– Date – September 22nd, 2015
– Send your cool “SCIENCE” shout-outs to.
– Theme song by Steve Seamans of the Daisy Dillman Band.
– Get the song HERE.
– Thank you to everyone who has been purchasing books, Skepticality stuff, or using our Amazon link to help us.
— HUGE thanks to Mark Ditsler and Abrupt Media for all their work at Dragon Con and the recording of Randi in this episode.
Wikipedia Update [1:10]
– Michelle Franklin from Australia Trip.
– Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.
– More about Susan Gerbic.
Skeptical Humanities [13:50]
– BBC: Stonehenge may be mentioned in 8th-century poem.
– Salisbury Journal: Is eighth-century poem about Stonehenge?
– Abroad in the yard: Was Anglo-Saxon poem, believed to be about Bath, actually about Stonehenge? (includes text of Davis’s translation)
– Visit Skeptical Humanities for more!
The Odds Must Be Crazy [21:45]
– The Odds Must Be Crazy.
– This week’s featured story “It’s a Small World After All“.
– Submitted by Skepticality listener Chris Benson.
– Trivia: Bed Bath & Beyond Dorm Registry Checklist.
– Please visit the story links for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by Mark Gouch.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Visit our new webhost, Skeptic Ink Network at www.skepticink.com.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found:
– On Twitter @OddsMustBeCrazy.
– On Facebook.
– On Google+.
– Wendy Hughes: @Wendy91602.
– John Rael: @skepticallyPwnd.
– Barbara Drescher: @badrescher.
– Edward Clint: @eclint.
– Brian Keith Dalton: @MrDeity.
– Jarrett Kaufman: @TurboFool.
– Thanks to friends; Emery Emery & Heather Henderson for hospitality & support for the production of the segment.
– Visit Heather and Emery at Skeptically Yours.
Interview: James Randi [27:15]
– Audio recording/production provided by Abrupt Media.
– ‘Original’ Name was Randall James Hamilton Zwinge Born in Toronto, Canada.
– Harry Blackstone Sr. inspired Randi at a young age after seeing the Azera Levitation to learn more about Illusion.
– After being hit by a truck while riding his bicycle Randi had time in recovery to study the workings of illusion and how magic was performed.
– Shortly after recovering he joined a carnival and played the role of ‘Prince Ibis’.
– For a short time Randi wrote under the name ‘Zo-Ran’ for a tabloid newspaper doing a horoscope column.
– During his youth he spent time learning odd skills like picking locks and such, which led him to imitate Houdini as an escape artist.
– He performed the underwater coffin escape live on the Today Show, beating Houdini’s record, but Randi was much younger.
– Afterwards he performed a straight jacket escape while hanging upside down over Niagara Falls.
– Became a regular cast member of the kids television show ‘Wonderama’ with Sonny Fox.
– Also did a few appearances on the popular television show ‘Happy Days’.
– Randi was ‘hired’ by Alice Cooper to join his crew on the Billion Dollar Babies tour to help craft the stage show.
– To help bring more ‘pizzazz’ to the tour Randi help develop the guillotine illusion for the end of each performance.
– Randi joined Alice Cooper again on stage at Dragon Con again back in 2012 where Randi gave Alice one of the prop heads that was used during the tour illusion.
– Randi has had an interesting relationship with Uri Geller over the years.
– At one time Uri had many scientists from governments around the world believing that he had supernatural powers and spending a lot of money.
– Johnny Carson had Randi on his show many times which led them to become quite good friends.
– His relationship with Carson led to many episodes where they worked together to expose supernatural frauds like Geller and Popoff.
– Randi worked it out so that himself and a small team gathered evidence proving the fraud behind how Popoff seemingly ‘healed’ people.
– Randi recently was married to his long time partner, Deyvi Peña, an artist.
– Deyvi helped Randi expose the tricks of faith healers in Australia during the ‘Carlos Hoax’.
– 60 Minutes Australia called Randi about the rise of people such as Ramtha.
– In 1996 Randi founded the James Randi Educational Foundation and the Million Dollar Challenge.
– Earlier in 2015, Randi announced his ‘retirement’ which allows him to finish his next book and do more work outside the office.
– His next book will be ‘A Magician In The Laboratory’ coming out soon.
– The JREF has announced that they are now restructuring the JREF to become a grant distribution organization and keeping the Million Dollar Challenge.
– The Amazing Meeting is still going on, look for announcement about the next TAM soon.
– Sylvia Browne accepted the Million Dollar Challenge on television several times, but never actually applied to take the challenge.
– Sadly, some world governments are still spending money researching hogwash like Homeopathy which has zero chance of ever working.
– Keep in mind that every actor is also an illusionist.
– The Mothman is a known hoax/joke invented by Randi and Jim Mosley and shortly after they released the fun legend… they saw it everywhere.
Outro Music [1:29:30]
– Outro music donated by Trent Brusky of Dropfox.