
00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:41.400
<v Speaker 1>didn't want them to know that I was looking at

456
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:44.680
<v Speaker 1>this from a skeptical viewpoint. I wanted to be neutral,

457
00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:46.880
<v Speaker 1>right because I was pretty sure that they were going

458
00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:48.759
<v Speaker 1>to give me a different answer if I look like

459
00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:52.880
<v Speaker 1>I was critical, So I I really wanted to get

460
00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:54.839
<v Speaker 1>a big data set. So that's why I went through

461
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.480
<v Speaker 1>a thousand of them to get a really good cross

462
00:23:57.480 --> 00:23:59.960
<v Speaker 1>section to get a feel of it. But about thirty

463
00:24:00.119 --> 00:24:04.599
<v Speaker 1>of them that distinctly used very scientific terms. Whether it

464
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.920
<v Speaker 1>was in their name, you know, where the Scientific Ghost

465
00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.880
<v Speaker 1>and Investigator Investigation Group, or they was, it was very

466
00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:14.240
<v Speaker 1>blatant on their site that that was what they were

467
00:24:14.279 --> 00:24:18.599
<v Speaker 1>relying on to draw people in and get them to

468
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.640
<v Speaker 1>increase their credibility. They looked credible by using that word.

469
00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.559
<v Speaker 1>So I took about thirty of those and I emailed

470
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:28.680
<v Speaker 1>them individually and asked them, what is it about your

471
00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:31.480
<v Speaker 1>group that scientific? Do you have any scientists on board?

472
00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:35.559
<v Speaker 1>Can you explain some of the ways that you use

473
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:42.400
<v Speaker 1>science and your investigation? Eight replied yea, which is not bad.

474
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:47.079
<v Speaker 1>Some were very they didn't want to talk. They're like,

475
00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:51.720
<v Speaker 1>who are you, what are you doing? And others would

476
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:55.480
<v Speaker 1>say they did get defensive. I teach this, I teach

477
00:24:55.559 --> 00:25:00.599
<v Speaker 1>these courses to interested individuals, and we do science and

478
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:02.519
<v Speaker 1>all this stuff. And they didn't give me any details,

479
00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:06.720
<v Speaker 1>and a few, maybe three or four, were very detailed

480
00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:09.680
<v Speaker 1>and helpful. And the more that I asked them about it,

481
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:12.799
<v Speaker 1>the more they said, well, we're not really trained scientists,

482
00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.200
<v Speaker 1>but we're trying to do the best we can. We're

483
00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:18.640
<v Speaker 1>trying to be careful, we're trying to be meticulous. We're

484
00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:21.680
<v Speaker 1>trying to be systematic in what we do, which is

485
00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:27.279
<v Speaker 1>not science. It's science y, you know. And it wasn't

486
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:31.720
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't rigorous. They thought it was rigorous putting out

487
00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:36.240
<v Speaker 1>all their equipment every single time in a very it

488
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.920
<v Speaker 1>was definitely a meticulous, careful way. But you could do

489
00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:45.160
<v Speaker 1>that with any pieces of equipment. It's not scientific. But

490
00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:48.279
<v Speaker 1>the equipment was the one thing that really did stand

491
00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:50.680
<v Speaker 1>out as them feeling very scientific.

492
00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:54.559
<v Speaker 6>The the gadgets and the gears did it very much.

493
00:25:55.240 --> 00:25:58.039
<v Speaker 3>And so where were they getting their exposure to science

494
00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:02.240
<v Speaker 3>or their interpretation of lines I was coming from.

495
00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:07.200
<v Speaker 1>I was hoping I didn't guess the answer beforehand, but

496
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:09.200
<v Speaker 1>it turns out it was true, and I did find

497
00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:12.200
<v Speaker 1>a reference on this. They're getting it from television, they're

498
00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:15.119
<v Speaker 1>getting it from the ghost hunters on TV very much,

499
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:20.759
<v Speaker 1>So no doubt about it. They mimic what they see

500
00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:25.039
<v Speaker 1>on TV as being good ghost hunters, good investigators.

501
00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:28.279
<v Speaker 2>I think that was kind of a major factor in

502
00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:32.160
<v Speaker 2>the creation of this show, was because I was seeing

503
00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:37.440
<v Speaker 2>a lack of scientific and skeptical qualities in any of

504
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:40.599
<v Speaker 2>the topic investigations, right, so, whether it was ghosts from

505
00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:44.319
<v Speaker 2>monsters or UFOs. So you know, we don't really do

506
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:47.079
<v Speaker 2>UFOs very much on the show. Occasionally we'll talk about aliens.

507
00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:50.480
<v Speaker 2>But did you take anything away from that? I mean,

508
00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:52.359
<v Speaker 2>I know one of the topics I'm going to come

509
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.400
<v Speaker 2>up with is or come to in a moment, is

510
00:26:54.519 --> 00:26:59.039
<v Speaker 2>about your website that you're working on now. But what

511
00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:01.759
<v Speaker 2>does the skeptical community need to do or do you

512
00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:03.960
<v Speaker 2>think it's an action call for us to do anything

513
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.400
<v Speaker 2>to help improve scientific literacy? I know we have organizations

514
00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:09.079
<v Speaker 2>that do that. What does it mean to you that

515
00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:10.640
<v Speaker 2>this is going on? Is it a problem that we

516
00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:12.440
<v Speaker 2>can address in some way? What can we do?

517
00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:15.759
<v Speaker 1>Well? There were two things. One, I think that some

518
00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:19.480
<v Speaker 1>skeptical groups can if there is a way to work

519
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:23.160
<v Speaker 1>with these groups, do that in a friendly way, and

520
00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:27.119
<v Speaker 1>you would definitely get a better result. I don't know

521
00:27:27.160 --> 00:27:29.480
<v Speaker 1>if it's possible. Some groups are not open to that.

522
00:27:31.480 --> 00:27:35.920
<v Speaker 1>Ghost hunter groups especially, they think that they're the experts.

523
00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:38.000
<v Speaker 1>They don't want anybody else to come in and step

524
00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:41.599
<v Speaker 1>on their territory. But it would be great if we

525
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:44.559
<v Speaker 1>could get the two sides to come in and say, Okay,

526
00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:46.200
<v Speaker 1>we're not going to step on your toes. We're going

527
00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:47.720
<v Speaker 1>to do our thing, but we're going to try to

528
00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:51.079
<v Speaker 1>work together, and maybe we can come up with a

529
00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:54.839
<v Speaker 1>better explanation for what's happening here, or we can come

530
00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:58.319
<v Speaker 1>up with two different explanations, perhaps from each group, and

531
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:01.160
<v Speaker 1>see which one might I make a little bit more sense,

532
00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:03.599
<v Speaker 1>or maybe we can learn from each other. And the

533
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:07.279
<v Speaker 1>second thing was I noticed that, and I don't think

534
00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:11.680
<v Speaker 1>that most of the skeptical people would realize this. How

535
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:17.920
<v Speaker 1>totally dedicated these people are too searching for ghost evidence

536
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:22.160
<v Speaker 1>or bigfoot. They are so committed to this they put

537
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:24.960
<v Speaker 1>a tremendous amount of their leisure time into it and

538
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:28.720
<v Speaker 1>their personal funds. Skeptics do the same, but in this case,

539
00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:32.039
<v Speaker 1>this is for people who are almost spiritually involved in

540
00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:36.039
<v Speaker 1>this subject and they want to do a good thing.

541
00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.440
<v Speaker 1>They want to contribute and they also want to help

542
00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:41.160
<v Speaker 1>people that they feel are in trouble with a haunting

543
00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:44.279
<v Speaker 1>or something like that. They want to do good. They

544
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:49.119
<v Speaker 1>often do worse, you know, make the situation worse, I think,

545
00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:52.200
<v Speaker 1>by telling people that they have demons infesting their house.

546
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:55.119
<v Speaker 1>But they want to do the right thing, and I

547
00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:56.960
<v Speaker 1>think that their heart is in the right place. And

548
00:28:58.079 --> 00:29:00.160
<v Speaker 1>I think the most important thing is they want to

549
00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:03.839
<v Speaker 1>to be scientific. They don't know how they want to.

550
00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:08.839
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how you I don't know how to

551
00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:09.440
<v Speaker 1>make that better.

552
00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:12.079
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I would agree with that. I think they want

553
00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:15.119
<v Speaker 3>the credibility that comes along with that as well. But

554
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:17.160
<v Speaker 3>I certainly think there are a lot of people who

555
00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:19.559
<v Speaker 3>for whom this is just a flavor of the month

556
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.480
<v Speaker 3>thing and they're just involved in a very dispassionate way.

557
00:29:23.559 --> 00:29:26.759
<v Speaker 3>And aside to these other people who really get into

558
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:29.000
<v Speaker 3>it and live that like a lot of skeptics too

559
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:31.960
<v Speaker 3>as well, I think a lot of groups are on

560
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:32.559
<v Speaker 3>the way out.

561
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:34.400
<v Speaker 1>That's true.

562
00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:36.599
<v Speaker 2>In your survey, did you happen to find out how

563
00:29:36.599 --> 00:29:37.880
<v Speaker 2>many also want to be on TV?

564
00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:45.960
<v Speaker 1>A lot a lot we're pitching TV shows, and I

565
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.279
<v Speaker 1>mean what I saw was just from the website. I

566
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:50.880
<v Speaker 1>didn't talk to enough people. What I had to do

567
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:52.680
<v Speaker 1>is just take the data from the websites because I

568
00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:54.480
<v Speaker 1>couldn't possibly talk to them all. So what I was

569
00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:57.720
<v Speaker 1>seeing was the public face of those groups. I didn't

570
00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:01.839
<v Speaker 1>get into the personalities that were involved in actual day

571
00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:04.400
<v Speaker 1>to day stuff in the groups, and that look like

572
00:30:04.440 --> 00:30:07.680
<v Speaker 1>it very tremendously clear.

573
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:10.200
<v Speaker 2>I don't want anybody to think because I'm snickering about things.

574
00:30:11.799 --> 00:30:15.279
<v Speaker 2>I totally understand the desire to be in a paranormal

575
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:18.519
<v Speaker 2>investigation group. I mean, I'm in one myself. It's just

576
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:20.839
<v Speaker 2>a skeptic group. It doesn't but there's not I mean

577
00:30:21.079 --> 00:30:24.759
<v Speaker 2>that desire to investigate. It's the same passion that drives us.

578
00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:28.160
<v Speaker 2>It's just what technologies and techniques we use, I think that,

579
00:30:28.279 --> 00:30:31.359
<v Speaker 2>and how we approach the questions, right, But uh, it's

580
00:30:31.400 --> 00:30:34.640
<v Speaker 2>that desire to find out that the answers to unknown question,

581
00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:37.359
<v Speaker 2>you know, that is their life after death or their ghosts?

582
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:41.000
<v Speaker 2>Is there an American would a But these are all

583
00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:42.559
<v Speaker 2>really interesting questions.

584
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:44.079
<v Speaker 3>We have those in common.

585
00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:45.359
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

586
00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:47.839
<v Speaker 1>Well, like I said, most of these people were inspired

587
00:30:47.839 --> 00:30:51.200
<v Speaker 1>by personal experiences they had that they were confused by,

588
00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:54.039
<v Speaker 1>or that they wanted to show other people that they

589
00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:58.839
<v Speaker 1>were valid and skeptics. We don't often have that. I mean,

590
00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:03.680
<v Speaker 1>some of us have had potential paranormal experiences, but we

591
00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.799
<v Speaker 1>think that there's a reasonable explanation for them. Some people,

592
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:08.920
<v Speaker 1>other people are really affected by it, and they don't

593
00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:10.200
<v Speaker 1>they think it's paranormal.

