SGU Episode 127

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SGU Episode 127
26th December 2007
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 126                      SGU 128
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Guest
M: Mike Lacelle
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Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

S: Hello and welcome again to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. This is your host, Steven Novella, President of the New England Skeptical Society and this is our special year in review for 2007. Joining me this evening are Bob Novella...

B: Hey everybody.

S: Rebecca Watson...

R: Happy holidays everyone.

S: Jay Novella...

J: Hey guys.

S: Evan Bernstein...

E: Another year come and gone.

S: and our number one fan from SGUfans.net Mike Lacelle.

M: Hey everyone.

?: Oh, hey Mike.

?: Hey Mike.

S: Thanks for joining us, again, Mike. And thanks for all your on our fan site and on our blog over the year. Over the past year.

M: No problem.

In Memoriam (0:56)

S: So we did this same thing last year. We spent our last episode of the calendar reviewing the past year. Just reminiscing about the good and the bad the funniest and best things that happened on our podcast over the past year. And we also asked for some feedback from our listeners, which we did again this year. So we're going to do some follow up on some of the stories that we covered during the year. We're going to give you some of the stats about how we're doing and then we're going to at the very end we'll look forward to what to expect and what our plans are for the upcoming year. So this past year, 2007, was a big year for the skeptics guide. A lot of good things happened and unfortunately some very bad things happened as well. Of course, we can't think about 2007 without thinking about that this was the year that we lost our very dear friend and fellow rogue, Perry DeAngelis, who passed away about half way through the year. We did our memorial episode^{[link needed]} where we just spent an episode talking about Perry and what he meant to us on the show. So we're not going to go over that again but it's definitely, that was a very sad occurrence for all of us. But the good news, the bright side is that the Skeptics' Guide pressed on, moved forward as we know without a doubt that's exactly what Perry would have wanted for his project for not only the skeptical society but the podcast that he helped found to press on and survive and we did. We actually did it without even missing a single week. Something that I'm proud of and I'm sure Perry would have been proud of as well.

?: Definitely, Steve.

R: Yeah.

S: I hate to actually start on a down note but we did lose a few other prominent skeptics in 2007 and in a way this episode is a little mini memorial to all of those in our small community who did pass away this year. In addition to Perry, Barry Beyerstein passed away. Shortly after our interview with him^{[link needed]} actually. We interviewed him earlier in the year.

E: We might have been the last interview he–that was–that he had.

S: Yeah. I think so. And Jerry Andrus also passed away this year.

?: Yeah. Around the same time as Perry.

B: People die in threes, ya know.

E: Ooo. Numerology.

R: That's scientifically proven.

S: So we're safe until next year, right?

?: Yeah.

E: It's a whole year away.

B: Now, what can we say about Perry? We've already said it. Everybody knows how we feel. It's one of those wounds that heals very very slowly and he was instrumental in the show and he was one of our best friends. We're doing what Perry would want and that's as good as it's ever gonna get.

S: Yeah. Still think about him every day.

B: Absolutely.

E: Oh yeah. Without a doubt. Without a doubt.

S: He was a tremendous presence both psychologically and intellectually.

?: And physically.

S: Whenever–yeah, and physically. Whenever any interesting story comes up you just have to think, "What would Perry say about this? What would he think about this?"

R: Yeah. I mean, he's still a tremendous presence.

?: And he was so funny.

B: If you want to talk about how funny Perry was we can play a couple Perry quotes. This is probably one of his funnier ones.

Uh, yeah, monkey's clearly perfume themselves. It's one of their higher order functions that they do. Unlike birds, by the way, who always smell like bird shit.

(laughter)

R: Ah, yeah. Monkey versus birds. I always thought that it would get old, but it never did.

S: It's true.

B: It's a little uncomfortable listening to him, though. Cause I really haven't listened to him, really, in months. It's just bizarre hearing his voice.

Evolution accelerating? Absolutely. In fact two weeks ago I was a goldfish.

?: That's a great quote.

S: He had great one liners.

E: Excellent one liners. You know, Bob, that is interesting I have gone back and listened to some of the older episodes with Perry and it's interesting. In a sense what the podcast has captured of Perry is really, obviously his essence but in a way now he's immortalized and it's a great thing that we have this episodes in order to help keep the memory of Perry, certainly, alive. It's more than a memory. It's really there. You can go back and listen. It's something really special and I like, with a smile I go back and listen to those old episodes.

S: Yeah.

I believe that China will control the weather. Doesn't cooperate they'll have it shot.

(laughter)

?: Perry was so funny.

R: That's one of my favorites.

J: Oh wait now here's–this is Perry right here.

How can two mathematicians come to a different conclusion? Well, one of them's a dick.

(laughter)

?: We were laughing back then over his quote.

S: He just slices through it.

?: Yeah.

Guests of 2007 (6:04)

S: Well, despite our losses we did have a great year otherwise. We had an incredible lineup of interviewees. I'm just going to read through them really quick starting with our first one in January. Here they are:

• Spencer Weird
• Todd Robin
• Hal Bidlack
• John Renny, from Scientific American
• Teller, of Penn and Teller
• Jim Underdown
• Phil Plait
• Adam Savage and Tory Belichi from Mythbusters
• Christofer Hitchens
• Matt Stone from Southpark
• Julia Sweeney
• Scott Dickers from The Onion
• Richard Wiseman
• Ken Feyner
• Robert Lancaster
• David Seaman
• Susan Blackmore, bug girl
• Berry Beyerstein
• Frazer Cain and Pamela Guy from Astronomy Cast
• Garret Hays
• Orak of the Respectful Insolence Blog
• Scott Lilianfield
• Brian Trent
• President Jimmy Carter...

