1395: The Telepathy Tapes | Skeptical Sunday

A hit podcast claims nonverbal autistic kids are telepathic. Michael Regilio doesn't need ESP to see through The Telepathy Tapes on Skeptical Sunday!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by skeptic, comedian, and podcaster Michael Regilio!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1395

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• How The Telepathy Tapes, a chart-topping podcast claiming nonspeaking autistic kids can read minds, sells extraordinary claims to parents who desperately want them to be true — and why claims that big demand far more than anecdotes and tests no one can see.
• Why 140 years of telepathy research — from the Creery sisters and Smith and Blackburn to J. B. Rhine's ESP cards — keeps producing impressive results that vanish the moment experimenters tighten controls or put the subjects in separate rooms.
• What James Randi's planted magicians revealed about psychic research: scientists can sincerely believe they've ruled out deception while leaving loopholes wide open, because they're trained to study nature, not to catch someone fooling them.
• How Spelling to Communicate and Rapid Prompting echo discredited Facilitated Communication, where controlled tests showed facilitators authoring the messages — a flaw that led to false abuse accusations that tore families apart.
• Why the strongest defense against self-deception is noticing how badly you want something to be true. When news sounds too good, tell yourself, "I hope it's true" — then account for that feeling and check the evidence before you believe it.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know!
• Connect with Michael Regilio at Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and YouTube, and check out War Bar, his comedy special!

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