{"podcast":{"title":"The Skeptic Zone","slug":"the-skeptic-zone-509869","podcast_index_feed_id":509869,"rss_url":"https://skepticzone.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://www.skepticzone.tv","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/9/c/4/3/9c437cc1e235746e/itunes_thumbnail_2016.jpg","author":"Richard Saunders","episode_count":938,"summary":"The Podcast from Australia for Science and Reason. Join Richard Saunders and his team of reporters for your weekly dose of skeptical news and interviews, reports and comments. Past guests have included, James Randi, Stephen Fry, Tim Minchin, Eugenie Scott, Dr Phil Plait, Michael Marshall, Dr Steve Novella, Dr Pamela Gay, Jon Ronson, Dr Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Prof. Richard Wiseman, Dick Smith, Banachek, Prof. Chris French, George Hrab, Tim Ferguson, Dr Paul Willis and many, many more. Featuring Australian radio legend Maynard with his Spooky Action, Jo Alabaster from the 'Evidence Please' blog, Eran Segev's Grain of Salt, Dr Rachael Dunlop with 'Dr Rachie Reports' and Heidi Robertson aka 'The Raw Skeptic'.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T22:17:13.912435+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869"},"episode":{"title":"The Skeptic Zone #899 - 28.December.2025","slug":"the-skeptic-zone-899-28-december-2025","published_at":"2025-12-28T00:47:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869/the-skeptic-zone-899-28-december-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869","url":"https://skepticzone.libsyn.com/the-skeptic-zone-899-28december2025","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/clean/secure/skepticzone/the_skeptic_zone_899_251228.mp3?dest-id=15261","summary":"0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 00:04:22 NO Future Seen in Fortune Telling The GWUP (Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften - Society for the Scientific Investigation of Pseudosciences) in Germany evaluated 2099 annual predictions from fifty-two sources. One quarter were too vague to test, more than half were clearly wrong, and solid bullseyes were rare. The project evaluated publicly available annual predictions from fortune tellers, astrologers, self-described mediums, and other esoteric 'advisors' and 'seers'. Read by Lara Benham, Adrienne Hill and Richard Saunders https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/king-kong-doesnt-show-up-and-2025-psychic-forecasts-miss-the-big-events-once-again/ 0:28:28 TV News and Parasites One of the evergreen themes of the alternative medicine industry is that you are full of parasites. Channel 7 TV news in Australia ran a story critical of social media influences promoting cures for these so-called parasites. We look at the comments from the alternative medicine and conspiracy theory brigade. https://fb.watch/EgdjX8JnxA/? 0:38:12 The Loons from Canada This week Kate and Allie meet in a local cafe to reflect on some of this year's stories and there may even be a prediction from Psychic Penny! Special Guests! Kate Thomas, Michelle Bijkersma, Psychic Penny and Clairvoyant Casey. Also Thank you from everybody here at the Skeptic Zone, the hosts, the producers, all the reporters and the technical team behind the scene for your continued support throughout 2025. Without listeners like you the show would not be able to continue. We look forward to a big 2026 with more stories more reports and a lot of fun along the way. If you'd like to support the Skeptic Zone, please consider subscribing via PayPal or Pa…","meta_description":"0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 00:04:22 NO Future Seen in Fortune Telling The GWUP (Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissen…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3453,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-skeptic-zone-509869/episodes/the-skeptic-zone-899-28-december-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869/the-skeptic-zone-899-28-december-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}