594
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:14.000
<v Speaker 6>That's been my experience, especially, you know, when when I'm

595
00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:17.319
<v Speaker 6>talking to people who like in ghost hunter groups and

596
00:31:17.359 --> 00:31:21.119
<v Speaker 6>in cryptology in groups specifically where you know, as you

597
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:24.119
<v Speaker 6>pointed out, many of them are driven by some you know,

598
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:29.359
<v Speaker 6>personal firsthand experience. And and what I've found is that oftentimes,

599
00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:31.200
<v Speaker 6>you know, they have this experience, you know, they they

600
00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:33.480
<v Speaker 6>see something weird in the woods, and of course they

601
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:36.119
<v Speaker 6>immediately jump to Bigfoot or they you know, see something

602
00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:39.880
<v Speaker 6>weird in the hallway. And one thing that these these

603
00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:44.680
<v Speaker 6>groups offer is our answers. They're not starting correct answers,

604
00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:48.359
<v Speaker 6>but they offer they offer already made framework of belief

605
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:50.359
<v Speaker 6>and you know, well come to you know, hey, if

606
00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:52.559
<v Speaker 6>you saw a ghosts, you know, go come, you know,

607
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:55.559
<v Speaker 6>come to our local ghost hunters meeting and and share

608
00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:59.519
<v Speaker 6>your story. And that's where they feel, you know, they're

609
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.640
<v Speaker 6>among friend friends, They're among people who share their experiences.

610
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:06.559
<v Speaker 6>They're not typically among skeptics, which is sort of a

611
00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:09.279
<v Speaker 6>shame and of itself. It's a problem in and of itself.

612
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:11.200
<v Speaker 6>But that's one thing that that I think that a

613
00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:14.680
<v Speaker 6>lot of times gets overlooked in discussions about paranormal groups.

614
00:32:14.720 --> 00:32:17.400
<v Speaker 6>Is is a lot of times it's the sense of community.

615
00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:20.519
<v Speaker 6>It's it's friends, It's people hanging out. I mean, it's

616
00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:22.960
<v Speaker 6>you know, it's it's yeahoo's you know, going out for

617
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:25.279
<v Speaker 6>the weekend looking for looking for bigfoot in the in

618
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:27.799
<v Speaker 6>the woods. It's uh, it's friends, you know, walking around

619
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:30.599
<v Speaker 6>the local cemetery, and it's you know, I certainly a

620
00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:33.480
<v Speaker 6>lot of it is there are very dedicated people in there.

621
00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:36.160
<v Speaker 6>But a lot of times, what I found is that

622
00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:39.680
<v Speaker 6>that we get so busy sort of criticizing their lack

623
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:42.279
<v Speaker 6>of science in some cases, that we forget that in

624
00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:45.720
<v Speaker 6>many ways, it's a social event. That's that's what a

625
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:52.359
<v Speaker 6>lot of people get from it, right, Amen, Amen and Sharon.

626
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.079
<v Speaker 3>You're going to be talking about skeptics and believers looking

627
00:32:55.079 --> 00:32:56.720
<v Speaker 3>horns at Tame this year, aren't you.

628
00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:01.079
<v Speaker 1>Yes. Uh, I've I've learned so much in the past

629
00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:06.039
<v Speaker 1>two years. I think about talking to people of other viewpoints,

630
00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:12.880
<v Speaker 1>and I don't like conflict. I'm not I just avoid it.

631
00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:15.880
<v Speaker 1>But what I had to learn to do is handle

632
00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:19.200
<v Speaker 1>it in a certain way, because as if you're in

633
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.960
<v Speaker 1>a scientific field, you get criticized for everything. You get

634
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:25.720
<v Speaker 1>criticized from everything from grammar to you know, the basic

635
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:29.440
<v Speaker 1>premise of your whole idea, so you get used to

636
00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:33.480
<v Speaker 1>that a little bit. In terms of a non personal critique.

637
00:33:33.759 --> 00:33:37.640
<v Speaker 1>When you're online and you're doing articles or you're doing

638
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:43.119
<v Speaker 1>blog posts, you get a lot of personal comments from people,

639
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:45.559
<v Speaker 1>and maybe they're not meant to be personal, but it's

640
00:33:45.559 --> 00:33:48.519
<v Speaker 1>hard not to take personal. So I had to learn

641
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:50.720
<v Speaker 1>some techniques that are counter to the way that you

642
00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:54.000
<v Speaker 1>would normally react, which would be get defensive and start

643
00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:58.720
<v Speaker 1>getting angry about things. Learn how to handle that and

644
00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:01.599
<v Speaker 1>take it away from the personal aspect and try to

645
00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:07.240
<v Speaker 1>see what's behind that person's comment. It's probably not directed

646
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:10.039
<v Speaker 1>at you. It's just directed at some idea of you

647
00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:15.400
<v Speaker 1>that they have. So I've been practicing that on my

648
00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:18.519
<v Speaker 1>blog and in real life. And I thought that I

649
00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:20.559
<v Speaker 1>could share some of those things that tam about dealing

650
00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:25.840
<v Speaker 1>with people of other worldviews, and maybe we could bring

651
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:28.840
<v Speaker 1>this conversation to a civil level and agree on some

652
00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:33.519
<v Speaker 1>things and then move from there to answer the bigger

653
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.199
<v Speaker 1>questions and how we would approach those bigger questions without

654
00:34:36.199 --> 00:34:37.280
<v Speaker 1>getting mad at each other.

655
00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:40.800
<v Speaker 2>And just in case our listeners don't know, we're talking

656
00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:43.960
<v Speaker 2>about TAM, which is the Amazing Meeting which takes place

657
00:34:43.960 --> 00:34:47.719
<v Speaker 2>in Las Vegas, Nevada every year. It's put on by

658
00:34:47.719 --> 00:34:51.000
<v Speaker 2>the James Randy Educational Foundation, and it's a place where

659
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:55.199
<v Speaker 2>skeptics and scientists and researchers and people who are just

660
00:34:55.239 --> 00:34:59.079
<v Speaker 2>interested in these topics get together and listen to lectures

661
00:34:59.119 --> 00:35:00.480
<v Speaker 2>and mingle. It's fun.

662
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:05.599
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Sharon's going to be appearing at the workshop on Thursday,

663
00:35:05.639 --> 00:35:06.840
<v Speaker 3>isn't it It four pm?

664
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:09.719
<v Speaker 1>That's right, And I've got some great panelists to help

665
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:15.719
<v Speaker 1>me out totally different subject areas and it'll be really cool.

666
00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:20.639
<v Speaker 6>Sharon was going to ask about, Yes, go ahead. I

667
00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:23.159
<v Speaker 6>was going to ask about, you know, trying you mentioned,

668
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:25.800
<v Speaker 6>you know, trying to bring the skeptics and believers together

669
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:28.760
<v Speaker 6>and sort of having the same you know, so for

670
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:30.960
<v Speaker 6>more of a dialogue. And I think that's a great idea.

671
00:35:31.159 --> 00:35:33.280
<v Speaker 6>I've I've tried to advocate that for a long time.

672
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:38.480
<v Speaker 6>Although I'm wondering what your thoughts are on on how

673
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.440
<v Speaker 6>viable that really is? I mean if if if if

674
00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:45.079
<v Speaker 6>essentially skeptics and for lack of a better word, believers

675
00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:49.960
<v Speaker 6>aren't even sharing basic premises. You know, you know, for example,

676
00:35:49.960 --> 00:35:51.639
<v Speaker 6>a lot of a lot of ghost groups just sort

677
00:35:51.639 --> 00:35:53.440
<v Speaker 6>of use the word ghosts and throw around the word

678
00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:56.760
<v Speaker 6>ghosts as if there's some universally agreed upon definition, and

679
00:35:56.840 --> 00:36:00.719
<v Speaker 6>of course there isn't. So how how big of an

680
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:03.199
<v Speaker 6>impediment do you think that is? That that you know

681
00:36:03.719 --> 00:36:06.599
<v Speaker 6>that in many cases that they're you're just coming from

682
00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:08.800
<v Speaker 6>two very very different world views.

683
00:36:09.639 --> 00:36:11.800
<v Speaker 1>And not only that, but the communities are close to

684
00:36:11.840 --> 00:36:15.719
<v Speaker 1>each other, they're they're insulated from each other completely. There's

685
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:18.440
<v Speaker 1>there's no real way to overlap except in a forum

686
00:36:18.519 --> 00:36:23.400
<v Speaker 1>where you're arguing with each other. What I've seen potentially

687
00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:28.559
<v Speaker 1>work is going person to person, having just a one,

688
00:36:28.719 --> 00:36:31.480
<v Speaker 1>one to one connection with somebody in a paranormal group,

689
00:36:31.480 --> 00:36:36.559
<v Speaker 1>where you start a conversation and say, I understand where

690
00:36:36.599 --> 00:36:39.679
<v Speaker 1>you're coming from, and you have these beliefs that you're

691
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:42.400
<v Speaker 1>going in there with different beliefs and different methods than

692
00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:45.920
<v Speaker 1>than I would, and talk to them and get get

693
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:49.000
<v Speaker 1>to talk to them on a person to person level,

694
00:36:49.079 --> 00:36:51.559
<v Speaker 1>not about the subject, but but try to understand where

695
00:36:51.559 --> 00:36:54.480
<v Speaker 1>they're coming from. And in a couple of cases it's

696
00:36:54.519 --> 00:36:57.559
<v Speaker 1>just happened on the blog. People have come in really

697
00:36:57.599 --> 00:37:01.079
<v Speaker 1>defensive about a news story that I've been critical of,

698
00:37:01.519 --> 00:37:03.480
<v Speaker 1>a haunting or something like that, and they've come on

699
00:37:03.519 --> 00:37:04.840
<v Speaker 1>to the site and they said, you don't know what

700
00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:07.480
<v Speaker 1>you're talking about, and I said, look, let's just ratchet

701
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:09.880
<v Speaker 1>this down and let's figure out what exactly did you

702
00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:13.519
<v Speaker 1>see and start talking about it at a much more

703
00:37:13.559 --> 00:37:17.320
<v Speaker 1>civil level, and they will admit, we would really like

704
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:21.440
<v Speaker 1>to have another set of eyeballs, you know, somebody who

705
00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:25.320
<v Speaker 1>doesn't share the same viewpoint that we have to come

706
00:37:25.320 --> 00:37:29.039
<v Speaker 1>in and then it's hard to actually make those arrangements.

707
00:37:29.079 --> 00:37:31.800
<v Speaker 1>But if you're in the same town it might be easier.

708
00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:34.079
<v Speaker 1>But I think it involves getting to people on a

709
00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:38.559
<v Speaker 1>very personal, one on one level and establishing a really

710
00:37:38.599 --> 00:37:40.719
<v Speaker 1>a trusting relationship that you know you're not going to

711
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:42.760
<v Speaker 1>get stabbed in the back or you're not going to

712
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:46.320
<v Speaker 1>get criticized. So I don't know, maybe that would work.

713
00:37:46.519 --> 00:37:48.599
<v Speaker 1>I wish there were more skeptical groups that would sort

714
00:37:48.599 --> 00:37:51.159
<v Speaker 1>of reach out in a friendly way. It's really hard though.

715
00:37:53.880 --> 00:37:55.519
<v Speaker 2>You just mentioned your blog, which is one of the

716
00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:57.519
<v Speaker 2>main reasons why I wanted you to come on the

717
00:37:57.559 --> 00:38:01.039
<v Speaker 2>show and talk with us. Your blog is called Doubtful News.

718
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:02.760
<v Speaker 2>I didn't really think of it as a blog, but

719
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:05.840
<v Speaker 2>I guess that's what it is. What is it and

720
00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:07.880
<v Speaker 2>why did you create it? Give me the elevator speech.

721
00:38:09.239 --> 00:38:12.760
<v Speaker 1>Well, it's a unique news feed. There isn't anything like it.

722
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:16.320
<v Speaker 1>I looked before I started it, and I wanted something

723
00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:18.280
<v Speaker 1>like this because this is what I would be interested in.

724
00:38:18.360 --> 00:38:21.519
<v Speaker 1>I wanted a place to talk about these stories that

725
00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:23.840
<v Speaker 1>were coming out in the news about the paranormal and

726
00:38:23.880 --> 00:38:27.159
<v Speaker 1>pseudoscience and anomalies which is one of my favorite topics

727
00:38:27.199 --> 00:38:32.000
<v Speaker 1>as well forty and type anomalies, natural events that are

728
00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:36.679
<v Speaker 1>sort of strange and unusual and anti science type stories.

