Idk if it's been mentioned recently and I do't see any real posts about it from recent years, but I think it would be great if the sub had a bot/mod who auto-posted episode discussion threads whenever a new episode was published.

I enjoy the random topic/discussion threads, but it would be great to have a dedicated place to discuss each new episode as they come out.

Really I'm just suggesting this because I wanted a place to vent about the rogues' terrible opinions on The Last Jedi without making a seperate post. I know I'm probably not in the majority on this, but I'm happy to die on this hill -- It's good and their opinions about it are bad and they should feel bad lol.

Got 3 straight guesses aired yay!

Evan barely scratched the surface of the crazy that the Telepathy Tapes presents. Marsh does a much deeper dive in the latest episode (#398) of Skeptics with a K (which is now weekly, one story per week instead of two stories per two weeks).

The claim is that not only are these kids reading their facilitators' minds, but they are also in telepathic communication with other noncommunicative kids via a spiritual location called "The Hill", where they socialise, have conversations, and even romantic relationships. They have had weddings and funerals for people that they knew only from this hub of telepathic communication.

Furthermore, and this isn't terribly clear, but there are dead famous people there too? Like Einstein and Shakespeare and Mozart, and these kids are engaged in an ongoing telepathic rapport with these geniuses from history.

It's so much worse than Evan and Steve acknowledged. I recommend listening to Marsh's breakdown of the claims - he downloaded and listened to all currently available episodes. It's totally bonkers.

In the latest Labyrinths Podcast from Amanda Knox and Christopher Robinson, Kevin Plantan talks about the difficulties of raising a non-verbal autistic daughter—and the utter horror of being falsely accused of rape by her (through facilitated communication). Here is an article detailing the case.

https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/a-life-shattered-by-pseudoscience/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-29/elizabeth-struhs-diabetes-insulin-witheld-verdict/104863074

View Poll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vCmc0DFnhs

I bumped on it randomly on bluesky and I found it really funny to watch. It reminds me very first SGU chapters when they were still inviting some guests who claimed to have paranormal skills etc...

I was watching a video about the COVID lab leak theory. It was discussing a couple papers that show the lab leak theory was not likely to have happened. About 5 min in, the video stopped, my iPhone froze, and then restarted. I went back to Reddit after the reboot and now I can’t find the video/post. It doesn’t even show in my Reddit history. I’m pretty sure the post was either posted here or in one of the couple other skeptic reddits I follow, but I can’t find it. I don’t recall the hosts name, but she had an Australian or New Zealand accent and had a dog in the background. Does anyone have a link to that video?

My wife has been on the fringe of alternative medicine, nothing too extreme some essential oils here and there & always mentions diet and inflammation.

Now she's about to start the carnivore diet & I'm concerned. It's causing a huge rift right now because she wants to do this even after reading Steve's article on fad diets here. https://theness.com/the-skeptics-diet/

Give or take, how long have you been a fan?

I started out a little over 12 years ago. Can't remember what episode it was. It struck a chord because I found the podcast just after finishing The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, and the episode ended with a quote from the book. That led to listening to the entire backlog while keeping up with the weeklies.

I burned through Occ the Skeptical Caveman, all the SGU 5x5s, learned about Perry's death (him singing to the rogues makes me tear up every time). They've really been a part of my identity and development for over a decade. My youngest child is named after the Novellas. They still hear their voices every week and enjoy listening.

How long have you been a fan of the show? Of the movement? How has it changed your life?

There is, in fact, an FDA-approved device for tinnitus: https://www.lenire.com . It does work. Below is a summary from www.OpenEvidence.com .

But from a practical standpoint, it is not an option for most people, as it costs over $6,000 and is not covered by insurance. One uses it for a few weeks, then does not need it again for several months.

Sounds like one device could treat several people over the course of a year, were it rentable. But that would not make the company much money, which is the main goal of the US healthcare system.

The Lenire device has received De Novo approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of tinnitus. This device employs a bimodal neuromodulation approach, combining sound therapy with electrical stimulation of the tongue. Clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy in reducing tinnitus symptoms. In a pivotal trial (TENT-A3), participants underwent a 6-week period of sound-only stimulation followed by 6 weeks of bimodal treatment. The primary endpoint was the responder rate, defined as an improvement of more than 7 points on the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). The results showed a clinically significant improvement in the responder rate for bimodal treatment (58.6%) compared to sound therapy alone (43.2%) in participants with moderate or more severe tinnitus.Another large randomized clinical study also supported the efficacy of the Lenire device. This study demonstrated significant reductions in tinnitus symptom severity, as measured by the THI and Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI), with sustained therapeutic improvements observed up to 12 months post-treatment. These studies indicate that the Lenire device is a promising non-invasive treatment option for patients with chronic tinnitus, offering significant symptom relief without serious adverse events

I would often like to share a single segment with someone. The best way I’ve found so far is a YouTube timestamp. But I find people don’t really engage with a ~2 hour video, even though I’m linking to a specific timestamp.

There are some podcast apps that allow you to share clips, but they never allow for long enough ones for a full SGU segment.

I know it would be a lot of work, but it would be awesome if the YouTube channel were separated segments with relevant thumbnails and tags. At least for the main news items, while keeping the full episode.

An old friend posted this about ivermectin. When challenged about it, she said she goes to a "natural path" doctor who prescribes it. She says it's effective for covid and other ailments. sigh

https://preview.redd.it/hqa0h1b8pdfe1.png?width=708&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4be2d71335db83bbf2f62632ebef4e5306ba3ef

What is the device Steve was talking about in the latest episode? I couldn't find any $700 airpods on Apple's website. Anyone has a link?

