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Welcome to Skeptical Sunday. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger. Today I'm here with Skeptical

Sunday co-host writer and researcher Jessica Wynn. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the

stories, secrets and skills are the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into

practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to

help you become a better informed, more critical thinker. And during the week, we have long-forms conversations with a variety of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers. On Sundays, though, we do skeptical Sunday, where 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 Reiki healing, ear candling, self-help cults, bottled water, diet pills, and energy drinks. And if you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about the show, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on persuasion and 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 slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started. It's funny, Jessica, we started. I think our very first skeptical Sunday was ear candling, and I thought, oh, here's something that some people do,

and it doesn't really do anything, and it's kind of a scam, but no one's going to get super

upset about it. I thought, this is going to be a relatively non-controversial start to skeptical

Sunday. And what amazed me, but I guess shouldn't have and is now just played out over every

episode of this show, is people will die on the

hill that something that they believe in is not BS. How dare you try and take away my ear

candle. And you would think ear candling like no one's people are just going to go, oh, I've been doing

that for years. I guess it doesn't worry. Silly me or like I don't believe you and they'll just keep

doing it. No, I got vitriolic emails. The funniest ones were from like white, blonde people who were like, I'm one 7,000th Cherokee and this goes way back to the tribe of or whatever, you know, Indian tribe, Native American tribe. And I remember, it's funny because of course we fact check these episodes. and we didn't do as much of that back then, but we do now. But then I was like, I better check this one.

So I called... I remember, it's funny because, of course, we fact-checked these episodes, and we didn't do as much of that back then, but we do now.

But then I was like, I better check this one.

So I called, it was supposed to be like, oh, this goes back to the Sioux Indians. So I called this Sioux tribe, and I was like, this is so random, but I have a question. and they had this historian person be like, yeah, no, that's just one of those, the many things where they say Native Americans

thought of it and like dumb hippies buy it. And it has absolutely nothing to do with Native Americans.

And no, we don't do ear candling. Where do these tales come from? You'll, out of my dead cold ear,

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