729
00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:41.360
<v Speaker 1>And what I did was I started the blog where

730
00:38:41.519 --> 00:38:43.679
<v Speaker 1>I linked to these news stories and give a quote

731
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:47.960
<v Speaker 1>from the story and then pose either some links to

732
00:38:48.039 --> 00:38:52.480
<v Speaker 1>additional information maybe that would be a more skeptical type

733
00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:57.239
<v Speaker 1>treatment of the topic, or I pose questions that I

734
00:38:57.360 --> 00:38:59.880
<v Speaker 1>find missing in the story. There's missing information, or there's

735
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:03.480
<v Speaker 1>details missing, or something doesn't seem right. So it's just

736
00:39:03.519 --> 00:39:06.159
<v Speaker 1>a way of questioning the story and in a critical

737
00:39:06.199 --> 00:39:11.119
<v Speaker 1>thinking way, and it's evidence focused. I want people to

738
00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:14.000
<v Speaker 1>come on and contribute their views if they have more information,

739
00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:18.840
<v Speaker 1>and provide some references or evidence for their claims, not

740
00:39:18.960 --> 00:39:22.679
<v Speaker 1>just opinions thrown around or anything like that. But I

741
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:28.480
<v Speaker 1>started it back in August of twenty eleven, and we

742
00:39:28.599 --> 00:39:32.840
<v Speaker 1>ramped up pretty quickly, and so we're approaching a year

743
00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:35.639
<v Speaker 1>in August and already we're over half a million page

744
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:40.800
<v Speaker 1>views since it began, So I'm pretty pleased with the response.

745
00:39:41.039 --> 00:39:44.119
<v Speaker 1>We've been getting some nice search results people, and this

746
00:39:44.679 --> 00:39:46.599
<v Speaker 1>was one of the main points is when people search

747
00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:50.280
<v Speaker 1>for these subjects, I really like them to be able

748
00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:54.480
<v Speaker 1>to find something of a more you know, thinking, critical

749
00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:57.239
<v Speaker 1>thinking nature about the story. I want them to find

750
00:39:57.239 --> 00:40:01.079
<v Speaker 1>something that's not scredulous. It seems to be working.

751
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:03.519
<v Speaker 2>So I've been following the site for a while, and

752
00:40:03.559 --> 00:40:06.440
<v Speaker 2>it seems like you're doing a combination of things because

753
00:40:06.440 --> 00:40:09.639
<v Speaker 2>you're doing aggregation by gathering the stories, but you're also

754
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:14.519
<v Speaker 2>doing some curation very much, and I was curious as

755
00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:16.559
<v Speaker 2>to how that was going because I look at a

756
00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:21.800
<v Speaker 2>lot of paranormal and cryptozoological news sites and I find

757
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:25.280
<v Speaker 2>yours very helpful, very useful, but I have not been

758
00:40:25.320 --> 00:40:30.239
<v Speaker 2>offered very loudly a free iPad, So I'm wondering, yeah,

759
00:40:30.320 --> 00:40:32.480
<v Speaker 2>or vigor, is your site broken in some way?

760
00:40:33.719 --> 00:40:38.280
<v Speaker 1>We tried ads, you know, the problem with ads is

761
00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:44.039
<v Speaker 1>they come up with psychics and diets and business venture

762
00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:49.440
<v Speaker 1>totally antithetical to the purpose of the site. So we

763
00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:52.280
<v Speaker 1>quit that and we started asking for donations, and that

764
00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:55.360
<v Speaker 1>was actually a better route to go. So we do

765
00:40:55.679 --> 00:41:01.119
<v Speaker 1>accept donations strictly for server issues and and travel and

766
00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:06.320
<v Speaker 1>costs like that, business cards and things like that. But so, yeah,

767
00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:09.960
<v Speaker 1>we've done away with the ads. I wanted to leave

768
00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:11.480
<v Speaker 1>it as a very clean site.

769
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:13.159
<v Speaker 2>It is so you could.

770
00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:15.039
<v Speaker 1>Just take a look at everything and just scan the

771
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:18.000
<v Speaker 1>page really quick if and find some stories that you like,

772
00:41:18.119 --> 00:41:21.639
<v Speaker 1>or go to the categories if you're into one particular category.

773
00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:25.400
<v Speaker 3>And I think it's a fantastic idea that you're running

774
00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:28.079
<v Speaker 3>this site and that you're treating these current events in skepticism.

775
00:41:28.159 --> 00:41:30.519
<v Speaker 3>That's how I see the site as a news site

776
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:34.119
<v Speaker 3>for skepticism. And I do like the link that you

777
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:37.519
<v Speaker 3>have for were we wrong about something? Tell us a

778
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:38.000
<v Speaker 3>bit about that.

779
00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:39.239
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

780
00:41:39.320 --> 00:41:42.199
<v Speaker 1>I added that about a month ago, at about the

781
00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:45.360
<v Speaker 1>same time where we quit running so many bigfoot stories,

782
00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:49.280
<v Speaker 1>which is a sort of another aspect of this. I

783
00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:53.360
<v Speaker 1>was because I really like the cryptosology news and because

784
00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:56.760
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that there is a good cryptozoology news

785
00:41:56.760 --> 00:41:59.440
<v Speaker 1>site out there. The ones that are out there are

786
00:41:59.559 --> 00:42:03.639
<v Speaker 1>just they're just trails and trails of garbage stories just

787
00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:08.880
<v Speaker 1>to get hits, and I, well, there's more than once

788
00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:18.679
<v Speaker 1>it was. They're loaded with ads there, their teasers. I

789
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:22.280
<v Speaker 1>just got annoyed. So I started putting the better stories

790
00:42:22.440 --> 00:42:26.880
<v Speaker 1>on the doubtful news site. And then that's sort of

791
00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:30.159
<v Speaker 1>backfired in a in a couple of different ways. So

792
00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:32.960
<v Speaker 1>I trailed I tailed that back, and I at one

793
00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:34.280
<v Speaker 1>point I said, I'm just not going to do any

794
00:42:34.320 --> 00:42:36.639
<v Speaker 1>more big Foot stories. They're pain And one of the

795
00:42:36.679 --> 00:42:43.559
<v Speaker 1>reasons that happened was a certain person who's a researcher

796
00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:46.760
<v Speaker 1>but he's not one of the field researchers, was upset

797
00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:50.920
<v Speaker 1>at the way a certain news story treated him, made

798
00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:53.679
<v Speaker 1>him look like he was lying or whatever. So when

799
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:57.119
<v Speaker 1>I quoted the news story, I had to go buy

800
00:42:57.159 --> 00:42:59.400
<v Speaker 1>what the news story said because I didn't know anything

801
00:42:59.480 --> 00:43:04.079
<v Speaker 1>different from that, and so I commented on the news story, well,

802
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:06.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, it looked like this guy wasn't very clear

803
00:43:06.039 --> 00:43:07.639
<v Speaker 1>on what he was asking. Well, it turns out that

804
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.159
<v Speaker 1>the news story was wrong. Now, I'm not a journalist.

805
00:43:10.199 --> 00:43:12.760
<v Speaker 1>I can't fact check somebody else's story. That's not the

806
00:43:12.760 --> 00:43:16.599
<v Speaker 1>point of the site. But when he came on and

807
00:43:16.679 --> 00:43:20.039
<v Speaker 1>started telling me that I was I should have fact

808
00:43:20.119 --> 00:43:22.239
<v Speaker 1>checked and I was completely wrong, and I called him

809
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:26.760
<v Speaker 1>a liar. And the more I tried to explained him, look,

810
00:43:26.760 --> 00:43:30.559
<v Speaker 1>whatever you want me to fix, I will fix. You know,

811
00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:33.719
<v Speaker 1>sn S news station or whatever isn't going to give

812
00:43:33.760 --> 00:43:36.920
<v Speaker 1>you a retraction space like I will. You can explain

813
00:43:37.159 --> 00:43:40.000
<v Speaker 1>your position on our site. I will gladly do that.

814
00:43:40.119 --> 00:43:42.119
<v Speaker 1>You make your corrections, and you speak your mind, I

815
00:43:42.159 --> 00:43:45.679
<v Speaker 1>will put that on. He just got angrier and angrier

816
00:43:45.719 --> 00:43:49.519
<v Speaker 1>with me, to the point where he threatened. He said,

817
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:52.320
<v Speaker 1>I want a public apology. I want. I gave you

818
00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:54.079
<v Speaker 1>an apology, and I gave you a forum to make

819
00:43:54.079 --> 00:43:58.079
<v Speaker 1>any corrections that you want. I think that's more than fair. No,

820
00:43:58.079 --> 00:44:00.320
<v Speaker 1>no public apology or you're gonna hear from my lawyer.

821
00:44:00.360 --> 00:44:03.760
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, that's it. Goodbye. So I blocked him. Well,

822
00:44:03.800 --> 00:44:06.960
<v Speaker 1>this was like he found me on Facebook and started

823
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:10.400
<v Speaker 1>messaging me on Facebook, which we did not know each other.

824
00:44:10.519 --> 00:44:12.400
<v Speaker 1>So I was a little bit freaked out about that.

825
00:44:12.880 --> 00:44:15.960
<v Speaker 1>And meanwhile I had other people messaging me saying, you

826
00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:20.519
<v Speaker 1>do not want to deal with this this person, he

827
00:44:20.920 --> 00:44:24.519
<v Speaker 1>does this repeatedly. So I cut him off and I

828
00:44:25.639 --> 00:44:27.960
<v Speaker 1>pulled the story, and I put a note as to

829
00:44:28.039 --> 00:44:32.480
<v Speaker 1>why I pulled the story because current bigfoot news is

830
00:44:32.599 --> 00:44:36.559
<v Speaker 1>just too absurd to warrant discussion anymore on the site.

831
00:44:37.280 --> 00:44:40.480
<v Speaker 1>And that's when I put up that page that says,

832
00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:42.639
<v Speaker 1>if we were wrong about something, we want to make

833
00:44:42.679 --> 00:44:45.559
<v Speaker 1>it right. We want it to be public, the truth.

834
00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:47.599
<v Speaker 1>We want the truth out there. We don't we don't

835
00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:50.639
<v Speaker 1>want to repeat an error. We want to fix it.

836
00:44:52.360 --> 00:44:55.159
<v Speaker 6>That's that's certainly a novel idea. I mean, it would

837
00:44:55.159 --> 00:44:57.480
<v Speaker 6>it would be wonderful if a lot of the believer sites,

838
00:44:57.559 --> 00:45:00.000
<v Speaker 6>you know, would say, well, we were wrong about something. Look,

839
00:45:00.159 --> 00:45:03.360
<v Speaker 6>you know we touted this this you know this blob

840
00:45:03.360 --> 00:45:05.760
<v Speaker 6>squash is a big foot. It's it's clearly your moose,

841
00:45:06.039 --> 00:45:10.599
<v Speaker 6>and hey, we were wrong. They never do that, Yeah,

842
00:45:10.679 --> 00:45:15.000
<v Speaker 6>they don't. They don't go ahead, Blake.

843
00:45:15.039 --> 00:45:17.159
<v Speaker 2>I didn't interrupt it, no, no, no, I was just gonna

844
00:45:17.159 --> 00:45:19.599
<v Speaker 2>say it's too bad. He wasn't as diligent about finding

845
00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:22.079
<v Speaker 2>Bigfoot as he was about finding you on Facebook.

846
00:45:23.440 --> 00:45:23.920
<v Speaker 3>Exactly.

847
00:45:24.599 --> 00:45:27.400
<v Speaker 1>Well, it did show that he was a pretty good investigator.

848
00:45:26.840 --> 00:45:30.039
<v Speaker 2>Right exactly he was. He has skills, got some mad skills,

849
00:45:30.119 --> 00:45:34.679
<v Speaker 2>but maybe not out right he's using his powers for evil.

850
00:45:35.159 --> 00:45:37.440
<v Speaker 1>He really needed some social skills as well.

851
00:45:37.679 --> 00:45:39.880
<v Speaker 2>All right, So we'll put a link to your site

852
00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:42.199
<v Speaker 2>in the show notes. But if you want to tell

853
00:45:42.239 --> 00:45:44.280
<v Speaker 2>people real quick how they can find it. For those

854
00:45:44.280 --> 00:45:46.199
<v Speaker 2>people too lazy to read the show notes, you knew

855
00:45:46.199 --> 00:45:46.920
<v Speaker 2>who I'm talking to.