I (f29) am currently in a fairly new (7m) relationship with my partner (f41). My partner is from a very different background to me. I am born an raised in the UK, not religious and very much into scientific scepticism (long term listener!). I am currently studying a for a PhD in parasitology and have a very scientific background.

My partner, conversely, was born and raised in Malaysia and is from a fairly strict Muslim background. They are highly educated, a qualified accountant and mostly have quite a relaxed approach to religion. However we have found one serious sticking point, causing repeated heated discussion: Creationism.

Due to their religion and educational background, my partner does not accept that humans evolved from and therefore are animals. I think it goes without saying that I don't agree with their viewpoint. Unfortunately my partner sees this as me being closed minded, and not open to considering other options. They believe I have been brainwashed into accepting science and not considering the spiritual. We mostly have a respectful understanding of our religious differences, but this issue keeps arising.

They have asked me to provide the evidence that I keep referring to in support of human evolution, however in this case I don't think finding and showing the scientific literature will help. What I am looking for, as a start point, is something like a simple documentary to explain the basics of human evolution in a digestible, non patronizing, science-backed way. Does such a thing exist? Can anyone recommend anything please? My hope isn't to change their mind (although it would be a bonus if possible!!) but to just help them understand my viewpoint and the facts that this knowledge is based upon.

Thank you so much for any advice on how to handle this situation, or any resources you recommend!

TLDR: I really want a documentary on human evolution that will explain the basics in a factual manner to an educated adult from a strictly religious background.

Please be kind, and I don't want to hear that I should end the relationship 😅 there is so much else that makes it great.

Hey all, first time poster and hoping for a safe space. I saw that Linus Tech Tips(LTT) released a, what seemed sceptical to me, video on a scammy radiation blocking amulet promoted by Russell Brand.

I can see Zenon_Cosnek posted on the product about 3 months ago here, and a few other reviews and videos around the time, so LTT is a bit late to the party.

Although Linus has had some drama about his integrity lately I found the video interesting so sharing for anyone interested.

https://youtu.be/ID6I3tN0gos?si=ph-wi1z8ubpQhmei

I'm surprised there is so little discussion about actual skeptical issues given the information environment we find ourselves in.

For example, on the 1/18/2025 there was an extended discussion on electric nuclear engines for space exploration -- come one. Why not focus on actual skeptical issues of consequence? RFJ Jr, an anti-vaxer will likely be leading the premier biomedical research organization in the world and I think I've heard one segment on that.

On a not so dire note, I encourage the SGU community to look into what's been going in the flat earth space where recently a group of "globers" and "flat earthers" travelled to Antarctica to "test" predictions. FE is an obviously stupid conspiracy but the reaction of the FE community to the "The Final Experiment" (TFE) has been fascinating and seems like a case study for folks engaged in the skeptical community. It would be interesting for the SGU interview some of the folks involved in TFE.

Typically, Steve is fairly critical of harebrained, pie-in-the-sky ideas. Solar roads anyone?

But somehow, he thinks we could create systems to harvest billions of tonnes of carbon and then reshape industry to use it for manufacturing. The result would be a carbon neutral or maybe even carbon negative system that would help us stop global warming?

Edit:

• I'm not saying carbon capture is pie-in-the-sky
• I'm not saying using captured carbon for manufacturing is pie-in-the-sky
• I'm saying that I expected a little more depth from the team than just "hey, we have these two developing concepts, wouldn't it be great to just scale it up and solve global warming"

"Colossal Biosciences, the biotech company behind plans to revive the woolly mammoth, dodo and Tasmanian tiger, announced Wednesday it has raised an additional $200 million in investment, bringing its total funding to $435 million."

Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3z5kIANta0

The video from CSICon is now up.

I think a major issue with developing a bird flu vaccine is that it would be impossible to test. One of the advantages of the COVID pandemic with respect to trials is the disease was out and about and people were rightly worried about it. As a result, vaccine trials had no problem recruiting subjects and it was pretty easy to see how well a vaccine worked pretty quickly.

In contrast, very few people get bird flu at the moment so you'd have trouble getting test subjects. Then, even if you did, so few would get bird flu in the control are you would have to wait a very long time for results.

Then there is the ethical question of testing a vaccine "just in case". Similarly, I am pretty sure challenge trials would be an ethics nightmare.

I found it amusing that Steve, who wears a phone holster, would ridicule a wide-brimmed hat that actually has utility.

The rogues haven't been around young kids in a long time I guess. In my house Unicorns are real.

In this week's episode #1018, NASA's plan to revamp the Mars Return Sample program into something cheaper and faster. And yet the costs of the programs the linked article discussed start from $5.8 BILLION.

From what I Google, the sample tubes hold up to 10 grams Martian regolith or rock each and the proposal is to return up to 30 sample tubes. The cost will be at least $19.3 MILLION per gram of Martian material returned -- plus the significant risk that the mission will fail or contaminate the samples.

I can't help but wonder is $19.3 MILLION for a gram of Martian dirt reasonable? I suppose Terran scientists can do more elaborate testing here, but is it really worth it? Assuming the sample doesn't contain something astonishing like Martian bacteria or tooth fossil, will the samples really tell us something significantly new or different than what the rovers have tested?

Wouldn't it make more sense for more technology development and cost efficiencies to make sample retrieve more reasonable?

I never got into Twitter, nor FB or anything else for that matter. But I got a tip to check out Bluesky. Are the SGU there as well?