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 (threads.com/@michaelregilio)!
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 (twitter.com/JordanHarbinger), Instagram (instagram.com/jordanharbinger), and YouTube (youtube.com/c/THEJORDANHARBINGERSHOW). 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 (twitter.com/Michaelregilio1), Instagram (instagram.com/michaelregilio), Threads (threads.com/@michaelregilio), Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/michaelregilio.bsky.social), and YouTube (youtube.com/channel/UCpXvzUcF00hUwrjKkABEjpQ?v…), and check out War Bar (amazon.com/dp/B0FPZPPL9C/?tag=jordanharbing-20), his comedy special!
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