Having examined the true history or true science behind so many urban legends, over all

the years of the Skeptoid podcast, I get a lot of questions.

One of the most common is which stories I've looked at where the outcome really surprised

me, where the truth turned out to be different from what I expected to find out.

Today, I've got some of those for you.

In fact, I've got so many that it's going to be a two-part episode.

Surprising a skeptical podcaster is coming up next on Skeptoid.

That's 877-215-0277-02777 or Skeptoid-.com-slashgiving-SKEP-T-O-I-D.com-slashgiving.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

How to Surprise a Skeptical Podcaster Part 1.

For over a decade, I've spent my professional life answering the question, is this weird

thing I heard in pop culture true or not?

Typically I then spend the next week fully immersing myself in every bit of previous research

that's been done, digging through old newspaper archives, going to libraries, searching

Reddit, even driving out to locations, and imagine actually picking up the phone and

talking to people who were there.

A decade is a long time, citation needed.

So by now I have a pretty good, spidey sense to tell me what's true and what's not.

There's one thing that people always want to know.

They want to know which stories I've investigated where the paranormal or supernatural explanation

has turned out to be the true one.

...