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Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition

Center for Inquiry

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition brings the insightful articles from Skeptical Inquirer magazine directly to your ears. Covering topics in science, skepticism, and critical thinking, each episode features narrated versions of our most thought-provoking content. Perfect for those on the go, SI Audio Edition allows you to stay informed and inspired wherever you are. Support our work and subscribe to the print magazine at skepticalinquirer.org Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition is produced at the

society & culture

All Episodes

16:50

Santa Cruz County SkeptiCamp 2025 by Susan Gerbic

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/12/03

Susan Gerbic recounts here experience at the Santa Cruz County SkeptiCamp 2025. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/santa-cruz-county-skepticamp-2025/ About the Author: Affectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the cofounder of Monterey County Skeptics and a self-proclaimed skeptical junkie. Susan is also founder of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project. She is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical

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12:44

The Global Retreat from Scientific Temper by Amardeo...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/26

Amardeo Sarma warns that efforts to "decolonize" science have drifted from addressing historical inequities into promoting epistemic relativism that blurs the line between empirical inquiry and spiritual or traditional belief systems. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-global-retreat-from-scientific-temper/ About the Author: Amardeo Sarma is a fellow and member of the Executive Council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is

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08:46

Pickle Juice: Cramping Cure or Congruence Bias? by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/19

Nick Tiller examines the popular belief that pickle juice quickly relieves muscle cramps... Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/pickle-juice-cramping-cure-or-congruence-bias/ About the Author: Dr Nick Tiller is an exercise scientist and author of The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science, named one of Book Authority's "Best Sports Science Books of All Time." He's a columnist at Skeptical Inquirer and an elected Fellow of the Committee for

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10:29

Explaining Aligned Alien Abductions by Benjamin Radford

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/14

Benjamin Radford explains that the similarity of alien abduction accounts stems not from shared experiences but from shared human psychology, pop culture influences, and media depictions. From sleep paralysis to hypnosis-induced memories, Radford shows how cultural templates and cognitive patterns shape what people believe—and misremember—as encounters with extraterrestrials. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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13:38

Count Dante, Dim Mak, and the Kung Fu Death Touch by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/12

Peter Huston examines the bizarre life of "Count Dante," a self-styled martial arts master whose outlandish claims helped popularize Dim Mak, the mythical "kung fu death touch." Tracing Dim Mak's roots in traditional Chinese medicine and its pseudoscientific evolution, Huston separates legend from fact to reveal how prescientific ideas were sensationalized into modern martial arts folklore. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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18:53

Weird Things Some Scientific Skeptics Say about...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/10

Charles G.M. Paxton challenges several misconceptions skeptics hold about how science actually works, arguing that many popular notions—like strict falsifiability, universal replicability, or the ease of distinguishing science from pseudoscience—oversimplify a far more complex process. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/weird-things-some-scientific-skeptics-say-about-science/ About the Author: Charles Paxton is a statistical ecologist at the

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18:37

How Wicked Reflects Real-World Intersections between...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/07

Malorie Mackey and Michael Maldonado explore Wicked as a story illustrating the interplay between belief and skepticism. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/how-wicked-reflects-real-world-intersections-between-belief-and-skepticism/ About the Authors: Malorie Mackey is an investigative journalist who studies anthropology with a specialization in mythology, occult studies, and folklore. As a member of the Explorers Club, host of the show and

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23:16

How Stranger Things Mirrors Real-World Paranormal...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/05

Daniel A. Reed's The Supernatural Stories That Mirror Our Realities explores how Stranger Things draws inspiration from real Cold War–era psychic research. By blending nostalgia, government paranoia, and genuine history, the show reflects society's long-standing fascination with the paranormal and the line between science and superstition. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/how-emstranger-things-em-mirrors-real-world-paranormal-stories/

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14:51

From Food Dyes to Vaccines: Fear of Chemicals...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/11/03

Andrea Love's From Food Dyes to Vaccines exposes how chemophobia—the irrational fear of chemicals—has become the root of most modern health misinformation, from anti-vaccine rhetoric to bans on safe synthetic ingredients. She argues that this fear, fueled by poor science literacy, political opportunism, and profit-driven wellness marketing, endangers public health, drives bad policy, and must be recognized as a global health crisis. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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07:34

AI Will Meet You in the Breakroom in a Blue Blazer...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/31

Robyn E. Blumner recounts Anthropic's "Project Vend," in which the AI Claude disastrously attempted to run a vending machine business, suffering from hallucinations, poor pricing, and even an "identity crisis." Blumner warns that AI's capacity for deception, self-preservation, and misalignment with human values could foreshadow genuinely dangerous consequences. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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09:08

