📽️📽️📽️ Paul and Stephen are excited to meet Academy Award-winning Director and avid book collector Errol Morris. Stephen’s funky blue lighting and Paul’s floatation tank-talk mark the start of this Chinwag and in just a few short turns, the conversation goes from the idea of the bodhisattva in Buddhism to the weirdness of Florida, in particular Vernon, FL (aka “Nub City”). In typical Waggy fashion, they’re on to a shared reverence for American novelist Harry Crews and a fascination with notor...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast ⚔️🇳🇴🦈 Paul and Stephen talk about Stephen’s trip to Norway and his readings from an 8th Century book of spells found in the floorboards of an old church. Is Iceland or Norway known for delicacies like rotten shark? They’re not sure, but still not fans (of the shark meals). And listeners out there, do you want to hear Paul and Stephen explore Berserkers? Let us know! Also, if your genetic analysis says you’re part Viking, you’re actually not. Also not part Berserker, but neither here nor there...
Mar 29, 2024•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast 👔👔👔 Paul puts Stephen in the hot seat for Part 1 of this rigorous round of “Ask the Philosopher!” This is not just your basic Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. You’ll learn the importance of Pythagoras, besides that theorem you learned in grade school (with an obligatory mention of passing gas). Then, hear about the mindf*ck of Zeno’s paradox, famed thinker and nudist Diogenes, all about cynics, roots of empirical thinking, Roman stoicism and Marcus Aurelius, and why prisoners of war like Senato...
Mar 27, 2024•54 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast 🐙💭🪸 Paul and Stephen have a few more questions for resident Octopus expert, author, philosopher and biologist, Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith. When does consciousness emerge in the evolutionary process and does it exist in every bit of matter - even a grain of sand? Then, do Octopuses have language and what is its function? And controversial questions abound on whether animals dream, the role of memory, and what commonality of sleep phases suggests about our shared evolutionary origins. Dream ...
Mar 22, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🐙🐙🐙 The Octopus is fascinating and mysterious, and as Paul and Stephen discover, a cephalopod that offers incredible lessons in consciousness, intelligence, awareness and being. The octopus might also be the closest we have to studying the alien mind. Peter Godfrey-Smith is an author, Professor of Biology, philosopher of science and skilled scuba diver who’s looked right into the eyes of many an octopus, and they’ve observed him back. Listen as Professor Godfrey-Smith explains how the octopus...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast 📊🔢🧮📐 Paul and Stephen dig into our Chinwag mailbag for this SETI-inspired question (that’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence to any novice listeners). The Drake Equation is explained and let’s just say there’s A LOT of math involved. It’s been 60+ years since last estimates were made on the odds of finding intelligent life in the Milky Way, and Chinwag listener Rick B. wants to know, how long could a civilization broadcast its presence through technology, and what current factors migh...
Mar 15, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🦑🦑🦑 The sea is deep, but it’s no match for Paul and Stephen’s boundless appetite for aquatic mysteries. Follow them as they dip into the strange world of three famed squids: The Giant Squid, the Colossal Squid, and the Bigfin Squid (a BigFoot squid, really??). Then, other Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs) like humboldt squids, giant albino crabs, boat-attacking-squids (!), megamouth sharks, whale sharks, and the myth of a Japanese moon maiden. And of course, the theory that UFOs originate...
Mar 13, 2024•36 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast 📫💭📆 We love our loyal Chinwag listeners and we love your letters! Keep ‘em coming and we may respond to them on the air! Miss B Havin wrote to Paul and Stephen and shared a message she received in a recurring dream about Paul. Does Paul understand the message therein? What does water represent in a dream, and what’s the least lucky month of the year? Put your ears on this Bonus-Wag and find out! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author speci...
Mar 08, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🔱🔱🔱 Paul and Stephen wade through the deep waters and history of such aquatic mysteries as Atlantis and The Bermuda Triangle. Listen in as Stephen details Plato’s telling of Atlantis, with all its craven needs, imperialist ambitions and loss of virtue. The weird link between Atlantis and UFO/paranormal activity is legend, but did you know of the lasers in Atlantis and its connection to The Bermuda Triangle? It’s also a thing! Then Paul introduces Charles Berlitz (yes that Berlitz) who popular...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast 👐🏼✝️👐🏼 Paul and Stephen have a few more questions for the "Long Island Medium," Theresa Caputo. Listen in to hear how she learned to interpret the messages she receives from departed souls and spirits? How Catholics respond to her abilities, and do demons and negativity in the spirit world get her down? And does she fear losing her gifts? T his bonus is Medium-well! Get it? Dig in Waggers! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializi...
