What would you do if you heard the world was going to end?

We could all come up with crazy ideas on how to go out with a bang, but it might be smarter

if we considered instead how we might be able to stop it.

Many of these potential threats to the Earth come not from within but from without, from outer space.

What are these threats and how realistic are they and what could we do about them?

We're going to find out today on Skeptoid.

My name is Harry Houdini. Harry Houdini.

Harry Houdini could make elephants disappear, walk through walls and escape the Chinese

water torture cell, but he was also on a mission against mediums.

I have never seen one genuine medium. Join me, Tim Harford,

for a cautionary tale's trilogy on the world's most famous magician. It takes a flim flammer

to catch a flim flammer. Houdini wanted the world to see reason in an age of spiritualism. He went undercover to seances, exposed fakes and charlatans,

and even tried to convince Washington lawmakers to ban mediums for good,

a campaign that cost him friends and made him many enemies.

They're going to kill me.

Listen to cautionary tales wherever you get your podcasts.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Defending Against the Planet Killers.

Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience, real history

from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions by knowing what's real and what's

not.

...