856
00:45:48.159 --> 00:45:52.840
<v Speaker 1>It's doubtfulnews dot com. If you can spell doubtful, I've

857
00:45:53.159 --> 00:45:55.280
<v Speaker 1>I've looked at the search results and some people have

858
00:45:55.320 --> 00:45:58.480
<v Speaker 1>trouble but d O U B T f U lnews

859
00:45:58.519 --> 00:46:02.880
<v Speaker 1>dot com and on Twitter, it's also a doubtful News

860
00:46:02.920 --> 00:46:07.119
<v Speaker 1>on Twitter excellent. And there's also a Facebook page you

861
00:46:07.119 --> 00:46:08.480
<v Speaker 1>could search for it and find it there.

862
00:46:08.920 --> 00:46:12.159
<v Speaker 2>I noticed there was like this j ref weekly summary

863
00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:14.719
<v Speaker 2>kind of thing going on. What's that all about?

864
00:46:15.800 --> 00:46:18.320
<v Speaker 1>Well, the goal is to be to bring the news

865
00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:20.239
<v Speaker 1>to as many people as possible, and we were all

866
00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:24.800
<v Speaker 1>about outreach and getting people to see. One of the

867
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:27.639
<v Speaker 1>things about the site is I wanted the skeptics to

868
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.960
<v Speaker 1>see how much fringe and weird news is actually out there,

869
00:46:31.360 --> 00:46:34.480
<v Speaker 1>because I don't know that they really understand that people

870
00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:37.000
<v Speaker 1>read this stuff pass it on to their friends and

871
00:46:37.039 --> 00:46:40.719
<v Speaker 1>think it's true. I wanted them to see that there's

872
00:46:40.760 --> 00:46:42.800
<v Speaker 1>a lot of these strange stories coming out and it

873
00:46:44.079 --> 00:46:49.239
<v Speaker 1>bodes well to be involved in donating to skeptical causes

874
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:52.000
<v Speaker 1>to sort of combat the media issues that we have

875
00:46:52.079 --> 00:46:56.320
<v Speaker 1>to face with these kind of stories. So originally the site,

876
00:46:56.360 --> 00:46:58.840
<v Speaker 1>I offered the syndication of the feed to skeptic dot

877
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:02.239
<v Speaker 1>com and they took it, so it's on the Skeptic

878
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:05.920
<v Speaker 1>site as well, which also it takes away from our

879
00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:09.360
<v Speaker 1>hit count. But what's more important is that it appears

880
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:13.239
<v Speaker 1>in search results and people can find those stories. That's

881
00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:15.760
<v Speaker 1>what's important. And then I offered it to the j

882
00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:18.599
<v Speaker 1>ref as a weekly summary as a way to give

883
00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:21.159
<v Speaker 1>them content for their blog and to just show that,

884
00:47:21.480 --> 00:47:24.719
<v Speaker 1>you know, there's these these news stories out there that

885
00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:28.440
<v Speaker 1>people may have missed because they're not looking at all

886
00:47:28.519 --> 00:47:31.679
<v Speaker 1>the news feeds and Twitter feeds that I am. A

887
00:47:31.719 --> 00:47:34.920
<v Speaker 1>lot of stories that I find are from Twitter, and

888
00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:37.119
<v Speaker 1>then a lot of people aren't on there sharing those

889
00:47:37.159 --> 00:47:42.079
<v Speaker 1>links or on RSS feeds that I follow from paranormal sites.

890
00:47:42.280 --> 00:47:45.400
<v Speaker 1>So maybe I'm looking in places that people wouldn't normally

891
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:48.000
<v Speaker 1>look and I'm trying to bring those stories to their attention.

892
00:47:49.480 --> 00:47:52.000
<v Speaker 3>And so would you say that you're most of your

893
00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:56.440
<v Speaker 3>readers are skeptics or believers, or a mix of the two.

894
00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:01.079
<v Speaker 1>There's definitely a mix. There's definitely a h I think

895
00:48:01.119 --> 00:48:03.920
<v Speaker 1>what happens is some people will find it through search

896
00:48:03.960 --> 00:48:06.039
<v Speaker 1>because they're interested in that topic, and they'll find it

897
00:48:06.079 --> 00:48:08.079
<v Speaker 1>and they'll come on, especially if their name is mentioned

898
00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:10.119
<v Speaker 1>in the story, if it's one of their news stories,

899
00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:12.519
<v Speaker 1>if it's a psychic, a psychic will have a Google

900
00:48:12.559 --> 00:48:14.480
<v Speaker 1>search with her name on it, and she'll find the

901
00:48:14.519 --> 00:48:16.119
<v Speaker 1>site and then she'll come on and she'll tell me

902
00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:19.960
<v Speaker 1>what an idiot I am. But the the ghost hunters

903
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:22.280
<v Speaker 1>will do that as well. They'll they'll find their names.

904
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:26.440
<v Speaker 1>So some religious people will come on the site. And

905
00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:31.519
<v Speaker 1>because we have a very strict moderating policy and commenting policy,

906
00:48:32.079 --> 00:48:37.320
<v Speaker 1>I will not allow proselytizing or name calling or long

907
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:40.119
<v Speaker 1>ranty posts. I'll just remove them and i'll warn people

908
00:48:40.519 --> 00:48:42.880
<v Speaker 1>don't do this again, or or I'll moderate them and

909
00:48:42.920 --> 00:48:46.360
<v Speaker 1>I won't approve their comments and they notice that real quick.

910
00:48:48.679 --> 00:48:51.840
<v Speaker 6>It seems to me that that, you know, again, being

911
00:48:51.880 --> 00:48:53.960
<v Speaker 6>being a fan of your site as well and going

912
00:48:53.960 --> 00:48:55.920
<v Speaker 6>to it frequently, it's got to be a hell of

913
00:48:55.960 --> 00:49:00.519
<v Speaker 6>a lot of work. How much time is this take?

914
00:49:00.559 --> 00:49:03.559
<v Speaker 6>I mean, this is obviously, you know, unpaid volunteer. I

915
00:49:03.559 --> 00:49:05.440
<v Speaker 6>mean a lot of crypto stuff is as well, but

916
00:49:05.519 --> 00:49:09.320
<v Speaker 6>certainly is so what how much is this does this take?

917
00:49:10.320 --> 00:49:12.559
<v Speaker 1>Well? I am a news junkie, you know, so I'm

918
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:16.519
<v Speaker 1>looking at the stories anyway. So I have like book

919
00:49:16.559 --> 00:49:20.519
<v Speaker 1>marklets that I could use when whatever media I'm using,

920
00:49:20.559 --> 00:49:23.599
<v Speaker 1>and I'll send the story to the site in a

921
00:49:23.679 --> 00:49:27.199
<v Speaker 1>draft form and or I'll write them up. And all

922
00:49:27.239 --> 00:49:29.000
<v Speaker 1>I really have to do is once I read the story,

923
00:49:29.079 --> 00:49:36.719
<v Speaker 1>just quote the pertinent parts. And because I've I've read

924
00:49:36.760 --> 00:49:38.920
<v Speaker 1>so much and I've been around, you know, these skeptic

925
00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:42.159
<v Speaker 1>sites for so long, I kind of know where to

926
00:49:42.199 --> 00:49:44.920
<v Speaker 1>go to get a good link, or if I have questions,

927
00:49:45.039 --> 00:49:47.039
<v Speaker 1>I know where to go to get some additional information.

928
00:49:47.760 --> 00:49:53.079
<v Speaker 1>I use a special Google search engine that can pull

929
00:49:53.159 --> 00:49:56.639
<v Speaker 1>just from the skeptical sites to school, so I get

930
00:49:56.679 --> 00:49:59.039
<v Speaker 1>I could get that information really really quick, So it

931
00:49:59.079 --> 00:50:02.320
<v Speaker 1>really doesn't take that long to do the stories. Sometimes

932
00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:04.280
<v Speaker 1>I will just throw the stories into draft and I

933
00:50:04.360 --> 00:50:08.519
<v Speaker 1>have my co editor, my awesome co editor and support

934
00:50:08.599 --> 00:50:11.760
<v Speaker 1>Torko Oda Guard helped me out and he'll write up

935
00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:13.920
<v Speaker 1>the story for me as well, and I'll add commentary

936
00:50:14.039 --> 00:50:17.840
<v Speaker 1>or something. So it does take a couple hours per day.

937
00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:20.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's cool because he can put extra umlauts in.

938
00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:25.280
<v Speaker 1>Or jokes or well sometimes I have to edit what

939
00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:27.000
<v Speaker 1>he writes because it's snarky.

940
00:50:27.320 --> 00:50:31.280
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, it's all about the tone. Okay, Well let's

941
00:50:31.280 --> 00:50:34.920
<v Speaker 2>talk something. Let's actually talk about the news a little bit.

942
00:50:36.119 --> 00:50:37.760
<v Speaker 2>You're run a new site. What can you tell us

943
00:50:37.800 --> 00:50:40.159
<v Speaker 2>about what's up with Bigfoot? What's Bigfoot up to? What's

944
00:50:40.199 --> 00:50:41.079
<v Speaker 2>going on with Bigfoot?

945
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:45.039
<v Speaker 1>Well, like I said, it's crazy. Bigfoot news is just crazy.

946
00:50:45.639 --> 00:50:50.119
<v Speaker 1>Since the show Finding Bigfoot has gotten popular, it's just

947
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:56.920
<v Speaker 1>ramped up the interest in Bigfoot totally as a subject area.

948
00:50:56.960 --> 00:50:58.760
<v Speaker 1>And I think it's really brought a lot of people

949
00:50:58.800 --> 00:51:00.960
<v Speaker 1>into it either as a you know, they're looking for

950
00:51:01.039 --> 00:51:04.320
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of cash to market Bigfoot, either on

951
00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:09.280
<v Speaker 1>their their website or merchandise or tours or whatever. So

952
00:51:09.679 --> 00:51:11.960
<v Speaker 1>it's it's really gotten a whole lot of attention. So

953
00:51:12.039 --> 00:51:14.079
<v Speaker 1>a lot of these stories are coming out. There's a

954
00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:17.039
<v Speaker 1>tremendous amount. Every day, there's new videos and new pictures,

955
00:51:17.079 --> 00:51:20.639
<v Speaker 1>and I've learned to ignore those because they're all terrible.

956
00:51:21.360 --> 00:51:24.480
<v Speaker 1>Once in a while, there comes a decent story that

957
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:28.719
<v Speaker 1>actually has some substance to it. Either there's evidence, or

958
00:51:30.840 --> 00:51:35.920
<v Speaker 1>there's been a proposed project or like the recently, there

959
00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:39.119
<v Speaker 1>was that one proposed by Oxford University to collect DNA evidence,

960
00:51:39.119 --> 00:51:41.599
<v Speaker 1>and that was that was big news because Bigfoot's being

961
00:51:41.599 --> 00:51:46.920
<v Speaker 1>taken seriously. And there was the good story a few

962
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:50.440
<v Speaker 1>months back about the scientists being called to Russia to

963
00:51:50.480 --> 00:51:54.440
<v Speaker 1>look for Yetti evidence. And not only was that a good, big,

964
00:51:54.719 --> 00:51:57.159
<v Speaker 1>big for Yetti story, but it had a whole other

965
00:51:57.280 --> 00:52:02.360
<v Speaker 1>backstory that was interesting about tourism trying to bring people

966
00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:06.480
<v Speaker 1>into this area of Siberia where they were promoting the

967
00:52:06.559 --> 00:52:10.480
<v Speaker 1>Yetti as tourism. And I thought, that's fascinating to me.

968
00:52:10.519 --> 00:52:13.639
<v Speaker 1>The idea of paranormal tourism, bringing people in to your

969
00:52:13.639 --> 00:52:16.760
<v Speaker 1>town or to your city so they could experience something

970
00:52:16.960 --> 00:52:18.960
<v Speaker 1>that they wouldn't be able to experience in their own

971
00:52:18.960 --> 00:52:21.440
<v Speaker 1>town in a paranormal sense. I thought that's really interesting,

972
00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:23.400
<v Speaker 1>and I think that a lot of lake monsters are

973
00:52:23.719 --> 00:52:28.760
<v Speaker 1>that effect as well. So the Bigfoot thing is is

974
00:52:28.920 --> 00:52:31.320
<v Speaker 1>a lot about money these days, and a lot about

975
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:34.920
<v Speaker 1>egos and notoriety, and I got real sick of it.

