1395: The Telepathy Tapes | Skeptical Sunday

Today on the show, did you hear about it, the podcast that blew up the charts and had everybody talking? The Telepathy Tapes.

I know I have personally received a number of emails here at the Jordan Harbinger Show asking if I've listened and what's my take on the idea that non-verbal autistic children actually have a secret way of communicating outside the normal ways that all of us communicate.

They apparently use telepathy, according to this podcast.

And to answer your question, no, I did not listen, but of course I know someone who did, and this week's skeptic and comedian Michael Regilio is here to tell us all that he's gleaned both through extrasensory perception and good old-fashioned reading, watching, and researching about The Telepathy Tapes.

That's right, Jordan.

The Telepathy Tapes was a smash hit podcast in which the show's producer, Kai Dickens, lays out the case that many non-verbal autistic children can communicate telepathically.

Over the course of 10 episodes, she builds the case that non-verbal autistic children are literally mind readers who utilize an extra sense.

She makes the case that these young people can receive information without any clues coming in from the five senses.

She attempts to bridge the seemingly infinite gap between circus sideshow and verifiable science.

Before we get into this episode, in which I, as a skeptic, am going to, of course, expose The Telepathy Tapes as either horribly flawed or, worst case scenario, a total con, let me just say this.

This is the most fertile ground imaginable for a grift.

All the elements are there, including a group of people who have every reason in the world to want these claims to be true, and that is the parents of non-verbal autistic children.

If you're a parent struggling to understand what your child is thinking and feeling and someone comes along and tells you your child can communicate, in fact, there's an extraordinary ability at play here, of course you're gonna want that to be true.

And that doesn't make these parents gullible.

It means anyone making claims this extraordinary to families in that position has an enormous responsibility to make damn sure the evidence is solid.

So from the get-go, the burden is on The Telepathy Tapes, or more appropriately, Kai Dickens, the creator and producer of the podcast, to make its case and make it strong.

Otherwise, it's her fault if we get the ick.

And I'm here to tell you, I sat through every damn episode of this podcast, all eight hours and 53 minutes of it, and I got the ick.

Eight hours and 53 minutes of that sinking, sick feeling in my stomach that I might be listening to someone sell extraordinary claims to parents who desperately want those claims to be true.

Because The Telepathy Tapes isn't just telling these parents that their kids can conventionally communicate, which would be a fantastic claim unto itself.

It's telling them that their kids have magic powers.