The Fateteelers

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James Randy is the author of The Fateteelers and he's best known as an investigator of psychic and miraculous claims. He became a professional debunker, exposing charlatans and con artists who claim to have magic powers. In fact, he appeared on The Tonight Show to demonstrate how dangerous it was to fraud people into believing they could have their tumors removed by someone with magical hands.

Astronomer Phil Plait joins us to discuss his new book, Under Alien Skies, in which he describes what it would be like (through human eyes and real physical experiences) to actually travel to Saturn, Mars, asteroids, and distant stars. Also, we discuss the recent surge in UFO sighting as well as his famous talk at The Amazing Meeting more than a decade ago in which he asked all science communicators and critical thinkers to approach those who believe in pseudoscience with empathy and respect instead of scorn and vitriol. And, we run through the history of James Randi's popularization of the big-S Skeptic movement.

- Phil Plait’s Substack: https://badastronomy.substack.com/

- How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome

- David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney

- YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog

- Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com

- Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com