The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

The Skeptics Guide #1070 - Jan 10 2026

January 10, 2026

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  • Personal accomplishments that evoke deep pride often relate to overcoming significant personal challenges, such as completing a difficult PhD or achieving personal emotional maturity in relationships. 
  • The virtue of 'showing up'—being reliable and keeping commitments—is highly valued and deeply appreciated in friendships, especially in environments like Los Angeles where flakiness is common. 
  • The discussion on pet peeves revealed a shared frustration with a lack of conscientiousness in others, particularly regarding poor driving habits and spatial awareness in public spaces like hallways and doorways. 
  • The group debated that major historical shifts, like the abolition of slavery or the failure of Prohibition, were not inevitable but hinged on specific, changeable inflection points in policy and debate. 
  • The development and monetization model of the internet, particularly social media algorithms rewarding high engagement, is identified as a critical, avoidable inflection point leading to current societal polarization and privacy loss. 
  • Radical societal changes, such as universal veganism or shifting the US founding to include 'Founding Mothers,' are proposed as potential solutions to deep-seated cultural and environmental problems, though practical hurdles like agricultural infrastructure are acknowledged. 
  • Dogs perceive the passage of time based on the decline of their owner's scent, correlating it with environmental cues like lighting and noise. 
  • The 'Science or Fiction' segment in this episode of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe #1070 - Jan 10 2026 was Beatles-themed, focusing on facts about the insect order Coleoptera (beetles). 
  • The participants debated the veracity of three beetle facts, with the claim that beetles inhabit every continent (including Antarctica) being identified as fiction, while the claim that one in four animals is a beetle was confirmed as science (or close to it, including plants). 

