Telepathy: Is It For Real?

Hi. I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus. This is the show that pits facts against feeling like you can read someone's thoughts. Today, we are talking about telepathy. And here with me is Science versus Senior Producer, Rose Rimbler. Hi, Rose. Hi, Wendy. So by telepathy, we mean the concept of beaming thoughts directly into someone else's brain or being able to read other people's thoughts. Mhmm. Yes. That's an idea that's been around for centuries, but it's having a bit of a moment right now probably because of this very popular podcast called the Telepathy Tapes. Yes. I am hearing a lot about this podcast. Yes. Yes. Yes. And and telepathy with it. Yes. It was the top podcast on Spotify earlier this year. It actually knocked Joe Rogan off the number one spot briefly, And it's all about how telepathy is real. You know, a very clever friend of mine texted me about this show, and she thinks telepathy is real now. Exactly. It's very convincing. Yeah. If you look at the the comments, you'll see people saying, this is revolutionary. This has moved me to tears. I'm a believer. My life has changed because of this podcast. And so, you know, I was very curious, and so I listened to it. I listened to the whole thing. Wendy, I know that you haven't listened to it. No. That's right. We decided I wouldn't listen. So, hopefully, I can stand in for those of you who also haven't listened. Okay. So let me tell you the premise. The show is about a very specific group of people. This is people with autism who are very limited in how they communicate and who require a lot of support. Right. Right. And the show says that people in this group are able to communicate telepathically Mhmm. With their family and with teachers and other people. And in fact, here is the show's tagline. They play this at the beginning of every episode. For decades, a very specific group of people have been claiming telepathy is happening in their homes and in their classrooms. And nobody has believed them. Nobody has listened to them. But on this podcast, we do. Okay. That's a podcast hook. It really is. So Kai Dickens, that's the host. That's who we just heard from. She is typically a documentary filmmaker, but she heard about this phenomenon, and she wanted to study it, document it. And so she ends up visiting a lot of people who have had this experience with autistic people in their lives. Here she is again on the podcast. And what touched me the most is these parents were grappling with something that they believed to be absolutely impossible. But here they were. They were watching something unfold that had no rational explanation. And so Rose, as you were listening to this podcast, what what were you thinking? Well, the stories were interesting and honestly really intriguing. Obviously, there's …