{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 288 - Dragon Con, 9-11 and Sci-Fi Skepticism with Paul and Andy","description":"First, we recount a tiny bit of the beautiful chaos that was Dragon Con. Then, after a few current event tidbits related to 9-11, we are joined by Andy Taylor of Geekshock and (retired Klingon) Paul Mattingly of Matt &amp;amp; Mattingly's Ice Cream Social. With our geeky nerd power tripled, we discuss all flavors of sci-fi and how various franchises have approached critical thinking, gullibility and other skeptic-adjacent topics. Does Kubrick's dense cinematic style attract lovers of conspiracy thinking and, thus, invite moon hoax theories? Did the communicator really inspire the flip-phone? How much of the Nostradamus-like predictions in sci-fi are simply due to the writers being keyed into pop culture, the latest scientific advances and common sense? ","author_name":"Squaring the Strange","author_url":"http:\/\/squaringthestrange.libsyn.com\/website","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/42869550\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/item\/42869550"}