Skeptic Check: Cryptids

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bigfoot could get official status if proposed legislation passes making it the state cryptid of California. If nothing else, the effort shows that fascination with cryptids has an outsized footprint on our culture. We look at why mythical creatures continue to capture imaginations - as well as passions - of die-hard believers, despite no evidence for their existence. An author uncovers the origin of a beloved hoax in the American West and its unexpected ties to a real animal and historical medical breakthrough. But are we looking for creature delights in all the wrong places? A tally of Earth’s species reveals that far more remain unidentified than are currently known. Newly discovered critters such as the Yeti crab and an organism dubbed the Flying Spaghetti Monster are so strange, it challenges us to separate fauna fact from folktale. Guests: Chris Rogers – Assemblymember, California’s 2nd Assembly District Benjamin Radford – Deputy Editor of Skeptical Inquirer Science Magazine, author, and co-host of Squaring the Strange podcast Michael Branch – Writer, humorist, and author of On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer Boris Worm – Marine ecologist, Professor of Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia Originally released April 14, 2025 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:59.0	A few years ago, Seth and I attended one of the strangest events we've covered for an episode of Big Picture Science.
1:14.6	A press conference in Palo Alto, California announced there was evidence for the existence of Bigfoot.
1:21.6	Welcome and thank each and every one of you people for being here today.
1:25.6	It's an honor to have you's all.
1:28.3	This whole story.
1:29.3	Claims of Bigfoot sightings aren't unusual, but this was different.
1:33.3	Two men said they had found a dead Sasquatch in the woods in Georgia and had preserved the body in a cooler.
1:39.3	The corpse of the elusive half-man, half-ape, would be revealed at the press conference. And this
1:45.1	angle was catnip for even jaded reporters. In front of us was the owner of searching for bigfoot.com,
1:52.2	Tom Biscardi, who claimed that over the 30 years that he had been tracking Bigfoot, he had spotted
	...

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