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Joe Rogan Podcast Discusses Me: "Two-Faced Piece of Crap"

10/9/2026

Effigy Mounds National Monument announced that they will be hosting a discussion of my book, The Mound Builder Myth, with anthropologist Mark Grey of the University of Norther Iowa next month—which is quite a shock to me, since I wasn’t asked to participate! However, this was unfortunately not my most prominent mention this week, since I got name-checked on The Joe Rogan Experience yesterday. Rogan hosted Dan Richards, the social media gadfly who goes by the name “DeDunker” and was formerly most prominent as a defender of Graham Hancock. In the conversation, Richards brought up the 1909 hoax about a Tibetan-style tomb in the Grand Canyon, which devolved into insulting me.

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In Brief: Noah's Ark Researchers Claim "100% Confirmed" New Proof, with Big Caveat

9/23/2026

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The team of researchers investigating the Turkish site of Durupınar for evidence that the boat-shaped geological formation is Noah's Ark told the Daily Mail that a recent scan has provided "100% confirmed" proof that the site is manmade and therefore the likely site of the Ark. Noah's Ark Scans conducted a new scan in June, and the results found what they claim are right angles inside the site and a significant presence of organic materials in excess of the surrounding ground, which they interpret as evidence that the formation is the petrified remains of Noah's wooden vessel. They also claimed to have found no rock inside the formation. Noah's Ark Scans founder Andrew Jones conceded, however, that none of the new evidence actually proved that the site was Noah's Ark. However, "I firmly believe the Durupınar Formation represents the buried remains of Noah's Ark," Jones said. The report in the Mail yesterday appears to be the same as the claim Noah's Ark Scans made last month, though Jones now says that they have begun core drilling to try to obtain samples of the buried Ark.

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Scott Wolter Plans to "Save the World" Through Templar Conspiracy Theories

9/1/2026

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It was a weird weekend on fringe history on social media. Former History Channel personality Scott F. Wolter announced on Masonic Templar author Timothy Hogan’s YouTube channel that the men are planning to open what they believe is a vault in the United States containing the bones of Jesus Christ and his family as well as six (!) Arks of the Covenant. Wolter said that he has spoken with Filippo Biondi, the Italian ancient astronaut theorist whose fanciful interpretations of scans of the Giza plateau made headlines, and that Biond will be scanning the vault for them. The expedition and its accompanying YouTube videos were sponsored by a brand of stress relief supplements made from psychedelic Amanita muscaria mushrooms, which Hogan claims to “love” and endorse.

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Ufologists Predict "Holy Cow" Moment When an Alien "Armada" Arrives in 2027

8/31/2026

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Several big names in the current UFO Disclosure movement appear to have achieved consensus that the aliens will reveal themselves next year—or, at least, that’s what they want you to think they said until the inevitable course-correction next year when they will claim they never said it. Over the past couple of years, Chris Bledsoe, Ross Coulthart, Lue Elizondo, and others have all targeted the months around the start of 2027 for a rumored UFO revelation will leave the benighted masses awestruck at the grandeur of cosmic beings they, of course, have already prostrated themselves before and to whose glory they are now immune. After Bledsoe reiterated his 2027 prediction this weekend, the constellation of 2027 predictions went viral on UFO social media.

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Noah's Ark Researchers Claim Normal Geological Scan Is Proof Durupınar Is Ark

8/24/2026

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For much of the past year, the group of evangelical Christians working to prove that Turkey’s vaguely boat-shaped Durupınar Formation is the remains of Noah’s Ark has been on a media tour, spreading their inconclusive claims across major media outlets, including the Today show. They also made some bizarre claims recently about petrified trees and early modern maps. This week Noah’s Ark Scans released yet another in an endless series of nearly identical claims, garnering more media coverage for alleging to have new evidence in favor of their belief. This, however, was little more than hot air aimed at the media, since their own findings proved nothing of the sort, as they themselves admitted.

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In Brief: Journal Retracts Filippo Biondi's Remote Sensing Pyramid Paper

8/10/2026

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A 2022 scientific paper by Filippo Biondi and Carlo Malanga that claimed to find a previously unknown internal structure in the Great Pyramid of Giza by using a novel remote sensing technique has been retracted, according to a notice published on the website of the journal Remote Sensing. “The Editorial Office and Editorial Board conducted an investigation that confirmed serious methodological flaws and statistical errors that were deemed to undermine the scientific conclusions of the article,” the journal said in a statement today. The errors were first reported by a reader who notified the journal, which opened an inquiry. Biondi disagrees with the retraction.

