1395: The Telepathy Tapes | Skeptical Sunday

Jordan Harbinger (0:00)

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Welcome to Skeptical Sunday. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger. Today I'm here with Skeptical Sunday co-host, comedian and skeptic, Michael Regilio. On The Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills of the world's most fascinating people. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker. And during the week, we have long-form conversations with a variety of amazing folks from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers and performers. On Sundays, though, it's Skeptical Sunday, a rotating guest co-host and I break down a topic you may have never thought about and debunk common misconceptions about that topic, such as astrology, circumcision, diet supplements, the lottery, crystal healing, energy drinks and more. And if you're new to the show or you're looking for a handy way to tell your friends about it, I suggest our episode Starter Packs. These are collections of some of our favorite episodes on persuasion, negotiation, psychology, disinformation, junk science, crime and cults and more. That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com/start or search for us in your spotify app to get started today on the show. Did you hear about it? The podcast that blew up the charts and had everybody talking? The telepathy tapes. I know I have personally received a number of emails here at the Jordan Harbinger Show asking if I've listened. What's my take on the idea that nonverbal autistic children actually have a secret way of communicating outside the normal ways that all of us communicate. They apparently use telepathy, according to this podcast. And to answer your question, no, I did not listen. But of course, I know someone who did. And this week's skeptic and comedian Michael Regilio is here to tell us all that he's gleaned both through extra sensory perception and good old fashioned reading, watching and researching about the telepathy tapes.

Michael Regilio (3:10)

That's right, Jordan. The telepathy tapes was a smash hit podcast in which the show's producer, Kai Dickens, lays out the case that many nonverbal autistic children can communicate telepathically over the course of 10 episodes. She builds the case that nonverbal autistic children are literally mind readers who utilize an extra sense. She makes the case that these young people can receive information without any clues coming in from the five senses. She attempts to bridge the seemingly infinite gap between circus sideshow and verifiable science. Before we get into this episode, in which I, as a skeptic, am going to, of course, expose Telepathy Tapes as either horribly flawed or, worst case scenario, a total con, let me just say this.

This is the most fertile ground imaginable for a grift. All the elements are there, including a group of people who have every reason in the world to want these claims to be true, and that is the parents of non-verbal autistic children. If you're a parent struggling to understand what your child is thinking and feeling, and someone comes along and tells you, your child can communicate, in fact, there's an extraordinary ability at play here. Of course you're going to want that to be true. And that doesn't make these parents gullible. It means anyone making claims this extraordinary to families in that position has an enormous responsibility to make damn sure the evidence is solid. So from the get-go, the burden is on the Telepathy Tapes, or more appropriately, Kai Dickens, the creator and producer of the podcast, to make its case and make it strong. Otherwise, it's her fault if we get the itch. And I'm here to tell you, I sat through every damn episode of this podcast, all eight hours and 53 minutes of it, and I got the itch. Eight hours and 53 minutes of that sinking, sick feeling in my stomach that I might be listening to someone sell extraordinary claims to parents who desperately want those claims to be true.