The Reality Check

After having watched all six Sharknado films Adam decides to do some research into the science of these not at all ridiculous films, uncovering the truth about the plausibility and historical precede…

Could meditation ever be harmful? Darren examines the evidence to determine if meditation, which can have many benefits, might sometimes have a negative impact on people’s lives. Adam looks at the id…

What’s the difference between a bar of soap and the stuff we use to clean dishes, laundry and cars, and can you just use any of those in the shower? Adam tries to find out whether the stuff that’s fi…

We look at some fundamental ways of cultivating critical thinking on the latest show.  Darren looks at some common cognitive biases and logical fallacies and how to use these in order to have a bette…

Can we say that AI is going in the wrong direction, as it does our art and writing while we suffer doing laundry and dishes? It’s just Adam on the show this week as he overanalyzes a viral tweet by l…

What were the first mammals like? Darren examines what characterizes a mammal and explores the world of early mammals, who coexisted with the dinosaurs. Adam investigates the discourse around a viral…

Could the huge Sandworms in Frank Herbert's Dune really exist?  Adam looks at how scientifically plausible these odd creatures might be.  In light of recent news about Open AI's GPT-4o and Google's P…

Spencer Greenberg is the founder Clearer Thinking, a web site which provides tools for critical thinking, as well as Transparent Replications, which does rapid replications of papers in psychology an…

This past Friday, April 19th, philosopher Daniel Dennett passed away at the age of 82.  Throughout his life he has impacted many people through his work.  On this week's show Darren shares some of hi…

Adam looks at evidence that the popular Stanford Prison Experiment was not as well run as we've heard which raises concerns about the conclusions we make from it.  Darren considers some recent events…

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Creativity?  Can an AI be more creative than a human?  Darren looks at a study which attempts to answer this question.  With the upcoming solar eclipse occurring…

I’m not saying they’re aliens but … they’re aliens. Adam uses hard hitting science to evaluate the validity of these allegedly non human mummified remains which were presented to the Mexican Congress…

Darren gives us a news roundup of some recent things happening in the world of AI including OpenAI's text to video tool Sora, Google Deepmind's Gemini 1.5, as well as what implications this and other…

We try something a little different on the latest episode of The Reality Check. Having recently seen the movie Oppenheimer Darren and Adam have a discussion about this great film. If you haven’t seen…

Put down that poinsettia salad, checkers.  Darren looks into a popular myth that poinsettia plants are poisonous to animals, including people.  Then Adam looks into what's been going on with Mickey M…

This year we retire our annual prediction segment with a final look back at how accurate, or rather how innacurate, we were in our predictions of what would happen in 2023. Darren examines the validi…

The crew gets to interview TRC’s very own Darren McKee, author of the critically acclaimed book, ‘Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and the Race to Save the World’. We chat a…

World-renowned AI expert Yoshua Bengio talks with Darren McKee and Adam Gardner about his long career, why advanced AI could be harmful, and whether open-source of powerful AI models is a risk.

Cristina delves into the latest FDA advisory announcement shedding light on the ineffectiveness of phenylephrine, a widely used ingredient in several nasal decongestants. Adam revisits the myriad of …