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What sources does Skeptoid cite?

jtull89

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Hi there! I've listened to several Skeptoid episodes and find it quite entertaining. I have a problem though: as legit as everything Brian Dunning says sounds, I'm not sure where his information comes from, which makes me a bit uncomfortable to rely on it. I was not able to find many citations on Skeptoid.com. Can any of you, possibly Mr. Dunning himself, tell me what sources the podcast cites?

Thanks in advance! :)
 
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You are wise to be skeptical. You shouldn't rely on anyone's podcast as authoritative, but you should do further research if the topics discussed pique your interest. You'll find that most podcasts and radio shows don't devote much time to citing references. It's an awkward and time-consuming format for that.

What? No References?

 You will not find articles on this site to be footnoted or otherwise supplemented with authoritative references, something for which I'm often criticized. There are several reasons for this.
  • Skeptoid is a podcast, an audio production. Transcripts of the episodes are posted on this site afterwards. You can't really have footnotes in an audio production.
  • If you are truly interested in a subject, you should research it for yourself. You shouldn't believe me or anyone else.
  • Many "authoritative" sources, especially those found on the Internet, come from someone with a particular agenda. It's easy to find a reference to support any point you want to make, and this renders every footnote in the world suspect at face value.
  • Filling in footnotes after the fact would simply take more time than I have available.
I do a crapload of research for each episode, and it takes a ton of time, all of it unpaid; and I do have a family and a life in the real world. Skeptoid is as thorough and as authoritative as I'm able to make it with my available resources. I hope you can enjoy what it is, and not focus on what it is not.
Click to expand...
http://skeptoid.com/references.php
 
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Aw man, that's too bad. I thought I had found a great resource when I first heard this, and yet he can't add the footnotes to his site.

By the way, where did you get that link?
 
Well to be fair, for a lot of his things what would he cite?

He doesn't have to link to a source that "proves" Reptoids don't run the earth. It's up to those wack jobs to site THEIR sources.

As for his occasional facts and figures, maybe us listeners can find mention of the information and cite the sources in the comments section ourselves.

Once in a while he does say were he finds stuff, Wikipedia in particular.
 
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Well obviously he wouldn't cite anything related to Reptoids, lol. But he could cite things like "these pesticides have been found to be safe" and things like that.
 
jtull89 said:
Aw man, that's too bad. I thought I had found a great resource when I first heard this, and yet he can't add the footnotes to his site.

By the way, where did you get that link?
Click to expand...
At the bottom of each transcript is a "References" link which takes you to that explanatory page.
 
Probably if you were interested in one of the subjects, you could start a thread on it. I am sure people would come in with many links and references.

For me, I usually start at wikipedia. I see it as having ten times the information at 90% accuracy of many other common references. Plus they give good initial references to go to for more information.
 
Wikipedia is great except for controversial subjects, which is (unfortunately) just about all that I discuss. So it's of quite limited value for my research. As Quath does, I generally use it only as a starting point.

JTull, it would be terrific indeed if I had the time available to make Skeptoid as authoritative as people would like it to be. I'm on board with you. But since this is a project that I do on a volunteer basis, and keeping it on schedule requires a constant stream of attention, I can only devote a strictly limited amount of energy to it.
 
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