{"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 #914 - 12.April.2026","slug":"the-skeptic-zone-914-12-april-2026","published_at":"2026-04-11T23:06:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869/the-skeptic-zone-914-12-april-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-skeptic-zone-509869","url":"https://skepticzone.libsyn.com/the-skeptic-zone-914-12april2026","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/clean/secure/skepticzone/the_skeptic_zone_912_260412.mp3?dest-id=15261","summary":"UFO Comments - Wishing for a Wish - NASA 00:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 00:16:14 Westall UFO TV Documentary In the past week, Skeptic Zone producer Richard Saunders appeared on the ABC TV (Australia) program 'Australian Story' to talk about the 1966 Westall UFO event from a reasonable but skeptical point of view. This has not pleased some UFO believers in TV land and they have been commenting on the YouTube video of the TV program. Richard, with the help of Maynard, reads out some of the more interesting comments. Australian Story Westall UFO https://youtu.be/IhKyQkhOfoM 00:22:34 For Crying Out Loud! It's Kat McLeod If wishes were fishes, Kat would have a koi pond in her head. This week she will take a look at the tradition of wishing, a topic we have not covered on the Skeptic Zone before, while we have looked at a lot of things that require wishful thinking like manifesting and far-fetched woo products, we haven't ever examined the tradition of wishing, until now. We wish you would listen! https://www.healthdigest.com/304485/why-you-should-stop-blowing-out-the-candles-on-your-birthday-cake 00:31:20 Australian Skeptics Newsletter What news has caught the eye of news editor Dee this week? Read by Adrienne Hill. Australian Skeptics http://www.skeptics.com.au We Can Reason, Canada https://wecanreason.com 00:41:32 The TROVE Archives A wander through the decades of digitised newspapers to look for references to NASA and UFOs. 1973.10.20 - The Canberra Times 1966.12.12 - The Canberra Times 1983.01.16 - The Canberra Times 1989.07.12 - The Canberra Times 1977.12.29 - Papua New Guinea Post-Courier 1977.12.28 - The Evening Independent - FL www.trove.nla.gov.au","meta_description":"UFO Comments - Wishing for a Wish - NASA 00:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 00:16:14 Westall UFO TV Documentary In the past week, Skeptic Zone produce…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3828,"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-914-12-april-2026/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-914-12-april-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}