If you search online for ghost detection equipment, you'll find official looking gadgets to measure

temperature changes and magnetic fields and audio and video recording gear, designed to capture what our senses

alone might miss.

The reviews show some people are buying this stuff for parties or to give to a kid with a

big imagination.

But other customers compare notes about how well the battery-operated spirit detector actually

works the same way they might share reviews of a stud finder or a circuit tester.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd.

In a moment when many Americans are losing trust in traditional scientific research and the institutions that produce it,

some believers in paranormal phenomena are convinced that encounters with the supernatural

can be objectively proven if we can just devise the right kinds of experiments.

And my guest has observed that this could have huge implications for how we all think about

truth.

Journalist Matthew Hongoltz Hetling is author of the book The Ghost Lab, how Bigfoot hunters,

mediums, and Alien

Enthusiasts are Wrecking Science. Matt, welcome to think. Chris, it's an absolute honor.

Thank you so much for having me. You began the reporting that became this book, looking to understand

why trust in institutions has bottomed out so quickly in the U.S.

in recent years. Why is some basic level of trust important for societies to function well?

Yeah, well, trust is sort of like the social capital that allows society to keep sort of moving

forward and progressing and functioning. If you don't have trust in an institution,

that institution will see the downsides of that in terms of reduce enrollment if you're a college.

...