A Primer on the Placebo Effect's Evil Twin by William...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/29

William Matthew London reviews The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick, a collection edited by Michael H. Bernstein and colleagues that explores how negative expectations can produce real harm. The book examines biological, psychological, and ethical dimensions of the nocebo effect, offering insights for clinicians, patients, and media professionals on minimizing harm caused by suggestion and misinformation. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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03:33

The Supernatural Stories That Mirror Our Realities by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/27

Stephen Hupp introduces two cover stories exploring how supernatural tales reflect real-world skepticism and belief. From Wicked's moral complexity to Stranger Things' ties to Project Alpha, the issue connects pop culture to the history of scientific investigation—culminating in a live CSICon 2026 interview with the original Project Alpha hoaxers. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/the-supernatural-stories-that-mirror-our-realities/ About

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07:30

When Nature Isn’t a Gift: A Biologist’s Take on the...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/22

Biologist Andrew A. Davinack challenges Robin Wall Kimmerer’s portrayal of nature as a “gift economy,” arguing that such metaphors blur the line between moral philosophy and biological reality. Drawing on examples from parasitology, he contends that nature’s balance arises not from generosity but from feedback, constraint, and adaptation—an amoral equilibrium that teaches humility rather than reciprocity. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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13:23

The Truth about Tyler Henry’s Reading of Moby by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/15

Susan Gerbic exposes Tyler Henry’s “Hollywood Medium” as a combination of hot and cold reading, motivated sitters, and clever editing rather than genuine communication with the dead. By using readily available information—often from Wikipedia—and interpreting vague statements to elicit reactions, Henry creates the illusion of accuracy, while the show’s editing and production amplify the emotional impact for viewers. Read this article and find accompanying references at:

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07:05

Childproofing the Internet by Wendy M. Grossman

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/08

Wendy M. Grossman examines the U.K.’s new Online Safety Act, which forces websites to implement strict age verification measures that threaten privacy, free expression, and small online communities. She warns that such laws, though aimed at protecting children, risk overreach, surveillance, and the fragmentation of the open internet. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/childproofing-the-internet/ About the Author: Wendy M. Grossman is an

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10:19

The Problem with Inadequately Reviewed Fringe Science...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/10/01

Mark Boslough critiques how fringe science like the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis slips into peer-reviewed journals through inadequate scrutiny, despite being debunked by experts. He argues that credibility depends on competence and honesty, warning that misconduct and pseudoscience persist when red flags are ignored. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-problem-with-inadequately-reviewed-fringe-science/ About the Author: Mark Boslough

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11:16

Turning a Miss Into a Hit by Susan Gerbic

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/09/24

Susan Gerbic dismantles claims that psychic Tyler Henry predicted Ricki Lake’s house fire, showing that his actual reading pointed to a past event and emphasized water damage, not a future blaze. She argues Lake and the media retrofitted his vague statements into a “hit,” illustrating how grief and sensationalism fuel belief in psychics. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/turning-a-miss-into-a-hit/ About the Author: Affectionately called

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18:30

The Case of the Vegetable Man of West Virginia by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/09/17

Daniel A. Reed revisits the bizarre 1968 tale of the “Vegetable Man” of West Virginia, a plant-like creature said to have attacked a local hunter. Ultimately, the story—reported only by a single witness and publicized by known hoaxer Gray Barker—appears far more like a fabricated tall tale than genuine cryptid encounter. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/08/the-case-of-the-vegetable-man-of-west-virginia/ About the Author: Daniel A. Reed is the

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08:29

Imagine Pandas by Craig A. Foster & Kelsey M. McGinn

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/09/12

Craig A. Foster and Kelsey M. McGinn revisit a 1979 Skeptical Inquirer story about a missing red panda in the Netherlands, where false public sightings emerged even after the animal was confirmed dead. They argue this “red panda effect” illustrates how human error and memory distortions can generate sincere but false testimony, a key lesson for evaluating claims like Bigfoot. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/08/imagine-pandas/ About the

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16:05

Barry Karr Is Retiring—and That Is Not a Hoax by...

Skeptical Inquirer Audio Edition ·

2025/09/10

Robyn Blumner celebrates Barry Karr’s retirement after forty-four years at CSI, calling him the tireless backbone who kept skepticism thriving through leadership, conferences, and creative outreach. Through anecdotes and tributes, she highlights his humor, dedication, and behind-the-scenes work that made him an unsung hero of the skeptical movement. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/08/barry-karr-is-retiring-and-that-is-not-a-hoax/ About the

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