976
00:52:35.679 --> 00:52:38.719
<v Speaker 1>So that's why I'm tailing it back. But we're waiting.

977
00:52:40.079 --> 00:52:42.480
<v Speaker 1>A few months ago I posted a blog. It was

978
00:52:42.519 --> 00:52:44.960
<v Speaker 1>sort of like a commentary on the new site. I said,

979
00:52:45.679 --> 00:52:49.119
<v Speaker 1>produce your evidence. You've made big promises, now produce it,

980
00:52:49.239 --> 00:52:53.360
<v Speaker 1>and we're waiting. So that's the story on Bigfoot. We're waiting.

981
00:52:54.039 --> 00:52:55.039
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's what I've been doing.

982
00:52:56.679 --> 00:52:57.400
<v Speaker 3>We're real waiting.

983
00:52:57.639 --> 00:52:58.400
<v Speaker 1>We're getting old.

984
00:52:58.920 --> 00:53:01.159
<v Speaker 3>And so aside from Bigfoot, what are some of your

985
00:53:01.199 --> 00:53:03.800
<v Speaker 3>favorite crypto related stories from the past year.

986
00:53:05.719 --> 00:53:09.559
<v Speaker 1>Oh love, I love weird animal stories. I love stories

987
00:53:09.599 --> 00:53:12.880
<v Speaker 1>where people think they've seen something Like lately, the latest

988
00:53:12.880 --> 00:53:14.760
<v Speaker 1>story was that people thought they saw a tiger in

989
00:53:14.800 --> 00:53:20.599
<v Speaker 1>their neighborhood and two people appears that they were independent

990
00:53:20.639 --> 00:53:23.400
<v Speaker 1>witnesses that they saw this big cat in their neighborhood

991
00:53:23.519 --> 00:53:27.760
<v Speaker 1>in Washington State and it caused a lot of people

992
00:53:27.800 --> 00:53:30.840
<v Speaker 1>to come out and the police and an emergency personnel

993
00:53:30.880 --> 00:53:32.559
<v Speaker 1>to go and look for it. This happened a couple

994
00:53:32.639 --> 00:53:36.800
<v Speaker 1>months back when kids said they saw a gorilla sneaking

995
00:53:36.840 --> 00:53:39.639
<v Speaker 1>around down in the South. I mean, it's just these

996
00:53:39.639 --> 00:53:44.920
<v Speaker 1>stories are they're so amusing because it's about perception and

997
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:48.480
<v Speaker 1>it's not really a monster. It's about people's perception of

998
00:53:48.719 --> 00:53:52.639
<v Speaker 1>what could be dangerous out there in their backyards. Another

999
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:55.719
<v Speaker 1>recent one about somebody who took pictures of a cat

1000
00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:58.239
<v Speaker 1>in their backyard and said it was a cougar. It's

1001
00:53:58.239 --> 00:54:02.480
<v Speaker 1>a tabby cat made the news and everyone looks at

1002
00:54:02.519 --> 00:54:06.599
<v Speaker 1>these pictures and says, how could somebody have have taken

1003
00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:08.679
<v Speaker 1>this picture and thought it was anything other than a

1004
00:54:08.719 --> 00:54:11.519
<v Speaker 1>domestic cat. Well, he was kind of large. But it's

1005
00:54:11.519 --> 00:54:13.320
<v Speaker 1>about perception. I think.

1006
00:54:13.599 --> 00:54:15.599
<v Speaker 2>Was it like a forty year old cat dating like

1007
00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:16.400
<v Speaker 2>a twenty year old?

1008
00:54:19.199 --> 00:54:21.079
<v Speaker 1>The pictures were labeled cougar?

1009
00:54:21.239 --> 00:54:22.880
<v Speaker 2>I got it, okay.

1010
00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:28.119
<v Speaker 1>Other than that, yeah, I just love weird animal story.

1011
00:54:28.760 --> 00:54:32.840
<v Speaker 1>I wrote a piece for another blog about hairless creatures,

1012
00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:37.519
<v Speaker 1>how we're fascinated with anything that's hairless, these hairless carcasses

1013
00:54:37.519 --> 00:54:40.360
<v Speaker 1>that wash up on the shore, and I love those

1014
00:54:40.400 --> 00:54:42.679
<v Speaker 1>stories that the thing that washes up on the beach

1015
00:54:42.719 --> 00:54:46.159
<v Speaker 1>that nobody can identify. Those are great. And then I

1016
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:49.119
<v Speaker 1>just wait in yeah, and I just wait for Darren

1017
00:54:49.159 --> 00:54:52.280
<v Speaker 1>Nage to come around and identify it. Yeah.

1018
00:54:52.360 --> 00:54:54.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but they threw me back in the water. They're worried.

1019
00:54:56.679 --> 00:54:58.519
<v Speaker 6>And from aross the rooms.

1020
00:54:58.559 --> 00:55:00.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but Blake, you're not hairless.

1021
00:55:01.480 --> 00:55:06.840
<v Speaker 2>That's true. I'm clearly a mammal of some sort.

1022
00:55:07.920 --> 00:55:09.519
<v Speaker 6>Well, Sharon, I'm not gonna let you off the hook

1023
00:55:09.559 --> 00:55:12.000
<v Speaker 6>on on Bigfoot again. I I because I know there's

1024
00:55:12.039 --> 00:55:13.960
<v Speaker 6>been at least two or three that I can think

1025
00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:17.119
<v Speaker 6>of off the top of my head. Cases in the last

1026
00:55:17.159 --> 00:55:20.440
<v Speaker 6>I'm going to say six or nine months of big

1027
00:55:21.559 --> 00:55:25.599
<v Speaker 6>you know, promised breathless promises of of you know, just

1028
00:55:25.599 --> 00:55:27.480
<v Speaker 6>just to wait and see next week, next month, we're

1029
00:55:27.480 --> 00:55:31.920
<v Speaker 6>going to finally have bigfoot DNA evidence. There's doctor Melbourn

1030
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:34.000
<v Speaker 6>ketch them. There's there's a couple other ones. There was

1031
00:55:34.039 --> 00:55:37.440
<v Speaker 6>a project. Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell it. Give us give

1032
00:55:37.519 --> 00:55:39.000
<v Speaker 6>us a quick I mean I know some of them,

1033
00:55:39.039 --> 00:55:41.599
<v Speaker 6>but give us a quick rundown of some of those stories.

1034
00:55:42.159 --> 00:55:44.000
<v Speaker 1>Well here's what I thought was weird. I mean, for

1035
00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:47.960
<v Speaker 1>for decades, the cryptozoologists had always said there was no

1036
00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:50.599
<v Speaker 1>funding to go out and do these types of projects.

1037
00:55:51.280 --> 00:55:54.519
<v Speaker 1>Well now they're getting some private funding to actually do

1038
00:55:54.559 --> 00:55:57.239
<v Speaker 1>these projects. And they the money is there for them

1039
00:55:57.280 --> 00:56:00.400
<v Speaker 1>to go out and do it well. And we're getting

1040
00:56:00.400 --> 00:56:04.679
<v Speaker 1>nothing but secrets. It's just like it's coming or here's

1041
00:56:04.719 --> 00:56:08.559
<v Speaker 1>a teaser. And we had that picture a couple gee

1042
00:56:08.559 --> 00:56:10.280
<v Speaker 1>that this must have been the end of last year,

1043
00:56:10.480 --> 00:56:13.880
<v Speaker 1>very very early this year of the sasquatch that was

1044
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:17.079
<v Speaker 1>supposedly a sash quatches, a black line picture of this

1045
00:56:17.679 --> 00:56:21.800
<v Speaker 1>very furry thing sleeping in the woods. She had a name,

1046
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.119
<v Speaker 1>and the name escapes me right now, I can't remember,

1047
00:56:25.119 --> 00:56:28.000
<v Speaker 1>but they had named it, and they'd said that they

1048
00:56:28.039 --> 00:56:32.480
<v Speaker 1>were promising to have up close video of her when

1049
00:56:32.519 --> 00:56:36.159
<v Speaker 1>she was awake and you know, investigating the camera. And

1050
00:56:36.400 --> 00:56:39.719
<v Speaker 1>it was definitely a teaser. And it's been years that

1051
00:56:39.719 --> 00:56:43.199
<v Speaker 1>that project has been going on and we've got nothing.

1052
00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:47.559
<v Speaker 1>We've got nothing, and I just I can't. This may

1053
00:56:47.599 --> 00:56:49.480
<v Speaker 1>not be true. It can't have a feeling. It's like

1054
00:56:49.519 --> 00:56:52.320
<v Speaker 1>an investment scam. Give me some more money and I'll

1055
00:56:52.360 --> 00:56:56.159
<v Speaker 1>produce this project and it never shows up. The ketchup

1056
00:56:56.239 --> 00:56:59.960
<v Speaker 1>stuff went really, really weird when she started to take

1057
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:03.000
<v Speaker 1>pictures of sticks in the woods and saying she was

1058
00:57:03.159 --> 00:57:10.280
<v Speaker 1>seeing these things. I will visit the Bigfoot forums.

1059
00:57:10.719 --> 00:57:13.480
<v Speaker 6>She's apoplectic, Blake, Sorry, I.

1060
00:57:15.480 --> 00:57:16.960
<v Speaker 2>Have to agree with her. It's one of the weirdest

1061
00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:19.960
<v Speaker 2>things in the world. She's like, I feel so lucky

1062
00:57:20.079 --> 00:57:23.199
<v Speaker 2>to be able to watch a family of five bigfoot

1063
00:57:23.280 --> 00:57:25.960
<v Speaker 2>wander around. And it's like, I don't need to take

1064
00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:28.119
<v Speaker 2>pictures of them. It's just I feel really special to

1065
00:57:28.119 --> 00:57:30.480
<v Speaker 2>be able to see this. I would feel special too.

1066
00:57:31.960 --> 00:57:33.840
<v Speaker 1>I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt

1067
00:57:34.199 --> 00:57:37.639
<v Speaker 1>from the beginning. She's a scientist, she must have something.

1068
00:57:37.960 --> 00:57:39.599
<v Speaker 1>We're going to listen to what she has to say.

1069
00:57:40.239 --> 00:57:42.960
<v Speaker 1>And I go to these bigfoot forums and I watch.

1070
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:45.559
<v Speaker 1>I don't usual to participate because that doesn't usually work

1071
00:57:45.599 --> 00:57:49.440
<v Speaker 1>out too well, but I watched both what these people are.

1072
00:57:49.519 --> 00:57:52.400
<v Speaker 1>They believe because they have their own own sense of

1073
00:57:52.400 --> 00:57:55.119
<v Speaker 1>evidence and they may have had their personal experiences. They

1074
00:57:55.159 --> 00:57:58.719
<v Speaker 1>are very critical of her. Even the believers are becoming

1075
00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:02.280
<v Speaker 1>extremely critical her very strange.

1076
00:58:02.360 --> 00:58:06.000
<v Speaker 2>In Ketchum's case in particular, it is good and skeptical

1077
00:58:06.039 --> 00:58:09.000
<v Speaker 2>to point out that even though she says she's able

1078
00:58:09.039 --> 00:58:12.559
<v Speaker 2>to apparently at leisure watch bigfoot, a family of five

1079
00:58:12.679 --> 00:58:15.599
<v Speaker 2>or whatever wander around in the woods, that doesn't mean

1080
00:58:15.639 --> 00:58:20.280
<v Speaker 2>her DNA techniques are bad or anything. What's more troubling

1081
00:58:20.320 --> 00:58:24.960
<v Speaker 2>to me is that we haven't seen the results, and

1082
00:58:25.880 --> 00:58:31.280
<v Speaker 2>there's been a lot of excuses and delays and other things.

1083
00:58:31.800 --> 00:58:35.599
<v Speaker 2>But adding stories like that, like this is the ease

1084
00:58:35.679 --> 00:58:38.519
<v Speaker 2>with which I can capture Bigfoot in my eyes, but

1085
00:58:38.559 --> 00:58:40.239
<v Speaker 2>I can't pick up the camera and take a picture

1086
00:58:40.280 --> 00:58:43.639
<v Speaker 2>with a camera. It seems that's disturbing to me. That's

1087
00:58:43.679 --> 00:58:44.360
<v Speaker 2>disturbing to me.

