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The Jordan Harbinger Show

1320: The Moon | Skeptical Sunday

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Jordan Harbinger

Science, Business, Education

4.8 • 12.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2026

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Blaming our problems on the Moon is lunacy! Jessica Wynn illuminates the dark side of what we understand about our celestial neighbor 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 writer and researcher Jessica Wynn!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1320

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

  • The Moon is history's greatest scapegoat — blamed for madness, bad moods, crime, and chaos for millennia. But it's not the Moon driving the weirdness. It's priming and confirmation bias working in tandem: one loads the mental gun, the other pulls the trigger.
  • Tides are real and genuinely impressive — the Moon pulls Earth's oceans into two massive bulges simultaneously, creating predictable highs and lows that surfers, sailors, and scientists all rely on. But "humans are 60% water" does not extend the logic. Tidal forces operate at planetary scale, not cellular.
  • Lunar myths have proven remarkably adaptive. We replaced "the Moon causes lunacy" with "the Moon charges my crystals" — different language, same fundamental misfire. Pseudoscience doesn't disappear; it just rebrands to match the cultural moment.
  • Large-scale studies across emergency rooms, psychiatric wards, police records, maternity wards, and veterinary clinics consistently find no lunar effect on behavior. When researchers control for variables properly, the Moon's behavioral influence vanishes entirely.
  • The Moon's actual résumé is staggering enough without the mythology. It formed from a cataclysmic planetary collision, stabilized Earth's axial tilt, and made complex life possible — and understanding what it genuinely does is far more empowering than crediting it for your bad week.
  • Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. 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 Jessica Wynn at Instagram (and Instagram!), and subscribe to her newsletters: Between the Lines and Where the Shadows Linger!

And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps!

This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors:

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Transcript

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Welcome to Skeptical Sunday. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger, and today I'm here with Skeptical Sunday co-host writer and researcher Jessica Wyn. You know, every time I do this intro, I always feel like that sounds weird, and then that's when I realize you'll never be able to tell AI. Because you know how AI does unnatural stuff, Jessica, where it's like, I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger. And it's like, oh, that sounded a little weird.

1:12.1

And that's like, no, that's actually how I really sound when I do this with my real voice for some reason. I don't know. You sound great. Thank you. I needed that. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your

1:27.1

own life

1:27.6

and those around you.

1:28.7

Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker.

1:32.2

During the week, we have long-form conversations with a variety of amazing folks, spies to

1:36.4

CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers.

1:38.9

On Sundays, though, it's Skeptical Sunday, where a rotating guest co-host and I break down

1:42.9

a topic you may have never thought about

1:44.4

and debunk common misconceptions about that topic, such as circumcision, sovereign citizens, diet supplements,

1:50.7

the lottery, ear candling, self-help cults, bottled water, and more. And if you're new to the show

1:55.2

or you want to tell your friends about the show, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are

1:59.5

collections of our favorite episodes on persuasion, negotiation, psychology,

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