Segments

What Are You Most Proud Of
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(00:01:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Accomplishments that generate deep personal pride often involve overcoming significant personal adversity or fulfilling long-held personal promises.
  • Summary: George Hrab expressed pride in writing a challenging essay about the SGU’s thousandth episode for the Skeptical Inquirer. One speaker shared pride in finishing their PhD despite undiagnosed ADHD and mental illness, using that perseverance as a template for future hard tasks. Another speaker found pride in being recognized as ’the guy who shows up,’ highlighting the importance of reliability in friendships.
Relationship Growth and Maturity
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(00:08:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Achieving emotional maturity in relationships, characterized by being attracted to a mentally adult partner, is a significant personal milestone.
  • Summary: Jay reflected on growing up enough to become attracted to an emotionally mature adult, viewing this shift as a major personal success. Kara noted that relationships should be judged on whether they make one a better or worse version of themselves, emphasizing mutual positive impact. Steve shared that the greatest accomplishment of his life is raising two objectively awesome, thoughtful daughters.
Personal Autonomy and Safety
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(00:13:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Owning one’s own safe space is a profound accomplishment, particularly for women raised in unsafe environments, symbolizing self-determination over societal expectations.
  • Summary: Kara cited owning her home as a source of pride, viewing it as building a space that is entirely hers, contrasting with experiences where women are told to rely on a rich man. Evan expressed pride in fulfilling a promise to himself to be a supportive father to his daughter, consciously avoiding the toxic parenting patterns of his own father. Bob found pride in his second marriage, recognizing it as an example of what a positive marital relationship can be.
Quirky Pet Peeves Discussion
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(00:34:24)
  • Key Takeaway: A lack of conscientiousness manifests in frustrating public behaviors, such as poor driving etiquette and blocking pedestrian thoroughfares, which are often rooted in a failure to consider others.
  • Summary: George expressed intense frustration with drivers who fail to adhere to road rules, specifically those who linger in the left lane when not passing. Evan’s pet peeve centers on people stopping abruptly in pinch points like escalator exits or doorways, demonstrating a lack of spatial awareness. The group agreed that overly polite drivers who disrupt expected traffic flow by yielding inappropriately also cause frustration.
Glitter as Environmental Hazard
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(00:43:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Glitter is an insidious microplastic pollutant whose chemicals are toxic, and its pervasive nature warrants strong aversion, leading some to call it ’the herpes of the craft world.'
  • Summary: Glitter is condemned as an unnecessary microplastic that leeches poisonous coloring into the environment due to a lack of regulation. One speaker recounted a story of a woman requiring an eye doctor to manually pluck glitter pieces from her eye after using it as makeup. The consensus was that glitter should be banned from homes due to its near-impossible cleanup and environmental impact.
Bathroom Etiquette and Punctuality
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(00:48:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Public bathroom etiquette demands checking the lock status before knocking, and upon exiting, one should leave the door open and lights off to clearly signal vacancy.
  • Summary: The speakers debated the proper sequence for checking an occupied public bathroom, concluding that knocking should be the last resort after checking the lock or looking for light. George stated his pet peeve is people agreeing to a specific meeting time and then failing to arrive punctually, emphasizing that chosen times must be respected.
Changing Human History
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(00:53:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Prohibition’s failure is argued to have established a fundamental distrust of government and expertise that persists today.
  • Summary: The elimination of Prohibition could have been a net positive by preventing the establishment of organized crime networks and avoiding lost tax revenue. The resulting government raids fostered a fundamental distrust of authority, leading to questioning of expertise. This historical event is suggested as a potential root for current societal skepticism.
Slavery and Foundational Mentality
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(00:56:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Changing deeply ingrained cultural roots like slavery or white supremacy is deemed nearly impossible due to the pervasive nature of such ideologies across cultures.
  • Summary: A plausible historical change involves the US founding government deciding to end slavery immediately, rather than postponing it until the Civil War. The unique racial division in America stems significantly from the specific dynamic of the African slave trade. Changing foundational mentalities, like egalitarianism or empathy, at the beginning of culture would yield vastly different societal behaviors than changing specific events.
Social Media Inflection Points
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(01:00:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The decision to monetize the early internet through advertising, rather than keeping it free, set the stage for the current polarized and data-harvesting ecosystem.
  • Summary: The polarization and internet hate seen today might have been avoided if social media had never been conceived or if it had been regulated as a non-profit public utility. The shift from chronological posts to algorithms rewarding high engagement is pinpointed as the mechanism that amplified inflammatory content. Data collection, exemplified by companies like Amazon, has resulted in a near-total loss of privacy, exacerbated by AI.
Supreme Court Decisions as Pivots
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(01:07:41)
  • Key Takeaway: The 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United is cited as an unambiguous event that severely damaged modern politics by allowing massive corporate spending.
  • Summary: The reversal of the Citizens United decision is proposed as a way to fix current political dynamics. The ruling in Roe v. Wade is also mentioned as an inflection point that inadvertently fueled the rise of the religious right, shaping subsequent political landscapes. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1990s is suggested as another legislative failure that allowed profit-driven news to flourish, contributing to current media issues.