1088
00:58:45.119 --> 00:58:49.000
<v Speaker 1>I can understand that scientific papers do take a long

1089
00:58:49.079 --> 00:58:53.000
<v Speaker 1>time and various edits, and especially with this type of topic,

1090
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:56.719
<v Speaker 1>I imagine it's quite controversial for reviewers to have to

1091
00:58:56.760 --> 00:59:00.440
<v Speaker 1>look at this thing, but it is. It is very strange.

1092
00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:06.039
<v Speaker 1>And besides that that that basic thing of getting the

1093
00:59:06.039 --> 00:59:11.000
<v Speaker 1>paper published, there's again an extremely weird backstory of how

1094
00:59:11.039 --> 00:59:14.000
<v Speaker 1>the samples were collected and if something was if Bigfoot

1095
00:59:14.079 --> 00:59:17.199
<v Speaker 1>was shot, and if if you know, pieces were collected

1096
00:59:17.239 --> 00:59:18.679
<v Speaker 1>off of bigfoots that were shot.

1097
00:59:18.800 --> 00:59:20.679
<v Speaker 4>It's just weird.

1098
00:59:21.599 --> 00:59:25.440
<v Speaker 3>It reminds me of the Raelians and their cloning claims. Yeah,

1099
00:59:25.920 --> 00:59:27.480
<v Speaker 3>years ago, right.

1100
00:59:28.559 --> 00:59:29.920
<v Speaker 6>You don't know, you don't know what to think of

1101
00:59:29.960 --> 00:59:33.960
<v Speaker 6>these people, even the Georgia Bigfoot body in the freezer.

1102
00:59:34.039 --> 00:59:36.400
<v Speaker 6>It's just it's just it's just amazing. You see the

1103
00:59:36.440 --> 00:59:40.079
<v Speaker 6>same pattern. You know, we've all been following crypto stories

1104
00:59:40.119 --> 00:59:43.559
<v Speaker 6>for years now, and it's funny. It's like for a

1105
00:59:43.559 --> 00:59:46.239
<v Speaker 6>lot of people, they they just latch onto the latest story.

1106
00:59:46.239 --> 00:59:48.440
<v Speaker 6>They don't have any perspective. They don't realize that these

1107
00:59:48.480 --> 00:59:51.559
<v Speaker 6>same Thames, you know, this is like nineteen ninety five

1108
00:59:51.599 --> 00:59:55.320
<v Speaker 6>all over again. We're seeing the exact same stuff. It's like, dude,

1109
00:59:55.519 --> 00:59:58.280
<v Speaker 6>this is you know, we were there the first time

1110
00:59:58.320 --> 01:00:00.199
<v Speaker 6>that they claimed that they have this. You know, I

1111
01:00:00.199 --> 01:00:02.360
<v Speaker 6>have to explain those to people. It's like, oh my god,

1112
01:00:02.480 --> 01:00:04.800
<v Speaker 6>here they had big lad day. I'm like, really again,

1113
01:00:05.639 --> 01:00:06.639
<v Speaker 6>oh awesome.

1114
01:00:06.719 --> 01:00:08.199
<v Speaker 3>Reinventing the crypto wheel.

1115
01:00:09.400 --> 01:00:12.960
<v Speaker 1>And they'll say like, well, why would these people lie? Oh?

1116
01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:13.360
<v Speaker 1>Come on?

1117
01:00:14.440 --> 01:00:17.760
<v Speaker 2>You know, I think people fail to realize that, even

1118
01:00:17.800 --> 01:00:20.039
<v Speaker 2>if there's no money involved, there's a lot of prestige

1119
01:00:20.039 --> 01:00:23.480
<v Speaker 2>in having your name involved with these kind of stories

1120
01:00:23.480 --> 01:00:28.280
<v Speaker 2>in the news, you know, and getting attention. Right, I

1121
01:00:28.280 --> 01:00:30.639
<v Speaker 2>should have said attention to seat of prestige. But people

1122
01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:35.400
<v Speaker 2>people find. You know, people's value systems can be very

1123
01:00:35.400 --> 01:00:37.679
<v Speaker 2>different for your own. And it's really hard to say

1124
01:00:37.719 --> 01:00:39.639
<v Speaker 2>what would make someone do a hoax, but they do.

1125
01:00:40.239 --> 01:00:41.039
<v Speaker 2>They certainly do.

1126
01:00:41.679 --> 01:00:43.360
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's one thing we know exists.

1127
01:00:43.800 --> 01:00:49.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so changing gears just a little bit. Has the

1128
01:00:49.400 --> 01:00:52.119
<v Speaker 2>zombie apocalypse begun? Because it seems like maybe the zombie

1129
01:00:52.119 --> 01:00:53.079
<v Speaker 2>apocalypse has begun.

1130
01:00:53.559 --> 01:00:58.559
<v Speaker 1>Isn't that weird? It's like a zombie flap, you know,

1131
01:00:58.639 --> 01:01:01.280
<v Speaker 1>like when you see you Fox flaps and then everybody

1132
01:01:01.320 --> 01:01:05.239
<v Speaker 1>starts seeing UFOs. It's sort of the way it feels

1133
01:01:05.280 --> 01:01:07.480
<v Speaker 1>to me. Everybody's sort of doing a cannibal thing.

1134
01:01:07.559 --> 01:01:10.360
<v Speaker 2>Now, yeah, I think that's all a metaphor for the

1135
01:01:11.239 --> 01:01:14.159
<v Speaker 2>media myself. Man, I bet you have a theory on

1136
01:01:14.199 --> 01:01:14.880
<v Speaker 2>this right.

1137
01:01:15.840 --> 01:01:16.679
<v Speaker 6>On the zombies.

1138
01:01:16.840 --> 01:01:19.239
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we saw the article.

1139
01:01:21.360 --> 01:01:25.679
<v Speaker 6>Well you're talking about the original Haitian zombies.

1140
01:01:25.840 --> 01:01:27.079
<v Speaker 1>Just no, no, no, no, no, no.

1141
01:01:27.480 --> 01:01:30.719
<v Speaker 2>Pop culture the thing, the thing that happens when the

1142
01:01:30.719 --> 01:01:34.119
<v Speaker 2>news has a story about a man eating another man's

1143
01:01:34.119 --> 01:01:38.000
<v Speaker 2>face and then suddenly and suddenly all the other newspapers see,

1144
01:01:38.039 --> 01:01:40.400
<v Speaker 2>oh my gosh, the how many hits they're getting. We

1145
01:01:40.519 --> 01:01:44.039
<v Speaker 2>better find some stories like that. Yeah, that's what I

1146
01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:44.840
<v Speaker 2>think is happening.

1147
01:01:45.039 --> 01:01:47.159
<v Speaker 6>Well, you know what happened is I I got a

1148
01:01:47.239 --> 01:01:50.480
<v Speaker 6>I got an email from Discovery News like last week,

1149
01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:53.079
<v Speaker 6>you know who I write for, and they said, you know,

1150
01:01:53.159 --> 01:01:55.039
<v Speaker 6>can you write you know, there's this can you write

1151
01:01:55.039 --> 01:01:58.400
<v Speaker 6>about a zombie apocalypse, and I wrote back, I said,

1152
01:01:58.559 --> 01:02:01.480
<v Speaker 6>I said, I said, this is bullshit. I mean, I said,

1153
01:02:01.639 --> 01:02:04.199
<v Speaker 6>you know, I read this story said there's nothing you know,

1154
01:02:04.480 --> 01:02:07.079
<v Speaker 6>you know, we we have you know, this this alleged cannibal,

1155
01:02:07.199 --> 01:02:10.519
<v Speaker 6>you know, the guy who's high on on on bath

1156
01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:13.280
<v Speaker 6>sauce whatever it was. And uh and you know he

1157
01:02:13.400 --> 01:02:15.920
<v Speaker 6>wasn't he wasn't consuming the guy's face, he was naked,

1158
01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:18.519
<v Speaker 6>he had no weapons on his I mean, so it's

1159
01:02:18.559 --> 01:02:22.000
<v Speaker 6>like you have this, this this kernel that that even

1160
01:02:22.039 --> 01:02:24.719
<v Speaker 6>has nothing to do with zombies. It's only vaguely related

1161
01:02:24.800 --> 01:02:27.440
<v Speaker 6>to cannibalism, and of course that's immediately turned into this

1162
01:02:27.480 --> 01:02:29.800
<v Speaker 6>whole thing. And it's it's just amazing how the media

1163
01:02:29.840 --> 01:02:32.159
<v Speaker 6>does that. And you know, I mean it's at this

1164
01:02:32.159 --> 01:02:35.679
<v Speaker 6>point is predictable, but it's just it's just bizarre and

1165
01:02:35.679 --> 01:02:38.079
<v Speaker 6>and frankly, you know, I mean it's all fun to

1166
01:02:38.159 --> 01:02:40.320
<v Speaker 6>you know, joke about the zombie apocalypse this and that,

1167
01:02:40.400 --> 01:02:43.480
<v Speaker 6>but you know that it's it's important to remember that

1168
01:02:43.519 --> 01:02:45.119
<v Speaker 6>there's real cases here. I mean, there there was a

1169
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:48.199
<v Speaker 6>man that was killed. You know, this is this is

1170
01:02:48.360 --> 01:02:51.000
<v Speaker 6>you know, the man had friends and family and things

1171
01:02:51.039 --> 01:02:53.320
<v Speaker 6>like that, and so you know, it's all it's all

1172
01:02:53.360 --> 01:02:54.920
<v Speaker 6>all good to sort of, you know, have this pop

1173
01:02:54.960 --> 01:02:58.880
<v Speaker 6>culture me meme about zombies and cannibals, but you know,

1174
01:02:59.719 --> 01:03:03.079
<v Speaker 6>there are real victims and these are real crimes.

1175
01:03:02.920 --> 01:03:04.760
<v Speaker 2>Right because in the end, the man was shot just

1176
01:03:04.800 --> 01:03:08.320
<v Speaker 2>for defacing private property. No good.

1177
01:03:11.639 --> 01:03:15.840
<v Speaker 1>I did get criticized for putting the word zombie apocalypse

1178
01:03:15.960 --> 01:03:17.800
<v Speaker 1>in the title of one of the stories that that

1179
01:03:17.960 --> 01:03:21.000
<v Speaker 1>was very insensitive. But the reason I did that because

1180
01:03:21.480 --> 01:03:26.880
<v Speaker 1>that's what the media was was hyping, right, they were putting,

1181
01:03:27.599 --> 01:03:31.719
<v Speaker 1>they were putting the package on these stories and delivering

1182
01:03:31.760 --> 01:03:34.119
<v Speaker 1>them to the public. That's the way they were delivering them.

1183
01:03:34.519 --> 01:03:36.039
<v Speaker 1>So that's what I wanted to address.

1184
01:03:36.280 --> 01:03:39.760
<v Speaker 2>It may be I don't know if it's tragic, but

1185
01:03:39.800 --> 01:03:42.840
<v Speaker 2>it is certainly a product of the media in that

1186
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:45.639
<v Speaker 2>if we don't personally know the person who died, and

1187
01:03:45.639 --> 01:03:50.400
<v Speaker 2>there's a bizarre aspect of the story, it's really hard

1188
01:03:50.400 --> 01:03:53.280
<v Speaker 2>to empathize when you know, in these bizarre situations with

1189
01:03:53.400 --> 01:03:55.440
<v Speaker 2>the victims. I mean it just at least I have

1190
01:03:55.480 --> 01:03:58.559
<v Speaker 2>trouble because they seem so unreal. You know, they don't

1191
01:03:58.559 --> 01:04:00.639
<v Speaker 2>seem much different from a TV show in some ways.

1192
01:04:00.679 --> 01:04:02.800
<v Speaker 2>But you're right. But but Ben's absolutely right that a

1193
01:04:02.840 --> 01:04:06.199
<v Speaker 2>real person died and another real person was horribly made

1194
01:04:06.400 --> 01:04:11.719
<v Speaker 2>or what's the right word disfigured. So yeah, both victims,

1195
01:04:12.079 --> 01:04:12.920
<v Speaker 2>both were victims.

