Squaring the Strange

For our 200th episode we are joined by Matt "The Tube" Crowley and Tim Cridland, aka Zamora the Torture King, to discuss the new documentary about the rise and fall of the Jim Rose Circus. This rock n' roll version of sideshow oddities reintroduced the art of sideshow to many who had never seen it. As two of the original four marvels of the Jim Rose Circus, Matt and Tim share tales of the road, their philosophy of what sideshow is -- and what it may evolve into -- as well as giving away a few secrets of their acts.

After some news on Mike Lindell and a few points about popular TV shows, we are joined by the inimitable Richard Saunders, who gives us the details on his Herculean undertaking, a 12-year roundup of psychic predictions made in Australia's popular media since the year 2000. While there were no surprises, the sheer amount of data he and his teammates collected and categorized provided some interesting insights. How did the media respond? Will there be similar projects? What is the value of having such a macro-view of purported prognostication?

Happy Easter everyone! Rabbits are a fluffy bag of contradictions . . . represented as tricksters but also as victims, lucky or unlucky, clever or depressed, harmless or scary, rabbits and hares have a solid place in the folklore pantheon. We go over tales of hares as witches' familiars, stories about how the rabbit lost its tail, pareidolia-inspired legends about a rabbit on the moon, how rabbits figured into pregnancy tests and common vernacular, and also give shout-outs to our favorite rabbit appearances in horror films and cartoons. Let's hop to it!

We are joined by Peter Ash, founder and director of Under the Same Sun, a nonprofit dedicated to the education and empowerment of persons with albinism in Africa. Due to superstition-based persecution, the hardships endured by those born with this condition in rural African communities are staggering to list: from abandonment, discrimination and untreated skin cancers to outright murder by one's own family. Peter felt called to help others with albinism and has dedicated years to growing his efforts in Tanzania. With a systematic, consistent, multi-pronged approach his organization has helped hundreds of youngsters, many survivors of muti violence. Under the Same Sun houses these children and offers them an education, putting them on a path to independence and prosperity.

We were inundated with news this week, so first we cover prehistoric bugs in Arkansas, the Desert Monkey King glyph in Southwest Las Vegas, the folkloric accuracies in Netflix's "Troll" movie, a new report on Havana Syndrome, and alleged gas poisonings of schoolgirls in Iran. Then Ben recounts his time late last year in Malawi, where he was able to spend time with an activist and reporter covering the latest case of witchcraft persecution and lend some moral support to those on the front lines defending people accused of witchcraft.

Ben and Celestia discuss the nostalgic sense of deja vu when hearing about UFOs and cults these past weeks. Then we are joined by David Thomas, who investigated author Michael Drosnin's notions of a code hidden in the text of the Hebrew Bible and how cracking that code could foretell the future. These ideas were popularized in a series of books published over 20 years ago, but the same number games are resurfacing today in the form of gematria, a type of numerology advocated by QAnon conspiracy theorists. Dr. Thomas discusses the data-mining programs he wrote in order to demonstrate how subjective, predictable, and ultimately misguided these ideas of a hidden Bible code were.

First we nosh on some interesting tidbits about a long-dead casino magnate, a mysterious fortune teller with a prophecy about rom-coms, and a prematurely dead Simon Cowell. Then Kyle Polich of the Data Skeptic podcast joins us to talk about the Missing 411, a concept pushed by several books and movies produced by David Paulides. What or who are the Missing 411, and how are Bigfoot and UFOs involved? Is there a coherent theory about what's going on, and is it based on actual happenings or fabrications? And how does misunderstanding (or completely ignoring) data analysis come into play?

It turns out the all-American fizzy sweet cola is also a veritable cornucopia of myths, rumors, urban legends and misinformation. We're not just talking about the explosive properties of Pop Rocks or Mentos. Can a Coca-Cola douche prevent pregnancy? (It can't, please don't even think about it). How many mice ended up sealed into bottles of Coke? Does Santa owe his whole look to Coke's ad agency? We go over these and many, many more tales involving the most popular carbonated beverage in the world.

We discuss a surprise paleoanthropological development from the past week and weigh some falsehoods coming from a new member of Congress. Then for our main topic we do an overview of romance scams, from the Spanish Prisoner Swindle a few centuries ago to the online catfishing scams that are presently fleecing Americans to the tune of $500 million a year. Longtime grassroots skeptic volunteer Wendy Hughes kindly joins us to discuss her courageous and candid article "A Skeptic Trips Over a Romance Scam" and talks about what she learned in hindsight and how her skeptical toolkit helped her turn a humbling experience into something that could benefit others.

As we wrap up another year, we make a few predictions for 2023 and then answer some listener questions on what has fooled us in the past. Then for our main segment we dish on films that were right up our strange and skeptical alley. There was some brilliant folklore-inspired work involving Djinn and a puppet come to life, as well as some fantastic documentaries -- and also some absurd stuff disguised as documentaries, like Netflix's recent "Ancient Apocalypse."