Automotive Technology Fork
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(01:11:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Henry Ford’s decision to prioritize the internal combustion engine car over the electric vehicle was a non-inevitable coin flip that shaped the next century of transportation.
  • Summary: Ford could have easily chosen to mass-produce electric vehicles first, as they were equally viable at the time, but personal issues with battery production killed the electric deal. The dominance of gasoline cars over EVs was not inevitable, and earlier electrification could have led to a world without global warming. Furthermore, the oil industry’s shift to pipelines deliberately undermined the existing train infrastructure.
Nuclear Power and Scientific Acceptance
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(01:15:52)
  • Key Takeaway: Major nuclear disasters, particularly Three Mile Island coinciding with the release of The China Syndrome, severely curtailed nuclear power adoption, potentially preventing a cleaner energy future.
  • Summary: The simultaneous occurrence of the Three Mile Island incident and the release of the fear-mongering film The China Syndrome cemented public anxiety about nuclear meltdowns. If these events had not occurred, the world might be driving electric vehicles powered by nuclear energy, avoiding global warming. The acceptance of Copernicus’s heliocentric model is questioned as a catalyst for a science-focused society, as scientific progress was already steady.
Hear Me Out: Radical Suggestions
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(01:24:53)
  • Key Takeaway: A radical suggestion for planetary improvement is that all humans should become vegan to address climate change, institutionalized violence, and food scarcity issues.
  • Summary: The proposal for universal veganism is defended on environmental and ethical grounds, though the loss of social traditions like barbecuing is noted. Practical concerns regarding the non-trivial task of replacing agricultural nitrogen currently supplied by animal manure are raised. The segment concludes with a personal, controversial request to use a deceased pet’s pelt for lining gloves, which is contrasted with the less visceral act of filling a stuffed animal with ashes.
Dog Sense of Smell
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(01:42:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Dogs gauge owner absence by the decline rate of their scent, not by an internal clock.
  • Summary: Dogs lack a true sense of time, instead tracking how long a person has been gone by monitoring the dissipation of their scent. They combine this olfactory data with environmental cues like lighting changes to determine when an owner should return. This exquisite sense of smell allows dogs to live in a reality fundamentally different from human perception.
Dog Breathing Mechanics
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(01:43:31)
  • Key Takeaway: Dogs exhale sideways through nasal slits to avoid spoiling scent trails while sniffing.
  • Summary: Dogs possess a unique breathing mechanism where air is expelled out the sides of their nostrils. This action prevents the outgoing breath from disrupting or ‘spoiling’ the scent trail they are actively tracking. This mechanism supports their remarkable olfactory abilities.
Science or Fiction Setup
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(01:43:54)
  • Key Takeaway: The ‘Science or Fiction’ theme for this episode of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe #1070 - Jan 10 2026 is based on The Beatles.
  • Summary: The host announced that the theme for the ‘Science or Fiction’ segment is inspired by the Beatles, as the episode was recorded at Nauticon, whose theme was also the Beatles. This led to initial confusion between the band and the insect order Coleoptera.
Beetle Strength and Distribution Facts
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(01:44:45)
  • Key Takeaway: The Goliath beetle is claimed to lift 850 times its body weight, up to 94 pounds (42 kilograms).
  • Summary: Three facts were presented: one in four animals is a beetle; beetles inhabit every continent except the most extreme habitats; and the Goliath beetle can lift 850 times its weight (94 lbs/42 kg). The participants immediately expressed skepticism, particularly regarding the lifting capacity and the presence of beetles in Antarctica.
Audience Voting and Fact Debunking
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(01:51:40)
  • Key Takeaway: The audience was split between believing the one-in-four animal statistic and the 94-pound lifting capacity were fiction.
  • Summary: The host polled the audience, revealing a near-even split between item one (one in four animals is a beetle) and item three (Goliath beetle lifting 94 pounds) being fiction. Item one was confirmed as science, referencing J.B.S. Haldane’s quote about God’s fondness for beetles, and noting that including plants makes the ratio one in five.
Antarctica Beetle Status
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(01:53:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Beetles are confirmed to be absent from Antarctica, making the claim of their presence there fiction.
  • Summary: The claim that beetles occupy all continents, including freshwater habitats, was ruled fiction because beetles are not found in Antarctica. While insects like the midge Belgica antarctica exist there, beetles have not established a natural presence on the continent due to the cold.
Goliath Beetle Lifting Confirmation
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(01:55:09)
  • Key Takeaway: The Goliath beetle’s ability to lift 850 times its body weight is considered science based on scientific literature, despite a lack of direct video evidence.
  • Summary: The 850x body weight lift is reported in scientific literature, though based on anecdotal observations rather than controlled experiments showing a deadlift. The mechanism is likely wedging underneath an object and pushing, rather than a true lift, and the weight cited (94 lbs) is derived from multiplying the 850x factor by the beetle’s mass (around 100 grams in larval stage). Studies on rhinoceros beetles suggest carrying loads up to 100 times body weight is possible, but not sustained movement.
Episode Conclusion and Credits
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(02:02:48)
  • Key Takeaway: The episode concluded with a quote about correcting errors and standard production acknowledgments.
  • Summary: The segment ended with Evan sharing a John Lennon quote: “A mistake is only an error. It becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.” The host thanked the guests and listeners, directing them to theskepticsguide.org and patreon.com/slash skepticsguide for more information and support.