1196
01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:15.559
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, And speak speaking of that, like, there's this

1197
01:04:15.639 --> 01:04:19.480
<v Speaker 1>new thing about the hoax virus. There's there's a hoax

1198
01:04:19.519 --> 01:04:21.719
<v Speaker 1>going on in the Internet where there's a zombie virus,

1199
01:04:21.760 --> 01:04:26.920
<v Speaker 1>and this hoaxer claimed that the person who committed this

1200
01:04:27.039 --> 01:04:31.800
<v Speaker 1>crime had this virus, and apparently some people believe that

1201
01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:33.920
<v Speaker 1>that is true because it's, you know, showed up on

1202
01:04:33.960 --> 01:04:35.800
<v Speaker 1>snopes dot com and it's going around the internet.

1203
01:04:35.880 --> 01:04:36.000
<v Speaker 4>Is it?

1204
01:04:36.159 --> 01:04:39.440
<v Speaker 1>Is it real? Is there a zombie virus that causes

1205
01:04:39.480 --> 01:04:44.519
<v Speaker 1>you to act like this? So I think that rational

1206
01:04:44.559 --> 01:04:48.320
<v Speaker 1>people underestimate the ability of other people to be irrational,

1207
01:04:49.000 --> 01:04:51.440
<v Speaker 1>and they will buy into these things in the media

1208
01:04:51.920 --> 01:04:54.440
<v Speaker 1>and pass them on to the people that they know,

1209
01:04:54.920 --> 01:04:57.000
<v Speaker 1>and it just spreads. It's a meme.

1210
01:04:57.679 --> 01:05:01.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's amazing. I think fa this book is alleviating

1211
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:03.679
<v Speaker 2>my inbox a little bit because a lot of people

1212
01:05:03.719 --> 01:05:08.519
<v Speaker 2>are using that as their methodology for spreading Internet rumors

1213
01:05:08.599 --> 01:05:11.920
<v Speaker 2>and urban legends and that sort of thing. And it's

1214
01:05:11.960 --> 01:05:14.239
<v Speaker 2>a lot easier to unfriend someone on Facebook than it

1215
01:05:14.280 --> 01:05:17.519
<v Speaker 2>is to stop a relative from emailing you, But I

1216
01:05:17.559 --> 01:05:19.639
<v Speaker 2>still do get a lot of stuff that I just

1217
01:05:20.039 --> 01:05:24.679
<v Speaker 2>resolve with a quick Snope search, and that's yeah, it's great.

1218
01:05:24.719 --> 01:05:27.960
<v Speaker 2>But also I think your service here is good as well,

1219
01:05:28.000 --> 01:05:32.000
<v Speaker 2>because you take a more current story. It takes sometimes

1220
01:05:32.039 --> 01:05:35.280
<v Speaker 2>weeks or months before the Mickelson's can get the story

1221
01:05:35.360 --> 01:05:38.679
<v Speaker 2>up on Snopes, you know, but you know when you

1222
01:05:38.719 --> 01:05:41.199
<v Speaker 2>have something where you can immediately at least throughout a

1223
01:05:41.199 --> 01:05:45.639
<v Speaker 2>few skeptical observations about how might this story be wrong

1224
01:05:45.840 --> 01:05:49.840
<v Speaker 2>or maybe the coverage is misleading, or is there really

1225
01:05:49.880 --> 01:05:52.320
<v Speaker 2>as many facts available as they say? That kind of thing,

1226
01:05:52.360 --> 01:05:55.280
<v Speaker 2>and you're just sprinkling it with doubt, which means you're

1227
01:05:55.320 --> 01:05:59.360
<v Speaker 2>well named, right, So I think that's a good public service.

1228
01:06:00.320 --> 01:06:02.599
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think all of these sites working well together.

1229
01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:06.800
<v Speaker 3>But I think we were sort of touched upon this briefly.

1230
01:06:06.840 --> 01:06:10.360
<v Speaker 3>But what's the latest in mangi decaying animal news?

1231
01:06:10.840 --> 01:06:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I haven't seen any too recently. Let's see, there

1232
01:06:15.880 --> 01:06:19.679
<v Speaker 1>was Sometimes you see these things come up and it's

1233
01:06:19.760 --> 01:06:21.840
<v Speaker 1>just like, are you kidding me? This really isn't This

1234
01:06:21.920 --> 01:06:24.519
<v Speaker 1>isn't news. This is a fake somebody sent you a hoax.

1235
01:06:24.599 --> 01:06:27.119
<v Speaker 1>It did show up on another website and I look

1236
01:06:27.159 --> 01:06:30.199
<v Speaker 1>at it and I try to decide is this going

1237
01:06:30.280 --> 01:06:34.519
<v Speaker 1>to go widespread? Is this story going to have legs

1238
01:06:34.679 --> 01:06:37.679
<v Speaker 1>and leave the one website and go all over the place.

1239
01:06:37.800 --> 01:06:42.159
<v Speaker 1>And sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. I just a

1240
01:06:42.239 --> 01:06:45.159
<v Speaker 1>long time ago, I decided to pass on the story

1241
01:06:45.320 --> 01:06:48.360
<v Speaker 1>about this woman who had captured a picture on her

1242
01:06:48.400 --> 01:06:51.719
<v Speaker 1>cell phone of ghosts having sex in her living room.

1243
01:06:52.480 --> 01:06:55.760
<v Speaker 1>Do you recall that? Do you recall that I passed

1244
01:06:55.800 --> 01:06:57.760
<v Speaker 1>on it because I said that it is so stupid,

1245
01:06:57.920 --> 01:07:00.159
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to put that up on the website.

1246
01:07:00.440 --> 01:07:04.360
<v Speaker 1>And it went everywhere. It just blew up and it

1247
01:07:04.400 --> 01:07:07.039
<v Speaker 1>became such a big story. And I'm like, oh, that

1248
01:07:07.159 --> 01:07:11.119
<v Speaker 1>was oops, you know, missed that one. So and then

1249
01:07:11.159 --> 01:07:13.199
<v Speaker 1>I've had some that I've put up, like I said

1250
01:07:13.239 --> 01:07:16.400
<v Speaker 1>that if backfired, and just it's they've just been too

1251
01:07:16.440 --> 01:07:20.239
<v Speaker 1>stupid and they haven't gone anywhere. But I haven't seen

1252
01:07:20.400 --> 01:07:25.079
<v Speaker 1>any animal weird animal carcasses show up for a while.

1253
01:07:25.239 --> 01:07:28.800
<v Speaker 1>That meme has passed. We're not seeing that come up

1254
01:07:28.840 --> 01:07:31.079
<v Speaker 1>as much anymore. That was a big deal for like

1255
01:07:31.079 --> 01:07:35.719
<v Speaker 1>two years, where every hairless dead thing was a cheap ofcapra.

1256
01:07:36.039 --> 01:07:38.880
<v Speaker 2>Given some time. Summer's here bloating.

1257
01:07:38.880 --> 01:07:44.159
<v Speaker 6>True, I'm just waiting. Well, it seems like it seems

1258
01:07:44.199 --> 01:07:47.920
<v Speaker 6>like your two main interests are cryptozoology and ghosts, if

1259
01:07:47.920 --> 01:07:50.960
<v Speaker 6>I'm not mistaken, What what is it that attracts you

1260
01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:54.000
<v Speaker 6>about those instead of you know, UFOs or psychics or

1261
01:07:54.159 --> 01:07:54.840
<v Speaker 6>other things like that.

1262
01:07:56.000 --> 01:07:57.480
<v Speaker 1>I mean, ever since I was a kid, I would

1263
01:07:57.480 --> 01:08:00.800
<v Speaker 1>read read books on monsters. You know, you're always in

1264
01:08:00.840 --> 01:08:03.639
<v Speaker 1>the zeros are a one section of your library, and

1265
01:08:03.920 --> 01:08:08.800
<v Speaker 1>I'd read all those books, and UFOs scared me for

1266
01:08:08.840 --> 01:08:12.079
<v Speaker 1>a while when I would read like Whitley Strieber's books,

1267
01:08:12.119 --> 01:08:14.320
<v Speaker 1>and I got a little scared about those, and then

1268
01:08:14.400 --> 01:08:20.039
<v Speaker 1>that passed, and then and UFOs seemed too technological to me,

1269
01:08:20.239 --> 01:08:24.600
<v Speaker 1>and that I always I really like animals, and of

1270
01:08:24.600 --> 01:08:26.520
<v Speaker 1>course I'm a scientist, so I was always one for

1271
01:08:26.560 --> 01:08:29.159
<v Speaker 1>bug collecting and animal watching and stuff like that. So

1272
01:08:29.159 --> 01:08:32.399
<v Speaker 1>I think that's what draws me to the cryptozoology, wondering

1273
01:08:32.399 --> 01:08:35.439
<v Speaker 1>if there's something more out there that we don't know about.

1274
01:08:35.680 --> 01:08:39.319
<v Speaker 1>So that's the animal aspect that draws me into the monsters.

1275
01:08:39.399 --> 01:08:41.239
<v Speaker 1>The ghost I don't know. I've just always been interested

1276
01:08:41.279 --> 01:08:44.000
<v Speaker 1>in a haunted house, that's so fascinated by it. But

1277
01:08:44.039 --> 01:08:48.840
<v Speaker 1>I also really love the natural anomalies. I've done a

1278
01:08:48.840 --> 01:08:54.159
<v Speaker 1>lot of research into things like earthquake precursors and animal

1279
01:08:54.199 --> 01:08:59.239
<v Speaker 1>behavior before earthquakes, and earthquake lights, earthquake sounds, earthquake weather,

1280
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:04.600
<v Speaker 1>and then things like luminous phenomenon and mystery sounds. I've

1281
01:09:04.640 --> 01:09:06.800
<v Speaker 1>done pieces on those. So when they were in the

1282
01:09:06.800 --> 01:09:09.680
<v Speaker 1>beginning of this year, there was this big deal about

1283
01:09:09.680 --> 01:09:12.920
<v Speaker 1>these mystery sounds, and I found that amusing. And then

1284
01:09:12.960 --> 01:09:15.319
<v Speaker 1>the year before that there was all these things about

1285
01:09:15.439 --> 01:09:19.319
<v Speaker 1>mass animal deaths. So it just seems January always brings

1286
01:09:19.880 --> 01:09:25.880
<v Speaker 1>some sort of horrible sign of the apocalypse. Two eleven

1287
01:09:25.920 --> 01:09:29.079
<v Speaker 1>it was the mass animal deaths, and then twenty twelve

1288
01:09:29.079 --> 01:09:33.279
<v Speaker 1>it was these strange sky noises. So I'm sure the

1289
01:09:33.399 --> 01:09:35.600
<v Speaker 1>end of this year is going to be wild with

1290
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:39.079
<v Speaker 1>with twenty twelve type stories. I'm we're expecting to have

1291
01:09:39.199 --> 01:09:40.279
<v Speaker 1>lots of those as well.

1292
01:09:41.760 --> 01:09:44.479
<v Speaker 2>I've actually been dealing with the apocalypse since the seventies

1293
01:09:44.479 --> 01:09:49.159
<v Speaker 2>because growing up in my church, they were big advocates

1294
01:09:49.199 --> 01:09:51.479
<v Speaker 2>for the was it Hal Lindsay and the late Great

1295
01:09:51.479 --> 01:10:01.119
<v Speaker 2>planet Earth and that whole millennialum millennial millennium millennialism. Yeah yeah,

1296
01:10:01.159 --> 01:10:05.920
<v Speaker 2>so uh, I mean it's in Georgia at least. I mean,

1297
01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:10.720
<v Speaker 2>I a year doesn't go by, maybe a season doesn't

1298
01:10:10.720 --> 01:10:13.479
<v Speaker 2>go by, where someone I personally know, my family or

1299
01:10:13.920 --> 01:10:16.359
<v Speaker 2>or here on the street mentions that it looks like

1300
01:10:16.359 --> 01:10:18.359
<v Speaker 2>the end of times are here. And this has nothing

1301
01:10:18.359 --> 01:10:21.359
<v Speaker 2>to do with the minds in twenty twelve. Just everybody's

1302
01:10:21.359 --> 01:10:23.560
<v Speaker 2>looking for the apocalypse down here. I don't know why.