Mar 01, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🐄🐄🐄 Recorded live from the (possibly haunted) Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco at Sketchfest 2024 with special guest, comedian, writer, and host of the Beautiful/Anonymous podcast, Chris Gethard. Chris heard about a lot of brushes with the paranormal during his time at Weird NJ, and he relays one of the spookiest stories imaginable about a band of silent, menacing cows leading the way to a flannel-clad BigFoot lying supine on a mattress. Was there LSD involved? And what’s more terri...
Feb 28, 2024•35 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast 🙋🏻♂️🍕🖋️ Paul, Stephen, and comedian Christ Gethard answer the weirdly awesome questions from our live audience at Sketchfest 2024. Have you noticed conspiracy theories have gone from “fun” to “crazy”? You have? Perfect segue to Chris’s rumored involvement with Pizzagate and the real reason behind that fake (but really creepy!) satanic ritual on The Chris Gethard Show with Will Ferrell (uh, ratings!?). Paul fields a doozy of an audience question and sidesteps it masterfully. More Norcal weir...
Feb 23, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🗑️🗑️🗑️ Recorded live from the (possibly haunted) Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco at Sketchfest 2024 with special guest, comedian, writer, and host of the Beautiful/Anonymous podcast, Chris Gethard. Is it possible someone doesn’t find Paul charming? Hear the real story behind how Paul ended up in a dumpster on Chris’s public access series, The Chris Gethard Show. Explore more folklore from Virginia (Bunny Man!) and Ohio (yes there are Melonheads in Ohio too!) and the many legends of...
Feb 21, 2024•37 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast 🧟🪦🧟♀️ Paul and Stephen learn the history of zombies with spiritualism expert Lisa Morton who shares the influence of these phenomena in popular culture, folklore and horror films. Who brought the idea of zombies to mass awareness and what cultures first wrote about these mythical characters? Also, the impact of Bela Lagosi’s film White Zombie, how it gave way to Voodoo zombies, Sci-Fi zombies, George Romero’s human flesh-eating zombies and Frankenstein. Also why are zombies so popular and wh...
Feb 16, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🖤🖤🖤 Welcome Waggers! Come for the ghosts, stay for the vomiting ectoplasm! Paul and Stephen walk through the myriad ways folks talked to the dead throughout history with spiritualism expert and author Lisa Morton. En route they discuss spirits, mediums, oracles, ouija boards, priming, and rampant charlatanry in the business of ghost-hunting. Hear ghostly experiences from the legendary Stanley Hotel (aka- the Disneyland of ghost hotels made famous in The Shining), the birth of the seance and t...
Feb 14, 2024•59 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast 🇷🇺😵💫🌀 Paul Giamatti shares a crazy Havana syndrome-like experience he had at the Russian Embassy in Budapest, which somehow leads to his love of acting on stage and sharing that mass-delusion with an audience. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. 🇷🇺😵💫🌀 ========= 📋 Please help us get to know you better by completing our Chinwagger Survey 👉🏼 https://gum.fm/chinwag 📋...
Feb 09, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast 😵💫😵💫😵💫 Paul and Stephen strive to understand the phenomenon of mass panic and incidences of collective delusion throughout history. Learn the difference between mass panic and mass hysteria, how our minds influence our physical reactions, and the power of the media in escalating these events. What caused the hysteria that surrounded the Beatles and Elvis, or the outbreak of panic after the infamous Orson Welles radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds? Paul knows a thing or...
Feb 07, 2024•55 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast 🤠🤠🤠 During Paul and Stephen’s first Chinwag with delightful author and historian Sarah Vowell (go back and listen to that episode from 10/4/23 now!), the term “10 gallon hat” came up. Both hosts, as well as Sarah, were stymied on the origin of the term. What does it really mean? Does it refer to the size of a cowboy hat? A measurement of water? Does it have to do with how much water a cowboy hat can hold, and why would you pour all that water into a hat anyway? Well, Paul and Stephen know whe...
Feb 02, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🌺🌺🌺 Author and historian Sarah Vowell may have spoken a little too soon in her first Chinwag with Paul and Stephen. Behold the incredible tales of coincidence that challenge her literal mind and make Sarah question her woo-woo-ness. From Sacagawea’s chance meeting with her long-lost brother, to John Adams’ and Thomas Jefferson’s shared date of death, and odd details about the Lincoln assassination and the Booth brothers – do serendipitous moments in history actually mean anything? On to Ancie...
