Skeptoid Podcast—4,600 Listeners and Still Going Strong

In just eight short months, Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena, has gone from a start-up podcast to one with over 4,600 listeners. With its first broadcast in October 2006, Skeptoid was created, according to Brian Dunning its producer, “to help fight the good fight against the overwhelming majority of noise in the media supporting useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, xenophobia of advanced energy and food production methods, and generally anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement.”

Dunning explained, “A few years ago, I began searching for interesting and unusual phenomena in Internet forums and mailing lists. Several of my favorites were in Yahoo! Groups. More than once, I tried to open a discourse offering alternate, more reasonable explanations for the reported phenomena, as diplomatically and respectfully as I could. Nevertheless, the most insightful replies I got were, ‘Warning: skeptoid alert!’ and ‘Another debunkatron rears its ugly head.’ That their only response was to make up patronizing and dismissive nicknames for me shows that their true interest is certainly not open discussion. In fact, the next time I tried to log in, I found that my account had been banned. This happened on three different Fortean Phenomena forums, and I'm being completely honest when I say that my posts were respectful and in no way inflammatory. They were much worse than that: they were skeptical. With really no other choice for me to express alternative views, I launched Skeptoid.”

Today, 40+ episodes later, Skeptoid is still going strong. In fact, it has such a following that it was a featured podcast on iTunes. The most popular episode has been downloaded over 9,000 times from more than 5,200 unique IP addresses. Listeners are encouraged to post responses to each podcast on the site—which they do—and as long as they are not in bad taste, they won’t be banned.

“With Skeptoid, I try to cover a pretty broad range of topics—everything from conventional debunking, to religious issues, to politically correct cultural trends, to more esoteric discussion of the value of skepticism. In short, if I'm not aggravating everyone at some step, I'm not doing my job. That's why Skeptoid's tagline is ‘The truth always hurts someone,’” Dunning continued.

From “New Age Energy—An examination of energy, as new agers use the term” and “Raw Food - Raw Deal?— Raw food is well and good, but is cooked food as terrible as raw foodists make it out to be?” to “Revisionist Darwinism: The Theory That Couldn't Sit Still—Some creationists claim that evolution is invalid because it is frequently improved and enlarged as research and knowledge are improved” and “The Magic of Biodynamics–Is biodynamic agriculture a modern innovation, or a throwback to the Dark Ages?” and everything in between, there really isn’t a topic Brian won’t tackle.

Every five days, Brian produces a new podcast. Listeners suggest some topics, while others are sparked by something he read, saw or heard. He also hosts an email discussion list, Skeptalk, where discussion of any skeptical topic is encouraged, no matter how politically incorrect or offensive to some.

“I started Skeptoid because I thought skepticism could be done better. Respect for the adversary is the first step. Willingness to more openly question our own methods and keep our own closets clean is the second step. The response to Skeptoid has been overwhelming. While it may not be the most listened to podcast out there, it does have a terrific and loyal following—One that is growing every day,” Dunning concluded.

For more information on Skeptoid or Skeptalk, or to subscribe to the podcast, visit skeptoid.com.