Skeptoid

Skeptics and believers both accuse each other of being closed minded, of being "true believers", and of trying to justify preconceived notions. Are they both right, or is neither right?

Some say the Min Min Light in Australia's channel country is a ghost light, others that it's some strange form of electroluminescence. Happily for us, but perhaps sadly for the legend, the truth has been conclusively determined.

The Atlantic's Sargasso Sea is said to trap ships inside its tangled masses of seaweed, and the Pacific Trash Vortex is said to be a floating island the size of Texas. Are these two hazards real, or tall tales cooked up by mariners?

Stories abound about San Francisco's well connected Bohemian Club members: Everything from plots of global domination to stories of bizarre human sacrifice rituals to pagan god in the redwood grove. What are the facts?

Skeptoid has a much more important impact than preaching to the choir of people who are already skeptical. Find out how you can help Skeptoid introduce critical thinking to students who have never been given the tools.

Name a star or an asteroid? Buy real estate on the Moon or Mars? Companies are selling it. We turn our skeptical eye on this practice to see if such sales have any scientific legitimacy.

Discovered in 1795, some say this strange pit on an island in Nova Scotia conceals a pirate treasure worth millions of pounds. The truth may be a little less sensational.

Skeptoid answers more student questions about the Mozart Effect, Quantum Theory, the cause of AIDS, gastric reflux disease, and the efficiencies of recycling.

The artificial sweetener aspartame has been a mainstay of diet soft drinks and other foods for decades, and all testing has shown it to be safe. But for some reason, activists credit it with millions of deaths worldwide and blame it for nearly every disease.

The Catholics are not the only church that claims incorruptible martyrs and saints -- bodies that do not decay after death. Buddhist monks have practiced this for centuries. But not all are as miraculous as claimed.

When you have a giant audience, you have a giant responsibility; and the celebrities on this list fail to deliver. A critical look at the antics of Oprah Winfrey, Jenny McCarthy, Prince Charles, Bill Maher, Larry King, Pamela Anderson, Ben Stein, Joe Rogan, Chuck Norris, and Montel Williams.

In 1961, Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have been taken aboard an alien spacecraft and had experiments performed on them. It's always been considered the seminal abduction story, and rarely questioned. Today we question it, in spades.

Reading and responding to some more listener feedback emails, on topics such as genetically modified foods, running your car on water, yet more MonaVie nonsense, and my giant kickbacks from Big Agriculture.

Critics of HAARP (the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) in Alaska charge that it is a superweapon responsible for earthquakes and weather disasters. The scientists behind it paint quite a different picture of its research goals. Which is true?

Proponents of hypothesized "scalar weapons" claim that they are a real class of atmospheric superweapons actually in use by major governments and clandestine crime organizations to cause natural disasters and other attacks worldwide.