Exposing PseudoAstronomy
| This might be Skepticism |
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| But we're not sure |
| Who's asking? |
Exposing PseudoAstronomy is a podcast (and blog) written, hosted, and produced by astronomer/geophysicist Dr. Stuart Robbins. The podcast tends to focus on issues related to pseudoscience in astronomy, geology, and physics, though it has, at times, ventured away from those topics to explain more general science-related concepts such as peer-review[1]. Within that broad framework, Dr. Robbins has addressed topics such as astrology, Planet X, creationism claims, and the Face on Mars[2]. He has stated that he would rather have named the podcast "Bad Astronomy," but Phil Plait took that name.
The format of the podcast always has a very brief introduction to the topic and then the main segment discussing the topic. Length of each episode varies from about 20 minutes to over an hour, though the typical episode length is about 30 minutes. Other occasional segments include: "New News" (items in the news related to a previously discussed topic), Q&A, Feedback, Puzzler, and Announcements. Robbins re-records the outro to every episode and often puts in something extra for the listener, or phrases things differently, such as one episode's outro was done with a bad version of a Texan accent.
The podcast began in August 2011, coming out twice a month, then four times a month, then twice a month, and since mid-2013 has settled on three episodes a month, typically coming out on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month. Robbins has often stated that the podcast can be thought of as a cross between Skeptoid and AstronomyCast, merging the singular astronomy topic per episode of the latter with the focused skeptical approach of the former.
The blog dates to August 2008, but since the podcast started, it has primarily served as announcements for new episodes, though it occasionally has new, stand-alone articles.
In May 2014, despite having released sporadic movies throughout its past 2.5 years, Robbins launched his first "official" video called "The Cydonia Region of Mars," both to the podcast feed (720p) and to YouTube (1080p). Within the first week, it accumulated over 13,000 views. The movie addresses the geometric arguments by Mars anomalists that there are features in the Cydonia region of Mars that display special geometry matching mathematical constants that prove it was created by an intelligence, likely aliens. After the success of this movie, Robbins has stated that he plans to release more in the future.