The 2022 paper served as Biondi’s scientific credentials for using his satellite-based remote sensing technique to make implausible claims about the discovery of massive structures below the Great Pyramid and a second Sphinx buried at Giza. With the paper retracted, those “findings” (yes, the same findings that left Joe Rogan speechless) have no peer-reviewed scientific support for the methods used to find the alleged structures—methods experts had already criticized as fanciful, noting that no similar satellite-based technique can penetrate as far into the ground or with as much precision as Biondi claimed for his scans.

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Timothy Alberino Resurrects the "Kandahar Giant" in Joe Rogan Appearance

7/24/2026

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Joe Rogan was on a pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory kick this week, with two separate multi-hour episodes devoted to imaginary history, so lucky me: I am making a second bonus post today because so many bad things happened. This time, his guest was Nephilim-hunter Timothy Alberino, who was on to promote his special edition of the Book of Enoch. Alberino related the story of the Kandahar Giant, which I examined a decade ago. I encourage to you to read what I found back at the time, namely that there were at least four different versions of the story Quayle told, one being explicitly a work of fiction (Quayle’s 2006 novel), followed by yet another contradictory account by L. A. Marzulli—all of which find no supporting evidence in U.S. military records from the Afghanistan War. The supposed military member who confirmed the story also refused to give his name, making it impossible to evaluate his story.

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Joe Rogan Talks Lost Super-Civilizations with Yet Another Pseudoscience YouTuber

7/22/2026

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Joe Rogan was at it again this week with a podcast exploring archaeological conspiracy theories. This time, Rogan interviewed Cassie Coppersmith, a YouTuber who makes videos about ancient stone constructions that average around 25,000 views apiece as of this writing. Other than appearing on other minor pseudohistorians’ podcasts, I can’t find any reference to her anywhere, so I imagine her Rogan appearance was her big moment in the sun. She doesn’t have much to say to Rogan that we haven’t heard before. Her schtick is the usual fringe ideas that rocks are too hard and too heavy for ancient people to have carved and transported without advanced modern technology. But her real purpose in appearing on the show was to give Rogan an excuse to rant about how much he loves Graham Hancock and just how unfair all those evil academics are for not accepting ideas without real evidence.

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"Now Voyager" Publishes Joint Profile of Graham Hancock and Flint Dibble

7/14/2026

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Now Voyager, a new magazine for longform journalism, published a new 8,000-word story about Graham Hancock’s and Flint Dibble’s 4.5-hour-long debate on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2024. “Bones of Contention,” by freelance culture and entertainment journalist Chantel Tattoli, who frequently writes for the New York Times, provides biographies of both men, a brief account of their debate, and short coda about the new projects both men undertook afterward. I feel like, given the length of the story and the convoluted path it took to publication (it is believed to be the story that compelled Hancock to appear on a recent podcast to defend himself), there should be more to say about it. But there is nothing new in the story, certainly nothing to justify spending $160 for an annual subscription to Now Voyager, or even $7 for the article. Far from the devastating portrait Hancock feared, it’s a fairly straightforward recital of what most of my readers already know.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S22E11: “Alien A.I.”

7/10/2026

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I suppose it was inevitable that Ancient Aliens would eventually get around to artificial intelligence. It’s a bit surprising that it took this long, but it takes time for the lazy producers at Prometheus Entertainment to wait around until they can rip their copy from online articles without having to do any real work. The conceit of this episode is that the A.I. tools that archaeologists and historians have begun to use to analyze artifacts and data might also be used to identify evidence of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth. But most of the show is devoted to discussing recent A.I. analysis of archaeological sites without any real alien connection until the end of the episode. It’s a fine line Ancient Aliens needs to walk in this episode since it might encourage its audience to ask ChatGPT about the show and discover it is B.S., which makes it all the stranger that Ancient Aliens doesn’t bother to distinguish between ChatGPT-style large language models and machine learning—or just “computers,” for that matter.

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<<Previous

Joe Rogan Podcast Discusses Me: "Two-Faced Piece of Crap"

In Brief: Noah's Ark Researchers Claim "100% Confirmed" New Proof, with Big Caveat

Scott Wolter Plans to "Save the World" Through Templar Conspiracy Theories

Ufologists Predict "Holy Cow" Moment When an Alien "Armada" Arrives in 2027

Noah's Ark Researchers Claim Normal Geological Scan Is Proof Durupınar Is Ark

In Brief: Journal Retracts Filippo Biondi's Remote Sensing Pyramid Paper

Timothy Alberino Resurrects the "Kandahar Giant" in Joe Rogan Appearance

Joe Rogan Talks Lost Super-Civilizations with Yet Another Pseudoscience YouTuber

"Now Voyager" Publishes Joint Profile of Graham Hancock and Flint Dibble

Review of Ancient Aliens S22E11: “Alien A.I.”

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