?: Who was that, Steve? Who was that interview?

?: President Jimmy Carter.

?: Interesting.

S:

• Berry Glaster
• Bill Nye the Science Guy
• David Cahoon
• Richard Saunders
• John Bloomenfeld
• Mark Abrams
• Mark Crislip
• Joe Nickel
• Graden Square
• Paul Kurtz
• Laurence Krauss
• and Alex Securice.

And last week we just had Richard Wiseman on, again.

J: So who was everybody's favorite interview of the year?

E: Well, the Jimmy Carter interview was pretty special.

B: Yeah.

S: That was certainly our most prestigious interview of the year, by far.

R: I have to say that my favorite was Chris Hitchens going on about dirty limericks and Diane Sawyer.

J: And chain smoking while he's doing it.

R: Chain smoking, drinking. Hitchens at his finest.

?: He's amazing.

S: That interview was incredible with Hitchens. I mean that was a hoot.

?: I liked me, here and now.

(laughter)

?: I also liked Mark Crislip. I like Mark Crislip.

S: Yeah.

B: I was going to say Mark. Mark from QuackCast. He's a really funny guy and–I was thinking just recently again how his podcast is probably one of my favorites. Very informative but he's just funny in almost everything that he says.

S: Yeah.

B: And he's a good guy.

S: He's got a very dry sense of humor which I always appreciate. Our fans on the message boards the most commonly cited interviewee was actually Bill Nye the Science Guy. A lot of people liked having him on.

J: He was great. He's one of those people that we could just interview for 4 hours and never run out of a second of material.

E: Yeah. He was upbeat and very willing and it was great that we were able to finally track him down. We worked on a while getting him to come on but that was really a nice interview.

J: He's in my top 3 skeptics. I think out of all the skeptics out there he's definitely one of the biggest and greatest out there, now.

S: Yeah. Bill Nye is a great guy. He certainly is getting it done. Get er done, wasn't that one of his things?

?: Get er done.

R: No. I'm pretty sure that's a second rate comedian.

?: My favorite quote from any guest that we had on the whole year was Bill Nye saying, "I'm going to change the world."

S: Yeah. You _____ that a couple of times.

?: I love that.

E: Gee. I wonder why.

? I love that. It's so frickin right on.

Bits of 2007 (9:12)

S: We had a lot of good bits this year. I think that in 2006 the biggest topic that we liked to talk about and come back to was the bird monkey thing which we did come back to a little bit in 2007 but we've developed, we've broken some new ground. We talked about the whole, the fanny pack versus the utility belt discussion.

J: We have audio on that.

E: The skeptical utility belt.

S: Let's hear it Jay.

E: Keep your phone on your belt near your groin. You'll be all set.

S: Yeah.

R: Wait. Can I just say as a girl, don't, guys, don't do that. It looks so dorky.

S: What? The cell phone on the hip?

R: The cell phone on the–yeah. The phaser.

?: The Star Trek Next Gen phaser.

R: Just don't do it.

S: Where else are you going to wear your cell phone if not on your hip?

J: Yeah?

S: Let me ask a question.

R: You can carry it in your pocket, in your man purse...

S: Why won't women wear cell phones on their hip? I don't get it?

E: Yeah.

R: Because it looks ridiculous.

S: But you know what? My wife throws her cell phone in the purse and then she can't hear it ring.

R: Yeah, but she doesn't look ridiculous does she?

S: Yeah but she doesn't answer he cell phone.

R: No, she looks cute cause she has a purse.

?: She's being impractical.

R: Yeah. And she's not getting getting brain cancer cause she's not answering her phone all the time cause she can't find it. There, problem solved.

E: Or groin cancer.

S: I'm not going to advocate that people wear like fanny packs or anything, but I think is one case...

R: Oh, god.

S: where function trumps fashion.

R: No no no. It is practically, you are right next to fanny pack.

S: No, no no. This is totally different.

R: I know that you've been walking down the street thinking, "This phone clipped to my belt is cool and all but wouldn't it be better if I could stick a little bit of money next to to my phone. Or maybe put my keys there. Hey, you know, I should get a larger sack to carry the phone in."

S: No you're missing... Rebecca you're missing the whole thing here. First of all, wearing an electronic device on your hip is way cool. Okay? That's number one.

R: Oh, you are so confused.

S: Number two...

E: Babe magnet.

S: is you're going in the wrong direction by going towards a fanny pack. You should be going in the utility belt direction.

?: Ooo... I agree.

?: Yes. Absolutely.

?: You're a genius.

R: Yeah. Yeah. Batman. That's a great idea. Have you considered a cowl while you're at it? A cowl?

S: A cowl?

R: A cowl pulled over your face. Yes. Maybe with little ears.

S: Those are only for evil–those are only for villains. Not heroes.

R: Uh, Batman has a cowl. Hello.

S: He's the dark knight, okay? He's right on the edge.

R: Just don't do it, okay? It's bad.

B: You could have like a little change thing on there.

S: Yeah.

B: If you can get a...

R: The only way an electrical device attached to your hip is going to get you laid is if it's a vibrator, okay?

(11:54)

Conclusion ()

S: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a production of the New England Skeptical Society. For more information on this and other episodes see our website at www.theness.com.

References