1303
01:10:24.079 --> 01:10:27.079
<v Speaker 2>I probably eat the heat, I guess.

1304
01:10:27.720 --> 01:10:29.239
<v Speaker 1>And these zombies aren't helping either.

1305
01:10:29.279 --> 01:10:31.199
<v Speaker 2>They're not helping it all here and they're not helping

1306
01:10:31.199 --> 01:10:35.680
<v Speaker 2>at all. But anyway, that was really a question, my

1307
01:10:35.840 --> 01:10:38.399
<v Speaker 2>question for you. I guess it's time to round things

1308
01:10:38.479 --> 01:10:40.720
<v Speaker 2>up because it's ten o'clock. But I shouldn't say what

1309
01:10:40.800 --> 01:10:44.000
<v Speaker 2>time it is because it's timeless. This show is timeless.

1310
01:10:46.239 --> 01:10:48.439
<v Speaker 2>But we like to ask all our guests. And I'm

1311
01:10:48.439 --> 01:10:49.279
<v Speaker 2>sure you know this already.

1312
01:10:49.359 --> 01:10:52.079
<v Speaker 1>I know this already, right, What are you wearing?

1313
01:10:52.279 --> 01:10:57.000
<v Speaker 2>What's your favorite monster?

1314
01:10:58.239 --> 01:11:00.239
<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, have you been a monster face my

1315
01:11:00.279 --> 01:11:02.479
<v Speaker 1>whole life? This is a really tough question, but you know,

1316
01:11:02.479 --> 01:11:06.640
<v Speaker 1>because I love sea serpents. I've always been fascinated with

1317
01:11:06.680 --> 01:11:09.079
<v Speaker 1>sea serpents because I think that that could be real

1318
01:11:09.399 --> 01:11:11.079
<v Speaker 1>thing that's really out there and it could be a

1319
01:11:11.159 --> 01:11:14.079
<v Speaker 1>number of different types of species that could potentially be

1320
01:11:14.119 --> 01:11:18.800
<v Speaker 1>out there. And I loved the Black Dog Legends. You know,

1321
01:11:18.840 --> 01:11:21.279
<v Speaker 1>you had the guest on a couple of weeks ago,

1322
01:11:21.520 --> 01:11:23.399
<v Speaker 1>a couple episodes ago. I went out and bought that

1323
01:11:23.439 --> 01:11:26.520
<v Speaker 1>book because I love Black Dog Legends. They're so creepy,

1324
01:11:26.560 --> 01:11:30.000
<v Speaker 1>you know. They involved like sort of cryptid, haunted debons

1325
01:11:30.039 --> 01:11:32.279
<v Speaker 1>all rolled into one. A lot of fun. But I

1326
01:11:32.399 --> 01:11:34.279
<v Speaker 1>have to say, and I think I've told you this before,

1327
01:11:34.560 --> 01:11:37.239
<v Speaker 1>we had a group dinner at TAM one time where

1328
01:11:37.239 --> 01:11:39.319
<v Speaker 1>we went around the table and asked our favorite monsters.

1329
01:11:39.359 --> 01:11:40.800
<v Speaker 2>We sure did. That was awesome.

1330
01:11:41.119 --> 01:11:44.920
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And I have to say I've always been fascinated

1331
01:11:44.920 --> 01:11:48.399
<v Speaker 1>with the Jersey Devil. I'm in Pennsylvania, so I was

1332
01:11:48.439 --> 01:11:51.720
<v Speaker 1>sort of familiar with the Pine barrens and the towns

1333
01:11:51.760 --> 01:11:56.239
<v Speaker 1>that actually Jersey Devil did terrorize parts of Pennsylvania in

1334
01:11:56.520 --> 01:12:00.800
<v Speaker 1>the big Flap of nineteen o six or nineteen oh nine,

1335
01:12:00.800 --> 01:12:04.720
<v Speaker 1>whatever it was, and those towns in Bucks County were

1336
01:12:04.800 --> 01:12:09.319
<v Speaker 1>affected by this creature and it just caused massysteria. And

1337
01:12:09.840 --> 01:12:12.720
<v Speaker 1>what I like about the Jersey Devil is he's this

1338
01:12:12.880 --> 01:12:19.680
<v Speaker 1>weird hybrid of you know, horse bat devil thing or kangaroo.

1339
01:12:19.760 --> 01:12:23.840
<v Speaker 1>I mean people were exhibiting painted kangaroos and calling it

1340
01:12:23.880 --> 01:12:26.800
<v Speaker 1>the Jersey Devil. He became a side show, and I

1341
01:12:26.920 --> 01:12:30.880
<v Speaker 1>just was fascinated the idea of the perception and what

1342
01:12:30.920 --> 01:12:34.760
<v Speaker 1>people thought was really happening. And maybe there was a

1343
01:12:34.880 --> 01:12:37.800
<v Speaker 1>large bird that was coming through the area and the

1344
01:12:37.960 --> 01:12:41.640
<v Speaker 1>crane or whatever and caused people to react strangely to

1345
01:12:41.680 --> 01:12:44.720
<v Speaker 1>it because they weren't familiar with it. So yeah, I'd

1346
01:12:44.760 --> 01:12:47.039
<v Speaker 1>have to say the Jersey Devil, he's my favorite.

1347
01:12:47.359 --> 01:12:47.640
<v Speaker 2>Cool.

1348
01:12:47.720 --> 01:12:51.319
<v Speaker 1>I think he has a lot in common with the Chupacabra, actually,

1349
01:12:52.000 --> 01:12:53.680
<v Speaker 1>I suspect, so yeah.

1350
01:12:54.359 --> 01:12:56.800
<v Speaker 3>Lots of monster's in one very much.

1351
01:12:56.920 --> 01:12:58.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, whatever you want him to be, he can be.

1352
01:13:00.079 --> 01:13:00.239
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

1353
01:13:00.680 --> 01:13:02.760
<v Speaker 1>It made it even better when when it turned out

1354
01:13:02.760 --> 01:13:05.199
<v Speaker 1>that there was like a political backstory to it as well,

1355
01:13:05.319 --> 01:13:07.520
<v Speaker 1>that the formation of the legend of the Leads Devil.

1356
01:13:08.239 --> 01:13:10.359
<v Speaker 1>That was something I hadn't heard before and I thought

1357
01:13:10.399 --> 01:13:13.720
<v Speaker 1>that was interesting. So all these aspects and people still

1358
01:13:13.760 --> 01:13:15.079
<v Speaker 1>out looking for him.

1359
01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:19.920
<v Speaker 2>That's also amazing to me. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, just

1360
01:13:20.239 --> 01:13:24.359
<v Speaker 2>there's really no I guess that's another creature that if

1361
01:13:24.680 --> 01:13:28.079
<v Speaker 2>creationist wanted to find a creature that would have some

1362
01:13:28.199 --> 01:13:32.000
<v Speaker 2>kind of impact on evolution. There's your there's your monster

1363
01:13:32.119 --> 01:13:33.359
<v Speaker 2>right there. I mean, I don't think you need to

1364
01:13:33.359 --> 01:13:35.520
<v Speaker 2>go to Africa like for dinosaurs, because we know dinosaurs

1365
01:13:35.560 --> 01:13:38.880
<v Speaker 2>are real. Uh but but the Jersey Devil doesn't look

1366
01:13:38.920 --> 01:13:40.079
<v Speaker 2>like anything.

1367
01:13:39.880 --> 01:13:43.000
<v Speaker 1>Right, so cool stories.

1368
01:13:43.279 --> 01:13:47.359
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, any any monster that has four limbs plus wings

1369
01:13:47.600 --> 01:13:50.439
<v Speaker 2>is a real serious problem for evolution.

1370
01:13:50.640 --> 01:13:52.239
<v Speaker 1>And leaves the footprints on your roof.

1371
01:13:52.479 --> 01:13:52.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

1372
01:13:52.920 --> 01:13:54.279
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so that's awesome.

1373
01:13:55.399 --> 01:13:59.640
<v Speaker 2>So great answer, good choice. All right, Well, thank you

1374
01:13:59.680 --> 01:14:01.079
<v Speaker 2>so much than spending some time with us.

1375
01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:05.159
<v Speaker 6>Sharon say, thanks, thanks guys on good job on the site.

1376
01:14:05.399 --> 01:14:09.520
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, come visit Morebstertle.

1377
01:14:09.680 --> 01:14:11.920
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening to another episode of Monster Talk. We

1378
01:14:11.920 --> 01:14:15.000
<v Speaker 2>were talking today with Sharon Hill about the Doubtful News website,

1379
01:14:15.079 --> 01:14:17.239
<v Speaker 2>and we also heard from Brian Thompson of the James

1380
01:14:17.279 --> 01:14:21.159
<v Speaker 2>Randy Educational Foundation about the amazing meeting. Karen, Ben and

1381
01:14:21.199 --> 01:14:23.079
<v Speaker 2>I will be at TAM twenty twelve. We'd love to

1382
01:14:23.079 --> 01:14:25.000
<v Speaker 2>see you there. Maybe we can all hook up for

1383
01:14:25.079 --> 01:14:27.880
<v Speaker 2>a Monster Talk fan meal. Whatever the case. Just come

1384
01:14:27.960 --> 01:14:29.760
<v Speaker 2>up and say hello, we'd love to meet you in person.

1385
01:14:30.319 --> 01:14:32.760
<v Speaker 2>We really will be updating the show notes with the

1386
01:14:32.800 --> 01:14:35.199
<v Speaker 2>producer's page. That's really going to happen. Just bear with me.

1387
01:14:35.600 --> 01:14:37.880
<v Speaker 2>My new job, which I absolutely love, is taking up

1388
01:14:37.880 --> 01:14:40.000
<v Speaker 2>a lot of my time. But things should calm down

1389
01:14:40.039 --> 01:14:41.800
<v Speaker 2>after we launch our website and I can get back

1390
01:14:41.840 --> 01:14:44.800
<v Speaker 2>to monster talk maintenance. I want to thank Robert Smith,

1391
01:14:45.039 --> 01:14:48.319
<v Speaker 2>James Roach, and Bill Redlick for their kind donations. Our

1392
01:14:48.359 --> 01:14:51.239
<v Speaker 2>current big project is our transcript work, which is helping

1393
01:14:51.279 --> 01:14:53.760
<v Speaker 2>new listeners find us and making it possible for authors

1394
01:14:53.800 --> 01:14:57.439
<v Speaker 2>to quote Monster Talk on Wikipedia and other projects. We

1395
01:14:57.520 --> 01:15:01.039
<v Speaker 2>really appreciate your contributions. Check out our social media and

1396
01:15:01.119 --> 01:15:04.239
<v Speaker 2>other contact information on our homepage at monster talk dot org.

1397
01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:07.800
<v Speaker 2>Come join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and

1398
01:15:07.880 --> 01:15:09.960
<v Speaker 2>let us know how we're doing by giving us reviews

1399
01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.199
<v Speaker 2>on iTunes. We are an official podcast of Skeptic magazine

1400
01:15:14.239 --> 01:15:17.680
<v Speaker 2>and proud of it. The opinions you hear on Monster

1401
01:15:17.760 --> 01:15:20.199
<v Speaker 2>Talker those of the people talking and not of the

1402
01:15:20.199 --> 01:15:23.680
<v Speaker 2>people baying the bills. Monster Talk theme music is by

1403
01:15:23.760 --> 01:15:28.760
<v Speaker 2>Peach Stealing Monkeys and seriously, people, thank you so much

1404
01:15:28.800 --> 01:16:08.399
<v Speaker 2>for listening to this show. Hungry for more skepticism want

1405
01:16:08.439 --> 01:16:11.960
<v Speaker 2>to learn the truth about the scientific controversies of our time,

1406
01:16:12.399 --> 01:16:16.760
<v Speaker 2>then subscribe to Skeptic, the quarterly magazine Stephen J. Gould

1407
01:16:16.920 --> 01:16:20.760
<v Speaker 2>called the best journal in the field to subscribe. Visit

1408
01:16:20.880 --> 01:16:22.760
<v Speaker 2>skeptic dot com today