You're listening to the skeptics guide to the universe.

Your escape to reality.

Hello and welcome to the skeptics guide to the universe.

Today is Thursday, April 23rd, 26, and this is your host, Stephen Novella.

Joining me this week are Kara Santa Maria.

Howdy? Jay Novella. Hey, guys. And Evan Bernstein. Well, we're one short today, aren't we? Yeah, what happened to Bob? Bob is off vacation. He's going to Bermuda. Nothing happened to Bob. Oh, he's going to Bermuda. He'll be fine. Nothing bad ever happens there. Bob was like, you know, of course we talked about the Bermuda triangle. And Bob's like, it's so ridiculous. He's like, you know, you could take any, you could make any geometric shape that you want by just picking, you know, locations on the map. And I looked at him and I was like, no shit, Duh. Why are you angry and why are we even talking about it? Who cares?

Would you rather like the Bermuda dodecahedron?

Yes, knowing Bob he would. Yes, he would much rather that.

One of my favorite Randy references to the Bermuda Triangle is in his book Flim Flam. He offers a map and he plots or somebody plotted where the claims of something mysterious happened due to the Bermuda Triangle. And it's like a map of the United States with the Atlantic Ocean. And you can also see the Pacific Ocean. And there's dots all over the place. Not even, right? Some of the dots are in the Pacific Ocean. Okay, but attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, it's a great map. It's like, it's like, every time John Oliver talks about, you know, a country in the Middle East or a country in Eastern Europe.

And then he's like, shows the map next to him. And he goes, and you don't even know that that's not the country I'm talking.

Exactly. That's not where that is at all. And you're like, mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Touch. So I have to ask you guys. So I did, I played it in a poker tournament and a local card game here. I would say, I guess it's technically a casino. The laws are interesting in California. So you can play poker in casinos. And I think maybe Blackjack, you can play, quote, games of skill. But there are no slots, for example, unless you're at casinos on reservations. Anyway, I played in a tournament. It was really, really fun. And one of the guys at the table, his son kept coming up to talk to him. And I was like, oh, does he play? And then I was like, wait, is he old enough to be here? And then I was like, wait, how old do you have to be to gamble? And we started this

whole conversation at the table. Do you guys know, first of all, actually, even more interesting

than gambling. Do you know the legal smoking age in most of the United States? 21. Yeah, I thought

it was 18 to 21. Okay. Well, this is a today I learned because I don't, I guess maybe you guys, because you

have younger children, I have no idea, but I thought it was 18 still.

It was 18.

It was 21.

Okay.

And a recent study surveyed a bunch of people, both young people and their parents and caregivers, so adolescence age 10 to 19, and their parents and caregivers. And they found that the percentage of people who correctly identified 21 years as the age of the purchase was under half for cigarettes, vapes, cigarettes, and nicotine pouches,

and then 81% for alcohol.

Wow.

Okay.

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