An Eclectic Mind

No bullsh*t.

Penn Gillette, the bigger and louder half or the Penn & Teller magic team, is the kind of guy that you either love or hate. He’s loud and he can definitely be obnoxious. But, like me, he has a zero-tolerance stand on bull.

I subscribe to the Penn Radio Podcast. I listen to about half the episodes. It’s usually just a talk show with Penn and his sidekick, Michael Goudeau, talking about a topic in the news and people calling in. Some of the callers are good, others are clearly wacko. Talk radio at its best.

I agree with a lot — but not all — of what Penn has to say, especially about religion and politics. You might think that’s scary. I know my mother would. (Let’s not tell her, okay?)

Once in a while, they have a guest. Penn and the guest, with a little input from Michael, chat about things. Informative, entertaining, enlightening. Usually something to think about.

Every once in a while, Penn has a better than average guest. (Phyllis Diller was one of them months ago.) I just finished listening to his February 9 show, which featured James Randi, a skeptic who has devoted much of his life to exposing fraudulent psychics, claims of ESP, and other “new age phenomena.” In other words, bullsh*t. He even wrote a book about it: Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. The radio show was an interesting look at the tricks today’s top psychics use to give “readings” as well as insight into people who really believe they have these powers.

Anyway, if the topic interests you, you might want to download the podcast episode and give it a listen. Use the Comments link to let me know what you think about it.

And please try to keep Randi-bashing comments to yourself. I just read enough of them on Amazon.com.