Jan 31, 2024•47 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast 👻🥞🥤 Natasha shares her beliefs in the possibility of aliens, ghosts and Bigfoot, introduces the Fermi Paradox to the conversation with Paul and Stephen, enjoys a pancake lunch, and tells the story of her life with Rootbeer the dog. Bonus: Did Natasha’s dog Rootbeer get plastic surgery or consult a psychic? Tune in to this week’s Bonus-Wag to find out! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religio...
Jan 26, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast ⚛️⚛️⚛️ Paul and Stephen read a letter from Keith, an airline pilot in Idaho who shares his incredible UFO sighting and belief in Interdimensional Sasquatch Travel. Then.... Natasha Lyonne joins, and that’s when things get weird and quantum-physical. Listen in as Paul and Stephen follow Natasha around her house, feed Rootbeer the dog, and learn why she’s comforted by the dulcet sound of quantum physics audio books at bedtime. Hear why discipline and restraint and the structure of mathematics is g...
Jan 24, 2024•54 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast 🏺🌊🐆 More Cryptid lore for your listening pleasure. Meet one of Stephen’s favorites, the legendary Hodag of Wisconsin. The horned Hodag that never reclines, liked the taste of humans, and just might’ve been a hoax that stoked tourism in 1890s Oneida County. The Hodag conjures Native American folklore of the underwater panther, Mishipeshu, who lives in the water and fights Thunderbirds (a favorite of Paul’s). But have you heard of Thunderbird sightings? They’ve been reported from just about eve...
Jan 19, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🫎🫎🫎 Paul and Stephen reveal some of their favorite American cryptids. Skip by the oft-told stories of Sasquatch and Chupacabra and follow Paul into the dark primeval forests of Maine to meet the Spectre Moose. Hear the legend of this mysterious prehistoric-looking giant of the Maine woods. Some sightings recall the Spectre Moose’s faint white glow and an ability to walk through solid objects. And if that’s not trippy enough, Paul recalls the time he took elk velvet to add some pep to his step...
Jan 17, 2024•56 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast 🦬🦬🦬 Paul and Stephen’s interest in history is deep and windy, so who better to get a riveting lesson from than award-winning documentarian, Ken Burns. Hear why the master auteur has wanted to tell the tragic story of the American Buffalo for 30 years, and trace the path of its near extinction in the late 19th century. Was the buffalo saved by the captive gates of zoos? What is man’s moral responsibility to nature in its quest towards advancement and a global economy? And as savior and destroy...
Jan 10, 2024•1 hr•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast 🕯️⏳🚇 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen field questions from our brilliant and inquisitive Chinwag audience. Paul and Stephen offer insights on precognitive dreams, past lives and reincarnation. The chains of causation and LaPlace’s Demon gets a mention, and what do prophecies in art and science fiction actually reflect? Paul and Stephen talk about their visit to the creepy Hoosac Tunnel of North Adams, MA (also known as the “bloody pi...
Jan 08, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🔮🔮🔮 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen discuss the power and historical impact of Nostradamus, prophets and clairvoyants. Who was Nostradamus and how did his vague predictions make him a legend in his time? Paul and Stephen reveal his cure for the plague and explain Nostradamus’s popularity in times of crisis. Was he just a shitty astrologer and what’s he got to do with Hitler? What’s the difference between clairvoyance and prophecy, ...
Jan 03, 2024•45 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast ☸️🙃⚛️ Paul, Stephen and fiction writer Ted Chiang discuss the pros and cons of our fallible memories and the human technological interface. Is that fight with your partner about “who said what” an essential part of developing a human relationship, or is none of that even the point? Is adopting a pact of truth and reconciliation the path forward in relationships as it is in some countries’ politics? Ted discusses the question of self-identity; are we defined by our memories and shared experience...
Dec 29, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🦾🦾🦾 In this Chinwag, Paul and Stephen are thrilled to be subject to fascinating thought experiments by award-winning fiction writer Ted Chiang. Up for the discussion? The difference between fact and fiction when it comes to the existence of alien life, and whether Paul is indeed an assassin because he played one in an action film Ted once saw. Imaginations are running amok and people can’t differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t. Is social media to blame or was The National Enquirer ...
Dec 27, 2023•55 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast 
